Some negatives:
1. Making people stand in line: The Sheraton was the worst for this. Now I remember last year, all of us crowding up the hallways, reaching the escalators, etc. I'm guessing the enforcers were a lot stricter this year because the Sheraton said something? This is going to be a difficult fix, I know. I don't blame anyone for this, especially after seeing how we cluttered that space last year.
2. Enforcers: Yes, many are great. I have noticed a growing trend with a few enforcers (seasoned ones, included) who take on this like "I'm part of the exclusive club here, I'm so awesome, you're less awesome than me" attitude and forget to treat attendees with the respect customers deserve. Some more emphasis on this training/mentoring considerable?
3. Forcing ppl at the front of the line to sit off to the right side when entering the Sheraton Pegasus: The Pegasus seating is divided by 2 long isles. WHY are we all forced to go right and then forced to sit in the rightmost section (not even allowed to enter the middle behind the VIP seating). People halfway back down the line are then allowed to enter the left long isle and get a better seat than those in the front half of the line. I was a little upset by this the 1st time. I was bewildered as I watched it happen to every line thereafter (I was there just distributing for CB). No-one has anything to lose by letting us enter through both long isles, or letting us move into the center from the rightmost isle if we decide we're more comfortable sitting behind the VIP than straining our necks looking in 1 direction for an hour. "It's going to be displayed on this screen, anyway" an enforcer tells me. I didn't wait in line purposefully longer to watch a screen. I came to a live panel to watch live human beings.
4. I'll gladly pay more for a more expensive badge if it is more difficult to counterfeit. Also, sob story or not, people know if they're buying from a scalper that they're doing the wrong thing. I know we all really want to go to PAX. Unfortunately it's just not possible. There is an official badge resell thread, lottery-esque as it may be. Maybe this thread needs to be better advertised for those no longer able to use their passes and wishing to sell them. Regardless, I don't think people with forged passes, sob story or otherwise, should have been given replacement real badges. Hell, the friend I was with had exactly the worst-offending forgery and was, without question, given a replacement badge. If a counterfeit badge was acquired through the official badge resell thread, well that's a provable electronic trail, so that person does have recourse and should still be allowed a replacement badge. Ppl caught with forgeries are fortunate not to be permanently banned.
At the end of the day many of the complains in this thread can be attributed to this issue alone, and so it does warrant stricter measures, imo. I know this year it was sudden you can't foresee and train for every eventuality.
5. Closing speech/Omeganaut final round: Biggest disappointment. Both were nearly non-existent. Speaking for just myself, I want to see people that raised money this year, people who have charity events planned later this year and info about them, special notes about especially awesome things from that PAX, closing thoughts and wishes, a longer omeganauts, etc. VT and Lexicongrrl got a cheer for CB and that was it. I know Mike and Jerry are pooped by that point, but I'd be happy to hear from Erica, or somebody else even!
6. Cosplay: There was a panel (I'd have loved to go to) scheduled at the same time as 2 ridiculously on-demand events. This does lend credence to the arguments that it is sidelined. I noticed my own disappointment at the lack of cosplay. To be honest, I don't even really feel comfortable cosplaying at PAX, and I don't, even though I have outfits to wear and have worn them at other events. To me, that speaks volumes on its own. Have an event running during the day and not conflicting with the headliners and there will be more cosplay. Have an ongoing event that is the product of constructive brainstorming, and there will be more cosplay. More cosplay has a positive con affect on almost every attendee AND the media. It's win win for nearly everyone!
7. Paramount: Is it possible to have the mics for voices turned up and other sounds turned down a bit? Also, big stretch here I know, but could we get some speakers placed further back so that the noise difference between front and back isn't so huge?
Question: Free cookies: Because they're free do they get to circumvent the convention center non-competition with paid vendors rule? It seems like, paid or otherwise, it's food and therefore competes and should be a violation of that rule. If it does break the rule, exhibitors need to be informed ahead of time of this fact. If it doesn't, well, fine, I accept the loss.
Pros:
1. No booth babes. (Yes, this is mostly a comment to previous posters.) I will spare you the stories of how I personally was affected as an impressionable young girl by putting unrealistic ideals of female beauty on a pedestal. I will say one of my earliest memories is of an amazing 80's commercial designed specifically to fight this growing trend, showing a model go through the before to after process (and this was before Photoshop became commonplace, even!). I don't even know what my self esteem would be like now if it hadn't been for that 1 commercial. Beyond just those who feel uncomfortable by it, or offended by it, PAX is an all ages event. Games are played by young, impressionable adults, and even children. Please don't take away one of the few last bastions where young girls might not be affected by booth babes.
2. Wolfman theater streaming. Awesome!
Suggestions:
PA panels beyond Mike and Jerry: Don't get me wrong, I love them and their panels, but with front page posts, PATV, books, and their now-extensive QA panel history, I feel there is much more QAing to be gained from a panel (in addition to existing M&J panels - I know, I'm just take take take!) with Kiko, Khoo, Erica, Child's Play, etc etc. I know most of these people are extremely busy during PAX, but it'd make me super super happy.
Post-PAX booth feedback channels on the PA website where exhibitors can get (desired - I used to coordinate our presence at trade shows, feedback's always a plus) feedback on what people like and didn't like about booths. A specific tool on the PA website would be great. Results could be sent to exhibitors and PAX fans feel like their voice is heard so it's a win for them, too! I mean, exhibitors can act or not act on it as they choose, unless some certain guidelines must be set.
Ok, maybe I wrote a novel (but after 5 pages of comments I had some to respond to). It's a bit of a stream of jumbled thoughts, and I will accept constructive help with stupidity in my post! It's now gone 6am, there's bound to be plenty.
Some negatives:
1. Making people stand in line: The Sheraton was the worst for this. Now I remember last year, all of us crowding up the hallways, reaching the escalators, etc. I'm guessing the enforcers were a lot stricter this year because the Sheraton said something? This is going to be a difficult fix, I know. I don't blame anyone for this, especially after seeing how we cluttered that space last year.
2. Enforcers: Yes, many are great. I have noticed a growing trend with a few enforcers (seasoned ones, included) who take on this like "I'm part of the exclusive club here, I'm so awesome, you're less awesome than me" attitude and forget to treat attendees with the respect customers deserve. Some more emphasis on this training/mentoring considerable?
I know what you mean with this, and I've seen it as well here and there. However, I would caution the use of talking about enforcers treating attendees as "customers". Enforcers are volunteers. While I totally agree that everyone at PAX should treat everyone with respect, it's not the same as an Employee/Customer relationship.
3. Forcing ppl at the front of the line to sit off to the right side when entering the Sheraton Pegasus: The Pegasus seating is divided by 2 long isles. WHY are we all forced to go right and then forced to sit in the rightmost section (not even allowed to enter the middle behind the VIP seating). People halfway back down the line are then allowed to enter the left long isle and get a better seat than those in the front half of the line. I was a little upset by this the 1st time. I was bewildered as I watched it happen to every line thereafter (I was there just distributing for CB). No-one has anything to lose by letting us enter through both long isles, or letting us move into the center from the rightmost isle if we decide we're more comfortable sitting behind the VIP than straining our necks looking in 1 direction for an hour. "It's going to be displayed on this screen, anyway" an enforcer tells me. I didn't wait in line purposefully longer to watch a screen. I came to a live panel to watch live human beings.
4. I'll gladly pay more for a more expensive badge if it is more difficult to counterfeit. Also, sob story or not, people know if they're buying from a scalper that they're doing the wrong thing. I know we all really want to go to PAX. Unfortunately it's just not possible. There is an official badge resell thread, lottery-esque as it may be. Maybe this thread needs to be better advertised for those no longer able to use their passes and wishing to sell them. Regardless, I don't think people with forged passes, sob story or otherwise, should have been given replacement real badges. Hell, the friend I was with had exactly the worst-offending forgery and was, without question, given a replacement badge. If a counterfeit badge was acquired through the official badge resell thread, well that's a provable electronic trail, so that person does have recourse and should still be allowed a replacement badge. Ppl caught with forgeries are fortunate not to be permanently banned.
At the end of the day many of the complains in this thread can be attributed to this issue alone, and so it does warrant stricter measures, imo. I know this year it was sudden you can't foresee and train for every eventuality.
I would also be willing to pay more for a more secure badge. The re-sell thread on the forums, while certainly officially sanctioned, is not "official" in the sense of being administered by PA or Reed employees. There is not necessarily a good electronic paper trail to handle people getting screwed. It's more traceable than a cash transaction in front of the convention center, but not perfect. Scalping is perfectly legal in Seattle for events like PAX. While I would love to see some more anti-scalping techniques implemented, I think anti-forgery should be higher priority. Yes some of those go together, but a scalped ticket is not automatically a forged ticket.
