Forum - View topicChase Wang on Anime Expo 2007
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Deltakiral
 Posts: 3338 Location: Glendora, CA (Avatar Hei from Darker than BLACK) |
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You might elaborating on who you work for? Otherwise you sound like every other Otaku who's been a Journalist while reporting on their blog. |
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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If you've said this initially maybe I would've been able to temper your comments with reason, but all I saw was someone attacking me for being "rude" during an interview where my questions were being dodged. Nothing I said in the interview was "rude" or even unreasonable by any stretch of the imagination. What I said to you was rude, though, so you got me there. Also, I'm not sure if you have enough knowledge of exactly what my duties here are nor my 9-year work history in this field to tell me that you have "six years of experience doing exactly what I do". If I may ask,what publication do you work for?
Again, my job is not to coddle Chase. He didn't need me to coddle him. He was answering the questions, and when I felt I hadn't been given the clarification I needed, I pushed further. You're making a lot of assumptions here; that you judge it as "rude" doesn't make it so, and I strongly disagree with your assessment of the question. You seem to be under the impression that I was very rude and aggressive with Chase. You claim to be a journalist, one that deals with the convention, so you must be able to contact him yourself; I invite you to ask him about that yourself and get his take on it. Something tells me you might be surprised by his response.
I was going based on what I'd heard not only from my staff that attended the show but other concertgoers as well, all whom confirmed what I said in the interview. If it's incorrect, then that's definitely my fault, so you got me on that one.
That's great, but you didn't say "I feel" when expressing your opinion originally. You outright stated as though it were a fact - this interview is rude and aggressive and unprofessional. No "I think", no "I'm qualified to judge this because I'm a long-time entertainment journalist", just an insult, stated as a fact, and aimed squarely at me. And then you wonder why, when I obviously think you're completely wrong about what you're saying, I snap back with a "man I sure do hate it when uninformed anonymous internet strangers think they know everything about journalism". Could I have been less harsh? Yeah, sure. Didn't feel like it at the time, though, and since I had absolutely no idea what your credentials are, based on your comments, you seemed pretty damned uninformed and ignorant to me. Sorry if that stirred you up, I guess.
You might have a point there if you bothered at all to tell me what exactly made you qualified to judge the professional quality of an interview, but you didn't. Furthermore, had I known you weren't just some anonymous internet guy who's out to score points by attacking me publicly and tossing around words like "professionalism" and "journalistic integrity" and the dreaded "bias", none of which even apply in this situation, my response may have been different. But you came across as yet another frothing fan. If you want people to respect you as someone with credentials and experience then you may want to say something about that before handing down your righteous damning judgment of someone else's work.
Oh, now you're just being a drama queen. You didn't like one interview and then when you insulted me I insulted you back and so now you "hate" us just like you "hate" every major gaming website out there, as well as Animeondvd and apparently every single Jrock site? Frankly, if all of those other websites suck so bad (they don't, by the way; I'm not sure what ridiculous standard you're holding them to but whatever it is it's likely unfair) and you're such a brilliant arbiter of journalism quality, I'm shocked you even visited this site in the first place. Furthermore, *I* am not Anime News Network. ANN is composed of a large staff and there's a lot more to this site than just my content or my forum posts. If you're going to damn the entire thing because you spat at me and I didn't say "please sir can I have another" then I think maybe the issue is really with you, not me or the website. |
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HayateTokidoki
Posts: 37 |
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It's in my profile, but I'm the senior editor for Tokidokijournal.com. We've been around for six years and have been attending E3 and Anime Expo for all of those years as press, as well as covering the Jrock Revolution event in May. We cover anime, manga, video games, Jrock, and some other odds and ends. We try to focus on titles that don't receive a ton of mainstream attention. We've interviewed a lot of fairly big Japanese musicians (KOTOKO, D'espairsRay) and game developers (producer, composer, character designer of Disgaea series, development team of .hack series) in the past and have contacts with all the major companies in the video game and anime industry. I'm not claiming to be working for some massive site or magazine that's known by everyone that follows the industry, but we are certainly far beyond a blog or a fansite. Believe me, I hate the bloggers and such that claim to be professional journalists based on their poorly-written online journal entries. I should've elaborated to begin with, but I was pressed for time and simply wanted to get my response up there. Hopefully this clears up any misconceptions people may have had though. |
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Disembodied Voice
Posts: 6 |
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"Play nice," says this out of work journalist.
