[Rori]

• Confusion/disorganization with the times and locations of things (like main programming and panels). Some of it was that the wrong info was printed in the booklet (can be more or less solved with more proofreading). But the rest were events getting pushed back (like the concert), therefore making everything else later than scheduled. I know that things do come up and people need to be flexible, but it just seemed like there were a lot more scheduling issues this year...
  
  
• Size/use of the Hilton rooms. First, I just want to say I liked the rooms on the main floor of the Hilton. The rooms on the other floor though... well, they were tiny. At least, they were tiny for the panels scheduled in them. This could just be that some panels were not expected to be so popular, but the lack of a "waiting area" or place to line up for them just compounded the problem. I think the staff did better with controlling traffic on Saturday though. And I'm glad the door from the skybridge to the panel rooms eventually got opened up. The go-in-the-small-elevator-to-get-in-another-elevator thing was weird.
  
  
• Angry elevator lady. I don't know who she was or if she was even on ACen staff (I could not see what badge(s) she had, I'm too short to see over people), but Saturday (?) when the elevator traffic was getting really crazy, the crowded elevator got to the very bottom floor and she wigged out that people were riding all the way down to just go back up. She also threatened she would make us all get off and walk the stairs to get to our rooms. Which made me mad on three counts: (1) I was the person who pressed the button for the elevator. I pressed "up." The elevator arrived and the arrow also pointed up. I got on, but it went down. I have no idea why that even happened. For all I know, someone's bottom pressed a button to go down. (2) I'm not 5. And I do not appreciate being treated rudely. (3) I'm not about to walk up 9 flights of stairs in cosplay unnecessarily. I'm asthmatic.
  
  I realize some people can be complete bozos and have to really be prodded to do anything. But there's a fine line between being assertive to correct a problem and being demeaning. As my mom says, "Let's not put the F-U in fun, okay?"
  
  In other news, I was overwhelmingly pleased with the rest of the staff I interacted with. There's a lot to be said for just being nice. So, thank you for that.

And just a suggestion item: I'm not sure why the ticket system was taken away for main events, but I really liked it the last time it was implemented. The tickets were basically general admission with scheduled seating times I believe. So you knew where to be and when, without the uneasiness of waiting in line and possibly waiting that whole time without ever getting in.

[MisakiMise]

One gripe that I can think of right now is that the photoshoot schedule wasn't in the program book. I know people have said it already but still. It wasn't in anything last year either. All of the photoshoot stuff never seems to get to the program book.

And this is just a question. Because I'm curious and this was only my third year. Why does the Artists Alley/Exhibitor Hall close at 6:30? Is there a specific reason why it can't be open later? Thankyou.

[Kaay-chan]

I'd just like to say first that I love ACen, but in the six years I've been attending, this is the first where I had any real complaints.

-No Cellphones at the concert. I understand why, because of the whole camera thing, but this was a terrible idea and really irresponsible. Not everyone who attends the con and wants to go to the concert is staying in a hotel; some people are actually from the surrounding area and commute from home, which means that if they don't have a friend at the convention who's not going to the concert who can hold their phone, they can't go. Not to mention the fact that some attendees, such as myself and my two friends, who really, and I mean REALLY wanted to go to that concert, cannot, I repeat, CANNOT, for any reason, be without their cellphone. The three of us were the leaders for our college group, and while, yes, all of us are over the age of 18 and can take care of ourselves, our school was still holding us, as leaders, responsible for everyone, and if something had happened and somebody needed to get in touch with us and we didn't have our phones, we could have gotten in a lot of trouble. So we couldn't go, and that kinda ruined my Friday.

-Also concerning the cellphone rule at the concert: My friends and I looked everywhere in the program book for that rule and it wasn't mentioned anywhere.

-The program book. Besides the gripes listed above, I feel that main programming should have been on the same schedule as everything else like it has been in the past. Also, there should have been a copy of the cosplay meet ups in it; nobody showed up for the Black Cat gathering because, besides myself, the people from the forums who knew about it were all running late and I don't think anybody else knew about it.

-Use a better map. The maps in the program this year made perfect sense only if you're already fairly familiar with the area. A number of people in my group were attending ACen for the first time this year and they kept having to come to me to try and figure out where things were (specifically, where the Hilton or Double Tree were in relation to where we were staying at the Hyatt to get to panels).

-The Dealer's room. The ratio of "fashion booths" selling steam punk, goth and loli stuff to booths selling anime merchandise was way off. Too much clothes, not enough anime.

-Masquerade. Admittedly, I've only gone to Masquerade the last three years, so maybe this was always a problem and I just wasn't aware of it, but I was always under the impression that people weren't allowed to use the same costumes that they had used in previous years. The green haired girl in the Macross skit was using the same costume as last year and the England and America appeared to be using the same one as two years ago, which was really disappointing. I'm okay with people using the same character multiple years in a row, but at least use a different outfit. If there isn't already a rule about this, there should be.

-Also about Masquerade: A lot of skits weren't really skits, but just the cosplayers singing and dancing, and it wasn't even always relevant to the characters they were cosplaying. I realize there might not be something you guys can do about this, but a grip is a gripe.

[GXP_agent_Zack]

Just Some General Stuff:

*To the IRT guy who grabbed a prop right off of my chest, you are a jerk. I wish I had gotten your name, but honestly I was too stunned by what you did to even think of looking for your callsign. You were monitoring people as they entered the dealer's room/artist alley area on Saturday at around noon. You should never, ever just grab at someone without their permission. I have enormous boundary and personal space issues, and your behavior was inexcusable. To the IRT guy in the Hyatt who politely asked to see my prop, thank you for asking. You're fantastic and you did a great job.