5. Closing speech/Omeganaut final round: Biggest disappointment. Both were nearly non-existent. Speaking for just myself, I want to see people that raised money this year, people who have charity events planned later this year and info about them, special notes about especially awesome things from that PAX, closing thoughts and wishes, a longer omeganauts, etc. VT and Lexicongrrl got a cheer for CB and that was it. I know Mike and Jerry are pooped by that point, but I'd be happy to hear from Erica, or somebody else even!
I loved the actual Omegathon final competition portion, but I was also left disappointed by the closing. It's been the shortest by far of the PAXen I've attended and other than the awesome news from the CB it was almost nonexistent. I would echo the request for some additional content for all those who stood in line for longer than the event lasted.
6. Cosplay: There was a panel (I'd have loved to go to) scheduled at the same time as 2 ridiculously on-demand events. This does lend credence to the arguments that it is sidelined. I noticed my own disappointment at the lack of cosplay. To be honest, I don't even really feel comfortable cosplaying at PAX, and I don't, even though I have outfits to wear and have worn them at other events. To me, that speaks volumes on its own. Have an event running during the day and not conflicting with the headliners and there will be more cosplay. Have an ongoing event that is the product of constructive brainstorming, and there will be more cosplay. More cosplay has a positive con affect on almost every attendee AND the media. It's win win for nearly everyone!
Question: Free cookies: Because they're free do they get to circumvent the convention center non-competition with paid vendors rule? It seems like, paid or otherwise, it's food and therefore competes and should be a violation of that rule. If it does break the rule, exhibitors need to be informed ahead of time of this fact. If it doesn't, well, fine, I accept the loss.
Pros:
1. No booth babes. (Yes, this is mostly a comment to previous posters.) I will spare you the stories of how I personally was affected as an impressionable young girl by putting unrealistic ideals of female beauty on a pedestal. I will say one of my earliest memories is of an amazing 80's commercial designed specifically to fight this growing trend, showing a model go through the before to after process (and this was before Photoshop became commonplace, even!). I don't even know what my self esteem would be like now if it hadn't been for that 1 commercial. Beyond just those who feel uncomfortable by it, or offended by it, PAX is an all ages event. Games are played by young, impressionable adults, and even children. Please don't take away one of the few last bastions where young girls might not be affected by booth babes.
2. Wolfman theater streaming. Awesome!
Suggestions:
Schedule Scott and Kris immediately before the Sat Night concerts (they could still run long, some overlap would be fine as long as it wasn't SO MUCH overlap like this year. By the time you get to wulfman it's pretty much over). That would be, like, my personal dream schedule, and almost everybody I spoke to in line said they absolutely were disappointed they had to miss the streaming to come to S&K. Scheduling it right before means you still cut back on the Concert line, and that ppl who prioritize the concert don't hold up the S&K line, but we still get to see S&K AND see most of the concert stream! Obv I'd like to just stream it into the Pegasus after S&K but I can see how that's not feasible.
PA panels beyond Mike and Jerry: Don't get me wrong, I love them and their panels, but with front page posts, PATV, and their now-extensive QA panel history, I feel there is much more QAing to be gained from a panel (in addition to existing M&J panels - I know, I'm just take take take!) with Kiko, Khoo, Erica, Child's Play, etc etc. I know most of these people are extremely busy during PAX, but it'd make me super super happy.
Post-PAX booth feedback channels on the PA website where exhibitors can get (desired - I used to coordinate our presence at trade shows, feedback's always a plus) feedback on what people like and didn't like about booths. It will get lost in these forums in the manner it's being done now. A specific tool on the PA website would be great. Results could be sent to exhibitors and PAX fans feel like their voice is heard so it's a win for them, too! I mean, exhibitors can act or not act on it as they choose, but at least then fans can choose to blame exhibitors for the booths they set up, rather than PAX organizers!
Ok, maybe I wrote a novel (but after 5 pages of comments I had some to respond to). It's a bit of a stream of jumbled thoughts, and I will accept constructive help with stupidity in my post! It's now gone 6am, there's bound to be plenty.
-> Definitely will pay more for PAX – assuming 1) I get a swag bag – I waited in line 2 days and didn’t get one. I’d even be willing to pay additional for mailing it to the house before PAX. 2) Better security on the badges – you’ve got to stop the counterfeits, if this means insane technology, scanning for entrance etc, I’m willing, I paid for it, I’m willing to pay to make sure my right of purchase is protected.
->I wouldn’t mind seeing 2 levels of badging – for those of us that can prove we’ve gone to multiple PAX conventions – early admittance to the expo hall, no line waiting, exclusive swag or any other combination of perks. So it’s not leveled badging based on willingness to pay cash but more so based on the passion for the convention. These could also be raffled or gifted by the booth companies providing more exposure for PAX sponsors.
->LOVE the Paramount – definitely insanely better than the ‘other’ place. However is there any way to have the outside lines under a canopy or tent? Seriously, tons of pasty white gamers standing out in 75 degree blazing sun, or heaven forbid insane downpours, just says FAIL to me.
If the booths want to draw a crowd and pen them into cattle lines, they need to design that into their booth and pay PAX for that space.
->More seating in the corners and outside voids – for those larger or with back problems or health issues, having a place to sit and rest would be amazing – maybe with enforcers nearby to enforce a no plant rule, meaning you can rest for 5-10 minutes but then need to gather your stuff and be on your way. The few seats I did find had been claimed and were permanently occupied by the same person/people rotating in and out.
->MORE codes, brochures, website exposure. I read everything I get from PAX and visit the sites afterward, if more companies would do after the convention perks that could be awesome.
->I can’t imagine what sort of drain this puts on Penny Aracade Staff throughout the year, hopefully you have a team that all they do is handle PAX and have already begun planning next years. 1 – more updates on the PAX site would be fun. 2 – the threads this year were really quiet over previous years, not sure if this is because of stringent rules of the forums or what, but somehow encourage more open conversation online about PAX.
THANK YOU!!! Thank you to everyone who makes this amazing convention happen, it’s the highlight of my summer!
Another note - separate out PAX Prime and PAX East on the message boards so we can surf both but its not all so confusing.
There's really no need. Give it a couple of weeks and the Prime posts will die down while the East ones will ramp up.
It was nicer on the old forum system though, since you could tag threads Prime/East/Misc, and filter by tags.
We hope to have those back eventually, but there are higher priorities for the new forum software at the moment. Once the forums settle a bit, I'll be enforcing the manual insertion of [PRIME] and [EAST] into thread titles (which is what we did before we had thread prefixes on the old software).
I know what you mean with this, and I've seen it as well here and there. However, I would caution the use of talking about enforcers treating attendees as "customers". Enforcers are volunteers. While I totally agree that everyone at PAX should treat everyone with respect, it's not the same as an Employee/Customer relationship.
I've volunteered for numerous orgs. I volunteer for Evergreen Hospital atm. I've always been given the same "customer service" training as when I was a customer service desk employee and supervisor. "They're volunteers" isn't an excuse to be disrespectful or unkind to convention attendees.
Now of course every situation has different respectful relationships. I wouldn't want enforcers to insert linguistic obeisance markers that also insert deferential distance because we're "customers". No, we're all friends here. But at the same time con attendees are "customers" of PAX, just as exhibitors are "clients". As an enforcer you represent the face of the convention, and attendees are paid customers of the convention. It is important as an organization for the Convention organizers to establish what face they want their representatives to corroborate. This is the essential base of the organization-customer relationship. I suggest mentoring a mindset of taking pride in professional execution of one's duties, volunteer or otherwise, even if "professional execution" in this situation means simply being respectful, friendly, and open. Especially when PAX is seen as a safe place for gamers to escape atmospheres of disrespect.
Note this doesn't mean you should ask your volunteers not to be "genuine". You just find the part of your own genuine personality that reflects these ideals and bring out that part of yourself for this task.
->I wouldn’t mind seeing 2 levels of badging – for those of us that can prove we’ve gone to multiple PAX conventions – early admittance to the expo hall, no line waiting, exclusive swag or any other combination of perks. So it’s not leveled badging based on willingness to pay cash but more so based on the passion for the convention. These could also be raffled or gifted by the booth companies providing more exposure for PAX sponsors.
(Snipped Quote)
You're joking right? You effectively want to create a frequent flier pass for PAX? Will we get the red carpet that get's roped off when all the plebes try to enter the expo hall? I'm sorry if this sounds like I'm being a harsh silly goose, but as you could tell from reading some of my other posts, I think this type of elitism is something that needs to be avoided at all cost. It's the exact opposite of what PAX is about.
Re: @emimonster. You nailed it, being a volunteer doesn't entirely negate the employee/customer relationship. I've been a volunteer forum mod before (not here, spend some time googling me if you care). I was given slightly more leeway than the actual staff, but not much. The employee/customer relationship does vary with the culture of the organization/customer in question. I've worked at places where you were encouraged to joke with customers and act like fun was all around (note: JOKE not mock) and other places where it was all business all the time. IMHO, this is closer to an employee/customer relationship at a business (organization) with a laid back culture than anything else.
