Author Topic: Pros/cons of console gaming this year ('09)  (Read 10767 times)

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Offline legoman60

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Pros/cons of console gaming this year ('09)
« on: September 08, 2009, 03:32:51 pm »
So, since I was gaming staff at this year's con and I'm gonna be staffing at M.E.W.con this year, I wanna know what went well and what didn't in the console gaming room from everyone else's stand-point (staff, I'd like to hear from you too).

A few points that have already been touched on:

1) No list of games avaliable
2) The room opening late (trust me, there was a reason for that)
3) The SSB:Brawl/Halo 3 tournaments ending up overcrowded

I'd like to hear from everyone who was in that room on areas we can improve and what we did great on, and if you just wanna say that we're awesome, please do. I know a lot of the staff (not just gaming) need that at this point.

EDIT: For those who were staffing gaming, avoid giving reasons why things happened they way they did. I don't want this to be a Q&A for gaming just a place for people to provide feedback to better facilitate next years con.
« Last Edit: September 08, 2009, 05:43:30 pm by legoman60 »
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Offline allstarsniper32

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Re: Pros/cons of console gaming this year ('09)
« Reply #1 on: September 08, 2009, 04:52:07 pm »
I didn't have any problem in the gaming room but I've read that some people did, so they might come in here yelling.

It's not just this con but I only play Rock Band or Guitar Hero at cons because when I go to where other games are it's almost always just the popular games that are being played. It's fine though since that's what most people want to play but it just makes me not go towards them.

The Rock Band stage was awesome! Yeah a lot of songs get picked too often but that's something you have to deal with.

Offline legoman60

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Re: Pros/cons of console gaming this year ('09)
« Reply #2 on: September 08, 2009, 05:08:58 pm »
The Rock Band stage was awesome! Yeah a lot of songs get picked too often but that's something you have to deal with.

Thank Dustin (BlazingHydro) for that, most of the gear was his.
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Offline EggytheGreen

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Re: Pros/cons of console gaming this year ('09)
« Reply #3 on: September 08, 2009, 05:39:27 pm »
"sorry, downstairs is closed right now" ...twice... for unknown reasons... one time when my bag was still checked in and I couldn't go down to check it out...

tournaments running late. smash bros. and others with their long lists of participants are of course going to be long, but the guilty gear xxac tournament I was in went quite long, despite the low number of participants... if possible try to have a large number of consoles running the game for the tournament.  things will run more smoothly and they'll be less people leaving midway because they have other plans.  if I had known there was only going to be one disc for the gg tournament I would've brought my own copy and the tournament would have gone nearly twice as fast.

Offline Slash5150

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Re: Pros/cons of console gaming this year ('09)
« Reply #4 on: September 08, 2009, 06:18:16 pm »
Major Props to BlazingHydro for running Rockband, and Zack, I don't know if you came back, but I think Tofu might have your stuff if you didn't come back.

So some gripes I had, was...

Blue Bags are now banned from K-con (j/k) but after actually taking 50+ blue swag bags and tossing them into a big trash bag, it just shows that something needs to be figured out on how those are given out.

The way the room was built kind of sucks, but I think gaming needs to figure out what stuff should go where.  When I think about how stuff was laid out, I think that all TVs need to be against walls, I understand that the power was ****, but when there were TV's in the middle of the room, it slaughtered where people could stand and what not, I.E. that giant group of people hyping my brawl match (Me vs Daniel Chung (fox vs Kirby/Random v Random on Random stage) and the whole, 2 feet of standing room before people were crowding the halo area. 

I think it would have been best if we put like the game checkout and main staff thing, in the back corner where the lan area was as well as near the back door, and if the door near the elevator was used as the entrance. 

It would also have been better if yojis could have staffed the doors because we lost what...2 or 3 staffers who just had to watch the doors.

I also really would like to push for gaming to be allowed on the main stage.  I don't know if its possible, but I assume most people who are part of the tournaments are there the whole con, and it would have been awesome to have seen R_Panda's final match in BlazBlue against Eugene's Litchi in an amazing match, or to watch Pasqual (Rasqual) and Sai-Kun's SF4 match. Or even the Brawl Matches would have been fun to watch in a larger room.  It would also make it so that casual gamers would be allowed to play games in the gaming room.  Again, this part is a rant from someone who attends the big events like EVO and Northwest majors.
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Offline mattstotts46

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Re: Pros/cons of console gaming this year ('09)
« Reply #5 on: September 10, 2009, 06:27:57 pm »
You guys did an amazing job with the LAN! I was playing StarCraft and enjoying myself. They were also pretty close to the updated version of Dota which was nice. Also thank god for no wireless on the computers cause I did not want to deal with WoW players and myspace/facebook checkers or whatever social networking site. The Rockband Stage looked amazing even though I didnt play. Also the DDR was interesting to watch. Whoever the guy that let us in during the tournaments to play SC rocked.
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Offline DancingTofu

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Re: Pros/cons of console gaming this year ('09)
« Reply #6 on: September 10, 2009, 10:49:11 pm »
Alright, I've kind of been neglecting gaming for the last couple days.  Time to get down and dirty and state some of my opinions here...

