[ATICE]

Lina, on 29 April 2012 - 10:17 PM, said:

Another gripe I had was IRT checking badges when LEAVING the Exhibit Hall. Why the heck did they need to check our badges when leaving? We had them when we came in, we are more than likely to have them when we leave. All it did was cause congestion.

Probably an excuse for them to work, because there was one on each side... and the one that was pretty much always sitting down on the chair looked like they had nothing to do. lol.

[HarajukuGirl]

1. Guests: Changing their times and Canceling it. I don't have a smartphone at all so it makes it difficult for me to know if there are cancellations or changes. Also for popular guests, you should have them have 2hr sessions cause the only one that had a 2hr session was vic. Alot of them were late and didn't start on time like for Imeraut, they were suppose to start at 11am but they didn't start at that time cause they were waiting for their Cd's to be delivered or if someone could find it. Alot of Con-goers didn't have anything to signed cause they wanted the cd.

2. Autographs: There were alot of con-goers that had more then 2 things signed. Some had 3 and some had 4. If they are going to have more then 2 things signed, they need have their 2 things signed then get back in line and signed the rest. I don't know if it was the guest handlers job or the Irt job but they just let them have more then 2 things signed which took more time. Also taking pictures took alot of time cause everybody wanted to take a picture and there was some guests that didn't allow photographs cause they wanted to make sure everybody got their autograph.

3. Lines: They had one huge line for all autographs but if your way in the back how are you suppose to hear if they are lining up for that one particular guest that you wanted to get your stuff signed. Irt were walking back and forth. My friend and I were asking questions but its like they didn't know anything so we had to ask someone else. Also some of the autograph signing started at 10:15am, that is not enough time if the Dealer's room opens at 10am cause you gotta run all the way in the back and that's a long way. When I got there its like the line for all autographs already had 60 people in line. I was shocked how fast they can get there all they way in the back. You gotta give the con-goer's more time to line up.

Sum it up, it was an okay experience. It wasn't great. You got Fire Alarms going off and also on Sunday, there really isn't alot of people lining up so they could have taken some of the poles down. I wasted my time going in a zigzag motion till I got up to registration to pre-reg for next year then I had to fill out another one when I got up there. I already filled one out when the staff member gave me one to fill out. It said 2013 on there. I hope next year Acen is alot more better than this year.

[Gabichox]

Niroz51, on 30 April 2012 - 01:23 AM, said:

The line rule was totally NOT enforced whatsoever! Instead people started what they called a 'pre-line' at 4-something when we were 'allowed' to line up for the LM.C concert at 7:00. I talked to one women who told me about the rule and assured me it was being enforced this year. Already having heard about the inefficiency of lines I got anxious and checked the line to find it was already super long at 5:00. I went up to the IRT members to ask what the heck was going on (Including the women who initially reassured me of the line rule) and they advised me to disregard the 'pre-line' and that since it wasn't a real line at 7:59 (show got pushed back to 8)if I decided to just walk to the front of all of them to get into the actual line there was nothing they could do about it. This news got around fast and thus two lines formed on either side of the walkway. This resulted in death glares and such. However when it was time to officially line up IRT named Paladin went against what the other IRT members intended when people in the pre-line complained and without announcing it the line up, sneakily tried to lead it into the 'actual' line. Luckily my friend saw them whispering and we were quick on the draw.

Don't get me wrong, a part of guilty me felt super bad for being so cut-throat but this system kind of set the grounds for that. It doesn't solve the problem if anything it just creates tension between the people lining up. I know the people in the pre-line were waiting a long time but myself and all the others in the opposite line felt equally as wronged simply because we were doing what we were supposed to and in the end got screwed for following the rules because others disregarded them or they weren't enforced.

This. This so MUCH. The line for the LM.C concert was sneaky. Very sneaky.
I wanted to follow the rules but I was worried that people would be "lining up since 1am" like a lot of the fangirls threatened they would. I got to the area at around 5 and saw a huge mass of people in a "preline". Needless to say, I was irked. I knew it would happen. I knew people wouldn't be able to hold back on lining up earlier than the 1hour limit but what really irked me was what happened next.

I ended up hanging out with a bunch of people on the opposite side of the huge preline. [possibly where you were Niroz] We were closer to where the official line was supposed to start. This resulted in death glares from girls in the other line. They eventually went and complained over and over to one IRT woman with short hair who seemed very friendly with them [too friendly, in fact]. Guess who the IRT yelled at? US. That was absolutely disgusting. Showing favoritism to people that weren't even following the rules. If you are going to yell at people for lining up earlier than supposed to, you should yell at EVERYONE equally.
At that point, I completely shut down and disregarded anything they said to me. It was absolutely ridiculous that the woman then went and tried to move the group of people who complained outside without telling everyone. She seriously whispered and told those people first before announcing it to everyone. If I hadn't been watching them like a hawk, I would've ended up in the back of the line. I was extremely pissed and ready to argue with any IRT that yelled at me for doing the same thing they were letting other people get away with. It's not high school guys. You can't just constantly yell at a group of people for doing the same thing as another group of people you were joking around with.

