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ah, i was wondering if this was gonna make its way to the guild forum.

I cant really comment from personal eyewitness account as i skipped otakon this year, mostly out of the fact that every year there is always some uber drama with that convention and im kinda sick of it. however, bottom line, 14 tables with a clear plan in place to get away with it thats pretty crappy. Id love to see them banned from the con and blacklisted from the others, but realistically i dont think its gonna happen, especially after reading the threads on the otakon forums. the whole thing just makes me sad really and just ruins the spirit of the artist alley. The whole deal has just made me really depressed as of late.

I don't think they really did pull off quite enough art to fill 14 tables, based on the comments I've read on several journals about the matter... several people posted comments along the lines of "I thought a lot of the art looked the same this year, now I know why."

I think part of why it torques me off so badly is because of the BS I've just gone through on three separate conventions (all resolved about the same time, thankfully!)--one still lists having table space available, but only had one table left at the time I tried to register two (for myself and for another artist); thankfully we're able to split the table and are on the waiting list if one opens up. Second one sold tables that weren't available. Third lost my registration. >.< It's been a hair-pulling time trying to get into those cons, and if I got to any of them (especially the one that sold unavailable tables) and saw someone parked at more than two tables, I'd be pissed. And even more pissed if, after that, no one on staff wanted to do anything.

At least, from what I've read, they were tossed out of some other conventions. And it's not like the AA heads need to worry about filling the tables--there's always a waiting list.

Seriously? Ugh. >.<

Apparently, they're also part of the reason behind the new Ohayocon registration process (where you have to apply and show your wares before you can register). They're trying to prevent abuses like this and restricting all the studios to a single table.

I'm not surprised at all... someone who pulls a stunt like that is never going to admit to actually doing it. That would make the artists the bad guys, and they refuse to be in the wrong. Ugh.

Ugh, I was at Otakon and I heard about this, although I didn't do a table. There were definitely many tables that had virtually an identical style, it was very noticeable though probably not so much for non artists. I didn't realize they had *that* many tables though. Their tactic seems to be to just spread their prints out everywhere. The art isn't really bad, but its really generic and all the characters look like the same face with different hair, there's no life to it. It is the kind of shiny bubble CG that's popular right now.

I'm not 100% sure, but I suspect they're the same group that pulled this crap at Metrocon! The art looks the same, but I didn't take note of the name at the time (for some reason I don't think they had business cards, but maybe I'm mistaken), and Metrocon doesn't care, they get the money either way. They had 5 tables there, which isn't that much but the Metrocon AA is much smaller. I don't think anyone else had more than one or two at most. I was very miffed to see one group taking up tables that could have gone to people who really wanted them and were not able to get one. I thought most cons had a table limit, so I don't know how they're pulling off getting so many.

The sad thing is they probably do make good money, since buyers generally don't know any better. Anyway, I was telling all my friends not to buy from them.

I meant to drop in the Otakon boards and see what was going on with it, but I forgot. I did see Otakon made an official statement that they were at least looking into it, so it looks like the rules will be changed so it doesn't happen again.