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Posts posted by alabaster
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On 8/1/2023 at 8:23 PM, UzumakiWarlord said:
Bad
-The weather was certainly not the best. Thunderstorms and raining happening on the weekend of any con is definitely not fun one bit. Same with the intense heat. I know that it went up into the triple digits. But of course, there's nothing anyone can do about Mother Nature.
-There was a big lack of dub screenings for the video rooms. On the schedule, I saw more sub screenings than dub. Isn't the idea to have a balance of both?
-Just like the last few years, it has to be the lacking of an industry presence. Sure there's always Discotek, and whatever other industry partners that have been coming the last few years I can't remember the names of. But whatever happened to have Viz, Crunchyroll, RightStuf, Sentai, and Aniplex coming to Otakon?
industry consolidation is the main culprit. That and the pandemic basically wiping out the convention teams means industry is still rebuilding.
We are in the odd position of having very strong connections in Japan, which sometime makes it easier to get permission from the studio than the distributors.
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6 minutes ago, Just a Lad said:
Oh, I had no idea he used to be an interpreter at Otakon! I thought they were just relying on him to translate on the fly, that makes way more sense and it’s very possible this could have been an intentional arrangement. Thank you so much for providing such a detailed answer, it’s very appreciated.
No problem! Like I said, it could be one of a few things.
We gobbled up pretty much all the available interpreters this year, including a few who'd been out of the scene for a while.
One of our other panel interps is Toshi Yoshida, who is also a longtime industry pro; along with his wife Trish, they've been fixtures for decades and worked for Viz and Pokemon for most of their careers. They used to do a panel on the perils of translation and interpretation that talked about how difficult it is to translate and adapt jokes, idiomatic expressions, puns, and jargon.
Another challenge this year was we brought on a LOT of new interpreters, and for some it was their first time doing it in this setting. And as I mentioned, one of the interpreters completely lost his voice and had to be swapped out last second.
If nothing else, Nabe makes it all look easy, but he's been doing this sort of thing for at least a decade or so. Nuance and specificity are really tough to convey sometimes.
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5 hours ago, Brainchild said:
Some of my roommates went to this panel and said something very similar, that the translator was clearly not familiar with sci-fi lit and terminology, even when the author was clearly name-dropping people like Octavia Butler and Ursula le Guin.
I also want to note that based on my own observed experience and those from my roommates, sound issues seemed to be a common issue with panels this year, particularly with those early in the mornings. I get that there are only so many sound techs to go around, but it was a mildly frustrating thing for the panelists and audience alike.
We had a new contractor for A/V this year. There were some growing pains that I feel reasonably certain will be addressed. I've already passed along my own annoyance at certain setup issues. In specific, putting screens behind the panel tables needs to stop, and we never had enough working mics. But they had an adapter -- it just decided to conk out. I had the same exact adapter and sometime earlier this year it started getting dodgy with me too.
If I hadn't had my own spare USB-C dongle, the BASTARD mature anime panel would have been a mess.
Typically, we arrive and do a pre-panel test; the failing dongle was really nobody's fault, but I'm going to ask they have a spare for every room.
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14 hours ago, Nate A.M. said:
Differences in Sci-Fi between the East and West with Seiyuu Haruna Ikezawa: A good but not truly great panel about the very basics of Japanese literary SF in 2023. Ikezawa focused on introducing some recent anthologies and serials, which seems like a valid approach, although I haven't checked whether any of them are available in English. Still, I felt like this was a surface-level flyover of a subject about which Ikezawa was clearly quite erudite. Her American counterpart – a long time Otakon staffer whose name I forget but I've seen around since I first started coming – simply didn't have an equivalent knowledge of contemporary English language literary SF to really elevate the discussion, but did his best.
The strangest part of the panel was the beginning, when Ikezawa asked the audience for examples of Japanese SF, and the audience predictably gave almost entirely anime examples. I was cringing the whole way. Like c'mon, of course we're illiterate in Japanese literary SF, of course we're weeaboos, that's why we're at the panel, don't make us embarrass ourselves too. I (slowly) read Japanese, and even I've only read like two or three stories which didn't also have anime adaptations – and one of them started as essentially a Love Live crackfic. Ikezawa clearly didn't mean it in a mean spirited way, but it seemed like a big waste of precious panel time. Audience interaction is great, but use it wisely.
Incidentally, Ikezawa's slide deck was very cute.
