As many of you have heard or suspect Animethon is a fair ways behind schedule, as compared with previous years. In addition to this the lack of information made available from ASAPA and the Animethon Committee for the community and event attendees has been severely lacking in the recent months.  At one point there were even rumours the event may be postponed till 2012 or cancelled entirely. More recently progress has been made in establishing channels of communication with the launch of the ASAPA and Animethon websites which went live early last week. While still lacking a fair amount of information this is a huge step in the right direction, making ready areas for guest information and other panels and such that will be taking place at the event.

The preregistration section is currently under development as they are making a system for online preregistration to simplify the process and cut down on paper use. As of last weekend the estimated time for the preregistration forms to go live for attendees was the end of the month, but that may be subject to delays based on development and testing. The vendors package information has already been made available for those interested in booking tables in the vendors hall. The site is quickly coming together and will soon be fully functional. New forums are under development that will replace the old phpBB forums that are currently in use, and in a terrible state of disrepair. With the vast improvements to their websites and forums, communication with the community and attendees should improve, and con-goers will have an easier go of finding information, registering and the like in the future. This will be a huge boon for future Animethons, as the systems being developed now will be available and fully developed for future events.  Along with improvements to the web presence and information distribution channels, some potential organizational changes to help make the event more sustainable and stable between Animethon events may be in the works for the Animethon Committee. More on the organizational and policy  changes will be discussed in the future as information becomes available.

The rushed schedule for this year may result in a slightly rushed convention, but if it improves future events will the sacrifice for one year be worthwhile and benefit the community? If everything gets followed through and implemented properly, yes. I remain optimistic for the potential improvements to Animethon; however, only time will show us how things turn out.

Related posts:

1. ASAPA/Animethon Q&A Meeting
2. Animethon 18 Announced for August 5-7, 2011
3. Commentary: The End of Animethon?

During Animethon 17, staffers boasted that this year’s attendance had surpassed that of Animethon 16 by over a thousand. Everyone was ecstatic at the news as the new revenue would ensure the future of the event for years to come. But just as people were thinking of Animethon 20, the same staffers started saying that the attendance increase was much less, maybe only an increase of 100.

More questions were raised about Animethon’s attendance when vendors started complaining that there felt like less people were going through the vendor’s hall. Several people commented that the halls of MacEwan University felt lighter then in previous years. People began whispering that there actually a drop in attendance, maybe as much as 500 less patrons then in Animethon 16. Animethon has not released any official attendance figures, but there have been other dark indications.

Over the last few months, Animethon has been acting strange. There was no gripe panel at the end of Animethon 17, a panel traditionally held since Animethon 11 that allowed patrons to share their concerns in person with the directors of Animethon. The Animethon website has not been updated since before the event. No announcement has been made about the dates for Animethon 18 and there have been no calls for directors for Animethon 18.

Then there’s ASAPA (Alberta Society for Asian Popular Arts), the not-for-profit society that manages Animethon. For almost a year now ASAPA has not sent out any minutes, a record of decisions made by the ASAPA board, to its members. Since ASAPA’s founding, the minutes of meetings have been sent to all members automatically, but current ASAPA President Jared Samborski has argued that, under his interpretation of the society’s bylaws, these minutes will only be sent out when members ask for them in writing. However, even when members have requested the minutes in writing, no ASAPA minutes were made available.

When all of these things are taken into account something seems very wrong.

Is There Method in this Madness?

Every year there is a rumour claiming that Animethon is finally going to die. During Animethon 16 there was the rumour that Bandai was going to sue the society into oblivion, before then Animethon 15 had rumours stating that former con-chair Nathan Johnston was going to destroy the event. Each year the event sounds like a Shakespearian drama is taking place, but normally it is just rumours spread by people with wild imaginations and embittered staff.

This isn’t to say that Animethon hasn’t had real problems. The event has been plagued with a variety of issues for years, many of which haven’t been resolved. But the closest debate the society came to actually shutting the event down came when then AMV coordinator Vlad Pohnert and then ASAPA President Nik Ekonomakis pushed for Animethon 17 to be postponed till 2011. Even then, the postponement was motivated by a desire to give the event more time to fix its problems, not cancel it. People would speculate that the event could die at any moment, but realistically the only way the event would shut down was if the society went bankrupt— which is why the current speculation now seems more credible.

