[Kane]

Post your suggestions/concerns/gripes here.

Please observe our no-flaming rule.

[Valencia Crowe]

I already said this before, but I will keep this short by suggesting something. Have tournament sign ups closed an hour before the tournament. I do not want to wait over an hour and a half for a tournament to start due to making brackets and stuff.

Edit: There was also a HUGE Pokemon group around 5-5:30pm ish in the middle of the video game room and no one did anything about it because it was a fire hazard, at least, it was to me. I did not like that.

This post has been edited by Valencia Crowe: 11 May 2009 - 10:53 PM

[ichibo]

Please don't steal people's Suave 2-in-1 Condition and Shampoo from behind the IIDX machine next year

[Kane]

@ ichibo - I'll let you know if a ransom note shows.

[Amylacetate]

Acquire television monitors that have speakers. I remember one of the Left 4 Dead games using a portable radio for sound.

[therobd]

I already posted this in the Gripes section, so I apologize if you saw this already:

One of the aspects of ACen I look forward to the most each year is the game room. I'm a huge gamer, and I always enjoy playing against people who are just as enthusiastic about fighters as I am.

Unfortunately, the game room was organized terribly this year. Tournaments not starting on time is a fact of life at conventions, and I understand that the staffers are busy. Still, the Street Fighter IV tournament started at least an hour and a half late (I don't remember the exact time it started, but it didn't get going until at least 9:30), and not only did the King of Fighters: Maximum Impact Regulation A tournament start late, but no attempts were made to even start the game up and get the game running on a TV an hour after it was supposed to start (I left at that point). No one came over to notify us of any delays for an official ACen tournament with a time that was posted months ago.

For most of the day on Friday and Saturday, it seemed like the consoles were being treated as an afterthought. At 1 PM on Saturday, the room was really starting to fill up, and literally fewer than half the TVs had anything on them. The two TVs playing Brawl only had two controllers attached each. For a game like Brawl that is really popular, there is no reason not to have 4 controllers on them at all times unless the resources are just that limited.

I've always liked the variety of different games both obscure and popular that typically run at ACen. I talked a friend of mine from Michigan to drive down to ACen because of a YouTube video of the game room that he saw from last year. Staples of anime conventions like Guilty Gear, CvS2, and KoF had very little representation, and they could have been running on several of those TVs. I saw systems stockpiled behind the gaming desk that weren't in use. They could have been connected to the TVs playing games.

It's possible that there wasn't enough staff or donations. If it was the latter, I was partially at fault, because I didn't think that PS2s would be in short supply. I did donate my 360 to the convention for the weekend, and I was pleased to see that it was being used for Street Fighter IV. I do encourage whoever is running the game room to find a better solution for securing the 360s and the PS3s. While I was watching a match, a 360 red-ringed from overheating in the tupperware container it was stored in.

Please fix this for next year. I was excited to see so many HDTVs in the same area, but my excitement quickly turned to disappointment when I saw that my only options were SFIV, Brawl, Halo, Left 4 Dead, and about 9 blank TVs out of 17 or so total TVs. If donations were the problem, I will be more than glad to do more next year.

According to the results in the Gaming section, the King of Fighters tournament didn't happen at all, meaning the 15 of us or so who were waiting for at least an hour and a half were just wasting our time. I understand that tournaments do start late, but for a tournament to be announced months in advance and not even take place is rude to the people who showed up. I went to the gaming front desk to ask them about it after a half-hour and was told that it would start "soon."

If there wasn't a copy of the game or if the staff is too busy, please, at least let us know within an hour. I left because I didn't want to spend the rest of my Friday night waiting around.

This post has been edited by therobd: 12 May 2009 - 06:00 AM

[zerovelocity]

To be honest I think the game room was ran as good as it could be this year. It was obvious that alot of things went wrong and I think everyone did the best they could in that situation. Although some of the tournament stuff could have been handled better, which leaves me very interested in seeing what this new system you've cooked up for next year entails.

[Dark Stranger]

Well I didn't like how they didn't have the sign up sheets til about 12 or 1pm. Just cuts down on setting up matches ya know? And of course the rockband things which I've already talked about. Also I did notice not all the tvs were being used like they were last year. It did seem that there were less staff for the video games.