Con - Shifts became a matter of "if you're caught in the game room not working, be ready to start working" so I wound up only getting about an hour of free play time in during the 61+ hours I spent in the game room.  Basically, I had to leave the game room to get a break, and unless I went home or to con suite, I'd be quickly recruited to help Yojimbo with some odds or ends.

Con - We quadrupled our workload with only three times the staff, few of whom had experience as gaming staff, and less of whom had worked at Kumoricon before.  We were open for 40% more hours running 50% more tournaments, and had 150% more positions working at any given time.  Despite this, we ran only 2 more gaming stations than last year.  Four times as much work for 10% more production.  We were far from efficiently organized.

Con - the layout was haphazard.  Especially considering that our space was VERY finite (only 200 sq ft. more than 2008, which had 400 sq ft less than 2007), a lot more consideration should have gone into placing tables.  Rock Band had about 300 sq ft of wasted space next to it, and  despite taking up a ridiculous amount of space, game check and bag check were cramped.  Realistically, we simply can't operate that much entertainment in that small of a space.

Con - check out system was haphazard and poorly communicated to staff.  Thus, it was inconsistent and ineffective.

Con (my fault) - DDR was not popular enough to merit such a high-priority tournament timeslot.  We need an arcade machine in order to draw more people, or just nix the tournament.

Con - Rock Band's day 1 timeslot didn't give people enough time to form bands, and thus participation levels were very low compared to reasonable expectations.

Con - people weren't held responsible for skipping tournaments/dropping out.  People need to be discouraged from entering a tournament unless they are certain they can be there for the entire tournament.

Con - no designated check-in times for tournaments.  Should be on the con schedule.

Con - no designated times for qualifiers on con schedule.  Qualifiers should not have to eat away from tournament time.

Pro - We had a lot of really great staff there this year.  If we start planning a lot sooner, get organized a lot better, and (preferably) get better space to operate in, I think 2010 will put Kumoricon up there as a convention for serious gamers to consider attending.

Pro - we have a lot of really great equipment at this point.  We can use that as leverage to get other cons to participate in equipment trades, and perhaps (winkwinknudgenudge) run a gaming-centric Alto Nimbus Entertainment mini-event.


That's all I can think of right now.  Yeah, there's a lot of cons there, but that just means we can make gaming 2010 a WHOLE HELLUVA LOT BETTER.  People enjoyed gaming this year.  If we fix all the problems we had this year, I think that people--especially staff--will enjoy it a lot more.
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Offline Slash5150

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Re: Pros/cons of console gaming this year ('09)
« Reply #7 on: September 11, 2009, 04:47:22 am »

Con - the layout was haphazard.  Especially considering that our space was VERY finite (only 200 sq ft. more than 2008, which had 400 sq ft less than 2007), a lot more consideration should have gone into placing tables.  Rock Band had about 300 sq ft of wasted space next to it, and  despite taking up a ridiculous amount of space, game check and bag check were cramped.  Realistically, we simply can't operate that much entertainment in that small of a space.

Con - check out system was haphazard and poorly communicated to staff.  Thus, it was inconsistent and ineffective.


If you're talking about the 300 feet to the left of the stage, wasn't that being used for the "next up" group to figure out their setlist?

And I agree, the check out system was utter fail. Lucas coming up with the closed-open gaming thing was probably the best thing of the night, except that there needed to be someone to make sure it was up to date every now and then
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Offline DancingTofu

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Re: Pros/cons of console gaming this year ('09)
« Reply #8 on: September 11, 2009, 04:51:32 am »
No, the "next up" line was on the left of the station operators (by their perspective).  I mean the area where we were going to have the headphones RB setup, that was only running for a few minutes, maybe an hour or two.  Really, I think we would have been better off with one Rock Band setup, and having the line in that area.  It would have been a lot less congested without having to come up with something better to have in that area.
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Offline Slash5150

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Re: Pros/cons of console gaming this year ('09)
« Reply #9 on: September 11, 2009, 04:54:08 am »
No, the "next up" line was on the left of the station operators (by their perspective).  I mean the area where we were going to have the headphones RB setup, that was only running for a few minutes, maybe an hour or two.  Really, I think we would have been better off with one Rock Band setup, and having the line in that area.  It would have been a lot less congested without having to come up with something better to have in that area.