Financially ASAPA hasn’t been doing well. Last year’s Edmonton Halloween Dance was a financial disaster, the latest in a long string of Edmonton Anime themed dances with a poor attendance. A Taste of Animethon did manage to get a fair attendance, but also resulted in a financial loss for the society. Then there are the other expenses ASAPA has had to incur over the year ranging from equipment purchases to legal fees, all of which picked away at its savings.

Almost certainly these gloomy financial results affected Animethon 17. Usually, every Animethon adds something to the event. Animethon 15 greatly expanded Artist Alley and featured both card & console gaming rooms. Animethon 16 then added a Lan Gaming Room as well as a Saturday night concert. But Animethon 17 didn’t expand, it actually shrank.

This year’s Animethon eliminated all overnight viewing rooms from the MacEwan Residence. It also didn’t issue any badges or lanyards to day of attendees. Instead patrons buying a 3-day pass were expected to wear a gold colour wristband over the entire weekend. On top of that, at-the door prices for 3-day passes were increased to $40.00. While a positive face was put on all of these changes, evidence suggest that money had become an issue.

But Animethon has faced challenges like this in the past. Usually when Animethon is in jeopardy, the community comes together and works towards a solution to make the event work. But for that to happen, ASAPA would need to inform its members and the Animethon staff, something that hasn’t happened yet.

The Rest Could be Silence

The reason for Animethon and ASAPA’s continued silence on the issue is because of the reforms put in place during Animethon 17. Vlad Pohnert, chair of Animethon 17, pushed through a number of measures to tighten control on information. Previous Animethons were plagued with rumours and staff would witness the fights between various Animethon directors. To deal with this, Mr. Pohnert enforced that certain issues would only be discussed in “director only meetings”— meetings where staff and the public were kept out. Outside of these meetings directors were expected to keep up a positive opinion about the event, and keep the staff in the dark about any disagreements within the committee.

This has worked in conjunction with Mr. Samborski’s policies in running ASAPA. In addition to not sending out any minutes about the ASAPA board, the society hasn’t announced the time and location for ASAPA meetings. These meetings were once open to all ASAPA members, but for the last year the only meetings ASAPA members have been informed of were elections or meetings that had special resolutions that needed to be passed.

These reforms have certainly succeeded in making Animethon look better. There have been very little negative comments about Animethon 17 and some staff commented that the event has been run much better in compared to previous years. There’s been no public dispute between directors, no issue that seems to have divided the committee, and certainly no indication that everything is about to collapse— which is a problem.

Right now the actions of ASAPA and Animethon indicate that there is a very serious problem, but the rhetoric makes it sound that Animethon 17 was a major success. Even if there isn’t anything wrong, that means Animethon should get its act together soon. Usually the directors for Animethon are chosen by mid-October with most key staff positions filled by the end of December. This means that if Animethon doesn’t open up applications for directors soon, it risks falling dangerously behind. Considering Animethon 17 was late with everything from sending out the vendors package to announcing the guests, falling behind isn’t a wise move.

The only thing that is certain is that this Sunday ASAPA is having a by election for two positions. ASAPA members were only given two week’s notice, strange considering most elections are given a full months notice. It’s also stranger when you consider that quorum is important and members actually need to attend if there’s going to be an election at all. But hopefully some of these important questions will be answered.

Then again all of this is speculation as ASAPA and Animethon have not said anything definitive on the future of the event. If everything is fine, then it would be prudent to shed some light on the state of the society to Animethon staff and ASAPA members. But if there is a problem, then it’s in their best interests to let the cat out of the bag so people can come together and try and work out a solution. Otherwise this might be Animethon’s last act.

Want to discuss this article? You can over on our forums right here.

Related posts:

1. ASAPA/Animethon Q&A Meeting
2. Animethon 18 Announced for August 5-7, 2011
3. ASAPA By-Election this Sunday

Hidden away in “A Taste of Animethon’s” vendor package is the information that MacEwan University is no longer permitting weapon sales of any kind at the event. (Section 4.6 of the vendors kit) I could understand the implementation of this new policy by MacEwan if Animethon or its patrons were acting irresponsibly with weapons during the event, but Animethon had taken several measures ensure the safety of patrons at the event.

