November 5, 2012

Youmacon 2012 Recap




This year, I made a conscious decision to attend Youmacon instead of actually vending there. There’s a bunch of background stuff that caused that to happen, but I’m not going to talk about that. Instead a couple of friends of mine from the Indy area came up and I wanted to also help show them around so coincidentally it all worked out for the best.

I am trying to change up my recaps, as each day was pretty much filled with me taking pictures and walking around and getting tired. I didn’t have any commissions or alley work, so I took advantage of the time and actually took photos of a lot of my costumes. (I brought 6 of them this time)

I had an overall good time, but had bad feelings about the convention. I’ll explain more down below.

REGISTRATION

This was the view near the "end" of the line I was at in the beginning.

We arrived on Thursday (after some harrowing, but unsuccessful knife painting, and a ton of stops), and when we walked in we already saw people lined up. So we went and checked in (I’ll talk about that later), and some of us changed into costume. If I was going to be waiting around for presumably hours, I am going to at least party it up, right?

I can see the end of the journey from here!

I chose to go as Vriska in line, as it was the most comfortable of all my outfits, and I don’t like to wander around the main chunk of the convention as a Homestuck, I’d rather use my more detailed cosplays for that.

Stopped and took some photos along the way.

The line took us about 3 hours to get through. I can’t say I wasn’t expecting it, and I was glad we got in line around 7 pm when we did. I had a feeling that it would be a bit of a problem, so I was prepared to wait a long time. My biggest problem was forgetting to bring snacks/drinks, but that was solved by one of us running to the food court while the others were in line. I also got some good shots of other cosplays that night, which I think I’ll save for a separate cosplay post.

Disapproving Vriska Disapproves of your Lines.

We finally reached the front of the line, and it was super quick. Got called to a station, gave em my email with scan code, they handed me a badge and a sticker and I was off. Why this was taking 3 hours is a mystery to me – but I’m guess it’s a combo of an absurd amount of people and only having 6 stations open. 


Bless you, Reg workers, I wish there were more of you there to help!

My guess is that they could only get a certain amount of scanners for the event, so honestly, it has been worse in years past, and I didn't have a ton of complaints. However, I was prepared ahead of time and was expecting lines. The newer congoers and people who have not had to wait in long lines are definitely complaining though – and I can’t really blame them. As the convention gets bigger, they need to realize they’ll need a lot more staff.

HOTEL EXPERIENCE

The Marriot was great when it came to room service for us. I would call, and literally within 20 minutes would arrive with our towels. What wasn’t great is they apparently couldn’t count, and kept giving us only 3 towels, when I had four people listed under our room. Also, they got confused when I had our pillows and a blanket we left on the bed, apparently that was the sign for “can’t make the bed” and we had a messy bed for one of the days. 

HOWEVER. There are a bunch more snafus that occurred that I am severely annoyed with. This year, the Marriot at the RenCen decided it would crack down on the “elevators” but to me it seemed to be a reaction to people stuffing too many people in a room. 

They made you write down the name of each person who would be in your room to prevent over stuffing. Awesome. I am totally okay with that. 

What I am NOT cool with is that we were forced to wear these red and white nigh removable wrist bands in an obvious location so we could get onto the elevators. ALL. WEEKEND. (they were washable and did not bleed… much)

The hotel did NOT apparently tell the convention staff about this until the Wednesday of the week of the show. This was (rumor has it) in response to some idiot reserving an entire floor of rooms then selling spots for $10 a night to harbor 10+ people in a room, and then bragging about it on the forums. WTF. This is not good. Bad move on your part Marriot. You’ve made me already want to go stay at the Courtyard.

I appreciate cutting down on room parties, as well as enforcing the fire code (I’m a cranky old lady) but this was a reactionary thing and it inconvenienced a lot of us as cosplayers (especially those of us being in the masquerade and getting photoshoots done).

Apparently there were also room checks, but I didn't know/didn't care cause we had 4 people in my room. The elevator staff was angry, rude, and generally mean about things, and apparently their police security was in full swing in the evenings, as on an elevator trip after numerous photoshoots multiple days, we usually had one policeman in the elevator escorting a drunk/breaking up parties/etc.

