Post by herlock on Oct 26, 2010 13:09:47 GMT 1
Couldn't find a thread dedicated for feedback (positive AND negative), so I am making my own 
Been attending facts for many years now, did spend a bit of time last year on the forum, complaining on how much facts 2009 was bad ^^
So how did it go for 2010 ?
MUCH better hopefully !
- security : you guys did get rid of last years cowboys, barking orders at people and acting allpowerfull. That's a good thing Staff was nice and helpfull as far as I had to deal with them ! VERY GOOD !
- space : much more space than last year, which is a good thing. Could have been put to a better use too, will be back on that latter
- services : especially the food thing, it was so much better than last year ! We had a dedicated place to have a drink and rest.
- variety : being a star wars fan, I was concerned with the overwhelming tide of manga (I love manga too BTW, but I don't go to facts for those
), I think dealers and FACTS staff managed to keep it balanced. Lots of SciFi and "80's" stuff. Overall I think it was great
- language : my mother tongue is french, and last year I complained that most of the convention official documents where only available in dutch, and only a few in english. I think overall it was so much better (only weapon rules still not available in french). Cosplay annoucements where in french too, that was very nice !
- heat : hell that was much much better too ! Last year I recall freezing to death in some parts of the convention. That wasn't the case this year, and thats good news. Keep it up !
- actors seemed nice overall, just been to Murdoch though so I can't really tell. They were easier to get too also ! Which is also an improvement.
Now on to the "cons" :
- roomplan : after chatting with many people, including dealers, we all seem to agree that the plan suked badly...
* fan village was spitted in two : that doesn't make much sense... Rebel Legion was all alone in the game hall, for no obvious reason, the rest was packed on the left side of the first dealers hall, that didn't looked much like "fan village" as far as I can tell.
* traffic jam ! Hell I know you can't do much about people coming, but the roomplan didn't help for sure ! One tunnel to connect the two first halls !!! With smoking zone and restrooms in that one, and the ATAT at the end... people stop to take pictures of course ! Game hall on the other hand was mostly empty
Still on the traffic : I wonder why there are people giving out flyers after the "pass check"... it's a bottleneck already, why add people there ? Can't they give their flyers in the empty aread between cashier and the "entrance checkpoint" ? The huge board "utgang" didn't help either (why having a sign for the exit when you just entered the place BTW ?
* can't remember where "XXXX" dealer was : since hall 2 and 3 looked so much the same, it was a pain in the ass to figure out where we saw a given dealer. We kept on going here and there trying to find what we were looking for. Advice for next time : long "american" streets all look the same, please do landmarks so we can tell both halls appart. What about some kind of "round" or "square" booth, so that it makes the streets less boring (and alike).
Also having people roam for no reason increased the traffic jam in the convention.
- conference room : is that a joke ? We could hear ubisoft over the actors at the conference room. And yet another thing getting in the middle of the way and adding traffic. Since there was so few seats, many were standing outside.
- restaurant place / resting space : it was nice, but too few seats half the place was empty, so people had to sit on the floor. Not very good to actually "rest". Could use some more tables and seats
- trashcans : same complain that during last japan expo in paris : trashcans are grat, but they need to be emptied OFTEN. I saw some were people started making babylon towers on top of them...
- changing rooms : I guess due to last year outcry on the forums about stupid people "peeking" in the girls room, you separated boys and girl. Which is ok.
BUT : why did you make them even smaller than last year ? Especially on the boy side, there was ALOT of empty space, could have added 2 or 3 walls on the side to make it MUCH bigger with little effort.
The worst part being the tables : 10 tables for several dozens of cosplayers... that's even less than past year.
This really need to get fixed for 2011 I think. Costumes get damaged, stuff lost or stolen where everybody walks on each other. I think there was a lot of room to improve this.
- actors : marc singer cancelled yet again... was he ever invited in the first place seriously ? Ok I am teasing you, but I must say that you guys have gotten too familiar with late cancels...
I know you gonna say that their appearance depends on health and their jobs, but still it's the only convention I know that has so many actors who cancel that often (and so late). I am sure you guys have plenty of reasons for this, but still : yes actors do cancel conventions, it happens all the time. BUT it happens ALOT MORE at facts.
- outside line : ok yet again that's not your fault if many people come, but still seeing people waiting outside in the cold and the rain... Can't you guys figure something out to get them to wait somewhere else inside ? Maybe organize the line in the "empty" entry space ? Or have a few "tents" outside so that at least some don't get wet that much ? or have them wait in another hall, does the entry need to be on that side ?
Despite this long "cons" list, I think FACTS 2010 was a great improvement over last years edition. It still needs some work though, to get back to the quality of the old facts.
Overall, I think you need to improve the "supermarket" layout, keep up with what was better this year. Also I would like to see more animation. I think that appart from dealers and Q&A, there was too few organized to get people to have fun.
Toulouse Game Show has a concert on saturday evening for example, other conventions have quizz / games, have more "Q&A / conferences" but not only with actors... Migennes collector had the simpsons voices who subbed "real time" an episode during a Q&A... also projections (movies / series / animes) could be grat.
Why not having A-team actors comment some episodes for example ?
Hope you guys don't take my message to "badly", only aim is to see things get better (at least from my point of view). There are many cons nowadays, so you need to keep up with the newcomers. Overall the new convention center is midly appreciated over ICC (which was awesome), so you guys need to add content to make up for that !