What it's Like to Work on Anime with Takaharu Ozaki and Shinya Tsuruoka: I did not expect this to be a screening of the BASTARD!! ONA's first episode, but that's fine by me (granted it's frankly one of Ozaki's lesser works). The HDMI adapter for the MacBook running it was clearly dying on them and I very nearly went up to lend them mine, but thought better of it. In any case, Ozaki is an interesting director, but I feel this panel only partly got at that because he kept his statements and answers quite general. A little more specificity about what he meant by, for instance, "I got to revisit what it means to be mature with BASTARD!!" might've gone a long way. A shame.
These were both panels where I was MC, so I'll give a little insight.
For Ikezawa: Typically, I'm able to meet with the people on the J-guest panels I do, and we both go over the scripted parts and talk about how things will go. Unfortunately, they arrived a bit late because of weather and I had to deal with a last minute thing, and we got interrupted a few times, so I didn't know she was going to put me on the spot quite so much; I'd have prepared differently if I had. We've chatted since, and I'll pass along your feedback; I think having some deliberately chosen SF for the west would have helped. (I'm looking forward to working with her at some point again as we got along pretty well, and I have a little feedback of my own to share with her, at her request.)
For "What it's like...": The word "Mature" was omitted from the description in some places. That didn't help set the stage. The industry rep came prepared with a script and the plan to show the anime, but we didn't realize that until they arrived. In Japan, these sorts of events tend to be pretty formal and stiff, if I'm honest, with minimal Q&A and some talking points. Now that they've experienced the little nudge toward a more western approach, and now that Trigger and Orange and a few others have become more savvy to engaging the western otaku audiences, we may see more loosening up. (It's also possible that the clearance from Netflix had strings attached, but I wasn't involved in securing that.) -
7 hours ago, Just a Lad said:
I don’t know what went wrong during the organization for the studio orange panel, whether it be a compete underestimate of how popular the studio was or just that security got overwhelmed but it NEVER should have gotten this bad. First, when we showed up an hour and a half before to line up for the panel, staff literally looked us up and down and said don’t you have better things to do and told us to go away, so we just kind of awkwardly sat around the Marriott until someone called in security once a crowd began to form to cue a line. Despite being a featured event, staff and security were blindsided by how many people showed up and did not know what to do or how to handle it in any capacity. Security also “forgot” there was a signing after the panel for about 20 minutes, leaving the guests to try and handle the crowd themselves.
Second, while I understand how difficult it is to be a translator, why did no one brief this guy on the show or animation terms if they were hosting two panels, one going into nitty gritty show lore and the other a deep dive on their animation??? While my Japanese isn’t the greatest you could hear the staff mentioning character names in English and the translator completely missing it, it go to a point where one of the guests, Watanabe, who speaks fluent English was repeatedly jumping in to interrupt and correct him and he had to more often than not translate back into Japanese for the staff in the translators place. During sundays animation panel the translator had no idea what blendshapes, storyboards splines, cells etc were and it turned into a slow unbearable mess of the staff trying to get their points across to an English audience, and they were HEAVILY relying on Watanabe to translate. This should go without saying but your featured guest is there as a guest, forcing them to do impromptu real time translation is incredibly disrespectful to the guests and disappointing an an attendee who chose Otakon over other summer conventions specifically for this panel.
a significant number of people on discord and twitter (myself included) had their cards scam tapped my someone with a square tap to pay reader and again security brushed it off as us forgetting we bought something. I’ve also heard a few reports of a figure vendor using squares tip system to tack on hundreds of dollars to transactions though it’s only been a handful thankfully. Regarldess, I would like to be able to use my card at a convention without the constant threat of being scammed, guess I’m going to be cash only if I come back next year.
Watanabe's a friend of mine (and a former Otakon interpreter of very high quality!), so hearing that his event had issues on that front is disappointing. I'll make sure to relay this feedback, but I suspect it has already been passed along appropriately. Both our Japanese Dept head and I were at Watanabe's wedding and we've all known each other long enough that we're comfortable giving frank assessments of things to each other.
