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[EAST] BYOC Feedback
Wobbit
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
What a mediocre experience.
When I first arrived I saw Kyle "Turk" sitting behind an admin desk and knew it was going to be a good LAN. After talking to him and learning that he wasn't running the BYOC area I was skeptical. That skepticism turned into disappointment real quick.
SCHEDULING
Nothing was planned, everything was last minute. There was no schedule. I asked "Big Red" where can I find a schedule of events and he said to follow this twitter account. Just looking at the feed you can tell how terrible the BYOC was.
The only game that was played by the majority of the LAN at the same time was UT. And that was only about 40 of us. The winner of the largest BYOC event(next to the raffle) only got a shitty mouse too. Try your hardest to beat 40 other gamers and get a 3 year old logitech mouse....shweet...
SECURITY?! LOL.
I was happy with the upc check in, but that was it. People were free to walk in and out with anything that wasn't a tower or a monitor. My friend got one of his prizes stolen and the 15 year old kid next to us got his only prize stolen. I felt bad, it was the 15 year old's first LAN, he wins a prize and it gets lifted. So I gave him one of my prizes
ANYWAY, force UPC labels on prizes and expensive equipment. Force security/check-in to take brand names for everyone's peripherals. Make it known that if you didn't claim it coming in you can't take it out. Check backpacks coming and going. Only ONE entrance.
What I expected/should be done next year
Kyle "Turk" running the event. Ban "BigRed" from anything that requires responsibility.
After EXPO hour events.
@6pm the biggest reason to be at PAX shuts down. From 6pm-Closing, it's the BYOC area's time to shine. Run planned events with prizes through the night. Play free games that anyone can download, play popular games that everyone should have. Run mini-tournaments for each game. Give us a reason to stay....I was on facebook and reddit more than I was gaming at the BYOC.
"Big Red" needs all his admining privileges revoked and that stupid cape doused in gasoline and burned. All in favor of Kyle "Turk" say I.
When I first arrived I saw Kyle "Turk" sitting behind an admin desk and knew it was going to be a good LAN. After talking to him and learning that he wasn't running the BYOC area I was skeptical. That skepticism turned into disappointment real quick.
SCHEDULING
Nothing was planned, everything was last minute. There was no schedule. I asked "Big Red" where can I find a schedule of events and he said to follow this twitter account. Just looking at the feed you can tell how terrible the BYOC was.
The only game that was played by the majority of the LAN at the same time was UT. And that was only about 40 of us. The winner of the largest BYOC event(next to the raffle) only got a shitty mouse too. Try your hardest to beat 40 other gamers and get a 3 year old logitech mouse....shweet...
SECURITY?! LOL.
I was happy with the upc check in, but that was it. People were free to walk in and out with anything that wasn't a tower or a monitor. My friend got one of his prizes stolen and the 15 year old kid next to us got his only prize stolen. I felt bad, it was the 15 year old's first LAN, he wins a prize and it gets lifted. So I gave him one of my prizes
ANYWAY, force UPC labels on prizes and expensive equipment. Force security/check-in to take brand names for everyone's peripherals. Make it known that if you didn't claim it coming in you can't take it out. Check backpacks coming and going. Only ONE entrance.What I expected/should be done next year
Kyle "Turk" running the event. Ban "BigRed" from anything that requires responsibility.
After EXPO hour events.
@6pm the biggest reason to be at PAX shuts down. From 6pm-Closing, it's the BYOC area's time to shine. Run planned events with prizes through the night. Play free games that anyone can download, play popular games that everyone should have. Run mini-tournaments for each game. Give us a reason to stay....I was on facebook and reddit more than I was gaming at the BYOC.
"Big Red" needs all his admining privileges revoked and that stupid cape doused in gasoline and burned. All in favor of Kyle "Turk" say I.
Wobbit on
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Wait, what do we post if we don't want to say "I"? This contest seems highly unorganized. All in favor of ignoring @Wobbit say "Aye".
Well I can understand it to a point "Big Red" is the reason I stopped doing BYOC, but I also seem to be the only person who doesn't love every enforcer just because they volunteer to wear a red shirt.
I love a good argument. The point you make is impeccable. I might have to rethink my initial statement.
