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Your PAX East Experience
Gundabad
PAX East & Unplugged Tabletop ManagerNJRegistered User regular
PAX East & Unplugged Tabletop ManagerNJRegistered User regular
So I figured it would be good to have a thread where everyone can just share their PAX experience. Things like:
- What were your top few favorite moments/panels/etc?
- Thing you wished you had done but didn't get around to
- Least favorite part of PAX?
- Best cosplay you saw
- Best thing you saw in the expo hall
- What you will do differently next year (you know you will be back!)
and anything else you want to toss in that I didn't think of. Will put up mine later tonight
- What were your top few favorite moments/panels/etc?
- Thing you wished you had done but didn't get around to
- Least favorite part of PAX?
- Best cosplay you saw
- Best thing you saw in the expo hall
- What you will do differently next year (you know you will be back!)
and anything else you want to toss in that I didn't think of. Will put up mine later tonight
Gundabad on
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My timing didn't work out that well so I ended up missing a number of things I wanted to see.
Fav Panel : Create a PA strip
Missing out: The keynote
I heard it was really good.
Least fav: Walking from Hynes to the Garden at 2 am because Boston closes it's T at midnight and it's apparently impossible to get a damn cab.:x
I was less than pleased. However, the Saturday concert was awesome enough to be worth it.
Best cos: The full suit of Power Armor. I really wish I had seen the girl as the L4D witch.
Best expo: Didn't spend much time there. The nvidia 3D thing was interesting.
Next year: Oh yes, I will return. I may try the enforcer route. Either way, I have a better idea of the organization I will need to maximize my panels/events/etc.
I think my fave panel was the design an rpg one. i didn't make it to any of the bigger things. missing the keynote netted me autographs from gabe and tycho though.
missed out on the second concert, but not too annoyed about it. knew about the big group thing beforehand from grant in MM. will look forward to videos of it.
least favourite moment was probably hearing my flight home had been cancelled again. at least i didn't have to wait another 24 hours though, just 2.
best costume i saw was definitely the guy from the robot comic. he looked amazing. photos when i get them off my phone.
i really liked the monday night combat in the expo hall, and the d&d thing was actually pretty fun, even if it didn't live up to the queue (hooray for bumping into friends at the front of the queue!)
doubt i'll afford it next year
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Lord help me, I chose !Squirtle
Least favorite bits: getting to within ~20' of the doors before getting shut out of the @wilw keynote, line/ panel management (had 3 panels in a row in Wyvern Room on Friday, got into the 1st ok, but had to go to the end of the line and almost missed each of the subsequent two).
Best things in the expo hall: the MIT/Gambit disease social experiment, the Geek Chic furniture.
Random things: Next year you seriously need more panels. With more competing events it will be less likely that any one of them will overfill. We'll have to chose to miss something, but we won't be as likely to miss it because of "arbitrary" room size.
Over all, though, I had a great time and can't wait until next year!
I just want to point out that it's only fair that they empty the theatres and push the attendees of the previous panel to the back of the line. Otherwise the same people would be monopolizing panels with other people not getting a chance. It seems like the best way to me.
Oh, and dropping a business card off at Sega and having them say "Oh, I'm already familiar with your website and love it!". That was pretty badass too.
Seriously, everyone who attended PAX, I love you. I was sort of expecting quite a few people to be complete and utter idiots and to just be annoyed or insulted quite often, as I was cosplaying (Vanille; and I've never cosplayed before so I was worried). Kind of how people are reacting to my picture (along with my friend cosplaying Sakura) being on Kotaku's cosplay collection for Saturday. I was expecting at least a few mean comments, but all I got were compliments and plenty of pictures taken of me and the rest of my cosplaying friends (Pyramid Head, Sakura, Jacob Norris from bioshock multiplayer). Thank you guys so much, it was so wonderful to be at PAX and it seemed as though the day got better as it went on!