FYI: Otakon has basically two levels of interpreter: one for panels, and one for escorts. Panels interpreters typically possess high competence in Japanese and English, but not always in specific jargon (they are generally assigned in advance and briefed on necessary stuff); escorts handle the guests and see to their needs, help get them to where they need to be, etc. Occasionally, a scheduling issue, burnt-out voice, or illness means we swap out a panels interp at the last minute. It is possible that the interpreter for that panel was newer (because we knew that Nabe would be able to supplement and teach), or that they had, for example, boned up on music terminology for their main assignment and not been able to prepare for animation-specific stuff. That can be exacerbated when you guys have really great questions -- and the quality of questions our attendees bring to the table at Otakon in particular was something I had a few guests mention.
Keep in mind too, that like in any industry, there is jargon and terminology that may be pretty specific and unusual to encounter for people not involved in it. I always end up talking about food with Mr Maruyama when he attends, and not every interpreter is going to know about cooking techniques or spice names in different languages (somehow we always manage with a laugh, though).
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16 hours ago, CarolineAndJustine said:
That's good to hear, and I'm glad they're aware of how it looks. I helped run one of the panels involved in this and we did not request a late night slot (in fact we did the opposite) but wound up getting one anyway. They pushed us forward a few hours when we asked but it was still well after the typical room clear - that combined with hearing other panelists report getting grilled about 18+ content when requesting a schedule change didn't exactly bode well. It's possible that there's a few people involved making less than ideal choices (again, anecdotal grilling) but I'm extremely relieved to hear that the organization won't let it happen again.
There is, unfortunately, a long tradition of people claiming not to have inappropriate content, and then springing stuff on us at the last minute. Some have even gone on to brag about trolling us. If you felt like the suspicion was a little higher than seems immediately warranted, I'm afraid you have prior bad actors to thank for that. We are an all-ages event, and we carve out plenty of space for 18+ stuff, but that means we have to be careful about what we put pre-threshold.
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21 hours ago, CarolineAndJustine said:
- I feel like way more events and panels were cancelled or rescheduled last minute this year than usual? I get that stuff happens, but there was barely any communication from the con side of things (and none whatsoever if you weren't checking their Twitter/Insta). I was getting Guidebook push notifications all weekend about autographs and dealer's room hours, so they were using that feature, but I would have appreciated if they used that to at least announce cancellations involving industry guests.
The Ugly
LGBT panels this year were fewer in number and were all initially scheduled late at night regardless of whether or not they were actually 18+. A few were either added off the wait-list last minute or rescheduled to earlier time slots, but at least one of them had to do extra lobbying to prove their panels were "appropriate" for general audiences despite having already clearly stated so on the application.
I'm trying not to read too much into this, but given the current political climate this makes me very very nervous. Gender and sexuality are not inherently adult topics, and there are already rules in place that can be enforced if someone is inappropriate in an all ages panel. Treating LGBT content this way is both a new thing for Otakon and very concerning for a place that is traditionally full of celebrations of LGBT+ identity (and also a ton of crossdressing, which IMHO makes this futile). I sincerely hope this is either a fluke or a one-off.
Some of those reschedules may have been due to the disastrous weather. Flights were canceled and rescheduled, and a few guests got sick right at the last minute. Behind the scenes, the renovations at the Renaissance also had an impact on our ability to roll with the punches. (At one point our staff had been waiting nearly two hours to get food delivered, and nearly 35 minutes waiting for an available elevator!) Because our arrival schedule was a mess due to weather, and because so many other minor things cascaded (including wonky delivery of texts), communication was delayed or missed or got held waiting for confirmation.
But I don't *think* it was more than the usual percent of minor frustrations -- but the guests and industry side of things had a lot of new players and the sheer number of people may have given a bigger impression. We did have a few cancellations due to illness (at least one person only got sick after arriving) rather late in the game.
As others have pointed out, the LGBTQ thing was definitely not a deliberate choice, but rather a sheer circumstantial thing. We've pushed hard on the diversity front, and all the info desks even had pronoun ribbons. One of our staff even shared with us a plan to come out as trans during a panel, and had plenty of support. Leadership of this con has strong LGBTQ+ support both professionally AND personally.As for getting the word out in time, it's always been a challenge (and it's improved over the years). As a former head of both Guests & Industry *and* Programming, sometimes you're too busy putting out the fire to communicate about it before it's irrelevant.
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21 hours ago, Attendee7000 said:
The Bad:
- Please move con feedback earlier, it doesn't have to be in the last possible hour. Nearly everything ends at 3pm (and no one can get back in after 3pm) but feedback doesn't even start until 4pm. I'll bet by noon on Sunday most people who have feedback already know what it will be.
