/cgl/ - Cosplay & EGL

There were only 4 skits? Don't they have a seperate contest for those?

I know some of the bigger groups stopped competing there but I didn't know it was that bad.

>>7079474
Yep, the skit contest is on Sunday and the walk-ons are on Friday.

they only had around 30 walk ons, which is extremely low.
dealers said sales were low all weekend. all signs point to a notable attendance drop.

Gatcha!

>>7079482

Rumors have it at under 4k, down from the 5k they held for years before they moved.

>>7079474

Most of the groups that would have been there 2+ years ago still compete actively but skipped A-Fest. I know that people who won awards even when they had a huge turn out were disappointed because it'd just be a t-shirt and a piece of paper. For a con like this, you could shell out a little more money than that and make the idea of entering and competing more enticing.

>>7079500

I really liked it when it was in the Reunion Tower.

The Sheraton is nice, but it just feels way too spread out now for the attendance size.

>>7079505

Exactly. It's too much room for too small of a con, and it's getting smaller every year.

My sister and I went for the last day of the con today and we finished what we wanted to do really early. We wanted to kill some time because we drove over there and didn't want to go back home (we live close enough to drive every day but it's like an hours drive so it's a bit inconvenient) so we went to the superwholock q&a because it was one of the only panels at that time. it was.... very sloppy and poorly run and embarrassing and uncomfortable.

Is it just me, or are our Texas /cgl/ meetups getting worse? I went to one at AFest in 2011 and we got a really good turnout and we all got pizza together and it was fun. At this last A-Kon and AFest it's only been about four to six people, and half of them are people I drag with me everywhere already, so it's not really NEW FRIENDS.

They've been causing panelists grief for a few years now and many that had decent panels are either banned or refuse to work with the con.

someone asked why the separate the cosplay contests in the other thread,

I've been attending this con for 7 years now, when I started the contest was on sunday. Afest used to get fairly big Japanese bands for Saturday night concerts. One year they could not book a band because of money, so to fill the now void time slot they put walk ons on Saturday and skits on Sunday, gave both huge time limits (walk ons a minute, skits 8 minutes) and it went over pretty well. The following year they booked a band again, but they didn't want to re-join the cosplay events so they bumped walk ons to Friday. EVERY YEAR since then (and this was at least 4-5 years ago at this point) people have complained about the walk ons being on Friday and they would never address the concern. Their reasoning for doing it was that they were the only convention that split them, who cares if they are both so shitty?

>>7079557

They also refuse to give Saturday to anything but a band. Bands require main events locked down all afternoon for sound checks and other things. You'd think Friday when most con-goers aren't there yet would be the perfect time for that, right? WRONG. SATURDAY. ALL DAY. Want to do a walk on? Hope you don't have a job or school.

>>7079533

There was an overwhelming amount of cosplay Q&A panels this year. I really like that the process was transparent and we had voting, but I think con staff should have exercised more judgement in the final say.

Though in the end it comes down to the submissions, not the votes. We just need better submissions.

>>7079551

My biggest complaint as a panelist was the timing. If a panel ran right up until say, 1 pm, then when do I have time to set up for my panel that starts at 1?! They need to build in buffers like A-kon does and have a more efficient set up. Twice I had to have staff run and grab extension cords so my laptop didn't die mid-panel (I wanted it plugged in as a safety net, even if it was at 100%). Shouldn't each room already have one?

I'm still going to come back and run panels (hopefully, if they get voted/approved) but it definitely wasn't as smooth an experience as I'd have liked.

>>7079542
lol wut?
I'm pretty sure I took that picture but I didn't post it. Maybe someone was behind me

>>7079633

I was behind you. Always behind you. Hehe.

Attendance could be attributed to a few things. I figure having San Japan two weeks before didn't help as most Houston/southern Texas types would probably prefer to go there since it's closer and had more to offer over all.

On top of that, there were about 4 other cons going on the same weekend in various places.

Having a pretty meh guest list and no band hit them hard. I understood when it was a money issue the one year, but this year? No idea what happened. They used to be THE con to go to for Japanese bands.

What was up with the staff kicking out people without badges? I know you need them for panels and dealers room but I had staffers rudely tell me to gtfo by the escalators/meeting friends in AA/other places I assumed were neutral. Fuck's sake

>>7079681
i remember that dude. he was pretty chill and was pretty hyped about my wolfwood cosplay

Did any of you guys catch ani-idol? the guy in the blue button down shirt was surprisingly good

>>7079757

I went to the Semi-Formal ball and he got up there and sang to his gf before proposing and everyone went crazy. He was amazing. He also performed at the ani-idol show was killed it there too.

Speaking of singing, Jebus killed it at karaoke too. I didn't know going to see people sing could be so much fun.

Friday night was a ghost town. I know Fridays are usually slow, but this was rediculous.
General low energy vibe all weekend. No excitement, nothing special was going on. Theme for the whole weekend was: Been There, Done That...But Even Less Than Normal.
Fuck it, I'm getting too old for cons anyway.

Yeah, Jebus, Kuromu, and Slutcliff at the Ani idol concert definitely added on to the amusement factor.

the 2nd cgl meet up was fun
went to a bar that was maybe a gay bar then explored underground tunnels and found a giant model rail road thing.

Yea, it was pretty boring this year. Best part was playing mafia and Salem Witch hunts all night

>jesus reporting in

It almost feels like they should consider going back to the Hyatt.