Ah, well the other thing you have to remember to, if I remember right, the air walls can't really be moved anywhere else in that room, at least I don't think they could have been.
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Offline DancingTofu

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Re: Pros/cons of console gaming this year ('09)
« Reply #10 on: September 11, 2009, 05:04:41 am »
Yes, that is the case.  That's one of the reasons why I feel that the room is unsuitable for Gaming. (combined with the pillars, and the fact that it's too small) :P
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Offline Slash5150

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Re: Pros/cons of console gaming this year ('09)
« Reply #11 on: September 11, 2009, 05:12:25 am »
Yes and no, the room would work for gaming, it was just TERRIBLY laid out.  I can think of a much better way to lay out the room, but right now, its too many things jammed into one area.  If K-con wants to have a BYOC type thing, thats cool and all, but the fact that there were all these random things floating around like heres a random 64 someone brought in, or a random ps2 someone brought in, wow...really WTF?
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Offline Fevenis

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Re: Pros/cons of console gaming this year ('09)
« Reply #12 on: September 11, 2009, 04:01:11 pm »
Con – No shifts. Aside from visiting the dealer room a few times, I didn’t get to see Kumoricon. My only breaks were sleeping (which wasn’t much), and eating. I don’t mind offering up a few hours of my time each day, or running a tournament, but I was over worked and missed out on everything else the con had to offer.

Pro – The LAN was a pretty big success from all the feed back I’ve gotten. Introducing Earth Special Forces (Dragon Ball Z first person fighting game) and show casing some of our retro favorites, the LAN seemed to always been in use.

Con – The LAN wasn’t funded, so not all PC’s had newer, quality parts. Maintenance was required on a few machines during the con and one we could not get back up.

Pro – The gaming staff were very dedicated, giving it their all to provide a good time for everyone.

Con – Kumoricon attendees would often not read signs. This made staff a little edgy when people would “break” the rules.

Pro – Though it started late (due to exceeding room capacity limit), the Smash Bros Brawl tournament had a big turn up and was a lot of fun this year. A number of our staff members were approached by Kumoricon attendees telling them how much fun they had.

Con – The room was just too small. With the gaming room growing larger every year, we are swiftly out growing what sized room people think we should have.

Pro – The inventory from Sakuracon was a huge huge help! Thank you Sak staff!

Con – Bag checking needs to be outside the main gaming room, before you even enter.

Pro – Gaming is attracting more and more women each year. Glad to see gaming is starting to turn into something that not only smelly nerds enjoy.

Con – I think running the gaming room 24/7 wasn’t a success. We need to have set hours that give us a break and some breathing room to prep for the next day.

Pro – Planning ideas for Kumoricon 2010 are already being bounced around. Prepare yourself!
« Last Edit: September 11, 2009, 04:02:41 pm by Fevenis »

Offline mattstotts46

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Re: Pros/cons of console gaming this year ('09)
« Reply #13 on: September 11, 2009, 06:20:23 pm »
I enjoyed the late night gaming because I didnt have to deal with huge amounts of teens. It allowed the more sensible gamer to play. Gaming probably should've ended around 3am in my opinion but i've played my fair share of Rockband till 4am =)
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Offline DancingTofu

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Re: Pros/cons of console gaming this year ('09)
« Reply #14 on: September 11, 2009, 11:57:08 pm »
Pro – Gaming is attracting more and more women each year. Glad to see gaming is starting to turn into something that not only smelly nerds enjoy.
Hey, I know some guys who smell pretty great...
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Offline Slash5150

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Re: Pros/cons of console gaming this year ('09)
« Reply #15 on: September 11, 2009, 11:59:12 pm »
Con – No shifts. Aside from visiting the dealer room a few times, I didn’t get to see Kumoricon. My only breaks were sleeping (which wasn’t much), and eating. I don’t mind offering up a few hours of my time each day, or running a tournament, but I was over worked and missed out on everything else the con had to offer.

QFT
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Offline camname21

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Re: Pros/cons of console gaming this year ('09)
« Reply #16 on: September 12, 2009, 11:53:56 am »
Blue Bags are now banned from K-con (j/k) but after actually taking 50+ blue swag bags and tossing them into a big trash bag, it just shows that something needs to be figured out on how those are given out.
I hope you guys checked those bags before tossing them, I heard a lot of lost and found people trying to find their stuff they said they left IN THE BLUE BAG while I was in the yoji office.

Also, I walked into gaming probably once every hour, when I was not stuck up on plaza level, and not once heard any of the door watchers ask me to look into finding a door yoji when I asked how it was going.  If we don't know we can't help.

Offline Kurokaizoku

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Re: Pros/cons of console gaming this year ('09)
« Reply #17 on: September 12, 2009, 04:14:05 pm »
Also, I walked into gaming probably once every hour, when I was not stuck up on plaza level, and not once heard any of the door watchers ask me to look into finding a door yoji when I asked how it was going.  If we don't know we can't help.

Thats bc they werent supposed to. We were supposed to watch our own doors. Something new we tried this year.

