[bucktick]

Hello smokey. I did not mean my comment to indicate the staff, of whom, I felt did a quite good job of helping with the disabilities. Some things such as crowded sidewalks, particularly on thursday, were unfortunate but to be expected at an event of this size.

My only beef here is with P-bear whose comment said to me that in a finite way that according to P-bear's personal opinion there is no difficulty ever for walking across the street for any people and I wanted to point out, that in fact, even with assistance some people WILL have difficulty and it is unfair to roll one's eyes at the troubles of another as not everyone is able-bodied as p-bear might be. And perhaps as Ashiori states it was maybe not P-bear's intention to make light of the difficulties that might be faced by others but I still find said user's comment to be insensitive and I wanted to point out as such and I apologize to staff for my own opinion on the topic being un-civil. The situation has been resolved via PM with the user. Thank you again for your sensitivity.

This post has been edited by bucktick: 25 May 2011 - 07:38 PM

[magicalgamer]

TheRabbi, on 25 May 2011 - 01:34 PM, said:

However, that "ghetto tactic", as you say, seems to work just fine for a number of conventions, including Gen Con, which is practically in every hotel in downtown Indianapolis.

Yeah, GenCon has events in 7 hotels, a train station's meeting rooms(secondary area of a hotel), and most of the convention center (with the new expansion we are not using the entire convention center for a change). We are in a .5 mile by .5 mile area in downtown Indy.

GenCon also has hired security at the convention center and we have the building open 24 hours per day.

What makes a con like GenCon easier to spread out between buildings is: it is easy to draw a line saying board games here, anime here, rpgs over there, etc. because the hotels in Indy all have large meeting rooms and multiple ballrooms and the convention center is huge. They also have ticketing for most of the 9000 events being run during the 4 days.

Now back to ACEN, I think the con needs to rethink quite a bit of what space they rent and how they use it.

Basically, you should plan for a percentage of people at the con who will be trying to go to events at the same time. Do you have enough space for that number of people at the various events?(everything from main programing, to video rooms, to videogames, etc.) With the way I saw things this year, the answer is currently no.

As for the line at main programming. Do not use the revolving door/regular doors at the northeast corner of the main programming ballroom, instead use the door at the southwest corner. This would free up the entire sidewalk up to the point that the pedestrian crossing is to the convention center for people to actually walk and use the sidewalk instead of the driveway.

This post has been edited by magicalgamer: 25 May 2011 - 05:17 PM

[Kaay-chan]

One suggestion might be this: The various hotels use shuttles to get people from the hotels to the convention center, right? I'm not familiar on how the shuttles work, so I'm not sure if you could, like...rent them, or something, but maybe utilize the hotels' shuttles by including a schedule of when they leave what hotel when in the program so people can use them to get to panels at the other hotels.

[P-Bear]

bucktick, on 25 May 2011 - 03:38 PM, said:

Nice to see that you have the privilege of not having a disability or health issues that might make that difficult for you. Guess people that might have an issue that actually DOES make that difficult are beneath your superior self.

*original (very rude) post deleted*

This post has been edited by P-Bear: 25 May 2011 - 05:54 PM

[bucktick]

Quote

i prostrate myself before you and beg for your forgiveness.

I'll accept this apology regardless of the snark oozing forth from it. Thank you for the clarification.

[The Fujoshi]

The gripes I have is mostly towards the people than the staff in general.

There was more people than I thought this year and it meant more crazy people. I haven't seen the soap bubble that insane in a long long time. I was really dissapointed in how the people were lacking maturity wise in terms of special needs/hotels/etc. in general

Also IRT was kinda....lax this year compared to the previous years or maybe that's me? I'm not sure. The reason why I say that is because of an incident with autographs:

Me and my friend went to see if the Hetalia autographs were still going on since it was suppose to be at 2-3pm. We were decked out fully in Hetalia cosplay fyi

Me: "Excuse me is the Hetalia autographs still going on?"

IRT: "Uhhhh this is only for Flow autographs."