[zerovelocity]

Dark Stranger, on May 12 2009, 12:08 PM, said:

Well I didn't like how they didn't have the sign up sheets til about 12 or 1pm. Just cuts down on setting up matches ya know? And of course the rockband things which I've already talked about. Also I did notice not all the tvs were being used like they were last year. It did seem that there were less staff for the video games.

Sign up sheets were one of the things that probably could have been handled a bit smoother. As for the TV's, seems like the problem arose from a lot of the TV's you saw set up being unusable due to missing power cords, a lack of proper inputs, or a number of other possible problems.

[Sakamura]

ichibo, on May 12 2009, 05:58 AM, said:

Please don't steal people's Suave 2-in-1 Condition and Shampoo from behind the IIDX machine next year

I still have your champoo, IM me your address.

I found it in front of the IIDX machine since i saw it when I put down my stuff to play. Now why would someone put shampoo next to an arcade machine unless they left it by accident?

[Kane]

I've been reading through every post in the gripe forums and here in the VG forums. If you've posted your opinion, I've read it.

Alot of the criticism is being aimed at the tv's (which happens every year), and at the Tournament system. As I've written already, we have a brand new tourny system that has the potential to obliterate every negative aspect of the old one we've used in prior years. The tv issue, as I wrote, is something that comes up every year. It happened to be worse this year because of how many cords/converter plugs were missing. I cannot promise we will have different tv's in 2010, but I can say that we will have extras of the correct cords/converter plugs for whatever tv's we do get.

[Kankokujin]

Is it just me or was there less variety of arcade machines this year? Can I suggest bringing the rail shooters (like Time Crisis) back?

Also, there's a great game at Gameworks called 2Spicy. It's a rail shooter that allows two players to battle each other. Would it be possible to bring that over as well?

This post has been edited by Kankokujin: 12 May 2009 - 08:44 PM

[YeehawMcKickass]

I want to address a part of a post that was made in the Tournament results thread, and Kankokujin's post since they're similar. Here's the quote from the other thread:

Valencia Crowe, on May 11 2009, 08:12 PM, said:

I was disappointed with what arcade machines were there. There were a lot more last year and there seemed to only be very few this year. I was also sad that there was no para para machine. I hope I am not disappointed next year.

The reason for the fewer arcade games this year is because Nickel City was basically told to go away and never bring their barely (if at all) functional machines and coin changers ever again. Their DDR for 2008 was god awful, their MvC2 had all sorts of weird rigged wiring, numerous back panels of their machines didn't even close, and the changer they brought had a major flaw that made it just stop working after a certain, VERY LOW, threshold.

So yes, there were fewer games resulting in a smaller variety. The upside to this is that there was space for people to stop and watch others playing a game, and the room wasn't nearly as hot. There were also a lot of people who thought 2008 had far too many games. It was considerably harder to move around in the game room, and much hotter in there last year.

Getting arcade stuff for a convention isn't as simple as calling one person to cover every possible game that might be of interest to even a few people. This year saw five different private owners bring machines and one private owner supply a temporary upgrade.

DarkLink: ITG
Me: Pump NXA
Peter: Pop'n, DDR, Big Changer
Doug F: Four Slot Neo Geo stand up
Phorrest: Everything else.
Ho: IIDX Gold kit into Phorrest's machine.

Phorrest said in the tournament thread he had four more games that went down before his ill-fated trip (not including the candy cabinet that had the monitor go out during that trip). I'm not sure if this was the entire reason, but it seemed like Doug F only brought his neo geo upright to sell it off. DarkLink has an openITG pump cabinet, but didn't want to move it out, leaving the ITG as his main option. Peter was limited in transit space due to having a booth in the dealers room. I ONLY have the Pump cabinet I provided (though I'd like to get something else for next year that isn't Bemani, I generally don't like Konami games anymore).

Initial planning for getting JUST my Pump started WAY back in October of last year. I have a string of nearly 30 emails between myself and Kane simply regarding movement of the machine, the legalities, and any planning that needed to be dealt with. I also have a small string of email conversations between myself, Kane, and Michael Yum of PM Studios in regards to our (obviously unsuccessful) attempt to get Dj Max Technika for this year. And for the record, they just didn't have any more machines to send our way. They were ready to go balls to the wall to promote the game.

