24 replies to this topic

[JohnZ]

Please let me know what could be done better with the video game area. I understand that there are significant complaints with how the tournaments were handled, and I will address them as they arise, but please bear in mind that there were certain factors (such as the use of outside equipment) that were not negotiable under the current department structure and equipment situation.

We were sponsored, as you are aware, by Family Video this year, and they provided us with a number of consoles and controllers. The primary reason that we did not allow outside equipment is because at a glance, it is not possible to tell if a piece has been modded or not. This is an important problem because there are two ways a mod can cause havoc: first, a mod for cheating purposes could create a playing field that is grossly unfair-- this creates an arms race to create the most potent, least detectable mod. Secondly, and probably more dangerous, an improperly installed mod-- or a maliciously designed one-- could damage the console on which it is used. Given that, with few exceptions, all of the consoles provided were loaned by our staff or by Family Video, you can see why this is not a possibility that we could entertain. I did not mention this beforehand or during the show because to do so is practically an invitation for meddlesome individuals to employ such tactics, ruining everyone's fun worse than the hotel's deplorable treatment of us already did.

Moving forward, I will be seeking out a local gaming club to assist with administering high-level play for future Tekkoshocons.  Our budget went mostly towards consoles and Rock Band DLC this year, and while we are still short on both, we will endeavor to have proper equipment ready for next year as best as circumstances will allow.  We will also be restructuring the VG department to better serve all players, both the minority of high-level players and the majority of general attendees.

Please feel free to let us know what we did RIGHT, and how else we can IMPROVE.  That last point is important: telling us "ur doin it rong" is something that, believe me, I already know; tell us HOW to do it right, instead.

[Reikoi]

I did enjoy the selection of games I was able to play this year. Although the area that the games was at this year was not that good, I understood that the area that was used before was for slightly big events and panels. But it was better when you did not have to fight crowds just to find out what game was in what room...

[penguinton]

If the layout is the same or similar next year taping a sign saying what games are currently being played on the side of the entrance would be nice. Not necessary but nice.

[JohnZ]

We're not at the Wyndham Grand next year, and I will strive to give us an open area for gaming next year.  Also, room signage would have been a great idea, except the hallways were too narrow to accomodate more whiteboards. I hear tell, however, that the RPG/CCG players really enjoyed the encapsulation (I personally liked it, as I didn't have to shout to be heard when I was learning to play Vanguard), so we'll see if we can get that going again.

Thanks for the feedback. What else is on your minds?

[Rappican]

I'd provide more feedback on this but, my friends went up then right back down.  We looked around at the rooms and saw how deplorable the entire area was and how horribly it was set up and never went back.  It seems the game room just gets smaller and smaller every year.

[Wombat]

I am going to be contrary to everyone else and say I loved the games being spread out between multiple rooms.  The noise of the gaming rooms had always turned me off in the past.  Not having that issue made them far more attractive to me.

[betastyles]

I liked a bit of the encapsulation, too.  The rooms tended to get crowded quickly, but then they tended to empty just as fast, so there wasn't much of an issue.  The quiet nature of some of the analog games made it a lot of fun just to sit and spectate the pokemon and yugioh matches, as well as the various RPG modules.   And I didn't even really feel bitter about some content not being present.  I can remember spending an hour or two playing Burnout 3 with the host of the Manly Men of Anime panel, and making friends while trading the controller back and forth to progress through the single-player content =)

I have no idea how such a thing could be achieved again in a different venue, but if one could somehow combine the personal space of individual rooms, with something larger than a hotel hallway, perfection may yet be achieved ^^

[vampireketsuki]

Somewhere for handheld players to enjoy their games would be nice... I usually lurk in the game room when there's nothing of interest for me, and I play my DS (pokemon ftw) and it woulda been nice to have a place to do that...

[thechzn1]

Yo, Betastyles, I really appreciate it, It was nice playing Burnout with ya as well. I think this year's game room was a bit of a double edged sword. On one hand, the selection of games this year wasn't really to my liking, and there also wasn't much space and a big selection. On the other hand though, I thought it was great to communicate more directly with other people, instead of shouting across a loud wide open room. If there would be a game room that had a combination of both, that would be awesome.

[betastyles]

thechzn1, on 27 March 2012 - 03:58 AM, said:

Yo, Betastyles, I really appreciate it, It was nice playing Burnout with ya as well.