The Ugly:
- This is probably more of a bad, but it's a bad that's slowly gotten worse and doesn't look like it will get better. Way too many panels are at capacity. It feels like Otakon should reconsider certain space uses so we don't have so many full events. One of the biggest halls in the Marriott is dedicated to bag check, The big main hall in the WEWCC is basically dedicated to gaming and it's really only half used. Registation and the Photo Suite use up two huge halls and neither really needs to be in the convention center at all, especially when offsite registration sounds like it's been successful so far. Hopefully Otakon is looking at better using space for next year.
Quick responses, with the caveat that I'm no longer in charge of any part of these -- just replying with some experience under my belt.
Why is feedback so late?
I know that as someone who has been there on stage for probably a dozen of them, Con Feedback is and always has been the last thing we do; it follows closing ceremonies and probably always will. One reason is that key staff have a TON to do and consistent scheduling is the only thing that really makes it manageable for some folks to attend. There's always a sunday concert and other major events happening up until the last moment, and the whole time staff are packing out the convention center as quickly as we can behind the scenes. I don't foresee that changing ever, if I'm honest. I see zero advantage in moving it earlier, and it's always decently attended.
Building Space Optimization
Panels at capacity is *great* news. But a bit of insight here:
1. What gets scheduled where in Panels is a mix factors that changes every year. A lot of it is guest scheduling logistics, but expected draw and space considerations play into a lot of this as well. It is, frankly, always going to be partly guesswork, and sometimes we're caught off-guard with what pulls a crowd. (If you'd told me 10 years ago how popular our culture panels like Ikebana would be, I'd be both happy and full of disbelief.) The draw for any particular panel in a given year is maddeningly unpredictable.
2. The rooms themselves are pretty much as optimized as they can be - but every year we tweak and make some improvements. So please don't take my words as shutting down your ideas, but rather providing some insight into why we make certain choices. We have had 7+ years to work on the space usage, and the people making those calls have been working with Otakon for, in most cases, more than a decade. They've wrangled with folks who make very strong cases for specific locations (ie, advocating for things that they are passionate about). A good example is that we moved our on-site green room for guests from its old location because it was too public and because the space was better used by Makerspace and other stuff. We keep all our ops stuff in the rooms with low ceilings that aren't in major trafficways.
There are "invisible challenges" in some of these spaces (especially in the Marriott) due to things like ceiling height, rigging options, lining space, and lack of backstage areas. Some spaces don't have enough soundproofing to make them viable for certain things. Our events tend to draw lines that almost no other event really does, and having space to manage those is critical. Moving guests around through that crowded tunnel is also a little rough and there are really no backstage options to do so.
The Gaming hall appears only half used but it has been steadily growing to fill the space; it's also a space where the dreaded gamer stink has had room to waft out of range. With photoshoots moving there, it has reduced some of the hall-clogging locations of the past, and that makes it a good use of the space.
If you've been to Awesomecon, they use the backmost hall on the 2nd level for registration -- but most of their model drives people immediately into their one main events space or to the dealer hall....and they run registration lining through areas of heavy traffic for us. ) Part of Hall E is where the dozens of pods of our stuff are stored and where the packing and unpacking and distribution are managed. For Awesomecon, the entire Hall E is used for managing lines for reg or main events, and that would not work for us at all; we need space for Dance as well.
For the registration areas, they're literally designed to work for that purpose and not much else -- but photo suite was a great fit there; it was too big for any of the other rooms we'd considered and it's heavily trafficked. Those spaces really don't work well for any of our other needs, and are too noisy to work for programming space.
What you do not see is the sheer volume of *stuff* that needs to be moved around within the WEWCC behind the scenes to make registration work -- it simply isn't possible to move all of that offsite. What we already have tried and are doing has been challenging to figure out. Event space costs a lot of money and logistical demands mean that while it's fine to shift some resources out of the WEWCC, no other location has the space to manage the volume efficiently AND handle resupplying as needed.
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You’re right in that Japanese guests in particular depend on relationships. And these days we continue to reap benefits of lots of outreach and friendships made over the last few decades. I am happy that my successors continue to build on those, and make new ones.
But that is true of US based guests too — agents become much easier to deal with when the guests really want to come.