Besides the overall wonderfulness of the entire con, I have to say that my love for Naughty Dog has gone up even more, which I didn't think was possible. I wasn't able to attend their panel since it was full, but all the guys that were speaking came out and talked to me for at least 10 minutes! They were so cordial and sympathetic and the fact that I got to talk to them for a while made up for missing their panel (but I still wish I could have gone).
All the other cosplayers were great as well; I still adore the Raziel cosplay since I've never seen one so well done before.
Everything was just amazing. This was my first PAX ever and it was so great that I know that I'll be going to PAX for years to come. Again, thanks to everyone for making my experience there basically one of the best days of my life.
I really do think that this issue would be best solved by planning more competing panels, and perhaps by making the policy clearer (ie. I would have left the 1st earlier/not gone had I known it would jeopardize my chances of attending the more interesting second). An idea floated in another thread, the ability to pre-reg for a panel, is also a possible solution -- but would cause a lot of administrative headaches for the organizers/enforcers.
It was my first pax so I had sorta the same wide-eyed enjoyment you did,BTW I got a picture with you guys,those costumes seemed like a pain since it was freezing outside.
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Actually, I was quite comfy since I decided to wear skating tights, which prevented me from getting too cold (Pyramid Head opted for rainbow knee-socks). It wasn't that chilly in the convention center itself, maybe because we were walking around a lot, but when I went to the Prince of Persia panel I was freezing because of the air conditioning. Waiting in line for the concerts we got a bit cold as well, but somehow we managed I think the excitement and the amount of coffee we had numbed us from any cold!
I think my favorite panel was "Make-a-Strip" though I liked everything that occurred in the Main Theatre on Saturday. I also went to "Pitch Your Game Idea" so I would be able to see the second PA panel and it was a lot more fun than I expected. And I adored Paul and Storm at the Saturday concert; easily the highlight of the show
- Thing you wished you had done but didn't get around to
Seeing the Wil Wheaton keynote; not being able to see X-Play LIVE since it was showing at the same time as the second PA panel
- Least favorite part of PAX?
I was very put off by the Friday schedule. My group arrived too late to see the keynote and attend the first PA panel and frankly, I was furious. It really bothered me that they didn't set up a separate room for people who couldn't get in and live stream it from the main theater. There weren't other panels I was interested in either so after the Omegathon Round 1 show (which was pretty awesome - nice RNG stages!), my boyfriend and I ditched the convention to go on a date. That was probably the best part of my night
- Best cosplay you saw
I saw Bayonetta around a few times - she did a good job
- Best thing you saw in the expo hall
Probably the Geek Chic items. I only went into the expo hall twice and only because my boyfriend wanted to go in
- What you will do differently next year (you know you will be back!)
Arrive earlier for the keynote (if I'm interested in seeing the speaker). I thought showing up an hour before it started would be plenty of time but it clearly wasn't. And maybe become more familiar with the people and companies that show up to do panels/sell their wares/etc. Compared to the rest of my group, I was unfamiliar with a lot of panelists
also i really don't care much for 8 bit nintendo midi songs. don't you guys like songs from other games? i know no new game will be as universally known as the oldies, but seriously, a little variety wouldn't hurt.
- Favorite moments
Saturday Night Concert, hands down. Meeting up with a bunch of really cool people from a hilarious TF2 server we had (For some reason we weren't really able to get our schedules to coincide afterwards though)
- Wish I had done
Keynote. I got here at 12:30, unpacked, got to the hynes at 1:30, got in queue... Missed the keynote. This was my first expo of ANY sort ever, and I learned that 1.5 hours early is just not early enough.
- Least favorite
Those MCCC guys creeped me out. Maybe I'm just being paranoid but they kept looking at us like we were crimes waiting to happen. I especially didn't like the way they ushered the group I found after PC Freeplay out of that hallway when we were a group of 5 and weren't blocking anything.
Couldn't find anyone willing to do much in terms of multiplayer with me (Blame it on the fact I don't really speak unless spoken to? >.< And I tend to speak rather awkwardly when spoken to? :P) except for PC Freeplay
General nervousness at being around a group of 30k people.