Me: looking at a sign that clearly says Hetalia autographs at 2, Flow autographs at 3:30. Ummm we are not here for the Flow autographs, we are only here for the Hetalia photographs. points to the sign

IRT: Looks at sign Well the Hetalia one is over; only the Flow one is going on.

Me: Friend checks time which is barely 2:30. Could you go check or someone else check?

IRT: Doesn't make effort to check or even see if it's still going on but doesn't let me pass either.

Me: Explaining several times that we were not here for the Flow autographs or wanted to cut in line. Someone who was here for the Hetalia signing spotted our conversation and went to go see before the IRT let us through, even though there was three IRT by the door, all the people for the Flow autographs were inside, and none of them even bother to go check to see if it was still going on or not.

It wasn't just that, it was just how there was a lax in IRT knowledge and more signs in general, even though there wasn't suppose to be signs and before I could find IRT the person would be gone, due to so many people.

I remember back in 2008(?) When the IRT was on with 'no signs, no long weapons, no steel, etc.' before the 'weapon could be your height size,' and checked all weapons/etc. on cosplay and was on the point.

[redx1]

As much as I would love to see ACen move to McCormick, it would indeed ruin the 24 hour con experience. The hotel and neighborhood situation would bring that to an end.

[Smokey]

Kaay-chan, on 25 May 2011 - 05:28 PM, said:

One suggestion might be this: The various hotels use shuttles to get people from the hotels to the convention center, right?

No, the hotels use those shuttles to transport people between the hotel and the airport. Going to the convention center is a special courtesy that they are not obligated to provide and will usually stop if overused. (At least, that's how it was when I was driving them.)

[YoungBirdcall]

Gabichox, on 23 May 2011 - 01:27 PM, said:

Wow, really?
During the line for the soapbubble, multiple times when someone walked past there was a scent of weed following after. Around the front doors to the ballroom, I could smell it mixed in with cigarette smoke. I'd walk into an elevator and it smelled like weed. I'm sorry if you didn't smell it and consider my gripe invalid, but it's extremely rude of you to say that. My friends smelled it too so I'm not just spouting nonsense. Even those that are ok with drugs were put off by it. I understand there's not much you can do if they're smoking in their rooms but at least a warning or chastisement would suffice.
I didn't see that post stating there is nothing we could do about drunks until after I posted (I'm on a phone and can't scroll well) and I understand what Rabbi said. However, I do think there should be more IRT paying attention to the drunks and watching for potential hazards. The only thing they seemed keen on doing were warning people not to have bags and telling them to keep off of the sidewalks.
I have nothing against people drinking. I'm not 5. I understand that adults in America partake in adult beverages. But when they go crazy with it and harrass congoers, I have a problem. That's what ruined the con for me. Wouldn't that ruin it for you? If your friend or you were pestered by people to touch you or had people shouting in your ear because they're drunk? Guessssss it's just me.

I could've sworn there was a rule about free hugs signs. D: is there?

I wasn't trying to be rude, and I'm sorry that I came off that way. I just meant that saying something like "the con reeked of weed" is as ridiculous as saying "Rosemont reeked of weed." The con comprises a large geographical area, so if you happened to smell a funny smell three or four times over the course of three days, that hardly means that "the con reeked of weed." I walked all day from Friday morning 'til Sunday afternoon, and I never smelled it once. So clearly, the con did not reek of weed. For something to "reek" the smell has to be constant and overpowering. The con reeked alright, but it reeked of B.O. more-so than anything else. And no, people pestering to touch me or shouting at me wouldn't have ruined the convention for me; I live in Chicago and ride public transportation, so behavior like this doesn't really phase me. I'm not saying I like it, I'm just saying that it wouldn't ruin my weekend. I'm sorry that it ruined yours. Annoying drunks are annoying, so I totally feel your pain. All I'm trying to say is that some behavior like this (annoying drunks, drug use) is unavoidable at a weekend convention with more than 20,000 people attending. There's nothing that ACEN staff can really do about it, because they seemed to be stretched to their limits as it is.

