Our new Indie Games subforum is now open for business in G&T. Go and check it out, you might land a code for a free game. If you're developing an indie game and want to post about it,
follow these directions. If you don't, he'll break your legs! Hahaha! Seriously though.
Our rules have been updated and given
their own forum. Go and look at them! They are nice, and there may be new ones that you didn't know about! Hooray for rules! Hooray for The System! Hooray for Conforming!
PAX East Suggestions Thread
Posts
This I agree with, although I hadn't really thought about it until now. The satellite food court did seem like a waste of space, although it's a nice idea to have a place for people to bring their own food and eat, it could probably be a lot smaller or some how relocated. Level 0 space is at a premium. I thought the tabletop area was fantastic and wouldn't change a thing. Personally, I thought having it right next to the exhibits was great. We probably spent 50% of our time in tabletop, with the rest split between exhibits, freeplays, and panels. I think a lot of people did this.
I never saw anyone line up in the queue room. I'm sure that it had some function at some point (maybe for the concerts?) But I'm just saying that I never actually saw a human being queued up in it.
Food: I agree with a lot of what was said on both sides. Yeah, the food selection wasn't great and the prices were high, but I never expected anything else. We're coming to a gaming convention, not a restaurant show. We stayed a ways away from the convention center, down in the Back Bay area. We grabbed a bite before we head over in the morning and then grabbed dinner in the evening and returned to the con when we were done. It's not like we were throwing money around everywhere, but I suppose if you were on a stricter budget this would be problematic, especially considering the paucity of walkable food options near the convention center. I don't really have a suggestion here. PA can't do anything about the food, I'm sure there's a contract b/w MCCA and Aramark or whomever to handle that. The suggestion about bringing your own food might be the best.
I do have one suggestion re: food that I know is totally unachievable... when we were sitting playing tabletop it came up repeatedly how nice it would be to have a bar in the tabletop area where we could get drinks to bring back to the table. I'm sure this is problematic, especially considering all the borrowed games that were going around (nobody wants beer-soggied munchkin cards), but it would still be awesome.
Lines: The 3DS line really did fly. It looked long, but the wait was never more than 15-20 minutes. I waited about 30 minutes to play Child of Eden before I just walked away because I had seen literally 3 new people go up onto the stage to play the game and there were at least 12 people in front of me. There was too little time for me to spend 2+ hours waiting to play one game, just not worth it. But again, that's on the exhibitor. I wouldn't want PAX dictating exactly how every booth should be run.
D&D : Better communication was needed on how this is being run. My friend was given bad information from one of the D&D organizers about where to stand, and he ended up waiting 40 minutes and still not getting into the game he wanted because of it. Another time a similar thing happened. Basically he spent around an hour and a half waiting for D&D and never got to play. I'm not sure what the solution is here, as I'm passing on second hand information, but it definitely seemed like it needs some attention.
Console Free Play: I thought this was run really well. I was a little disappointed when I got booted off our PS3 after half an hour of playing Blazblue. It did not look that busy at the time. We didn't make a big deal out of it, I think it's better to have some sort of limit when it is busy so that people don't monopolize a system all day. A little annoying, but that's how it's gotta be. I don't think I would change it.
PC Free Play: Didn't play, so I don't have a review. It looked really busy to me all the time, but maybe I'm wrong.
All-in-all, my party and I had a fantastic time at our first PAX and will definitely be coming back!
Yeah I never understood when I heard people talk about the 3DS line. My guess looking back is that it was the length of the line that looked daunting because there was no info on its speed. It was long, but moved incredibly fast and was very well managed.
paxprank.org | paxcommunity.net | Steam | XBL
You must have missed my fist post on the previous page. I already made the exact same suggestion to bring in more outside food trucks. I don't think you quite understand the point I was trying to make either. I don't want to get into a flame war here, so keep it civil. I won't imply you have the IQ and reading comprehension of a turnup and you should not imply I am a 300lb shut-in.
Saying the PA folks don't have a say in the food is just as silly as saying they don't. I get that they are just renting the place, but they even said in a news post that they were working with the Con folks to get more food. If they had no say in it, we would have just had the food court, and nothing on the lower level.
What about a turnip?
Queue room is primarily for waiting to get into the expo hall in the mornings. We were in the keynote queue on the first day, had a lazy morning on the Saturday, but were there on the Sunday. It seemed quieter than the queue room at Prime 2010, but I have no idea if that was typical or just Sunday.
They probably don't want to worry about about having to rotate things in or out when it's not in use so they leave it empty all day. Was it used by people looking for a space to chill or was it locked down when not in use?
A few people were lurking around during the day, but I think most people didn't know it was there.
There were large displays on the walls, so broadcasting video from around the show might be an option for later years, but AFAIK definitely considered more hassle than it's worth to change its usage every day (hell, I can't imagine the chaos of trying to change it over while people are emptying into the expo hall, or back again at 2am-ish).
It could be used for livestreaming some the bigger events, like the Keynote, Q&As, and concerts. 'Course, having read through the Main Theater manager's logistics for just getting that space in order, I don't know how feasible it would be. I dunno. Just a thought.
Oh, and bring back line games! That was an unexpected treat (for me, anyway), at the first PAX East, and I was disappointed not to see it this year. Then again, I also liked having everyone line up in the same room, like this nerd critical mass, but I can understand why splitting up the Key Note and Expo Hall lines is a Smart Move.
Soul Silver FC: 0045 5822 7430, White FC: 0175 2366 9720, White 2 FC: 1636 2031 2006
My NES blog and my Pokemon Snap tumblr.
