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Showing content with the highest reputation since 03/19/23 in Posts

  1. The annual tradition of applauding and complaining! Although I have more complaints than compliments listed, I want to start by saying how great this convention really is. I've been coming back for more than 20 years for a reason! I really appreciate the effort the volunteers are putting into it. The Good: Otakon did a really good job this year of managing crowds. I hardly ever encountered lines, especially since I didn't have a bag and could use the quick entrance. Only place I really encountered backups was the escalator in front of the gaming hall entrance. I re
    3 points
  2. * Well, not really. I just have Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in mind. In honor of Otakon 30, here's the message on the opening page from the original Otakon 1994 program guide. * History lesson: The original Stormtroopers, led the vanguard of assaults in the latter years of World War I. Juuuuust a bit bombastic, don't you think? 😀 Though I'd say that we're definitely much more in the Happy Lands nowadays than back then. Congrats on 30, Otakon! See you in July for our 30th anniversary!
    3 points
  3. I would think you get into liability issues if you start putting down cigarettes or adult magazines in a place where kids could get to them. The other stuff seems safe.
    2 points
  4. I think they also had Priss from Bubblegum Crisis" as well. I can picture Anya Forger from "Spy x Family" pointing the entrance of the "Otachan". Lawrence and Holo from "Spice & Wolf" leading everyone to the Dealer's Room.
    2 points
  5. The Good: As many have said already, the crowd control was great this year. I do kind of miss the camaraderie that came with waiting in long lines and getting to play games while waiting, but it's really nice that things overall were moving at a good pace, especially when waiting outside in that heat. The new attendance record was great to see IMO. Large crowds wear me out, but it's nice to see Otakon growing and I really wasn't expecting it to go up that much this year. It's exciting to see. Even though I didn't get to go to all the guest panels this year, it was great to s
    2 points
  6. I thought most of the con went pretty well, but if I have one request for next year, PLEASE bring back at least a few official autograph sessions for dub VAs next year. I had to pay more for 2 autos and a pic with Justin Cook this year, than I did for 3 autos and a pic total from Steve Blum and Beau Billingslea last year. I get that a lot goes into determining how those sessions and prices work, such as appearance fee vs guarantee, and dealing with agencies etc. I just don't want Ota to turn into an expensive autograph show when it comes to dub VA signatures.
    2 points
  7. I like the lenticular badges but I miss the old mascots and the good 'ol days where you could pick your badge design from a variety of anime and game titles.
    2 points
  8. The food court in the convention center near the Marriott entrance has been remodeled and is open again. It must be on an event by event basis whether or not it's used now. The dining area now has a long window that overlooks the main hall (what in the past was the Artists' Alley hall). I got some pictures of it open at last winter's auto show. https://ibb.co/jRc9YNn https://ibb.co/0nsptxh
    2 points
  9. Just saw a blurb on this. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/akira-toriyama-dies-dragon-ball-creator-anime-dead-age-68/
    1 point
  10. I see a bunch of shows, but no stars. Could you fix that, please?
    1 point
  11. Another thing I have noticed is that some places are charging extra for credit versus debit. Had that happen at the car repair shop the other day. You get some safeguards with credit cards which are not available in debit cards.
    1 point
  12. Another thing to watch out for is that some cards lose value if they're not used for a certain period of time. I picked up a few from my credit union (the activation fees were slightly cheaper than one from a store) for a vacation in the southwest and they had a rule that if you didn't use them for 12 months straight they lost some of their value. (Good thing I did bring them, as the Desert Botanical Garden didn't take cash for admission.) I don't know if I've seen a gift card with a chip, but I haven't really looked for them either. I started taking them along after a trip to Citizens Ba
    1 point
  13. Before you purchase a pre-paid card, read the fine print on the back. The one I bought could not be recharged, but it did say the funds would never expire. Not all cards had that last bit. Also, the one I had did not have a chip in it, and only the stripe on the back. Some sale terminals which only have a chip/tap method, so the cashier has to swipe the stripe on their register instead. Going to keep the used card around to use as a dummy.