Plus they may be volunteers (in the strictest sense) but they do still work for PAX, meaning they represent PAX in pretty much every sense of the word. Not being paid does not dissolve the relationship present, inferred or otherwise.
I wouldn’t mind seeing 2 levels of badging – for those of us that can prove we’ve gone to multiple PAX conventions – early admittance to the expo hall, no line waiting, exclusive swag or any other combination of perks. So it’s not leveled badging based on willingness to pay cash but more so based on the passion for the convention. These could also be raffled or gifted by the booth companies providing more exposure for PAX sponsors.
That sounds like it would be a huge violation of Weaton's Law and it would give off the message that PAX doesn't want or care about new people. It is my understanding that PAX is supposed to be for everyone and that everyone should feel at home. It doesn't seem like it would be within the spirit of PAX to give off the vibe that newcomers aren't welcome and that veterans are given special treatment like they are better or something. We are all there for the same reason to have fun and enjoy the awesome event. Just because you have had enough money or been lucky enough to go multiple times shouldn't make you think that you're better than someone who is attending for the first time. That sounds like it would be a huge violation of Weaton's law and it would exclude newcomers and make them feel unwelcome.
1. Bring back sumo lounge.
2. Improve WiFi coverage for the con. If it's only going to cover about 1/3 of the con space, it's not really worth having.
3. new NON-HEADSET PAX12 item. You sold me a headset in 2009, I'm not going to buy another. Another point against the astros.. they were not branded with the 11PAX logo, so there's no incentive to buy them as the limited PAX item.
4. Don't give so much space to one game (halofest).
5. Keep up the merch for merch thing. I love the poster and patch and notebook.
6. Definitely use the Paramount again.
7. Continue streaming main events (concerts, omegathon, Acquisitions Inc, etc)
8. Give some time immediately before the omegathon final round for the bigger charity drives to give final totals and the like (Tri-Wizard Drinking Tournament, Cookie Brigade, etc). These people are putting hundreds of volunteer hours into raising money for Child's Play, least you can do is let them say their name and what they did from the stage. Gives them some publicity to help raise even more next year.
9. Rockband stage. I'd never get up there, cause that's not the type of game I like to play, but it's still fun to watch people rock out (even if they're crap at it.. as long as their having fun) while you eat lunch.
10. Tell exhibitors that if they want to have "be there to win" raffles, they need to include space in their booth layout for people to gather. Making enforcers cram people together as much as possible for every single raffle is not awesome for anyone.
11. Stop with the forced seating arrangements. If you're dedicated enough to be first in line, you deserve to pick your seat, not get shoved into the far corner because that's the most efficient way to get everyone in.
Oh hey, I forgot about posting in this thread. I'm sure a lot of this has already been said but
1) The lineups for the concerts was really poorly done. I feel bad for Supercommuter, since a lot of people left after JoCo. I feel like they would have done a lot better on Friday night with music that is more similar to their style and VGO should have been on Saturday like in Boston. In any case they certainly shouldn't have been last. It was a big mistake.
2) Lines outside the Paramount in the sun were pretty crazy. Waiting for the final omegathon round in the sun nearly killed me, and definitely gave me a sunburn. If it had been raining would they have moved people inside somewhere? The outside line doesn't seem like the best idea.
3) The Expo Hall, despite being so much larger was constantly more crowded than I've ever seen. Closed booths are dumb and shouldn't be allowed. There were lines in the expo hall that were 4 hours long, that's insane. I understand the wait for some things like Riot was showing Dominion and those games will be about 20 minutes from champ select, but booths where you're just watching a video? C'mon now. I ended up not playing any demos in the expo hall because I didn't want to wait multiple hours in line.
4) The firefall stuff was definitely excessive. It's not going to make me not play it, but seriously please don't do that again. Even in the bathrooms?
5) Bring back Rock Band!
Overall PAX remained awesome, but there were problems.
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jaberwockynmtPAX Info Booth ManagerRenton, WARegistered Userregular
1. Bring back sumo lounge.
10. Tell exhibitors that if they want to have "be there to win" raffles, they need to include space in their booth layout for people to gather. Making enforcers cram people together as much as possible for every single raffle is not awesome for anyone.
1. What do you like about Sumos more than the Seat Potatoes we had at the show? Were there just too few of them?
10. This already happens and this is how it ends up. Back in ~2007 this didn't happen and it was terribad. I'm not sure it can get much better than this.
Lines outside the Paramount in the sun were pretty crazy. Waiting for the final omegathon round in the sun nearly killed me, and definitely gave me a sunburn. If it had been raining would they have moved people inside somewhere? The outside line doesn't seem like the best idea.
A combination of having no other possible space and what the city would allow created this outside line. If it had been raining, the people queuing would have gotten wet as there was quite literally no inside space available for us put them. If we had inside space available, the queue would have been there already. Also, except for the added help of the street being closed, this is how lines at the Paramount work all the time: stand in line outside in the wet/sun/etc.
--Jarrod "Jaberwocky" Lombardo, PAX Enforcer: Info Booth Manager.
"We know that the moment we slip, it will be taken away... and so it is of the utmost importance to be worthy of it constantly."
PAX will always be held on the best weekend for PAX. Sometimes that will be a bad weekend for you; I'm sorry.
@jaberwockynmt I'm certainly not sure of everyone's opinion, but had no idea where the "seat potatoes" even were. I don't think I saw them once during the con. Then again, I wasn't specifically looking for them either.
This was my first PAX. Given that, I still had an absolute blast. Most of my gripes are small issues, some necessary given the size of PAX.
With that said, is it feasible to extend the hours of PAX? Starting at 10a and ending at 6p just felt too short. I'd have liked an extra hour in the morning or two in the evening.
Sorry in advance for the wall of text.
What I didn't like:
- Lines. But who doesn't? I can't really think of a more effective way to solve this problem. @Official_PAX and @PAX_Lines definitely helped me on more than one occasion. I think some more congestion was caused by the "closed" exhibits that reserved all of their space for demos, while keeping viewers/casual spectators on the outside. These people with a passing interest would be forced to clog aisles or commit to a 2 hour line to experience the game.
-Wasted space. There were some exhibits that ended up utilizing space very poorly. In the case of Mass Effect 3, this ended up being their 'briefing' room, which could have easily been consolidated into their 'viewing' room. This also could have increased players per session and decreased line wait time. Don't get me wrong, the setup was cool, but not worth waiting two hours.
- There was some definite Firefall overkill. With that said, I DO want to try the game now. So... Misson accomplished? Either way, seemed like a lot of real estate for any one game to possess.
- Panel start times. This wasn't a gigantic issue, but it WAS irritating. Most of the time we'd be let into the Paramount with only 5-10 minutes or so to be seated, after which the panel would start a little late. I understand from a logistics perspective, some of that can't be avoided, but it'd be nice to get in 10-20 mins ahead of start time to get situated, fill the building, etc. This would be nice, especially considering the long wait to get in.
- Vendors. I understand that exhibitors like Chessex etc. aren't there for charity. They are going to sell things. But some of the booths that were there solely as merchants struck me as oddly unnecessary. This space could have been used for more worthy causes like BYOC or CFP.
- The Assassin's Creed "pre-order for swag" setup struck me as tacky. I don't really know why.
- Scalpers and forgers. There's not much I can say that hasn't been said regarding this. I think an oddly-shaped badge would cut down on counterfitting, however.
What I liked:
- Enforcers. There were silent but efficient. Though I saw the Enforcers everywhere, there was little time where I actually felt 'enforced' upon. (This is a good thing.) Thanks for such a great job!
- Line Entertainers. From the pipe cleaners to the power glove to the beach balls, it was priceless, and necessary given the length of some lines. I don't know what you guys are taking to keep up that enthusiasm, but it's working!
- Halo Fest. It seems like I'm in the minority here, but I really enjoyed it. It was cool talking to the people running the Fest as well as seeing the Halo-themed exhibits they had there. I could see someone disinterested giving the place a cursory 15-20 minute walkthrough, but I genuinely believe I could have spent an entire day there. There was depth.
- The Paramount. The theater was generally amazing and the food they served was like manna from heaven. (Did you try their freshly made grilled cheese sandwiches with bacon? OMFG DELICIOUS.) After a two hour line with no chance to grab breakfast, this was a life-saver.
- The open-floor scheduled demos (Prey 2). They scheduled demos that anyone could just walk up and watch/take part in, and gave out shirts/swag to the people who stayed til the end. It was a smart use of space and a great way to publicly showcase your game to a larger audience. People walking by casually could take part.
bigo2mags on
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jaberwockynmtPAX Info Booth ManagerRenton, WARegistered Userregular
@jaberwockynmt I'm certainly not sure of everyone's opinion, but had no idea where the "seat potatoes" even were. I don't think I saw them once during the con. Then again, I wasn't specifically looking for them either.