- Best cosplay you saw
I'd have to agree with Bayonetta, though mad props to the TF2 cosplayers most of whom were awesome. Especially the one sniper I saw in the Console line.
- What you will do differently next year
Talk to more people, be less nervous, queue up for things earlier.
- Random thoughts
Would like to get in touch with some of the people I met at PAX! Drop me a line at zaphod611 on AIM or insidious611@msn.com on MSN. I'm a lot less awkward in text! Especially the dudes I was talking to during the concert and the people I met after freeplay, y'all were pretty cool.
Pretty angry at the "Get out of my city" poster from that thread, that kind of dampened my good mood, I'll just leave it at that.
Also wonder if Prime is really as much better than East as people say it is.
Oh, and old picture that I posted in other thread spoilered for those who want to see if they saw me at PAX:
I'm on the far left, kneeling.
All hail ball.
- Thing you wished you had done but didn't get around to: I wish I had gone Friday.. had work... dammit..
- Least favorite part of PAX?: Not being able to ask a question at Q&A but I wasn't upset about it xD just the only down side I could find.
- Best cosplay you saw: BAYONETTA. omfg she was amazing!
- Best thing you saw in the expo hall: those physics games for kids. Honestly, I wish I had games like that to teach me when I was little. It's amazing where technology is going now and how we can use fun games to really teach kids complex concepts.
- What you will do differently next year: not cosplaying Neku. Going all 3 days. Hitting all the panels I want.
As for the panels, I -really- liked the Journalists vs. Developers one, but I also have a big hardon for Jeff Green.
- Thing you wished you had done but didn't get around to
Spending more time in the BYOC room... too much waiting in line.
- Least favorite part of PAX?
Did I mention the lines? It either needed less people, or a bigger venue (which I hear it will next year) with the same number of people. The lines for most panels were ridiculous.
- Best cosplay you saw
The Fallout armor was pretty damn good. I also was not expecting to see Dr. McNinja there. Also, there was a couple dressed as Ash and Pikachu that I thought was cute. My wife really wants us to go next year as Mario and Peach...
- Best thing you saw in the expo hall
Some of the XBLA titles were a huge surprise. Monday Night Combat and Breach both impressed the hell out of us. Splinter Cell: Conviction's multiplayer looked like a blast, and if I wasn't interested before, I would have been absolutely sold on it.
- What you will do differently next year (you know you will be back!)
Not kid myself about the panels. Seriously, the wait in line is pretty terrible. I'll just plan on going to one or two panels the whole weekend, then enjoying the rest of the time doing whatever.
Oh... I had a few... I think the Pre-PAX bar crawl was fantastic, and hilarious. My favorite panel was without a DOUBT the Scott Kurtz panel... I won't say anything (HE MADE US PROMISE) but it was the funniest thing I've ever seen/heard. It went on for TWO AND A HALF HOURS OF AMAZING. And I met some cool folks while waiting in the lines that never ended! AND the ladies' meetup this morning was so nice
-Thing you wished you had done but didn't get around to:
Probably more general gaming in the freeplay console room. And just attending more get togethers, rather than just being sort of antisocial ;3
-Least favorite part of PAX?
The lines, I think. I know I met some cool peeps, but for the most part it was irritating. And the chaos. I was pretty sure if one more group of people clogged up the hallway to be irritating jerks, I was going to start dropkicking peeps.
-Best cosplay you saw:
Didn't see a lot. I have to say, despite it not being a cosplay, the Enforcers in kilts was pretty fabulous
-Best thing you saw in the expo hall:
Sunday, this guy with suspenders, no shirt, dancing his tush off to Wannabe by the Spice Girls at Just Dance.
-What you will do differently next year (you know you will be back!):
Probably ensure that I can stay the solid three days at minimum, and try and make more friends
Oh man! We saw your group all day Saturday, you were all adorable! I got a good picture of all of you, I'll be sure to put it in the costume thread when I unload all my pictures tomorrow.