That being said, there was 1 IRT member in that fray of stupid that was completely cool. She let us stay where we were and was very sweet. I wish I could remember her name. All I can say is there need to be more of her and less of the ones that showed favoritism.

Other than that, I had a lot of fun at the LM.C concert and the signings/Q&A. I was disappointed that fans got up and WALKED OUT of the Q&A while Maya and Aiji were still answering questions. I understand, you want to get to the signing. Just... that was ridiculously rude. Having the concert pushed back was stupid as well but I was glad it wasn't cancelled. I would like a clear reason as to WHY it was pushed back though.

Also... How did that drunk pikachu guy end up on stage? Were there no IRT stationed backstage watching?


Edit; Forgot to add.
This will probably make me seem very egotistical but... it'd be nice if people respected who the photoshoot leaders were. I heard many photoshoots got jacked by others and in my case, I found that rude. Some of us put in work to get our photoshoots at good times and have to deal with schedule changes as well as ridiculous "this show is inappropriate" rules.
I also had to rush the 11pm Madoka photoshoot because the one before us went overtime. I thought time keepers were supposed to be present? I didn't want to be rude and the guy running the other one was too pushy about giving him more time so I had to agree. It was because of that that I couldn't do a lot of the shots I wanted to get in. I sincerely apologize to the people at that photoshoot for such bad organizing on my part. :/

This post has been edited by Gabichox: 30 April 2012 - 03:53 PM

[Kent]

I wish some people saw this in the Program Guide.

I know this comes up every year and it is pretty much impossible to enforce unless IRT goes around smelling people to see if they are clean. Thats not going to happen but anyways thanks for putting in a reminder in the guide book thats pretty much all you can do.

[SprinklePuff]

Here are my thoughts on this year. First of all, let me start with some positives even though this is the gripe thread:

Positives for IRT Staff

In general I have more gripes than positives in regards to IRT, but I just wanted to say that someone needs to give "Amazon" one million dollars. She was incredible. Many people around me in line referred to her as "the competent IRT girl." She was knowledgable, when she didn't know something she made an effort to find the information, and she enforced the rules. Seriously, give this girl an award. Another great IRT member was, I believe, "Rice" or "Rice Cooker?" I don't recall - he was missing his name tag. But on Sunday, when a huge line started forming at around 8:00am to get into the dealer's room because Travis was signing at 10, he was forcing people who for some reason thought that GIANT line magically didn't apply to them to stop hovering as close as possible to the dealer's room entrance and get in the back of the line where they belonged. Amazon later showed up to help as well. THANK YOU. There was another older IRT member who was great, but sadly, I don't remember his name.

Negatives for CON GOERS

1. The rules apply to you. Do you see that giant line right over there? Yeah, sadly, that line also applies to you. You can't just choose to ignore it and try to push your way to the front once the room opens. Stop getting mad when the people in line POLITELY tell you that you need to get in the back of the line. Seriously, who do you think you are? Lose the attitude.

2. Dear God, PLEASE SHOWER. You're either staying at a house/apartment or a hotel room, and I highly doubt you don't have access to a shower or running water. Do you have any idea how badly some of you smelled? A guy at the LM.C concert who sat down next to me smelled so strongly that I thought someone had vomited near my chair. I got up and moved when I realized it was him. Guys, seriously, it takes 5 minutes to shower. You don't necessarily even have to wash your hair if you're wearing a wig. And the hotels provide free soap 99.9% of the time.

3. Please stop asking dumb questions at panels. I know that sounds mean, but I don't know how else to phrase it. You know how Travis and Vic feel about Ed x Roy. Don't ask. They don't secretly read yaoi fanfiction in the dead of the night, trust me. Stop asking Vic to say the miniskirt line. Stop asking Travis to say the dog/miniskirt speech. These guys are not monkeys who perform on command, and they get asked these questions MULTIPLE TIMES throughout the day. It is so tiring, and you can tell they don't appreciate it. Also, if you raise your hand and what comes out of your mouth wouldn't end in a question mark when written down, it's not a question. Don't say it. Tell Vic you love him later. And don't ask for autographs during panels - that's not the proper time for signatures, and it's awful selfish when there are over 300 other people in the room. They have autograph sessions for that. Ugh... I mean, I know this sounds mean, but I was getting so frustrated during some of these panels, like the FMA one on Sunday.

4. There is no need to be running around in the hotel halls at 3am shouting expletives and whooping/cheering. There are people in the hotel rooms who do want to sleep. Yes, have fun, but don't be an idiot.

5. Don't just throw your garbage all over the place. I had to step over so many pizza boxes on Sunday morning just laying around in the halls that it was insane.

6. Don't ask VAs to record messages for you during autograph sessions. If you spend 5 minutes with a VA, you're the reason why other people aren't getting autographs. Have them sign 1-2 things (while they're signing say what you wanted to tell them - you love them, they inspired you to study acting, whatever), have a quick photo taken with them, and boom. You're done, move on. Maybe it should be a rule that only autographs and photos are allowed, IRT?

