Con Gripes, You knew this was coming!

But they LOVE the attention it seems, otherwise they wouldn't do that.

I had a pretty good time, all in all. If anything, I would make panels that were more varied? Or at least more panels going on at the same time. There were long periods of time when I was just wandering around in the hallway trying to find something to do, because none of the panels in that hour interested me. Not that hanging out isn't fun, it's actually my favorite part of cons, but it would have been nice to go to more than three or four panels the entire time I was there. I ended up going home earlier than I had expected because nothing after the cosplay really appealed to me. That's not the cons fault, that's just my personal taste, but I feel that if you had more panels going at once, you would appeal to more people.

Minor gripe - why was the hotel so cold? I'm not sure if that's a problem you could handle or more of a hotel issue, but I was freezing the whole time I was there. It's good for cosplayers in heavier, hotter outfits, but I was shivering in the ballroom when I was watching the cosplay. It seems like the only warm part of the building was in the hallways.

I was cold too. Maybe they'll turn the AC down a little next year?

I was freezing in my hotel room, but everywhere else seemed warm, by comparison, at least.

I guess my main grievance is just the general layout of the hotel. There were definitely some rooms that were bigger and spacier, but last year's hotel was a lot more open, with a lot less halls to walk through. I was in the noise room a lot, and I had a good time in there, but I think it was more comfortable when the entire lobby was the hangout area, as opposed to one room having to be set aside for it.

The dealer's room definitely seemed spacier, though, and the ballroom worked nicely for the cosplay and most other events held in there. I don't think it worked that great for the concert or rave, though, for whatever reason. Liked the room last year better for those 2 events(well, ignoring the technical difficulties, that is, the lack of them was nice...although the beatboxing was missed). Oh, and the game room was much better. I guess it was mixed.

Being able to walk to the waffle house last year was also a luxury I missed, but I managed to work around it.

I loved the waffle house last year, the waiters were all so baffled though. I had one ask me, "Honey, is there a party going on near here or something cause a boy came in here in a dres and PINK hair?" Imagine that all in a really twangy accent and you will see how hard it was for me not to piss myself laughing with her right there

Hmm, it was a fun time and all, but my gripes would have to be some that've already been said.

1. The fact that there was no central place to meet. That just plain sucked. Sorry guys, but a noise room just doesn't do it. It's not big enough and theres too many tables in such. The lobby last year was ideal for that type of thing. (not to mention that the entire layout of the hotel was way better)

2. Cramped hallways and such, yeah, stuff like that, not being able to just step aside and talk to people or something without constantly feeling as though you were in the way.

3. Okay, this may seem minor and what not, and I can sort of understand why you guys did it, but it still kinda got to me. My buds and me didn't get to the karaoke until well into it, and we asked if we could do Hare Hare Yukai or Sakura Kiss and the guy running it said "it's already been done." That was said about almost every Japaneses song we knew XP So, we were out of luck. I can understand not wanting to play a song like, four or five times, but repeating it once or twice won't kill anyone. Plus, we really wanted to do Hare Hare Yukai T.T

On the plus side....

1. Larger dealers room, heck yes.

2. The layout of the gaming room was way awesome... all though... did DDR have to be in a closet?

3. And yeah, the con so rocked!

my only.. well the only one im gonna post problem was the cosplay... isnt ness and marth super smash characters?.. and when were they EVER in an anime...

There was a Fire Emblem anime but I don't think Marth was in it...

I'll address that.

Firstly, we did have a few verbal screw ups that resulted in us allowing some video game characters to walk on, but they were not judged.

Secondly, there was a Fire Emblem anime with Marth starring in it, it is just an old one. Early nineties, I believe. It was a short ova and I don't believe it ever actually made it to America. And on that same note, the Ness proved to us (hardcore!) that there was an Earthbound OVA as well, just a very obscure one and again, never brought over to america. Believe me, he had enough source material to prove us wrong on that one.

Oh wow. That's awesome. I want to see both of those now!

The one thing that was probably the worst of all was the location. The hotel was beautiful, but it was definitely not an ideal place to hold Anime Punch. The layouts of the previous two hotels were perfect, and I what I was honestly expecting.

My gripes? Hotel was COLD. I was running gaming for most the con, and we thought it would warm up decently after we had lots of people and systems in there running. Even with all that, it was still cold. The lobby was cold, the hallways were cold, everything was pretty darn cold. I adjusted the climate control in the few rooms that I had panels in that had the ability to make it less cold, but most places you couldn't do that.

We had a few staffers that either didn't hear or completely ignored our brief on how we handle security, and therefore I saw and heard of a few instances where fun stuff was happening that got canned for no real reason. I believe the appropriate people have been shot (or at least reprimanded).

Not enough TVs for the gaming room, definitely not enough projectors everywhere.

Con suite closed Friday night. Con suites should NEVER, EVER close; especially at night when you need a caffeine boost and a place to chill for a while.

Not enough staffers at the hentai panel. That could've been so much more awesome, but it was awesome as it was anyway.

Mostly a bunch of small, nitpicking stuff. I thought the con was pretty damn awesome, things went more smoothly then ever before, and I CAN'T WAIT UNTIL NEXT YEAR!!

Agreed - I believe this hotel, while nice, didn't have a great layout for a con. A large central lobby is nice for a smaller con, since people-watching is a main event. And the hallway got way too congested because of Artist's Alley.
What is the staff's opinion?

The noise room was (unsurprisingly) too noisy to just hang out in, so I saw people draping themselves everywhere. You see that at every con, it just seemed a little more obnoxious than usual (in the elevator?? C'mon!).

DDR in the game room closet wasn't pleasant, but it did help keep the game room funk to a minimum.

Pro's: Nice panel selection (yay drinking songs), con suite was great (tasty curry, thank you), dedicated room for Rockband, dealer room was easy to navigate.

Edit: Temp was perfect for cosplayers, but that's just my opinion.

This is the only convention (possibly in all the world) with a consuite that goes even remotely near 24 hours! It was closed for about 3 hours the entire convention, so fucking deal with it!

As for the layout. I personally love having a central atrium. Sometimes that's not always possible though.

The con suite was closed from about 6-9 AM on Saturday morning because the people who were in there watching it needed sleep.