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Thing you wished you had done but didn't get around to
The keynote, and several more panels: Retronauts, Naughty Dog, and any of Gabe and Tycho's Q&A sessions, to name a few. The venue cannot support such large crowds, so I had to pick and choose which events I would sacrifice the 1-hour+ waiting time for. I was OK with it; it's a reality of hosting such a huge event, and will be mitigated if PAX EAST can make the jump to the BCEC next year.
I do, however, really wish they'd found some videoconferencing equipment and set up satellite theaters to watch the keynote. Technically that is somewhat challenging (may be dependent on the Hynes' network structure) but certainly doable. Hope to see a solution like it next year.
Least favorite part of PAX?
The fact that it ended.
Best cosplay you saw
Gotta follow the crowd and go with Bayonetta (both of them). Wearing heels that high should be an olympic event. Honorable mention to the guy in the Fallout Guy armor, though.
Best thing you saw in the expo hall
Grapple Buggy. Oh sure, those big-deal games with their multi-million dollar budgets are ALRIGHT, but how can they compare to a weirdly addictive cross between Moon Patrol and Bionic Commando cooked up by like, 2 or 3 people?
What you will do differently next year (you know you will be back!)
I imagine things will be similar, but I hope I have a better shot at getting a panel; my pitch for an overview of videogame-based anime (dammit, the world needs to know about the Ninja Gaiden anime!) got binned this time around. Next time, Gadget!
Tim Train's talk (Journals from a Plague year) was awesome. I'm one of the people who actually really liked Rise of Legends so it was doubly good for me.
Me: Other than being hilarious, what's the point of exploding yourself [in Behemoth's Battleblock Theater]?
Behemoth Employee: Uh... that's pretty much it.
Behemoth Rocks
Also simultaneously running over the 2 other Enforcers while playing APB (it was an accident I swear!)
- Thing you wished you had done but didn't get around to
Just getting more chances to talk to people and attend after parties I guess.
- Least favorite part of PAX?
Lines for everything. I gave up on going to panels on Sunday because I was over getting in line 45 minutes early for each one.
Also on Friday, simultaneously realizing I locked myself out of my apartment, my cell phone battery was at 25%, and I had been in the line for the concert for over an hour. It worked out alright though and I did end up seeing 1/2 the concert.
- Best cosplay you saw
I saw something pretty witty and remember thinking to myself, "that's my favorite cosplay." it wasn't an elaborate costume just something witty. I can't remember what it was though so I'm gonna go with the Fallout Guy. I guess it wasn't witty enough.
Also since you posted, your Pyramid Head was pretty well done.
- Best thing you saw in the expo hall
Civ5. I was lucky enough to get in as a standby. There was a ton of awesome stuff in the expo but Civ5 looks absolutely amazing in person.
- Catching Gabe while he was scoping out the freeplay table top section. It looked like no one recognized him, he drew a full Gabe in my book instead of simply signing it. Too awesome.
- My gifriend singing to a packed crowd (I was on drums) in the RBN lounge just before leaving on Sunday.
- Thing you wished you had done but didn't get around to- Keynote
- Least favorite part of PAX?- The worry that if you did not show up ridiculously early, you would miss whatever you are lining up for.
- Best cosplay you saw- Witch
- Bayonetta
- Best thing you saw in the expo hall- Unfortunately I don't remember the name, but it was some catoon based XBLA game where the hero was trying to kill this huge boss character with a chain saw.
- What you will do differently next year (you know you will be back!)Everybody at the Rock Band freeplay stage was lots of fun to play with -- thanks to the people who played with me and my wife! (If you remember a short Asian woman singing Walk Like an Egyptian on Saturday afternoon, or I'm Shipping Up to Boston on Saturday evening, that was us.)
The ACAM classic arcade room and panel were really special. To have my hands on actual Omega Race and Quantum machines, and then to hear the story of Ms. Pac Man, Quantum, and the Atari 7800 from the people who built them all, was a great opportunity. There was a pretty raucous crowd cheering on the projected Dragon's Lair for a while, too.
And -- though everyone else has said it too -- "Exits are NORTH, SOUTH, and IN." "I don't know what you want from me!"