*My badge didn't come in the mail. However, the alternative Registration provided was more than acceptable. Thank you for putting the service desk into the registration area.

*Thank you to the IRT member who personally directed my wheelchair-bound friend to a specific area. You are wonderful!

[Ultra Yak]

OK Let's begin this rage fit like a pro!

Every panel i went to was either full with a line still waiting outside the hotel, like Mystery Hentai Theater 3000 at the Doubletree, i just gave up after it started and i was still waiting outside the Doubletree, or was completely gone or negated like the 11AM or whatever the later Cosplay Chess was supposed to be.

The Vendor Hall and Artist Alley will always be just that...a place to purchase stuff, you really can't do it wrong without intent.

The crowd of other otaku this year seemed a lot less friendly than i remember last year being, ESPECIALLY during Soap Bubble, i felt like i wasnt even at an Anime Con, but more at a drunken rave party that got out of hand.

Most of the Hotel Staff at pretty much everywhere that wasnt the DoubleTree or Hyatt were rude to my group too.

I heard stories about IRT being rude and out of line, but i never actually saw it so im not sure what to say about it.

There were times where i felt out of place, like i "Didnt belong" in this con because i wasnt cosplayed as anything in particular, i just got a collar and arm cuffs from Pawstar and hang my badge from the collar, and later got this arm...thing...that reads "UKE"...from a nice guy i almost fell for, but then left me with the drunken couples and smokers in front of the Hyatt at 2AM on Saturday.

AND SPEAKING OF COSPLAYERS!

What the F was UP with all the Disney Princess cosplay...i understand that people are free to cosplay as whatever they want, but this is an ANIME CONVENTION, as in FROM JAPAN...or influenced by Japan...there was even a staggering amount of the superheroes like Captain America and Deadpool, which admittedly was pretty entertaining, but that's a COMIC CON thing, NOT an ANIME thing...This was the first year of ACEN i actualy DID NOT HAVE A PROBLEM WITH NARUTO AND BLEACH FANS, but instead were overshadowed by the movie characters, superheroes, disney princesses, and VERY BAD CROSSPLAY...and on a side note, what's the big deal with Hetalia and Homestuck? I heard Hetalia was pretty decent, but i have never ONCE heard of an ANIME named Homestuck...Honestly the cosplay for Homestuck creeped me out and i could count a good 60 of them at the meet-up for it, which i ran into coming out of the side exit to the Hyatt. Don't get me wrong, there were good cosplays, but a good number of them were in the wrong con.

Another thing, and this bugs me every year, is that i notice a significant number of people coming for 1 reason, to get so smashed on alcohol and go to Soap Bubble..if you ask me, those people need to GET OUT!

I know this next topic is out of ACEN's control, but we went to Denny's on Thursday night after i waited 3 HOURS to get my badge, and the service and food quality was ABSOLUTELY TERRIBAD! Did anyone else get poor service from Denny's?

I also noticed this year that there was a lot more yaoi in the vendor hall than i remember last year, but what got me the most was the yaoi fans either kept to their own or gave me looks like "Who do you think you are", like it's a felony to be a single, male yaoi fan.

...

The arcade was perfect...maybe a little better console organization, but the arcade was perfect.

Its pretty terrible that the best thing i remember about ACEN 2011 is that the ARCADE was the best part...I don't feel like i've been to ACEN, i feel like i was at an anime store that judges me for my yaoi fandom and creativity.

It's sad but i may consider a different con next year, or later this year and skip ACEN 2012...as it being the 15th anniversary is just asking for a worse experience for me.

[Lina]

sourstrawroxors, on 22 May 2011 - 09:09 PM, said:

THIS!! This, this, this! I adore coming to ACen, I always considered it my home-away-from-home. This is my 8th consecutive year coming to the convention and it just feels like, starting three or four years ago, the whole organization thing is coming unraveled with each progressing year.

Our group showed up for the 12:30 autograph session today (Sunday) at about 11:25 AM. There were roughly 6 to 7 people standing in line ahead of us and I could already tell the location was all wrong. Why on earth wasn't a space blocked and roped off like there had been just a few years ago? It was out of the way, each guest had his/her own table, and lines did not have to just get cut off simply because there was no more space. The ACen staffer responsible for allowing attendees into the line not only let people in early, but *lied* about the time she let them in. She changed it three times within her 5 minutes of explaining why she had to cut the line off. I can understand the need to put a cap on the line, but they counted 80 people. 80! We were told to leave and try to come back later and *maybe* we would be able to get in for an autograph. IRT was called as well, and while none of us were particularly upset with the two very calm IRT guys trying to subdue an ever-growing (and irate) crowd of disappointed fans, I was personally upset at the lack of organization for autographs. What really got me was that we had arrived to form a line at the time told: One hour before an event is scheduled to begin, including autograph sessions. This group of people clearly had arrived far too early and, instead of being told to kill some time and come back when they were *supposed to*, they got to go in ahead of those of us who actually followed the rules ACen had made.