IRT/Staff Gripes

1. Does anyone know who this staff member is: a heavyset girl with brown hair (shorter, if I recall) wearing two blond Sailor Moon pigtails just over her natural hair? This girl was RIDICULOUS. During the last 10-15 minutes or so of one of Travis's panels (the later one on Saturday, I believe) she kept partially opening the door while talking to someone outside the room. There was a baby crying just outside the door, and a line had formed with people who were talking pretty loudly. Those of us in the last 4-5 rows in the room could NOT hear Travis talking. People were furious. They kept hissing at this girl to SHUT the DOOR, and she refused. She walked in and out a few times, and just kept opening that dang door. I dunno if she had a panel in the room right after Travis and was getting impatient, but it was unacceptable. Someone finally said, "could you please close the door?" pretty loudly, and she just gave her a blank stare, turned away, and proceeded to hold the door open while she stuck her head outside to chat, I presume. People were calling her names I won't repeat here...

2. Please buy some decent megaphones. Having them simply shout at a line of 100+ people does not work. I rarely could hear anything IRT announced while we were in lines for things like the LM.C concert. Some IRT members, like Amazon, made their announcement multiple times while moving down the line because of this, but most didn't. Megaphones aren't that expensive. You need them for a con of this size.

3. The 30-minute rule was once again not enforced. At all. People lined up for events 3-4 hours in advance. GET RID OF THIS RULE. You're misleading people.

4. Many IRT knew nothing and made no effort to get the answers. We kept running into IRT who would just shrug and say they don't have access to that info when asked a question. So frustrating. They just didn't care. I swear, some IRT members had absolutely no idea what was going on around them. At times I felt like they made up rules/info on the spot.

5. The autograph lines. Oh my God, the autograph lines. What did you guys DO? Seriously, this was one of the worst situations I've ever seen at a convention. The lines were so bad this year I can't even...I don't even know what to say. First of all, the autograph schedule was awful - some of the fashion guests didn't even have sessions. Last year, many autograph sessions had multiple (3-5) VAs so it was easier to get your autographs quickly, all at once. Last year I was able to get all of the autographs I wanted and attend many panels. Very little fuss. This year, despite spending the majority of the convention (probably well over 10 hours) in autograph lines, I was still unable to get all of the autographs I wanted (I did NOT want autographs from every single guest) and I barely attended ANY panels. I had time for almost nothing else. The method of having one giant general line that you would later split was awful. We were getting in people's way and blocking areas in the vendor's room, and everyone seemed confused. I stopped counting how many people came up to me or someone near me to ask, "what line is this?" "What do you mean this is a GENERAL autograph line? Whose autograph is it for?" Etc.

6. The scheduling. I planned out my weekend, knowing there might be SOME inevitable changes to the schedule when we arrived Friday. Yeah, turns out almost everything I had planned had been changed. What in the world happened? And why were there barely any autograph signings on Friday, usually the quietest (and therefore best) day for getting autographs? I understand Travis's flight was delayed, but what about the other guests? Most of them appeared to have time for autographs on Friday... Also, not everyone owns a Smartphone. So many IRT expected everyone to. It's like...okay, you know they're expensive, right? You know the economy sucks right now, right? A fancy phone is the last thing on my list of items I need at the moment.

7. The LM.C concert situation. I don't understand what in the world happened. The entire situation was so horrendous. If VGO was running that late, their concert should have been canceled or shortened. They pushed back everything else by 3+ hours, which is not acceptable. We had to stand outside in the cold for LM.C for so freaking long. People require food, water, and bathroom breaks, so lines this long are really difficult. It's not like we could just leave the line, as IRT was kind enough to remind us of this fact a few times. They rarely showed up with those bathroom break cards.

8. IRT not giving us updates. If I'm standing in line for 3+ hours, I want some updates as to what the situation is. Like during the LM.C line. IRT rarely gave us updates as to what was happening, when we might get in, etc. It was so frustrating to sit there with absolutely no info and no idea as to what was happening. Updates every 35-40 minutes are really needed.

9. The AP tea party situation. Need I say more? You guys really dropped the ball on that one.

10. Don't schedule a signing at 10am ever again, please. And if you do, you NEED to let people into the vendor's room early to line up. We REALLY badgered IRT to do something for those of us who ligned up at 7-8am for Travis, but we weren't helped at all. IRT basically told us we were SOL. We were initially kicked out of the entrance by that little restaurant, as they said we would be a fire hazard (even though on Saturday morning there were probably 50+ people crowded around the door waiting to get in). So we went to the other entrance, assured that they wouldn't allow people to line up at the other one (which we had wanted because it was a bit closer to the autograph rooms). Of course, 9:30 rolls around and behold! We can see people lining up at the other door from where we are. When we asked IRT what was up, we were simply told they would be kicked out if Rosemont police showed up. Riiiight. IF they show up? Well, obviously they didn't. When we asked how IRT was going to stop the stampede for Travis's line, we were assured running was against the rules and they would stop it. Riiiiight. Guess what happened when the dealer's room opened up? People SPRINTED for Travis's line. I mean all out sprinted. Those who had been at the front of our line waiting since 7am were nowhere near the front of the line for his autograph once we got to the area, because people from the other door had gotten there quicker, even though they hadn't been waiting as long. People from that other line also told us that some of the people who showed up at, like, 9:45am had just pushed their way to the front of their line. Totally ridiculous. When we mentioned to IRT how people had run, we just got a "yeah, I saw that" comment and a shrug. Well, I guess IRT sure showed them.