They were at least on Level 2 at the north end where Sumos have been for years. They may have been on 3 also. This sounds like a "not enough" though. Thanks.
--Jarrod "Jaberwocky" Lombardo, PAX Enforcer: Info Booth Manager.
"We know that the moment we slip, it will be taken away... and so it is of the utmost importance to be worthy of it constantly."
PAX will always be held on the best weekend for PAX. Sometimes that will be a bad weekend for you; I'm sorry.
@jaberwockynmt I'm certainly not sure of everyone's opinion, but had no idea where the "seat potatoes" even were. I don't think I saw them once during the con. Then again, I wasn't specifically looking for them either.
They were at least on Level 2 at the north end where Sumos have been for years. They may have been on 3 also. This sounds like a "not enough" though. Thanks.
Makes sense. Maybe with the extra crowding they weren't as apparent to a passer-by
This was my first PAX. Given that, I still had an absolute blast. Most of my gripes are small issues, some necessary given the size of PAX.
With that said, is it feasible to extend the hours of PAX? Starting at 10a and ending at 6p just felt too short. I'd have liked an extra hour in the morning or two in the evening.
Sorry in advance for the wall of text.
What I didn't like:
- Lines. But who doesn't? I can't really think of a more effective way to solve this problem. @Official_PAX and @PAX_Lines definitely helped me on more than one occasion. I think some more congestion was caused by the "closed" exhibits that reserved all of their space for demos, while keeping viewers/casual spectators on the outside. These people with a passing interest would be forced to clog aisles or commit to a 2 hour line to experience the game.
-Wasted space. There were some exhibits that ended up utilizing space very poorly. In the case of Mass Effect 3, this ended up being their 'briefing' room, which could have easily been consolidated into their 'viewing' room. This also could have increased players per session and decreased line wait time. Don't get me wrong, the setup was cool, but not worth waiting two hours.
- There was some definite Firefall overkill. With that said, I DO want to try the game now. So... Misson accomplished? Either way, seemed like a lot of real estate for any one game to possess.
- Panel start times. This wasn't a gigantic issue, but it WAS irritating. Most of the time we'd be let into the Paramount with only 5-10 minutes or so to be seated, after which the panel would start a little late. I understand from a logistics perspective, some of that can't be avoided, but it'd be nice to get in 10-20 mins ahead of start time to get situated, fill the building, etc. This would be nice, especially considering the long wait to get in.
- Vendors. I understand that exhibitors like Chessex etc. aren't there for charity. They are going to sell things. But some of the booths that were there solely as merchants struck me as oddly unnecessary. This space could have been used for more worthy causes like BYOC or CFP.
- The Assassin's Creed "pre-order for swag" setup struck me as tacky. I don't really know why.
- Scalpers and forgers. There's not much I can say that hasn't been said regarding this. I think an oddly-shaped badge would cut down on counterfitting, however.
What I liked:
- Enforcers. There were silent but efficient. Though I saw the Enforcers everywhere, there was little time where I actually felt 'enforced' upon. (This is a good thing.) Thanks for such a great job!
- Line Entertainers. From the pipe cleaners to the power glove to the beach balls, it was priceless, and necessary given the length of some lines. I don't know what you guys are taking to keep up that enthusiasm, but it's working!
- Halo Fest. It seems like I'm in the minority here, but I really enjoyed it. It was cool talking to the people running the Fest as well as seeing the Halo-themed exhibits they had there. I could see someone disinterested giving the place a cursory 15-20 minute walkthrough, but I genuinely believe I could have spent an entire day there. There was depth.
- The Paramount. The theater was generally amazing and the food they served was like manna from heaven. (Did you try their freshly made grilled cheese sandwiches with bacon? OMFG DELICIOUS.) After a two hour line with no chance to grab breakfast, this was a life-saver.
- The open-floor scheduled demos (Prey 2). They scheduled demos that anyone could just walk up and watch/take part in, and gave out shirts/swag to the people who stayed til the end. It was a smart use of space and a great way to publicly showcase your game to a larger audience. People walking by casually could take part.
Are you referring to the expo hall specifically? because PAX is open from 10am to 2am on Friday and Saturday. Sunday is the only "short day" for the entire convention. The expo hall is the only part with the hours you mention on each day.
This was my first PAX. Given that, I still had an absolute blast. Most of my gripes are small issues, some necessary given the size of PAX.
With that said, is it feasible to extend the hours of PAX? Starting at 10a and ending at 6p just felt too short. I'd have liked an extra hour in the morning or two in the evening.
Sorry in advance for the wall of text.
What I didn't like:
- Lines. But who doesn't? I can't really think of a more effective way to solve this problem. @Official_PAX and @PAX_Lines definitely helped me on more than one occasion. I think some more congestion was caused by the "closed" exhibits that reserved all of their space for demos, while keeping viewers/casual spectators on the outside. These people with a passing interest would be forced to clog aisles or commit to a 2 hour line to experience the game.
-Wasted space. There were some exhibits that ended up utilizing space very poorly. In the case of Mass Effect 3, this ended up being their 'briefing' room, which could have easily been consolidated into their 'viewing' room. This also could have increased players per session and decreased line wait time. Don't get me wrong, the setup was cool, but not worth waiting two hours.
- There was some definite Firefall overkill. With that said, I DO want to try the game now. So... Misson accomplished? Either way, seemed like a lot of real estate for any one game to possess.
- Panel start times. This wasn't a gigantic issue, but it WAS irritating. Most of the time we'd be let into the Paramount with only 5-10 minutes or so to be seated, after which the panel would start a little late. I understand from a logistics perspective, some of that can't be avoided, but it'd be nice to get in 10-20 mins ahead of start time to get situated, fill the building, etc. This would be nice, especially considering the long wait to get in.
- Vendors. I understand that exhibitors like Chessex etc. aren't there for charity. They are going to sell things. But some of the booths that were there solely as merchants struck me as oddly unnecessary. This space could have been used for more worthy causes like BYOC or CFP.
- The Assassin's Creed "pre-order for swag" setup struck me as tacky. I don't really know why.
- Scalpers and forgers. There's not much I can say that hasn't been said regarding this. I think an oddly-shaped badge would cut down on counterfitting, however.
What I liked:
- Enforcers. There were silent but efficient. Though I saw the Enforcers everywhere, there was little time where I actually felt 'enforced' upon. (This is a good thing.) Thanks for such a great job!
- Line Entertainers. From the pipe cleaners to the power glove to the beach balls, it was priceless, and necessary given the length of some lines. I don't know what you guys are taking to keep up that enthusiasm, but it's working!
- Halo Fest. It seems like I'm in the minority here, but I really enjoyed it. It was cool talking to the people running the Fest as well as seeing the Halo-themed exhibits they had there. I could see someone disinterested giving the place a cursory 15-20 minute walkthrough, but I genuinely believe I could have spent an entire day there. There was depth.
- The Paramount. The theater was generally amazing and the food they served was like manna from heaven. (Did you try their freshly made grilled cheese sandwiches with bacon? OMFG DELICIOUS.) After a two hour line with no chance to grab breakfast, this was a life-saver.
- The open-floor scheduled demos (Prey 2). They scheduled demos that anyone could just walk up and watch/take part in, and gave out shirts/swag to the people who stayed til the end. It was a smart use of space and a great way to publicly showcase your game to a larger audience. People walking by casually could take part.
Are you referring to the expo hall specifically? because PAX is open from 10am to 2am on Friday and Saturday. Sunday is the only "short day" for the entire convention. The expo hall is the only part with the hours you mention on each day.
Yes, I'm referring to the actual exhibitions. Most days I was there longer than 2am!
This was my first PAX. Given that, I still had an absolute blast. Most of my gripes are small issues, some necessary given the size of PAX.
With that said, is it feasible to extend the hours of PAX? Starting at 10a and ending at 6p just felt too short. I'd have liked an extra hour in the morning or two in the evening.
Sorry in advance for the wall of text.
What I didn't like:
- Lines. But who doesn't? I can't really think of a more effective way to solve this problem. @Official_PAX and @PAX_Lines definitely helped me on more than one occasion. I think some more congestion was caused by the "closed" exhibits that reserved all of their space for demos, while keeping viewers/casual spectators on the outside. These people with a passing interest would be forced to clog aisles or commit to a 2 hour line to experience the game.
-Wasted space. There were some exhibits that ended up utilizing space very poorly. In the case of Mass Effect 3, this ended up being their 'briefing' room, which could have easily been consolidated into their 'viewing' room. This also could have increased players per session and decreased line wait time. Don't get me wrong, the setup was cool, but not worth waiting two hours.
- There was some definite Firefall overkill. With that said, I DO want to try the game now. So... Misson accomplished? Either way, seemed like a lot of real estate for any one game to possess.