Also, whoever put Main Events between panel rooms may have given a giant "fuck you" to any one in panels around it. I was at the Formal Ball and after an hour something was going on in Main Events that vibrated the walls loudly enough that you couldn't hear the music. The cosplay dating game was worse because the rave was constant booming that made people have to repeat themselves. We left both early because it was too frustrating to stick around.

>>7080236
they can't go back to a place that doesn't want them.

elevators had all their lights this year

>>7080366

Not in the North Tower!

So how did hall and walkon contests go? How was the prejudging this year? I was going to compete but dropped out last minute. Saw one girl on coscom complain about judges but she didn't mention anything specific.

Does anyone know where to leave feedback? I used to put it on the forum but tey killed that

>>7080718
the judges for hall were awful. They were sitting behind a table and never even stood up to look at my costume. I had to flip my seams for them, and they seemed very disinterested in general. I knew it was a crap shoot when I walked in and saw 2 homestucks.

The runway judges were much more inquisitive a interested, but they didn't seem to care much about anything but my sewing.

>>7080724

When I saw the judges come on stage during the skit contest they did not look near good enough to be judges in a cosplay contest. They looked average. I too had to drop last minute because I was a derp and didn't read things right and thought the hall contest was all weekend, not just Saturday and Sunday, and couldn't wear my competition piece either of those days due to panel conflicts. Don't know how I confused that, but oh well. Maybe next year.

>>7079823
Drewww~ I was in tears fanning myself in the back of the room. I've known him and his fiance for a bit now and I was so friggin' happy for them

>>7079859
Is this a good or bad amusement~?

>>7080731
well they were just from mu epsilon kappa or whatever, that college anime club. How they ended up judging a craftsmanship contest is beyond me. At least the other judge was a member of the costumer's guild, but even her costume looked sub par.

>>7080742

Are you going to add a Rei to your Free! group? Inquiring Nagisas would like to know. I might even share my flyers.

>>7080756

That is the judge I was most perplexed by. The wig seemed low quality and her cosplay just didn't seem exciting. Maybe it was awesome and I just couldn't see it quite so well, but on first glance I wasn't impressed.

>>7080763
Ahaha, we're working on it. Our Kyoya from our Ouran group is interested, but he's a bit reluctant to get waxed~

>>7080724

That's how I felt about Hall judges. I worked hard to make sure everything was finished and clean, but they wouldn't have known if I didn't tell them.

And I'm fine with that. I just wish they were more engaging and asked questions. Anything but just sit there and listen.

>>7080776

I can understand that. It was definitely an interesting moment. Not sure why but I just wasn't prepared to actually meet male Free! cosplayers. Those abs were intimidating (and I'm kinda jelly)!

Are y'all considering more Free! cosplay in the future? I would love to do the harem outfits if I can get in shape a bit more. No more pizza for this Nagisa!

>>7080776
Slutcliff, did your Ouran panel get recorded? You guys looked amazing walking around, but I slept through my alarm and didn't make it to the con for the panel. I just about died when I saw your twins and how in character they were, holy shit.

>>7080756

Two happened to be members of the organization, but they weren't representing the club at all. There was a lot of misinformation and confusion on that.

Mu Epsilon Kappa runs various panels and events. With the exception of the All-Con cosplay contest, it doesn't have anything to do with cosplay contests around Texas. It's a large organization with a lot of members around the country. People who are/were members often get involved with various parts of conventions, but they are representing themselves and their own set of skills or talents.

>>7080808
Yes it did~ Our lovely friend Kayla recorded the entire thing.

And I understand about the sleeping thing. A 10:00am panel the night after Greg Ayres DJ'd (and after everyone surely had a late night even if they didn't attend the rave) was a terrible idea, but it was the only slot they could give us. We're going to request a later time next con.

>>7080763

Out of the three hall judges, one's from the costumer's guild. The "college anime club" judge is a professional costumer with several stage shows and 10 years of cosplay. That was in the program book, if you read it. According to tumblr the third one was a last-minute replacement for someone who bailed, so I can get that.

But every one of these post-con threads is filled with whiners who assume that cuz they didn't win the judges didn't know shit. Maybe every cosplay judge at every con is bad, or more likely people's costumes aren't as good as they think they are.

I had quite a bit of fun there, I hung out with people I met online, the worst part was the smell of BO, god it stunk so bad

>>7080936

So which judge are you?

>>7080940

There were way too many moments where I got in the elevators and it smelled like a garbage dump. I have been to many cons, but there were some smells this con I have never experienced before and I hope I never have to again.

>>7080945
the worst was by the escalator and by the rooms on the opposite end, god, please kill me it stunk so bad, and it was only that floor really, the third floor smelt the best so my group stayed up there for a while and messed around
at least akon doesn't smell like that, I mean I think the smell was in the fucking carpef

>>7080958

High temps plus no escalators plus possibly no AC or very little...those add up.

>>7080945
Oh god, yes. It was to the point where I couldn't tell if it was rotting food or BO. It smelled like dead animals mixed with broccoli.

Anyone have any more pictures? I don't know where to look to find galleries.

>>7080718
or maybe its because all 3 of them sat behind a table the entire duration of judging, never asked a single question and left it up to the cosplayer to show off their workmanship. I've done enough contest to adapt to such shitty judging and know to flip my seams and elaborate when the judges don't ask questions but think of all the beginners that probably walked in there, took up 30 seconds and then walked out because the judges were too shitty to engage them.

Which judges from the book were the hall judges, I read every bio but I still only recognized 2-3 of them

Also if these people weren't repping mu epsilon kappa then why did they introduce themselves as such?

