Anime Expo is getting rid of table rebooking for artists in favor of a lottery system. This is devastating to those of us that depend on this event for a significant portion of our livelihoods. Please let them know this change is a bad one.
Comments
Log in with your Bluesky account to leave a comment
AX should do periodic jurying instead of this. Develop some time periods where if x amount of people apply within certain dates, they get reviewed within a month after that time. Then the next batch. Then the next batch.
ahhh fuck it
you all should band together
and throw an annual music/art/cosplay festival
in a broken city with an airport that needs you
this expo looks to do something to make money
without you all
fuck em
This has been done at other cons and has always been a complete failure, reverting back to the old system the following year. It's like they forget periodically and try again anyway.
Makes sense from the perspective of the Con and the interest of attendees that want to see new artists and new works. I am reserving judgement to see if the lottery "winners" are then vetted at all or automatically get greenlit.
I'd rather have a juried system and eliminate rebooking of course
The auto rebooking for about 2/3rds of their show floor is far too high. Everyone should get a better chance at selling there. People may never discover their a new favorite artist if only their current/old favs keep taking that spot.
I'm biased and bitter victim of the 1st come 1st serve system.
I haven't done it for a few years, but every fur-con I went to did a lottery on artist ally. I had to go for three days and pray that I got in. Most of the time, I got in on the last day. One time, they didn't call anyone when tables were open. I walked in, and half the place was open.
I personally think a lottery system isn't that great but it's an improvement as some newer artist have a chance to show their art and be able to make income as well, I sympathize but also give the little guy a chance
I think there has to be room for new artists, maybe a % of artist alley tables could be reserved for newcomers. Botting can be solved pretty well by tying your account to an address, no?
Like, I've been going to comicon for almost two decades. I love seeing "my" artists in the artists alley, but I also want to see fresh faces. It's a tricky balance. Maybe we just need to have more, smaller cons? But then crowd sizes will definitely be smaller. What anime expo is doing ain't it tho.
I am sure that the organizers of events where over 100 thousand people come annually can, one way or another, expand the number of places to accommodate new artists if they want to.
lottery is not about fairness for all. lottery is about cheating all.
But I think that the big event will not be engaged in increasing its profits with the help of AI and will simply try to help aspiring artists by providing them with some kind of platform, because this is what modern companies do in most areas. /sarcasm
I wish I could say "they'll learn the hard way" but unfortunately the simp fans will shell out anything for their waifu's photo on a piece of mass-produced merch. There's going to be a movement away from "small, genuine artists" and that makes me sad. It's hard enough for us out here with A/I.
I know it would suck ass going through probably thousands of applications in a juried system for AX, but it really is the most fair option in this day and age. They better at least vet whoever wins so no AI/low effort garbage gets in :/
I've never been to AE or booked any tables, but how did new artists get in in the past if a certain amount of space was relegated to returning artists? Doesn't this level the playing field?
You would think a convention as huge as AX (in hindsight I suppose AE isn't the usual shorthand) would surely have the means to prevent this. Right? Riiight? 🤔
I know I'm a rando and this is day old but I've come to the opinion that pure lotteries are fundamentally bad, even in ideal world. They've been tearing furcons apart. Preserving+rewarding your culture contributors is critically important, and you can still be equitable doing it (see burning man).
For a purely experiential thing like a popular tour or a show, sure (even here though I think grouping tickets together makes way more sense than pure lotto). But for a convention that lives or dies by its contributors it's a disaster and ends up always being less equitable in the end.
Hmmm, I see what you mean as you'd definitely want the space to be curated so it can build. But then again, how do new people get involved if the space is filled with oldheads? I've seen people bring up a juried lottery, that seems like a decent compromise.
The critical puzzle piece is you dont dedicate all of your admission to oldguard. For burning man about half of tix go to oldguard + ppl they invite. The other half are free for all/lottery. There's a strong culture for the oldguard tix to always have some newbies join your guaranteed tix group too.
A major industry convention I used to volunteer at had a similarly competitive admission process. The same general split was maintained: 50% proven vets, 50% newbies (all were hand picked as it was small enough). Made it so newbies had great cultural guidance from the vets & a great experience.