I know that there are plenty of fans and that some of these guests are extremely popular, but honestly I find it more than unfair that attendees who did not follow the rules were rewarded while those of us who did basically got snubbed and turned away. In my near-decade of attending this convention this is really the biggest disappointment I've had and felt the need to *really* complain about. I do not mean to sound harsh or whiny, but it really upset me and plenty of other people who had their hearts set on getting in. My suggestion is to rearrange the layout of the Exhibit Hall and return to roping off areas that are set *away* from booths/vendors/tables so that there is not a space issue and the lines can be clearly defined. I also stress that con staff should follow their own rules- it is really off-putting when they seem to lack the backbone to tell people that they need to return at the appointed time instead of allowing attendees to somehow finagle their way around erected rules and end up disappointing others who made an effort to stick to them.

This is the exact autograph session I was talking about. It was so frustrating! I was the first one there to start lining up for the autograph session and the volunteer said that they had let people in a few minutes ago. They let 80 people in a few minutes ago? I think I would have noticed that. It would take more than a few minutes for 80 people to go in since they need to organize it. A few minutes was ok, but since it was way longer than that, that is annoying and frustrating. The IRT guy said they were only letting 80 people get stuff signed. Bull crap! He got annoyed with me and some people in front of me as well when I was asking questions in an annoyed manner, but I had every right to be frustrated. He was just talking to the little group of people in front of me so I couldn't really hear him so he had no right to get annoyed. He wasn't even telling everyone else what was going on about the whole 80 people thing. I just happened to catch it since I was close to the people he was talking to. It was so frustrating.

Another gripe I thought of was signs for panels in the Hilton. My friend and I were one of the first panels on Friday and we had no clue where to go because there were no signs. We barely got to the panel room in time because of this. We ended up asking a person who worked at the Hilton where the specific room was, but it still does not excuse the fact that there were no signs to say panels were on the 2nd floor.

[izy]

One thing i have noticed in these comments is almost everyone seems to be concerned with the photo shoots not being in the books. the reason for this us because the photo shoots are not ACEN events. but rather they are private events and their schedules are made by people outside of convention staff, and run by people outside of convention staff. the schedules for these events usually show up on the forums but ultimately since ACEN is not running these events we do not get the information about them.


please don't think i am taking a side here as i am not. i agree it would be nice to have the information for those available however i want to make sure everyone knows who the appropriate contact people would be so these issues can be addressed.

thanks

[PanzerKunst99]

My biggest gripe this year was regarding certain IRT staff members' attitude toward attendees. I completely understand the stress of hosting conventions (I work at a hotel/convention center, and granted it is nowhere near the size of the Hyatt, but I can relate to the hustle and bustle and general confusion of staffing large conventions). But the main thing to keep in mind is that you need to remain calm under pressure, and that no matter how much your day sucks, WE DIDN'T DO IT. That being said, I don't need someone approaching me with an attitude right off the bat. If you want me to move from a certain area, don't come at me guns blazing and scream at me that I can't be there. What ever happened to asking nicely? "Excuse me, but we need everyone to clear this area" works so much better than "Um, do you have any idea what's going on here? We're trying to keep this area clear!" Sarcasm was not needed or appreciated. I get the fact that you're running on minimal sleep and pure caffeine, but is that my fault personally? I guess my point here is that you can be in a position of authority without being a total jerk. Please, IRT, understand that most of the time, we're just as confused as you are. Also, a simple "please" goes a long way. Just saying....

Second, the line for the Soap Bubble was atrocious. The sidewalk just outside the ballroom doors is a high-traffic area, and having the line there as well as trying to accommodate two-way traffic was madness. I guess I don't really have any suggestions, but can anyone think of a better way to do this in the future? I was walking along the edge of the sidewalk when some guy who wanted to take the picture of a cosplayer in line literally shoved me over the edge to line up his shot. About .02 seconds later an IRT staffer was hollering at me to use the sidewalk. Seriously? He had to have seen that guy shove me off it just before that, and yet I was being screamed at.

The designated smoking areas seemed to have gone better this year, in my opinion. I'm an ex-smoker and so am not bothered by it as much as some, but in previous years it was pretty smokey just outside the doors. It didn't seem to be so much this year, so kudos for that. Also, I think smokers in general exhibited a bit more courtesy by sticking to the designated areas and not blowing it at everyone passing by. There's not much you can do about the people waiting in outdoor lines, but in general I think the areas by the doors were clearer this year.

[kenkendazo]

izy, on 22 May 2011 - 10:30 PM, said:

One thing i have noticed in these comments is almost everyone seems to be concerned with the photo shoots not being in the books. the reason for this us because the photo shoots are not ACEN events. but rather they are private events and their schedules are made by people outside of convention staff, and run by people outside of convention staff. the schedules for these events usually show up on the forums but ultimately since ACEN is not running these events we do not get the information about them.


please don't think i am taking a side here as i am not. i agree it would be nice to have the information for those available however i want to make sure everyone knows who the appropriate contact people would be so these issues can be addressed.

thanks

I actually think that photo shoots do have schedules the staff gives, at least that's how its been in the past.

[Kaay-chan]

Suigetsu, on 22 May 2011 - 10:33 PM, said:

I actually think that photo shoots do have schedules the staff gives, at least that's how its been in the past.

As someone who organized a photo shot this year, I can say for sure that the cosplay gatherings are an organized thing. They have designated areas reserved for gatherings, and there is a schedule that is put together to make sure things run smoothly. There was a schedule that you could get by going to the desk by main programming, however, there was just one and it was taped to the table, there was no schedule in the book.

[Maxite]

Dear Gripes,
Hi, I'm a long time reader, first time writer.