>>7080718

The girl that complained ("sailor moon") bitches every single year. I wish the forums were still up so I could show you because there hasn't been a year that's gone by that she didn't win BiS and blames the judges rather than being a decent but not top-tier cosplayer.

>>7080983
I usually take shittons but all I have is this badly-lit, poorly angled, outside-our-hotel-room photo I took while my Ouran group was practicing our posing.

>>7079542
oh hey
that's me.

>>7081051
What did she compete as? Was she in hall or runway?

>>7081152

Who knows, but every single year even if she wins an award, it's never enough.

>>7081016

They say >>7080874 cuz they troll the shit out of cgl and think cgl gives a shit. They help out with Akon cosplay show but won't go on record. So how about telling us the truth B/C/J.

>>7080936

I love the assumption that just because you have critiques about how something was run, you must have lost the contest.

You must be new here.

bumping for photos

>>7081658

Cosplay.com. The A-Fest Google Plus page. Facebook. All have easy links to tons of photos. Why wait for someone to post pictures here, they're all over the internet as it is.

>>7081663
you managed to tell them places to go without actually telling them where the photos are
congrats

>>7081669

Maybe I don't feel like helping a lazy person be even lazier. It takes minimal effort to find them.

>>7081658
If you give me half an hour I will post a couple that I took. Except those of "sailor man" because I don't know if he is ok with me posting them even tough someone already posted one of him

>>7081658

Will post some in a bit. Just got home from a 9 hour drive.

Here's a random pic of me and Professor at the dance thing.

>>7081921
you both look high as fuck

>>7081946
Well he was drunk. I think I was just blinking. Ahahaha.

>>7081937

>>7081966

>>7081954

>>7081974

>>7081990

>>7081996
Don't know if these 2 count as furfags or awesome but anyway

>>7081663
the fuck are you talking about? there are hardly any galleries linked around social networks. This year was so disappointing.

>>7082001

>>7082004

It's the day after the con, most people who took huge sets of pictures are still editing and prepping them. Coscom has 3, Facebook has quite a few, Google Plus had a few posted as well. Be patient, and don't expect people on here to post their galleries any faster than on there.

>>7082014

>>7082016
and usually by this point for other, more popular conventions there is a flood. They had a shitty year with shitty cosplay. Even the contests had terrible turn outs. They need to fix their shit or it's just going to keep getting worse.

I especially enjoy that they didn't have a band this year but walk ons were still stuck on Friday.

>>7082019

>>7082039

>>7082039

She was ok. Good at most songs but really off beat with a lot of others. I thought at first it was her mic and amp having a delay but I got close enough to hear her actual playing and she wasn't keeping time with the song.

>>7082041

>>7082046
This guys went to the meet up and they were not from here, according to them

Archimedes! No! Eet's filzhy in zere!

>>7082054

>>7081954

I'll see your Adeptus Mechanicus and raise you an Imperial Commissar.

Forward, for The Emperor!


(dude was seven feet tall, I swear!)

>>7082071

That's the great Jet Texas. The only guy I know that can cosplay the same two things over and over and still be the biggest, most beloved bad ass of any Texas con

>>7082063

>>7082071
spoiler alert, its the same guy

>>7082081
>>7082071
Is he really 7 feet?
I thought he was using stilts or platforms because.

>>7082054
Who said that? I don't remember that...

>>7082077
It's because he's a super cool dude.

>>7082077

Huh, must not be the same as this guy, who - while he's no slouch in the Cowboy Bebop department - wasn't nearly as tall as Der Komisar there.

I can totally picture him as Jet Black, though, now that you mention it.

>>7082107

Nope, that's Taco Jet. Jet Texas is much more fit and much taller.

... and some FLCL. I saw Haruko walking around on the same floor about the same time and totally failed to get the two together for a shot.

Doctor? Doctor. Doctor. Doctor!

>>7081674
wow
you sound just like afest staff

>>7082103
At least that's why I understood, but then again my English sucks.

>>7082107
Texas Jet usually dresses as white suit Jet

>>7082071
Guy has been cosplaying Jet since I first started going to afest in 2007.
super cool dude

WHAT TIME IS IT?!?

>>7082144
11:58 according to your time stamp

>>7082126
That's most of what I have, the others I need to ask for permission first.

>all this trip praising
>Jebus sang amazing

Sure smells incredibly samefag ITT

When there's somethin' strange, in your ... awwww, how cute!

>>7082126
O-oh. We were just kind of derping around, we didn't really know what to do. Thanks for getting a really good picture though!

>>7082168

I'm pretty sure he won't care. We already found some on other parts of the internet.

>>7082203
Well since you weren't around for the second meet up, I assumed that I was right about you not being from here; but thank you for letting me take the picture.
>>7082204
Oh, well then here are a couple more

>>7081952
Were you the Aerith?

>>7082229
That Rude was a baller, played Whooshball with the dude. Was fun.

Also, get off /cgl/ Charles

>>7082237
B-but my name is not Charles..

>>7082237
>>7082243

Yeah, his name is Khal Drogo.

>>7082254
lel, after I figured out that character I realized that I look nothing like him.

>>7081954
thats texas jet

>>7082262
did u get your headphones back

>>7082262

>>7082081
>darku frame master and rika

im glad someone did this

>>7082293
Yeah, I went there Sunday after 5 and was able to take a couple of extra pics like this one.
Thanks for keeping them, for a moment I assumed that the raver girl took them.

>>7082301
They were pretty chill people, let me tell you.