"sorry, downstairs is closed right now" ...twice... for unknown reasons... one time when my bag was still checked in and I couldn't go down to check it out...

You should NEVER leave the room with your stuff checked in. The bag check is for gaming ONLY. Not for general con use.



Tofu, what about the check out system was poorly communicated? Only certain people are told how to run the check in/out. And when we changed over to locked gaming there no longer was a need.

If you are gong to do qualifiers its part of the tourney. Whoever is running the tourney will then need to plan for the 1-4hrs alotted for the tournament to do qualifiers. They also should plan ahead to know the cut-off. f you have an hour time slot you cant have 100 sign-ups. Just not possible. If you need qualifiers, plan around them.  dont handle tourneys so I dont tell anyone when they need to be there bc I dont know. No one has ever informed me. As a tourney runner you should have something that says when you need people to check in or you need to inform the staff so they can tell people if asked.

I dont believe we will even do 22hrs next year and we will be in the same room. Complaining about being in that room is futile. Thats what we are given. We are not a gaming con and we are not a priority space. There are bigger spaces needed for much bigger things. Rockband was allowed such a large space to keep the nose down for the rest of us, and the partition gave them that much since its on a track and immovable from there.. That will be different next year. Rockband will have smaller space. The layout will be different. If you have layout suggestions them email them to myself or TJ. But it will be the same room. And yes Bag check will be IN the room. It is a gaming bag check not con bag check. It is not for people to drop their stuff off and leave. But we can only control that as much as we do by having it in the room. If its outside, its chaos.

Thats all I can remember I was gong to say......
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Offline Kurokaizoku

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Re: Pros/cons of console gaming this year ('09)
« Reply #18 on: September 12, 2009, 04:16:43 pm »
Oh and as for the blue swag bags. Next year it is my plan to not allow them into bag check. Yes we checked them. We only tossed them after con was over and we were cleaning the room. Just as we do every year. We toss about 100+ at the end of con.

It has nothing to do with them being handed out it has everything to do with attendees not caring about them and leaving them around. So next year, prepare to not be allowed into gaming if you dont have anywhere to put that swag bag.
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Offline Slash5150

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Re: Pros/cons of console gaming this year ('09)
« Reply #19 on: September 12, 2009, 04:18:27 pm »
Oh and as for the blue swag bags. Next year it is my plan to not allow them into bag check. Yes we checked them. We only tossed them after con was over and we were cleaning the room. Just as we do every year. We toss about 100+ at the end of con.

It has nothing to do with them being handed out it has everything to do with attendees not caring about them and leaving them around. So next year, prepare to not be allowed into gaming if you dont have anywhere to put that swag bag.

Or just have a bin at the front door for the bags.
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Offline allstarsniper32

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Re: Pros/cons of console gaming this year ('09)
« Reply #20 on: September 12, 2009, 05:36:59 pm »
Pro – Gaming is attracting more and more women each year. Glad to see gaming is starting to turn into something that not only smelly nerds enjoy.

Con – I think running the gaming room 24/7 wasn’t a success. We need to have set hours that give us a break and some breathing room to prep for the next day.

I'm also glad that more girls are coming into the gaming rooms. I think it mostly has to do with gaming rooms being properly ventilated to let that "funk" which isn't very prominent anymore.

I think the 24/7 gaming room was fine and they did have it closed for a few hours for cleanup and whatnot. Gaming is something it seems a lot of people do so they don't have to go to sleep. I do think the game room would be fine if it opened at noon though and ran all day until 6 or 8 in the morning then was closed until noon. I know most of the traffic in the room is during the day though.

Offline camname21

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Re: Pros/cons of console gaming this year ('09)
« Reply #21 on: September 12, 2009, 05:53:35 pm »
If it is really that hard to keep bags that are 1' x1' x 1/2" from cluttering up things I think that's sad.  I like the idea of having a bag check outside the door, but 1) random people are going to try and check their bags in, maybe not many but some more then normal.  And 2) there is not room for a table outside the hall.  As for 100 bags?  shouldn't 3 boxes (the ones we put the newly stuffed bags in) and a plastic container w/ lid for bigger things be enough space?  That's like the space the table takes up if you put them under it.  And then you could use that space on top too for other ****/organization.  If I was told I couldn't go in b/c i had a bag I'd trash the blue one right in front of yall and ask again, if I had a real bag I would be PISSED!  Anyhow, hope you guys get that figured out to your liking for next year :) 
« Last Edit: September 12, 2009, 05:56:02 pm by camname21 »

