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[PRIME] First Time to PAX Prime? Have You First Timer Wisdom To Share? Inquire within...
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There's one opinion, and I will say, there is lots of food around.
On the flip side, I usually just ate the equivalent of a bag lunch back in my hotel room. I felt good getting a 30 minute break from the (admittedly fun) Choas. I didn't venture far outside the covention center during the day, but I could see a lot of places being croweded with 20k geeks decending on the city.
If you do want to just eat in your hotel room, there's a convenience store across the street from the Convention Center, and for the more adventurous, 6 or 7 blocks up the street will get you to a QFC grocery store.
The lines aren't bad at all if you venture out of the con actually.
Don't forget about that WTCC operated minimart in the expohall. You can usually get con pizza or a sammich for a few bucks and the lines are usually short.
PAX 2013 STATUS - Badges: PURCHASED Hotel: RESERVED Vacation: Awaiting approval Plane Tickets: Waiting on vacation approval.
I don't doubt that, I didn't try. There's still a stark difference between "any line at all" and "watching CNN while you chow down on a sammich." Each has it's pros and cons, I may swing to the other side this year and go fast food the whole time. I just felt like someone should make the argument for the other side of things
I will also disclose up front that my view may be a bit tilted, I go to PAX with my Wife, we spend a fair amount of time together during it, and lunch is the one part where we can trade stories and make plans for the rest of the day (which inevitably get preempted.) YMMV.
Yeah, we had to utilize that store since we underbought sandwhich meat (amazingly). It's fairly fast, and doesn't price gouge too much from what I could tell.
I enjoyed Pike's Place, but it does seem to be crowed 7 days a week, as a forwarning. (Although I was in "tourist" mode at that point in the trip, so it may have been my choice of venues.)
Make sure to try the crepe place at least once during your stay. I had an apple, goat cheese, and almond crepe from them that was FANTASTIC.
It sounds intriguing, and this first timer is curious.
Is this place over in the Great Foodening thread? And does it have a name. Because I have 1 day before PAX with tons of spare time and would love a good breakfast.
@TOGSolid will likely be around shortly to explain.
Basically you get a lot of people and divide them into the 4 houses of Hogwart's and you "duel" against opposing houses in a series of drinking challenges. Each duel takes place in a different bar. Challenges change from year to year and can consist of mixing or getting certain drinks or playing a quick drinking game.
It takes liver-conditioning and knowing your body and possibly some gaterade. We had a guy last year that was hungover until about noon. It started out slow due to long lines so we would get extra drinks. I recall only half finishing a couple drinks/shots toward the end of the night.
The event also consists of cosplay, 200 people roaming the streets of Seattle, LMFAO, planking, and pointing and yelling.
Have you ever been drunk enough that when you run, you can't feel your legs, and you are aware that your legs could possibly get tangled up in themselves and you wouldn't know it until you fell, but you keep running anyway bc you are trying to catch up to some people? Yeah.
It's also a fundraiser that takes advantage of generous (see: drunk) people, and consequently is very successful.
The wife and I are debating doing this this year and in the absence of a TWDT thread, I might as well ask here. Does it become really expensive to do this? We'd hate to go out and run up a $200 bar tab and not be able to eat the rest of our trip.
Alternatively if we're occasional introverts and sometimes bad at meeting people, should we just avoid this at all cost (I figure the Alcohol will offset the introvert part though? (This being only my second PAX I think it qualifies as "First timer question" on technicality.
There is a starting cost which is your donation. Then there are 5 bars, in which you buy a drink. So the cost depends on the drink and the place. Some places had drink specials. You are probably looking at $3-$8 per stop depending, then tip. Everyone ends up buying someone else a drink. So at a minimum you'll each be buying 1 per stop, as well as receiving 1 per stop. I can't honestly tell you how much I spent last year.
Eh, I'm less worried about the donation. I set aside "Donation" money for Childs play after Last PAX, if it nets me cookies, enterance to a TWDT, or nothing it's already spent (effectively). (Yes, I know ideally I'd give more to CP the more I do, sadly my money is not yet that fungible). That doesn't seem that aweful, it seems that the average couple could get away with the night for less than $100 (total not per person) Assuming Max drink costs 1/bar and a little extra over that. Which I'm ashamed to say, is not the largest bar bill I've accumlated with my wife. I would have been more afraid if you had said "Now, drinks tend to run $16, and you'll buy at least 10 through the night.)
Yeah, sorry, we were focused on PAX East for the wiki and some of the prime events/articles aren't updated yet
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The challenges can be kinda foul tasting, but most everyone is just there to have a good time so usually you can collaborate with your opponent to order up something that will go down easy (unless you get paired with me, you have been warned). Even if your goal is not to get drunk, you will be taking in a decent amount of booze so it's imperative to know your limits. If you're a two drink and you're done sorta person you may wanna be very careful here because you will be sucking down up to 10 total drinks over the night if you stay the duration. Anyway, I'll be writing up a tips and tricks post for the TWDT thread when it pops up so a lot of the "how to drink" stuff will be covered there.
