So this was my first con and I have to say, it was a BLAST. Most fun I've had since I moved to Ohio. Thanks so much to the staff and every one involved for making it possible for people like us anime fans to have such a great time. I met some awesome and CRAZY people. Although if any one was bothered by the shirtless, drunk Russian, I'm sorry!! Me and my friends tried to keep him settled down, but as you can see it didn't really work. So sorry if we inconvienced anyone! As for the events and things... the video game room was AWESOME. I wish I hadn't missed the Brawl tournament though... but it was cool just to play for fun. The cosplay event on Saturday was fun too! I didn't really do much of the panels because I was so busy running around with my friends, but the anime showing rooms were nice. Although I was a bit disappointed The Adventures of Sonic The Hedgehog wasn't shown in the Bad Anime room because I'm a Sonicfag like that. Anyways, over all it was incredible experience and I'm very glad I got to be a part of it.

I've decided to label this weirdcon. This weekend was absolute anarchy in the confines of a hotel. The more cons I go to, I realize that less and less people keep their cool, while more and more "Hyperactive" we'll call them, people arrive on the scene, with absolutely no respect for the hotel concierge and/or officials, and each other. Don't get me wrong, I had a great time at the con, but this con was so eventful in a negative way, that I wasn't sure it was actually happening. I was hearing talk of rapes, over dosing, people getting arrested and kicked out, children getting stuck in the elevator, and that's not even the half of it. It was absolutely ridiculous. It had a REALLY bad case of ridiculitis.

All in all what I'm trying to say, is peopole need to learn to respect others before drowning under the assumption that since anime cons involve chaos, that you can get away with whatever you want. Adding booze and drugs into the mix was just down right gobbledygook.

Also there was no Anime Hell which was slightly disappointing. =)

All in all I just enjoyed myself playing Connect-4 and watching all the drama and chaos around me. At this rate, anime conventions will be illegal in several states.

Actually, I was pretty releived that there WEREN'T any overdoses or kickouts. Not a single ambulance, which is always good. We almost kicked a guy or two out, but in the end everything was able to be worked out. Overall I was very impressed with the crowd. There was a bit of minor property damages, but nothing as bad as other cons lately.

No kidding. It seems like the etiquette at cons is exponentially degressing and people are getting more destructive. Ruined hotels weren't really a problem at all a few years ago. Pretty soon, no hotel is going to want to host an anime convention.

A lot of it is just maladjusted kids suddenly being empowered.

When did all this happen? I was there pretty much all day Saturday and I didn't see anything that ridiculous.

Maybe it's because I was really oblivious, but I didn't see or hear of a lot of the stuff Lightning_Fox mentioned either. I'm not sure if people got stuck on the elevator or not, but my friend called and told me about the elevator being stuck and that maybe one of our friends could be on it. It turns out that (thank God) none of the people in my group got stuck on the elevator.

I was stuck on the first floor because of that, and I tried the stairs and got freaked out to death of that loud noise, whatever it was. O_O

Someone pulled the fire alarm, I hear.

:( I was pretty much awake for the entire convention, and nothing out of the ordinary happened. Everything seemed to run smoothly, and people were well behaved.

In fact, this was one of my favourite conventions because everyone was so cool. :2cents:

The fire alarm thing was crap. All the double doors closed and it took forever to get them to stay open.

Me, well...

So my thoughts on AP08 has led me to a bittersweet conclusion that I've been struggling with for awhile now. I had a good enough time, I really enjoyed getting to play pokemon with some people for a bit and the panals I went to, and it definitely won't be a con I forget for multiple reasons. But I'm going to have to agressively go after being a panalist or running an Artist Alley table, because anime cons are otherwise not very much fun for me. ^_^; But I suppose someone has to do that. xD

I do not think that what turns me off is a fault of AP08 as much as ongoing trend at anime cons. Just the general throwing the rules out the window and doing whatever the hell you want, mixed with no control isn't working for me. As a joke this week, I said that anime cons were like a modern day, 'Height Ashbury'.