- Panel start times. This wasn't a gigantic issue, but it WAS irritating. Most of the time we'd be let into the Paramount with only 5-10 minutes or so to be seated, after which the panel would start a little late. I understand from a logistics perspective, some of that can't be avoided, but it'd be nice to get in 10-20 mins ahead of start time to get situated, fill the building, etc. This would be nice, especially considering the long wait to get in.
- Vendors. I understand that exhibitors like Chessex etc. aren't there for charity. They are going to sell things. But some of the booths that were there solely as merchants struck me as oddly unnecessary. This space could have been used for more worthy causes like BYOC or CFP.
- The Assassin's Creed "pre-order for swag" setup struck me as tacky. I don't really know why.
- Scalpers and forgers. There's not much I can say that hasn't been said regarding this. I think an oddly-shaped badge would cut down on counterfitting, however.
What I liked:
- Enforcers. There were silent but efficient. Though I saw the Enforcers everywhere, there was little time where I actually felt 'enforced' upon. (This is a good thing.) Thanks for such a great job!
- Line Entertainers. From the pipe cleaners to the power glove to the beach balls, it was priceless, and necessary given the length of some lines. I don't know what you guys are taking to keep up that enthusiasm, but it's working!
- Halo Fest. It seems like I'm in the minority here, but I really enjoyed it. It was cool talking to the people running the Fest as well as seeing the Halo-themed exhibits they had there. I could see someone disinterested giving the place a cursory 15-20 minute walkthrough, but I genuinely believe I could have spent an entire day there. There was depth.
- The Paramount. The theater was generally amazing and the food they served was like manna from heaven. (Did you try their freshly made grilled cheese sandwiches with bacon? OMFG DELICIOUS.) After a two hour line with no chance to grab breakfast, this was a life-saver.
- The open-floor scheduled demos (Prey 2). They scheduled demos that anyone could just walk up and watch/take part in, and gave out shirts/swag to the people who stayed til the end. It was a smart use of space and a great way to publicly showcase your game to a larger audience. People walking by casually could take part.
Are you referring to the expo hall specifically? because PAX is open from 10am to 2am on Friday and Saturday. Sunday is the only "short day" for the entire convention. The expo hall is the only part with the hours you mention on each day.
Yes, I'm referring to the actual exhibitions. Most days I was there longer than 2am!
I highly doubt the expo hall will be open any longer. The people working booths are already putting in 10+ hour days
Yeah, keep in mind many of the people "working" in the Expo Hall are volunteering their time for their company. Folks like producers, artists, or developers who are salaried, don't get overtime, but spend the weekend representing their product. Extending the hours extends their burden.
8. Give some time immediately before the omegathon final round for the bigger charity drives to give final totals and the like (Tri-Wizard Drinking Tournament, Cookie Brigade, etc). These people are putting hundreds of volunteer hours into raising money for Child's Play, least you can do is let them say their name and what they did from the stage. Gives them some publicity to help raise even more next year.
This reminds me of a conversation I had in the DnD area.
Person: What is that?
Moi: Oh, that's a Cookie Brigade member. They will give you delicious cookies and if you want, you can make a donation towards Child's Play.
Person: *blinky* What's Child's Play?
More formal and high-impact announcements not only publicize the good work of fundraisers, but the fact that, you know, Child's Play exists and is a good thing for people who only sometimes read the comics and aren't as deeply involved in the PA community.
MarySue on
Portland, Oregon, and sloe gin fizz. If that ain't love, then tell me what is.
+++BRONYS BEFORE BROS!+++
I think the difficulty is that the cookie brigade is meant to be kept on the "down low" as they are technically breaking convention center rules. Even if they are "free cookies."
"we're just doing what smalllady told us to do" - @Heels
I would love more support for eSports (LoL, DotA 2, Starcraft 2 . Either a pro tournament or more support for the community one (or both) with commentary would be incredible.
I think the difficulty is that the cookie brigade is meant to be kept on the "down low" as they are technically breaking convention center rules. Even if they are "free cookies."
I think it's more than just the Cookie Brigade. I mean, the Brigade was the only group this year that did actually get recognized and I agree, I would have liked to have heard from more of the groups that collected charity donations, along with a quick description of what Child's Play is. Not everyone in the crowd knows about it.
It certainly would have been a nice gesture on the part of the PA or CP folks to publicly recognize those folks who worked so hard to get donations.
From what I've always heard, PA tries to keep Child's Play a very separate entity. I seem to recall it being due to PR reasons, but I can't be sure. Something about not wanting the charity to be seen as tied to PA or PAX.
Every time you write parallel fifths, Bach kills a kitten.
3DS Friend Code: 2707-1614-5576 PAX Prime 2014 Buttoneering!
From what I've always heard, PA tries to keep Child's Play a very separate entity. I seem to recall it being due to PR reasons, but I can't be sure. Something about not wanting the charity to be seen as tied to PA or PAX.
I think they try to keep the monies and such as distinct as possible. They're big on the idea that it's a charity by gamers for kids, so building a wall between them wouldn't make much sense.
That being said, based solely on the quotes I've read in articles, I think they much prefer it to be a self-sustaining charity that's powered (in every sense of the word) by the community rather than "Tycho and Gabe's Pet charity." So that may also explain why it seems like there's a wall.
As for the downlow of the cookie brigade, I can totally see the problem, I'm sure there's a few technical health department codes being broken too. On the flip side, I'm not sure the WSCC really wants the press of shutting down a charity drive. But why risk it. So promotion of that one is really going to be on the PAX attendees. Of course I only saw 1 maybe 2 cookie brigaders my time at PAX, maybe I didn't wait in enough lines? If there were a twitters where I could whine incessently about my desire for fresh baked cookies and where I'm at.....?
make the expo hall smaller. absolutely do not expand it any more. go back to at least the size of the 2010 expo hall, i think the balance then was perfect. the expo hall closes at 6pm, but the con closes at 2am. that means the expo hall is dead space for 8 hours a day. it also eats away space from actual gaming areas like the pc, console, tabletop, and handheld freeplays. all of which are open until 2am. shrinking all the freeplay areas for a larger expo hall means that there overall is less going on, and less to do during pax.
I'm noticing quite a few responses in reference to Halofest, and how it shouldn't be brought back and all that space shouldn't be devoted to just Halo, etc. Am I wrong in assuming that Halofest was just a one time thing done this year to celebrate Halo's 10 year anniversary? I never got the impression that it was anything more than that, and I wouldn't expect it to be a continuing thing beyond this year,
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MonkeyConQuesoNo more MH ClawHappy handsRegistered Userregular
I'm noticing quite a few responses in reference to Halofest, and how it shouldn't be brought back and all that space shouldn't be devoted to just Halo, etc. Am I wrong in assuming that Halofest was just a one time thing done this year to celebrate Halo's 10 year anniversary? I never got the impression that it was anything more than that, and I wouldn't expect it to be a continuing thing beyond this year,
It was a one time thing. I assume that people were expressing their displeasure that there was space being used at PAX for the event, and that the area had a lot of un-used space that could have been for other (more?) things. Especially since it seemed that it wasn't all that popular (not my opinion).
My opinion is that it was perfectly fine where it was, but I would like to see the space better used in the future IF it's used again.
Of course I only saw 1 maybe 2 cookie brigaders my time at PAX, maybe I didn't wait in enough lines? If there were a twitters where I could whine incessently about my desire for fresh baked cookies and where I'm at.....?
PAX Prime '09 - H1N(erd)1 Survivor - Never Forget (Your Hand Sanitizer) PAX Prime '14 Omeganaut - Result: KO in 3rd Round (Damn you, Super Avalanche 2!)
I took the survey, but I have to say I think the thing was very poorly designed. Several of the questions seem flat out irrelevant, imho, and others make it sound like whoever wrote them doesn't understand what PAX is. Allowing only three choices in the "what's cool about PAX" question is shortsighted, because the majority of attendees would choose all of the above. Asking for a single reason why you'd recommend PAX to a friend seems to me to be very similar to asking "what's the best thing about being happy?" Duh.. being happy! (likewise, "because it's PAX.")
If I had any say in the survey content, I'd replace pages 1 and 3 completely with:
1. How many PAX have you been to before this one? (box for numeric input)
2. Will you PAX again? (y/n)
3. Would you tell friends to PAX? (y/n)
3.5 Did you already tell friends they should totally be at PAX WHILE you were at PAX, and they suffered in the eternal despair of not-at-PAX-sucker? (y/n)
This was my first PAX and my kids and I had a great time. I'd like to echo a lot of the sentiments already expressed:
1) Better line management for demos. I can see that a developer would like a line of some length to show popularity, but there must be a middle ground.
2) Encourage (require?) exhibitors to utilize space efficiently. The ME3 set up was interesting, but they could have fit another 8-10 stations in their Normandy mockup area.