Although a lot of these have already been covered by other people, here are some things that I found problematic.
1) Inaccuracies in the program book. I understand that in planning out a large con you cannot achieve 100% accuracy, but it would still be nice to keep details consistent so as to reduce confusion.
2) Autograph schedules. They would have been nice inside the programming guide. On a related note, the location of the autograph signing was hard to find early Friday, and it wasn't until they put up some signage at the entrance that I figured out that the strange red rooms in the back of the dealers room were for autographing.
3. Photoshoot times. This is by far the gripe that bothers me the most. I can respect that setting up these photoshoots can be hard to do, and can be impossible to have them finalized before you can submit them for inclusion in the programming guide. I'm understanding that the con may want to save money and not print out 20,000+ slips of paper with programming guides, and instead post the list at the Information Booths. What I found extremely irritating was the fact that I couldn't plan all of my photoshoots on the Thursday before con, or the Friday of con, since they only posted photoshoots for one day at a time. This made planning for photoshoots so much more tedious than I felt it needed to be. I would have greatly appreciated it if they had offered up times for all 3 days of con on Thursday or Friday.
4) Line organization: I understand that the policy of "30 minutes before, outside the revolving doors near the Grand Ballroom" policy applied to main programming. However, the only part that was followed was the "Outside the revolving doors...".
5) Delays in main programming. Always inevitable, but I can't recall there being quite the same amount of delay for Anime Hell as there was this year, and all because the concert went over?

Other than that, the con was great. Registration Staff was incredibly kind to me in getting a replacement sticker for my badge since the original one was faded, and got me a new one in good time (granted, this was in the Liberty Room during Thursday). IRT was also incredibly kind to the congoers that I saw, and I never came across any that were rude, although I did hear of some who were.

[ATICE]

Ultra Yak, on 22 May 2011 - 10:23 PM, said:

AND SPEAKING OF COSPLAYERS!

What the F was UP with all the Disney Princess cosplay...i understand that people are free to cosplay as whatever they want, but this is an ANIME CONVENTION, as in FROM JAPAN...or influenced by Japan...there was even a staggering amount of the superheroes like Captain America and Deadpool, which admittedly was pretty entertaining, but that's a COMIC CON thing, NOT an ANIME thing...This was the first year of ACEN i actualy DID NOT HAVE A PROBLEM WITH NARUTO AND BLEACH FANS, but instead were overshadowed by the movie characters, superheroes, disney princesses, and VERY BAD CROSSPLAY...and on a side note, what's the big deal with Hetalia and Homestuck? I heard Hetalia was pretty decent, but i have never ONCE heard of an ANIME named Homestuck...Honestly the cosplay for Homestuck creeped me out and i could count a good 60 of them at the meet-up for it, which i ran into coming out of the side exit to the Hyatt. Don't get me wrong, there were good cosplays, but a good number of them were in the wrong con.

Excuse me, but I was one of those superhero cosplayers and I can assure that a convention is a convention. It does NOT matter if it is an anime con, gaming con, or a comic con. They are all conventions and have a place for all characters! (Well just mostly the ones that aren't horribly disgusting. lol). Not to mention the fact that Batman and a lot of other superhero's have video games now or are about to, so they most certainly "count" if that's how you want to call it.

So you need to learn that an anime convention is NOT about things that are just from Japan. Frankly, there were about 80% of cosplayers cosplaying as characters from Japan. The rest were from video games, tv shows, comic books, American movies, and etc. If you do not like it, then just simply look away. No one is forcing you to notice these cosplayers for doing what they love and I'll be damned if I let someone like you bad mouth superheroes. We're awesome, get over it!

[ATICE]

Maxite, on 22 May 2011 - 10:45 PM, said:

3. Photoshoot times. This is by far the gripe that bothers me the most. I can respect that setting up these photoshoots can be hard to do, and can be impossible to have them finalized before you can submit them for inclusion in the programming guide. I'm understanding that the con may want to save money and not print out 20,000+ slips of paper with programming guides, and instead post the list at the Information Booths. What I found extremely irritating was the fact that I couldn't plan all of my photoshoots on the Thursday before con, or the Friday of con, since they only posted photoshoots for one day at a time. This made planning for photoshoots so much more tedious than I felt it needed to be. I would have greatly appreciated it if they had offered up times for all 3 days of con on Thursday or Friday.

I agree with this 100%, ESPECIALLY considering the fact that when the times had been made on the forums... About a week before the convention was the final time change date (maybe even before that, but the last time I checked it was a week), and so I was quite disappointed to find photoshoots that were very out of place. I wanted to go to the Kingdom Hearts photoshoot, but instead I found a... second MvC photoshoot? o_O & Yep, I went back to information booth and.. idk.. either I missed it or it was during another photoshoot, so I just went w/e and walked around dealer's hall for a while more (which by the way... 6:30.. closing time? Seriously? What are we... 10 years old? If panels are still open past 10, then I think the dealer's hall should be at least open Fri&Sat 10a-8pm, and then Sun 10a-5pm.).

This post has been edited by ATICE: 22 May 2011 - 10:52 PM

[izy]

Suigetsu, on 22 May 2011 - 10:33 PM, said:

I actually think that photo shoots do have schedules the staff gives, at least that's how its been in the past.

if that is the case then i am sorry as i have been misinformed.