I think we unlocked a good 80% of the game over the course of that day, too =D  Co-op, people!

[NBHS]

Speaking as one of the Pokemon Professors, the encapsulation had its ups and downs. A dedicated area is nice... but an overflow area not separated by a wall is better, and crossover foot-traffic from the Magic, Yu-Gi-Oh, and other folks is never a bad thing. Still, we did what we could with what we had, which is all anyone could ask.

Mad props, though, for having Tetrisphere up and running at least one point during the weekend. More people need to appreciate that beast, rescued from the drowning clutches of the Atari Jaguar. (But that's a story for another time.) I'll almost forgive you for not running Ranma 1/2: Chougi Ranbuhen. (Almost.)

[SolidOutlaw]

Time for my feedback

Pros - The prizes were decent.

Now that that's over

CONS -
Not allowing people to use their arcade sticks in tournament (yeah, that whole "mod" spiel, they don't work that way.)
No casual set ups for most of the con. (And the AE casual set up wasn't even patched)
Not randomizing the brackets
1 set up per tournament
Poor times for when the tournaments were run. Marvel at 1? I was at work. 7 for a major game like that atleast.

I'd like to propose that you guys add on the services of Pittsburgh's Team 2A, they know how to run fighting game events, they have equipment, and they have the support of most of the city.

[clue2025]

I've been to Tekko since Tekkoshocon 3 and this is by far the WORST the game room has been. I thought Ohayocon had a bad game room but this beat it hands down for worst, which is sad because Tekko game rooms were always awesome even when the con was bad (Greentree).

I understand getting Javier was a money issue but come on, you could have done much better than this. Maybe seeking out local people who know how to run tournaments, get setups, handle equipment, etc? Especially with the fighting game boom since 2009 there's more serious fighting game players and ones that have been to Tekko expect a certain degree of "professionalism" I guess you could say, which this year was SEVERELY lacking.

1) I didn't know who to talk to about what or anything for games. I just saw games on consoles, no one playing, and no staff around to ask about possibly putting something on people would play.

2) Arcade sticks: YOU CANNOT MOD AN ARCADE STICK TO BREAK SYSTEMS! YOU JUST CAN'T! And it's not Call of Duty where you can add an extra button and go buckwild with machinegun fire, fighters don't work like that. The only things that would break the game are programmable pads and all they do is allow you to do frame perfect things. If you saw a programmable pad, you'd know because it has a screen and a ton of switches on it.

3) Tournament times: You set tournament times for early afternoon. On a Friday. Big games too where you'd max out the attendance. Do you have any idea how dumb this is? Do you want people to show up at all?

4) Tournament brackets: Again, dumb. I'm going to be as honest as possible with you: All of us there knew after about 5 minutes who would win the entire thing, simply because ALL THE BEST PEOPLE BEAT EACH OTHER EARLY. Now, people attend Tekko that know how to play the games on a competitive level. That's just how we have fun, by playing against good competition and its exciting for everyone else. Most of the people there are the same way.

If you want to know why after tournaments there were no serious players or anyone doing anything "fancy" its because they were all in my hotel room playing. Yes, we provided a better fighting game experience on a single TV with a single console in a hotel room than the staff of the game room did, because we understand how technology works, specifically low-voltage things such as controllers and arcade sticks which honestly isn't that hard at all, and because it's what a lot of us do (or used to do) week in and week out. I've NEVER seen an arcade stick kill a console. I've run tournaments and been to many where there are hundreds of people using arcade sticks, controllers, everything, and none have done that ever.

It's funny too that you were worried about that because one of YOUR control pads was shorting out almost every time.

I know the DDR players were pretty bummed out too.

You mentioned in your original post that a local group will handle this next year. Hopefully you mean CMUken, because that's pretty much what we did in the hotel room.

A lot of people show up to Tekko for just the game room itself. After this year I don't know how many people will if this is what is to be expected. I know a few who said they'll just look for us next year instead of paying $50 for nothing to do.