I also don’t know where these other people who claim they were “never checked” for their wristband, but I was yelled at each time to SHOW MY WRISTBAND in a mean way. Every time. I did not feel welcomed there.

If, IF, I attend next year, I plan on trying to get into the Courtyard. Your move, Marriot. Your move.

ELEVATORS

See hotel wristband gripe above. (I really liked the queue lines last year) But I will always and forever gripe that on Sunday they need attendants/staff on EACH elevator and when it’s full to just force it to go to the lobby/1st floor.

I ended up walking down 37 flights of stairs because I kept getting cut off by EXTREMELY rude people, and every elevator was full of people “going up to go down”. You know, if we all followed proper etiquette there would NOT have been that problem, but people get dumb and frantic when they’re leaving on Sunday.

Thanks to this, I can barely walk or lift my arms today. I’ll be lucky to draw.

PRINTING ISSUES

Youmacon apparently had themselves a new printer this year. I see two outcomes from this after this show - #1: they need to get their files to the printers a month in advance or more, or #2: GET A NEW PRINTING COMPANY.

When we checked in on Thursday, there were no programs. We were told they would be available on Friday at ….5 PM. Okay, I can handle that. However there were NO temporary Friday printouts of the schedule at least, let alone a map, and there were NO SIGNS until late in the day on Friday, if that. I had a very difficult time finding what rooms where what, let alone finding out what was going on. I had no idea how far down I had to go in the Cobo Center, and got semi-lost the first time.

Calendar – my roommates got into the calendar this year! (super jealous here, yo!) However this same printer was unable to provide them the calendars and when they did, the staff didn't save any for the winners and sold all the current ones. (Supposedly they are going to mail them out to winners now)

Guys. GUYS. Get a new printer, I beg of you!!

Also – please do something about your colors/set up/ something. I had a difficult time reading your program and I never found the game room, but found the battle opera and missed a photoshoot I wanted to attend and almost missed a panel because I could not read your program correctly. And I wasn't the only one.

LOCATION

This convention took place in two locations this year: the Renaissance center and Cobo Hall. While I was skeptical at first, I actually did not mind it at all. In fact, I wished that more stuff was over in Cobo, okay really EVERYTHING was there. I hope they expand a lot to head over there.

Cosplaying in a people mover trying to make it look like a subway.


It was a breeze to take the people mover over, and wasn't nearly as annoying as I had thought. Being in there with all the other convention goers made me less worried/bothered by it being in Detroit. I DO wish they would have told us about the $3 weekend pass, because I would have gone over a lot more if I had it.

It's like a legit convention now! WOO!

Dealer Hall/Artist Alley – Wow! This was an improvement over previous years as I was NOT claustrophobic in here at all! It was big and airy like a “real” convention and it was a great place to have it all. My biggest complaint is they stuck the Artist Alley behind the dealers, and unless you knew to go there or saw it at the end, you wouldn't know it was there at all. Either put them in front, OR put them side by side.


Battle Opera – this must have been new and it was pretty fun. I didn't participate but it was great getting to watch pros fight each other on big screens. I sat in here for a while on Saturday before the masquerade.

Panel rooms were huge. The one panel I went to (“Writing Memorable Heroes and Villains” – which was epic as ever), had a great big room, and it was so nice.

My feels: PUT EVERYTHING HERE. I WILL LOVE YOU FOREVER.

STAFF

Please actually train your staff, or leave them instructions. That is all.

MASQUERADE

First off, congrats to the winners! I know the feeling of winning and it’s awesome. Most of you totally deserved your award and major props to you!

HOWEVER. My overall feels is that this competition is a joke. Compared to other conventions I've been to, I've never felt so insulted after the show in a long time.

#1: Signup

Signing up for this competition was a MESS. Nobody knew where anything was or when it opened. I had to keep going to back to the “coat room” only to be directed to several other rooms, and when it opened up, the sign up was a tad haphazard. (You could sign up for all hall cosplay AND masq competition all at the same time. It took me 40 minutes to sign up and I was like 10th in line).