>>7082306
I just remember as soon as those chicks left we all checked to make sure we had our wallets and phones

>>7082054
I dropped the show so early that I could not connect that it was levi and hanji for some reason

>>7082071
fuck yeah jet I miss that guy

I know staff is lurking around here,
I hope you guys are reading this and not blowing it off, you need to fix your shit.

>>7082864

Ever go to the feedback panel? They spend most of it making excuses or yelling at you for daring to have an issue. The one I went to had a panelist ask for buffer times so they don't have to prep their panel during its run time if the people before use the entire time given. They asked what panel it was that had the issue, then said "your panel doesn't need a full hour any way" and moved on. That's one reason why the panels were lacking this year, they pushed so many panelists away and the ones that remain don't openly bring it up and deal with being treated like shit.

>>7082886

Wow. That is shitty and really rude. If staff didn't think that panel needed an hour, why did they approve it? They had final say. Which panel was it?

That is the issue I had running panels and that is very discouraging. Either they just need to say, "Your slot is 1 hour but you only have 50 minutes to talk," or just add a buffer. Sometimes the volunteers were nice about the time and would let things run over if the panel before you had done the same, but I was a little surprised how poorly the change overs went in between panels. It was my first time doing a panel and I can't say it won't make me come back, it just makes the experience more stressful.

I can see where the change might be easy if you're just talking, but all my panels had visuals so I had to set up my laptop (which included setting up the Mac converter I brought). It doesn't take long, but when the set up eats into panel time, that's not exactly the best use of my time.

Maybe next year we'll get better panel submissions. I know whenever I emailed the panel staff guy about my panels he was very nice and I felt bad for having so many questions.

Speaking of which, anyone know why A-fest won't let you show 18+ images, even in an 18+ panel? Is it just their personal views, or are they worried about the bodily fluids that might happen?

>>7082894

They refuse to allow sex of any kind to be shown. Even with 18 and up events it's not allowed, and they won't change that. We get some things that skirt the line like WTF Japan and the cosplay dating game but you will ever see a hentaifest there.

I ran a few panels before and I needed time to check audio and video. I was told to show up 10 minutes early and did. The panel before went to the hour mark because they had no clue it would affect other ones to do that. So the panel I ran had to start late, and then I decided to end early to be nice to the next panel. Had about 45 minutes of a panel and could only use 30, even when given an hour.

>>7082907

I was told I couldn't show genitalia or sex (even in images, no actual video) and I just had to work with it. It's just unfortunate to have all the censorship, but I only censored the images, not my content.

That was my problem, panels that run right up to the hour, then I make the next panel late and it's not like I'm trying to be rude, but sometimes you can't cut it down. And I made sure and practiced and timed all my panels to be under time and still have room for questions, but I had to really cut short time for questions because of the panel time. Again, some volunteers were better than others. We got cut short at a 10pm panel so I tried to wrap it up, only to discover there was no panel after ours. I guess they wanted to shut the room down, but I wasn't affecting anyone else panel wise.

Next year I feel like asking for 1.5 or 2 hours just to have a larger slot and give more room for questions. I don't like just talking and then having to shoo the audience out because we ran out of time. It doesn't seem fair to the audience.

>>7081228
Suddenly quite MEK? Learn to take the heat when the table is turned back onto you.

Learn2 anon better2 as you stick out when trying to troll. Fairly obvious.

>>7082916

If they don't feel you warrant longer, you won't get it. They're very strict about panels going over an hour.

>>7082916
that's weird since they have the 18+ section of the set show/auction, though I guess I've never seen anything explicit in it, just nudity

>>7082999

I was also told to downplay more explicit/sensitive parts of my presentation and that they took a risk with my panel(s). Which I'm very appreciative that they took the risk (and any staff who sees this, I am truly grateful for the opportunity to present), but the implications when they told me that in an email felt very much like trying to censor my content. I'll obey the image rules since I do want to present again, but I flat out refuse to cut content. For images I just tried to not having anything too sexual unless it was a historical image and used black bars to censor genitalia.

Which, I can accept all that if that's how A-fest wants to be. I'm just curious if one bad apple ruined it for everyone (like the A-kon hentaifest) or if they're just really prudish.

>>7082971

So someone please tell me how a character Q&A deserves 2 hours. I don't think many panels need to be 2 hours just because it is hard to hold an audience's attention for that long, but I'm curious how staff thinks actual presentations can set up, present, have Q&A in 1 hour (really less because the previous panel went right up to time) but a simple character Q&A needs 2 hours.

>>7083013

I think you need to do more research on hentaifest getting cancelled, that was a long time coming, not because of a bad apple but an entire bad orchard.

>>7082864
Staff is volunteer and besides a free badge and hotel they don't give a fuck.

I've staffed a fest before and all I did was sit in a room for a few hours and play magic. I and the rest of my "team" didn't give a fuck what people were doing unless we would be to blame.

>>7083105

Same here, until they started doing badge checks for every single fucking panel. It took one year of sitting at a door for hours to check all 11 badges of the people that actually showed up for it. Before you just had to help out here and there, now you have to stand door guard for everything. I paid for my badge instead.

>>7083023

So then what happened with hentaifest? In the A-kon threads it was explained as getting cancelled because of bodily fluids. I understood that it was more than one person.

>>7083136

Bodily fluids doesn't begin to describe it. Cleaning up cum that's from over a dozen people each year is one thing, having to pick up literal shit because someone dropped a load in the back corner? Every year it was turned into one of the most disgusting places to be and because A-Kon refused to have their own staff work it, the Hentaifest staff quit.