I'm not saying AP was a constant craiziness, I thought it was decently controlled for the most part, but it was a couple times. I think have been a little better for me there'd just been more programming, so I could enjoy what I like doing, instead of being out in what I don't like.

Maybe this is a passing thing for me, I had a pretty rough time. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy partying, and like to join in, just only to a point. And the chaos isn't fun for me. ^_^; And the time I had was good. Just not great.

I don;t see "rules" being thrown out any windows. I did see some some social folkways being shattered to pieces, but those are expectations, not rules or laws.

I've been goign to cons for years, and I don't see a degregation in con ativity, I see a tightening of expectations outside of cons. or in other words things that were acceptable whenI was a kid aren't now in general. so maybe its jsut your expectations are getting higher.

If you want to be a lawyer about it, I'm just talking about doing whatever you want without regards for anyone else.

People go to cons to open up and be themselves for three days out of the blandness of the months. I'm sorry that not everyone can meet your expectations and quietly sit in a panal all day or play pokemon, but I guess that means you could just not attend? It's just very offensive to me to hear people say things like that. :( I happen to be someone that tries to uphold manners and the like, and I didn't see anything wrong with the goings on. People like to be crazy sometimes, and they don't get the opportunity to do that everywhere, so try not to drag everyone else down.

Honestly, thinking back to cons in '03, there are MORE rules now, and it's less Height-Ashbury. AP is an exception in that it is a COLLEGE CON with booze, but back in the day there was a lot more, ahem, sexual deviance. The crowd is getting more immature every year and the fandoms are just one big trio without any good merch for any other show/game in the dealer's room. I've started to get the feeling that I've grown out of this scene, but then there's a rave, and I reconnect with old friends, and I remember why I bothered.

Cons used to be a lot wilder. Or maybe my crowd now is just less crazy?

yeah I love bleach to death, BUT! it is rediculous...and even its fading to Naruto and Final Fantasy........

I don't think there was ONE VENDOR at AP that didn't have a Naruto something......


But I foun d a FMA necklace/watch set I love..so its all good.

Dude, shut up. I really hate when people tell other people to "just not attend" a con.

The point of a "post con 2008" board is to let people voice their opinions.

Now go let Yuffie voice her fucking opinion. Maybe you disagree with it, but that doesn't mean you need to tell her to not come.


As for my stance. I sit in the middle. While I think there could've been more programming (Especially main events), breaking out and doing other stuff isn't bad, either.

The excuse of "I'm a a con, so I can do whatever I want!" is pure bull. Just because you're at a con that's not an excuse to forget all common courtesy and respect for property and people. I've been going to cons for years too and the amount of stories I see and hear today are a lot worse then the things I heard back when I started, mainly due to the crowd getting younger.

Case in point:

At Matsuri last year on Sunday there was a hotel maid vacuuming the lobby. It was a bit crowded and several people bumped into her. I bumped into her as well, but I turned around and said a quick "Excuse me." The woman shot me a look of surprise and said "You're the first person who's said that to me all day."

That's just really sad, people. By all means cut loose a bit at a con, but don't vandalize the hotel or be mean to the staff.

I know what you mean. When I was in line for the cosplay, I got stuck standing in front of this group of obnoxious, obviously drunk guys. And when I was standing against the wall, they kept pushing each other, and of course they would fall onto the people next to them. I told them to please stop it, but they didn't listen, some of them just snickered. It got to the point where I had to move away from the wall further out into the hallway (especially when one of the guys picked up his girlfriend and started throwing her around to the other guys.) I tried my best to ignore them, but I was worried that they were going to knock me over or step on my feet or something.