[Freebuki]

For starters, this being my very first tekko event inwhich my appearance was solely based on the fighting game tournaments, the layout was horrible. One of the tournament was discontinued due to a broken game so I believe that the handling of the videogames was unprofessional especially because there were no copies of a game that was broadcasted on the tekkos event page. My second issue was the lack of equipment. Me being a hardcore fighting game player who hasn't touched an original console controller in over 6 years I was highly upset when I couldn't use my own equipment( though there were valid reasons behind the issue). I believe that there should've been atleast two arcade controllers present. I was even more upset by the comments made by the "higher tier" staff members, especially when they said "anyone good can use an original controller", no sir it doesn't work that way. I almost purchased controllers that the staff members were willing to let me use if I were to donate them which brings me to my next issue; if I couldn't use my own equipment due to the possibility of modifications, why are they willing to let me use the equipment if I donated it? My fourth issue was the layout of the gaming area. It was far to crampt. Though there seemed to be many issues to the gaming area, the one factor that was actually acceptable was the aid of the staff members. Many of the staff actually tended to the needs of the people. I know that it must've been pretty hectic for the staff members but they were actually pretty helpful( well most of them, if there's a page to evaulate the staff please direct me to it because I would have a heck of a good time). My overall opinion towards the gaming area can basically be summed up in one word, "terrible". From horrible gaming selections to the unappealing area my first year of tekko just might be my last.

[Freebuki]

Funny because I contributed to the hotel just because the game room sucked.

[JohnZ]

We are evaluating all local groups at this time to see which would be a good fit for partnering with Tekko, either to train our (very limited) staff or to work with us as a co-producer of the tournaments at Tekkoshocon in the future.  As more information is made available we will share it.

One point which I would like to stress, and possibly reiterate, is that we were loaned equipment from Family Video as a partnership.  I am aware that the likelihood of a malicious actor, who would go so far as to wire a ton of batteries hidden inside a large tournament stick to the USB plug creating a large voltage spike that would burn out the USB port in the console and risk frying the mainboard if the spike was sufficiently large, is so minimal as to be laughable.  But the likelihood was not zero, and therefore we chose to err on the side of caution lest we endanger a relationship with a trusted partner.

We made every effort to schedule as many of the hardcore tournaments at times throughout the show so that the most people could attend.  Unfortunately, as you have indicated, some mistakes were made.

As for why controllers donated at-show could not be used immediately, we would need time to check the controller, enter it into our inventory system, and prepare it for use before we could deploy it onto the gaming floor.  This would have taken a staff member off the floor during a critical staffing shortage, and as such the decision was made to refuse at-show donations.

Our staff was not made aware of any problems with any controllers at-show besides the DDR pads.  The DDR was removed after Thursday solely due to space constraints, as we had a room removed from our floor plan and did some further reorganization to provide more space for the tournaments.  We apologize for the inconvenience and will endeavor to do better at future events, where hopefully we will be provided by our venue with the space that a proper game room needs.

You are not incorrect in your statements that our staff is inexperienced.  This is something, as stated, that we will endeavor to improve upon for future events, and helpful information on how we can accomplish this, as opposed to threats of non-attendance, would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your feedback and please continue to tell us how we can improve.

[Klimas]

LETS START WITH THE PROS!
-The game floor existed.

Ok, not that we got the pros out of the way, let's look at the cons.

CONS

-MOST staff were horrendous.

This does not include Don Jitsu or the bald guy (sorry, forgot your name buddy) as they realized how screwed up the room was later in the con. I'm going to use you as an example, JohnZ. Also, note that this is not a personal attack of any sort, as I am simply going to state what happened. I'm sure you remember me, as some of your staff gave me the nickname "diglett talker" during the course of the con.

When we first arrived at the floor, me and SolidOutlaw asked for a fighting game setup. You complied, but before getting the game you informed us about the no outside equipment policy that was NEVER implemented in past tekko's, or even any past conventions that we have attended. We were baffled by this rule and got into a small argument. Then, you told us you are going to find the forum post where you stated this. At this time, while you were searching for the post, I introduced myself and offered a handshake, which you did not accept. (I am going to assume that you simply did not hear me, as you were searching, which is fine.)

Now, you are searching for a FORUM POST. Which reads the following.

"It would have to stay in your bag, unfortunately, for your and everyone's safety. We need to have an accurate list of everything that's in use in the VG rooms (except the Portable Pit-- we're not gonna have you sign in and out there) in case something gets broken or stolen... not that our attendees would ever do that, mind you, but it's not outside the realm of possibility. By not accepting gear at show we can make absolutely sure that nobody loses a majorly expensive piece.