>>7082886
Every con staff has an asshole to blame. With Fest its Suzi.

They are clearly burned out after doing this for 20 years. If the crowds keep dropping then they should fold up.

>>7083148

Thanks for the info. So if A-fest just being cautious? I don't really care if we have hentai anime showings or not, I'm just curious why in an 18+ panel you can't have even static images of sex. Is it because they're "family friendly"? Sorry if this sounds like a newbie question, it was my first time at A-fest and I am genuinely curious.

>>7083174

>Suzi

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK THAT CUNT! The amount of rage just seeing her name puts me in is crazy. No one that knows her or has had to deal with her ever seems to feel anything but hate.

>>7082023
shitty pic but I remeber seeing these guys and they were adorable.

>>7083182

If you've ever had an issue with Cosplay, or Panels, or Security, chances are that it's her fault. She's not the cosplay director, the panel director, or the head of security, but don't tell her that. She micro manages the hell out of all of them to a point that they may as well change their title from "director" to "assistant".

>>7083013
My Ouran Panel was 2 hours and we used up the entire amount of time with three different sections of activity. We had a nearly full room and no one left early.

>>7083192

Ouran also uses all 2 hours just fine, and you have a lot going on. It's the "ask a _____" panels that get 2 hours that I don't understand. Then again, I hate those panels to begin with because I've never seen a good one.

>>7083193
I personally believe it's usually due to poor planning. I think our panel went as well as it did because we spent months planning it out, wrote some of our own questions and "dares" to insert into the panel in case things got slow, and purchased several items from the dealer room and artist's alley to give away as prizes for correct trivia answers. We had several group meetings to practice voices, being in character, and building group dynamic. I personally shelled out a bit of money to have little panel advertisements to hand out at the con as well to help attract audience members.

I think if other ask ____ panels would just spend a bit more time organizing and planning they would do a lot better.

>>7083193

That's what I'm alluding to. I got no problem with >>7083192 where it's sectioned off. Y'all seem to know what you're doing and if you're filling the room, then that's a justifiable panel. You're obviously getting fans and run a decent show.

So did "ask a __" get a lot of people? Saw some pics online and it looked pretty sparse.

>>7083203

Agreed. Cosplay Q&A can be fun if done right. Y'all seem to put effort into it, and definitely given what you just said, you've figured out how to properly do it without it just being awkward fandom baiting by the audience.

Did anyone go to other cosplay Q&A or ask ___ panels? There were a shitton this year and I didn't make it to many panels at all.

>>7083203

Most often panelists put in bare minimum effort and could care less. It's even worse on this con when most of the panelists that actually do give a shit get bullied out of the con if they ever say they have a problem with something, no matter how legitimate it is.

>>7083210

Cosplay Ask a Character panels normally spend about 30 minutes with people trying (but failing) to be in character, and then the rest of it is "this girl dressed as a guy should kiss that girl dressed as a guy because I ship them and need more reasons to rub my pussy on my pillow at night." Don't believe me? Go to any of them. It's even worse with Homestuck/Hetalia/Supernatural

>>7083210

You can tell how well a Q and A / Ask a Character panel will be by how they accept the characters. If it's just "hey, you cosplay this, join us", avoid at all costs. If they actually do auditions it has a chance, but normally a pretty small one. They're not very entertaining, a lot of them are ego trips for the people on stage, and I have yet to be to one where at least 1/4th of the people involved actually were in character.

>>7083212
We actually had our audience members write their dares down on slips of paper before the trith or dare section so we would weed those sort of dares out.

>>7083212

I went to the Hetalia 18+ at A-kon and that was enough to steer me away from their panels at A-fest. Kinda glad none of my other fandoms do Q&A (yet). Lord help if they try and push that for SnK. But it's just awkward when the audience or the panelists force their ship on you. They're always so much more about the fandom than the series anyway.

>>7083218

I went to a Character Q and A that tried screening questions and after 20 minutes there were no good questions left and it became "who ships what?"

>>7083214

>ego trips
You called it right there.

>>7083218
Sounds way better than just questions. Do y'all get weird dares or is your audience actually fairly tame? I'm envisioning horrifically rabid weebs which is another reason I avoid Q&A

Cosplay Q&As should be 18+ where the characters just talk about their shippings along with what they get off to. Shit should be real where they admit "Yes I did get off to imagining X dominating Y. It was caaaaaaaaash." Then everyone in the rooms cheers.

>>7083274

So it's like cosplay truth or dare with emphasis on truth?

Wasn't there a panel at A-kon about being open with our fetishes? Sounds kinda like that.

Imho cosplay q&a panels should be totally minimal. I get that cons can only use what gets submitted but the kind of q&a I've seen is more painful than nothing at all. It's always a lazy ego trip for the panelists. I wish I could have been there for Slutcliff's group, it might have given me hope.

In a perfect world there will be only funny, entertaining and informational panels at every con. And no con funk or weebs. Someday... In cosplay heaven.

>>7083226
We got a lot of "___ switch personalities with ____" and "____ sing a song" sort of questions. But I wasn't the one screening them so I didn't get to read through all of them.

>>7083223
Which is why we had several of our own written out on a special coloured paper so we could pick one up if things were getting dull or repetitive.

Has anyone been to the dating game? I thought it was an actual dating game and that sounded too socially awkward for me but people keep saying it's actually funny.

>afest on facebook changes cover photo to hamsteak meet
>why am I not surprised?