Those could be used for displaying a lot of stuff. Were they being used to show the daily schedule? They could also be used to displays things like PATV or they could be sponsored like the NYCC 09 busses were sponsored by Adult Swim and the bus tvs showed AS shows. They could show interviews with exhibitors or demo reels. Stuff that people can watch while taking a breather from the floor.
Obviously Firewater missed the topic. "PAX East 2011 Afterthoughts, Critiques, Suggestions". Debating and dismissing others thoughts is not on topic... Perhaps Firewater should open his or her mind to others opinions and offer constructive critisism rather than disparageing the well constructed critics of the community.
Great idea. IMO the keynote should be the first event at PAX, should occur before the expo hall opens, and should not have any competing events in that time slot. Everyone in the queue room would queue up and listen to the keynote and then when it ends the hall would open. Perfect.
I would consider the post you quoted jhalldc more of an after thought. So.... with that being said I think you can figure out the rest. Maybe.
I know right, It seem perfect Keynote starts at 9:30 , expo and other venues open at 10:00 the keynot ecan adress 1000+ people at one time. Stream through the tvs out side th event. EPIC
I hope they bring it back next year for everyone.
Awww such a cute little let out picking out spelling errors whilst not addressing the point.
How adorable!
Also, it seems that making posts about personal responsibility seem to be frowned upon in these forums. I wish I could live in a world where I could reject reality and replace it with my own.
I can understand you being a bit sensative because you are feeling attacked in this thread. But dude, no reason to jump down my throat about it. Sorry if I rubbed a raw nerve.
I mean I probably just shouldn't make anymore point here, nerds are entitled to world, and want to pay nothing for it. This is why the stereotype exists, and I am tired of being lumped in with those who ruin it for people for all intents and purposes live a regular life and just game as a hobby.
WHERE?
There's no way I want to see tabletop jammed into a multitude of cubbies like it was in 2010. Trying to find tablespace and what section to go to to play was a pain. I think it was pretty great that Tabletop was right on the main floor and that there was so much going on there, from demo to free-play to tourneys. If anything, I'd like to see it even bigger next year.
world attaching the electrodes of knowledge to the nipples
of ignorance?" - John Lithgow, 3rd Rock from the Sun
PS My suggestion for next year is: Avoid the Quesadilla from the Mexican court upstairs. It was badly made, badly prepared, badly served, and tasted like nothing. I threw half of it out. The guy in front of me watched his be picked up, have all contents (honestly) pour out onto the floor, and then be folded up and handed to him. I was like: D:
Gaming blog
@lamournumerique
Pretty sure board games were open until 1:30am Fri and Sat. Great GREAT way to spend the night at PAX. And those tables were FILLED. So exciting to see so many people playing games I love.
FYI: Image above links to my webcomic, and is (mostly) SFW. Steam ID: Obos Vent: Obos
If I recall correctly there were some empty rooms on the 1st or second floor. The room used for theater overflow was pretty large too. If you could move the theater overflow to the main floor. I guess I enjoyed more of the separated feeling of the past year just because it was a bit lower noise/traffic.
That is a thought I hadn't considered. I wish there was a way to get the best of both worlds, just the acoustic profile of the TT area made it a bit rough for me to focus. I don't know how I would have handled games that were a bit more intense than what I played. I guess I'm torn on the issue.
Another issue is that the expo hall has to be containable. So where the partitions in the building are is a huge factor in figuring out how the space could realistically be used.
I'm fairly certain this is done primarily to reduce demand for t-shirts
I found that it was a heck of a lot easier to see and hear the footage in the enclosed area than if it was outside and had to fight with the noise from the other booths, actually. The sound levels were lots lower and still very audible since the noise from outside was cut down too. Compare that with the DNF trailer that had to be pumped up because it got so much louder from the ambient noise levels and surrounding booths. Having seats for a little while didn't hurt either (and this is also true for the Rockstar booth for LA Noire).
A poster is not like a t-shirt that you can just stuff in your bag. It's got to travel a long way in cars, airplanes etc.. You will note this is fundamentally the same trip it would take if you had sold the poster on the internet and mailed it.
The FedEx store in the Convention Center sold poster tubes. When I went in on Sunday to mail my copy of Munchkin Zombies back home, though, they were completely sold out of the smaller sizes. Maybe warning FedEx to stock up on more poster tubes could be a good move.
The Enforces were exceptional with attendees but on more then one occasion I watched in horror as they went off on BCEC (or whoever employs them) staff. I've heard nothing but good things about the Enforcers and my interactions with them were great but I think this should be addressed. Edamame guy you know who you are. YOU KNOW!
I missed Animal Style while trying to find the Jamspace... I did catch Bit Shifter, though.
Last year they had tabletop games split up in a bunch of rooms, and I have to say, as a tabletop person, it was a disaster; people had no idea what was going on...some people had no idea that there was tabletop gaming at PAX.
Considering how many thousands of people were playing at any one time, I think people are going to need to accept tabletop where it was....even splitting it up, you couldn't fit it elsewhere in the convention centre without taking out a theatre or two.
Thes.
I'm going to note that Paul & Storm took almost no time to set up (the guys can do it in like, 40 seconds) - the issue was VGO took so damn long to tear down.
It was mentioned somewhere else that the bands were asked to aim for about a 45 minute set. Paul and Storm and JoCo both succeeded in this. VGO failed pretty hard; with their tear down it was almost 2 hours, and they took 45 minutes for each of the band and the chamber orchestra sections.
It was just excessive, and needs better control next year. I really do think that concert needs another pop rock act (Freezepop? LemonDemon? Bo Burnham? they're all local), and VGO should have their own concert.
Thes.