[Lina]

izy, on 22 May 2011 - 10:30 PM, said:

One thing i have noticed in these comments is almost everyone seems to be concerned with the photo shoots not being in the books. the reason for this us because the photo shoots are not ACEN events. but rather they are private events and their schedules are made by people outside of convention staff, and run by people outside of convention staff. the schedules for these events usually show up on the forums but ultimately since ACEN is not running these events we do not get the information about them.


please don't think i am taking a side here as i am not. i agree it would be nice to have the information for those available however i want to make sure everyone knows who the appropriate contact people would be so these issues can be addressed.

thanks

Most may be run by non-con staff, but some actually are and they are scheduled by staff. Cactusmomma is in charge of some photoshoots, but also schedules them. I'm not sure of how many cons actually have staff members put a schedule together for us attendees.

@Ultra Yak: I take offense to you saying you have to cosplaying from an anime/video game/manga, etc. at an anime convention. I cosplayed Black Canary from DC for some of the weekend and quite a few people enjoyed it. Some people on Thursday enjoyed my Hipster! Alice cosplay! I loved seeing lots of super hero cosplayers. Plenty of people enjoy both comics and manga/anime. And the Disney Princesses are in Kingdom Hearts so technically they belong. Just get over it. You will still see them. Don't go to cons if you are going to complain about seeing non-anime/manga cosplayers.

[sourstrawroxors]

Lina, on 22 May 2011 - 10:26 PM, said:

This is the exact autograph session I was talking about. It was so frustrating! I was the first one there to start lining up for the autograph session and the volunteer said that they had let people in a few minutes ago. They let 80 people in a few minutes ago? I think I would have noticed that. It would take more than a few minutes for 80 people to go in since they need to organize it. A few minutes was ok, but since it was way longer than that, that is annoying and frustrating. The IRT guy said they were only letting 80 people get stuff signed. Bull crap! He got annoyed with me and some people in front of me as well when I was asking questions in an annoyed manner, but I had every right to be frustrated. He was just talking to the little group of people in front of me so I couldn't really hear him so he had no right to get annoyed. He wasn't even telling everyone else what was going on about the whole 80 people thing. I just happened to catch it since I was close to the people he was talking to. It was so frustrating.....

My group was very near to the front of where that IRT guy was trying to explain. I could hardly hear him, but luckily one of my friends was close enough and relayed what was said back to me. I tried to pass the info along as best I could, but I couldn't tell everybody. Staff tried to play it off as there only being enough time to let 80 people with 1-2 things to sign and possibly pictures with the guests to go through in an hour. IRT guy also mentioned that they were doing this to make it easier on the guests (? Not sure if I heard that correctly, but my interpretation of this would be so that the guests signing autographs did not feel..rushed, I suppose?). I can understand that just fine, but these guests are also only signing for an hour and have been to a few cons already.. I have seen so many gracious guests remain patient, calm, and light-hearted with fans and still acquiesce to signatures/photos for lines of at least 200 people...so I have a hard time believing that they had to cap the line at 80 for the reason of guest comfort (I am not a rabid fangirl who demands autographs or would risk the comfort of a revered guest, but they are at a con- they know, sort of, what that entails). It seems to me that staff was trying to save their hides with a kind of..lame excuse to the terrible placement of the autograph sessions. "Oh we can't let more than 80 people in because...well, to be frank, we just ran out of space and placed the event in a spot that limits the line size."

If they had to cut off the line, that's understandable. It should not, however,have been done because they let tons of people go in before they were even supposed to. I agree- a line that long would have been noticed being let in by 11:30 and we were there a few minutes beforehand. I saw nothing of the sort happen, and the people in front of us hadn't seen it either..and they were there even before we arrived.

[ATICE]

Lina, on 22 May 2011 - 10:51 PM, said:

Most may be run by non-con staff, but some actually are and they are scheduled by staff. Cactusmomma is in charge of some photoshoots, but also schedules them. I'm not sure of how many cons actually have staff members put a schedule together for us attendees.

@Ultra Yak: I take offense to you saying you have to cosplaying from an anime/video game/manga, etc. at an anime convention. I cosplayed Black Canary from DC for some of the weekend and quite a few people enjoyed it. Some people on Thursday enjoyed my Hipster! Alice cosplay! I loved seeing lots of super hero cosplayers. Plenty of people enjoy both comics and manga/anime. And the Disney Princesses are in Kingdom Hearts so technically they belong. Just get over it. You will still see them. Don't go to cons if you are going to complain about seeing non-anime/manga cosplayers.

100% agree with you. People should not go to conventions if they do not want to see cosplayers doing awesome cosplay things like we were this year.

I enjoyed being a DC character at an anime convention. The photoshoot was especially fun.

This post has been edited by ATICE: 22 May 2011 - 10:55 PM

[redx1]

Rori, on 22 May 2011 - 10:02 PM, said:

• Angry elevator lady. I don't know who she was or if she was even on ACen staff (I could not see what badge(s) she had, I'm too short to see over people), but Saturday (?) when the elevator traffic was getting really crazy, the crowded elevator got to the very bottom floor and she wigged out that people were riding all the way down to just go back up. She also threatened she would make us all get off and walk the stairs to get to our rooms. Which made me mad on three counts: (1) I was the person who pressed the button for the elevator. I pressed "up." The elevator arrived and the arrow also pointed up. I got on, but it went down. I have no idea why that even happened. For all I know, someone's bottom pressed a button to go down. (2) I'm not 5. And I do not appreciate being treated rudely. (3) I'm not about to walk up 9 flights of stairs in cosplay unnecessarily. I'm asthmatic.

I remember angry elevator lady quite well. She was basically thrown into the lion's den so I don't blame her for being a little harsh. She was trying to help, but her approach was a bit... abrasive.