>>7083404

Probably because it was the only meet up/shoot that didn't look like a few people hanging out. Every shoot was dead.

>>7083407

Sad thing is they had a shoot every day. I swear every time I walked by the cancer survivor's plaza there were hamsteaks taking photos.

>>7083404

Wow. That's sad. Might as well change the name of the con, too.

>>7083361
Its based of of the old dating game gameshow. Im pretty sure most of it is rehearsed but three 'contestants' in costume go up on stage and one bachelor asks them romantic-based questions.
in the end they pick someone to be with. Last years was incredible because most of the panelists were smashed. this year, not so much.

>>7083413

I think a problem with this year was a lack of the decent actors. Some new faces were great and some of the veterans always bring quality, but why they keep letting others that are boring return year after year. Some people can act, some cant.

>>7083439

Slutcliff, I adored you as Renge! Please tell me you're single ;_;

>>7083404
yeah, so much for we are an anime con dammit! They used to be so set on not allowing anything but anime and now they use the shittiest webcomic meet up as a cover image

>>7083439
>I've made a terrible mistake.

>>7082054
Oh they are from here. One of them trips

>>7083466

I want to know if they actually paid for rights to screen Disney movies.

>>7083501

Greg defended the con for showing fansubs so I doubt they paid anything for the Disney rights.

>>7083413
I participated as Grell last year and had a great time, wish I could have gone this year.

>>7083456
Awh, I'm flattered but I have a lovely girlfriend in New Hampshire named Sammie

>>7083524
I will never live again...

>>7083509
I doubt Greg defended them, he is vehemently against bootlegs and illegal content.

>>7083534

You obviously weren't at his panel friday. He said out loud "I stopped giving a fuck about people and places watching fansubs long ago" and then went on to say that if they were showing fansubs, he would just "talk" to them about it.

>>7083539

Probably because he doesn't want to be on the black list at another con.

>>7083539
there's a difference between a person watching fansubs at home and a con charging you and then illegally screening movies and fansubs.

>>7083539

Jebus, please go. If people have a problem with fansubs speak to the con staff about it, not a guest (regardless if the guest is famous for being a vocal proponent of legal anime).

>"I stopped giving a fuck about people and places watching fansubs long ago"

Yeah, after the heart attack. I'm not trying to white knight Greg Ayres, but since when is it a paid guest's job to research whether the con is showing illegal anime or not.

That being said, Greg did seem to miss that the point wasn't about Crunchyroll (do people seriously still think that site is illegal?), it was about the unlicensed shows.

>>7083361
>>7083413

I participate every year, and each year it really depends on what characters are there, who enters and who is in each round. Its funny for some rounds, and some rounds can be painful because we don't prescreen contestants or have rehearsals, so we get lots of people who don't know how to improv or even act in character up on stage with their awkwardness.

Couple that with the damn rave next door and having to repeat ourselves, this year didn't top last year's at all. But it was still entertaining in some rounds. Less drunken fun because we started late, but what can you do.

You don't have to have a badge to go in video rooms. They are not charging anyone to go in video rooms.

Why the fuck can't this anon understand that.
ANYONE CAN JUST WALK IN THERE AND WATCH. That is why it's legal.

If you bring it up again at this thread. Let me know where the fuck your hotel room is at next con and I'll educate you on it, and then proceed to make sure you never shit post again. :)

>>7083877

This is b8.

>>7083877
actually, the only reason video rooms don't require badges is that the companies providing the screenings demand it.

>>7083909

>companies providing the screenings demand it
>fansubs
>Disney movies

>>7083877

It's still against the law. It even says in the FBI Warnings in the fucking DVD's that showing copyighted material outside your home without copyright owner consent is prohibited. Why do you think showing copyrighted material with fansubs isn't breaking copyright law?

>>7083909
hahahaha no
the reason they don't check badges for video rooms is because they don't have the staff to do it. No con is going to throw resources on video rooms when they need volunteers to coral main event lines and make sure people aren't shop lifting in the dealers room

>>7083877
you are adorable, why are you so buttmad anon?

>>7084018

...did you even go to A-Fest? If they could have enough volunteers for every single panel throughout the entire day, then that's probably not why they don't have them at the vid rooms.

>>7084064
yes, did you? It's a flat out lie that cons don't badge check because the animation companies won't let them. The reason cons usually don't badge check for video rooms is because it's not worth the man power.

>>7084113

And I'm saying that for A-Fest, if manpower was a question, they wouldn't stock badge checkers outside of EVERY SINGLE PANEL. All of them. Not just the main events one, but all of them. Part of the reason why is because then it'd be considered pay to enter and it'd fall under a completely different classification.

can we talk about how terrible both Homestuck q&a panels were? I heard the chick that runs them is a total twat and can't organize things to save her life, and even bailed on her trickster panel and had her friend fill in for her. the karkat and gamzee for the regular panel were the best parts, everyone else was a trainwreck. The trickster panel was a stupid idea to begin with, since only 4 of them are canon. And what was wrong with that Dave's face, she looked like someone hit her in the face with bb's and she tried to cover it with a 6-inch layer of makeup. One Homestuck panel is more than enough, but there were 3 or 4. What is up with that?

Are all cons these days going down the shitter? this sounds terrible.

Volunteers were terribad this year, though they seem to be getting worse. I don't know why they were so anal about badges. All the places that needed them had checkers and that's that. There shouldn't have been an issue with with people being on the floor, in artist alley, or in the video rooms.

