[MH121]

The only problem I have with this whole experience is, why the heck did someone schedule so many BIG events in the same ballroom, one after another. And if the problem is too many events, then perhaps it's time to expand into other hotels. And if the problem is not enough room, perhaps it's time to cut back some events. Something has to give.

If the crowd is getting rowdy, perhaps the event is not the right one to have at the convention. If the crowd is getting out of control, perhaps it's time to call in the police. Saying that you have no control over the crowd does not justify what happened. But, obviously, that seems to be the crowd ACEN wants to attract.

Not saying it's right or wrong, but just like in the "real world", when push comes to shove, money speaks. Revenue from cosplayers in masquerade is pennies compared to the potential of a DJ and band. The people who participated in masquerade means nothing to the higher ups of the ACEN. If one person leaves, three more will fill in his/her place. No loss there. Capitalism at its best.

[Outlawed]

Perhaps ACen can prevent this type of disruption by moving the Masquerade out of Main Programming. There would no longer be a risk of Masquerade running over into concert/dance programming. This would allow the Masquerade to have more time.

Concert/Dance programming became the #1 events at ACen several years ago. This is clearly demonstrated by the man hours and money spent on those events by the convention. For those who had not noticed this had happened I'm sure this year's Masquerade issue came as a shock.

[Karmada]

Outlawed, on 03 May 2012 - 02:59 PM, said:

Perhaps ACen can prevent this type of disruption by moving the Masquerade out of Main Programming. There would no longer be a risk of Masquerade running over into concert/dance programming. This would allow the Masquerade to have more time.

...but...

Isn't the Masquerade competition one of the main staples of any anime convention?

I definitely agree with the need for more timespace between main programming events to prevent this from occurring again, but... by moving Masq out of the Main programming area that's basically a big slap in the face to all competitors going "You're no longer important, but I guess we'll give you space since you're so needy for it."

There has to be a way to coexist peacefully...

[❤Mokyu❤]

Outlawed, on 03 May 2012 - 02:59 PM, said:

Perhaps ACen can prevent this type of disruption by moving the Masquerade out of Main Programming. There would no longer be a risk of Masquerade running over into concert/dance programming. This would allow the Masquerade to have more time.

Concert/Dance programming became the #1 events at ACen several years ago. This is clearly demonstrated by the man hours and money spent on those events by the convention. For those who had not noticed this had happened I'm sure this year's Masquerade issue came as a shock.

Isn't Masquerade the most important main programming of an anime convention?

[MH121]

It's not surprising. First AMV. Now, Masquerade.

Looking at it from the con higher ups' point of view. You either piss off a small group of cosplayers, who will grumble and complain, but most likely return next year again because they're the diehard fans; or piss off a few hundreds people, who are dying to party and hook up with someone for next 7+ hours and bring in a lot of their friends who may not not even be interested in anime/manga, which one would you choose. Piss off small group of people who brings in very little, little money or a large group of people who brings in a lot of moolah.

This post has been edited by MH121: 03 May 2012 - 03:34 PM

[Cricket]

I'm not saying we didn't have control of the lines, I'm saying the crowd was getting restless with their wait.

As far as the crowd goes, calling the cops is NOT the answer unless there is a fight or damage being done to the hotel. Reason being, rosemont PD or the fire marshal can just walk in and go "The main ballroom is shut down for the night." and that's that. No masquerade, no dance, nothing.

As for the rave being the only problem with lines? In the masquerade line someone thought it would be fun to toss around one of those giant super balls and was hitting the ceiling with it. i can only imagine the fun time people would have had if that took off a sprinkler head.

[fentras]

Karmada, on 03 May 2012 - 03:06 PM, said:

...but...

Isn't the Masquerade competition one of the main staples of any anime convention?

I definitely agree with the need for more timespace between main programming events to prevent this from occurring again, but... by moving Masq out of the Main programming area that's basically a big slap in the face to all competitors going "You're no longer important, but I guess we'll give you space since you're so needy for it."

There has to be a way to coexist peacefully...

