Sonic and Sega Retro Message Board: Dreadknux - Viewing Profile - Sonic and Sega Retro Message Board

Well, I feel like an idiot. Sorry mate - I've been feeling a bit weird this morning on account of the fact that I have seen some messages from people that are truly ungrateful. My sincerest apologies - I know if you go to an event you enjoy, it can be easier to just label things that didn't work out so well and such. I guess I'm just passionate about people enjoying themselves, and if they don't I want to know why. And if the reasons aren't really valid, or they sound a bit "Well I expected THIS" then I get a little passionate myself. No hard feelings.

I was in the middle of writing this actually - a sort of behind-the-scenes viewpoint explaining exactly why shit went down with the queues and heat and whatnot (don't worry, despite the tone of your original post you made some very valid criticisms that I agree with, have noted in big black marker and making sure it won't happen again next year) I'll just finish it and put it here.

Thanks for coming and enjoying the event, or at least make the most of the heat and such. We had all sorts of problems with the venue the moment we arrived on Friday to set up. Things that never reared their heads when we visited it back in May. For a start, when we arrived all the junk and crap that we didn't need from other events were still lying around - had to wait until the venue people had finished putting shit in their vans before we could start work on the floorplan.

Then you had sound technicians that didn't turn up, or actually fucked off halfway through C40's set to stand in the fucking audience (FYI, that's why the sound levels dipped round about All Hail Shadow and then rose dramatically shortly afterwards - the dickhead left his station. Funny when volunteers who aren't being paid can do a better fucking job than the professionals).

Add in some blatant thievery - Roareye's tech equipment went 'missing' the Saturday morning, which is why we opened late (as well as catering for Nintendo, who inexplicably contacted AAUK on the Friday and expected us to jump over a million hoops to satisfy their camera crew). At 10.30am, when we should have been opening doors, I was desperately trying to work internet sharing on my Mac to a netbook (the venue's internet connection was, in actual fact, total shit - amazing we even managed to get video online at all) across the hall because wireless connection direct to the venue's office router was so weak that we kept getting thrown off. I was doing this, while the sound guy finally woke up (!!!) to help C40 sound check, Nintendo wanted to use a huge ladder to set up a camera to the fucking ceiling (at 10.30!?) and the venue manager asked me to cut the actual allowance of people to 500 (you can imagine my rather rude and frustrated response to that idea - if we're paying for 1000 people space, we expect to use it).

So yeah, apologies that we opened late. Because of this, the actual stage schedule fell out of kilter, and we never really recovered. There was nobody manning Colours and 4 - this is a valid criticism, something to take on board (along with the heat, although to add insult to injury we were actually told that the venue had air conditioning). The worst point of the day for me in fact came when I had to stop the queue for Crush 40 signings. If I was just a cold-hearted member of venue staff with no affiliation at all, it wouldn't have been an issue, but being a huge Sonic fan myself (obviously) and seeing people just in front of me beg for a photo... cutting stuff, dude.

Anyway, I've seen some real positive comments, some real valid points of criticism (queues, air con, signings) and some quite frankly bullshit-mental negativity (comics are too expensive, no wheelchair access [er, ever look to the side of the venue at all?], the expectation of free refreshments when there are a million corner shops outside and your ticket would have got you back in [I even announced this twice on stage] and moaning about not being able to buy MERCHANDISE WE ACTUALLY OWN from the cabinets [like, seriously? Piss off - you're not buying my 10th Anniv 'bling ring']).

The most important feedback to me, naturally are the valid comments on things that could be improved. But not in the way that is ungrateful for the fact that you just got handed a free gig, like some people have been doing. We could have easily charged £40+ for a ticket anyway, but we didn't. Because the point of Summer of Sonic wasn't to play Sonic 4, and it wasn't to play Sonic Colours. These things, while awesome, are simply there to help provide entertainment and added atmosphere for the real reason - to meet new friends and fellow Sonic fans.

I managed to say hello to a good few Retro peeps on Saturday, all of them awesome people (and I never even noticed that someone tried to get a photo of OL. That man has some ninja defence skills). DD, I don't know if I met you, but I hope not to miss you next time. It was great to see that some of you guys that turned up enjoyed the company of fellow forum buddies as well. That's what makes it worth it for me, that you guys are able to congregate in one place and geek out to Sonic and shit. If it wouldn't make a difference to attendance rates, I would have just had Summer of Sonic 2010 be an empty bloody hall and told you all to 'talk amongst yourselves.' But alas, lol.

Anyway, glad to hear you had a blast, hopefully this has provided some insight to stuff. So many things went wrong, but I think the motto for this year's SoS was 'victory in the face of adversity,' lol.


I did, only just. XD

I love this. This is hilarious. "Oh the whole thing was totally shit but I'll still sponge you for free gigs and games and merchandise next year."

Yeeeeeeaaaaah. I'd just rather you didn't bother coming, dude. I don't make it my mission to bust my arse to try and satisfy ungrateful tossers.

Glad something's going to be done about it. I honestly don't mind losing a fair game, but that contest was clearly far from fair. I think in the UK side, it was literally a race between T-Bird and my entry, if you ignore the two entries that had been subject to obvious vote rigging. Not sure if re-opening polls and resetting the score would do anything though, because I reckon those same loopholes will still be present for people to take advantage of.

Still, things are moving in the right direction anyway.

That's rather nuts. FN's probably right, likely a weird licensing thing from some lonely licensing dept deep within Sega-Sammy that nobody talks to. But it's also probably some cheeky bugger ripping off Sega's music.

Either way, good catch.

Sorry, there won't be a next year.