Lottery helps anyone get in, but that can be so hard for people that depend on it for guaranteed income. I feel maybe a half and half system would have been better or something for that, unless they just had way too many people signing up? Feels there's no winning there...
Hopefully not, but yeah, that could be a possibility. I hope they'd at least do good vetting of the people that do win the lottery, not just randomly allow anyone in.
If it's a bunch of AI, we'll then R.I.P. artist's alley
Yeah, no matter what someone's livelihood will be impacted. I've worked shows before where a major draw was new/first time exhibitors. I see this as an attempt on by the convention to keep things "fresh".
Yeah I'm sure that's most likely the reasoning. If all the vendors are the same every year, it might keep people from wanting to go in the first place. Also if all the vendors are the same, it keeps out potentially good people who might do great there, maybe even better than a veteran
As someone who has worked behind the scenes for Anime Conventions in SoCal, I agree. The fights between New Artists who feel excluded and Veteran Artists who wish their loyalty reciprocated, has been ugly for decades. Humans aren’t evil, we are good at solving problems, that cause new problems.
I feel maybe cons could take inspo from the ultra running scene. Many big races with limited spots are lottery and they require other specific races first to be run first before you can even enter the lottery. It works really well there and weeds it the people in over their heads.
I would appreciate that actually. Like if they had a selection of other conventions you needed to work before being able to apply to AX that would help. AX is a monster show thats very hard to prepare for. Not everyone is ready for that.
Yeah. My best attempt to square con needs, veteran artist, and artist that want to get in would be to have exhibitors at show be able to renew booth but must be paid in full, and remaining stock after the show is done via lottery.
anyone who's played an online game knows that relegating anything to a lottery system opens up the whole thing to being handled by goons. this is actually how you get LESS artists showing up, because botted table space will then be sold by scalpers to the highest bidders without any art credentials
I know you probably aren't reading replies to this anymore, but I think a good solution to this is what ACEN does. It's lottery but divided into groups by main category of items, and they do a check of all selections to make sure they aren't AI grifters/dropshippers/liars.
I just showed this to my friend who's been growing his artist alley presence and recently did ax chibi and he thinks this could be a good opportunity for him to apply. But, I can see why veteran AA vendors are upset since they might not have the opportunity to return.
Honestly this seems healthier for the overall convention climate as newer artists are trying to make their break. Established artists already have the know how to have store fronts and actively have people seek them out.
This just evens out the playing field and offers more opportunity for others.
Truthfully, you can't appease everyone. Its just the best possible blanket solution at this moment for an overcrowded convention.
You could take your attention and business to another con if it winds up remaining in place. Vote with your wallets if they won't listen to your words.
I dont agree with the lottery system. As long as they filter out artists and then lottery then maybe its okay. However gatekeeping is also not right. So just because the same 200 artists rebook every year doesn't mean nobody new can join. That just defeats the purpose of defending artists income.
as someone who has gone to ax pre-lockdown, i notice that after lockdown, they just started having poorer and poorer management, this along with some of their other decisions in the last 4 years makes me sad :-(
As a regular attendee, I felt 2024 was one of the best AX since 2018. There were many changes this year that made the whole experience better. 2022 was shaky and 2023 was a mess, but what was bad this year?
How tf does this even make the slightest bit of sense? How can anyone plan around this event if it's a gd dice throw if we'll get the booking or not? How did somebody pitch this brain-dead idea and not get laughed out of the meeting?
They started doing a judging review for Kawaii Kon, this would be their second year. Lots of us local people were devastated when we didn’t het the acceptance emails or was waitlisted. I had to email them what I did wrong and cried. It was prob my pictures. But I got in afterwards.
Then we found out some artist alleys had to cancel last minute due to flights and etc, which had some empty tables. I was able to tell one friend who got waitlisted that there was an open spot so she emailed and got in during set up day. I also have to correct myself, next year will be year 2.