I'm not a Zac fan, but his interview was in no way rude. As it has already been mentioned, those pressing issues needed to be asked. Chase just happened to be their fall guy because the bigwigs would prefer to hide behind their shady walls. AX was a clustermuck, even more so this year than in year's past, and if I was Mr. Wang, I'd bail on that sinking ship. I long for the days of the Tatsugawa-ran AX, but anyone following SPJA for the past five years knows how that's gone down. |
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HayateTokidoki
Posts: 37 |
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I don't feel the questions were being dodged. There was perhaps one example of this that you asked a follow-up question to and he replied in more detail.
I may be wrong, but I don't think I used the words "journalistic integrity" or "bias". I did talk about professionalism, but unless I'm mistaken the other two words were not thrown into the conversation until now.
I'd like to clarify my statements regarding other publications, so you can see that I am not just randomly deciding to hate every major publication. IGN They have a very arrogant and self-important attitude about just about everything they do. I've watched their editors try to get other members of media kicked off of game consoles so they can play or cut in line to talk to company reps trying to use their publication's name as justification. They also tend to brag a lot when they get invited to press events or get early release copies of games or systems. Also, they have a horrible reviewing system and frequently abuse their scoring system for personal bias. One recent review that had this problem was Mario Party 8 on the Wii. They gave MP7 a 7.0, and said throughout their preview and final review of MP8 that it was better than MP7 and would make fans of the series happy. However, they were annoyed that Nintendo didn't completely remake the series from the ground up, and even said that they chose to lower the score because they didn't like the fact that it was just a sequel (as 2-7 were). Game Informer This stems from a four year span of working for GameStop. I worked at FuncoLand just before the buy-out, when GI was still one of the lowest-selling gaming magazines on the market. GameStop acquired them and pumped more money into the magazine and forcefully crammed the magazine down customers' throats. It was so bad that sales associates, managers, DMs, and even RMs could be fired if they didn't sell enough magazines. GI is where it is today solely due to GameStop's backing, and that is only because of the GS discount card that is offered with the magazine. Quite a few people even said they just wanted the card and didn't care about the magazine. At one point I had like eight subscriptions to GI because we had to input an address to sell the discount card. They have consistently given any GameStop focus titles positive reviews (I can't remember any focus titles that got rated below an 8.0), while every other publication would give many of those titles significantly lower scores. Also, they gave Halo 2 and GTA Vice city perfect 10s while a good part of the written review was spent complaining about flaws in the game. Meanwhile, they heavily praised Ninja Gaiden on Xbox throughout the review and didn't level any complaints against it, but it came out with a 9.5. More importantly, the editor in chief Andy McNamara made his appearance at the GameStop managers' conference each year to talk about the magazine sales. Each year, everyone came out of the room wanting to kick his teeth in. He stood there for the entire presentation talking about how GI was such an amazing magazine and how the managers aren't doing their job and aren't selling enough subscriptions, and even went as far as to suggest that GI was responsible for GameStop's success. He demanded that employees sell the magazine subscription and only mention the discount card as a bonus, rather than the other way around. He was basically an arrogant prick that did nothing but insult the very people that made GI as successful as it is. It wouldn't be a stretch to say that GI would be the lowest-ranking gaming magazine right now if not for GameStop selling subscriptions for them. AnimeonDVD.com I want to clarify my statement about their site. I don't think AoD is unprofessional or bad or anything like that. I simply disagree with a large percentage of their reviews and don't personally like the writing style. My issue with them is nothing more than personal taste and preference, though, so I don't want anyone to misinterpret my previous comments. |
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DrSlump
Posts: 17 |
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This is not towards Zac but this whole thread. Some attendees do the same thing. Calling for people to resign, etc. without fulling understanding the situation. Many false "facts" have been stated in this long thread. People should cite sources before claiming things as fact. Everyone wants to be armchair quarterbacks. |
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starcade
Posts: 204 |
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I certainly think the interview was appropriate, but it's clear that Chase (though a nice and respectful person) was clearly doing what he was told -- a clear disconnect with any semblance of reality. As it is, I won't worry about it anymore. Within the next week or so, I'll be banned from any future AX events. Kinda mutual agreement (I told the forum admin off more than a little bit after my month-suspension, and said if they didn't like it... And they don't.), and almost certainly for the best. I will still continue to discuss and raise Hell about this, and make this one statement: One more AX like the last two, and they're DONE. |
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fighterholic
Posts: 9193 |