Good luck with next edition, and thank you very much for the work, because I know it's not easy (while it's easy for me to say it's not good)
Been attending facts for many years now, did spend a bit of time last year on the forum, complaining on how much facts 2009 was bad ^^
So how did it go for 2010 ?
MUCH better hopefully !
- security : you guys did get rid of last years cowboys, barking orders at people and acting allpowerfull. That's a good thing
Staff was nice and helpfull as far as I had to deal with them ! VERY GOOD !- space : much more space than last year, which is a good thing. Could have been put to a better use too, will be back on that latter
- services : especially the food thing, it was so much better than last year ! We had a dedicated place to have a drink and rest.
- variety : being a star wars fan, I was concerned with the overwhelming tide of manga (I love manga too BTW, but I don't go to facts for those
), I think dealers and FACTS staff managed to keep it balanced. Lots of SciFi and "80's" stuff. Overall I think it was great- language : my mother tongue is french, and last year I complained that most of the convention official documents where only available in dutch, and only a few in english. I think overall it was so much better (only weapon rules still not available in french). Cosplay annoucements where in french too, that was very nice !
- heat : hell that was much much better too ! Last year I recall freezing to death in some parts of the convention. That wasn't the case this year, and thats good news. Keep it up !
- actors seemed nice overall, just been to Murdoch though so I can't really tell. They were easier to get too also ! Which is also an improvement.
Now on to the "cons" :
- roomplan : after chatting with many people, including dealers, we all seem to agree that the plan suked badly...
* fan village was spitted in two : that doesn't make much sense... Rebel Legion was all alone in the game hall, for no obvious reason, the rest was packed on the left side of the first dealers hall, that didn't looked much like "fan village" as far as I can tell.
* traffic jam ! Hell I know you can't do much about people coming, but the roomplan didn't help for sure ! One tunnel to connect the two first halls !!! With smoking zone and restrooms in that one, and the ATAT at the end... people stop to take pictures of course ! Game hall on the other hand was mostly empty
Still on the traffic : I wonder why there are people giving out flyers after the "pass check"... it's a bottleneck already, why add people there ? Can't they give their flyers in the empty aread between cashier and the "entrance checkpoint" ? The huge board "utgang" didn't help either (why having a sign for the exit when you just entered the place BTW ?
* can't remember where "XXXX" dealer was : since hall 2 and 3 looked so much the same, it was a pain in the ass to figure out where we saw a given dealer. We kept on going here and there trying to find what we were looking for. Advice for next time : long "american" streets all look the same, please do landmarks so we can tell both halls appart. What about some kind of "round" or "square" booth, so that it makes the streets less boring (and alike).
Also having people roam for no reason increased the traffic jam in the convention.
- conference room : is that a joke ? We could hear ubisoft over the actors at the conference room. And yet another thing getting in the middle of the way and adding traffic. Since there was so few seats, many were standing outside.
- restaurant place / resting space : it was nice, but too few seats half the place was empty, so people had to sit on the floor. Not very good to actually "rest". Could use some more tables and seats
- trashcans : same complain that during last japan expo in paris : trashcans are grat, but they need to be emptied OFTEN. I saw some were people started making babylon towers on top of them...
- changing rooms : I guess due to last year outcry on the forums about stupid people "peeking" in the girls room, you separated boys and girl. Which is ok.
BUT : why did you make them even smaller than last year ? Especially on the boy side, there was ALOT of empty space, could have added 2 or 3 walls on the side to make it MUCH bigger with little effort.
The worst part being the tables : 10 tables for several dozens of cosplayers... that's even less than past year.
This really need to get fixed for 2011 I think. Costumes get damaged, stuff lost or stolen where everybody walks on each other. I think there was a lot of room to improve this.
- actors : marc singer cancelled yet again... was he ever invited in the first place seriously ? Ok I am teasing you, but I must say that you guys have gotten too familiar with late cancels...
I know you gonna say that their appearance depends on health and their jobs, but still it's the only convention I know that has so many actors who cancel that often (and so late). I am sure you guys have plenty of reasons for this, but still : yes actors do cancel conventions, it happens all the time. BUT it happens ALOT MORE at facts.
- outside line : ok yet again that's not your fault if many people come, but still seeing people waiting outside in the cold and the rain... Can't you guys figure something out to get them to wait somewhere else inside ? Maybe organize the line in the "empty" entry space ? Or have a few "tents" outside so that at least some don't get wet that much ? or have them wait in another hall, does the entry need to be on that side ?
Despite this long "cons" list, I think FACTS 2010 was a great improvement over last years edition. It still needs some work though, to get back to the quality of the old facts.
Overall, I think you need to improve the "supermarket" layout, keep up with what was better this year. Also I would like to see more animation. I think that appart from dealers and Q&A, there was too few organized to get people to have fun.
Toulouse Game Show has a concert on saturday evening for example, other conventions have quizz / games, have more "Q&A / conferences" but not only with actors... Migennes collector had the simpsons voices who subbed "real time" an episode during a Q&A... also projections (movies / series / animes) could be grat.
Why not having A-team actors comment some episodes for example ?
Hope you guys don't take my message to "badly", only aim is to see things get better (at least from my point of view). There are many cons nowadays, so you need to keep up with the newcomers. Overall the new convention center is midly appreciated over ICC (which was awesome), so you guys need to add content to make up for that !
Good luck with next edition, and thank you very much for the work, because I know it's not easy (while it's easy for me to say it's not good
) 