Offline Kurokaizoku

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Re: Pros/cons of console gaming this year ('09)
« Reply #22 on: September 12, 2009, 08:55:53 pm »
If it is really that hard to keep bags that are 1' x1' x 1/2" from cluttering up things I think that's sad.  I like the idea of having a bag check outside the door, but 1) random people are going to try and check their bags in, maybe not many but some more then normal.  And 2) there is not room for a table outside the hall.  As for 100 bags?  shouldn't 3 boxes (the ones we put the newly stuffed bags in) and a plastic container w/ lid for bigger things be enough space?  That's like the space the table takes up if you put them under it.  And then you could use that space on top too for other ****/organization.  If I was told I couldn't go in b/c i had a bag I'd trash the blue one right in front of yall and ask again, if I had a real bag I would be PISSED!  Anyhow, hope you guys get that figured out to your liking for next year :)  

If you think its sad that they can become a problem I offer you a 3-4hr stint in bag check like all of my staff have done at one point or another. It becomes a major problem because they add up and multiply. We had 100+ left over. But during operating hours there are many many many more. If you have a real bag then I would tell you to put the blue bag in it. And problem solved. Yes we know about the inability to put bag check outside the room. Plus weve done it in the past and have decided to never do that again. Unless its run by someone else. People forget its run by gaming staff for the attendees in the gaming room. Its unfair to expect gaming to watch bags for the whole con attendees. We are still working on a way to keep people from being able to leave their bags in gaming. We also have used bins to put the bags in before. And its not a bad idea. And we should have done it ths year. We just didnt have the bins. I will look into it again next year. We were trying to work out the kinks all the way up to con. We actually had no tagging(because we absolutely forgot about bag check bc we kept putting it off) until the night before when we found the pins from 2 years ago.

The 100 number was just for leftover swag bags. We have around 300 backpacks rotating in and out plus props and an equal number of swag bags. Please do not think we are just incompetent and/or whining. We have been trying to figure out how to organize bag check in a limited space(like designing hanging grids/stands), Its just difficult to design something that can breakdown and store, is easy to set up and is cheap. We have used shelves and tables in the past. It was operating on limited space.
« Last Edit: September 12, 2009, 08:56:14 pm by Kurokaizoku »
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Offline Slash5150

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Re: Pros/cons of console gaming this year ('09)
« Reply #23 on: September 12, 2009, 09:03:48 pm »
Bag checking -- There were at least 50 bags left over throughout the 3 days, they aren't exactly tacky, so you get them starting to slide off one another.

Bag check gets extremely hectic because its the mindset of retail sales, we want it, and we want it now.  You combine that with an influx of new bags coming in and it makes for a very dangerous situation. 

I mean me rushing to get people their bags/props and get them out of the room so to speak, since for every one person leaving, another 5 people would enter with more bags and props, isn't an excuse for almost slipping, but it still gets extremely hectic. 

It doesn't help also when people take their personal gear and try and jam it into the bag, because two things happen A) The bag winds up ripping or B) the clips snap or break and then it becomes a bag that no one owns.
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Offline legoman60

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Re: Pros/cons of console gaming this year ('09)
« Reply #24 on: September 13, 2009, 10:34:58 am »
it also doesn't help when you are in the middle of a long stint in bag check and this happens:

Staff: "do you see your bag?"
Attendee: "yes, it is that one" *points at a pile of bags*
Staff: "Which one?"
Attendee: "That one" *points at same pile of bags*

This happened fairly frequently, and it drove me crazy. If i didn't get out of bag check when I did I probably would have smacked someone.
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Offline camname21

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Re: Pros/cons of console gaming this year ('09)
« Reply #25 on: September 13, 2009, 03:47:37 pm »
If you guys want to use bins and don't have any I bet you could get them pretty cheap at garage sale/good will type stores :D You could even use them to hold other things in storage while the con is not running.  What were the dimensions of the space you were using for bag checking?  Maybe we can think of some sort of sorter specifically for 300-500 blue bags ,and other small things.  500 seeing how the con seems to keep growing, though isn't next year  going to be capped around the same number again?  What kind of Ticketing system did you use?  I heard it was just a numbered ticket that was given to the person, and the other was attached to the bag.  How well did that work?  I heard complaints about it not being so great, that's the best way I can think of though.
« Last Edit: September 13, 2009, 03:50:33 pm by camname21 »

Offline Slash5150

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Re: Pros/cons of console gaming this year ('09)
« Reply #26 on: September 13, 2009, 03:53:09 pm »
it also doesn't help when you are in the middle of a long stint in bag check and this happens:

Staff: "do you see your bag?"
Attendee: "yes, it is that one" *points at a pile of bags*
Staff: "Which one?"
Attendee: "That one" *points at same pile of bags*

This happened fairly frequently, and it drove me crazy. If i didn't get out of bag check when I did I probably would have smacked someone.

That and the people who absolutely refused to check their bag for some strange reason.  I mean which would you prefer, you check your bag, or when you leave, we thoroughly inspect your bag?

But its not so much a sorting of small items and stuff, its that the blue bags are not suitable for ones personal items.
Hey ya'll I'll be starting school so time on these forums will me limited.  I will still respond to PM's so if you need to get a hold of me, PM me or send me a message on MySpace.