It's a really great night and even if you don't know anyone, it's still worth attending. You'll meet a ton of cool people (not Ravenclaw), make a bunch of new friends (none of whom will be Ravenclaw), and help a great cause (something something Ravenclaw) in the process. Neat stuff will be auctioned off to the highest bidder (wands and crafted goodies and whatnot) for Child's Play but at no point will you actually be harassed for donations so it's entirely up to you. Dressing in house colours or with some sort of house item (hat/tie/etc.) is encouraged and showing up with some sorta creative outfit is doubly encouraged but not mandatory. My avatar is what I wore last year to give you an idea (yes, I went as Hunter Thompson, there is a story to why though) and I currently have a batch of stuff in for a new Triwizard costume. So yeah, if singing and dancing down the street while your group leader blasts Party All The Time on a megaphone while you go from bar to bar getting toasted and raising money for charity sounds fun, then definitely keep an eye out for the thread.
Expect to spend about 50 bucks assuming you wanna be stingy the whole way through and not donate anything (other than the mandatory starter donation entry "fee") but really, that's not terribly cool. If you have disposable income and a competitive attitude this can turn into 200+ if you're as bad as I am.
PAX 2013 STATUS - Badges: PURCHASED Hotel: RESERVED Vacation: Awaiting approval Plane Tickets: Waiting on vacation approval.
You'll get lots of stuff so bring a backpack, you'll thank yourself.
You should also pack some snacks and water in it. Sounds goofy, but you'll be glad you put some granola bars and water in your backpack. Fill your waterbottles with ice too, it's warm in the convention
centre and having cold water available is a GODSEND.
Bring some extra socks. You may not need them, but if you're getting sweaty socks, it's not that hard to change your socks and toss the gross ones in your bag. You're on your feet all day, it's nice to have clean dry feet.
Comfortable Footwear. Can not stress this enough. Bring something that can lace up. You don't want footwear that rubs against your feet (Flip Flops, Sandals, Loose Sneakers, etc). You're going to have a million blisters
if you have loose footwear. It's for your own good.
Bring something to get signed. I was walking through a hall and Wil Wheaton happened to be hanging around. I said Hey and got a signature from him. Pretty nice guy!
And most of all, be sure to bring a little cash. PAX is a memorable experience and there's always lots of stuff for sale. You never know what you'll find, and it'll be great to pick up a souvenir to remember it by.
Oh, and another thing. BRING SOMETHING ENTERTAINING. Namely: A hand-held, a small board game, cards, etc. Line-Ups can be long but the best part of the line-ups is meeting people and playing games with them.
There's even a PAX Pokemon League. Get involved! Bring something to do! Time will fly by in the lines if you bring something to do.
Panels: Don't be afraid of "wasting time" in seeing a smaller panel. Often, the small less-attended panels are some of the best, and it's great to see Mike and Jerry in a Q&A, but don't forget that all the panels have something
valuable to offer, and you might be surprised to find that getting cramped with 400 other people trying to say Hi to Mike and Jerry might be less fun than talking in person with some indie developers!
Okay, so I kinda ranted in this post, but I hope my advice helps.
Oh that reminds me, if seeing a panel/concert in the main theater is more important to you than actually being there, last year they streamed much of the main theater stuff somwhere else and the lines were shorter/nonexistant and it seems they'll be doing that again (based on east)
Example, depending on the Keynote, I may not want to sit through the whole thing, so rather than take a space in the main theater, I might just pop into the streaming room. This way I really can do everything (not really, but I can maximize my time.) (YMMV, keep an eye on the Pax Lines twitter in case the overflow room fills up.)
I think that triwizard has run me between $80 and $150 each year the past few years. I tip generously, I buy one of the shotglasses they sell for donations at the end, and I drink the "full allotment." Last year I believe that was 2 drinks to start at the "house welcome" ceremony, plus a drink for every year you've been doing triwizard, then one drink per bar for three bars, then a final drink at the final bar, and the Patronus challenge. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 9-10 drinks if you're a veteran who wants to get "full credit," but there's no strong pressure to do so.
You could spend less or more if you wanted to. I tend to drink mid priced beers and low end mixed drinks, cut with a few of the themed specialty shots if they have 'em. I remember most drinks I had being in the $5-10 range, with more on the lower end of that scale.
Triwizard Drinking Tournament - '09 !Hufflepuff unofficial conscript, '10 !Gryffindor
Nerd blog at culturalgeekgirl.com
Aye, thanks for the Info you two.