The policies Animethon had imposed on weapons was absolutely draconian. Any weapons bought at the event had to be checked in with the events red shirts, and anyone wanting to take their weapons out of weapon’s check would have to leave the event IMMEDIATELY with the weapon. Even if you had managed to sneak your weapon passed the first “red shirt” checkpoint, packs of them were roaming Animethon searching for weapons to confiscate. These red shirts weren’t being lax on the weapons they confiscated either. Most of the time I had to convince red shirts that doing things like taking an old man’s walking cane was excessive.

Animethon had also taken several preventative measures over the last two years to minimize any injures that could be caused at the event. Horseplay with weapons was strictly prohibited, Animethon offered free first aid training to their volunteers, Animethon had trained volunteer medical professionals available throughout, and the event hired scores of MacEwan’s own security guards to keep people at the event safe. Every effort had been made to on the part of Animethon to safeguard its patrons, but sadly this seems to not have been enough.

However I feel that I have to applaud MacEwan for being reasonable enough to just prohibit the sale of weapons at Animethon. They weren’t comfortable with people purchasing weapons at their event, and they’ve done the sensible thing of informing Animethon well in advance of this new policy before any vendor signed up for the event. And they have so far kept the ban to sales, not an outright elimination of things like replica weapons from their campus. It’s not like they banned all weapons, including replica and toy weapons. That honor goes to the University of Calgary.

Calgary Always Has to Out Do Edmonton

While MacEwan might be a little paranoid, The University of Calgary seems to have lost their marbles. The UofC has banned any weapons from Otafest including Replica Weapons, Prop Weapons, and even gun replica weapons have been banned from Otafest this year.

According to the FAQ on the Otafest msg boards, because of some kind of incident that occurred last year, the UofC decided it wasn’t comfortable with weapons being on its campus anymore. As for fake weapons, the UofC apparently feels that those weapons could be confused for real weapons — therefore it’s better to ban all weapons, period. Otafest has been trying for months now to negotiate something with the UofC, but even they admit that it’s unlikely the University will budge from their position.

Although I do not know the details of the incident that caused this, and I imagine it had to be bad, this new policy seems to be a very knee-jerk reaction to something that isn’t even traditionally a problem with at anime cons. In my experience in Anime Cons, people horsing around with weapons cause the least amount of injuries. In fact, the title holder for “causer of most injures” usually goes to the Animethon dance, which always seems to feature a few people passing out from exhaustion or from attempting to pull off some ridiculous dance move. Now people do injure themselves with weapons at anime cons, but these incidents do seem to be rare.

I can understand banning some weapons. No one should be walking around a University Campus with a real katana. But eliminating fake replica weapons from their campus is being excessive. There is an argument that it’s difficult to determine if something is a real or replica weapon, but it’s not like it is impossible. And I think most anime cons have demonstrated a willingness to invest the resources necessary to determine the difference between the two.

From My Cold Dead Hands

Every year there does seem to be some idiot that decides he wants to play “Samurai Duel” at an Anime Con, but these individuals are few. It’s easy to think that a bunch of sugar high teenagers running around with replica swords is a recipe for disaster, but I think it speaks volumes for the responsibility of patrons and the measures taken by events that these incidents are rare. Most of these events have been going on for decades with few or no incidents with weapons, and I imagine that should be proof enough that a full ban isn’t necessary.

The community as whole shouldn’t be punished for the actions of a few idiots.If there needs to be more enforcement of weapons at Anime Conventions, I think it is reasonable to punish the individuals involved in these incidents. If someone goes out of their way to subvert a cons weapons policy, well that isn’t the cons fault – it’s that persons fault and they should be banned. People who decided to engage in duels with bladed weapons can be banned as well. After all I don’t think cons want these people there anyways. I’d rather see things go in this direction then more and more places going to the extreme the University of Calgary has.

Want to comment on this article? Feel free to do so on our forums, here.

Related posts:

1. ASAPA/Animethon Q&A Meeting
2. Otafest Lite 2010
3. Con Comparison Chart: Animethon, Anime Evolution, and Otafest

In theory, if a company raises their prices during a recession their earnings should go down. And if their main customer base happen to be wargamers, who pride themselves on their ability to think strategically, you’d think they would do the math and stop buying that companies product. All logic and reason should indicate that the company in question should have their profits drop and share prices should plummet into the abyss. Recent evidence suggests otherwise

Games Workshop, the company known for creating numerous strategy games including “Warhammer Fantasy and 40k”, decided to implement the seemingly suicidal strategy of raising their prices during the recession. Against all conventional logic and reason, Games Workshop steadily rose the prices, spun the roulette wheel, and bet the future of the company on the number 13. If you had stock in their company, it looked like it was time to bail – or so I thought.