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Offline camname21

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Re: Pros/cons of console gaming this year ('09)
« Reply #27 on: September 13, 2009, 04:27:31 pm »
Ya stuffing them I had a few break the seams when things were dropped into them.

Offline DancingTofu

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Re: Pros/cons of console gaming this year ('09)
« Reply #28 on: September 14, 2009, 12:40:18 am »
Tofu, what about the check out system was poorly communicated? Only certain people are told how to run the check in/out. And when we changed over to locked gaming there no longer was a need.
This.  I was able to walk into gaming at Sakuracon, say "yo I'm staff" and I was instructed in the full workings of the checkout system in about 2 minutes.  With Kumoricon, I was incorrectly instructed on the protocol, and clearly 3 or 4 of the people who had operated the station before me were even less properly instructed.  The system was sloppy, the communication sucked, and every staff member needs to know how to run check-out properly.


Quote
If you are gong to do qualifiers its part of the tourney. Whoever is running the tourney will then need to plan for the 1-4hrs alotted for the tournament to do qualifiers. They also should plan ahead to know the cut-off. f you have an hour time slot you cant have 100 sign-ups. Just not possible. If you need qualifiers, plan around them.  dont handle tourneys so I dont tell anyone when they need to be there bc I dont know. No one has ever informed me. As a tourney runner you should have something that says when you need people to check in or you need to inform the staff so they can tell people if asked.
This answer is bogus on so many fronts.  First of all, qualifiers vastly improve the quality of a tournament, particularly one where large skill gaps are observed, because they make the tournament get more exciting as it progresses.  Likewise, a general policy of "if you sign up for a tournament, be present 15 minutes before the posted start time to check-in for the tournament," would be totally sufficient.  You're acting like I'm actually asking for some greater organizational feat, when really I'm just asking for us to use the schedule effectively.  You're also essentially saying that you don't have any interest in supporting quality control for tournaments, and I'll stand by my assertion that qualifiers need to be scheduled where they are needed.

Quote
I dont believe we will even do 22hrs next year and we will be in the same room. Complaining about being in that room is futile. Thats what we are given. We are not a gaming con and we are not a priority space. There are bigger spaces needed for much bigger things. Rockband was allowed such a large space to keep the nose down for the rest of us, and the partition gave them that much since its on a track and immovable from there.. That will be different next year. Rockband will have smaller space. The layout will be different. If you have layout suggestions them email them to myself or TJ. But it will be the same room. And yes Bag check will be IN the room. It is a gaming bag check not con bag check. It is not for people to drop their stuff off and leave. But we can only control that as much as we do by having it in the room. If its outside, its chaos.
The layout has not been posted for next year.  Assuming that we will be in that room again just makes you appear close-minded and unprepared for potential change.  Claiming that Gaming is not a major programming concern is ignorant; Gaming is greatly valued by our attendees, and a staple for Kumoricon's success.  Also, please don't tell me things I already know.  Perhaps you've forgotten who initially put up the idea for having Rock Band separated by a partition?  Or who conceptualized the layout for the Game Room for 2008?  I'm not making suggestions and observations here - I'm making assertions.  Furthermore, I don't pull my facts from nowhere; there is an entirely serious and relevant discussion of making Bag Check a separate entity from gaming with a separate space, and it should be one of our priorities right now to facilitate the formation of such a notion, because an integrated bag check is (and has always been) sloppy, cumbersome, and tiring for gaming staff.
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Offline Slash5150

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Re: Pros/cons of console gaming this year ('09)
« Reply #29 on: September 14, 2009, 12:53:11 am »
Quote
If you are gong to do qualifiers its part of the tourney. Whoever is running the tourney will then need to plan for the 1-4hrs alotted for the tournament to do qualifiers. They also should plan ahead to know the cut-off. f you have an hour time slot you cant have 100 sign-ups. Just not possible. If you need qualifiers, plan around them.  dont handle tourneys so I dont tell anyone when they need to be there bc I dont know. No one has ever informed me. As a tourney runner you should have something that says when you need people to check in or you need to inform the staff so they can tell people if asked.
This answer is bogus on so many fronts.  First of all, qualifiers vastly improve the quality of a tournament, particularly one where large skill gaps are observed, because they make the tournament get more exciting as it progresses.  Likewise, a general policy of "if you sign up for a tournament, be present 15 minutes before the posted start time to check-in for the tournament," would be totally sufficient.  You're acting like I'm actually asking for some greater organizational feat, when really I'm just asking for us to use the schedule effectively.  You're also essentially saying that you don't have any interest in supporting quality control for tournaments, and I'll stand by my assertion that qualifiers need to be scheduled where they are needed.

Tofu, I think you might have misread it.  What I translated that to be was whoever does qualifiers needs to make sure there is time to do so. 
Hey ya'll I'll be starting school so time on these forums will me limited.  I will still respond to PM's so if you need to get a hold of me, PM me or send me a message on MySpace.