Aside from that bad experience though, I had a really good time. :D

So yeah, AP was pretty badass this year.
Here are my random gathered thoughts:

-Hotel was pretty small for being 'bigger'
-Rock Band room ROCKED
-I was kinda popular-ish this year, since I was awake the whole con, lol
-What? *my catch phrase for this year*
-Girls were hot
-Rave was cool, but it wasn't dark enough
-The only good breakdancer was the black guy *no offense*
-I wasn't old enough for the Hentai Olympics, Damn, lol
-I can't think of anything else
-What?

Next time report them to staff.

Tons of sexual deviance lead to loads of lol's for me.

I swear I saw some kids pulling plants and such but I couldn't find them ever again. I loved the hotel staff, they worked well with us. Its good for a con goer to be mindful of the actual people who worked there. As a whole, if we have a bad crowd then they won't host us. I definitely liked that hotel better than last year. So lets try not to piss hotel staff off. The other hotel last year was such assholes.. well they were to me and my friend. Dunno bout other people.

AP is most definitely a college con.. but the amount of people drinking was enormous. I swear it's like 2/3 was drunk on Saturday.

I wish there was more seating area. But thats the hotels fault. XD.

I definitely HATED the fact that someone pulled a fire alarm. I don't know who did it, but by now everyone should know that something never good comes from it.

For some of the down time that I did have I seemed to have an uneasiness and I wanted to go to more events. Maybe I'm just a hyper active person who needs to be involved? I dunno but I felt that Saturday after the Masquerade kinda died down until the Break dancing thing.

Just a quick and final thoughts until I think of some more. Why didn't we have guitar hero? ((HUGE FAN)) I know its not really anime related but it's like Beck... sorta.. no... okay? WELL ANYWAYS
I thought I heard someone talking about a Rockband tourney. Was there one?


:2cents:

Woah, don't need to get defensive. ^_^;

I never said I wanted everyone else to do that all day...I just want to be able to do that. And some people do that. I don't think it was a bad crowd, it was the typicial crowd, the scene is probably just one I'm starting to be aware of and still not use to. I just didn't end up in the mood to party, and felt left with little else.

Everyone goes to cons for different reasons. I go for acdemica, because I'm a nerd, and want to learn new things.

But I had drama this weekend, and things happened that shouldn't have, and probably explains about 75% of it, and after that I wanted nothing but quiet. However, you say not to drag everyone down. So because I didn't get out of it what I wanted, especially something I feel can be improved, I'm suppose to just keep it to myself?

But by no means do I say AP was a bad con. ^_^; Maybe not for someone of my temperment this year, but not a bad con, I did like it much better then Ohayocon. Things were fantasic until past the masquerade for me.

I'm just kinda harsh about what can be done better in general. But okay, I did enjoy the programming I did make it to, I thought it was well excuted, except my own, although that had to relocated, and then set-up rather quickly, and I was really frusterated at that point. I kept getting people who'd see me, and say, "Wait, isn't that Sunday? What's going on?!" Sorry guys. T.T The guests were great, I hung around with Tristen a bit, and talked to one other guy.

And anyone was at the panal, Tristen really did accept my facebook request. XD

>__< I think that may have been my friends that you're talking talking about and that I mentioned in my first post.I'm sorry man. I tried to kind and keep them settled but obviously it didn't work out so well. I was the tall guy with the beard if you remember what they all looked like. So sorry for the disturbance. ^^;

Lol dude, he wasn't even a breakdancer. He's a liquid dancer (similar but different I suppose?)

I will say though, I definately wasn't as good as the other guys, but all of them but Ben had pretty much started COMPLETELY new at this when we decided to make that thing happen, so the fact that they managed to get as good as they did in a few months is freaking impressive.

As far as the mistakes made, I'm chalking most of those up to the heat. By the time we got the technical difficulties worked out, it was ridiculously hot and humid in there. I was feeling it and I wasn't even doing much, imagine what Ben and them were feeling.

