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Please, no more beach balls.
harrysaxon
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
PAX was once again a brilliant three days, the best part of my year. I am in love with it completely. There's one thing this year, though, that really bothered me; the beach balls people smack around in line. I don't really post on the forums here, but I just had to say something about it.
Like many people who suffered through a week of hell after PAX '09, I make an effort to keep my hands sanitized, avoid touching things I don't have to, etc.. Con flu is no fun, even when it's not as severe as H1N1. Getting smacked in the face while looking down at my DS with a ball that 20 people have touched in the last minute seems to make that relatively pointless.
On top of that, some people are clearly Being Dicks and trying to hurt others. Yeah, it's just a light ball, but I saw one cosplayer get repeatedly targeted since the pain she experienced when the ball smacked into her head piece, driving pins into her scalp, seemed to amuse some people.
I get that there's a bit of a tradition with it, but it's a tradition that was ensconced before thousands of us discovered how rapidly a nasty pathogen can spread amongst tens of thousands of people sharing space. It's not even something that's uniquely PAX, since I see these at virtually any large gathering of people attend. There are so many fun things to do in line beyond portable gaming thanks to the Enforcers (the pipe cleaners were an inspired idea) and my fellow attendees, can this whole germ-ball thing please just fade away quietly?
Like many people who suffered through a week of hell after PAX '09, I make an effort to keep my hands sanitized, avoid touching things I don't have to, etc.. Con flu is no fun, even when it's not as severe as H1N1. Getting smacked in the face while looking down at my DS with a ball that 20 people have touched in the last minute seems to make that relatively pointless.
On top of that, some people are clearly Being Dicks and trying to hurt others. Yeah, it's just a light ball, but I saw one cosplayer get repeatedly targeted since the pain she experienced when the ball smacked into her head piece, driving pins into her scalp, seemed to amuse some people.
I get that there's a bit of a tradition with it, but it's a tradition that was ensconced before thousands of us discovered how rapidly a nasty pathogen can spread amongst tens of thousands of people sharing space. It's not even something that's uniquely PAX, since I see these at virtually any large gathering of people attend. There are so many fun things to do in line beyond portable gaming thanks to the Enforcers (the pipe cleaners were an inspired idea) and my fellow attendees, can this whole germ-ball thing please just fade away quietly?
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To paraphrase a tv show I watched the crap out of. "You're surrounded by thousands of people. You might get sick. Get over it."
There's no one thing you can eliminate from a convention this big, and the problem of being exposed to pathogens never goes away by any significant degree. There are plenty of small things you can do that can push the chance down a few percent, maybe, but then, you'll still walk through that patch of air around a corner where someone just sneezed, or just exhaled deeply in, and you're exposed.
Diseases are airborne. Removing a common object like a beach ball isn't going to make you significantly safer, when you compare it to not standing in a group of thousands of breathing, living people for multiple hours.
Get Rest before, during, and after PAX. not leaving enough time in your schedule? Plan for it, and add it in. Eat well, but don't be paranoid about it, or you'll never have fun at PAX. Keep yourself clean, wash hands, use sanitizer, whatever strikes your fancy, but plan for the possibility of getting sick anyway.
And finally, trust your immune system to do its job. It knows what it's doing for 99% of people.
People look like this, ALL THE TIME: http://i.imgur.com/UTaXF.jpg You can't escape it just by removing a beach ball.
I should say, the germ-ball aspect is what was really bugging me personally. But what moved me to post about it was 1) how few people around me seemed to be enjoying them and instead were trying to avoid them as much as I was and 2) how many of the ones who did seem to enjoy them were trying to smack people in the head with it, not the traditional "keep the ball afloat" game.
The worst aspect though was seeing a pretty girl who put a lot of work into making a costume in pain, and others amused by it. It's about as contrary to the spirit of PAX and having fun as you can get.
Or, alternately, embrace the idea that every last one of us can be an enforcer. Not Enforcer, just enforcer. If it means asking your neighbor to hold your spot in line while you go tell the person to stop being a dick, that's what it means. Remind them of Wheaton's law. If that doesn't work, let an actual Enforcer know (they can't be everywhere, but they are at every major line).
Basically, as with a lot of things in a lot of areas of life, it's up to us as a community to keep that from happening. The whole "targeted multiple times" bit, at least, is something that we should not have allowed to happen.
As for the pox, get over it. The beach ball isn't what's going to get you sick.
Get over it. If there is something going around at PAX there is nothing you can really do (especially if it is airborne like H1N1).
There was, however, one incident with the beachballs that could have lead to someone's funeral. Someone had hit a ball onto the fire escape of the main theater, much to the sadness of the crowd. Then out of nowhere, this crazy guy scales the side of the building and somehow gets onto this fire escape that was a good 20 feet off of the sidewalk. I have no idea how that dude didn't fall when climbing down. I think it gave the Enforcers a heart attack.
O_O
Fuck that, that guy should have been given a medal. What a champion.
The forums for a comic with dickwolf rape, bestiality, and all sorts of brutal violence has the kind of rules you would find in a kindergarten class room.
Fuck that, why should he be allowed to completely ignore the rules and put himself/others at risk, as well as waste the enforcers' time?
This suddenly makes a ton of sense:
Heard some WTF over this tweet from the folks sitting in front of me in BYOC.