The elevator situation is always a problem at the hotel. I would love to see a little more organization with the elevators, but I don't foresee it ever happening.

[sourstrawroxors]

redx1, on 22 May 2011 - 10:56 PM, said:

I remember angry elevator lady quite well. She was basically thrown into the lion's den so I don't blame her for being a little harsh. She was trying to help, but her approach was a bit... abrasive.

The elevator situation is always a problem at the hotel. I would love to see a little more organization with the elevators, but I don't foresee it ever happening.

Elevators are always and forevermore a nightmare at ACen. If you are able, taking the stairs seems ideal, however, not everybody has this option. Health issues, luggage/props/cosplays can become too cumbersome or heavy to be taking several flights of stairs *up* (and sometimes down). What would be lovely to see (but highly unlikely) is some kind of line formation for elevators. The usual pattern seems to be: Attendees arrive and choose an elevator to wait in front of; current elevator riders get off at lobby or ground level; people who have been waiting to get onto said elevator are suddenly cut off by attendees who have zero patience and just butt their way on first, never mind that there were already those standing there, respectfully allowing riders to get off the lift before getting inside.

Unfortunately, developing some kind of line system might be impractical because of the limited space between the elevators.

SO-- my suggestion for this is to perhaps have TWO (not one) IRT members monitoring the general area to keep some kind of organization to the chaos. Allowing the way to be clear for elevator passengers to exit and then allowing those waiting *first* or who should take priority (i.e. E.M.R.T, IRT, or the disabled) to get on...and also *limiting* the amount of people per elevator. Those machines put up with a lot of "stress" and overuse during the weekend. It would be easier to keep them in working order and move things a bit faster for all involved if somebody could keep an eye on things and ensure that it doesn't turn into a hot mess.

[Ashori]

Ultra Yak, on 22 May 2011 - 10:23 PM, said:

AND SPEAKING OF COSPLAYERS!

What the F was UP with all the Disney Princess cosplay...i understand that people are free to cosplay as whatever they want, but this is an ANIME CONVENTION, as in FROM JAPAN...or influenced by Japan...

Well, technically the Disney cosplays can be justified since many of the princesses were featured in Kingdom Hearts. So honestly I didn't have a problem with that. Personally, I was surprised that I didn't see as many Captain Jack Sparrows as I did in previous years, especially considering that this was also opening weekend for Pirates 4.

[redx1]

Ashori, on 22 May 2011 - 11:14 PM, said:

Well, technically the Disney cosplays can be justified since many of the princesses were featured in Kingdom Hearts. So honestly I didn't have a problem with that. Personally, I was surprised that I didn't see as many Captain Jack Sparrows as I did in previous years, especially considering that this was also opening weekend for Pirates 4.

Hot topics come and go every year. Princesses are in this year! Jack Sparrow is so 2010 xD

[Ranko]

Ultra Yak, on 22 May 2011 - 10:23 PM, said:

OK Let's begin this rage fit like a pro!

AND SPEAKING OF COSPLAYERS!

What the F was UP with all the Disney Princess cosplay...i understand that people are free to cosplay as whatever they want, but this is an ANIME CONVENTION, as in FROM JAPAN...or influenced by Japan...there was even a staggering amount of the superheroes like Captain America and Deadpool, which admittedly was pretty entertaining, but that's a COMIC CON thing, NOT an ANIME thing...This was the first year of ACEN i actualy DID NOT HAVE A PROBLEM WITH NARUTO AND BLEACH FANS, but instead were overshadowed by the movie characters, superheroes, disney princesses, and VERY BAD CROSSPLAY...and on a side note, what's the big deal with Hetalia and Homestuck? I heard Hetalia was pretty decent, but i have never ONCE heard of an ANIME named Homestuck...Honestly the cosplay for Homestuck creeped me out and i could count a good 60 of them at the meet-up for it, which i ran into coming out of the side exit to the Hyatt. Don't get me wrong, there were good cosplays, but a good number of them were in the wrong con.

Fine, let the rage be on...

DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT COSPLAY STANDS FOR?

Costume-Play..... There is nothing in the derivation of the word saying that one has to dress up as something from Japan. It simply means that you are dressing up as some sort of character and having fun... Also, by your post, I'm guessing that you may have been one of the people that got uppity about me dressing like a nun... I'd just like to point out... that not only was it not a Crossplay... It's definitely from an anime... People coming up to me and saying stuff like that I'm stupid for dressing like that did nothing but anger me, and coming here and finding a post like this added fuel to the fire... You need to just sit back and come to these things to have a good time, instead of judging people.

[linlindesu]

As many people have stated : the no bags rule for the game room is meh. I'm more mad about the inconsistency . On Friday, I was allowed to bring my very tiny bag in ( because nothing that could be stolen would fit in there :logic. ) But on saturday afternoon I was told I could not only not bring it in, I could not leave it either. I believe Gabicho, SongtressLenne and myself are talking about the same staff member. She was very rude and did not answer me when I asked about the change from friday. I understand there may have been a bag mix up or something but the least a staff member can do is explain the situation to the best of their ability ( or at least as much as they are allowed to tell ) so con goers understand rules better. I am happy to say she was the only staff I had an issue with this year. Everyone else was pretty easy going.

Registration was terrible. I preregged and got in line on Thursday . The lines were not sorted until one entered the building and it would have been a lot nicer if they were sorted all the way through ( the line for prereg was 1/8 of the at-con line). I was only in the con center for 30 minutes but I was outside for nearly two hours. I do want to thank the spikey haired mohawk IRT guy who welcomed my question about where lines started and such without being even remotely rude.