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And what about the people who actually at AX and had to go through the problems that were made apparent while they were attending AX? I don't think the fault lies with Chase. What I think though, is that he, and AX are over looking what was went wrong at the convention, and anything wrong with the convention as a whole. |
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HayateTokidoki
Posts: 37 |
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They have acknowledged repeatedly that there WERE problems (and even went as far as to recognize very specific problems). They have said repeatedly that they ARE working on ways to correct those problems for 2008. The real problem here is that people are ignoring that and still freaking out and saying AX sucks and just generally being unreasonable. As I've said before, there were definitely some problems, but people are very serious exaggerating their magnitude and in some cases completely ignoring who was actually at fault for these problems. |
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LydiaDianne
 Posts: 5633 Location: Southern California |
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We're not "freaking out." We are being cynical. We are also having a "We'll believe it when we see it" attitude. The proof is in the pudding, etc. Who cares WHO'S at fault. In the end, the people with their neck on the line is the SPJA. They "run" AX. Their name is on the thing. End result: Fault = SPJA. |
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HayateTokidoki
Posts: 37 |
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The thing is, the "problems" at AX 2007 were not that bad. It is not the SPJA's fault that S.K.I.N. decided last minute that they needed more time to rehearse. It is not the SPJA's fault that the people waiting in line outside chose not to apply sunblock and got sunburned (I'm guilty of this too). It is not the SPJA's fault that people expected to bring food and drinks into the arena when there were huge and very clear signs posted in front of all the entrances saying that you could not bring food and drinks in. It's not the SPJA's fault that people were geniuses and expected to be able to bring huge cosplay props into an arena where everyone had assigned seats and space was limited. It's not the SPJA's fault that the LBCC staff that they were contractually obligated to use turned out to be a bunch of incompetent a-holes in 2007 when they were perfectly fine the last time AX was held at LBCC. If anything, why aren't people writing to the LBCC to gripe about their staff? The food situation was a million times better than Anaheim. The convention center was a bit spread out, but again, if you really think it was that far and that much of a hassle to walk from the arena to the vendor hall, you're lazy and/or out of shape which is also not the SPJA's fault. I understand that there were delays with a lot of events, but that is standard with any con or major event like this. There were issues at the SOS Brigade concert, but that was put on by Bandai Entertainment. AX staff did not handle the stage and equipment set up for that event, so again, not something they did wrong or were at fault for. And again, I can't stress this enough: you guys have no idea what kind of problems can come up with concerts if you didn't go to Jrock Revolution. The microphone cut out on the vocalists of a couple of the bands, to the point that I couldn't recognize the chorus of one major single from my favorite band. The drummer of Merry was trying to talk to the crowd and the mic cut out more than it actually worked. The line situation was horrible (waiting in line outside on the streets of LA overnight with no security or police is definitely not ideal). Their will call situation was absurd. If you waited overnight in line to get pit access and had to pick up will call tickets, you were moved to a different line about an hour before doors opened and weren't let in until the pit was full and you were stuck in some crappy area in the back or really far to the side. I have been attending AX for six years now, and honestly the only thing that was worse this year than in the past few years was the obnoxious fans complaining about everything. Honestly, every year I attend I just get more and more disgusted with the anime fandom and how completely selfish and unreasonable they are. These "problems" that were so horrible and threaten to end AX altogether if there's one more year like this one (I can't even begin to comprehend how delusional someone would have to be to come to that conclusion) really weren't anything outrageous. The worst thing that happened was the S.K.I.N. concert delay and honestly I've been to concerts with delays just as bad as that before. *The next paragraph is not directed at any one person, but simply a rant towards all the whining brats I've come across here and on the AX forums.* So again, to put it quite bluntly, get over it. The problems at AX weren't the end of the world. They didn't ruin the con. They didn't cause irreparable harm to anyone. AX isn't out to get you and your friends. AX doesn't owe you any sort of refund or financial compensation because the event didn't revolve around you and what you wanted to happen. AX doesn't need to bow down and kiss your feet to apologize for the horrible things they didn't do to you. If they have another year like this one, they'll just have another year after that, and another year after that, and so on. AX isn't going to fall apart and disappear because of a handful of brats whine about their horrible experience on a couple forums. That just isn't realistic and it's not going to happen. |
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Disembodied Voice
Posts: 6 |
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You're just blowing smoke, but for the sake of biting the bait...