Badged BYOC attendees were able to walk in and out because this isn't fort Knox. Nothing that was barcoded/tracked was stolen. If you are seriously concerned about a piece of hardware please make sure it's barcoded.
2) I had an elaborate schedule planned out but the network issues made me reorg that last minute. If we had a reliable router, networking hardware, and networking team, I could have done my-every-2-hour contests like I planned. Next time if we have a useful network we could probably have stayed on schedule and I would have been able to do events every couple hours.
3) I am sorry you are unhappy with the prize you got but I can't give CPU's and SSD's to everybody. On the other hand, everyone that got a prize seemed to be happy at the time.
4) it's obvious you are affiliated with Gxl but coming onto the forums to blame and flame me for issues that I had no control over is kind of a bad move. I am sorry you were not happy with the network or the prize you won but you should reply to the main BYOC thread and read existing comments before replying. Particularly when network was the source of the majority of our problems.
2) I have never experienced LOCAL network problems at any other LAN. The worst thing that happens is the internet goes out, which doesn't effect games played on the LOCAL network. How many days did you have in advance to get that all set-up and hammered out?
3) I didn't win the UT prize, I was just shocked that the player that won beat 40 other gamers for a mouse. That's more participants than your photoshop, hard-drive shuffle, or your blind-folded FPS, what did they win? I came in SECOND in the photoshop contest and got a GTX 560ti....lol
4) I'm not affiliated with the GXL at all. I attend LANs up and down the east coast, from Toronto to Florida. I live in NJ so I've obviously been to every GXL, hence why I am friendly with Turk. The GXL has always been run smoothly with VIDEO GAME events/tournaments taking precedence over GOOFBALL contests like hard drive shuffle board. We're here, and we paid, to play VIDEO GAMES together...
And after the expo closes is about time when the concerts start to line up, which is a another big reason for people to go to pax.
Your not gonna find the pitchfork mob your looking for. Big Red did what he could with the circumstances that occurred out of his control.
1) we were asking people if they had anything they needed to check out. We can't really legally search bags. That was the best we were allowed to do.
2) Trust me, I know. However we (PAX didn't setup the network. GXL was responsible for the network) couldn't really help that. . Again nothing I could do about that except escalate it, which I did, to one of the penny-arcade PAX managers.
3) I guess this is your first PAX. PAX is not about Tournaments. We do not reward "l33t gamers". I would rather give prizes to people who have equal chance. This is why a lot of the larger prizes went to the raffle.
4) again PAX is not about tournaments. The goofball things are what make PAX fun. I am not going to apologize for this. If you want hardcore tournaments there are MLG events you could attend throughout the USA.
BYOC = "Bring Your Own Computer"
Why BYOC? To play video games on it, against/with other BYOC attendants. I'm not expecting "1337" tournaments at PAX. I'm expecting a group effort to play the same game, maybe a prize goes to the better players. It's the LAN admins that are responsible for leading the BYOC herd to the same game. Set up servers, release a time sheet explaining what games will be played at what time. It's a BYOC to play video games at a video game convention.
I agree that the internet issues were kind of terrible but seeing as how it's not a place built to be a LAN, it could have been better, but shit happens.
I think there should have been more contests and prizes overall, even for more goofy stuff. I didn't feel it was worth sticking at the BYOC during the expo hours, I should feel compelled to stick around. That's how it was at 2010 PAX East.
Hopefully since this is the same location it'll be at next year, it'll allow for better planning.
This was my second time doing BYOC and I think you've done a great job both times. The BYOC isn't really meant to be a huge LAN party. It's more of a side thing from the main event. Both times I've gone it's been more fun little games to win prizes than actual tournaments.
There were plenty of LAN servers running. BYOC doesn't mean "Bring your own computer and win a bunch of stuff." If you want to win oodles of prizes then go to GXL or PittCo or something. The BYOC is mainly there to have fun and do stupid shit.
Thanks to big red and all of the admins for all of the hard work!
Red doesn't wing it he does a hard job. yes security was flimsy this year (c'mon our back wall was a curtain for god's sake) and that needs addressing but back the f*ck up off his cape for the network problems.
Enough white kniting.