    1 point
  14. A few years ago I went into a D.C. coffee shop for a cup. Place my order and dug out my cash and they told me they don't take it. Had to cancel the order. I suspect you will find fewer places down there who will accept it. The Safeway in D.C. is probably one of the few places that will be cash all the time. Even the home centers are starting to make it difficult to use cash. 1 register takes cash, the rest use credit card or electronic payment, so I wave people through until I can get to it. I picked up a pre-paid card and used that where cash was a no-go around the convention last year.
    1 point
  15. Maybe not something for 2024 but something coming... https://www.bizjournals.com/washington/news/2024/02/06/events-dc-convention-center-expansion.html They are exploring various options, including relocating to the footprint of Capital One Arena.
    1 point
  16. I would love to see Cyyu this year frfr. But also: Jonah Scott Max Mittilemen Ben Balmaceda Nazzeh Tarsha Makoto Furukawa Matthew Mercer Ben Schwartz And for J-Pop/Rock bands: Asian Kung-fu Generation Unison Square Garden One Ok Rock I know this is impossible but a girl can dream but : EVE Joe Inoue Jin(the Kagerou Project guy, not k-pop guy, would like LESS KPOP THIS YEAR in general, not a fan of it and the business behind it)
    1 point
  17. It is now December and the photo booth photos from Lyra's Formal Ball still have not surfaced. People who got their pictures taken there get excited to see them and keep asking about them various places online. Can we get those up please?
    1 point
  18. Zeno Robinson, Ricco Fajardo, Stephen Fu, Molly Searcy, Dani Chambers, Daman Mills, Alejandro Saab, Max Mittelman, Allegra Clark, Robbie Daymond, and Ray Chase
    1 point
  19. I'd say the merchandise selection being lower is because shopping online has become more prevalent over the years, especially with the lockdown in the past few years. Then again, I've seen anime T-shirts at department stores, the local Barnes & Noble has a section for manga that's the same size, if not larger, than their science fiction section, and there's stuff like Pokemon merchandise in grocery stores and places like Target. There is still stuff out there, but it's not as concentrated in big displays in stores as much as little things here and there. (I was just at a gem show over the
    1 point
  20. I'm glad I remembered to get pictures of some of them. These were from 2009 when Otakon was auctioning the remaining standees off. https://imageupload.io/en/l0RMlDU1GMYgMeb https://imageupload.io/hFbc2Y45Jmh5Xg4 https://imageupload.io/V6RzMx3EhbaGfZp https://imageupload.io/GAn1nTRABDnI77r https://imageupload.io/VYH2HWMCXsNWbL1
    1 point
  21. Just found out about this. Thought someone would have posted it already in the Announcements area. https://www.otakon.com/info/hotels/
    1 point
  22. I really wish this board would get popular again. I miss the old days when this was a booming place. Social media pages are a mess (especially Facebook since 90% of my feed now is ads and clickbait). The BBS is so much more organized. Is there something that can be done to increase interest (advertise the BBS more on the social media pages or make it easier to find)?
    1 point
  23. I think the off year and Discord caused traffic here to take a hit. That's just me talking. I don't know anything about anything. I remember the old mailing list and how that fell out of favor as the board and then social media came in.
    1 point
  24. There's only a few of us (probably less than a handful), left who were there at the time.
    1 point
  25. A little before Otakon, I gave up seeing the boards, after many times of waiting 4 minutes each, and it never loaded. A little after Otakon happened, I tried again and it worked great, saw lots of people's comments about attending Otakon, hotels, etc. But after that, the boards sometimes load right away, sometimes not. I hope people don't give up coming here, since loading has been so moody. 🙁
    1 point
  26. AMV THEATER INFO AMV Theater is back in Room 202 (same place as last year). AMV Theater will be running all convention-weekend as-normal. 9AM-1:30AM Friday/Saturday, 9AM-4PM Sunday. ----------------------- IRON EDITOR Who: BecauseImBored1 tries to keep the streak alive against long-time AMV creator: Compbros! What: Two AMV editors spend two hours editing an AMV in front of a live audience. No pressure. There will also be plenty of audience participation events. How? Each contestant will be given 6 anime sources, and all 6 must be used. Each contestant is allowed
    1 point
  27. I would avoid it, its known for being a skethy hotel overall, in the past few years there have been reports of break ins and human trafficking there.