[DaphHime]

The one gripe that comes to mind. The no bag policy in the game room. I think I understand it for main programming. But what's in the game room? Coin operated arcade machines. Who often carries around their money in their bag or purse? Girls. A group of my friends wanted to go into the game room but my friend and I were stopped because of our purses. The one friend I was with had a purse that cost well over 300 dollars and she was not going to leave it on the floor with some stranger. The only solution I can think of for this is separate the arcade machines from the consuls if they're that worried about theft. Let the people with bags (and therefore money) into the arcade area and leave bag check for the consul area. If people want to steal so badly they're going to steal bag or no bag. What's next? No bags in artist ally or the dealer's room? Needless to say I didn't go in the game room all weekend.

I also had a bit of an issue with the spread out panels. I had a asthma attack walking from the Hyatt to the Double Tree via the hamster tunnels. We got lost looking for the place and my friend was running a panel. That was before we figured out walking outside would have been much faster. The fact that I was in full crossplay with not so great walking shoes didn't help. None the less. What accommodations are made for that situation? When people have trouble walking long distances.

This post has been edited by DaphHime: 25 May 2011 - 10:25 PM

[Smokey]

DaphHime, on 25 May 2011 - 10:20 PM, said:

What accommodations are made for that situation? When people have trouble walking long distances.

We now have wheelchair and scooter rental.

[Mystline]

Hey guys, this thread has a really awesome idea that would help ACen out a lot.

[Lord Warhammer]

DaphHime, on 25 May 2011 - 10:20 PM, said:

:Snip:

If people want to steal so badly they're going to steal bag or no bag. What's next? No bags in artist ally or the dealer's room?

:Snip:

If problems push things to that direction, it could happen. It wouldn't be the first con I have gone to that wouldn't allow personal bags in the dealers room.
My guess(since I am not Game Room Staff) would be that one year they had some stuff walk off and want to prevent that from happening again.

[GXP_agent_Zack]

Lord Warhammer, on 26 May 2011 - 10:34 AM, said:

If problems push things to that direction, it could happen. It wouldn't be the first con I have gone to that wouldn't allow personal bags in the dealers room.

This would be an absolute nightmare at ACEN and would ensure that I would never attend the convention again. There are constructive ways to deal with things, and the "no bags" policy is not constructive in any way, shape, or form.

[Mystline]

Lord Warhammer, on 26 May 2011 - 10:34 AM, said:

If problems push things to that direction, it could happen. It wouldn't be the first con I have gone to that wouldn't allow personal bags in the dealers room.
My guess(since I am not Game Room Staff) would be that one year they had some stuff walk off and want to prevent that from happening again.

I know for a dang well fact, if ACen banned personal bags in the Dealer's Room, I would never attend ACen again. And I know plenty of people who wouldn't attend either.

[TheRabbi]

There are no plans to ban personal bags in the Dealer's Room. At all.

The video gaming room aside - and that's a departmental decision - the only place where we are concerned about bags is in the dances. And that is more because we know people tend to put their bags down when they go dance and things have gotten stolen from those unattended bags, not because we are worried about someone stealing something and putting it in their own bag.

[Audri]

Mystline, on 26 May 2011 - 12:48 PM, said:

I know for a dang well fact, if ACen banned personal bags in the Dealer's Room, I would never attend ACen again. And I know plenty of people who wouldn't attend either.

I'd have to second that one.. Heck I encourage my club members to buy those anime messanger bags to put swag and purchased items into.

[Kokoro]

Mystline, on 26 May 2011 - 12:48 PM, said:

I know for a dang well fact, if ACen banned personal bags in the Dealer's Room, I would never attend ACen again. And I know plenty of people who wouldn't attend either.

I dunno if I want to attend Acen again anyway, but I'd be in the same boat as you. Not allowing bags in an event/specific room is just too much of a hassle when people are staying in multiple hotels (or driving for the day from home), there's no bag check, etc.