>>7084248

Get in line. There were several fandoms that had multiple panels, even multiple Q&A. Idk if just different groups submitted or what, but there were at least 5-6 brony panels, the 3 Homestuck, 3 Hetalia, 3-4 Supernatural/Sherlock/Dr. Who panels.

Why can't people present something interesting while in character? Like the "How to Survive a Zombie Attack" or whatever it was called would have been more fun if it wasn't Q&A and was just those characters presenting how to actually survive.

Have we got a final count on attendance? Anyone know if they'll release numbers for the panels, too, since they scanned us?

>>7084616

They didn't release an official number but some staff last year said they were at 4500. It's likely with this year being under 4000 they won't do an official count again because its one thing that they can't dismiss as not being their fault.

>>7084631
i didn't even buy a badge, its not worth it

They just said their attendance was 7250 unique people. Any one want to call bullshit?

>>7084849
they are probably counting all staff, artists, guests, ECT in that number. Notice they didn't say unique attendees

>>7084849
For feeling smaller than San Japan, I can believe this. I was expected close to 10-12k.

>>7084849
For feeling smaller than San Japan, I can believe this. Before I got there Thursday, I was expecting close to 10-12k.

>>7084879

Keep in mind, 2 years ago they only had 5.1k

>>7084887

And attendance dropped from last year. They had 5000ish for years, no way it jumped that much and then went down to 7250

>>7083452

Care to summarize? I wanted to go, but didn't want to waste my time. What was the good, the bad, and the ugly on this one?

To M. on the AFest FB

>(I'm sure you've seen the /cgl/ threads)

>yfw you realize Afest FB page changed their cover photo to one from the rave after we started bitching about it being homestuck

Thoughts?

>>7085038
it wasn't just us, people were bitching on the photo too. I have no doubt they have staff lurking though.

>>7085060
yeah it's actually fucking hilarious
>people whiteknighting homestuck everywhere
>WE R HERE 2 STAY GET USED 2 IT!!!!!
>as if this helps how people view them

>>7085070

I was walking through the skywalk and heard a girl very loudly telling them to shape up and not do anything stupid at the photoshoot, then I saw a post on tumblr with someone whining about getting yelled at.

I was just a little peeved that the "Why Your Fandom Sucks" panel didn't actually get to Homestuck. Greg has a nice idea, but he only covered two fandoms and then things just kind of rambled. I want the deets, not other people's stories.

>>7085076
Yeah I heard that too. People in the crowd cheered at the time but I do remember hearing a few homestucks later on going on about oh my god don't patronize us homestucks know how to behave ughhh

obviously you don't?

>>7085092

Obviously. And looking at the comments on facebook... the dude comparing Homestuck to literature and the one girl going on the rant about how if it was really just an ANIME con we couldn't even have manga characters? I can't speak for the rest of the anti-Homestuck crowd, but from my point of view, I would be pissed if ANY non-anime/manga/Japanese pop culture fandom made the cover. It's not just Homestuck that I feel this way towards, it's anything off-topic. She's acting like everyone has it out just for Homestuck and I'm beginning to think the more they say that, the more they think it. As if they're creating this victimization?

It's not like any of the "negative comments" are unjustified. Since when is it discriminatory to expect an anime con to live up to their theme? I don't go around expecting comic and sci fic cons to cater to otaku and offer anime programming, so why should we have to cater to them? Not my problem Homestucks can't have cons of their own.

>>7085100

A good chunk of the fandom are socially inept. There was already those spin the bottle circles each day near the elevators on the second floor. People of various ages.

When you see adults joining in on those with a bunch of teenagers I always have a wtf feeling.

The sad part are there are fans don't fit that stereotype. Hell they even cosplay at cons. They just stay the hell away from everyone else in the fandom for obvious reasons. I think that says something about your fandom as a whole.

>>7085114

Didn't see the spin the bottle games, but I saw some sort of circular floor game while waiting in line for the skit contest. Sadly it was a lot of Hetalia cosplayers and you'd think that we still might have improved as a fandom with Homestuck being as bad as they are, but nope. It was a "why your fandom sucks" moment.

>When you see adults joining in on those with a bunch of teenagers I always have a wtf feeling.

Adults joining in spin the bottle? Like, real spin the bottle? Isn't that... kinda illegal?

>>7085114
What the flying fuck? I didn't see the spin bottle here but in Akon I was going to join, but now that you mention it, I'm glad I didn't because I'm way too old even if I look young when I shave

>>7085131
>>7085140

I'm pretty sure it would be illegal. That didn't seem to matter to most people. A-Kon's giant circle was really bad as far as ages went.

My guess is if they're in character age doesn't matter? Since, from what I gathered, the characters are like 16?

>>7085146

>My guess is if they're in character age doesn't matter?

I want to see one of those old farts tell that to the police. All it would take is one helicopter parent to notice and everyone's goose is cooked.

But I'm really not sure why the teens aren't creeped when an adult jumps in?

>>7085153
because teens are stupid little shits and pairings are kawaii

>>7085158

But aren't teens these days all dating their best friends because they're special snowflakes with their oh-so-alternate sexualities?

>>7085161
I'm a demisexual genderqueer femme trans Hispanic corgi troll and I hate you CIS scum for demeaning my legitimate self diagnosed mental uniquenesses

>>7085200

You just triggered me. Thanks.

>>7084248
I think they would have been better if the girl who ran them before hadn't stepped down. There were so many awkward silences and people started walking out before it was even half over.

>>7085305

Sounds like every ask a character panel.

they're slowly posting asking for feedback about various parts of the con, do you think they'll actually ask for cosplay feedback?