    1 point
  28. With regards to this year, I'd honestly genuinely say it was mostly fantastic. My only big complaint being put on the Discord instead in terms of management issues. I do however have one other complaint/comment that I was initially going to just keep to myself but I'm seeing more and more complaints about it and that is regarding guests. I don't know what goes on behind the scenes guests wise and I know it's very complex. I also don't want to discount/insult the guests who took time out of their lives to come or the work done by Guest Relations. On the other hand however, I must confess to fee
    1 point
  29. When i write these, I try not to ding the presentations as they are contributing more than I am to the con. I wish I could find the paper where I had some notes, but it's somewhere in the vacation stuff I haven't sorted yet. That being said... Anime Reboots, Understanding the Brotherhood Effect - Looked at reasons why series are being rebooted years, even decades after the original run, for better and for worse. Some of them being the same reasons why Hollywood keeps constantly bringing back properties. Demon Slayer Traditions: Exploring the translation of traditional art and music i
    1 point
  30. It's funny you mention that. I actually bought a Hampton pillow earlier this year after finding out how forgiving they were to my neck.
    1 point
  31. If you're able to pull it together for the con, I'm sure I'd be in attendance. For an anniversary year, it might be good to show the changes in some of the details in demographics and costs and such over three decades. I know many details are confidential, but it'd be amusing to see what certain types of costs were in 1994 vs 2024.
    1 point
  32. On an Otakon FB group I'm already seeing people reporting positive covid results. I did come wearing a mask, while I get they can't require masks forever I agree it was a mistake to drop vax requirements.
    1 point
  33. The Good: Line Management. The staff clearly learned the right lessons from last year, which was doubly important considering the dangerously hot weather this last weekend. Most of the time I could waltz right in through the front door, even with the bag check, and never get stuck waiting. I was absolutely incredulous to learn that attendance was another 2k higher than last year because it absolutely did not feel like that, not even at the height of Saturday. The choice to bring in some Spanish-language dub actors was an inspired choice and a welcome bit of variety as far as gue
    1 point
  34. The Good - I want to give a massive shout out to everyone running the photo suite this year. I know they were short staffed on photographers but they all worked really hard to make the experience good anyway, and were super transparent about how long things would likely take. Hats off to them. - Programming variety was much better this year (as was the panelist experience). There was a lot of variety in general, honestly, since the artist's alley and dealer's room also had good variety and weren't dominated by merch for the same 2-3 shows as it has been in some years. - Moving p
    1 point
  35. Just wanted to say thank you to all the staff, gophers, and everyone whom helped put together another Otakon for us. You do great work and deserve appreciation! 😀
    1 point
  36. I just noticed that you can view the schedule (sans the Video room schedules) from the main page. I did my usual thing of making a list of panels that could be of interest to me, with alternates in case the room is full. Now I just have to figure out the gaps to go to the dealers room and artists alley, as well as returning to my hotel room to restock my supplies. (Usually this is related to which session of the AMV contest I attend.) So many panels, so little time... Notes: I noticed there's not RWBY photoshoot this year - not enough people? Did they go the way of most fandoms and s
    1 point
  37. I have noticed a lot of places are aggressively doing things to not accept cash. The local Lowes has 2 self check-out booths that are listed as "cash or card", but they are never turned on. The local Whole Foods used to take case in self-checkout, but stopped that as well. They want you to wait in the long lines with full carts when you only have 1 item, because you want to use cash. I was saying to @Revan that I'm getting a pre-paid card to take down there, because I expect it will be very difficult to pay in cash in a lot of places. One coffee shop near the convention center told me the
    1 point
  38. There is (or was) guest Wi-Fi at the convention center, but it will be slow. No data plan on my phone, so I would load the schedule page on the hotel Wi-Fi and keep the tab open to hook up again to the convention Wi-Fi. It was easiest if you only loaded the page for the day of the schedule, so there were fewer mistakes in finding content. They also had digital screens with the schedule grid and a marker showing the current time. Used that a bunch of times when the Wi-Fi was acting up. Not sure if you can access the schedule on a Nintendo 3DS. Meant to try that, but Nintendo shut down the
    1 point
  39. Last few years, it has been slow throughout the convention. Never understood why, because the old guard are the ones who post for the most part. We do appreciate having the announcements on the board. I happened upon the hotel block release notice by accident. Logged in and saw a post that said it was opening the next day. Would have missed it completely otherwise. If they ditch the board, can we signup for an email blast of announcements? Good old Majordomo.