- Thing you wished you had done but didn't get around to
I wish I'd done one of the D&D sessions -- I haven't actually played D&D in twenty years.
- Least favorite part of PAX?
I was a little unhappy with the delays in the concerts on Friday night. Now, Protomen put on a completely awesome show, but when your concert is putatively scheduled to start at 20:30 and your third act of four goes on at 23:50, something is wrong. I'm local and used the MBTA, which stops running at 01:00, so there was no hope of seeing MC Frontalot at all. Obviously, it's not the job of the organizers to cater specifically to locals, but things could have been tighter. I'm sure they will be next year.
(I wound up leaving early in the Metroid Metal set because some douchebags kept slamming into me, but that's not PAX's fault. I don't get why it's so difficult to understand that you do not make contact with people who are not inviting it.)
- Best cosplay you saw
Maybe not the most polished, but the one that gave me the happiest feeling: the FFT Time Mage and his companion -- I wasn't sure whether she was Agrias or Saber. I didn't ask.
- Best thing you saw in the expo hall
Even if it was only a sneak peek demo, Civ V is looking pretty awesome. But the best thing was actually Limbo. A bunch of us were standing around watching this guy for five minutes or so. Then he comes up to this big, scary giant spider. He cleverly snaps off a few of its legs with a bear trap. Then ... he misses one, and all of a sudden this poor little kid silhouette is impaled on a spider leg.
- What you will do differently next year (you know you will be back!)
We'll have a better idea of what's worth waiting for, and how long we might need to wait for given things. This was our first PAX, so we were really still feeling our way around. Next year we'll be much more efficient.
I know that I was RIDICULOUSLY bummed out while we where driving back home, which should be ridiculous for a grown adult.
Just going to my first PAX was AWESOME!!!!!! I want to thank all of the enforcers that helped out all weekend long. You guys/gals were absolutely wonderful. I got to meet lots of cool people, jump the shark for Child's Play, and get lots of cool swag.
- Thing you wished you had done but didn't get around to
Keynote. I hadn't planned on missing it, but unfortunately the booth I was working in got shorthanded, and I couldn't go. I knew that I wouldn't have much time to see the con, but I wish I had done more in the short time I did have.
- Least favorite part of PAX?
Leaving. I wanted to stay another day. Also failing to get a shirt. Work hours got in the way, but I never thought they'd sell out so quickly.
- Best cosplay you saw
Sweetums. Props to whoever dressed like ny favorite Muppet.
- Best thing you saw in the expo hall
Jeez, tough to call. I loved it all.
- What you will do differently next year (you know you will be back!)
Wear more comfortable clothes for one. I had the lousy luck of being stuck in a (not so strict) dress code for work in the booth, but can't anyone make a comfortable pair of black dress slacks?!?
Make sure to get a t-shirt.
I wish I had gone to the x-play panel, concerts and keynote.
The best cosplay I saw was this guy in a falout 3 robot suit.
- Beach balls + rafters + Fruit Fucker Flag heroics. I can't really explain it to those who weren't there, but it was awesome.
- Randomly hooking up with a group of people in line for the Saturday night concerts and starting a game of Fluxx (which I'd never played before).... then continuing to play as the line began to move, in insane coordinated formation. (Thanks, Kristin, Jared, Dennis and Zuger!) (I know I spelled at least two of those wrong. Damn names with common spelling variations.)
- Dancing like an idiot at the Rock Band freeplay stage after nobody else would step forward at the awesome Enforcer's behest. And then being joined in my silliness by a like-minded fellow with similarly rippin' dance moves.
- The two guys carrying signs, one which read "Free Hugs" and the other "Deluxe Hugs, $100". That gave me IMMENSE joy and I can't even fully comprehend why.
My only major disappointment was missing the closing ceremonies. My flight was at 8:30, I wanted to leave at 6 to be safe... when it got delayed so severely, I had to give up on even seeing the omegathon final round. Alas.