But before the prejudging, it was the same, they always did the returning artist part. But both the lottery and prejudging is stressful for local artist or artist that does artist alley all the time
Sent an email. The dropshippers are annoying enough, letting more AI slop filter in will ruin the entire convention circuit. If there's really that much demand, they ought to lottery tables in a second room. No one ever complained that there's too many artists at a convention
Not only does this screw over artists like myself who have sold at the event for ten years but this screws over the public who expect certain artists to be there. This will lead to a far lesser experience for everyone involved. Please email [email protected] voicing your concerns
if you want
i could help you
organize an off site
space for all the regulars
who did not get seated
i mean
its a lot of calls
logistics planning
small marketing riding on their keywords
and solidarity from artists
and the attendees
throw in some music
and food and its a party
people will pay for
lmk
Can confirm on the consumer side this sucks. Megaplex had a lottery system this year and I didn’t know. Wasn’t able to get any of the stuff I wanted cause staple artists who’ve been there for years didn’t get in with the new system. :(
yeah dude that just sucks. They have until now done a good job of having returning talent and offering plenty of new artists every year at AX. I can get the new things from artists I know and get stuff from surprising new talents.
I think people need to be extremely critical of lotteries, at least until it is publicly announced that the platform is against generative AI and that they will conduct a thorough check for its presence in the lottery.
I think the lottery itself is a bad idea in many ways, even if we're not talking about AI, but there has to be a statement because if there isn't, there's bound to be a huge AI component.
Excessive panic is always better than ignoring the issue.
so they wont even vet either...just a random selection method. all kinds of people are going to take advantage of this and screw over hard working creators
this is a genuine question because i have literally no idea how these cons work, but in the non-lottery system how was a new artist supposed to get in?
That's my question as well. I 100% sympathize with any artist needing income stability, but I don't quite understand the problem, I think, because it seems very disadvantageous to newer, less established artists who want to table.
They offered hundreds of spots to new artists every year. There are limited rebook slots offered to returning artists on a first come first serve basis. So not everyone gets to come back and the talent pool gets thoroughly refreshed year over year.
Okay, that makes sense. Thanks for the explanation. Re: this other reply you made, that sounds so odd, cuz I would assume that even a lottery would have had some pruning/vetting before rolling the dice. So if it's legit 100% RNG now, wow, that sucks! https://bsky.app/profile/rj-palmer.com/post/3ld5cuk2hss2g
yeah okay i just misunderstood, this seems like a bonkers change lol. why would you not want to have a consistent few artists that return? what were they losing on that
I have no idea, having a decent chunk of the floor being returning artists seems like a benefit to me. Many artists, myself included, work all year to create new high quality stuff specifically to sell at AX.
I'm not sure about that one. As an artist it suck a lot to get rejected for an event every year while you see the same artist getting special treatment. Idk I would say it's good to give new artists a chance
I remember when AX was good. Like 04-06 when they were still small enough to actually fucking care about artists and it was nowhere near as overpriced as it is now. I hope it collapses under its own weight and clean house and refocus on what made it fun
Lottery systems for these shows never made sense to me. I get that it's rough out there when you're just starting out as an artist, but getting in by sheer force of luck isn't doing them any favors.
yeah AX is expensive too. Very real chance an amateur artist will go, make very little money, maybe not even cover costs, and have taken a spot from an artist who depends on the income as their fulltime job.
Amateur artists are also trying to make this their full-time gig who are blocked by monopolies like this, blatant favoritism, and seeing comments like this about a hierarchy of artists deserving of space is really disheartening. Everyone deserves a shot to try. We gotta eat too.
Working smaller conventions that dont require thousands of dollars in upfront costs is much better for amateurs to get their footing. I would in no way have been ready for AX if it was the first show I worked.
Unfortunately, those small local cons have upped their table fees, sometimes as much as 300% in the last couple years. Or they are poorly managed/ attended and dooming artists to fail; just bleeding us for fees. We need opportunity, not hierarchy. Otakon does juried lottos, hopefully AX will too.
I still think juried cons are the way to go. A con like AX should have a curated AA. (Its biggest anime con in the US) where international artists also apply. I liked last year when they did two separate juries. Returning and New. And they made the new artist pool bigger. They should Stick to that.