Long story short, it's incredibly time consuming for staff to even hunt down people willing to donate console equipment, much less the eight or so months it takes to secure arcade games. Staff and vendors will try to bring good stuff, but there are just games that are extremely rare that people simply don't have.

Yes Valencia Crowe, I'm talking about Para Para and the fact that nobody easily locatable (that isn't Nickel City) OWNS the arcade cabinet much less wants to move it around. If you can tip the staff off to someone who owns one AND is willing to bring it, I'm sure they'll try facilitate something. And don't asking me to go buy one, I barely have space for my Pump machine.


As for Feedback, I'd like to direct something to Phorrest. I realize you're busy (especially after that trip in from hell you had) and you've got a lot of cabinets to deal with, but your music games and uprights all looked like they needed some extra TLC. I couldn't exactly tell if it was the picture or the monitor, but your DM's screen was shaking during play. Just something to consider before next year.

This post has been edited by YeehawMcKickass: 12 May 2009 - 09:19 PM

[Valencia Crowe]

YeehawMcKickass, on May 12 2009, 10:18 PM, said:

Yes Valencia Crowe, I'm talking about Para Para and the fact that nobody easily locatable (that isn't Nickel City) OWNS the arcade cabinet much less wants to move it around. If you can tip the staff off to someone who owns one AND is willing to bring it, I'm sure they'll try facilitate something. And don't asking me to go buy one, I barely have space for my Pump machine.

While, I now understand why there were so few arcade machines, I do not like your attitude with what I have quoted. You assuming that I am going to ask you to buy one is really rude. I do not appreciate your attitude. I am not being rude to you so I have no clue why you are being rude to me. I was just asking why there were so few arcade games this year and here you are, giving me an attitude. You are being very unprofessional with the attitude you are giving me.

Edit: If I knew of a place that had one, I would tell you. I am not trying to be all like, "You guys suck for not having a Para Para Machine!" I was just hoping for one. Sorry I said something.

This post has been edited by Valencia Crowe: 12 May 2009 - 09:28 PM

[Kankokujin]

YeehawMcKickass, on May 12 2009, 10:18 PM, said:

The reason for the fewer arcade games this year is because Nickel City was basically told to go away and never bring their barely (if at all) functional machines and coin changers ever again. Their DDR for 2008 was god awful, their MvC2 had all sorts of weird rigged wiring, numerous back panels of their machines didn't even close, and the changer they brought had a major flaw that made it just stop working after a certain, VERY LOW, threshold.

Yea. That makes a lot of sense. I hate it when arcade facilities don't bother to regularly maintain their own equipment. That could explain why they've shrunk down to a mere shadow of itself and went from Super Just Games to Nickel City many years ago. Or perhaps it's just lack of demand for arcade games.

[Anon]

If this YeeHaw person liked true games, they would have noticed the gems in the arcade and not complain.

I mean, I wish they had Mars Matrix again, but you don't see me crying about it.

[DemonWolf]

I'd like to see more variety brought back and the Para Para Paradise machine to make a come back. I miss it ;_;

[YeehawMcKickass]

Valencia Crowe, on May 12 2009, 10:26 PM, said:

While, I now understand why there were so few arcade machines, I do not like your attitude with what I have quoted. You assuming that I am going to ask you to buy one is really rude. I do not appreciate your attitude. I am not being rude to you so I have no clue why you are being rude to me. I was just asking why there were so few arcade games this year and here you are, giving me an attitude. You are being very unprofessional with the attitude you are giving me.

Edit: If I knew of a place that had one, I would tell you. I am not trying to be all like, "You guys suck for not having a Para Para Machine!" I was just hoping for one. Sorry I said something.

I've had multiple people ask me to drop multiple thousands of dollars on niche arcade games like PPP before. It's a simple head them off at the pass maneuver.

While you may not have been trying to come off as "You guys suck for not having para para," posting about it not being there repeatedly in every thread you can makes it come off that way.

Belive me, if I were trying to give you attitude, I would have sent you a PM. Also, I never claimed I was a professional, or a member of ACEN staff.

