Accent core is on Saturday evening. 3S is on Sunday at the end of the con.
Don’t expect any worthwhile comp for 3S though, I’m serious.
Pre-reg? At Anime North? If only.
Y’see respectable ladies and gentlemen of SRK, this is how it works every year at AN.
Every year, the G3 Evolution crew (yeah, remember those guys? They’re still alive) try to get shit done properly.
However, the Con executives (OOOOOOOH LOOK AT ME! I’M AN EXECUTIVE OF AN ANIME CONVENTION! I MUST BE REAL SSHMART!) keep choosing to ignore us even though we know how to run the video gaming area more than they do because, y’know, WE HAVE EXPERIENCE. Every year they write these retarded ground rules and events and schedules that make zero sense. Yet they ignore our suggestions.
Principle reason why things are the way they are?
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Nobody competitive is going to spend $40 to go play at a tourney were the prize is, at best, some shitty anime paraphernalia that they’ll throw in the back of their closet and forget about.
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Those that do show up (who will be there by the way, to play solely for fun), provide ZERO FREAKING FEEDBACK. Which means whenever the G3 guys open their mouths in protest, we have absolutely no proof except our word which to the con staff basically translates to:“WE DON’T WANT TO HAVE TO ACTUALLY DO ANY WORK AT THE CON, WE JUST WANNA PLAY VIDEO GAMES THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE THING FOR FREE LIKE THE GRIMEY SCUMMY DEGENS THAT WE ARE.”
So how is the con being handled? Not in any professional or organized way I can assure you. At least when it comes to competitive gaming.
Instead of giving every fucking fighting game under the sun a three hour tournament slot on the schedule, they could have instead, given the four most likely to be played games a 12 hour slot each. Six hours on Saturday, and six hours on Sunday. Or however long it takes to run pools and then the final bracket. Cuz implementing a 64 player cap for Smash Brawl and SUPER 4 when I, or rather WE ALL KNOW that they’ll both get many more players than that, turning away people who want to play at the same time, while allowing games to run with less than 8 people playing is a fucking travesty.
Now at around this time of the argument, I get the: “But Josh, this is an anime convention, people come just to play for fun, shmurf, giggle, smartass nosepick”.
Yeah, so what?
Yeah, they initially come for simple ‘fun’. However, when you guys go to a tournament, do you go for fun? Or do you go to take bitches money and WIN, another words play fighting games COMPETITIVELY? I take it it’s the latter.
Now why the hell would we do that? Who wants to travel long distances, pay a venue fee, pay a pot fee, get stuck in a room for hours with smelly degens and people you may or may not even like to be around, just to win a few measly dollars that you can get by doing legit work were you’re GUARANTEED to make at least $70 a day minimum wage?
Cuz it’s thrilling and we love it that’s why. The level of enjoyment to be had from progressing through a bracket, and the feeling of either winning or losing than watching the grand finals is WAAAAY more tangible, than messing around alongside a few scrubs, not learning anything, not growing as a player, not getting better and most certainly not enjoying yourself as much as you could be.
This is what those con execs and others don’t understand. The thing is, they’re robbing the con goers of the opportunity to catch a glimpse of a world where a lot more than simple ‘fun’ is possible. However, the masses don’t subscribe to that world. Instead, the masses wanna go OOOOOOH newfangled graphics and bewbs, YAY! In turn, the con execs cater to the gibbering masses, in the hopes of attracting more people and finally the…(shudder)… mass media. The same mass media, who also cater to the lowest common denominator, and give high ratings to the same pretty looking shit that’s churned out by game companies every year. That’s another problem for another rant that’s been covered by more capable people than me so I’ll just leave that topic out of this.
Now the con execs are interested in one thing and one thing alone. Numbers. More con goers equals more registrations equals more moneys. Also equals possibility of media coverage which in turn equals more con goers etc. They have their priorities straight.
If we could convince them (and by we I mean those that actually go to AN every year), that catering to competitive players would mean garnering better media coverage, we’d be set.
Oh and yes, turning AN into a semi regional (which it has every potential to become), would definitely attract more numbers.
How do we do that? Well for a start, create a two tier registration system, were regular con goers have access to the entire convention, and the video gamers have access to just the renaissance hotel where all the gaming takes place. I’m betting that most of you are not interested with anything but the gaming, and are willing to forgo the anime aspects of the convention. This way, the venue fee would be much more reasonable. Then of course you add on pot fees, because obviously, if you want to face good players, you must give the incentive of $$$. Period.
I realize that posting this before the convention starts comes with the risk of my glorious superiors finding it and booting me off the staff list. First of all I doubt it they care enough about the playerbase to actually look at these forums. Second, I don’t even give a shit whether or not I go this weekend. The schedule is one big mess and filled with events like: (and I shit you not) “Super Street Fighter 4 Barrel Break.”
Yup, three whole hours devoted to the barrel breaking stage in SUPER4. How that’s gonna work don’t ask me. Wasn’t my idea. Oh yeah and there’s also another 2 slots of three hours each devoted to the car destruction stage and ‘Rose ball’ w/e the hell that is. Pure Genius eh? There’s more, but I think I’ve made my point.
I digress.
You want to let Anime North rot and degenerate further every year, stay quiet. Otherwise, head on over to the Anime North forums, specifically the gaming section and sound off. There are alot of potential newbloods to be found there, you’d be unwise to ignore the vein of gold that is Anime North.