All just a little bit of history repeating?

[SurvivalStrategy]

Cricket, on 03 May 2012 - 02:09 PM, said:

That being said, i'm going to touch on the first mention of bands here again, ACen pays money along with food and lodging for the DJ's. does anyone believe its financially "Okay" to pay 3-4 DJ's who never go on? We run into the label problem again of people black listing the event and convention.

I believe it's okay to ask paid professionals to hold out for a while so that unpaid amateurs pouring their hearts and souls into getting their two minutes of fame get a shot onstage. You're giving them less than the DJs to begin with, and they outnumber the DJs if we need a quantitative argument. If the DJs can't accept schedule changes under very extreme circumstances without going back and complaining to their label then they aren't very professional entertainers and probably don't belong at the event. This sort of thing happens in show business, professionals are used to that. For the skit performers this was soul-crushing. This is a non-profit fan event, this isn't about objective, dispassionate financial decisions or we'd all be staying at home. But that's beside the point, because all of the DJs had plenty of time to perform into the wee hours of the night anyway. We would have gotten our money's worth in DJing even if skits weren't cut.

That said, as someone mentioned, there seems to be a huge emphasis on DJs, there are more and more every year. Now they make up half the guests. Is this based on survey feedback? What was the attendance for the rave versus the masquerade? I'm not trying to throw them into competition, but it seems like if there were financial considerations here, it came from spending all our money on DJs and not diversifying entertainment in any way. If over half of the con attended the rave this might make sense to me, but does the ballroom even hold 14,000 people? Seems shady it's prioritized to this extreme extent.

Additionally, as members I think we deserve more transparency on this DJ thing. For example, last year we had the composer for the ridiculously popular site Gaia Online as a guest. He mentioned that it was impossible even for a distinguished guest like him to DJ at the rave without "connections" and that his advance request to perform there was denied. An actual anime/manga fan community DJ from a hugely popular site was denied because he didn't have connections?

If attendees are getting what the majority wants, that's absolutely swell. I just think we need to see the numbers to be able to accept that, and I think anyone paying for Acen membership deserves to be able to ask reasonable questions about the con's priorities.

I'm not trying to say there are any connections between this line of thinking and the masquerade decision, but that is the first thing that popped into my mind when I heard what happened.

I don't question at all that everyone working on Acen in any capacity is trying their hardest to make it the best con possible, I just think that in order for this to happen we need to re-examine its trajectory once in a while. The rave was a good priority and has helped grow the con, but at this point it looks like it's getting more than its proper share of attention, at least in terms of the 50%-of-guests-are-DJs-but-70%-of-attendees-don't-go-to-the-rave thing.

Cricket, on 03 May 2012 - 02:09 PM, said:

Now with all that said and done, Do i think it was fair or right? I believe it was a questionable call, But i can try to understand why things happen the way they do. And if you don't like it? Well i'll say something you aren't expecting. Help staff it. if there is some bit of "Magic" that you can bring to help things run better, by all means, Help us, Help us build a better convention then the year before. Each and every person is a volunteer that puts time and effort into doing the best they can and when we stumble and we need help, Be there to help us get back up.

This wasn't a volunteer failure as far as anyone's said, I think if there was anyway anyone in the audience could have helped the event go on it would have been done immediately and without any expectation for compensation, like Mullenkamp was saying.

Cricket, on 03 May 2012 - 02:09 PM, said:

(A small story to go with the previous statement, while everyone was inside enjoying the masquerade, myself and the line crew had to deal with a crowd that was getting loud and restless. and seriously having 400 people in hallway screaming at the top of their lungs "This is BULL****" because the rave hadn't started isn't a situation for the feint of heart but that comes with the job of doing IRT)


-Jason W "Raze"

That's absolutely crazy and I'm sorry anyone had to deal with that. But just because some group was louder doesn't mean they care more (I'm pretty sure we agree on this).