When GoHs complaining about the experience (issues which have happened before, but never before brought to light to the public) then YES that is a pretty big problem, in regards to who would be willing to come in the future. When you have staffers unsure of themselves regarding decisions made, then YES that is a pretty alarming issue at hand. When you have manga distros turning a blind eye on the very convention that got contributed to their growth, and moving on to the bigger league (Comic Con), that's something--not just SPJA, but any other anime conventions should figure out for future accomodations.
Would you like a cookie? Bandai is as very much to blame over this whole ordeal. However, that's only one concert.
Aren't you doing the very thing you mentioned here right below...?
I will see your "handful" and raise you a lot more because you obviously haven't followed various other forums, blogs or 2ch complaints. I haven't attended the past couple of years and I can tell that this isn't your typical "AX staff is annoying, blah blah, onto next year" ordeal. You have people trying to scope out their past publicized incident from 2003...faith is wavering. I'll agree with you that SPJA won't be finished, even if as much as half the attendance was cut down. The concern would be if that lack of attendance gets into the distributor's pockets, however, which could eventually lead to a falling out. Although, surely must have as much confidence in your viewerbase as you do in SPJA, but with such comments as yours... |
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Rogue Marvel
Posts: 6 |
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Its comments like this that really irk me. I do not consider myself lazy or out of shape. I don't mind walking at a con. I go to comic con every year so I know about doing a lot of walking around a convention (I've even done it in 2" heels!). I don't complain about how I can barely walk by day 4 and how I have massive blisters, because hey, thats part of the experience and I still had fun. But AX this year was just unreasonable. And the blame probably does lay somewhere with SPJA and AX staff. They picked a spaced out venue. They are the ones that decided to have on entrance and one exit on the complete opposite sides. I highly doubt staff pro forced them into not allowing two way access to the front or back. Now I can understand why they might have made that decision,but that doesn't change the fact that in the end it was a bad one. And trust me I am not just some whiny braty anime fan. In the past 6 years I have gone to over 26 individual convention events, even staffed a few of those. I know a problem con when I see one. And honestly I won't be so upset if AX and the SPJA would just own up to the problems. Saying all the issues where because of the venue change and that the con was a "learning experience" is not an apology. An apology is I'm sorry we had these issues, its our fault, this is what we are doing to fix them. I have yet to hear that from anyone from AX or the SPJA. Really nothing bothers me more then when people don't take responsibility for their actions and issues. A perfect example of a con that messed up big and admitted it was ALA. They had horrible rude staff members this past year. Never in my con going experience had I been treated so rudely by staff. But as soon as the event was over the Con chair went over the issues apologized and took full responsibility for what happened (even tho it really wasn't his fault) and has already put new measures in place to make sure it doesn't happen again. I'm definitely going back to ALA. Why can't AX and the SPJA do that? Is it really that hard to admit there were issues that were actually their fault? |
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starcade
Posts: 204 |
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I think the fact has to be said openly: AX and SPJA do not have any intention of fixing the problems with Anime Expo -- neither the ones evident from the last two cons nor the challenges evident in the location change to the LACC. I mean, they don't realize they've been run out of the LBCC (and the only reason that AX '07 (upon further consideration) was probably held at all was the amount of money the LBCC could make off of concessions and indirectly off of all other things AX) and functionally run out of Anaheim as well. This group is about two swirls from the bottom. |
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starcade
Posts: 204 |
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Fact is that they have to be careful they don't get so careless that it gets to "excessive negligence", or else -- even with the hold-harmless, they can now be sued under California law. Look, I'm actually getting to the point of mailing Funimation and ADV and the like and seeing if they can take over the event (or *gasp!* create a better one!), because the SPJA is a bunch of arrogant pricks that can't see the forest for the trees to save their damn lives. |
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