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PAX East 2012 BYOC Info/FAQ - Post-Event Feedback starts on page 14
Posts
If you didn't get your badge during will-call you will be able to get it in PC room on Friday.
Minecraft Server IP: play.minglecraft.com(Currently Down)
TF2 Server Ip: 108.20.112.29:27016(UP!!)
BF3 Server IP: coming Soon-having update issues
More Servers to come.....
How does that work if we were looking to bring our computer in at the earlier time of 8am? How would we get in if we don't have the BYOC badge? Also, what if we have a large computer that needs to come in through the docks anyway?
I don't believe we have access to the docks this year.
You and me both. Made some changes last night to keep people from leeching from each other. We'll see how it goes.
We've gone through half of the event without being able to play games. BYOC has pretty much turned into a $30 storage locker for most people.
The only games that work are hacked non-internet games. No starcraft, LoL, BF3, Steam, etc. Get kicked out after a few minutes, if you're lucky enough to even get in a game.
I think the issue is more that many games *require* an internet connection to launch, even if they don't need one for LAN play. Steam, for instance, needs to authenticate when it opens, after which time it can be set to offline mode to play without a connection - but you still need it at first.
Still had a blast playing TF2 (even though I suck
Steam: TestSubject23 | Minecraft: chaos_introvert | Backloggery: TestSubject23 | PSN: testsubject23
As to Jonoseel having gear stolen, I am not surprised. There were literally hundreds of non-BYOC people crowding the entrance everyday. More than any of the enforcers could in good conscience keep an eye on. I would HOPE no BYOC attendant stole from one of us but that's the way it it is.
Might I make a suggestion that BYOC be moved (again) to a more secure area and how about you tag gear (not just rigs but whatever the attendants want) with rfid stickers. Should have to go through a scanner at the entrance (think retail store). Hell even tag the prizes.
Was great seeing you guys just not a great overall experience. BYOC needs a complete overhaul IMHO.
edit: Full disclosure. I did not attend BYOC on Sunday.
And we all know, FUCK League of Legends!
I think, for next year, what the PAX team can do is ensure that BYOC has its fair share of pipe. If Nvidia muscled its way into most of it to run its crappy workstations (4:3 monitors on most everything..really?...what's the point?), that's not cool. But what we can do is organize much better via the forum ahead of time...and by that I mean set up or designate servers for the games that most of us want to play. Someone did do it for BF3 earlier in this thread, and I added that as a Favorite, but no one was on it all weekend.
Have a safe trip home everyone and hopefully see most of you next year.
Re: prizes being stolen. That sucks
Re: Laptops... We arent allowed to search bags, all we cando is ask if anybody is checking anything out. Security was doing that for the most part.
The RFID thing is an intresting idea. Do you have any info on costs of that? It might be a viable solution for BYOC.
We apoligize for the networking problems. I was organized for contests and whatnot but I threw that schedule out due to the networking stuff. Thats why there was so many non-tech stuff going on during friday
If the network problems seriously ruined your expereince this year we can offer a refund for BYOC. Just email dcoffman@penny-arcade.com and request one.
Again, I understand that there were schedule changes and whatnot that likely meant these events were far less organized than they would have otherwise been since you were also dealing with everything else...
Thanks for all of the hard work. I'm still looking forward to next year despite the hiccups this go around.
T-shirts for each attendee(or as an option)
RFID is a great idea prices range from $100 for 500 tags and $500 for scanners.
We should have our own room separate from freeplay.
Between $500-750 for door antennae http://www.aliexpress.com/product-fm/529850150-EAS-system-RF-antenna-RF-8-2MHz-for-Checkpoint-tags-and-all-8-2-MHz-tags-wholesalers.html
But that's a problem for someone smarter than me to solve
Not going to happen.
That was last east (2011) and it was terrible. BYOC Feeds off of the energy from freeplay and it sucked last year because it was like a tomb due to it being in a separate room.
However, room different than expo? Yes please. That shit was too fucking loud.
I just wanted to say that it was a pleasure to provide room security, check-in/out, and overall ensuring that you guys had no problems getting in or out.
Keep up with the suggestions on how we might be able to provide better security. This year was especially difficult to secure every ingress/egress due to the partitioned wall behind BYOC and just generally being on the show floor. The wall was staffed by PC Security Enforcers and MCCA Public Safety during all show hours and a uniformed security patrol in the room overnight.
The RFID is an interesting idea. I can't make any promises, but I like how creative and researchful (that even a word?) y'all have been!
In addition, I welcome any comments regarding security. I appreciate all feedback.
Last but not least, I have to give out a big thanks to the Enforcers in the PC room who did an amazing job at everything!
Time for me to recoup!! See you all at PAX Prime 2012 in Seattle!
Vapok - PAX PC Security Manager
The enforcers/Bigred did a exceptional job with the circumstances that occurred.
What also wasn't totally clear in the earlier post is that I meant we, as in the BYOC attendee community, should use this forum much more for organizing events during our LAN party. For example, I thought about organizing a "casual" Starcraft II tournament...something for "competitive newbs" like me who love the game but still haven't even gotten through all my practice league matches. But I didn't take the time to do it...shame on me. We all have to do that kind of stuff, and I will be doing so for next year. Maybe now is a good time to start: everyone...please come with at least 3 LAN-only enabled games installed. Warcraft III, Half-Life 2(I think), whatever. My buddy and I were doing Warcraft III comp stomps and having a great time.
If I could have one wish from the PAX East BYOC genie, it would be to have a room as close to the 2010 Hynes room as possible. Big, but with low ceilings and minimal ambient noise, enough room for BYOC and PC Freeplay (perhaps Nvidia wouldn't agree but f them), very controllable entry/egress points, etc. Like if we could basically switch with console freeplay or something...that would be awesome.
