PAX PRIME 2012 Information and FAQ (READ THIS FIRST, THEN ASK ALL QUESTIONS HERE)

LowRenzOh · April 2012

zerzhul wrote: »

LowRenzOh wrote: »

So, this is regarding that last rule about buying/selling badges second-hand. I have a friend who WANTS to go but doesn't know if he can. We were worried that if he bought a pass he would be stuck with it in the event he couldn't attend. But, if I'm interpreting this correctly, if he buys the pass and can't go, I can bring it with me to the convention and sell it to someone there because they can get it checked to make sure it's authentic, so that my friend can get his money back. Is this all correct, or am I incorrect in my understanding?

It's correct that what you describe is possible. From a seller's end, you can know if you have a legit badge, and be a total saint about selling it at face or giving it away, or whatever. But considering the MASSIVE counterfeiting problem at Prime last year, PAX can no longer officially condone any method of re-selling badges because the buyer has little to no protection short of getting someone to validate it in person at the con before paying for it.

Edit: To be clear, you CAN have the badge checked on-site, so that's very possible. That's the only way though.

Thanks a lot for the info! We just wanted to be sure he could get his money back in case something fell through.

zerzhul · April 2012

LowRenzOh wrote: »

zerzhul wrote: »

LowRenzOh wrote: »

So, this is regarding that last rule about buying/selling badges second-hand. I have a friend who WANTS to go but doesn't know if he can. We were worried that if he bought a pass he would be stuck with it in the event he couldn't attend. But, if I'm interpreting this correctly, if he buys the pass and can't go, I can bring it with me to the convention and sell it to someone there because they can get it checked to make sure it's authentic, so that my friend can get his money back. Is this all correct, or am I incorrect in my understanding?

It's correct that what you describe is possible. From a seller's end, you can know if you have a legit badge, and be a total saint about selling it at face or giving it away, or whatever. But considering the MASSIVE counterfeiting problem at Prime last year, PAX can no longer officially condone any method of re-selling badges because the buyer has little to no protection short of getting someone to validate it in person at the con before paying for it.

Edit: To be clear, you CAN have the badge checked on-site, so that's very possible. That's the only way though.

Thanks a lot for the info! We just wanted to be sure he could get his money back in case something fell through.

To be clear for anyone else reading this, by "get his money back" he means sell it for face on-site with badge checking

Not a refund.

JayeEmm · April 2012

For anyone who thought they bought a pass yesterday during the registration kerfuffle but didn't get a confirmation email - I got the confirmation email at about 12:30 AM ET last night. I had checked at 11 pm and at that point had no email and no credit card charge but now it's apprently gone through. Yay!

Westrunner · April 2012

Question about the hotel system: when it goes up how fast do the popular hotels go? Do you pay 100% upfront? Can you cancel if necessary?

SmallLady · April 2012

Westrunner wrote: »

Question about the hotel system: when it goes up how fast do the popular hotels go? Do you pay 100% upfront? Can you cancel if necessary?

Fairly quickly.. hard to judge each year however.

No (if paying with a credit card)
Yes to the deposit (if paying with a debit card)

yes!

zerzhul · April 2012

Westrunner wrote: »

Question about the hotel system: when it goes up how fast do the popular hotels go? Do you pay 100% upfront? Can you cancel if necessary?

You don't pay upfront, but if you're not paying with a credit card you have to send a deposit right away. You can cancel with OnPeak until around 2 weeks prior to the convention with no penalty. At that point, the reservations get transferred to the actual hotels (usually 1-2 weeks prior to the con) and you would then be subject to whatever the cancellation policy is for that hotel (usually around 72 hours prior to checkin for being a member of a large group reservation).

Custom Special · April 2012

Dear everyone (@SmallLady), there will be no hoodies at the merch booth.

They have thought of it already and the manufacturing cost is too high, so they stick with the tees and PA merch (plus the usual unique item).

SmallLady · April 2012

Custom Special wrote: »

Dear everyone (@SmallLady), there will be no hoodies at the merch booth.
They have thought of it already and the manufacturing cost is too high, so they stick with the tees and PA merch (plus the usual unique item).

Sad news, but thanks so much for looking into it!

BrennaCeDria · April 2012

I only had a chance to do a quick skim, and the search box didn't bring anything back when I tried that, so I just wanted to check if we were still button-trading for Prime 2012. Cause, you know, I need to start on my design now if so. Also for obligatory find-out-about-discounts and the like; I can't remember who organized the Buttoneers before, and I don't know who at Pure Buttons set up the coupon codes for us in previous years.

zerzhul · April 2012

BrennaCeDria wrote: »

I only had a chance to do a quick skim, and the search box didn't bring anything back when I tried that, so I just wanted to check if we were still button-trading for Prime 2012. Cause, you know, I need to start on my design now if so. Also for obligatory find-out-about-discounts and the like; I can't remember who organized the Buttoneers before, and I don't know who at Pure Buttons set up the coupon codes for us in previous years.