Plus, stuff brought on the day of the show hasn't had time to be tested and properly cleaned. Remember, Con Plague Is Everybody's Problem ™. "

Now, problem A is that this is a FORUM POST where most likely NO ONE will ever see it. This rule was not posted on the main site in any shape or form except for the forums, which I am sure you know that very few con-goers visit. Problem B is that this is EXTREMELY vague. From reading this, I am assuming that most of us thought that this meant you could not donate equipment for the game room to use during the con, and that we are allowed to use our own equipment. (Also notice no where it states arcade sticks, adding to the vagueness for fighters.) You read the post to us in an authoritative tone, and then we argued a little more. We tried to find someone else to talk about the rule. You mentioned the con chair, which you never fetched as she was busy, and we were not able to find her during the entire con. We went downstairs to operations and they were mostly clueless. Then, me and SolidOutlaw went back upstairs and sat down in front of SSF4AE, NOT 2012. We asked about this and you said that it will be patched for the tournament. Just awkward for us to practice on a game that is not up to date when we were promised it in an earlier post. After this, I went into the controls option of the game and showed you where it listed "arcade stick" as a control scheme to try and show you our complaint. You then SHOVED YOUR STAFF BADGE INTO MY FACE and stated "See this? See This?". THIS IS DOWNRIGHT UNACCEPTABLE BEHAVIOR BY ANYONE, ESPECIALLY THE HEAD OF THE GAME ROOM. Using that logic, I could have shoved MY badge in YOUR face and said "I am a paying customer, and you are ruining my experience", but I did not. Also, some staff members said something along the lines of "If you're that good that means you can use a regular controller and not complain". This is just a lack of knowledge about fighters. RESEARCH BEFORE YOU TALK. IF YOU DO NOT KNOW HOW FIGHTERS WORK, DO NOT ACT LIKE YOU KNOW THEM.

Ok, lets move on to another issue

-TOURNAMENTS WERE RUN VERY POORLY

Let me refer you to a forum post that I posted before the con.

"Just a heads up, I really hope you guys know how to run tourny's. "

There was no reply to this at all, So we assumed you and your staff at least knew how to run a proper tournament. MAN were we wrong. First single elim brackets are usually unacceptable, but since this is an anime con, we can look past that. Something we can not let slip by is how the brackets were arranged. We had to sign up in order, from 1 - 32, on a signup sheet. You then directly plugged the names into a bracket, where 1-8 were together, 9-16, etc etc. No randomization is hilariously awful for a tournament. As Clue2025 stated, all the best players fought each other early in the round, as we all signed up together. Knowing this, we can manipulate the entire bracket by signing up on different numbers. To ensure a proper tournament, you must have randomization. Thirdly, most tournament times were not well thought out. UMVC3, which is more than likely the most popular fighter, was scheduled for 1PM. You need to schedule main tournaments later in the day, as you can draw more people and more "hype" to the event. Fourthly, ONE SETUP IS NOT MEANT TO BE USED FOR AN ENTIRE TOURNAMENT. Due to this, tournaments took insanely long as only one match could be played. The length was shortened by making all matches just one game, which is also UNACCEPTABLE for fighters. The entire tournament experience was a joke.

-THE LAYOUT WAS tauros

Having separate rooms for a few games each was just a gigantic cluster wailmer. People were jamming into rooms just to see what was happening. There were no signs for the video game portion of the floor, so most had to wait to go into a room and then find out nothing important was happening for them. This just caused frustration. Also, you had MULTIPLE instances where there were more than 6 players waiting to play a fighter, and there was not another set up available. When there are multiple people waiting to play a game, and it can take up to 30 minutes just to play, there NEEDS to be at least one other set up for them.


...and now...for a big one,

-THE ENTIRE EXPERIENCE WAS SO BAD, THAT WE MOVED ALL GAMES TO OUR HOTEL ROOM, WHERE MOST PLAYERS CAME TO PLAY

Yes, we were so fed up with the constant BS the staff fed us, as well as the awful layout of the game floor, that we moved EVERYTHING upstairs to our hotel room. Let me say this again. THE GAME ROOM WAS SO AWFULLY ORGANIZED THAT WE WERE FORCED TO GO TO OUR HOTEL ROOM AND PLAY, AND NOT PLAY AT THE CONVENTION WHICH WE PAYED MONEY TO ATTEND. We had great games, USING STICKS, playing a variety of games that we could switch out at a whim, and not wait 10-15 minutes to find a staff member to switch for us. The best time of the con was up in our hotel room, not in the actual convention itself. I am sure that everyone will admit that. We ALL came for mostly gaming, if not strictly for it. Forcing con-goers up to their hotel room because of how bad the game room was is most likely the biggest insult to the game room, and ALL of us do not regret it. Having a half-assed game room coming off of the spectacular effort that Nexus put out last year is just unacceptable.