I understand where you're coming from, but I think it's also fair to give other artists a shot. Trust me, I loved rebooking and the guaranteed income for the year, but it wasn't great for everyone else. I support them giving artists an equal chance 🧡🙏
usually they will do a light jury before lottery, but they didn't detail it here, so I'm not sure. AX did jury that past 2 years instead of rebooking, so I'm assuming it didn't work out for them.
ACen does it jury/lottery, and their lineup is always wonderful.
I personally think automatic rebooking for cons sucks almost as much as lottery. I think it should always be juried and there should always be a % who are "new".
Dokomi in Germany has % split between lottery, jury and first come I think. Probably the best way.
Are they still curated rebooks though? There's a con I do that just rebooks us every year which makes it impossible for newbies. I always feel bad. I think having the same people each time probably makes it stagnant for visitors.
I also want veteran artists to be able to keep selling, but i wonder what the solution is to allow new talent into the show if its always 100% booked by previous tablers? (Im not a con artist so idk all the details). I agree tho that the rise of AI garbage at cons is worrying
Bruh. AX is always pulling all these Ls. After covid their tickets sky rocketed an ungodly amount (so much for profit-free) and now this? I feel for artists that depend on the world's biggest con to make the most of their income.
Especially with AX already overrun with funko pops, it may be the first major convention to be claimed by Dead Internet Theory with how lifeless the convention will be in the next four years.
Yep which brings me to the next point, like half the exhibition hall is large vendors with the same crap year after year. These "large" vendors often have stickers with stolen art that they just bought off AliExpress. 1/2
2/2 Artist alley actually brings unique and diverse merch that strays from hype and over saturated anime that is a breath of actual fresh air. If this new move becomes the gateway for AI "aRtIsTs" then they have truly begun to lose (for me) half of the AX appeal.
That being said, it makes the expenses of travel not worth it if all you'll be going to is a slightly more expensive flea market. And even there flea markets have more charm as they aren't swamped with Funko Pops and stickers made up of stolen art capitalizing on popular media.
It hurts as someone who's been budgeting effectively for a VERY long time.
My only ever convention I went to in my LIFE was Florida Super Con, to the point that simply going to a convention at all was a bucket list item. Was dissapointed with how empty it feels despite the crowd.
Comments
Wasn't it an absolute disaster during covid?
people should no longer be able to buy tickets
you should have to apply
and then wait to see
if you win the lottery
its best to have the reoccurring peeps
and the new up and coming
in dif space
balance sounds good
sounds the best for the people attending
they get more choice
you all should band together
and throw an annual music/art/cosplay festival
in a broken city with an airport that needs you
this expo looks to do something to make money
without you all
fuck em
by these changes
what is gained by removing people who know
what they are doing
i lost the plot
I'd rather have a juried system and eliminate rebooking of course
I'm biased and bitter victim of the 1st come 1st serve system.
lottery is not about fairness for all. lottery is about cheating all.
It's what I did. I was the only one in the lotto.
That's snark, please don't take it too seriously.
but lotteries are plagued by people who use bots to snipe and then scalp the prizes for egregious prices
..... in an ideal world, yes :')
If it's a bunch of AI, we'll then R.I.P. artist's alley
This just evens out the playing field and offers more opportunity for others.
You could take your attention and business to another con if it winds up remaining in place. Vote with your wallets if they won't listen to your words.
Look at MFF. Furries are getting fed up with the way it is run and are starting to focus on other cons.
No one has to go it alone. Its exhausting but our power is in our community.
i could help you
organize an off site
space for all the regulars
who did not get seated
i mean
its a lot of calls
logistics planning
small marketing riding on their keywords
and solidarity from artists
and the attendees
throw in some music
and food and its a party
people will pay for
lmk
Excessive panic is always better than ignoring the issue.
Also that event was filled with fake homemade goods in the main hall and it was so gross.
https://bsky.app/profile/rj-palmer.com/post/3ld5cuk2hss2g
ACen does it jury/lottery, and their lineup is always wonderful.
Dokomi in Germany has % split between lottery, jury and first come I think. Probably the best way.
It's a tricky balance.
My only ever convention I went to in my LIFE was Florida Super Con, to the point that simply going to a convention at all was a bucket list item. Was dissapointed with how empty it feels despite the crowd.