Yes we are, and whomever gets that set up will likely get us a PureButtons discount again if possible.

WeeEvil Eevee · April 2012

Heyy
Question. What do the Badges look like?Like in general i mean?Better yet does anyone have a picture of last years badge?curious as to what i will be getting in the mail.

zerzhul · April 2012

WeeEvil Eevee wrote: »

Heyy
Question. What do the Badges look like?Like in general i mean?Better yet does anyone have a picture of last years badge?curious as to what i will be getting in the mail.

Google search it. We don't post badge pictures on the forums anymore.

whypick1 · April 2012

Expect the badges to look more like East's than last year's though.

MelesMeles · April 2012

WeeEvil Eevee wrote: »

Heyy
Question. What do the Badges look like?Like in general i mean?Better yet does anyone have a picture of last years badge?curious as to what i will be getting in the mail.

To reduce counterfeiting, no pictures of badges are going on the forums. Instead, we post pictures of bobcats. Speaking of which, I can proudly announce our new high security lanyard system for Prime:

Spoiler:

WeeEvil Eevee · April 2012

zerzhul wrote: »

WeeEvil Eevee wrote: »

Heyy
Question. What do the Badges look like?Like in general i mean?Better yet does anyone have a picture of last years badge?curious as to what i will be getting in the mail.

Google search it. We don't post badge pictures on the forums anymore.

k thankies. ^.^

and i wanna pet the bobcat.lol

WeeEvil Eevee · April 2012

The Badges wont get ruined if they get wet right?

Zonugal · April 2012

WeeEvil Eevee wrote: »

The Badges wont get ruined if they get wet right?

Nah, they're always a some-what durable plastic.

Now if you feed them past midnight...

jaberwockynmt · April 2012

WeeEvil Eevee wrote: »

The Badges wont get ruined if they get wet right?

The badges are entirely plastic (well, they have been for the last few years and probably will be this time), but if your mail is regularly getting wet enough to damage things, you might want to resolve that anyway.

Axon · April 2012

So I got 2 three days and 2 BYOCs yesterday but no confirmation email. I assume they'll be resending confirmations once all is well?

WeeEvil Eevee · April 2012

jaberwockynmt wrote: »

WeeEvil Eevee wrote: »

The Badges wont get ruined if they get wet right?

The badges are entirely plastic (well, they have been for the last few years and probably will be this time), but if your mail is regularly getting wet enough to damage things, you might want to resolve that anyway.

Awesome thanks.

lol and it's not that my mail gets wet. it's that i tend to drop things....in sinks...toilets....and puddles.

zerzhul · April 2012

Axon wrote: »

So I got 2 three days and 2 BYOCs yesterday but no confirmation email. I assume they'll be resending confirmations once all is well?

Make sure you were actually charged for them. If so:

heels wrote: »

If you do not get an email within 24 hours shoot an email over to pax_questions@paxsite.com, we'll get it taken care of.

SpicyMeats · April 2012

What time is will-call usually open on Thursday till? i ordered mine with fedex (coming from Canada) but my friend wont be home to have his delivered and where arriving late Thursday night. thanks in advance.

whypick1 · April 2012

I want to say 6-8PM. Will call opens back up at 8AM on Friday.

awyldknght · April 2012

It took about 24 hours but I got a response from Cathy at Reed Expo about the 2 pending charges. I did indeed have 2 seperate orders, instead of just 1. She apologized for the "technical snafus" they had and would be cancelling & refunding one of them.

I've included her response in the spoiler tag.

Spoiler:

kemikal · April 2012

I got a confirmation email for the first badge I purchased, but none for the second. Neither one has corresponding charges on my card. I sent out an email about it, but I guess a confirmation email doesn't necessarily mean anything. :s

tsrblke · April 2012

kemikal wrote: »

I got a confirmation email for the first badge I purchased, but none for the second. Neither one has corresponding charges on my card. I sent out an email about it, but I guess a confirmation email doesn't necessarily mean anything. :s

FWIW, just moments ago I got an email from Pax_questions@paxsite.com confirming my registration (I had not gotten an email prior about it).