Other Gripes

The LM.C photograph/autograph situation. We were initially told by the girls at LM.C's booth that LM.C would ONLY sign the CD's they had for sale, PERIOD. NOTHING ELSE. I had bought an expensive, official LM.C poster from Japan that I wanted signed. Acen staff should really get these autograph rules ahead of time, posted online, so that people know not to buy other items beforehand. In any case, disappointed, I decided to go with a t-shirt for a photo. We were told we would be able to take the photo on our own cameras. Great! Well, fast-forward to the day of the autographs/photos. Turns out you can't take the photo - they would be taking a poloroid for you. Oh, well...okay? Poloroids are fine, I guess. Then we were told it was a super cool "Japanese poloroid." Hmmm, what's that? Well, I'll tell you what it is. It's a 3" or so photo that's not very crisp. When I walked out I was SO disappointed. $35 for a teeny tiny photo (I didn't really want the shirt). Plus, I saw people walking out of the signing holding non-CD items, like an LM.C book, that I assume they got autographed. WHAT?! Not only that, but the girls at the LM.C booth told us a purchase GUARANTEED an autograph and/or photo, yet IRT stressed that we were guaranteed nothing, and if you had bought both a CD and shirt, you might not get both, since you had to get in the CD line and then get in the back of the shirt line. I felt this was really dishonest on the part of the girls selling LM.C merch.

Not to mention, they were guarding those guys like they were the presidents of the United States. It was really odd. Other fans were commenting on it. Did they think someone was going to try to assasinate them? It just felt a little uncomfortable.


If I think of any more gripes, I'll post them. All in all, I was not very pleased this year, to be honest. When it costs around $500 for a 3-day vacation at this event, I expect better, otherwise I won't attend in the future.

This post has been edited by SprinklePuff: 30 April 2012 - 03:56 PM

[Mari_Queen_of_Fools]

Kent, on 30 April 2012 - 03:46 PM, said:

I wish some people saw this in the Program Guide.

I know this comes up every year and it is pretty much impossible to enforce unless IRT goes around smelling people to see if they are clean. Thats not going to happen but anyways thanks for putting in a reminder in the guide book thats pretty much all you can do.

I don't know why, but it felt like this was the smelliest year out of the 6 I've been attending. I believe it was Saturday afternoon, we had changed out of our costumes and went back to the dealers room and when we entered the lobby of the convention center, it just wreaked of B.O. I know that there isn't anything that ACen itself can do about that, but man... con-funk at it's worst this year.

[Gabichox]

Catmato, on 30 April 2012 - 02:10 PM, said:

I dressed as a character from Katawa Shoujo, and was looking for a cosplay meetup for it. Since it's still fairly new (and arguably unrelated) there was no meetup for KS specifically, but after a search of the forums, I discovered it was being lumped in the the H-Anime/Games shoot. I don't really understand why it was combined with that shoot.

On Saturday night, the Madoka cosplay shoot in the dome ran over its time limit (11:00pm - 11:30pm). The H-Anime/Game shoot that was supposed to be after it (11:30pm - 12:00am) simply never happened. When the Madoka crowd cleared out around 11:40, there was no apparent staff member to try to organize anything like the other shoots I saw. After everyone milling about for a while, the Catherine/Persona shoot eventually started a few minutes early. I only met one other cosplayer there from KS who also had to search the forums to determine when the meetup was supposed to happen.

I guess I'm just asking for a little more transparency on "grouped" events like this, and to stick to the provided schedules.

I was the leader for the Madoka photoshoot and I apologize for going over our limit. I had to rush ours because the one before us [Panty and Stocking I think] went well over their time limit. Apparently the one before them [Bioshock?] went over as well.
We really do need time keepers there for the shoots. I was told there was going to be but there were none and it irked me. It could've prevented the first two going over and then everything would've been on schedule.


Just so you know though... As leaders of the photoshoots we don't have a lot of authority. We can ask people to clear out but there is no guarantee that they will listen.