#2: Judging

Whoever is sitting outside the judging room needs to be informed how this will work. The staff members I spoke with on various days seemed to have NO clue what was going on and was not interested in trying to solve my problems/answer my question at all. They tossed me in early to my judging, and the poor judges weren’t ready.

My references were barely looked at. They hardly bothered to look at my seams, my precise sewing, etc. I had to physically hand them my coat (they apparently got better as the day went on – I think that was partially 'cause I went first. Maybe I was intimidating because I had my spiel all ready to go?)

Feels: Please do not insult me when I am there in front of you. Just because I dressed as a show that’s only got 5 episodes aired in Japan (but has a healthy long manga out too) does not mean I’m below your time. Asking me “if somebody made me do this” is insulting. I chose the character because I adore him in the show and the manga, and that should be a good enough answer for you. (I had to explain this twice to them)

#3: Greenroom 




The Greenroom was a BLAST! I had so much fun in there derping with people. We had a proper feed of the stage, and they even provided us food the entire time!


…which would have been awesome had it not consisted of Cheese Pizza, Cheesecake, and other heavily cream-based goodies. 

I am lactose intolerant. The only thing I could eat in that room is the chips, the candy bars and the drinks. THANKFULLY I had dinner ahead of time and wasn't hungry, so I can’t really be too angry cause I didn't care. I actually laughed about it a lot.

#4: Halftime show

Please remember since you have a KID'S category, there are children in the audience. Please pick your halftime show appropriately (the comedian, while funny reverted to raunchy humor with a lot of swearing...)

#5: Awards

Protip 1: Do not give out pity awards. This is insulting to the winner as it appears you didn’t think their costume was good enough to win, but felt bad because they had something adverse happen to them.

Protip 2: Do not give out awards based on “they were so much in character”. This has no bearing on craftsmanship.

Protip 3: Do not give out an award because “the show has a longtime place in your heart”. Judge’s Choice, Honorable Mention or otherwise, this is insulting to cosplayers because it means you did not care about how they were made, but what they represented.

Protip 4: Do not appear to give out awards because they made something light up. Focus on ALL parts of the costume, consider the lighting an extra.

Protip 5: Do not bump somebody up a category to give them the winning prize over the other 6 people in that category. This is only cool when there’s like one or two people in the upper categories to go against.  If you’re bumping them up, SIT THEM WITH US in the higher up category. That way we won’t feel so ripped off.

Feels: You only got an award if you had something that lights up, a prop of some kind, was ‘in character’, or the recognized the series you were from. I know that the judges had a lot of ‘hard choices to make’ but it felt like they just wanted to pick the ooh shiny.

#5: Categories

It’s high time conventions started expanding their categories – namely larger conventions. I cannot stand when there are exceptions for only certain things and other items are denied. The first being ginjinka (human versions of non-human characters or inanimate objects) – the rest of us have to go out and find screencaps and artbooks and the like, but a ginjinka pokemon can just show you a drawing. This feels very unfair.

The second being the Avatar: Korra or Airbender clause. We had two groups of Avatar cosplays and a handful of them in the walk ons. I understand that it’s “Asian based/inspired” but this is unfair to all the other American/Non Japanaese animation cosplayers.

Big cons need to have an American category, with a cap of entry of say like 30? Just like other categories. This would include webcomics maybe? I only say maybe because then all you’d have are homestuck unless you really enforce the 70% or more homemade by you type of rule.

They also need a “Mascot” category – which I would consider anything in which you are completely covered head to toe, mask, architectures and the like. To me, it’s like trying to compare apples to oranges. I will always admit that those huge fursuits take a lot of time, effort, money, and more, but there is an entirely different method of construction in comparison to a garment that has been sewn. I ask that you compare them to similar things, please! 

All that I want is an even playing field

I prefer to lose fairly in a competition to fabulous craftsmanship instead of hearing that all of our category lost out to someone who got bumped up and made it look like they wanted to give two winning awards to that category but couldn't so finagled their own awards to do so.  