Kankoukujin: It's a little bit of both. I'm a bit crazy when it comes to upkeep of my pump machine and it infuriates me to no end when I walk into a location and none of the games are working beyond taking money. Coin-op has fallen off since the PS1/N64/Saturn generation was capable of producing arcade perfect or better than arcade perfect games, and most companies focus on making ticket games designed to rip people off. You don't see many non-redemption arcade games any more.

Anon: What in particular am I complaining about? And what true games are you referring to? I saw a lot of games down there that were perfectly fine games, but not my particular preference. As an example, Peter's DDR machine was pretty much flawless, yet I only played one song on it because I've fallen out of favor with the game since 2003.

If you're referring to my public feedback towards Phorrest, that simply has to do with some upkeep things I noticed that he'll likely need to resolve before next years convention.

[Anon]

Eh... nevermind. All I'm saying is they had rhythm games, fighting games, puzzle games, shoot-em-ups... Hell, all they needed was the Virtual-On machine again and it would have been perfect. I guess I'm just perplexed because the arcade pretty much had something for everyone. (well, everyone who likes arcade games, anyway) I guess I lucked out because I'm a shoot-em-up fan and they had Radiant Silvergun and Batrider... arguably two of the greatest shooters of all time. I must have spent at least 5 hours total with those machines alone. (GOD, I wish Batrider was ported to the Saturn or something...)

I mean... yeah, no Para Para. Big deal. I was slightly disappointed, but... MVC2. Radiant. Batrider. the SNK variety pack. Puzzle Fighter. Drummania. For any avid arcadegoer, these are luxuries you don't find near your place of residence unless you're extremely lucky... or playing the compatible ones on Mame. But... nothing... NOTHING beats playing the actual arcade cabs.

I just had fun filling the high score boards in Radiant and Batrider with "LOL" for my initials...

...As for constructive criticism: Please, pleeeease bring back Mars Matrix! *begs* Also, the owner of most of these games said he had the Ibara PCB? You have my guarantee to spend at least $50 on that cab ALONE if you can host it next year. I LOVE Ibara. It is pure CRACK in my shmup-addict veins.

This post has been edited by Anon: 12 May 2009 - 10:28 PM

[daegan]

I think more needs to be done to have correct headers or at least signs on the machines saying what is on them. Most of my group was like "uh the game room sucks this year" because they didn't see on first glance that, say, Puzzle Fighter was in there.

I saw how rad it was though even though the only thing I usually play is Puzzle Fighter. Wanted to do the SF tourney but didn't want to spend too much time down there XD

[Anon]

daegan, on May 12 2009, 11:48 PM, said:

I think more needs to be done to have correct headers or at least signs on the machines saying what is on them. Most of my group was like "uh the game room sucks this year" because they didn't see on first glance that, say, Puzzle Fighter was in there.

I saw how rad it was though even though the only thing I usually play is Puzzle Fighter. Wanted to do the SF tourney but didn't want to spend too much time down there XD

I talked to the guy who owns the machines. IIRC he said the cabinets are American and only fit American headers. Which is why Puzzle Fighter was in a Darkstalkers cab, Batrider was in a Raiden II cab, and Radiant was in a generic Namco cab.

My only real suggestion, outside of bringing back a few favorites: Would it be at all possible to make your own headers? Perhaps print them out? Sure, they'd look a little bit unprofessional but the lack of confusion would be a more than favorable trade-off.

[shinjig]

only thing I wasn't sure on was if we could bring our own TVs. Since there were plenty of TVs on but not being used. Though I should have just asked Nappy what the situation was since he was down there everytime I went there and browsed around (but didn't play anything).

Nappy also sorry for the guy that I met there late saturday night. Was the drunk guy asking to use the mega phone, then if he can hold it and then if he can see it. I ran out of there after that. But it was still slightly embarressing.

Good job to placers, and there was a lot more room this year. Be it because of less arcade machines or half the TVs weren't being used but it was less crowded and thus less stinky and less humid in there. so thumbs up for that.

Shout outs to the people I saw there/meet
Webster
dark kakashi
xombie
chronosaber :I see you post and I've seen you before but didn't realize that was actually you though lol
frankie
syxx
selvin
nappy

hope things run as well next year

[danomighty]

The game room was pretty damn tight but not enough set ups of SF games and the TVs were laggy.