3) Tighten up demo times. Rise of Nightmares was way too long, especially if the player didn't skip the cutscenes. I can get a good feel for a game in under 10 minutes. It also looked like the Skyrim demo let players customize their appearance. Was that the case? If so, that would drag out the demo time.
4) Consider where booths are being placed. The crowd around Minecraft was so large at times that it interfered with crowd movement.
5) Make sure that exhibitor/panel ancillary staff know what time it is. There was a very energetic woman trying to organize a Dragon Age trivia contest right before the doors opened for seating. As far as I could tell, she was there in an official capacity.
6) Figure out some way to improve wireless coverage in the center. Twitter feeds for line updates aren't useful if you can't access a network.
On the plus side:
1) Had no issues with Enforcers or attendees violating Wheaton's Law.
2) Loved the panels, especially Assassin's Creed and Dragon Age.
3) Got to meet Toby Turner.
4) Loved the cosplay. Kids and I are considering participating next year.
5) It was great to see Felicia Day, would be nice to secure her presence at future PAX (not just because my son has a huge crush on her).
6) Put Wil in the Main theater.
1) Better line management for demos. I can see that a developer would like a line of some length to show popularity, but there must be a middle ground.
2) Encourage (require?) exhibitors to utilize space efficiently. The ME3 set up was interesting, but they could have fit another 8-10 stations in their Normandy mockup area.
3) Tighten up demo times. Rise of Nightmares was way too long, especially if the player didn't skip the cutscenes. I can get a good feel for a game in under 10 minutes. It also looked like the Skyrim demo let players customize their appearance. Was that the case? If so, that would drag out the demo time.
I don't know, I think all three of these would fall under exhibitor choice. I can see limiting how much their line is allowed to spill out into "public" space, but aside from that I think they should have pretty wide latitude over what goes on in their booth.
Aside from killing closed booths (so I can at least see if the demo I'm going to wait four hours for is lame, or can just watch it for a few instead of waiting) I don't think PAX should dig too deep into their business.
I dunno. The first one I think could be something the Exhibitor should be held responsible for, since lines have become completely ridiculous as years have gone by. I remember just a few years ago when a 2+ hour line was considered long; this year 4 hours lines for demos were the norm, and it has definitely affected the ability to enjoy the Expo hall. I think if an Exhibitor is going to be presenting something that people will be lining up for they need to be responsible for line management, at least more than they are now.
The other two... yeah, up to the Exhibitor. We don't want this becoming a micromanaged clusterf%$#. On top of that, there's already encouragement to minimize booth space: the price you have to pay to get more than one "block" of space on the Expo floor.
And I can't agree enough with the sentiment that closed booths need to be banned, except for demos which aren't suitable for minors. Even then, closed booths should be kept to the minimum size necessary; otherwise it just causes more traffic issues and irritates gamers who want to know if its worth waiting in a multi-hour line for a damn demo.
I personally liked that Indie Alley was separate from the main hall, but there should have been a bit more persuasion to get people up there to check them out. I'm baffled that people didn't know where they were.
But they need more space. PAX 10 was crammed all together and Minecraft nearby made trying to check either out a challenge. The games along the walls though were perfect.
I was a bit sad to see most of the sumos missing, but I understood why. I like the new potato seats they had. One of my biggest irk with Sumos is that people take up 2-3 of them at times from either sleeping or plopping theirs on top of another, sleeping on multiple, etc. It'd be great if Handheld Lounge could regulate them a bit better.
Line management is a definite concern. The public walkways should be kept clear and moving. Nothings worse than waiting behind a group of people only to discover its a line for some demo you want no part of.
On the plus side of that, the Gears of War 3 lines were excellent examples where and when my group was there. The actual demo site had a line on their space and they waved people off when that line was maxxed. The other Gears spot was an audio headphone booth near the skybridge. they only let 5 pairs of people line up at a time and also waved others off to keep congestion to a minimum.
To those with sun aversion. Its definitely a fluke thing to have so much sun, but it happens. I've said it before I'll say it again. At the paramount exhibitors should prep and have water and parasols ready to go if its hot and sunny out. Heck, even having vendors out and about to purchase water would be a good thing as long as they dont price hike. Charging $2 for 20oz of water would be a violation of Wheton's Law.
Lastly, on a personal request... Maradine... please bring back Steel Battalion MetaCampaign. I will give money to make this happen in 2012.
Posts
1. Making people stand in line: The Sheraton was the worst for this. Now I remember last year, all of us crowding up the hallways, reaching the escalators, etc. I'm guessing the enforcers were a lot stricter this year because the Sheraton said something? This is going to be a difficult fix, I know. I don't blame anyone for this, especially after seeing how we cluttered that space last year.
2. Enforcers: Yes, many are great. I have noticed a growing trend with a few enforcers (seasoned ones, included) who take on this like "I'm part of the exclusive club here, I'm so awesome, you're less awesome than me" attitude and forget to treat attendees with the respect customers deserve. Some more emphasis on this training/mentoring considerable?
3. Forcing ppl at the front of the line to sit off to the right side when entering the Sheraton Pegasus: The Pegasus seating is divided by 2 long isles. WHY are we all forced to go right and then forced to sit in the rightmost section (not even allowed to enter the middle behind the VIP seating). People halfway back down the line are then allowed to enter the left long isle and get a better seat than those in the front half of the line. I was a little upset by this the 1st time. I was bewildered as I watched it happen to every line thereafter (I was there just distributing for CB). No-one has anything to lose by letting us enter through both long isles, or letting us move into the center from the rightmost isle if we decide we're more comfortable sitting behind the VIP than straining our necks looking in 1 direction for an hour. "It's going to be displayed on this screen, anyway" an enforcer tells me. I didn't wait in line purposefully longer to watch a screen. I came to a live panel to watch live human beings.
4. I'll gladly pay more for a more expensive badge if it is more difficult to counterfeit. Also, sob story or not, people know if they're buying from a scalper that they're doing the wrong thing. I know we all really want to go to PAX. Unfortunately it's just not possible. There is an official badge resell thread, lottery-esque as it may be. Maybe this thread needs to be better advertised for those no longer able to use their passes and wishing to sell them. Regardless, I don't think people with forged passes, sob story or otherwise, should have been given replacement real badges. Hell, the friend I was with had exactly the worst-offending forgery and was, without question, given a replacement badge. If a counterfeit badge was acquired through the official badge resell thread, well that's a provable electronic trail, so that person does have recourse and should still be allowed a replacement badge. Ppl caught with forgeries are fortunate not to be permanently banned.
At the end of the day many of the complains in this thread can be attributed to this issue alone, and so it does warrant stricter measures, imo. I know this year it was sudden you can't foresee and train for every eventuality.
5. Closing speech/Omeganaut final round: Biggest disappointment. Both were nearly non-existent. Speaking for just myself, I want to see people that raised money this year, people who have charity events planned later this year and info about them, special notes about especially awesome things from that PAX, closing thoughts and wishes, a longer omeganauts, etc. VT and Lexicongrrl got a cheer for CB and that was it. I know Mike and Jerry are pooped by that point, but I'd be happy to hear from Erica, or somebody else even!
6. Cosplay: There was a panel (I'd have loved to go to) scheduled at the same time as 2 ridiculously on-demand events. This does lend credence to the arguments that it is sidelined. I noticed my own disappointment at the lack of cosplay. To be honest, I don't even really feel comfortable cosplaying at PAX, and I don't, even though I have outfits to wear and have worn them at other events. To me, that speaks volumes on its own. Have an event running during the day and not conflicting with the headliners and there will be more cosplay. Have an ongoing event that is the product of constructive brainstorming, and there will be more cosplay. More cosplay has a positive con affect on almost every attendee AND the media. It's win win for nearly everyone!
7. Paramount: Is it possible to have the mics for voices turned up and other sounds turned down a bit? Also, big stretch here I know, but could we get some speakers placed further back so that the noise difference between front and back isn't so huge?
Question: Free cookies: Because they're free do they get to circumvent the convention center non-competition with paid vendors rule? It seems like, paid or otherwise, it's food and therefore competes and should be a violation of that rule. If it does break the rule, exhibitors need to be informed ahead of time of this fact. If it doesn't, well, fine, I accept the loss.
Pros:
1. No booth babes. (Yes, this is mostly a comment to previous posters.) I will spare you the stories of how I personally was affected as an impressionable young girl by putting unrealistic ideals of female beauty on a pedestal. I will say one of my earliest memories is of an amazing 80's commercial designed specifically to fight this growing trend, showing a model go through the before to after process (and this was before Photoshop became commonplace, even!). I don't even know what my self esteem would be like now if it hadn't been for that 1 commercial. Beyond just those who feel uncomfortable by it, or offended by it, PAX is an all ages event. Games are played by young, impressionable adults, and even children. Please don't take away one of the few last bastions where young girls might not be affected by booth babes.