Traitorious · April 2012

tsrblke wrote: »

kemikal wrote: »

I got a confirmation email for the first badge I purchased, but none for the second. Neither one has corresponding charges on my card. I sent out an email about it, but I guess a confirmation email doesn't necessarily mean anything. :s

FWIW, just moments ago I got an email from Pax_questions@paxsite.com confirming my registration (I had not gotten an email prior about it).

I did get a completed registration letter before everything imploded on the old system, and just received an email from pax_questions saying they successfully moved my registration information over to the "new" system. Sounds like there won't be any issues on that front (hopefully.)

tsrblke · April 2012

Traitorious wrote: »

tsrblke wrote: »

kemikal wrote: »

I got a confirmation email for the first badge I purchased, but none for the second. Neither one has corresponding charges on my card. I sent out an email about it, but I guess a confirmation email doesn't necessarily mean anything. :s

FWIW, just moments ago I got an email from Pax_questions@paxsite.com confirming my registration (I had not gotten an email prior about it).

I did get a completed registration letter before everything imploded on the old system, and just received an email from pax_questions saying they successfully moved my registration information over to the "new" system. Sounds like there won't be any issues on that front (hopefully.)

Also we have only 2 charges (1 for each purchased ticket, ordered seperately) on our card as well as two pending. It looks like this is a result of the move (the pending charges are the old system and the confirmed are the new, especially since the name differs.) So I'm hopeful that will work as well without a hiccup. (Usually any charge not moved from pending to confirmed by this amount of time ends just dropping off.)

momopeaches · April 2012

Did you guys see that there are already scalpers for Prime? There is some guy selling his badge he got during the first round of registration on ebay already...

Crogoth · April 2012

On average, how far are Onpeak hotels from the convetion center?

whypick1 · April 2012

I think they're all within a half-mile, definitely under a mile.

TOGSolid · April 2012

They're all within reasonable drunken stumble distance afaik.

Westrunner · April 2012

Anyone else having problems getting the twitter feed to text them?

zerzhul · April 2012

Westrunner wrote: »

Anyone else having problems getting the twitter feed to text them?

For SMS notifications, you have to enable individual people's tweets to text you.

https://support.twitter.com/articles/14589-how-to-add-your-phone-via-sms
https://twitter.com/settings/devices

Westrunner · April 2012

zerzhul wrote: »

Westrunner wrote: »

Anyone else having problems getting the twitter feed to text them?

For SMS notifications, you have to enable individual people's tweets to text you.

https://support.twitter.com/articles/14589-how-to-add-your-phone-via-sms
https://twitter.com/settings/devices

Yeah, totally appreciate the helpful links, but it's not the Twitter process that's giving me difficulties. I've got all the SMS notifications on, my phone "verified" with my twitter account, and I only sporadically get messages from 1 or 2 of my followers I am using to test and it's a small portion of their actual tweets. So it works some of the time.

Found a workaround if anyone else is having issues with Twitter Jank. I set up a fake account and only subscribed to the official PAX stream. Then I set the app to notify (ringtone/vibrate/light) whenever a new tweet was recieved. So far works great.

Crogoth · April 2012

from wikipedia:
"Announced on the PAX Prime website on January 13th 2011, PAX Prime 2011 took place from August 26th to August 28th. The event brought in over 70,000 attendees, breaking the attendance record set at PAX East 2011 and making it the largest PAX to date."

do the boards ramp up as we near the event date, or is there a much wider fanbase than this forum? Just curious

Ravenger · April 2012

Yes, the boards become more active the closer it gets to the date, with the boards going pretty crazy during PAX itself. There is also a much wider fanbase than this forum; groups from other gaming forums/communities often come to this as well

whypick1 · April 2012

One thing to keep in mind: there are people who go to PAX who don't even know what Penny Arcade is. So yeah, it's a lot more than the people on this forum.

Crogoth · April 2012

whypick1 wrote: »

One thing to keep in mind: there are people who go to PAX who don't even know what Penny Arcade is. So yeah, it's a lot more than the people on this forum.

that must suck just a tiny bit >_>

zerzhul · April 2012

Crogoth wrote: »

whypick1 wrote: »

One thing to keep in mind: there are people who go to PAX who don't even know what Penny Arcade is. So yeah, it's a lot more than the people on this forum.

that must suck just a tiny bit >_>

Also keep in mind that those are turnstile numbers (per day numbers combined).

Anyhow, I would argue that those who don't participate in this forum don't get the "full PAX experience" since they miss out on all the fun pre and post pax community activities.

Penny Arcade

PAX PRIME 2012 Information and FAQ (READ THIS FIRST, THEN ASK ALL QUESTIONS HERE)

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