The funny thing about PAX is I attend with my wife, so it's two people on 1.5 incomes (Damn you Graduate Assistant wages!) So I have to be careful about engaging in anything too spendy since it costs double effectively. (Some day I'll have my own big boy income, and then I'll be able to do everything!). I'll talk it over with the wife before the TWDT thread goes up.
We're trying to be all socially this year since we spent most of last year huddled in a corner afraid of the crowds (over exaggeration, FTW!, but yeah you get the point.)
1. I don't stand in line for games I am 100% sure I am going to buy.
For me, if I know I will play it eventually, I feel like I can live without the preview of it. Sometimes, I prefer to skip the preview in order to avoid spoilers. I broke this rule once last year when I stood in the Borderlands 2 line to watch the preview video. Admittedly, I did it because I really wanted the sweet t-shirt they were giving out. So I guess the addendum to this rule is "...unless the swag is awesome."
2. I will play *anything* that doesn't currently have a line, or has a very short line.
The benefits of this are that I end up learning about so many games that I would have otherwise passed by. I take this approach to both video and board game demos. Although not every game is a home run, I've been pleasantly surprised at the number of games that ended up being awesome, or at the very least, ended up being a very silly time that my friends and I shared. My greatest success story for this rule was playing Spy Party when nobody was in line for it on Friday morning of PAX 2010. The game was *amazing* and word spread quick about it and the line to play it by Sunday was ridiculous. On the other side, I've also played some of pretty terrible games as well.
And if anyone has general crawl questions before the crawl thread goes live, I've got enough drunk recall going in my favor to answer most anything (including how best to survive the night). You may wanna PM it so that this thread doesn't get hijacked though.
PAX 2013 STATUS - Badges: PURCHASED Hotel: RESERVED Vacation: Awaiting approval Plane Tickets: Waiting on vacation approval.
I don't remember the name of the place, but it's part of the convention center building, right outside the front door. And they'll give you your crepe wrapped up in a cone so you can eat it while waiting in line for the expo hall to open, if you ask.
Something else to keep in mind: If you have a smartphone, you know how bad battery life is on those, right? Well, inside the convention center, it's only going to be worse; your phone will be constantly disconnecting and reconnecting to the towers due to the interference from everyone else's, and that puts a big strain on those batteries. There are charging stations inside the convention center, but you don't want to be tied to those when you could be having fun. Instead, consider bringing an external battery pack. I brought one of these and a pack of AA's with me, and it was a godsend. Or, if you're handy with a soldering iron, you can make yourself a MintyBoost.
I wholeheartedly agree. I've found some real gems this way.
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Also fantastic advice. Orcs Must Die and Bastion were two of my favorite games from last year's con, and I'd never even heard of them beforehand.
On a similar note, remember, there are two expo halls. Hall B may not have the glitz and glamor and AAA games of Hall A, but that's where you'll find a lot of the indie guys who have really fun stuff, and also some vendors with cool gear to show off and stuff to sell you. Especially stop up there if you're into card games and pen-and-paper RPGs.
On the cell phone thing, this is actualyl reason 2 the wife and I would swing by the hotel for lunch. Cell phone charging during the 30 minute lunch break. (Also if you're in a panel, you might just turn it off, I used a point and shoot camera during panels and just turned my cell off, but somepeople attempt to tweet/foursquare/whatever, I never had any luck with that, so it was off while in panels.)
- A laptop bag or messenger bag serves as pretty good storage for convention stuff, a backpack can be a pain and harder to manage in large crowds.
- Despite the above I really don't recommend bringing a laptop, the extra weight is a pain and I've never had a chance to use mine for more than a couple of hours, a tablet will serve you great however.
- If you can, bring a extra battery for your phone or a USB power supply, with how much you'll probably be using it chances are it'll run out
- If you have a 3DS you can expect to get a few hundred street passes
- If you're sharing a room with more than say 3 or 4 people you should consider packing a towel for the shower
- Having some basic medication handy helps as well, if you end up having to buy it at the hotel you can expect to pay a bit extra, also hand sanitizer
- Try not to wander around aimlessly, pretty much anything will take a fair bit of your time and you should plan accordingly, a panel you should get in line 30 minutes to a hour before (depends on how big it is), exhibition hall lines can take 15 minutes to a couple of hours, and even stuff like console freeplay can take a fair bit to really do anything.
- If you want to get swag pack accordingly (i.e. have a good bit of free space) and try to do it sooner rather than later, as they tend to run out on the cool stuff.
- If you try and pack a poster without a tube it'll get messed up
- Have some small bills (1s, 5s) handy, it'll help if you need to use a vending machine or tip and most the machines won't take cards
- Get a decent meal if you can, and if you're only drinking soda / eating junk food you'll feel like crap by the end of it.
