(no subject)

[sakon76]

The rules for AX Masquerade are posted, and there's one particular rule that's making a LOT of people unhappy. Specifically, the costume you wear for Masquerade cannot be worn at all for the con *prior* to Masquerade. This means effectively that craftsmanship judging can't happen until we're all backstage prior to Masquerade. BAAAAD idea. They've tried that before. It does not work. It also means that there are going to be a couple hundred cosplayers in a GENDER-MIXED green room with NO MIRRORS trying to put on costumes, body paint, makeup, etcetera, *while* getting judged. Given that Masquerade is also on a Sunday night this year, that means the only time that cosplayers can wear these costumes, their masterpieces for the year, will be on Monday when *half the convention* has left already.

This is not a good rule. It is most certainly not well thought out for this convention. It may work for SF cons, but not for AX the way it is now.

Comments

An outside perspective

[ghilledhu.livejournal.com]

There may be ways of making it work, if people are willing to give it a shot. I know it's always difficult to change from the way things have always been done, but sometimes change can be for the good if people give it a chance.

If people are encouraged -- beforehand and in writing/online! -- to change in their hotel rooms rather than in the green room, you don't have the crush of changing people issue. This is how it's done at Worldcon masquerades, which are comparable in size to AX. This also lets people arrive, meet with the workmanship judges in an orderly fashion, and be judged during the (in my experience inevitable) delay before the Masquerade starts.

As for the not showing costumes beforehand, I'm sure that the trip from the hotel to the green room won't count -- or if they are counting that, they really shouldn't be, and that should be clarified to the masquerade staff.

I wonder if they aren't trying to make some sort of distinction between hall costumes and stage costumes by the "not showing before" thing. My personal opinion is that that separation isn't necessarily a bad thing -- how many times have you been poked with wings, gigantic shoulder doohickies, or enormous headpieces, while crushed in a crowded dealer's room? How many times has someone's huge costume blocked your view while sitting in a viewing room or panel? If these really big cosumes are encouraged to be stage rather than hall, they'll be more impressive when seen on stage, and the hallways might become less perilous.

Re: An outside perspective

[sakon76.livejournal.com]

Thing is, they're not making any of this clear. They're not addressing judging beforehand at all. AX Masquerade usually is chaotic at best. I can't see how adding new rules without any clarification of their effects will make anything easier.

There also don't seem to be that many huge costumes wandering around AX in general... most costumers do save them specifically for Masquerade already, or just display them in open areas rather than trying to go to panels or brave the dealers' room.

I just remain cynical because I can see how this new rule will cause a breakdown into chaos far too easily. And because the staff has been lying to the cosplay community since instituting this rule. To put it mildly, I do not like being lied to....

Re: An outside perspective

[hoshikage.livejournal.com]

It's not that I object inherently to this rule, it's that in my opinion AX does not have the ability to handle the logistics of the situation. There is no mention being made of whether you can change in your hotel room. If you do, there's no way (aside from rather extreme measures) to hide your costume from everyone on the way down, so I'm inclined to believe that means you can't. And if you can't, they simply have never had the space for everyone to change before, and last year was the most space AX has *ever* had backstage. And there's honestly no way to police the entire con anyway, so the rule is pretty much unenforceable. How will the staff know for *sure* if one Yuna out of a hundred is the same Yuna who's in the Masquerade, for instance? And who's going to be keeping an eye out for a couple hundred Masquerade contestants among thousands of cosplayers? The staff won't have time, they'll be too busy putting on actual cosplay events.

I don't appreciate being given false information or misrepresented either, nor do I appreciate this rule being instituted without the specifics stated, or the planning evident to actually make it work. Basically, I'm forseeing disaster here, and it's all thanks to AX's lack of organization... If they had just said from the start things like "You can change in your hotel room if you want, we're going to have judging at this time, be ready for your performance by this time, etc," I'd be a lot happier right now.