And since I've learned I need to flip any answer IRT/staff gives me to the exact opposite in order for it to be correct, I'm not going to fully trust anything I read here anymore.

This post has been edited by Kokoro: 26 May 2011 - 01:23 PM

[Kasemei]

I'd like to add into the comments in regards to the no bag rule for the Game Room. When I got to the hotel on Friday, I couldn't check in. I figured I would just go to the game room and bring my backpack until I could actually check in. As soon as I went to the Game Room, I was stopped and told that I couldn't bring my bag into the room and had to leave it outside. I didn't have a room yet and I didn't want to just dump my stuff there with some random person that wasn't going to be responsible for the stuff if it got lost.

Later in the evening, after multiple attendees were told they had to leave their bags in the hallway before entering the game room, we were told that EVERYONE needed to move their bags because it was a fire hazard. If bags weren't moved, the game room would be shut down. Considering that it was staff that told people to leave their bags there in the first place...this just seemed completely unfair. Not only were people required to not to bring their bags into the game room, they now now longer had a place to store them. The announcement that everyone needed to move their stuff immediately caused a huge clog near the door because people were trying to get their stuff or trying to get in. Since this issue wasn't corrected in a timely manner, ACen shut down the game room for the rest of the evening. What really upset me was that the congoers were penalized with no game room when it was the con's fault that we didn't have places to store things when they placed that rule. Think of the number of people that stay in hotels that are miles away who need that bag to carry what they need for the day or think of the people that chose to commute from the city/surrounding locations just for one day and used their backpack to carry things. They didn't have a place to store things if they chose to actually go into the game room.

Youmacon didn't allow bags into their game room last year. However, they had a bag check in desk where they clipped a numbered clothespin to your bag and had a bag check in. If this were implemented, I feel like congoers would be much happier. They would have someplace to store their stuff and I feel like there would be much less complaints in this section.

Another gripe I have was the registration lines. My friend and I got to ACen at approximately 8:30AM on Friday morning and upon entering the convention center, we had NO idea what line to get into for registration. There were random snake lines going around, no line indicators at all, and upon asking many other attendees and a few staffers who also had no idea what was going on we just joined a line and hoped for the best. Luckily, the line was right. However, it took us almost three hours to get our badges and at the time, the line hadn't even gotten that long. I'm not sure why the line took forever, but when we got in line the lines for registration in the convention hall itself (in the metal, barred fenced off areas) were only halfway full and the line outside in the lobby area only contained a max of a hundred people. It seemed like the line was a constant problem throughout the day and I don't really know what can be done to fix it.

I've been to ACen for six consecutive years now. To be honest, I'm not a hundred percent sure I'd really pay to go back to ACen again. I've heard that some people don't even bother to buy badges any more and just go to hang out in the halls and talk to people because the guests, events, and other stuff ACen has provided no longer feels worth the $55 badge price. I've heard stories of multiple people splitting a badge and just trading it off when they need to get into certain events and whatnot. All I guess I can do is hope that things change for the better.

This post has been edited by Kasemei: 26 May 2011 - 01:41 PM

[TheRabbi]

Hold on just a sec.

There are no plans to ban personal bags in the Dealer's Room. Or anywhere else, except in concerts. (The video gaming room is a departmental decision by them, not by IRT. Please direct your comments on that their way.)

Please keep the thread on-topic, and keep your criticism constructive.

[Mystline]

Sorry, we're just letting you know that if you do, a large majority of us will be pissed off to high heaven.

[Kasemei]

Sorry. I thought this thread was for gripes in general, not just for IRT. I'll be sure to redirect the game room portion of my gripe there as well.

[Kokoro]

TheRabbi, on 26 May 2011 - 01:32 PM, said:

Hold on just a sec.

There are no plans to ban personal bags in the Dealer's Room. Or anywhere else, except in concerts. (The video gaming room is a departmental decision by them, not by IRT. Please direct your comments on that their way.)

Please keep the thread on-topic, and keep your criticism constructive.

So why was everyone told bags, backpacks, and purses were totally okay in concerts when they weren't?