- Don't be afraid to ask the front desk people for food suggestions, especially for delivery stuff, that said don't order more than you think you'll eat in a single sitting, since you won't be able to save it in most hotels.
All I can think of for now, in general though you should expect to make some mistakes and miss out on some stuff, but just roll with it and focus on having fun.
Just don't look for the giant Australian ginger, as it's my first PAX and first time in Seattle, and I'll be bloody well lost.
Well, feel free to look for me - I'm going to try and have Tim Tams with me - but I won't be able to help beyond hugs, Australian accent and possibly Tim Tams.
1. Naps. This may seem silly, but take a hour or so in the middle of the day to get back to your hotel if you can and get some rest, even to just get off your feet. PAX is mentaly exausting, and that really helped prevent any kinda burnout.
2. Bags. I had a kinda military surplus messenger bag that fit my 3DS, Zombie and Cthlulu Dice with tons of space for the guide, and any other radom stuff. Get something that's comfortable to wear for hours and, most importantly, ISN'T too heavy. It may not seem heavy, but after 5 hours? It'll wear on you.
3. Planning. I went with my sister, and we both looked through the guide well in advance, and came up with a list of Must See events and panels. We kept lots of space between stuff so we had tons of time to wander around. This year, for instance, my sister wants to enter the Settlers tournament, and I want to go to the ineventable Kickstarter panel. So in conculsion, get a list of stuff you'd like to see, but don't chisel it into stone. Keep it loose and fun, PAX is nothign if not fluid, we didn't even know about the Scott and Kris late night show, but that was one of our fav things.
I'm sure I missed a lot of things, but PAX is amazeing, and I'm just glad I was able to get tickets. Got them at 4:20 PM and they sold out at 6:00 PM.
FTC: HONK.
Challenge Coin [ ]. Custom Dice [ ]. Forumer Pin [ ]. On Forumer Badge [ ]
Attendee: Prime '12, '13
In bag”/pocket’/Neck*/Side of bag””
-Phone’
-Netbook”
-DS/games/PSP”
-Chuthulu dice/Zombie”
-Hand sanitizer’
-Map”
-Pass*
-Food/Water”
-Money’
-Book”
-Memory card/ USB”
-IPod’
-Sharpie’
-Trading cards””
-Socks/ Raincoat”
-Jacket”
-Breath Mint’
-Floss/Mint’
-Pillow type thing”/Ear buds’
-Headphones’
-Chap stick’
-calling card” (like a business card but lists my Gamer Tag/Steam ID/Google voice number)
-pencils pens’
-Deodorant”
-Cardboard tube for posters
At the hotel/Suitcase thing…
4 Jeans/1Suit jacket/1 hoodie/4 Tees/2 Over shirts/5 socks/3 Underwear/1 scarf/beanie/2 ties and other accessories like buttons!
-Chargers
-Munchkins
-Bag for swag
Game Plan
Day 1 = Hall B swag and indie/ Maybe some hall A Big games
Day 2= Big games Hall A
Day 3= Signatures
I will be doing the concert lines too... I am going with people who have want one time before so they may have things I didn't add to this list...
And what do you guys think I should wear daily weather wise?
And things I shouldn't bring or should...
Thanks so exited!
Oh and what I mean by Pillow type thing is a curled up jacket or something like that...
Challenge Coin [ ]. Custom Dice [ ]. Forumer Pin [ ]. On Forumer Badge [ ]
Attendee: Prime '12, '13
Challenge Coin [ ]. Custom Dice [ ]. Forumer Pin [ ]. On Forumer Badge [ ]
Attendee: Prime '12, '13
Challenge Coin [ ]. Custom Dice [ ]. Forumer Pin [ ]. On Forumer Badge [ ]
Attendee: Prime '12, '13
80-75 is hot
50-55 is cold
But I most definitely will bring some shorts... Thanks bro...
Challenge Coin [ ]. Custom Dice [ ]. Forumer Pin [ ]. On Forumer Badge [ ]
Attendee: Prime '12, '13
Challenge Coin [ ]. Custom Dice [ ]. Forumer Pin [ ]. On Forumer Badge [ ]
Attendee: Prime '12, '13
Should be fine. Or even go 2 and 2 unless your opinion is jeans can only be worn one time.
As in, your own booze?
Yeah, bad idea. Bars tend to get mad if you bring in your own alcohol. I do usually keep a bottle in my room though for after the TWDT/rest of PAX.
PAX 2013 STATUS - Badges: PURCHASED Hotel: RESERVED Vacation: Awaiting approval Plane Tickets: Waiting on vacation approval.
Sorry, that's illegal in WA. No to-go cups, either.