2. Wolfman theater streaming. Awesome!
Suggestions:
PA panels beyond Mike and Jerry: Don't get me wrong, I love them and their panels, but with front page posts, PATV, books, and their now-extensive QA panel history, I feel there is much more QAing to be gained from a panel (in addition to existing M&J panels - I know, I'm just take take take!) with Kiko, Khoo, Erica, Child's Play, etc etc. I know most of these people are extremely busy during PAX, but it'd make me super super happy.
Post-PAX booth feedback channels on the PA website where exhibitors can get (desired - I used to coordinate our presence at trade shows, feedback's always a plus) feedback on what people like and didn't like about booths. A specific tool on the PA website would be great. Results could be sent to exhibitors and PAX fans feel like their voice is heard so it's a win for them, too! I mean, exhibitors can act or not act on it as they choose, unless some certain guidelines must be set.
Ok, maybe I wrote a novel (but after 5 pages of comments I had some to respond to). It's a bit of a stream of jumbled thoughts, and I will accept constructive help with stupidity in my post! It's now gone 6am, there's bound to be plenty.
->I wouldn’t mind seeing 2 levels of badging – for those of us that can prove we’ve gone to multiple PAX conventions – early admittance to the expo hall, no line waiting, exclusive swag or any other combination of perks. So it’s not leveled badging based on willingness to pay cash but more so based on the passion for the convention. These could also be raffled or gifted by the booth companies providing more exposure for PAX sponsors.
->LOVE the Paramount – definitely insanely better than the ‘other’ place. However is there any way to have the outside lines under a canopy or tent? Seriously, tons of pasty white gamers standing out in 75 degree blazing sun, or heaven forbid insane downpours, just says FAIL to me.
If the booths want to draw a crowd and pen them into cattle lines, they need to design that into their booth and pay PAX for that space.
->More seating in the corners and outside voids – for those larger or with back problems or health issues, having a place to sit and rest would be amazing – maybe with enforcers nearby to enforce a no plant rule, meaning you can rest for 5-10 minutes but then need to gather your stuff and be on your way. The few seats I did find had been claimed and were permanently occupied by the same person/people rotating in and out.
->MORE codes, brochures, website exposure. I read everything I get from PAX and visit the sites afterward, if more companies would do after the convention perks that could be awesome.
->I can’t imagine what sort of drain this puts on Penny Aracade Staff throughout the year, hopefully you have a team that all they do is handle PAX and have already begun planning next years. 1 – more updates on the PAX site would be fun. 2 – the threads this year were really quiet over previous years, not sure if this is because of stringent rules of the forums or what, but somehow encourage more open conversation online about PAX.
THANK YOU!!! Thank you to everyone who makes this amazing convention happen, it’s the highlight of my summer!
Another note - separate out PAX Prime and PAX East on the message boards so we can surf both but its not all so confusing.
There's really no need. Give it a couple of weeks and the Prime posts will die down while the East ones will ramp up.
It was nicer on the old forum system though, since you could tag threads Prime/East/Misc, and filter by tags.
We hope to have those back eventually, but there are higher priorities for the new forum software at the moment. Once the forums settle a bit, I'll be enforcing the manual insertion of [PRIME] and [EAST] into thread titles (which is what we did before we had thread prefixes on the old software).
I've volunteered for numerous orgs. I volunteer for Evergreen Hospital atm. I've always been given the same "customer service" training as when I was a customer service desk employee and supervisor. "They're volunteers" isn't an excuse to be disrespectful or unkind to convention attendees.
Now of course every situation has different respectful relationships. I wouldn't want enforcers to insert linguistic obeisance markers that also insert deferential distance because we're "customers". No, we're all friends here. But at the same time con attendees are "customers" of PAX, just as exhibitors are "clients". As an enforcer you represent the face of the convention, and attendees are paid customers of the convention. It is important as an organization for the Convention organizers to establish what face they want their representatives to corroborate. This is the essential base of the organization-customer relationship. I suggest mentoring a mindset of taking pride in professional execution of one's duties, volunteer or otherwise, even if "professional execution" in this situation means simply being respectful, friendly, and open. Especially when PAX is seen as a safe place for gamers to escape atmospheres of disrespect.
Note this doesn't mean you should ask your volunteers not to be "genuine". You just find the part of your own genuine personality that reflects these ideals and bring out that part of yourself for this task.
(Snipped Quote)
You're joking right? You effectively want to create a frequent flier pass for PAX? Will we get the red carpet that get's roped off when all the plebes try to enter the expo hall? I'm sorry if this sounds like I'm being a harsh silly goose, but as you could tell from reading some of my other posts, I think this type of elitism is something that needs to be avoided at all cost. It's the exact opposite of what PAX is about.
Re: @emimonster. You nailed it, being a volunteer doesn't entirely negate the employee/customer relationship. I've been a volunteer forum mod before (not here, spend some time googling me if you care). I was given slightly more leeway than the actual staff, but not much. The employee/customer relationship does vary with the culture of the organization/customer in question. I've worked at places where you were encouraged to joke with customers and act like fun was all around (note: JOKE not mock) and other places where it was all business all the time. IMHO, this is closer to an employee/customer relationship at a business (organization) with a laid back culture than anything else.
Plus they may be volunteers (in the strictest sense) but they do still work for PAX, meaning they represent PAX in pretty much every sense of the word. Not being paid does not dissolve the relationship present, inferred or otherwise.
1. Bring back sumo lounge.
2. Improve WiFi coverage for the con. If it's only going to cover about 1/3 of the con space, it's not really worth having.
3. new NON-HEADSET PAX12 item. You sold me a headset in 2009, I'm not going to buy another. Another point against the astros.. they were not branded with the 11PAX logo, so there's no incentive to buy them as the limited PAX item.
4. Don't give so much space to one game (halofest).
5. Keep up the merch for merch thing. I love the poster and patch and notebook.
6. Definitely use the Paramount again.
7. Continue streaming main events (concerts, omegathon, Acquisitions Inc, etc)
8. Give some time immediately before the omegathon final round for the bigger charity drives to give final totals and the like (Tri-Wizard Drinking Tournament, Cookie Brigade, etc). These people are putting hundreds of volunteer hours into raising money for Child's Play, least you can do is let them say their name and what they did from the stage. Gives them some publicity to help raise even more next year.
9. Rockband stage. I'd never get up there, cause that's not the type of game I like to play, but it's still fun to watch people rock out (even if they're crap at it.. as long as their having fun) while you eat lunch.
10. Tell exhibitors that if they want to have "be there to win" raffles, they need to include space in their booth layout for people to gather. Making enforcers cram people together as much as possible for every single raffle is not awesome for anyone.
11. Stop with the forced seating arrangements. If you're dedicated enough to be first in line, you deserve to pick your seat, not get shoved into the far corner because that's the most efficient way to get everyone in.
1) The lineups for the concerts was really poorly done. I feel bad for Supercommuter, since a lot of people left after JoCo. I feel like they would have done a lot better on Friday night with music that is more similar to their style and VGO should have been on Saturday like in Boston. In any case they certainly shouldn't have been last. It was a big mistake.
2) Lines outside the Paramount in the sun were pretty crazy. Waiting for the final omegathon round in the sun nearly killed me, and definitely gave me a sunburn. If it had been raining would they have moved people inside somewhere? The outside line doesn't seem like the best idea.
3) The Expo Hall, despite being so much larger was constantly more crowded than I've ever seen. Closed booths are dumb and shouldn't be allowed. There were lines in the expo hall that were 4 hours long, that's insane. I understand the wait for some things like Riot was showing Dominion and those games will be about 20 minutes from champ select, but booths where you're just watching a video? C'mon now. I ended up not playing any demos in the expo hall because I didn't want to wait multiple hours in line.
4) The firefall stuff was definitely excessive. It's not going to make me not play it, but seriously please don't do that again. Even in the bathrooms?
5) Bring back Rock Band!
Overall PAX remained awesome, but there were problems.
10. This already happens and this is how it ends up. Back in ~2007 this didn't happen and it was terribad. I'm not sure it can get much better than this.
A combination of having no other possible space and what the city would allow created this outside line. If it had been raining, the people queuing would have gotten wet as there was quite literally no inside space available for us put them. If we had inside space available, the queue would have been there already. Also, except for the added help of the street being closed, this is how lines at the Paramount work all the time: stand in line outside in the wet/sun/etc.
"We know that the moment we slip, it will be taken away... and so it is of the utmost importance to be worthy of it constantly."
PAX will always be held on the best weekend for PAX. Sometimes that will be a bad weekend for you; I'm sorry.
With that said, is it feasible to extend the hours of PAX? Starting at 10a and ending at 6p just felt too short. I'd have liked an extra hour in the morning or two in the evening.
Sorry in advance for the wall of text.