I also want to say sorry, I didn't mean to end up writing a reply exclusively responding to you and there's no hostile intent here, I'm so happy with the job IRT did this year and you guys should be very proud (when they talk about a lawless metropolis in the bible, they're actually talking about something with less people than Acen. From a historical perspective it's amazing you can come in and bring some sort of order to it anew every year. It may be hard to believe, but I think the attendees are equally impressive viewed that way, especially because they're generally younger people). Your post just gave me a lot to think about.

This post has been edited by SurvivalStrategy: 03 May 2012 - 04:49 PM

[MH121]

Cricket, on 03 May 2012 - 03:41 PM, said:

I'm not saying we didn't have control of the lines, I'm saying the crowd was getting restless with their wait.

As far as the crowd goes, calling the cops is NOT the answer unless there is a fight or damage being done to the hotel. Reason being, rosemont PD or the fire marshal can just walk in and go "The main ballroom is shut down for the night." and that's that. No masquerade, no dance, nothing.

As for the rave being the only problem with lines? In the masquerade line someone thought it would be fun to toss around one of those giant super balls and was hitting the ceiling with it. i can only imagine the fun time people would have had if that took off a sprinkler head.

Isn't that the reason ACEN had line control teams, to keep the people in line. Do you not have authority to eject someone who is totally out of line (or find someone who does)? If not, what is the use of the line control team then?

I am sure most of us stood in long lines more than once during ACEN. Heck, back in the green room, cosplayers there sat for 4 hours since 5PM only to be told they're not going on stage. So I do agree with you, everywhere can have bad apples in lines. But, then shouldn't those bad apples be removed then rather than give in to their demands?

[mindue]

The thing is there needs to be a back up plan in case something like this happens again. There needs to be a back up location for either the rave or the masquerade to move to. Or maybe the rave needs to be moved to a separate location all together, I remember a few years back it was in the Embassy or something. Like everyone has already said time and time again, ACEN is becoming a party con. All people want to do now a days is get drunk, get high, and party at ACEN. It's honestly to the point where now the main programming, and attractions, are now second to the party elements. The masquerade is one of the main selling points of ACEN, some people only come on Saturday just to see it. People practiced, rehearsed, invest a lot of time and money for a show that never even happened. There was no plan to re-schedule or anything, and honestly there needs to be a plan. I know nobody saw this coming, but now in the future there should be a plan in case something like it does happen.

[Sarahlicious]

I agree there needs to be a solid contingency plan in place for things like the concerts running late. All I can really say is that megaphones are needed for IRT to talk to large groups of people, because the few times IRT talked to us in the masquerade line I could not hear what they were saying. The one time I did hear it was someone telling us that we would be let into the concert to get a seat "in a few minutes" but we needed to keep quiet when we went in.. This was more then an hour before we actually got in there. CLEAR communication needs to happen. Perhaps the crowds won't get so restless if you tell them why they're waiting, and do not lie to them about how we'll get into the room in a few minutes when clearly we won't.

[ThatOneChick]

They tried to move us this year. Not the first time. The next biggest room is a third the size of the Grand Ballroom and the staging is completely inadequate.


In short, over my dead body.

[tfcreate]

The con has grown.

Why hasn't anyone moved events to the con center to compensate? There are enormous theatres and meeting rooms there that are more than adequate for ACEN's needs.

Before the "we don't want to charge you more," argument starts, consider this: There are now safety issues to consider. Trying to clear thousands from one room only to move thousands more into the same room is not only a nightmare, it's not practical. Especially since most of those who will be forced out of the first event also want to see the next one.

If it takes more money, I'm sure those willing to pay will off-set the costs involved. Right now ACEN is beyond it's capacity. The con center (Rosemont Convention Centre) is so underutilized that it's mind boggling.

[vika838]

As one of the people who showed up on time (5pm) to line up for the Masquerade and waited patiently for a seat, I'd like to share a few hopefully constructive comments I came up with during my copious free time (please excuse the flight metaphors).