[june.h]

Don't mean to butt in, but...

Quote

The reason for the fewer arcade games this year is because Nickel City was basically told to go away and never bring their barely (if at all) functional machines and coin changers ever again. Their DDR for 2008 was god awful, their MvC2 had all sorts of weird rigged wiring, numerous back panels of their machines didn't even close, and the changer they brought had a major flaw that made it just stop working after a certain, VERY LOW, threshold.

They were never told to go away. I had suggested it would be difficult to use Nickel City again with the sore lack of manpower and updated games (but honestly, who in Chicago really has updated games? At least they have Tekken 6), however it was up to the DH's discretion, and he did not use them. Nickel City has always been very generous to ACen, however transporting their machines were a logistical nightmare and that's what made some of the staff hesitant to bring them back. There's absolutely no bad blood between Nickel City and ACen.

Their DDR was in bad shape from 06-08, however they have since fixed it (went there a month ago with a skeptic friend and we were both SDG'ing/AAA'ing heavy songs like crazy). Their MvC2 was in that Showcase temporarily for tournament use, which probably explains the weird rigging (although I don't recall opening it? And I've seen much stranger set-ups)...although it wasn't working for part of Friday last year because we mixed up the paneling. And finally, the machines' back panels were left open because after the machines were set up, we forgot to lock them. Since we didn't have the key, we ended up taping them shut. Yeah, bad security.

The coin changer on the other hand sucked.

[Syxx]

King of Fighters tournament didn't happen this year I assume there was another trophy for that game left afterwards. That is my only complaint. Well, I wanted to win at least one con tournament in my life and I was able to do that but I was still sad to see KOF not happen.

[YeehawMcKickass]

BakaOrochi, on May 13 2009, 09:30 AM, said:

snipped because it's big

The coin changer on the other hand sucked.

I don't know the specifics of Kane's decisions regarding NC beyond being displeased with machine quality last year. While I don't doubt there's no bad blood at all, it's still an indictment on overall machine quality. It's good their DDR's fixed up again, but it spent two years too long being a pile of pad miss crap.

And yeah, eff that changer.

[The Commodore]

therobd, on May 12 2009, 06:54 AM, said:

Unfortunately, the game room was organized terribly this year. Tournaments not starting on time is a fact of life at conventions, and I understand that the staffers are busy. Still, the Street Fighter IV tournament started at least an hour and a half late (I don't remember the exact time it started, but it didn't get going until at least 9:30), and not only did the King of Fighters: Maximum Impact Regulation A tournament start late, but no attempts were made to even start the game up and get the game running on a TV an hour after it was supposed to start (I left at that point). No one came over to notify us of any delays for an official ACen tournament with a time that was posted months ago.

The same thing happened with the Call of Duty 4 tournament. I was really looking forward to playing in it, but when my friend and I asked when it would be starting since it was after 6 and we had not yet heard anything, we were basically told that it probably wasn't going to due to lack of copies of the game (which we would have gladly brought along and donated had we known copies were needed). So after hanging around the game room for another hour or so, we left, extremely disappointed, only to find out here on the forums that it DID in fact happen, only God knows when. I am still waiting to hear when it started and why it was so late, I really am genuinely curious.

That was my only big complaint about gaming. Well that and having to pay for machines, since I am used to freeplay on games at Youmacon, but I understand that some of those games were more expensive to rent out and such, so I know that won't change. xD Oh, would have liked to see Initial D there as well. But not a big loss. : )

This post has been edited by The Commodore: 13 May 2009 - 02:07 PM

[Anon]

...so I take it I'm the ONLY one here who fully appreciated the game room this year? :/

[Sakamura]

Anon, on May 13 2009, 09:12 PM, said:

...so I take it I'm the ONLY one here who fully appreciated the game room this year? :/

No.

[Anon]

Sakamura, on May 13 2009, 04:11 PM, said:

No.

I'd hope not. D: The guys running the game room were GREAT this year. Every time the Radiant Silvergun machine got jammed (curse those State Quarters), they'd be on it in a heartbeat, stopping at nothing to repair it. Seriously, bless them. They were amazing.

This post has been edited by Anon: 13 May 2009 - 04:13 PM