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Offline legoman60

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Re: Pros/cons of console gaming this year ('09)
« Reply #30 on: September 14, 2009, 10:11:47 am »
There were a great deal of problems with gaming that could have easily been prevented with the proper amount of planning. These however, are matters to be discussed at a staff meeting or at least in the staff section of this board. This topic is rapidly progressing away from it's intended purpose so I will remind people; this is not a discussion topic of why things happened the way they did in the gaming room this year. This topic's goal is for people to provide feedback on what they did and did not like of gaming this year; stay on topic. If I have to I will post a list of what this topic is and is not, but I feel that we are all a little old for such a childish thing.
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Offline Kurokaizoku

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Re: Pros/cons of console gaming this year ('09)
« Reply #31 on: September 14, 2009, 04:46:02 pm »
If you guys want to use bins and don't have any I bet you could get them pretty cheap at garage sale/good will type stores :D You could even use them to hold other things in storage while the con is not running.  What were the dimensions of the space you were using for bag checking?  Maybe we can think of some sort of sorter specifically for 300-500 blue bags ,and other small things.  500 seeing how the con seems to keep growing, though isn't next year  going to be capped around the same number again?  What kind of Ticketing system did you use?  I heard it was just a numbered ticket that was given to the person, and the other was attached to the bag.  How well did that work?  I heard complaints about it not being so great, that's the best way I can think of though.

We have bins. Just not that many in gaming. As well, we used clothes pins. Next year will be different. And no, we will not allot any space for the blue bags next year. Final answer.

This year we did not enforce a cap as we did not get near capacity. Next year it is possible but that is yet to be seen. Before I give any numbers I will wait for the final number to be officially released.
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Offline dshwshr55

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Re: Pros/cons of console gaming this year ('09)
« Reply #32 on: September 18, 2009, 10:43:01 pm »
Maybe two adjacent bag checks - one for gaming use and one for general con use (outside the game room, likely) - would be beneficial all around. Having vertical stands or wall hooks, sorted by color AND CLEARLY numbered, would consolidate space and make things go faster, instead of having to ask "Where is it?" and searching on the floor.

Maybe even have the swag bags behind/under the tables inside boxes. I'm not sure if that's realistic depending on how many extras we had at the end of the con this year, but if you tossed 100+ of them, is it much different than handing out 100+ from the same location instead? The difference would be convienience for the checkers and attendees both.

An external bag check would free up a lot more space (wall space, no less) for the actual gaming room. It's not a bad room; it just needs to maximize its potential.

I like the idea of having tournaments a main feature and priority in the gaming room. That might sound like crowding out casual gamers, but the thought is only for a space dedicated for tournament times. I didn't get a good chance to see the popularity of the Rock Band area, but was it used 24 hours every day, with lines waiting to play? If not, then that area could be used for Rock Band (like this year), but during non-tournament hours. It wouldn't be any different for anyone else having to wait to use a PS3 or waiting for a turn on the DDR pads.

Offline DancingTofu

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Re: Pros/cons of console gaming this year ('09)
« Reply #33 on: September 20, 2009, 09:30:10 pm »
I'm not sure I follow your suggestion, beyond that a dedicated tournament space would be nice to have.  If I'm understanding you correctly, I don't think that would be efficient at all.  first of all, Rock Band's prime hours were the same as the prime hours for everything else, tournaments included.  So if you shut down Rock Band for the 10-12 hours each day while tournaments are running, Rock Band might as well just not be there at all.  Second, Rock Band takes a lot of time to set up.  the full stage with all the speakers takes about 20-30 minutes for three people to set up.  It's only worth having around if it's going to be set up the whole time.

I agree that a dedicated tournament space would be nice, but hardly possible given that space.
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Offline Kurokaizoku

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Re: Pros/cons of console gaming this year ('09)
« Reply #34 on: September 20, 2009, 09:58:44 pm »
Second, Rock Band takes a lot of time to set up.  the full stage with all the speakers takes about 20-30 minutes for three people to set up.

Just to kill mis-information(not that this was) but Rockband will not be having the full set-up next year. it will be back to the basic rockband kits on TVs. No super set up. Too much damage.
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Offline camname21

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Re: Pros/cons of console gaming this year ('09)
« Reply #35 on: September 21, 2009, 01:33:14 am »
Too much damage, whaaa??????  I did not play it but it loocked way good as it was, to take it back down a notch is just /cry

Offline legoman60

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Re: Pros/cons of console gaming this year ('09)
« Reply #36 on: September 21, 2009, 08:07:26 pm »
Too much damage, whaaa??????  I did not play it but it loocked way good as it was, to take it back down a notch is just /cry
Too much damage as in the rock band equipment we had belonged to Blaze (one of the gaming staff) and people broke it. He wasn't happy.
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Offline dshwshr55

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Re: Pros/cons of console gaming this year ('09)
« Reply #37 on: September 22, 2009, 03:46:35 pm »
Well, I wasn't in the game room as much as I'd like to have been this year, so I don't know how long the tournaments actually ran. Was it really 10+ hours a day? I don't mean to make it sound like I want to cut Rock Band! I just thought the tournaments took up a minority of the overall "happy hours" of the day. I guess considering the length of the tournaments then, moving the hours of those wouldn't help keep Rock Band set up for more extended periods of time.