[White Rose Assassin]

Re: Gatherings in the Program
This also would have been super helpful if gatherings were included in the program. I lost track of when and where gatherings were held. Not all of us have a smart phone (yet). I do believe Cactusmomma is part of staff and organized the gatherings list (kudos to you, CM!). Not to mention, she made sure gatherings ran smooth and everything was laid out without chaos. She worked really hard on keeping things together.

Yes, other conventions do have a gatherings department head. Fanime has B Sapphire running their gathering schedule and services. Fanime typically has an info booth set up with schedules and people stationed there in case a gathering needed extra assistance. Sometimes, they'll do something special for gatherings like invite a guest of honor from the series to pose with them.

Re: ZOMG! WTF?! DISNEY?!
For some cosplayers, they can only pick and choose to attend certain conventions. I'm not speaking for all of them, but not all of us are fortunate enough to be able to attend a (generation Y friendly) science fiction convention or D23 (the official Disney convention in Anaheim). Personally, I love seeing variety in cosplay. It was really cool seeing lots of Rapunzels. Not to mention, there was also eleventy Dr. Who cosplayers out there (my partner included). Non-anime is cosplaying. It's just something you'll learn to get used to.

[LeenStar]

Kaay-chan, on 22 May 2011 - 10:09 PM, said:

-No Cellphones at the concert. I understand why, because of the whole camera thing, but this was a terrible idea and really irresponsible. Not everyone who attends the con and wants to go to the concert is staying in a hotel; some people are actually from the surrounding area and commute from home, which means that if they don't have a friend at the convention who's not going to the concert who can hold their phone, they can't go. Not to mention the fact that some attendees, such as myself and my two friends, who really, and I mean REALLY wanted to go to that concert, cannot, I repeat, CANNOT, for any reason, be without their cellphone. The three of us were the leaders for our college group, and while, yes, all of us are over the age of 18 and can take care of ourselves, our school was still holding us, as leaders, responsible for everyone, and if something had happened and somebody needed to get in touch with us and we didn't have our phones, we could have gotten in a lot of trouble. So we couldn't go, and that kinda ruined my Friday.

That rule was NOT listed in the book, so I showed up with my camera + cell phone in my hand. They said NO BAGS, so I obviously had to carry everything with me. I put my phone in my pocket, and had my camera (off) in my hand. As I went in, one of the IRT's told me to keep my camera off, and she saw me put it in my pocket. I was really grateful that she was nice about it. However, once I get in there, I see people taking pictures with their phones, cameras, etc. I'm pretty sure I caught 1-2 girls taking pictures of FLOW, and I just kept thinking "I hope they don't get kicked out". I feel bad for you and your group, because you guys were treated unfairly, I saw a bunch of people with their phones out so I don't understand it at all. And I agree, please let EVERYONE bring their phones, some people have medical issues, or simply are alone and can't be without a source of communication.

[LeenStar]

ATICE, on 22 May 2011 - 10:45 PM, said:

Excuse me, but I was one of those superhero cosplayers and I can assure that a convention is a convention. It does NOT matter if it is an anime con, gaming con, or a comic con. They are all conventions and have a place for all characters! (Well just mostly the ones that aren't horribly disgusting. lol). Not to mention the fact that Batman and a lot of other superhero's have video games now or are about to, so they most certainly "count" if that's how you want to call it.

So you need to learn that an anime convention is NOT about things that are just from Japan. Frankly, there were about 80% of cosplayers cosplaying as characters from Japan. The rest were from video games, tv shows, comic books, American movies, and etc. If you do not like it, then just simply look away. No one is forcing you to notice these cosplayers for doing what they love and I'll be damned if I let someone like you bad mouth superheroes. We're awesome, get over it!

I agree. I respect everyone's opinion, but I don't understand why people would get bothered by seeing Disney characters, and other miscellaneous cosplays. Yes, it is a convention inspired by Japanese culture, anime, and video games, but I love to see people cosplay other characters too. The superheros were awesome, and the majority of them looked great and had cool details. I saw other people dressed as memes, or other random things, and I personally find it refreshing because you see something different. If someone loves a character, whether it is Superman or Cinderella, why not dress up?!

[Fullmetal_C]

I had a great time at ACen this year but these are a few of the major things that i ran into problems with....

first was the autograph signings and meet-ups not being listed, i know a lot of people already touched on that above so i don't think i'll dwell on that too much. I had looked online before the con just to help plan out my weekend a bit so i knew what times to meet-up (had trouble remembering where) but it would have been nice to see other photo shoots.

I was annoyed with the autograph sessions this year, i wasn't able to get a single item signed through the whole weekend. On friday we didn't find out until 5 where and when the signings where so we had missed the major people we had wanted to get signed. Saturday we arrived at the 1:00 signing at 1:15, we were late because we couldn't find the location and when we arrived the signing was already CLOSED. A signing that is scheduled for 1:00 to 2:00 should NOT be closed at 1:15. But we figured whatever, we'll get them sunday before we leave. We arrive sunday at exactly 12:30 for the 12:30 signing (we wanted to be there earlier but got slowed down with the situation with the elevators in the Hyatt.) and once again the signing was already CLOSED. The signing is scheduled for 12:30, not 11:30, its not right to have the session already closed off at the time its supposed to start. Last year was FANTASTIC for autograph signings (or at least i thought so) my boyfriend and i got in line with ease and got our items signed. I hope that next year ACen will revert back to that method, or at least something better than this years...