EDIT: And as a note, saying no offense isn't going to stop people from taking offence. I'm not, because hell, I know I'm not really great yet, but seriously. It's kind of rude ^^;

Sunday I tried to overthrow the empty Bad Anime room again to watch my Outlaw Star...Then I realized the speakers were gone.
Damnit.

I did have a great time, definitely. I got to see people i haven't seen in months (looking at you, Brit :D) But I definitely agree that the amount of immaturity seen at this con was kind of astounding. I very nearly went deaf at some points from the fangirl screams.

And anyone who thinks that they can act however they want at cons is totally mistaken. Etiquette rules exist EVERYWHERE, cons or no.

Just a shout-out to the staff, THANK you for the epic con suite. Most cons just have crackers and chips and such, but I pretty much had a full meal Saturday there. You guys rock.


:alco:

Breaking loose doesn't include breaking other peoples stuff. (hotel rooms, other property)

Getting weird doesn't include forcing your weirdness on others. (loud talking in the halls, loud music where it wasn't appropriate, 'spin the kunai' in public, public intoxication, overly sexual cosplay and behavior in public)

I was most disappointed in the attitude of the staff. They don't seem to understand that what happens at this con affects how people are perceived at other cons.

"Everybody is the same" is just not true. You cant expect a 24yo and a 14yo to
react the same to 'spin the kunai', or alcohol being available, or whatever else is going on. College crowd, yes, but your open to all ages, or so says your website.

If a parent is not going to be responsible, YOU MUST BE, because that parent will sue you, the con, the con chair, the hotel, and the guy walking down the street if little suzy or bobby gets groped, a drink, bumped in the arm with a sword, or exposed to that "crazy, depraved anime crowd." The courts will agree, just review the McDonalds coffe burn case. The woman did everything herself. Drove the car, bought coffee, (a drink you would assume should be hot) tried to drink and drive, and then spilled it on herself. She won, McD's lost.

I dont expect you to raise my kids, but if your going to have a public event that has underage attendess, you must protect them also. You MUST have limits to what the underage attendess can to to to protect the con. Running a con includes protecting attendess, and to do that YOU MUST PROTECT YOURSELVES, and that includes being responsible for ALL the attendees. In the same way you sent the drunk guy to his room and told his friends to keep him there, you MUST prevent the under 18 crowd from being exposed to the adult activities of the con. If you dont, even if you think it is the parents fault, you will be held responsible. It is not fair, but true. If you can't accept this, then you aren't responsible enough to hold a con.

description of the con by a freaked out parent:
Publlic drinking
spin the kunai with homesexual ativities(over 18 kissing under 18)
public lewdness (costumes, making ut it halls)
underage drinking
underage sex
and no controls on underage attendees access to these activities.

And you can't really say none of this happened.

I know this is a worst case scenario and you worked to keep this in check, but
you need to do more. Or a case COULD be made for child endangering. I dont think it would go anywhere, but the litigation would ruin the con and give fandom all over black eye.

TheBlueGuy

Two things in response to the quoted things, since most of this is definately someone else's department XD.

Homosexuality is not against everyone's morals, and is not illegal either.

I personally didn't see any costumes that broke any rules of public decency. If there had been a serious problem with this, the cosplay staffers would have stepped in and dealt with it accordingly. Basically, I didn't see anyone in any less coverage than a swimsuit, nothing that a kid wouldn't see if they went to the beach. But that's just me, I know I didn't see every cosplayer at the con personally.

What's wrong with homosexuality? I enjoy it quite a bit.

which is exactly why, even though I played Sunday..I didn't play Saturday...spin the Kunai needs to be in its OWN 2 rrooms, one for 13-17 and one for 18+ (although maybe a case for 16+ can be made)

its not a bad thing to do, its jsut not a good thign to have up to 40 year olds playing with down to freaking 12 year olds, with every freakign thing getting posted on myspace 2 minutes after it happens.