[Ohki]

I have one complaint for IRT. This is one that was a minor issue this year, but it's been a recurring thing that I'm kind of sick of:

IRT members, if an attendee asks you a question and you aren't 100% sure what the answer is, please please please do not answer this person as if your response is 100% certain. For instance phrase your response as "I think [answer here], but I'm not entirely sure" instead of "Oh, it's [answer here]" stated as a definite. While two of my friends and I were in line for the rave after all of that hectic madness with the fire alarm (which I feel was handled very well overall, btw!), we'd been waiting a while and someone in the line ahead of us stopped an IRT member and asked her how much longer it'd be before the Soap Bubble would start. Her reply was "oh, at least another hour" worded as if this was certain. My friends decided that was too long and bailed...and then it started 15-20 minutes later. That IRT member really should've made it clear that she didn't know for sure. I mean, I understand she was probably frazzled thanks to the previous fire alarm shenanigans, but I bring this up because nearly every year I or someone I know has encountered an IRT member being asked a question and giving an entirely wrong answer, but giving it as if it was fact. I guess it's possible in some cases that they think what they're saying is true, though. But still, I would very much appreciate it if IRT would make a concerted effort to word things a bit better when answering attendee questions. It'd save a lot of attendees a lot of confusion, after all.

Also, whoever sent the people who went to the liberty room to pick up comped badges to will call on Thursday, I am not impressed with you for not doublechecking with the people actually at will call before doing so. The hassle I went through to pick up my 50% off badge really kind of made me wish I hadn't done a panel because it would've ran smoother if I hadn't since I would've been able to get my badge mailed. I'm pretty sure that's not what you're going for by giving panelists a discounted badge. I also kind of felt like some of the staffers down at will call considered me and the others in my situation a burden (though some were also very nice and friendly). I really didn't exactly appreciate that, and again, I don't think that's what you guys are going for in giving panelists discounted badges, is it? I get that it was a technical difficulties issue that everyone was doing their best to fix, but one thing I really don't appreciate in general is when people around me talk about me while acting like I'm not there rather than addressing me. That's what happened in this situation, it was kind of uncomfortable for me, and generally not a good way to start out my con.

[Outsane!]

Chiitect88, on 30 April 2012 - 02:25 PM, said:

Outsane!

I was one of the many IRT members patrolling the Hyatt both this year and last year. I'm sorry you encountered other con-goers with the same prop as you ,however, I must ask did they have a marker on the prop signifying Prop Check cleared the prop? If not then IRT may not have seen and/or noticed the prop when they passed by. Please help us out and inform them that they should seek out prop check! =D

To save yourself from future inconvenience please make sure you actually read the entire text of the ACen rules posted on the main page under the policy drop-down.

It is stated there, that a gun prop is NOT ALLOWED if it...

Is a real firearm, or realistic replica firearm.
~ Gun props must have a blaze orange tip, and are required to be sufficiently unrealistic that a person must be able to tell that the prop is not real from across a room.(Transparent, flat image on cardboard, futuristic/unrealistic, blue rubber training props etc.)

Is fire-able. Fireable missiles/projectiles may not be carried on your person. Projectile firing toys must be unloaded. Bows and crossbows must be unstrung or strung with loose material like yarn.
Has a laser dot/laser pointer.

Please keep in mind that these rules are more strict compared to past years because they are dictated by the ROSEMONT PD.

RPD will most likely allow you to walk past with them because they rely on IRT to police the convention props.

Statements such as "The police let me walk past" or "It has an orange tip" are not a guarantee that your gun prop will be cleared.

Very valid point, but since my roommate is a member of IRT we were certain that it would clear. We had gone over the rules just to make sure. It is clearly a toy. It was partially see-through on the barrel for the lights to work. It wasn't even an airsoft gun, so nothing could be fired anyway. The orange tip is too big not to notice. The people whom we saw walking around the con did have the zip ties around the trigger and we asked them who they spoke to. They said another IRT staffer approved it, that's why we went back.

I just felt like the IRT members whom we spoke to earlier in the day were being unfair in letting someone who was breaking the rules before us pass through and then completely dismissing us. It just felt really rude and I wish they had been a little more civil. Really, I've had nothing to complain about IRT before this weekend and this was the only incident I experienced, so the rest of them were very courteous and knowledgeable.

[SprinklePuff]

One thing I forgot - I wish the vendor's room opened a little earlier and/or stayed open a little later. Are vendor's aware of the fact that they're missing out on sales because the dang room doesn't open until 10?! That's kinda insanely late. This convention has over 20,000 people, and most of us have full days of autographs, panels, photoshoots, etc between 10:30 to at least 5 or 6. That leaves so little time for shopping, especially because you need a good 2-3 hours to get through the entire room. Many people seemed to be under the impression that the room opened earlier - one guy thought it opened at 8am. A lot of people were appalled when I told them the room didn't open until 10 (this was while I was waiting in line for Travis's autograph, and people kept walking up to try to open the door/enter the room.

[Voxx]

Speaking of meetups/photoshoots, I do feel like there should be more authority for those. Maybe designate one member of staff to each meetup area to help with the flow and organization. It is just a suggestion but I think it would help with overall organization especially if some groups don't move.

[Catmato]

madhattr999, on 30 April 2012 - 02:14 PM, said:

Photoshoots aren't staffed. They are generally run by someone in the photoshoot.