I am going to stop here and now respond to some posts you have made in this thread.

Referring to your first post, the fact that you think there is an "unfair advantage" due to controllers for fighters is absolutely absurd, and shows your desperate lack of knowledge. You need to either research the controllers, or find some one (DON JITSU) who knows about them. With this logic, you could hypothetically have bought a "modded arcade stick" and it would be unfair to use because "IT HAS 8 BUTTONS INSTEAD OF 6". Your controllers were BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD. You had 3rd party Game Stop controllers, that were almost impossible to use because of the start button location, yet we were not allowed to use our 3rd party equipment. Also, you had RED OCTANE brand DDR pads. Get cobalt flux's, as red octane pads were awful, and many, if not ALL, of the DDR players agreed with this.

Also relating to the first post, for a local group, may i suggest TEAM 2A / CMUKEN to run the room. We actually know how to run fighting game tournaments. REAL tournaments, not the pitiful excuses you labeled as tournaments.

Onto the 3rd post, you mention it would have taken a long time for a staff member to inventory a game / item which would create a shortage on the game floor. The guy that issues the items and games where the tournament sign ups were was NEVER busy AT ALL when I walked my way over there. USE HIM.

Your staff was not made aware of  many problems is a HUGE LIE. We mentioned how awful the Game Stop 360 pads were, and we had them replaced (I Believe?) with regular wired 360 pads. Then, one of the regular 360 pads had issues of some sort, so I am extremely surprised that you have not heard of this.

Now, you say that  " helpful information on how we can accomplish this, as opposed to threats of non-attendance, would be greatly appreciated." Well, this might be true, but i SEVERELY doubt it. I have heard from MANY, MANY staff members that tekko is ALWAYS hurting for money. What would happen if you lost 30 people? That's $1,500 GONE from the con, as well as room costs from whatever hotel is nearby. There are MANY other cons that are within a few hours drive that we can attend instead of tekko. One of the members (I believe bald guy before he realized the problems) threatened us back with the fact that Pittsburgh will not have tekko anymore. With the fact that many cons are so close, this threat of losing tekko is of little importance. Some of us have attended tekko for 5+ years, and we are not afraid to jump ship to attend other cons if this situation is not improved for next year.

Now...the last part of the 3rd post..."Thank you for your feedback and please continue to tell us how we can improve."

STEP DOWN AS THE LEADER OF THE GAME ROOM. You obviously have very little knowledge on most of the tournament games. As the leader, this is just unacceptable. While I know this may be drastic, this might be needed. You NEED someone with proper knowledge in charge of the game room or next year will be a repeat of this year, where 95% of the people had a bad time. This needs to change. If 95% of the people are not having fun at a convention they paid to attend, then they will not come next year.

This was the worst tekko game room of all time, hell, the worst CON game room of all time, and it needs to change drastically.

[iamnumberjuan]

You really should know a thing or 2 about games if you are going to run the game room.


P.s

I didn't even attend this year strictly based off of how bad the game room was this year. I love tekko and I was around when it was still just papers in Rebecca's folder but gamerooms are all I go for...and hot cosplayers /highfive

[vampireketsuki]

I doubt there's that many people who go to any con just for games (game exclusive cons not included of course), I know I don't. I go for panels, dealers, artists, concerts, workshops, with maybe a bit of gaming tossed into the mix. I did enjoy the spreading out between the rooms (con-funk almost nonexistent to me), but a list of what systems were in what rooms might've been a nice touch. The layout and crowds could've been better, but then again the rooms were set up last minute from what I understand, and had it not been where it was, it would not have been at all.

[iamnumberjuan]

Oh, one last thing! To whoever said "if you are good then you can use a regular controller" would you tell Tiger woods that if he used a hockey stick over a golf club that he should still be able to win? no because he practices with what? A GOLF CLUB. So if someone who plays video games such as Street fighter practices with an Arcade stick, does this mean he could use a gamecube controller and still win?