Offline Mister_manji

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Re: Pros/cons of console gaming this year ('09)
« Reply #38 on: September 23, 2009, 03:00:50 pm »
If you guys want to use bins and don't have any I bet you could get them pretty cheap at garage sale/good will type stores :D
so, yet more stuff to pay for out of pocket?
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Offline Slash5150

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Re: Pros/cons of console gaming this year ('09)
« Reply #39 on: September 23, 2009, 05:13:12 pm »
Well, I wasn't in the game room as much as I'd like to have been this year, so I don't know how long the tournaments actually ran. Was it really 10+ hours a day? I don't mean to make it sound like I want to cut Rock Band! I just thought the tournaments took up a minority of the overall "happy hours" of the day. I guess considering the length of the tournaments then, moving the hours of those wouldn't help keep Rock Band set up for more extended periods of time.

2:00PM - 4:00PM   ~~~ Soul Calibur IV (I believe this finished close to 5 PM)
4:00PM - 11:00PM  ~~~ Rock Band 2 (I have no clue how long this ran for...all I know is that it was still going on past 6)
5:00PM - 11:00PM  ~~~ Super Smash Brothers Brawl (Didn't start till 6, finished up past midnight-ish)
6:00PM - 11:00PM  ~~~ Halo 3 (Started about 6:30 I believe and wrapped up around 11ish)

11:00AM - 1:00PM  ~~~ Pokemon Battle Revolution (I was asleep...I think it finished around 2...)
1:00PM - 3:00PM   ~~~ Guilty Gear XX Accent Core + (Again, was sleeping)
2:30PM - 4:00PM   ~~~ Rock Band 2 (Final in Main Events) (Was still sleeping)
3:00PM - 7:00PM   ~~~ Super Smash Brothers Melee (I believe this finished close to 7)
4:00PM - 7:00PM   ~~~ Street Fighter IV (Started at 5, finished up around 8:30/9ish)
6:00PM - 11:00PM  ~~~ Dance Dance Revolution (Ask Sir Tofu)
8:00PM - 10:00PM  ~~~ BlazBlue (Started at 8, finished close to 11/12)

10:00AM - 12:00PM ~~~ Mario Kart Wii (Started at 10, finshed around 12:30 I believe.  Ask Tofu.
1:00PM - 3:00PM   ~~~ Marvel vs Capcom 2 (Started at 1, finished at like 5 because I was dumb enough to idealize a double elimination 2/3 tournament...)
Hey ya'll I'll be starting school so time on these forums will me limited.  I will still respond to PM's so if you need to get a hold of me, PM me or send me a message on MySpace.

GGPO

Offline xcthulhux

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Re: Pros/cons of console gaming this year ('09)
« Reply #40 on: October 15, 2009, 04:05:07 pm »
i have not been reading this thread, so i don't know what has been posted, and what hasn't, but i had a few problems this year.

one problem was the crowdedness, but that is to be expected..

my main problem was the rock band area. it was pretty cool, but i have a really hard time playing with the rock band guitar, because the strum bar is harder to use.
So i brought in a guitar hero guitar, but they wouldn't let me use it. this annoyed me a lot, as i much prefer to use the guitar hero controller.

It just seemed a lot less organized than last year.

Offline legoman60

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Re: Pros/cons of console gaming this year ('09)
« Reply #41 on: October 16, 2009, 12:55:44 pm »
my main problem was the rock band area. it was pretty cool, but i have a really hard time playing with the rock band guitar, because the strum bar is harder to use.
So i brought in a guitar hero guitar, but they wouldn't let me use it. this annoyed me a lot, as i much prefer to use the guitar hero controller.

Last I heard, there were problems getting guitar hero controllers to work with rock band
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Offline xcthulhux

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Re: Pros/cons of console gaming this year ('09)
« Reply #42 on: October 16, 2009, 01:00:53 pm »
my main problem was the rock band area. it was pretty cool, but i have a really hard time playing with the rock band guitar, because the strum bar is harder to use.
So i brought in a guitar hero guitar, but they wouldn't let me use it. this annoyed me a lot, as i much prefer to use the guitar hero controller.

Last I heard, there were problems getting guitar hero controllers to work with rock band
we use guitar hero controllers on rock band at home all the time, sooooooo....