I feel very privileged in the friends I’ve made, both on behalf of the con, and personally. And I help out where I can with connections and back door invites. This year we got particularly and unexpectedly lucky with timing with Japan. Not so lucky on the cost of flights, though. I hear it was painful and I’m glad I don’t have to manage that budget anymore!
This is where I’d begin to tease you, and selectively rain on your hopes. I’ve been out of the loop for personal stuff, but feel a bit recharged. But I’m not the guy calling the shots, so what can I tease with?
Hmm. There is at least one big guest that we came really close with a few times now — maybe this year will be the year? I know we have quite a few people interested and in the works, but we are a long ways out right now. And a few old friends have already reached out to see if we want them back, both locals and internationals. And there are two guests in particular I will be bending ears about. Let’s just hope the pandemic is less an issue next year.
So don’t worry, things are in the works that should make folks quite happy. But to say more would be telling.
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On 8/10/2022 at 9:23 AM, Krabstarr said:
Now that we are past Otakon 2022, do you think we could get the statistics for Otakon 2021 up on the Event Statistics page?
https://www.otakon.com/info/about/stats/
I don't know if this would be considered to be added to the statistics page, but I would be interested in seeing the breakdown of the number of Supporting Memberships and Trial Memberships starting with 2018.Typically this gets updated a few weeks or so post con, because it takes time to reconcile all the various systems, people who upgraded memberships, etc. it’s usually @MattTheMinion who does this, I think..
Most of us older staffers are still recovering!
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Hey guys, I am sorry I haven’t been around. I apologize for neglecting my duties here.
I joke that I am semi-retired after 20+ years on staff (my first year on staff was when Cousin Sue was chair!), but that mostly means that I am not involved at the leadership level. There are a few reasons.
First, the organization needs a steady influx of new blood, and I was deeply involved for more than a decade between the board and various convention roles. I was Chair and president over 15 years ago now, and stopped heading GR before we left Baltimore, though I never stopped being involved. I’m around when needed for advice and contacts, and I like to think I am still helpful, but it’s time for others to have the big jobs. (And for me to not spend 20-40 hours a week on it.)
Second, a few years back I ended up having to spend a lot of time taking care of my grandmother (as some of you know from Facebook), and that had to be my primary focus. She was living with me during much of the pandemic’s first year. Then about 18 months ago, I fell down the stairs and broke both my feet pretty badly, and spent most of last year getting mobile again. It’s still a chore to do heavy walking and you may have seen me stomping around with a cane — it wasn’t cosplay. If that wasn’t enough on my plate, I had a huge work project at my day job. And then Covid took my grandmother (at 97), nearly took my mother on Christmas, and robbed my of my Dad — all in the space of a month. My 18-yr-old cat has also had some health issues. So a lot of my absence this year, and here especially, has been for personal reasons. I just haven’t had the bandwidth or mental energy to put in what’s needed.
These days I’m splitting my Otakon time between MCing panels for guests and helping run our hospitality area. Basically my team makes sure the guests get fed and get to relax (it’s where they generally go in the evenings). It’s the most fun parts of my various jobs, because I get to actually spend time with old friends like Steve Bennet and Mile Toole and Yoshi Watanabe and Toshi Yoshida, as well as other guests and industry friends.
This year we had a few scheduling snafus internally, but myself and another former chair, Alice V, have been acting as MCs for guest panels. I started doing that years ago with Yoshiki and some of the other bands in particular, and in 2019 a did quite a few. Not only do I really enjoy it, I have been increasingly in demand for it. Since Alice and I spent many years actively building relationships (particularly in Japan but throughout the industry), we get to spend time with friends and they get a familiar face to talk with.
I ended up having a blast MC-ing with the Furukawas, who are every bit as delightful as they seem, for both of their big fully packed panels. And I did the Toonami panel with Steve Blum and Beau Billingslea, which was a particular treat as I hadn’t actually met Beau properly, but have known Steve and Mary Elizabeth for a long while but hadn’t seen Steve in person in eons. I ended up having to solo it for a while because they were running behind, but we genuinely had a blast doing that one.
I usually make it to opening and closing ceremonies, but this year I needed a nap and had a ton to get done before the evening party.
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On 5/27/2021 at 10:18 AM, Daniel Perales said:
Well, it's been 8 months since the pre-order date. Did anyone finally get their PS5?