Steam: Chagrin LoL: Bonhomie
Enforcing. It was both an honor and an enjoyment. Setting up on Thursday, Mike came over to me out of the blue and requested a Pokewalker session .. all while I stood there stunned. Also, the PokeCrawl was one of the most amazing experiences I've had at any con. Raising the Next Generation of Geeks, Future of MMORPG's and any panel with Mike and Jerry were spot-on. Can't forget Coltron!
- Thing you wished you had done but didn't get around to
Buying a SCARF! I ran out of moniez! Ah, well. There was also a panel about Sequel's I missed but I wanted to discuss Chrono Trigger/Chrono Cross. Sigh. Oh, yeah. And I didn't think JoCo would sing Still Alive for his SECOND song (so soon?!) and I showed up on the fourth! UGH!
- Least favorite part of PAX?
Every day was amazing. Thursday was fantastic, Friday had almost all the panels I wanted to see, Saturday was a good Enforcing day and Sunday was great for cool down. The Expo Hall wasn't too .. amazing. I was expecting a bit more oomph. They had a few cool looking games and stuff but nothing really grabbed me.
- Best cosplay you saw
Bayonetta. She was like .. eight feet tall and amazing. Plus, all the Bulbasaur's from Team Green (Shaymin and Togepi, too!) Cute Harle Quinn, also.
- Best thing you saw in the expo hall
Split Second was pretty rad. Geek Chic was VERY fancy and nice. The guy at the Nintendo exhibit had a cool black PokeWalker sleeve I wanted. All the indie games seemed nice, too! Especially that .. AAAaaaAaAAaAAAaaAAAA!!!! one or .. however you spell it.
- What you will do differently next year (you know you will be back!)
Bring more money!!! I was stressed a lot during the con because of it. Plus, I had everything unplanned so I was worried about a ride back home .. all that added to my stress-level. Next year I'll make sure to hit up the concerts as much as I can more and maybe get into the Console Freeplay stuff more, as I only really discovered it on Sunday.
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Holy shit, that's what he was! I saw him in the food court in the mall next door and couldn't for the life of me figure out where I knew it from. That was a great one, though my favorite cosplay was definitely Pyramid Head (what was the helmet made of?).
It's funny, I was actually disappointed by the exact opposite situation - I was standing in a bunch of huge Protomen fans during their set, and an enforcer shut down our attempted mosh pit almost immediately. I do get that a lot of people weren't really there for the rock concert experience, though, so I can't really complain. Where were you in the crowd that they weren't cracking down on that?
Bohemian Rhapsody!
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I felt 6pm for expo closing was way too early. Everytime I got in line to do something, I would have to leave to get in line 2 hours early for a panel. I did get to play things and then realized sunday that standing in line is overrated and could just walk in at the start of stuff (even the PA Q&A panels which we did!).
I still completely missed playing Shank by 1 person. By the time they were done it would of been 1pm and I wanted to see the Q&A more. It seemed like the really popular stuff was "Wait the entire weekend to just play it for 15 minutes, or have an other entire schedule for things to do"
I'm not completely sure what she made it out of, but I believe it was just regular mat board with ridiculous amounts of paint. First layer of paint being spackle, then coated in acrylic. The way she made it fit so snugly on her head was by counter-balancing the weight in front by adding washers and other metal stuff in the back, along with a vent in back as well, in case there was any strong wind, so the helmet wouldn't fall off. I'll double check with her, but I believe that's what it was.
The keynote, PA Panel #1 (Gabe and Tycho playing ACTION CASTLE was hysterical), the Future of MMOs panel. Each of these was extremely memorable and worth the price paid in waiting time. Also enjoyed, to an extent, the queue line before the convention opened up, just because of the bizarre things we saw the the absolutely massive line (the aforementioned fruit fucker flag heroics).
Things you wish you had done but didn't
I really wanted to go to the MMO Gamer Behavior panel but showed up 45 minutes early to find a full line. I'm told it wasn't that great though, so I don't feel that bad about it. I also wanted to see the Retronauts panel but didn't want to force my companions to sit in another line. Lastly, I didn't play ANY videogames at PAX which seems like it was a huge oversight. I really wanted to get into the Steel Battalion freeplay but just didn't get a chance.