I was also kinda disappointed about how spread out all the panels were, it was nice having a lot of them in the Hyatt, and i know a lot of people room at the hyatt for the location of the con (being that the game room and a lot of the panels usually go on there.) A lot of the main events go on at the Hyatt already so it would seem like a lot of the con goers will be there through out the day and evening. And i'm not saying that there shouldn't be panels in other hotels, there is obviously not enough space to hold ALL panels in the Hyatt, a little walking never hurt anyone ^^ but it was disappointing in the evening with few panels going on and them being spread all over the convention location. This is just my suggestion though.

I think one of my biggest peevs was Sunday morning with the situation on the elevators in the Hyatt. It didn't help that one of the elevators didn't work this weekend but like mentioned earlier, people were riding the elevators from the lower floors up and then back down. I was on the 10th floor and so there were 2 staff members trying to keep things organized for people. I'll admit i was annoyed, i don't like people telling me when i can get on the elevator and one of the ladies weren't particularly friendly but it was fair for the people waiting for a longer than others, i got over it. But i was DISGUSTED how people were acting. One instant that blew me away was when i was waiting for the elevator with all my stuff and a door opened but it was to go up. The elevator was full and the staff had been kicking people off of the elevator who were riding it up and back down. One girl in particular was completely out of line, she was yelling and being completely disrespectful and at one point called a member of the IRT a fat@-- when he took the elevator down by himself (i think he was testing the elevator ?) No one was happy about the situation but honestly there is no reason to act like that. At that point i just felt bad for the staff, i'm sure she wasn't the only one to act like that. And to be fair, those of us on the 8th, 9th, and 10th floors would have never got on if the staff didn't take people who were riding the elevators up and down off at the 10th floor. Every elevator going up past our floor was almost if not, full of people. The situation sucked, but calling names and acting out isn't going to make it better for anyone. I know that both times coming back to get more luggage my roommates and I took the stairs, running up 10 flights of stairs to get back to our room. The check-out situation over all was pretty stressful this morning for everyone and there are two sides to every story, but this is what i witnessed this morning. I hope that next year's check out goes much smoother >.>

So those are my gripes in a nutshell, i overall had a great time and i got to talk to a lot of awesome people. And this is not an attack, just my opinions from the weekend ^o^ Can't wait to see the improvements next year XD

[JediNight]

mer2329, on 22 May 2011 - 07:59 PM, said:

• the schedules need bigger print they were near the font size of microprinting
  any smaller and it would look like one solid line
• the fact that there were only 50 copies of the schedule made (for 23,000 some attendies) is pretty sad
• air circulation inside the autographaera was horrible the lights were too hot
  i told the staff working the aera and nothing was done all weekend (it had to reach 75 - 80 degrees F. back there)
  the staff gave me a "reason" why nothing could be done: the con center was unionized and they are not allowed to do anything
  in my opinion that translates to lazyness becuse it was still hot on day 2 - 3 (i mentioned it on Fri)
  suggested Remedy: call the Con Center and have an engineer sent over (there is always a engineer on duty for mecanical issues) and have them send one of those "union workers" to fix it or put some stand up fans as a last resort

#1 and 2: I agree this was unfortunate. From what I was told, our nice corporate laser printer, Bertha, died early on at the con. This was a large part of the updated schedules not being available. I'm not sure if they were originally intended for 11x17, but I don't believe that capability was available with Bertha dead. We also had many more panels this year scheduled (200 instead of ~120 last year?) so I assume that may have required the print to be smaller as well.

#3: This one is unavoidable, and one of the major reasons those rooms are considered less than ideal for panel programming. I noticed the airwalls were open for them this year, so I thought the circulation might be better, but that sounds like it wasn't the case. Long story short: there is no ventilation/aircon for those rooms, since they are made out of temporary walls, and there are no vents in the ceiling for whatever reason. Without getting into specifics, the union contracts for convention centers are complex and probably not ideal for good customer service. In my personal opinion: I've been to many trade shows, anime cons, etc. and the bureaucracy surrounding them can be maddening.
(At a trade show out east I worked several years ago, we weren't even allowed to adjust the audio levels or set up our own projectors, even though all of the equipment was ours. Per union contract to use the convention space we had to call an engineer in (whom their billing rate was something like $300/hr) and would take 30-60mins to even show up, just to do that. Setting up or taking down chairs was something like $1 per chair, etc)

[Lara121]

Ok This is my 7th Acen. So I have a couple of gripes.

1) The guests. I am one who loves guests but there were only 2 really well known voice actors in my opinion. What was with all the comic guests. That and there were no guest panels on sunday and no evening guest panels at night. I would've LOVED a 18+ guest panel.

2) Not enough things to do. No really, there was not enough to do. I left early on saturday to see a movie.

3) Communication and organization. This year was vastly unorganized and it was very obvious.

Now for gripes about gripes

1) Registration. I pre-ordered like a smart person. Acen is known as linecon since 2008. Where I had friends wait 8 hours in line and some people waited longer. You ALWAYS pre-order badges for acen. And printers do break down and so do computers. I understand while people get upset about it. If the computers shut down then there's really nothing you can do.

2) Anything about the hotel room or elevators the staff cannot do anything. There will always be crowding at the elevators at the hyatt.


While I'm not giving up acen anytime soon. Guys please comment on things the con can actually fix. They cannot fix if someone takes video of you, or that the hotel rooms are small or if a hotel is rude.