    1 point
  40. I do hope there is a program book and offline schedule. Not everyone has a phone. Not everyone with a phone has mobile data. Not every phone is compatible with apps. If there is no offline schedule or reliable public wifi at the convention center, I won't have any access to any online based schedule. The assumption that everyone always has access to a working online capable mobile device is problematic at best.
    1 point
  41. I don't think that schedule is final since they haven't made any announcements and haven't pushed the Guidebook public yet. Its almost a guarantee that panels will get shuffled around before the start of the con.
    1 point
  42. Yes, I know that a lot of people use the entrance regardless if they are staying at the hotel. I have a few friends who stay across the street that did that last year since it was faster/easier to get to photoshoots. I meant it more for people who stay at the Marriott so they do not ever have to go outside in the heat. That is why I personally stay at the Marriott so not being able to use the tunnel due to having a bag or prop would make me just decide to stay elsewhere next year. Sorry my wording was bad!
    1 point
  43. You wouldn't happen to know if the... Moroccan(?), Mediterranean(?) place is still there? IIRC it was in the food court next to the Video Game area. They had something on the menu there last year looked interesting - rice, vegetables, hummus, etc. (I want to say chicken tagine, but I don't think that's quite it.), but I had already stocked up my meals for the con at the Safeway on Thursday. (I can't think of the last time I paid convention center prices for food. I still have money on a Visa gift card that I didn't spend when I went on vacation last year, so I might just drop the money to at l
    1 point
  44. Same here, only I had to settle for a $17 pizza, and that wasn't even any good.
    1 point
  45. I don't usually buy con food but on Saturday last year I didn't dare leave the building due to the lines and risk being stuck outside so I ended up eating a $15 sandwich lol. It was good at least.
    1 point
  46. I'm going to wear my mask if I have to.
    1 point
  47. Again, the idea that the unvaccinated and the vaccinated spread COVID-19 at the same rate is simply untrue. Here is a link to a study done during Omicron: https://www.news-medical.net/amp/news/20230103/COVID-booster-shots-cut-Omicron-transmission-in-closed-environments.aspx The relevant passage: “In adjustment analyses, the Poisson regression model estimated that index cases vaccinated with ≄1 COVID-19 vaccine dose had, on average, a 22% lower risk of transmitting infection than unvaccinated index cases. Each additional dose further reduced the risk of transmission to close contact by an
    1 point
  48. If you require vaccination then by definition you’re getting people who are more responsible and likely to keep up with their boosters. Yes, someone can technically show up with just their primary series from two years ago, but that doesn’t mean everyone would. By the way, “the vaccine doesn’t prevent transmission” is a completely false anti-vax talking point. It literally does prevent transmission, it’s just not foolproof. But it’s certainly better than walking around unvaccinated (again, assuming people are keeping up with their boosters). Ultimately I don’t feel super strongly abo
    1 point
  49. Put back the vaccine requirement at least. Last year was overcrowded as hell, and the vaccines were the main thing preventing any outbreak. On top of that offer refunds and transfers. Do you want your reputation to go to crap after years of acclaim?
    1 point
  50. As much as I like to drive, I decided to take the bus when both Katsucon and Otakon first moved to D.C, and later to train, when I saw just how hard and expensive it would be to bring my car over.
    1 point
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