I wasn't aware of this. I thought I had read somewhere that each location had a staff member to keep time and organize things. The only other shoot I went to was for P&S on Friday night and there was someone who I thought was staff organizing all the poses.

Gabichox, on 30 April 2012 - 04:06 PM, said:

We really do need time keepers there for the shoots. I was told there was going to be but there were none and it irked me. It could've prevented the first two going over and then everything would've been on schedule.Just so you know though... As leaders of the photoshoots we don't have a lot of authority. We can ask people to clear out but there is no guarantee that they will listen.

I know there aren't unlimited volunteers, but perhaps that's the best solution. So my suggestion: have a volunteer at each photoshoot location to keep time and to make decisions like changing locations due to weather or going over time.

Perfumer Ko, on 30 April 2012 - 02:52 PM, said:

You know it is an H-game right?

I'd classify it as a visual novel with a few H-scenes. It isn't centered around the H-scenes and they can be disabled (no pun intended). I know it was in jest, but there are many animes with more and more graphic H-scenes, some that had their own shoots. If I hadn't found read the forums, I never would have thought it would be classified as such.

[dek]

I got two gripes (aside from the usual "why do we have guys from Dark Horse and DC comics as guests when they have nothing to do with anime and/or manga?" gripe)

1. Bag checks/No bags allowed for the console gaming room: Although I agree with the need to enforce a rule such as this to prevent theft, some of us that bring consoles or larger accessories such as arcade sticks (for the record, MadCatz Tournament Edition arcade sticks are about 16" long) really don't want to have to carry this kind of stuff around without some sort of carrying case, especially if we're coming from another hotel. If there was some kind of bag check-in in the future, that would make things more convenient. If there was such a thing that was offered this year... well, good job not telling me when I was trying to enter the gaming room.

2. As one of the Saturday morning panelists who had a panel in the Hyatt at 9:00AM, it would have been nice if my fellow co-panelists and I were able to enter the room about 10-15 minutes BEFORE our panel began so we could set up the computer, as video and audio were both incorporated into our panel. People using computers for their panels is VERY common these days, and I know I wasn't the only one with this gripe that morning. Because the doors to the individual panel rooms opened AT 9:00AM (as opposed to BEFORE) that took up time that our group could have used for our panel.

[Zerox20]

Kyofishie, on 30 April 2012 - 08:15 AM, said:

My one complaint was that for panels, they never were ready and always delayed. The opening line seemed to be "Sorry we're having technical difficulties, its gonna be 10-15 minutes." For example the fact that a panel ended at 2 and the next one was supposed to start at 2 seemed a little silly.

My idea would be
1:00-Panel Start
1:50-Panel End, people leave and next panelist have around 10 minutes to get ready?
2:00 Panel start

I know it cuts panels by 10 minutes but most panels get cut 10-15 minutes anyway while people are still trying to set up.


Had loads of fun though

This actually is part of our Panel Policy and our staff does try to enforce it. I am extremely sorry if this wasn't the case in the panel you were attending. Their are some hiccups sometimes like tech not working, panelist having some minor issues getting it perfectly setup, we do our best to assist with this and will try to make it a bit more clear on starting/ending for next year.

[DJ F00P]

Main gripe was Friday, Hardcore Synergy running late.

Almost as bad was an IRT member literally threatening to smash my face in, because my friend was a little bit out of speaking distance, so I ended up yelling his name. I understand that it may be against some rule I am unaware of to do this, but maybe an explanation that that is the case would suffice. He made me extremely uncomfortable.

[Valkyrie]

DJ F00P, on 30 April 2012 - 04:46 PM, said:

Main gripe was Friday, Hardcore Synergy running late.

Almost as bad was an IRT member literally threatening to smash my face in, because my friend was a little bit out of speaking distance, so I ended up yelling his name. I understand that it may be against some rule I am unaware of to do this, but maybe an explanation that that is the case would suffice. He made me extremely uncomfortable.

We don't have any rules against calling out for someone. (If it's in an area where quiet is preferred, that's more a matter of courtesy...but we certainly don't have rules for it.) I'm sorry that that happened to you.

I know the chances of this may be slim, but did you happen to catch that IRT member's name or callsign? Or can you give a description and a time/place where this occurred?

[Perfumer Ko]

Catmato, on 30 April 2012 - 04:36 PM, said:

I'd classify it as a visual novel with a few H-scenes. It isn't centered around the H-scenes and they can be disabled (no pun intended). I know it was in jest, but there are many animes with more and more graphic H-scenes, some that had their own shoots. If I hadn't found read the forums, I never would have thought it would be classified as such.