I will freaking run the 18+ spin the kunai room myself, the entire Con, if that's waht it takes to aviod this issue again. However if I do that, there will be no turbo graphix in the game room next year.

Overall, I thought the con went rather well. I quite enjoyed that the panels were more intellectual/academic than, say, Ohayocon. Ohayocon had stuff like "Introduction to Haruhi Suzumiya," (no offense to sesshouga) and overall was rather bland. AP had panels where I actually learned useful information about one of my favorite hobbies, as well as the usual entertaining panels like YFAS and such.

The staff is quite an awesome group of people. I was a first-year staffer, and the best part of such was just being around a group of people who were anime fans of the highest caliber.

The relative lack of merch/fans other than the mainstream Naruto/Bleach/FF7 stuff left me in despair, but I got over it.

Thanks also to everyone who came to my "Anime What If?" panel on Sunday morning, as well as everyone who worked together on the puppet show, lovely near-train-wreck that it was.

I enjoyed the con. Despite my last post, I enjoyed it. The panels, the music,
the cosplay, there was alot to enjoy and I did.

I have been to over a hundred cons and this is my impression.

check in, fast and easy. I had preregged. More bodies needed for walk-ins.

layout, kind of spread out. but that is the layout of the hotel. con suite was too far from everything else.

I liked the vendors in the hall, it gave the con a festival atmosphere.

I loved the huge amount of costumes, SF cons do costumes mostly on saturday.

I thought my FMA costume would be one of many, I didn't see any more, I got my pic taken 15 times. I loved that.

Cosplay contest was fun. More people need to get involved and do skits. If I would have known about it I would have been up there also.

Con Suite was to small. Needs more sitting room. Also, constant music was a distraction, need to have someplace quiet to get away from noise and crowd.

Panels varied from very organized and informative to rambling, off topic,
conversations. Some panelists talked to long before opening up to discussion.

Macross and Anime In America were great. I learned alot in the Akiro (god, I can't remember how to spell it) Anime nerd, panel. Anime in Academia was my favorite. Needed to be longer.

Schedule needs to be kept better. 5-10 mimutes late, ok. But the puppet show started over 30 late, and when I left when it was 25 late, they were still practicing. It seemed like the main ball room was the worst.

Anime rooms and gameroom were great.

Need more panels. Explanation of Manga styles, history, something for the neo to get them exposed to more aspects of the fandom.

Having never been to an anime con, I thought the dealers room was overwhelming to me. There were more dealers than a lot of SF cons. I bought a japanese garment for a gift.

The music was great, even if the band didn't know my requests.

Thanks and have fun next year.

It was my first anime con, and i had a lot of fun. All of the staffers where really friendly. I liked seeing the Pikachu staffer on Saturday watching the game room it made me lol and she was really nice to me.

Otaku. I remembered. :lol:

The only public drinking I saw was in the restaurant/bar area, and the 21+ area of the consuite. And at least with my friends who were on staff, they checked ID thoroughly for anyone wanting to get into that area. All other drinking I saw was in rooms, and staff WAS checking rooms that were exceptionally loud to make sure there as no underage drinking.

Surprisingly there was actually a LOT of ID checking. I went through 3 people for the Hentai Olympics, and had my ID checked whenever I bought doujin or attended an 18+ panel.

Yeah, underage kids have sex. I was underage once. It happens in and out of cons, and whatever happened at the con definitely stayed the rooms.

Also, my friends and I ALWAYS make sure to get the room SPOTLESS by checkout time. We may make a mess of it during the con, but leaving it trashed is beyond rude to the hotel.

Anime punch is honestly tamer in some aspects compared to larger anime conventions (like ACEN) and Ohayocon is much worse in the property damage aspect. Those are the cons potentially giving anime cons a bad rep.

Frankly, if you brfing your kid to a convention and you're not happy with what happens, thats not the convention's fault. Staff did an amazing job at dealing with some of the things that happened, and I know they worked themselves to the bone.