It seemed that Games Workshop was going to suffer for their gamble – sales for the first half of 2009 were rather slow.  Customers voiced their discontent on popular gaming forums such as Warseer were awash in complaints towards the companies prices. At last, I thought, Games Workshop’s customers  would show that they couldn’t be squeezed like an orange.

Then news began to filter outthat Games Workshop was actually going to make a profit in 2009.

Market Reaction:

January 5, 2010 – Games Workshop Stock Trades at £250.53 a Share
January 6, 2010 – Games Workshop Stock Trades at £333.85 a Share

Then the fiscal report for 2009 came in this January: Sales Down Slightly, But Profits Up (Thanks Australia).

Games Workshop, against all odds, managed to make a profit of £4.3m, up £15.3m from last year. As of January 21, 2010 their stock has steadily risen to £377.00 a share.  It seems only a few wargamers couldn’t resist buying Games Workshop products while the vast majority kept buying their miniatures. Like a battered housewife, they crawled straight back to their trailer to the loving arms of their husband wearing a trademark wife-beater.

Faith in Humanity Shares Plummet

I could understand gamers being loyal to Games Workshop if their lord and master was providing a quality product or was noble and good. However, Games Workshop has gained a bit of a nefarious reputation over the years. Like the time they tried to destroy online stores selling their product in the name of defending their intelectual property. Or the ongoing debate about how Warhammer Fantasy, one of their flagship products, is arguably unbalanced. Then there’s the numerous cease and desist letters their lawyers send throughout the world. Even their FAQ’s, that are suppose to help balance and clarify the game, sometimes do more harm then good.

To the credit of wargamers, there really isn’t an alternative to Games Workshop games. The company has crushed most of it’s competitors and has  a large stake in every aspect of the hobby. Paints, brushes, modeling kits, novels, their own chain of stores, tournaments, conventions dedicated to celebrating themselves aka “Games Day”, and their own magazine that promotes their product. The only thing Games Workshop is lacking is their own line of food, although I’m sure it’s on the way.

Prophecy has foretold of a challenger that would come and liberate the world from it’s grasp. Unfortunately, most of the hero’s that have tried to slay Games Workshop have usually tripped and impaled themselves on their own sword before actually fighting the dragon.The only exception to this is the company Privateer Press, responsible for the game “Warmachine”, which has managed to stake a claim to the market but has been hindered by one of the worst marketing campaigns in history – pushing the catch phrase “Play like you have a pair” to geeky hobbyists.

This has created a dilemma for any wargaming enthusiast -you either have to go into a game like “Warmachine” and hope you can find other people that play the game, or bend over and sell your soul the Games Workshop. It seems that the inability of gamers to stop buying wargames and the incompetantce of potential competitors has created the perfect storm of stupidity, giving Games Workshop supreme power over everything.

Drugs Are Cheaper than Warhammer

I can’t say that all Games Workshop fans are addicts suffering from spousal abuse- they are inventive addicts who think of ingenious ways to hide their bruises. Games Workshop fans have long since recognized that the company was a bit evil, and have made “Hate the company, love the game” the slogan of every Warhammer Fan. The community consistently strives to figure out ingenious ways to enjoy the game. If say a type of miniature is ridiculously expensive, a few searches on the internet will reveal an ingenious solution someone figured out of how you can use a combination of other Games Workshop products to create the same miniature, but at a lower price.

This combination of abuse from Games Workshop and the inventiveness of a massive fanbase that are unwilling to give up on their products no matter the abuse, has created a simple way of measuring intelligence.  Based on a consumer of Games Workshop’s products behaviour, you can actually figure out what their level of intelligence is.

Tier 1: Breathtakingly Stupid - Pays full price for everything.
Tier 2: Simply Dumb - Orders online and gets 20%-30% off.
Tier 3: Moderately Intelligent – Orders online and finds the conversion guides to build the troop choices.
Tier 4: Smart – Stops playing.

Now if you will excuse me, I have some Druchii to paint.

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