[TheRabbi]

Mystline, on 26 May 2011 - 01:38 PM, said:

Sorry, we're just letting you know that if you do, a large majority of us will be pissed off to high heaven.

Don't worry, we got the message, loud and clear. But it would be folly for us to implement that policy.

I'm still not sure where the germ of the idea came from; no staff member has even mentioned it might be a possibility - because it's not a possibility. I'm asking you to help make my job - as a forums admin, as a manager in IRT who cares about responding to feedback and fixing the things that went wrong, and as one of the people who helps write the training for IRT - easier by not jumping on the bandwagon of speculation and reacting violently to phantom policies. I hope that's a reasonable request.

Kasemei, on 26 May 2011 - 01:42 PM, said:

Sorry. I thought this thread was for gripes in general, not just for IRT. I'll be sure to redirect the game room portion of my gripe there as well.

Whoops. This is general gripes. I just was asking for you to separate them a bit so Video Gaming doesn't gloss over them thinking they're IRT gripes. ^^

Kokoro, on 26 May 2011 - 01:42 PM, said:

So why was everyone told bags, backpacks, and purses were totally okay in concerts when they weren't?

That one was a total communication mix-up. We had signs and such, but not enough of them, and the information never filtered down to everyone.

There was internal discussion on how to make sure it does not happen again next year starting literally the day after con. Our current plan involves lots and lots of signs, confirming the policies with the Guest Relations and Main Programming departments (for concerts and dances, respectively) much earlier, and lots of reminders given to all our staff.

[Audri]

I apologize! I dont want to cause any more trouble for you guys, you got enough

On-Topic...

Other then a few things I mentioned in the Suggestion thread, you guys did do pretty well this year.

[Dark Spellmaster]

If I recall correctly there's a room that is next to the Video Game room that was being used for games. Could maybe this room be used next year for bag check? I know it seems weird, and would bum out some people, but I would think it would be easy to have that room for check. Any museum has a bag check, and won't let you take back packs let alone luggage into the museum, and I can understand the reasoning for this. These game sysems are on lone, meaning that they are someone's property. I think it's only fair for Acen to be protecting the property that's on lone, again maybe have a bag check, and if one has to carry a bag in, give them a plastic bag that the important things can be put in. This way you can carry what you need and things can be seen by the staff.

Could this work?

[Hikari189]

For anyone who had any questions or complaints about bags or anything else in the video game room the DH started a topic over in the VG forums.

You can check it out here.

[Kane]

Thanks Hikari189, you beat me to the punch.

Anyone looking to get Video Gaming's attention should come give us direct feedback here for the Video Game Room itself or here specifically for the Arcade portion; and if you are looking for the rhyme and reason behind what went on take a moment to read here where I've touched on the most common gripes against us.


We appreciate (and read!) all constructive feedback!

[Jguy]

I'm going to pull off the staff hat for a second, bear with me.

I can't find the topic right now, but it was mentioned in last year's gripe thread (not this one) that we cannot have a bag check. The reason for that is because (I think, or as little as I remember) that Anime Central's insurance cannot cover stuff like that. I think lockers were in the talk for future years, but that might have been an insurance issue as well. Like I said, just what I've read from somewhere (or what I remember). Not official or anything.

[Kokoro]

I should also mention that I wish there was a rule about gift-giving during panels. I know people want to give guests stuff, but it's kind of tiring for those who want to ask actual questions/hear the guest talk. It really sucks away valuable time. If you raise your hand to ask a QUESTION, it should be to ask a QUESTION, not to run up to give them a card saying how much you love them...

Edit: Also, I meant to ask, aren't costumes involving some sort of hate speech not allowed? I gotta say, I saw two Nazis, and I find this incredibly inappropriate. I don't care if it's from UR FAVE ANIMAY or not. It's a frigging Nazi, you guys. End of story. I really wish cons would turn these people away due to what their outfits represent and tell them to go put something appropriate on.

This post has been edited by Kokoro: 27 May 2011 - 03:56 PM