It says all over the website that you shouldn't bring your children if you're not comfortable with drinking, sex, homosexuality and adult content, then don't bring your kids.

How is a convention supposed to control underage sex or homosexual activity? Do you expect staffers to knock on every single door and look at ID's? Or seperate the hotel rooms so girls are in one and boys are in another? Oh, wait, that would promote homosexual activity.

As for costumes that show too much skin... As longer as it shows no more than a bathing suit does, what's wrong? No nipples were seen. No vaginas or penises were out to be wild in the wind. I've seen worse. Dragon*Con 2004 had a 15 year old girl running around in a thong and nipple pasties. People are going to wear what they want, and as long as it's not illegal and showing private parts, we can't legally stop them.

Parents should keep track of their kids. I'm a mother, myself, and I would NEVER let my daughter go to a con without me, until she's 18. More-so Anime Punch. If a parent lets their kid go a to con without parental guidance, then those kids are going to flip out when they get freedom.



Like Mike said, "It's your responsibility to raise your kids, not ours."

Only maybe two of things can possibly be controlled by staff. I saw lots of staff members walking the halls all weekend, why didn't you say something to them then rather than waiting to bitch about the problem after it happened? As far as the underage drinking and sex goes, should the staff start doing room checks for everyone in the hotel to make sure that nothing is happening? Be realistic, they can control what goes on in the panels and main lobby etc, but not in a private room.

Yeah, as far as public drinking, I didn't see any "openly" drinking people. I know some waterbottles were filled with... Well, not water, but the way my friends and I saw it is you can be under the influence, just don't cross the line and have to let everyone else know. Like there was a lot of the shouting of
"I'm so wasted" "She's so wasted" "Dude, I'm so high" "Let's go smoke some pot"
And really, other people don't care, so don't make it ridiculous.


The con suite was right next to my room so that was A-okay for me, and the 2nd floor wasn't exactly a trek across the universe.


The "fire alarm being pulled" was more of a fire alarm being taken apart, or so I heard. I guess people just feel compelled to do stupid things when they're bored.


Spin-the-(inanimate object) I'm not really going to get into my opinion of those that play the game over the age of 13, but if it's really necessary, then you could play it in your hotel room and problem solved.


"If a parent is not going to be responsible, YOU MUST BE"
Unless the convention specifically says the parent doesn't have to be responsible,(which it might, I didn't see it anywhere), then the parent SHOULD be responsible for their own children. The parents could follow their children around and therefore their child is taken care and it wouldn't be at the expense of the con or it's attendees.
"just review the McDonalds coffe burn case"
If you had reviewed the McDonald's coffee burn case, then you would have realized she had every right to sue. The McDonalds case was based on the fact that their coffee used to be kept at an abnormally high temperature, and they have had hundreds of burn cases each year prior to THE case that ended the burn cases. She was not driving. It was her grandson that was driving, and the spill did not occur while driving. She had pulled through the drive through and her grandson parked into a spot so the grandmother could put her fixings into her coffee, and the lid was not secure, and coffee spilled into her lap causing 3rd degree burns to her crotch and had to go to the emergency room to get her skin in her inner thighs and crotchal region grafted, which is violently scraping away the burned skin without pain killers. So her medical bill was covered by the initial case, then upon further investigation, found that McDonalds had numerous cases and reason being it was cheaper to pay off the cases than to fix the problem. So the post case was suing because McDonalds was aware of the risk, but turned a blind eye to it and had to pay punitive damages, which is a penalty charge for a repeated action in lamens terms. It's not that simple.
So a con equivelant would be if they had a "Have a lot of sex" panel, and didn't check badges and someone contracted an STD and had a hospital bill for which to sue.

Oddly enough, the hentai olympics turned out to be pretty much pg-13. But then again, that was because of the hotel. Still, we were very strict with who we let in (I was the gopher checking badges at that event). We even prevented people who were obviously over 18 from coming in without an ID.