I can give some more context for the story. I was actually standing next to the guy when he decided to do it. He had some climbing experience and I don't think there was much chance of him falling from lack of skill. My concern was that the whole stupid fire-escape was going to pull off the wall. When he made his decision his girlfriend got WICKED PISSED and turned her back on him during the whole ordeal. Also, when he got back down some Paramount security guy flipped out on him and took his 3-day badge. The Enforcers got him his badge back and had us all say "Thank you, Casey." Most people said it grudgingly though. Those balls were annoying as hell. Casey's girlfriend didn't seem to be a big fan of them either as she had gotten knocked in the head.
The Enforcers seemed to have a whole "YOU'RE IN LINE SO WE'RE GOING TO MAKE YOU HAVE FUN DAMMIT" this year that I didn't understand. I just wanted to use Pico Chat and talk with my friends. I didn't want to play live games or yell. I did like the Power Glove High Fives. That Power Glove must be a hive of awful disease at this point though.
That being said, I have to admit that I didn't much care for the two Metroids bouncing around during the Metroid Metal set (I preferred the temporary nature of the oversized Metroid balloon from 2010)... but being in the pit, they were plenty ignorable. To mangle a phrase: 'I don't need no distractions to know how to ROCK!'
"Fantasy football still counts as fantasy." -DnD Greg
This. I know they meant well and I know the whole "entertaining lines" stuff is becoming big business in general, but people who are in line way earlier for a panel probably don't mind that they are waiting in line. They got there early on purpose. Some find it nice to take a break from the loudness of floor 4 and chill (while getting the chance for a decent seat at the panel). But then some outgoing line entertainers come by hollering and whatnot. Some were amusing, but I could have done without them. That type of entertainment works better when there are unexpected delays. Or passively entertain (i.e. interesting juggling) instead of trying to recruit just one more person for some game.
Just saying some people hate the balls so much they stab them.
Some people love them so much they defend their honor.
As an example, my wife lost teeth in a childhood softball incident and it's ruined her for life. Toss her even a Nerf ball and her instincts are the same as George Michael's; duck and cover. She shouldn't be forced to participate in an activity that bothers her.
Another example; since I really didn't want to get hit by one of them, I never felt comfortable getting into my DS in line. So this forced "fun" deprived me of one of my favourite line activities of past PAXes; pick-up Mariokart competitions.
At very least - the specific beach balls were totally wrong for this activity. They should be much larger so they have better loft, are easier to see in your peripheral vision, aren't easy to spike like a volleyball with serious velocity, and aren't as likely to smack someone sitting down and minding their own business. As someone pointed out, the "All Hail Ball" was the kind of big, soft, lofty ball that can both be fun for those who care and also largely ignored, since dicks can't smack it straight into people's faces. Yeah, I went there.
Well, that's true, but at least we can take their projectiles away, so they can only project their dick-ness so far.
Tell that to the friends I went with last year who more or less did exactly the same things I did all weekend but who mocked me for my frequent hand sanitizing and refusal to eat food from the con. They all had crappy little flus the week after. I was fine. Yeah, maybe something as nasty and airborne as H1N1 is harder to avoid, but not all con flus are H1N1. There's a reason that Wil Wheaton still attends but no longer shakes hands or hugs.
Because it's awesome. He sounds like an awesome dude. You sound like a whiny tool who doesn't like when other people have fun that isn't being paid for by Firefall and approved by the convention.
The forums for a comic with dickwolf rape, bestiality, and all sorts of brutal violence has the kind of rules you would find in a kindergarten class room.
mmhmmmm, Kinda a Dick move to punch somebody in the face too.
QFT, and LOL.
How about, let's never ban beach balls. Ever.
How about, read the post and ask the girl with tears in her eyes if she found it fun. Ever.
waaaah something soft hit me in the face and it huuuurt
Harden the fuck up, stop your bitching, and enjoy the convention. Stop banning everything fun because some wimpy nerds can't handle it.
The forums for a comic with dickwolf rape, bestiality, and all sorts of brutal violence has the kind of rules you would find in a kindergarten class room.
Wow. A dude who thinks that a girl whose scalp was probably bleeding because a douchebag smacked "something soft" into pins that fastened part of her costume to her head repeatedly is just a "wimpy nerd". And is actually using "nerd" as a pejorative on a Penny Arcade forum.
Let me guess: You're single. Please stay that way. Evolution FTW.
That's the point. People ARE trying to enjoy the convention, and are having a physical impediment to doing so. As someone with their nose stuck in a DS most of the time in lines, getting pegged in the head with one of those things can be pretty jarring, and the smaller ones can get some good velocity - particularly when wielded by dicks whose sole interest is causing pain to some unsuspecting "wimpy nerd".
Also, jeezy creezy. You really need to bone up on Wheaton's law. /end feeding troll
That being said, I'm all for the aforementioned big squishy balls. (Sorry gents, I'm taken ;D) You can turn down pipe cleaners and put on headphones to drown out hollerin', but when someone is being caused physical pain, it's time for a reexamination.
<Qs23> I just need to get my dicks in a row
<prox> i work for dicks
#paforums_pax, all about the dicks.
Some people are just jerks with their toys (the reason projectiles were banned from the con I'd attended was that, apparently, some attendees were using them to hit girls in the boobs and / or trying to disrobe some girls by aiming for parts of their costumes).
You are a very silly goose.
I'm with the suggestion of a general ban and a possibly free-fire zone somewhere. It is not other people's responsibility to "handle it" when your fun hits them in the face, it's your responsibility to keep your idea of fun to something that doesn't significantly impact others.