The entire purpose of the game is to get to the point with the girls where they do H scenes with the main character. When they said they were going to add a disable H-scenes option at all, there was a huge to-do about how ridiculous it was to cut H-scenes from what was clearly an H-game. Whether or not an H-scene is graphic or not has nothing really to do with it, sex is sex. There are plenty of 'tender love' type H-games out there just like KS that I would have lumped together because it's such a niche following. IMO if someone was bothered that it was lumped with other H-games, they have every right/responsibility to organize a photoshoot.

also lol@unintended pun

[Stormy-chan]

Gabichox, on 30 April 2012 - 04:06 PM, said:

I was the leader for the Madoka photoshoot and I apologize for going over our limit. I had to rush ours because the one before us [Panty and Stocking I think] went well over their time limit. Apparently the one before them [Bioshock?] went over as well.
We really do need time keepers there for the shoots. I was told there was going to be but there were none and it irked me. It could've prevented the first two going over and then everything would've been on schedule.


Just so you know though... As leaders of the photoshoots we don't have a lot of authority. We can ask people to clear out but there is no guarantee that they will listen.

As leaders of photo shoots can you do a favor to us photographers? Tell the front row to move aside so everyone can get a photo? PLEASE? I had to be rude so many times just to get people to move over or kneel to be able to get my photos... I mean some common courtesy would be nice since all who have cameras would like to take pictures of the wonderful cosplayers too I mean so many guys were just so tall and not aware of others around them. What is the point of photo shoots if everyone cant work out a system so ALL can get the pictures they want.

Also I went to the Rosario and Vampire photo shoot and aside from about 6 cosplayers no one else showed up... Was it moved and not noted anywhere? There appeared to be no one there to take charge of it

[Luna_Riven]

Voxx, on 30 April 2012 - 04:23 PM, said:

Speaking of meetups/photoshoots, I do feel like there should be more authority for those. Maybe designate one member of staff to each meetup area to help with the flow and organization. It is just a suggestion but I think it would help with overall organization especially if some groups don't move.

I'd like to second this. And also a minor gripe also on the cosplay gathering front: why weren't there alternate locations for the outdoor shoots in case of rain, or, like this year, in case of extreme cold? Several of the shoots I went to had to be moved inside due to the cold since many of the costumes weren't exactly meant to be worn outside in the unseasonably cold weather. But since there was no alternate location arranged beforehand, it was absolute chaos trying to organize things or figure out where we were supposed to go. I seem to remember seeing rain locations on the schedules in previous years, so why not this year?

[Christy]

Ashori, on 29 April 2012 - 08:34 PM, said:

Overall, I enjoyed my time at the con. However, yes, there was definitely room to improve.

My main gripe is the last-minute changes to the panels. Sadly, due to them, two of the panels I really wanted to attend (Copyright 101 and Are You Smarter Than An Otaku?) were either changed to a time when I wasn't at the con or outright cancelled, but I didn't know to the last second. Sadly, it made my Friday extremely boring. Technically, my Saturday was even boring after my own panel, which I was glad wasn't affected outside of colliding with the Funimation Industry Panel during its last half-hour.

Hi Ashori!

I was running the copyright panel. I apologize for the last minute change. I was on schedule for two panels and originally they were both scheduled for evening hours, which meshed well with the hours my studio and I were keeping in the artist alley. Then there was a change and my other panel, which required one of my studio mates, was set right in the middle of our day in the alley. We didn't have the extra coverage of our third studio mate at that time, so I was forced to request a swap with our other panel at very last minute so we didn't have to shut down our table.

I feel really bad about the changes and if you have any questions or want me to send you a copy of the powerpoint, I would be more than happy to. Go ahead and send me a PM.

For my gripe, I would like to see slightly better communication between the panel programming and panelists when major changes to the schedule like this occur - even if it's just a general notice of "please check your panel schedule, times may have changed."

[cactusmomma]

OtakuAngelD, on 30 April 2012 - 10:16 AM, said:

Suggestion 2: For photshoot locations, ehtier have a ran contengecy plan that is posted, aka if rain, this shoot will move to said different location. Or perhaps have selected rooms at one of the hotels dedicated to photoshoots. Larger shoots could be held in one of the other hotel's ballrooms and smaller shoots could be held in unsued meeting spaces/rooms. For example this year, the Capital room in the Hyatt was not unitlized. This could have been used for photoshoots. Also, in the same vein, for shoots after sunset in the dome, perhaps have some actual photography lighting set up so that the shoots are in the dark.

I can say that we did have rain backups.. the instructions on where to go were posted here on the forums.. I was supposed to have people who could help direct and help people around, but that wasn't something that happened this year. We are looking into possibly grabbing some rooms for this very issue next year.

[Lina]

cactusmomma, on 30 April 2012 - 06:39 PM, said:

I can say that we did have rain backups.. the instructions on where to go were posted here on the forums.. I was supposed to have people who could help direct and help people around, but that wasn't something that happened this year. We are looking into possibly grabbing some rooms for this very issue next year.

Maybe have a sheet of the back up places at customer service since not everyone is on the forums?

[Catmato]

Perfumer Ko, on 30 April 2012 - 05:37 PM, said:

IMO if someone was bothered that it was lumped with other H-games, they have every right/responsibility to organize a photoshoot.