What I didn't like:
-Wasted space. There were some exhibits that ended up utilizing space very poorly. In the case of Mass Effect 3, this ended up being their 'briefing' room, which could have easily been consolidated into their 'viewing' room. This also could have increased players per session and decreased line wait time. Don't get me wrong, the setup was cool, but not worth waiting two hours.
- There was some definite Firefall overkill. With that said, I DO want to try the game now. So... Misson accomplished? Either way, seemed like a lot of real estate for any one game to possess.
- Panel start times. This wasn't a gigantic issue, but it WAS irritating. Most of the time we'd be let into the Paramount with only 5-10 minutes or so to be seated, after which the panel would start a little late. I understand from a logistics perspective, some of that can't be avoided, but it'd be nice to get in 10-20 mins ahead of start time to get situated, fill the building, etc. This would be nice, especially considering the long wait to get in.
- Vendors. I understand that exhibitors like Chessex etc. aren't there for charity. They are going to sell things. But some of the booths that were there solely as merchants struck me as oddly unnecessary. This space could have been used for more worthy causes like BYOC or CFP.
- The Assassin's Creed "pre-order for swag" setup struck me as tacky. I don't really know why.
- Scalpers and forgers. There's not much I can say that hasn't been said regarding this. I think an oddly-shaped badge would cut down on counterfitting, however.
What I liked:
- Line Entertainers. From the pipe cleaners to the power glove to the beach balls, it was priceless, and necessary given the length of some lines. I don't know what you guys are taking to keep up that enthusiasm, but it's working!
- Halo Fest. It seems like I'm in the minority here, but I really enjoyed it. It was cool talking to the people running the Fest as well as seeing the Halo-themed exhibits they had there. I could see someone disinterested giving the place a cursory 15-20 minute walkthrough, but I genuinely believe I could have spent an entire day there. There was depth.
- The Paramount. The theater was generally amazing and the food they served was like manna from heaven. (Did you try their freshly made grilled cheese sandwiches with bacon? OMFG DELICIOUS.) After a two hour line with no chance to grab breakfast, this was a life-saver.
- The open-floor scheduled demos (Prey 2). They scheduled demos that anyone could just walk up and watch/take part in, and gave out shirts/swag to the people who stayed til the end. It was a smart use of space and a great way to publicly showcase your game to a larger audience. People walking by casually could take part.
"We know that the moment we slip, it will be taken away... and so it is of the utmost importance to be worthy of it constantly."
PAX will always be held on the best weekend for PAX. Sometimes that will be a bad weekend for you; I'm sorry.
Makes sense. Maybe with the extra crowding they weren't as apparent to a passer-by
Are you referring to the expo hall specifically? because PAX is open from 10am to 2am on Friday and Saturday. Sunday is the only "short day" for the entire convention. The expo hall is the only part with the hours you mention on each day.
Yes, I'm referring to the actual exhibitions. Most days I was there longer than 2am!
I highly doubt the expo hall will be open any longer. The people working booths are already putting in 10+ hour days
This reminds me of a conversation I had in the DnD area.
Person: What is that?
Moi: Oh, that's a Cookie Brigade member. They will give you delicious cookies and if you want, you can make a donation towards Child's Play.
Person: *blinky* What's Child's Play?
More formal and high-impact announcements not only publicize the good work of fundraisers, but the fact that, you know, Child's Play exists and is a good thing for people who only sometimes read the comics and aren't as deeply involved in the PA community.
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I think it's more than just the Cookie Brigade. I mean, the Brigade was the only group this year that did actually get recognized and I agree, I would have liked to have heard from more of the groups that collected charity donations, along with a quick description of what Child's Play is. Not everyone in the crowd knows about it.
It certainly would have been a nice gesture on the part of the PA or CP folks to publicly recognize those folks who worked so hard to get donations.
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I think they try to keep the monies and such as distinct as possible. They're big on the idea that it's a charity by gamers for kids, so building a wall between them wouldn't make much sense.
That being said, based solely on the quotes I've read in articles, I think they much prefer it to be a self-sustaining charity that's powered (in every sense of the word) by the community rather than "Tycho and Gabe's Pet charity." So that may also explain why it seems like there's a wall.
As for the downlow of the cookie brigade, I can totally see the problem, I'm sure there's a few technical health department codes being broken too. On the flip side, I'm not sure the WSCC really wants the press of shutting down a charity drive. But why risk it. So promotion of that one is really going to be on the PAX attendees. Of course I only saw 1 maybe 2 cookie brigaders my time at PAX, maybe I didn't wait in enough lines? If there were a twitters where I could whine incessently about my desire for fresh baked cookies and where I'm at.....?
It was a one time thing. I assume that people were expressing their displeasure that there was space being used at PAX for the event, and that the area had a lot of un-used space that could have been for other (more?) things. Especially since it seemed that it wasn't all that popular (not my opinion).
My opinion is that it was perfectly fine where it was, but I would like to see the space better used in the future IF it's used again.
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There is a twitter feed for http://twitter.com/#!/cookie_brigade... Hey, brigadiers: Is that that feed monitored for requests during PAX?
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If I had any say in the survey content, I'd replace pages 1 and 3 completely with:
1. How many PAX have you been to before this one? (box for numeric input)
2. Will you PAX again? (y/n)
3. Would you tell friends to PAX? (y/n)
3.5 Did you already tell friends they should totally be at PAX WHILE you were at PAX, and they suffered in the eternal despair of not-at-PAX-sucker? (y/n)
1) Better line management for demos. I can see that a developer would like a line of some length to show popularity, but there must be a middle ground.
2) Encourage (require?) exhibitors to utilize space efficiently. The ME3 set up was interesting, but they could have fit another 8-10 stations in their Normandy mockup area.
3) Tighten up demo times. Rise of Nightmares was way too long, especially if the player didn't skip the cutscenes. I can get a good feel for a game in under 10 minutes. It also looked like the Skyrim demo let players customize their appearance. Was that the case? If so, that would drag out the demo time.
4) Consider where booths are being placed. The crowd around Minecraft was so large at times that it interfered with crowd movement.
5) Make sure that exhibitor/panel ancillary staff know what time it is. There was a very energetic woman trying to organize a Dragon Age trivia contest right before the doors opened for seating. As far as I could tell, she was there in an official capacity.
6) Figure out some way to improve wireless coverage in the center. Twitter feeds for line updates aren't useful if you can't access a network.
On the plus side:
1) Had no issues with Enforcers or attendees violating Wheaton's Law.
2) Loved the panels, especially Assassin's Creed and Dragon Age.
3) Got to meet Toby Turner.
4) Loved the cosplay. Kids and I are considering participating next year.
5) It was great to see Felicia Day, would be nice to secure her presence at future PAX (not just because my son has a huge crush on her).
6) Put Wil in the Main theater.
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I dunno. The first one I think could be something the Exhibitor should be held responsible for, since lines have become completely ridiculous as years have gone by. I remember just a few years ago when a 2+ hour line was considered long; this year 4 hours lines for demos were the norm, and it has definitely affected the ability to enjoy the Expo hall. I think if an Exhibitor is going to be presenting something that people will be lining up for they need to be responsible for line management, at least more than they are now.
The other two... yeah, up to the Exhibitor. We don't want this becoming a micromanaged clusterf%$#. On top of that, there's already encouragement to minimize booth space: the price you have to pay to get more than one "block" of space on the Expo floor.
And I can't agree enough with the sentiment that closed booths need to be banned, except for demos which aren't suitable for minors. Even then, closed booths should be kept to the minimum size necessary; otherwise it just causes more traffic issues and irritates gamers who want to know if its worth waiting in a multi-hour line for a damn demo.
But they need more space. PAX 10 was crammed all together and Minecraft nearby made trying to check either out a challenge. The games along the walls though were perfect.
I was a bit sad to see most of the sumos missing, but I understood why. I like the new potato seats they had. One of my biggest irk with Sumos is that people take up 2-3 of them at times from either sleeping or plopping theirs on top of another, sleeping on multiple, etc. It'd be great if Handheld Lounge could regulate them a bit better.
On the plus side of that, the Gears of War 3 lines were excellent examples where and when my group was there. The actual demo site had a line on their space and they waved people off when that line was maxxed. The other Gears spot was an audio headphone booth near the skybridge. they only let 5 pairs of people line up at a time and also waved others off to keep congestion to a minimum.
To those with sun aversion. Its definitely a fluke thing to have so much sun, but it happens. I've said it before I'll say it again. At the paramount exhibitors should prep and have water and parasols ready to go if its hot and sunny out. Heck, even having vendors out and about to purchase water would be a good thing as long as they dont price hike. Charging $2 for 20oz of water would be a violation of Wheton's Law.
Lastly, on a personal request... Maradine... please bring back Steel Battalion MetaCampaign. I will give money to make this happen in 2012.
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