1. Think of Main programming timing as if you are planning a flight schedule. Allow a significant layover in between flights (programs). In all likelyhood you won't make it to a connecting flight if you only have a half an hour or even an hour layover. Even if you do your luggage probably won't. I took one look at the main programming time line this year and knew there was not nearly enough setup, teardown, and oh crap there's a problem time alotted to run even close to on time.

2. If IRT is having to show people to seats and people are not being allowed to chose a seat, at least fully seat the middle section first. Despite the fact my group was in the first 100 people in line, we were seated at the extreme far edge of the ball room and couldn't even see the stage which was the whole point of arriving when the line was officially opened. A member of our group who showed up 30 minutes later to the line than the rest of us actually got a better seat in the center section. It is unfair to seat in this manner, those who wait the longest should get the prime seats. Perhaps there should be "boarding groups" if not actually assigned seating to allow for this. Tickets or boarding groups would also have made it easier to readmit people for the Masquerade in the event of disaster like a fire alarm. There were many disbelieving people who didn't understand that they wouldn't be getting their seat back after that long wait.

3. Every part of the crew needs to understand the flight plan. At more than one point an announcement was half made to the crowd by IRT, only to be cut off mid sentence because circumstances had changed. This only creates chaos, the passengers know there is something wrong, and are bound to get restless and speculate. Periodic announcements need to be made even if it is only to give a status report.

4. Customer service and communication is key. No one enjoys delays, but I would say that the wait was borne with surprising fortitude by line goers. I also heard the chant of "This is Bull****" as I left the Masquerade, but who can blame the outdoor line goers who had been standing in frigid temperatures for hours outside for being upset? This was an incredibly mild and probably therapeutic expression of disapproval, it could have been much worse. Above all, an attitude of "us vs. them" should be avoided at all cost. This was not war, and sentiments were expressed in my hearing of "outsmarting the enemy" with reference to controlling the line of congoers. And yes, I do know the call sign of this person, and was deeply offended by their behavior. But I also understand it was a stressful situation, and I don't want to resort to name-calling so perhaps a customer service training could be instituted for front-line staff like IRT if not done already to reenforce proper guest-handling behavior. I must emphasize that I was treated with respect by a vast majority of ACEN staff, but a yearly customer service training can only help.

5. Pack the plane to capacity. I know there were quite a bit more space and empty seats in the ballroom just before the Masquerade was about to start. I felt particularly bad for the people still waiting outside in the hope of getting in. The Masquerade is the premier event for ACEN and every effort needs to be made to include the maximum number of passengers. I know this is limited by fire marshal capacity, but if we can pack them in for the Soap Bubble we should have at least that number of allowed in to the Masquerade.

5. Also could a member of staff explain what VIP guests to the Masquerade are? At one point it was mentioned that they would have to be given a refund after the fire alarm was pulled. Are special tickets already being issued for the Masquerade? (I'm not talking about press badges or masquerade participant badges).

Thank you to the Masquerade staff for all their efforts. My experiences with them have been nothing but wonderful, and I truly feel for them having to experience the deep disappointment that was this year's masquerade. If not for an injury that made me cancel my entry, I would have been one of the cancelled skits. My skit for last year involved 8 months or roughly 300 hours of preparation. My deepest sympathies for the skits that did not get a chance to perform this year, you are wonderful and I salute your hard work. I hope these comments will provide some food for thought.

[gavv]

ThatOneChick, on 03 May 2012 - 09:29 PM, said:

They tried to move us this year. Not the first time. The next biggest room is a third the size of the Grand Ballroom and the staging is completely inadequate.


In short, over my dead body.

Pretty simple for me too, if Anime Hell isn't in Grand, I don't think I could do it in Rosemont again.

[ATICE]

tfcreate, on 03 May 2012 - 09:45 PM, said:

The con has grown.

Why hasn't anyone moved events to the con center to compensate? There are enormous theatres and meeting rooms there that are more than adequate for ACEN's needs.

Before the "we don't want to charge you more," argument starts, consider this: There are now safety issues to consider. Trying to clear thousands from one room only to move thousands more into the same room is not only a nightmare, it's not practical. Especially since most of those who will be forced out of the first event also want to see the next one.