(NOTE: this may not be true, but damn, it certainly looked like it from the audience)

OVERALL FEELS OF THE CONVENTION

I had a fun time, but unless I see a lot of change in the next year, I may no longer attend this. Between terrible staffing, hotel issues, masquerade craziness, and the like there was just too much malfunctioning behind the scenes that was affecting the view of the convention.

You guys have a long way to go to get a lot of us back, and I hope to see some changes in the next year. I’d like to vend again, but we’ll see if that happens.

I did have a blast taking tons of photos though and getting to spend the weekend with friends. So it wasn't a total loss, but from a veteran convention goer's view, this convention was a HOT MESS.
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6 comments:

  1. Wow sounds like it wasn't as tremendous a bummer that my hubby and couldn't make it. I'm glad there were still fun aspects though.

    What saddens me the most is that I would like to be part of a masquerade one of these days yet it seems like a lot of conventions either don't care much or don't have people who know how to judge craftsmanship. I hope it improves.

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  2. It had it's good points and it's bad points. I'm kind of half and half on it this year. :(

    A lot of times judging varies from con to con - the best way to judge your judges is if they actually post about who they are, are frequent forum posters, or you've heard of them via the internet.

    For example, "And Sewing is Half the Battle" run some masquerades at like the Anime World conventions, and the staff at ACEN and Shuto Con are very knowledgeable, but they usually make themselves known (at least the head of cosplay) and you can see what they've made to know if they have a good eye for judging.

    I really wish there was some sort of universal way of judging masquerades so stuff like this wouldn't happen, but that's way too much bureaucracy for something like this. :)

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  3. Hey, my name is Laura, and I'm one of the video game room managers.

    You are correct - the Battle Opera was new this year. We received a lot of feedback indicating that some con-goers would prefer a pass at a discounted rate that only allowed access to all things gaming - video games, tournaments, and table top. Thus, the Battle Opera pass was born and offered at a discounted rate of $30 for the weekend.

    I have no idea why wrist bands were required; I was irritated that I had to go up to the front desk to get a new one every single day because hey - I like to shower, and showering with a wrist band is uncomfortable. Elevator etiquette (or lack thereof), I'm right there with you. I had to rotate my staffers to go get their gear out of their rooms during the morning shift Sunday and it took some of them over an hour to get up and down (we were on the 46th floor).

    I didn't get out of the video game room much so I don't have a lot to say in regards to the skill or ability of the other staffers. I know that video gaming generally goes smoothly, as we're subcontracted by the convention and come with a pre-trained, static staff. I know that a lot of the staff are volunteers or recently elevated volunteers, and that can cause some issues.

    Anyways, glad you liked the Battle Opera. :D

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    1. Oh! Thank you so much for replying! I didn't know if any of the staff would see my post ever over here.

      I was actually curious where the full gaming room was - I was unable to find it. *sad* Maybe next year though!

      I'm right there with the wrist bands - I totally know that wasn't your guys' fault at ALL. I was just taken by surprise (I was compliant though), and it was just annoying that the hotel staff was really mean about it sometimes.

      I loved going to watch the Battle Opera, I would totally recommend it for others!

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  4. The only thing I'm really going to comment on was the fact that greenrooms normally don't give us much of anything to eat. The cheesecake and other pastries were left over from the maid cafe and that was extremely generous of them to give that to us. It sucks that they weren't something that lactose intolerant people could eat, but nevertheless it was still really nice of them to even feed us.

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    1. Oh, I totally know about the lack of food in greenrooms. I was wondering where all those delicious looking cakes came from, it definitely explains it. :)

      I was by no means angry about the food they served, in fact, I was laughing about it a lot just due to the coincidence. (We had quite a handful of mishaps the whole weekend and I was all like "nooooooo" *comedic arm flail* when I saw the lovely snacks)

      If anything, it'll teach me to make sure I keep some med on me at all times. Cheesecake is totally one of my favorite desserts ever!

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