Least favorite part of PAX
The lines for the panels, but it's the nature of the beast. I wish there had been a better system for this but I'm not entirely sure what could've been done.
The Kotaku panel was kind of a letdown - I didn't feel like the panelists provided anything of value, the format was pretty terrible, and it just ended up being a room full of people shouting games they wanted to see on the list. Usually ironically.
Best cosplay
They all looked great, but my favorites were probably the COG soldier and the couple going around as the ASCII penis.
Best thing seen in the expo hall
Probably the 3D glasses from NVIDIA. To be fair, I spent very little time in the expo hall.
What I'll do different next year
Next year I'd probably try to go a little more independently. I felt a little hamstrung by constantly being with two of my friends, because I felt guilty spending time with random exhibitions and dragging them to all of the panels that I wanted to see. Sharing the experience with friends was great though, and I played tons of Magic for the first time since the 90s. Even my cat got in on the action.
Also in the future I'd like to make more of an effort to meet people, though I feel like that goes hand in hand with going more independently.
Playtesting a new game on Friday night.
Showing people how to play games (even ones that weren't from the company I represent). And thank you to everyone who stopped in for a demo.
Finding and buying some limited release games at one of the booths on the third floor.
I didn't get to stick around for the demo, but the tabletop D&D game in TTHQ. I can think of so many other games that system could work for.
Least favorite:
What do you mean I can't go there? I understand that the majority of people at the convention want to head to the big events, but those of us doing other stuff that need to move around should be able to do so without being corralled in with the crowd. Yes, I wanted to go upstairs, but not into the main ballroom (had to cut through the crowd to move into the exhibitor hallway). Then, coming back down, I tried to go around to the back hall only to be blocked by security, forcing me to go against the mob trying to get upstairs to get back to where I was set up (I had intended on cutting through one of the rooms on the back and entering via the back door into the room I was heading to).
What I didn't get to:
I was really hoping to be able to catch a glimpse of LA Noir in the Rockstar Booth but I couldn't committ to the time it would take to wait in line (curse of being a GM).
Best Cosplay:
I'd have to go with the Ghostbusters. I'm old school like that.
Best thing in exhibit halls:
Finishing the scavenger hunt in 30 minutes.
I can't say any one dealer/booth was the best but I did get a look at the 3-D games and I can't wait for those to hit the market.
Kudos to the Gambit/MIT group for recognizing me from another convention I attend.
What will I do differently next year:
Less time demoing and more time roaming around. Don't get me wrong, I love demoing games (especially to skeptical people that think they're wasting their time only to find themselves laughing and smiling whilst blasting their opponents in a game of Frag Gold), and I will still spend a lot of time in doing so, but I need to spend time on all three days running around the convention, not just on one day (hit the exhibit halls on Sunday and missed a lot).
Have to say, though, I had a blast and am looking forward to PAX East 2011.
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Dead Space Panel
Joystiq Panel
PR and Podcasting Panel
Final Omegathon round (the restarts made me disappointed/excited at the same time)
Also Lost Planet 2 looked the best in 3D
- Thing you wished you had done but didn't get around to
Playing Crackdown 2 and Red Dead Redemption (fuck those lines)
Gamespy Debriefings Panel
- Least favorite part of PAX?
Fuck those lines, I've heard that there were more people than there should have been but still, lines were going almost literally around the entire convention (Major Nelson Podcast line) was frustrating, but in the end I can't really complain. I did not really miss too much just ended up waiting for a few more hours than id like ( i should get a DS)
More things should have been going on on Sunday, I almost felt depressed that there wasn't really too much to do, but at least the Omegathon Final made up for most of it.
Those douchebags that were around actively making fun of other gamers. Like on Saturday were someone said "Setting up mario kart game if anyone wants in!" and some dude yells out "it for kids!"... I don't give a fuck about mario kart and I don't even own a DS but that was still a shitty thing to do. Even though most of us come from dumb internet land that isn't a fucking excuse to act like an asshole around other people.