If it takes more money, I'm sure those willing to pay will off-set the costs involved. Right now ACEN is beyond it's capacity. The con center (Rosemont Convention Centre) is so underutilized that it's mind boggling.

I also don't get why it isn't used, and then they use the panel rooms (the ones that wizard world uses for panels) for card games... I'm pretty sure you could either tighten up the space for the card games, open up some panel rooms, and get those going. You have a lot of room to compensate, I'm sure. Plus you could schedule more panels around there for saturday as more rooms will not be needed because people get cut if they don't pass the first day which clears up way more space. It would be easy. Also if you go up the escalators from the con center lobby, go forward a bit, turn right, there is at least one huge room down that way that the masquerade COULD be held at if they wanted to. Hyatt is way too small to be hosting the masquerade, especially since more people at the hyatt are likely to be interested in getting drunk at the rave. Therefore, more epic panels for the grand ball room then the rave happens. I know it sounds like "Whaaa?" but yeah, it should work.

[Cricket]

SurvivalStrategy, on 03 May 2012 - 04:19 PM, said:

What was the attendance for the rave versus the masquerade? I'm not trying to throw them into competition.
This wasn't a volunteer failure as far as anyone's said, I think if there was anyway anyone in the audience could have helped the event go on it would have been done immediately and without any expectation for compensation, like Mullenkamp was saying.

I also want to say sorry, I didn't mean to end up writing a reply exclusively responding to you and there's no hostile intent here. Your post just gave me a lot to think about.

The attendance numbers *From the front door with my trusty clicker* was about 1,000 +/- we stopped counting when the rave line was moved indoors and we were sure the capacity for the room wouldn't be breached.

I'm also not saying it's a Volunteer failure, i'm saying come and staff, any input is valued, including input on the fly when the con is in full swing.

It's no problem, just remember i'm posting here about my personal feelings, i'm not saying anything official and i'm not trying to bash anyone. i'm simply suggestion people look at both sides of the coin.

MH121, on 03 May 2012 - 04:20 PM, said:

Isn't that the reason ACEN had line control teams, to keep the people in line. Do you not have authority to eject someone who is totally out of line (or find someone who does)? If not, what is the use of the line control team then? But, then shouldn't those bad apples be removed then rather than give in to their demands?

Nobody has the authority to simply remove a badge outside of a of A/DH and higher. It keeps people from power tripping and threatening to "take your badge if you don't do what i'm saying" when it is not warranted.
Line control is there to ensure the crowd does not violate fire code and attempts to keep the line in an orderly fashion.

Sarahlicious, on 03 May 2012 - 09:23 PM, said:

All I can really say is that megaphones are needed for IRT to talk to large groups of people, because the few times IRT talked to us in the masquerade line I could not hear what they were saying. The one time I did hear it was someone telling us that we would be let into the concert to get a seat "in a few minutes" but we needed to keep quiet when we went in.. This was more then an hour before we actually got in there. CLEAR communication needs to happen. Perhaps the crowds won't get so restless if you tell them why they're waiting, and do not lie to them about how we'll get into the room in a few minutes when clearly we won't.

This was my fault, i was the one that was in the process of announcing that. The original thought was to move the rave line into the masquerade to fill up seats and get people indoors so i was asked to make that announcement, which was quickly stopped by someone higher up after taking the aforementioned into account. I'm sorry you didn't get to hear me apologize for that.

I've also asked for megaphones and was told no.

Also for what it's worth the room capacity for the ballroom was 3500 with chairs, 4k for the rave. My door numbers before taking a break at 1am was 2700+ in the door for the rave and more coming in.

[SurvivalStrategy]

Cricket, on 03 May 2012 - 11:46 PM, said:

The attendance numbers *From the front door with my trusty clicker* was about 1,000 +/- we stopped counting when the rave line was moved indoors and we were sure the capacity for the room wouldn't be breached.

Also for what it's worth the room capacity for the ballroom was 3500 with chairs, 4k for the rave. My door numbers before taking a break at 1am was 2700+ in the door for the rave and more coming in.