I want to get the disc version of the console, not interested in the "digital-only" version. Personally, I haven't been lucky to get one, much less able to place an order for it. I manage to at least get as far as having the system on my online "shopping cart" from some of the vendors (Amazon, Best Buy, Target, and Walmart), only to lose it once I click "Check-out" in less than 2 minutes into it.
Very frustrating, indeed.
Scored one from a friend who camps on the sites hoping.
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On 3/8/2021 at 1:58 AM, GasparAKAShiggitay said:
I don't think I've personally met you, not at least realizing it was you. haha.
Didn't you make it to Vegas? Or maybe I ran into you in Panel Ops or something?
Honestly, I've met so many folks over the years who knew me from being on stage or from here, the data is often left untagged in the hard drive of my brain. Especially because at con I'm so exhausted....
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On 3/3/2021 at 8:21 AM, Daniel Perales said:
How could I forget Jim "Alabaster" Vowles. I ran into him in one of the New York Comic Cons a few years earlier. I remember telling him "Welcome to my neighborhood!".
I remember that! I miss going to NYCC and variations thereof. Nice to have fun at a con with. none of the work.
I've run into quite a few of you here and there over the years.
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In 1987 through the mid 90s, the bustling harbor place pavilions were packed every weekend and busy most weekdays. I even worked there over a summer or two. I say 1987 because that was my first real solo trip down there after high school graduation.
Now, when I say packed, I mean every retail and restaurant space and then some was filled — all the shops, plus carts and temporary setups.
One major cause of mall death across the board is obscene rent costs and rules that make it nearly impossible for anything but big stores to operate without losing money, in “tourist” areas like Harborplace. but it’s true of most malls and has been for twenty years. Then the market begins to collapse and owners take shortcuts that make the mall less appealing, and as stores disappear the survivors get more pressure....it’s vicious.
When I went to Sydney, Australia, that harbor has a very similar feel (and the same architects), but the rents are either stabilized or supplemented to ensure business can turn a profit and stay afloat — because it keeps the tourist area vibrant.
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I have a copy of every program. I also have a copy of all the primary t shirts from 2000-up, except one I think.
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Short answer: some of the earlier ones are complicated by copyright issues, which we discovered when we tried to arrange something cool for our 10th. At least one of the early ones is probably not reprintable at all, if memory serves because it uses a character we don't have rights to. In other cases it's likely that either we don't have access to quality version of art, or don't have the correct agreement in place for reprint -- it was a few years before we got the hang of that stuff. But I've seen the odd shirt show up on eBay.
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9 hours ago, Aresef said:
Yeah, I just wish they weren't legally obliged to keep people in the lurch so long.
Heck, even having a con, what would that look like? Something I asked in the feedback session of the Twitch event that didn't get answered was what kind of restrictions was Otakon prepared to put in place if the con were to have gone on (assuming planning was at that stage at the time the plug was pulled).
The short answer -- and remembering I do NOT currently speak on behalf of the organization -- is that we've generally followed the recommendations and requirements of the venue, because what choice do we have? And the venue follows city guidance. Everyone does. Just like we're stuck with the required food vendors and security contractors, and required to scan bags and restrict costumes. (Further disclaimer: there are a LOT of Ota staff connected with health care, public safety, and government, and we're pretty vocal when such things are discussed. It would be impossible to "go rogue" for something like "do we follow guidance" with this crew.). Masks and sanitizer, of course; but social distancing a convention simply was NEVER going to work, and anyone with any sense saw where this was headed. All of the con runners have been discussing this since January.
If the show is just a glorified flea market, or run small with a really supportive hotel, then you MIGHT have a chance -- but panels and autographs and concerts just ain't gonna work safely while this crap is going on, and personally any guest willing to show up in the current climate is not someone I'd consider safe to be around. Any show large enough to need a convention center simply cannot survive with a 25% cap on attendance and no content. Remember, it costs a few million dollars to run this event and organization, and the biggest part of that is the facilities and setup costs. Being forced to run like that, even before bearing the brunt of extra precautions, would bankrupt us.
But it's not just us -- NO event I'm aware of could take a 75% cut in revenue and survive; most would be fatally crippled, because nearly all of us run on thin margins and are supported primarily by membership or ticket revenue. (Dr Matt the Minion could break it down for you, but the raw costs of running events like ours are staggering if you're not used to seeing them.)
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We know the routine by now, right? They are almost certainly waiting until things are legally in place for them to cancel without being on the hook for the contracts. Like every other con.