I wouldn't say I was bothered, I just didn't expect it or agree with the placement. There was no where I could find to tell me that it was to be included in that shoot. It's reasonable to assume that others didn't know it was to be included there either. This was possibly compounded by the Madoka shoot running over, causing other cosplayers to leave thinking they were at the wrong shoot. There were at least three other KS cosplayers at the con who weren't there. The forum post didn't explicitly say that it was to be included either, just that there was a shoot scheduled for 11:30 pm/Saturday.

I don't have a solution to this issue, as it would be impossible to list everything that would be included in such a shoot.

[Dark Kanine]

Mari_Queen_of_Fools, on 30 April 2012 - 03:56 PM, said:

I don't know why, but it felt like this was the smelliest year out of the 6 I've been attending. I believe it was Saturday afternoon, we had changed out of our costumes and went back to the dealers room and when we entered the lobby of the convention center, it just wreaked of B.O. I know that there isn't anything that ACen itself can do about that, but man... con-funk at it's worst this year.

Well, it smelled nicer than my school that's for sure.

[Tombolo]

Catmato, on 30 April 2012 - 06:50 PM, said:

It's reasonable to assume that others didn't know it was to be included there either. There were at least three other KS cosplayers at the con who weren't there.

*waves* I may not have been a very good Nurse, but I would've shown up :\

I guess I should have expected it if I'd thought about it a bit more, but my brain parsed "H-games -> squick -> not interested" even though I like Katawa and the Shuffle anime.

[The Fujoshi]

EGA_Loli said:

You're not the odd one out; things changes and times changes. I remember when the most we would talk about is Duo/Heero in terms of yaoi and the occasional Goku/Vegeta. But now it's yaoi everywhere and guro/ecchi/hentai borderline animes. I mean there was hentai everywhere but people didn't make it obvious or point it out in an ignorant fashion like I see them doing now in my opinion.

IF you still enjoy Acen, regardless of people, go and say the heck with them. Heck go with me if you want; I can talk if I warm up to you and go beyond my borderline paranoia. People are more comfortable with circles/what they know so sadly this isn't unusual. It's actually common for people to not socialize outside of their circle.

[AnimeGeek120]

This was my second year at ACEN and overall I liked it a lot better this year, but I have a few suggestions.

1) As many have stated, is there some way we could get multiple guests at a signing at once like it was last year. I was at a table with another convention and my time was limited as it was and due to there only being one guest per line, coupled with the fact I couldn't avoid to spend two hours to be in line and get the autograph, I barely met any of the guests I wanted to see. (Seriously, you guys had an awesome line up this year. I would have loved to met more of them.)

Someone suggested a hand stamping system for the autographs, I second this 100%. I know lines are going to happen no matter what, but I feel if people at least knew if they had a spot or not, it would make people a lot happier and help cut down on the lines. Also, longer times for the 'popular' guests (like why was Vic the only one with a two-hour session?).

2)I I loved having the guidebook app, but I could only use it on my iPod when I was at the Hyatt, which wasn't that often. I don't have a smartphone so I couldn't check for updates in, say, the exhibit hall. If we could have the updates posted at set info booths in each location (i.e, the Hyatt, the Exhibit hall, etc.) that would very helpful.

3) In regards to the schedule is there something that can be down to get a somewhat final version of the schedule before the con? I know many people, myself included, who were annoyed at the fact we had to rely on the Guidebook pre-con to figure what the guest panel/autographs even were. The PDF stopped updating on 4-21. I'm a bit weird when it comes to schedules, so it bugged me that there wasn't a 'final' version pre-con.


Again overall a great con. I can't wait to come back next year!

This post has been edited by AnimeGeek120: 01 May 2012 - 05:21 PM

[cactusmomma]

Lina, on 30 April 2012 - 06:44 PM, said:

Maybe have a sheet of the back up places at customer service since not everyone is on the forums?

Customer service was aware of the changes and locations.

[Gabichox]

Stormy-chan, on 30 April 2012 - 05:52 PM, said:

As leaders of photo shoots can you do a favor to us photographers? Tell the front row to move aside so everyone can get a photo? PLEASE? I had to be rude so many times just to get people to move over or kneel to be able to get my photos... I mean some common courtesy would be nice since all who have cameras would like to take pictures of the wonderful cosplayers too I mean so many guys were just so tall and not aware of others around them. What is the point of photo shoots if everyone cant work out a system so ALL can get the pictures they want.

That's something I never really thought about since I'm always worrying about what the cosplayers are doing. DX I'll take that into consideration next time I'm running a shoot.

[Dark Spellmaster]

cactusmomma, on 30 April 2012 - 06:39 PM, said:

I can say that we did have rain backups.. the instructions on where to go were posted here on the forums.. I was supposed to have people who could help direct and help people around, but that wasn't something that happened this year. We are looking into possibly grabbing some rooms for this very issue next year.

All I can say is that I know from my end the cold and the fact that I got sick didn't help my situation. Rooms would be nice, maybe, instead of outside places we could do them inside in a desginated area, or areas? Might be easier and also would be simpler for people to find the spots?