So then, assuming ACen continued its recent growth of ~3,000 a year for the past couple of years and hit 26k, fuzzy math would say that:

-about 4% of attendees went to the masquerade
-about 12% went to the rave, 3 times as many as the masquerade
-at least 84% went to neither, 7 times as many people as who went to the rave (and 21 times as many people as the masquerade, for reference)

The masquerade didn't get even a third of the time the rave did, so it still seems like a bad decision even given the reality of the difference in popularity (I realize that whoever made the call couldn't just squint and gauge this instantly, but that said I'm seeing a lot of people here who feel "the rave's more popular but not that much more popular," and I think that view was pretty common before the con even started). And although panel programming did an amazing job driving new content this year I'd be surprised if that 84% didn't want to see some more non-DJ guests, or at least some of that money being spent in another way--on megaphones or gaming or something. Those are just my two cents, but I have a hard time seeing this any other way unless some attendees matter more or something.

Thank you so much for the numbers!

Edit: Oh, based on the 1am, which is kind of early given how late the rave went, maybe 300 not-reentries isn't enough of a buffer. Without more numbers I honestly have no idea. But even if you go with 16% for the rave, which would be over capacity, the masquerade still got gypped, so I think my point stands.

This post has been edited by SurvivalStrategy: 04 May 2012 - 12:46 AM

[ThatOneChick]

Moving things to the con center requires working with the unions which is a very tricky situation.

[MH121]

ThatOneChick, on 04 May 2012 - 01:14 AM, said:

Moving things to the con center requires working with the unions which is a very tricky situation.

Working with unions in convention centers can be one heck of an experience. Some places, you can't even plug in a power strip into a wall outlet. You need to file a work order for electrician to do it. If you need to hang something more than 6 feet high, you need to get a carpenter with ladder to do that. Need to set up something? If it takes more than couple screwdrivers, then you need someone from the union. Want to move a table from here to there? Forget it. If you try to move it, you get yelled at. Someone from the union needs to do it. And every time they lift a finger, it's a charge. Of course, some cities are worse than others. I have found Chicago to be the most stringent, followed by Vegas. Orlando is pretty lax if you joke around enough with the union supervisors .... Every time I set up a trade show at any of the venues, be it Vegas, Orlando, or Chicago, I keep thinking I am in the wrong side of the business

[gavv]

Cricket, on 03 May 2012 - 11:46 PM, said:

Also for what it's worth the room capacity for the ballroom was 3500 with chairs, 4k for the rave. My door numbers before taking a break at 1am was 2700+ in the door for the rave and more coming in.

well, the #s actually more like max 3300 done theater style, but that's not based on the large stage/backstage setup and the screens set up. The count gets down to ~2300 done theater layout (ie chairs). SRO/SitRO usually got it a couple hundred more. Not replacing the front 2/3 of chairs for '10/'11 post-friday-concert/pre-hell was done to increase that # some but moreso to decrease turnaround time for hell line seating.

gavv

[mindue]

ThatOneChick, on 03 May 2012 - 09:29 PM, said:

They tried to move us this year. Not the first time. The next biggest room is a third the size of the Grand Ballroom and the staging is completely inadequate.


In short, over my dead body.

If not the masquerade how about the rave, the staging isn't necessary for a rave.

[XenoBlade]

I wonder what will happen at next years masq with the skits.

Will they only allow the old ones? Or some new ones...but then there is a time issue. I dare not even say push the time back for the soapbubble. Would one hour kill the people who want to go?

Because moving either seems very unfeasible. Move the masq, and you are saying "the masq is no longer important. We want only numbers. Moving the soapbubble will make lines even longer, and then the soap bubble people will become the new butthurt, and will complain how Acen is changing and how everyone blames them. This is quite a delicate situation.

[SurvivalStrategy]

I'm not sure how moving the rave will make the lines longer. If anything I imagine moving to the convention center would mean the lines get to be indoors. And again, it's not like the rave is the whole convention, it's at most about 15% of attendees. So no matter how vocal they may be, at the end of the day what's best for the convention is what's best for the convention and an option shouldn't be ignored just because some people will moan.