>>7086176

Hopefully. I did see where they posted asking for panel feedback, just feels like people are more concerned on discussing their cover page changes than actual panel feedback.

>>7086186

The choice to do voting for panels means they can blame the attendees for bad panels. They let some fandoms dominate without a single care. Now they're defending a voting system that at most had 15 votes for a panel. 15 out of the alleged 7250 attendees. That's a good sign it doesn't work.

>>7086225

I actually like the voting because it's transparent. I think the failure in the system is them not promoting it (yes 15 votes is way too low) and that there were poor submissions. A-fest staff had final say in the panels anyway. I was told the voting system this year was more of a beta or test run for next year, so they were still apparently making final calls. I think A-fest staff should always make the final call and yes there should be limits to fandom panels. At a con the size of A-fest there doesn't need to be more than 3 panels per fandom and that's only considering the size of the fandom. There also don't need to be two cosplay Q&As for ANY fandom.

Honestly I see both sides of the argument, though I think that people who are against the voting system fail to really understand that it's not the votes themselves that were the problems, it's the submissions. We can only vote on what gets submitted. A-fest should make rules that are more clear, and they should stick to them (they didn't even stick to the submission deadline).

>>7086232

It doesn't help that they pissed off so many panelists that they don't want to work with the con any more.

>>7086273

That, too. I guess my main reason for liking the voting is the transparency. I feel like if there's going to be bullshit and drama caused by a panel not getting in (or getting in) we can see it right there in the open.

Are there any specifics as to what happened and people won't come back as panelists, or was it just a laundry list?

>>7086306

It's transparency with a cost though. That cost made it worse.

The panelists I've talked to have a variety of reasons from rude staff to lying and bullying to poor placement. Look at the panel post, they put two loud events at the same time only separated by a thin wall so both panels were frustrated. Have a complaint? There's a 5% chance they will honestly take it into consideration. Otherwise, expect to be bullied, harassed, and treated like you're the problem.

>>7086306
It felt like the voting really didn't matter though. My group's Ouran panel had around 13 votes, and was approved, but then another Ouran panel had 1 vote and also got approved.

Is there a list of what didn't get approved?

>>7086273
>so many panelists that they don't want to work with the con any more.

This shit again. Didn't we just see this in OTHER cons threads too? It reads more like "Waaaaaa I can't get things my way so I'm just not gonna do shit anymore. Its all these cons faults."

Same shit I'm seeing when bitching about AM, SJ or A-Kon. How about 'fess up who you are if you think your shit is so good.

>>7086618

Either you haven't had to deal with Suzi or you are Suzi.

>>7086618

The people that said this in SJs thread weren't the ones running good panels, they were upset that the con didn't let them run unnecessary, bad fan panels. Animefest was almost nothing but unnecessary, bad fan panels. You don't lose almost every decent panelist and get only bad ones by doing everything right.

>>7086899

San Japan has a pretty boring schedule too if you recall. A lot of Western crap.

>>7087626
Out of over 150+ panels they had just over a dozen western-only panels or around 10%. So how about you kawaiidesushutthefuckup.

>>7086472

I recall only like 5 or so panels not getting approved. One was a Homestuck panel, "My Little Pony, Panels are Magic," the panel about "A Frank an Open Discussion of Our Fetishes" or whatever it was called, a second Anime/Cosplay Dating Game, and something else. Almost every panel that got submitted was accepted at one point or another. They had like 4-5 rounds of "acceptances," and there was really no pattern or reason I could analyze behind them except that the first round was probably what they MOST wanted to see at the con.

>>7088127

So basically voting was pointless?

>>7087671

Sorry you seem like such an SJ fanboy. Get that dick out of your ass.

San Japan was just as lame panel wise as Afest.

>>7088244

In a sense yes, but I think an issue with that is staff didn't follow the rules they set out. I was told that voting this year was only a test for next year. Staff still had final approval (and approved almost everything) and so it's more interesting what they DIDN'T approve than what they did. They started to approve panels before the deadline was up as well. But they had set a deadline for submissions and STILL approved stuff that was submitted after the deadline, which I was a bit put off by. Panel submissions opened in April and ended June 30. That's plenty of time, even after A-kon, to get your shit together and submit a panel.

I think it was also weird we had to vote on stuff that seemed like it should just be automatically on the schedule, like the ball, Greg's panels, or the MEK game shows.

>>7088310

I was also told this year was more or less a test to see if the system could work. They don't plan on being serious about it until next year.

There weren't many panels that didn't get accepted, but there were one or two I thought would have been totally better than all the Q&A panels of the same damn fandoms.

>>7088542

Another problem I think we see with A-fest panels beyond the Q&A submissions is people just submitting the same ones from A-kon. I know not everyone goes to A-kon, but I don't want to see a panel twice. That would be why things like the fetish discussion panel got rejected (it was at A-kon). Or it could just be A-fest being abnormally prudish.

I agree with staff that if you have open votes it can result in ballot stuffing, but on a small level that will still happen (people just ask their friends to vote). Perhaps a compromise since some people don't buy a badge until the con or closer to the con would be to require everyone to have an account. Yes, you could still stuff the ballot, but it's better than totally open voting.

I also think they should limit the number of panels you submit. The cosplay panels were overwhelmingly submitted by one person. If that one person is a terrible panelist, then all those panels will suck. I know they offer badge reimbursement if you do 4 hours of programming, but I would think that 4 panels to a person (maybe 6 if you are part of a group) is more than enough.