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Actually... it's probably worth looking into. Depending on the year and the concert and the specific terms involved, we might be able to do it. It would be a private screening for members only, and thus *may* be covered (for some of the shows) under existing usage rights -- but it would probably require a little digging to make sure we don't trip any surprises. I think we have even done it before, but each agreement may be different on those rights.
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Just so you're aware: Guest suggestions have their own thread.
Were you aware that we have *the* best Lip Sync show? Lip Sync For Your Cosplay? Jez created it and it got rave reviews.
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22 hours ago, Aresef said:
Indeed. I was only $15, so I'm peeved, but still just out $15. Other people were taken for way, way more and it sure seems like that money's long since been spent. On what? Anybody's guess.
Oh, I think it was probably spent on developing the game, because there were some prototypes and some functionality on display at the time. At a guess -- and it's purely a guess, I have no insider knowledge about it -- I think they may have lost a key partner on the dev side OR just underestimated what it would really take, and people only work for you for so long on promises and fun.
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On 9/16/2019 at 1:59 PM, Konacha said:
Yeah, I admit that I could have choose those words "under the rug" a bit better, more like "pretend it didn't exist". Since all we heard from Otakon years ago was that it was handed to the lawyers, the licensed was pulled and that was it. I was hoping for some official statement on something other than what we got. When I heard the quote "handed to the lawyers (I believe this came from an old feedback panel)" I was hoping that we get at least a statement about what happened. I just felt like everything was quiet and that was it. As I said, if another game was announced, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't back it just because of how bad a taste the old one left in my mouth.
*Nods* Just to clarify, there really isn't any new information, so the old statement stands. As I understand it, It's on Studio Nasu and Kickstarter, legally and ethically, to deal with any remaining fallout. That's just a risk of crowdfunding, really.
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23 hours ago, Konacha said:
As someone who lost $200 from the game back when it was done (and I only paid that much money because Otakon was supporting it). I would first like to have my money back before any other project was announced as this would be a kick in the teeth for me. Or at least have the people who backed the game have our original ideas and tiers done. Having another game would feel as if Otakon is trying to sweep it under the rug, which they seem to have done already.
I feel ya. But I don't think any of that money is coming back. That's the risk of kickstarter and other crowdfunding. You don't know if the projects will come to pass, and you may not see your investment pay off. That's simply how it works. The money was spent, and the project failed to produce. We said what we could legally at the time and the statements are on record. There was no sweeping under the rug.
Let me clarify something here to the best of my understanding, and with the disclaimer that I'm NOT making a statement on behalf of the corporation here -- this is my personal recollection and most of it's been public for a while.
Otakorp, the organization, provided some seed money (I don't recall the exact amount, but it was thousands of dollars) and licensed our mascot characters and some concepts to the team making the game. We didn't own the process or have access to the kickstarter process other than as a participant -- that was all the studio making the game. And the folks behind that had a long association with the community and nobody had a reason to doubt their intentions.
You may notice that my avatar here is "Evil Doctor V" from the concept art. Fred "Piro" from Megatokyo did some of the concept art and was one of many creative types (including voice actors) who committed to or helped build the prototype. (My inclusion as a boss was going to be a surprise until our lawyer pointed out that they had to get me to sign off on using my likeness, so the first I heard of it was when I was asked to approve and sign off on the art.) Since other folks paid to be included, once the KS launched, I forked over the appropriate donation for that tier (I want to say $400 or $600), since it only seemed fair. At least I got this out of it, which is a lot more than most folks got.
Disclaimer: I have known Fred for like 15-20 years and I certainly could have paid a lot less to be captured in his style.
Further disclaimer: Most folks in the industry understand that projects don't always pan out and I think they've written it off long ago. For Otakorp a lot of the value came from the announcement buzz -- but the negative impact of its failure was no picnic. But for the staff who chipped in, that's money lost just like it is for any members who supported it.
And I don't speak for everyone on this, but I suspect that we're a little hesitant to get involved in another game project.
Still, we're up on MOST conventions in terms of video game credibility: Otacon, of MGS fame, is named after our event and many MGS materials credit us with allowing them to use the name -- and we always credit Dr Hal Emerich as our scientific adviser in our program book.
Otakon 2023: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
in Otakon 2023
Posted
We had twice the number of vendors this year as we had last….. and as a rule it’s first come first serve.