- Best cosplay you saw
The Spy and Fallout Soldier
- Best thing you saw in the expo hall
Playing Conviction was glorious, but I also have to hand it to Shank for looking badass.
- What you will do differently next year (you know you will be back!)
Leave on Sunday, im sitting here in the hotel about to plan some other thing to do before I check out, I didn't realize that Sunday would be so light with activity I probably could have headed home that night.
Arrive on Thursday, driving +200 miles and then going straight to the convention center tired me and my brother the fuck out, we ended up leaving friday a little early to get some rest.
I should have given more time to check out the concerts
I recorded that on my Droid, it was awesome. Some people just started singing and everyone joined in so they cued up the song and the whole crowd really got into it then when we were doen they let us in to the concert like they were waiting for us to finish... was just so cool.
Loved the ProtoMen concert, picked up their second CD
The Q&A was good, had some really funny moments
The City of Heroes panle was interesting but waiting an hour and a half to make sure we got in sucked
Waiting out in th ecold for the JoCo wristbands made it feel even more awesome and allowed us to relax about getting in...
Speaking of which Coulton was terrific, seeing videos of his previous PAX's where everyone does the zombie song together was what made me want to see him live an dgo to PAX (aside from my love of PA) and it was everything I hoped for.
Got some cool free stuff along with buying some nice stuff too, I LOVE my PAX East Scarf.
All in all we can't wait for next year and we're considering PAX prime too.
We also went to see a PA make a strip and I was blown away just watching someone use Photo shop like that
also went to the Red vs. Blue thing my son has been a fan from episode 1 so that was way cool I wanted to get a scarf on Friday but thought i would pick one up on Saturday but they were sold out no worries.
Next time I will save up and stay in the Hotel on site
I actually saw the meetup of Sweetums and Wil Wheaton in the autograph line. Sweetums yelled "WHEATON!!" and Wil screamed back "SWEETUMS!!!"
It was an awesome moment.
This was our first PAX (and first Con of any kind). I was the guy at the Q&A on Sunday who asked Mike to sign my wedding invitation, and I want to thank everyone that was in the theater for the applause for my fiancee and I. You guys rock. I had almost given up on catching Mike for his autograph prior to the Q&A so that was definitely a highlight. Sorry if I seemed a little self-serving, how the f**k could I follow the girl in front of me who brought the theater to tears?
Other things off the top of my head...
Thursday: Met Wil Wheaton in the hall between the Sheraton and the Hynes and had a nice chat with him and his wife. He's just a regular guy and it was so f**king cool to have a normal conversation with him (except for when I geeked out and told him about the "Wheaton's Vicious Cockpunch of Furious Anger" shirt I had made). Later that night, we ran into him and Scott Kurtz in the lobby bar. I showed him the shirt, and he seemed to really like it, so I offered it too him. He seemed almost as happy to take it as I would have been had he offered me something.
Friday: Keynote and first Q&A. Talking to Jerry on the theater floor prior to the concerts. Seeing the Protomen was awesome. I'd never heard them before, but they gained two new fans that night, and I bought both albums the next day.
Saturday: Meeting MC Frontalot, The Protomen, Anamanaguchi. Super-highlight: Sitting and talking with Scott Kurtz as he drank his Cosmos and wrote his notes for what was to be the funniest story-time I've ever witnessed.
Sunday: Blamamation panel, Pitch your game panel, and Q&A 2.
And lastly, here's my FB status after we landed at BWI last night...
"Just recognized this feeling I have leaving PAX and returning to the real world. Homesickness. I felt the same way leaving home for college the first time. Damn you, Wil Wheaton, you were right. We were Home."
I love you PAX.
->|SHIIIIIRRRRRT|<-
Met lots and lots of lovely people who I now heart big-time, pimped the Cookie Brigade in the BYOC (we made 3k this time), and got lots of free crap.
Favorite part was the post-PAX drinking last night, least favorite was waking up this morning and having to come back home. Meh. First time I've ever NOT wanted to come back home.
LOVE YOU GUYS.
- Calli