Thanks again guys for a great weekend.
Hey, what was the reason that BYOC entry was bumped to 10:00 AM on Saturday and Sunday? It was to my understanding that it was open from 8 onwards. The guys around me in BYOC said that it was likely because 8 AM was for checkin only on friday, but with the amount of people other than myself waiting for BYOC on saturday that seems unlikely. Along with that, any idea why the vending machine was removed?
Also, good work enforcers! BigRed, you were a huge help. I had alot of questions and such that you were able to help answer when Enforcers redirected me to you.
That was my first BYOC and I had a blast! I'll definitely be on the lookout for registration for 2013's BYOC.
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Criticisms & suggestions:
- the two big, projected info screens didn't seem to be in sync. The one at the Intel stage usually had more stuff on it. I was by the screen in the back left corner, which didn't seem to get updated nearly as often. It's a small thing, but it'd be nice to have them displaying the same stuff. Especially for half-blind people like myself.
- since we need security, it seems a bit challenging to place us somewhere with so many "soft points" of ingress. Floor 0 was effectively divided into 4 spaces: exhibitor hall (1), ExH/PC/BYOC (2), Tabletop (3), and Queue/Foodcourt (4). Wouldn't it cut down on points of ingress if we swapped places with the Queue room, so that we are nestled against as many solid walls as possible in (4)? Maybe have the queue room share space with the exhibitor hall in (2), and then instead of cohabiting with the Exhibitor hall, we would cohabit with the food court.. That would also really cut down on noise, barring any particularly rowdy Carcassonne matches going on in Tabletop, provided it's still in (3).
- I really appreciated the water coolers in the BYOC area, a lot. When I discovered one of them had hot water, I brought in some instant hot beverage mixes. One is sufficient, but it would have been even gravier if all the water coolers could dispense deliciously scalding hot water.
- As a newbie, I was a little bit lost trying to figure out what multiplayer games were going on in the BYOC area itself. I was confused to even know what to bring. This idea might already have been thought and shot down, but as a total newb, it would have been helpful if there were a concrete schedule of events with specific games posted before PAX started. Obviously, people would be free to do whatever they wanted, but there would be some structure there for help push things along. Having a list of "contingency plan" (i.e. LAN games) should probably become a norm, too, after the network issues we had.
- As for RFID's, would that really help? I think they're mostly helpful when robots are doing the scanning. If a human being has to visually confirm everything, you're subject to pretty much the same bottlenecks. I might have just had good timing, but I didn't notice any logjams getting into or out of security, thus RFID's might add extra cost with little benefit. RFID wouldn't solve the laptop in a bag issue anyway. Plenty of bags don't have laptops, thus most bags will still enter and leave the area willy nilly. And if someone did want to steal a laptop, I'm sure they'd remove the RFID tag before sneaking it out, so, again, problem not solved.
Overall, BYOC made a really great first impression on me. Many thanks to Red and everyone who helped make it happen! Looking forward to next year (or maybe Prime, if I can ever swing it)!
I'm not sure you're understanding what RFIDs are, or how they are used for loss-prevention? They are a passive radio frequency (hey, RF) technology. You put tags or labels on/in the PC equipment that is checked in to the BYOC. You place some of the antennas that I posted earlier around the exits. If anyone tries to leave with an RFID-tagged item (like a laptop in a bag) it will, ostensibly, set off the alarm. At that point, hopefully, the [E]s could compel the person to reveal any pilfered items. Like I said before, since anyone IN the BYOC area has probably already checked their own computer equipment in, they would know to just remove the tag/label before carrying it out, so you would almost have to do what clothing retailers do and 'lock' the tag onto the equipment in some way that only BYOC staff could easily and quickly remove it.
The intranet site was awesome, shoutbox was cool for posting messages. Vent was pretty sweet too, but not everyone had a headset (or vent installed). It'd probably be easier to get a web based IRC chat going, where people can organize games. The game browser was amazing, but I just wish there was a way to post a description or comment next to the server for things such as "Get game files from \\server\share"
I thought security was pretty good. It should be more apparent that alcohol isn't allowed though, especially when you could get a beer right upstairs.
I also agree with efess, it was hard to figure out what was going on. The screen at the ends would have been a great way to push out more info, but while I was there seemed the only thing was about the internet or the file server.
Sucks about the network, but without a backup plan if your ISP blows, not much you can do about that on the fly. Still a few UT2004 matches or something might of been good. My friends and I did that between us on sat night.
Only real issue I found with the whole BYOC event was stated nicely by BigRed.
It is a shame that the network was not uber strong and fast but it happens, its not the end of a LAN or at least shouldn't be if the internet goes down. Am I the only one around that still keeps old games installed from the original disk? (Quake 3, Quake ect?)
Might be an idea for LAN's to come to nab some older copies of these games that are pre-steam/download service so the install files can be hosted off a local network so it can be installed and run local so no internet is needed to start the game.
Other then that I had a great time pimping my payphone PC. I hope to see some pictures of it and the guy sitting behind it floating around the intertubes in the coming months!
RFID's are tags, and are more technologically advanced QR codes or barcodes, which are also tags. However, RFID doesn't improve upon a situation where something isn't tagged. If something isn't tagged, you still have to use hands and eyeballs. Thus, the system is only reliable if you can guarantee the tags. It might be easy to hide or securely stick a tag into a desktop, but probably not quite as easy with more portable, closed-up things like laptops--and I think it's those types of things that we're worried about walking out in bags.
IMO, they need to get permission to do a bag check. I wonder if it really is illegal to require bag checks. I live in Massachusetts and feel like my bag gets checked fairly regularly by various places.
EDIT: Spelled "phat" wrong. Corrected!