[XenoBlade]

SurvivalStrategy, on 04 May 2012 - 12:06 PM, said:

I'm not sure how moving the rave will make the lines longer. If anything I imagine moving to the convention center would mean the lines get to be indoors. And again, it's not like the rave is the whole convention, it's at most about 15% of attendees. So no matter how vocal they may be, at the end of the day what's best for the convention is what's best for the convention and an option shouldn't be ignored just because some people will moan.

Cuz everywhere else is smaller. Smaller space, more lines. Also as discussed earlier, its complicated to move it to the convention center. Also the soapbubble is more then 15%. the room holds 4000 ppl, so when they let ppl in, the line is still ridiculous. Im no where on the side of the soapbubble, but this is just a delicate situation. I would love if they move the soapbubble, and prioritize the masq, but money talks. As much as we all hate it, acen is going towards the Reactor path.

Just have to look at it in a logical sort of way. That is why the masq got screwed over, and why the soapbubble was barely late, and went on for a tad longer. (it was 9:30 when masq was over)

This post has been edited by XenoBlade: 04 May 2012 - 01:14 PM

[kotomichi]

I posted before, saying how bad I felt for the Masq to get canceled. I'm not a fan of it, but I knew people who flew in to perform their skits and then in the end, ended up never doing so. Amy, I feel for you.

With that said, I was Reg Staff for this year and a lot of people simply don't have any idea how many people come on Saturday JUST FOR the Soap Bubble. I mean, we had people lining up outside the hotel and around the darn building. Usually, we can get a people their badge within an hour, but the Saturday line was intensely long and we had people wait for about 4-5 hours to get a badge.

All this just for a rave...*shakes head*

Anyways, I can see why people made this decision. I think it was purely financial and because Acen runs on money (I don't even want to know how much it is to reserve hotels and convention centers...) they made the only decision they could. They could either piss off cosplay folks or ravers, of which, turned out there was a whole lot more.

[Dark Spellmaster]

Again maybe it's time to limit or shelve the bubble. Or move it to a different location. As much as I like seeing the amusing costumes for the rave, I think that it's time to focus back on what makes Acen Acen, which is the Culture and Animation(Manga) of Japan. That or start charaging extra for that rave. You want in...pay out for it, and you can't come till that night.

[kotomichi]

Dark Spellmaster, on 04 May 2012 - 03:41 PM, said:

Again maybe it's time to limit or shelve the bubble. Or move it to a different location. As much as I like seeing the amusing costumes for the rave, I think that it's time to focus back on what makes Acen Acen, which is the Culture and Animation(Manga) of Japan. That or start charaging extra for that rave. You want in...pay out for it, and you can't come till that night.

I really like this idea. A LOT. I know people paid $25 to get into Crystal Ball (which sounded like it was an EPIC FAIL), so why can't we do that for Soap Bubble?

[❤Mokyu❤]

Dark Spellmaster, on 04 May 2012 - 03:41 PM, said:

Again maybe it's time to limit or shelve the bubble. Or move it to a different location. As much as I like seeing the amusing costumes for the rave, I think that it's time to focus back on what makes Acen Acen, which is the Culture and Animation(Manga) of Japan. That or start charaging extra for that rave. You want in...pay out for it, and you can't come till that night.

By costumes do you mean half-naked underage girls drowning in plastic necklaces and bracelets?

That's all I saw...

[Dark Spellmaster]

I agree, a small fee for the ticket to the rave shouldn't stop fans of Acen who have already bought badges, but it will keep out creepers that want to pay for just the rave.

Costumes I mean the ones's that actually managed to create visual kei like outfits of bright colors and flashing lights. One guy and his girlfriend clearly went all out, because they had lights in his mohawk, and in her dreads, as well as lights and strobes all over their clothing doing some pretty intricate patterns.

And the half drowning girls need to go to bed, or again, no one under 21 enters the dance.