Giving feedback is important, but burning Red's cape is just petty. I don't know Red well. He might not be among the best event runners, but I suspect if the internet was up, there would have been quite a bit more going on. He's affable, and I hear he works his butt off. That automatically makes him better than many, since the combination of "hard worker" and "not a jerk" is uncommon. He is also highly visible at a distance! I have to wonder what Turk would have done for a big Starcraft 2 tourney if the internet was crap and he had no budget for bringing in replacement equipment (like a box full of mifi's). Even if he had a more entertaining solution than Red, the SC2 tourney itself would still be a failure.
As for prizes, who cares? Prizes are pure bonus. BYOC is not even a contest, so I don't know why we're even talking/complaining about prizes. I have a laptop, and walked out with a bling fan. That's infinitely more than I expected to win. I also don't think prizes should be skill based. You said you felt bad for that 15-year old who lost his prize (admittedly tragic). Did he beat 40 people to win it? Would he have won anything at all if it was all skill based?
Even most of the valuable prizes are useless to many of the people in the room, whose machines outclass the prizes. This is probably especially true among the people most likely to win 40-man tourneys. They don't need these prizes. L33t gamers don't need more pats on the back, and I don't think you can blame PAX for what its sponsors are willing to provide.
My favorite "win" was when Red did a personal judging of who had the crappiest headset in the room. The winner was using a decrepit piece of plastic that barely stayed on his head. The headset he won might not have been the best headset in the world, but it was infinitely better than what he had. After the win, everyone encouraged him to go Office Space style on his old headset.
I'm not suggesting we pretend nothing was wrong. Even though this was my first BYOC, I definitely sensed it was a train wreck. I think this year demonstrates they really need to come up with an "internet fail" backup plan. Have some LAN-capable games on network shares and backup event schedules ready to go. Heck, maybe even have a "none of our networking equipment works" backup plan. Be prepared to go Tabletop if literally nothing else works. It's highly unlikely, and even if it was fun, it would suck on principle, but it would be better than having nothing work AND no plan.
But...as bad as it might have been, it was still good enough to leave a positive impression on a newcomer. I was just happy to not lug around a backpack all day. I imagined it could have been better, though. Most of those scenarios involve a functional internet connection. And that was out of his control. I'm sure people who had better experiences in previous years were a little bummed. Some people spend a lot of time and/or money, and go through a lot of trouble to bring their rigs to the show...I'd say it's important to complain to whoever you gave your money to, because it's the money-people's job to correctly identify problems and solve them. That might be by replacing Big Red, but I suspect it will have more to do with guaranteeing a more reliable network.
They aren't going to replace Big Red. He's the the guy who makes BYOC happen. Frankly, I don't think it would be "a thing" at all without him.
So get that madness out of your heads now.
Relevant info: #PAX East: 3 Coin Lunch organizer. 2012 Trading card available. Pokecrawl Assistant 2012. Pokecrawl attendee 2011. Cult of the Leaf attendee 2012.
I also enjoy the goofball tourneys, they give everyone an equal chance so as to not get stomped on by a good gamer in every shooter.
I don't think that it's fair to blame Red for all of these issues. THAT's why I thanked him in the other thread. Not because the LAN was perfect, but because he did what he could with what he had.
Seriously? PAX is NOT a LAN event, and I certainly don't want a BYOC schedule that treats it as such. I am at PAX to see new games, play tabletop games and magic, and a million other things. If I stop by in the 2 hours I have free between Expo Hall and Magic and D&D and Omegathon or whatever else, I don't want everyone else to be playing a single game. I like being able to grab a group of 6 or 10 people and play some quick MNC, or just jump in Minecraft for awhile. I like the crazy, off-the-wall contests. Aside from the music (looking at you, Vapok and BigRed), one of my favorite games from last year was Robot Unicorn Attack. I haven't done the hard drive shuffleboard, but the paper airplanes and the blindfolded FPS and everything else is a blast.
Red B/Gold Professor
[15:53] <+juju-work> ArsonIsFun is one of the best people I know.
Try reading my posts. From 6pm till closing BYOC should have a set schedule of events. Events that revolve around playing games on the computer that you lugged into the con. You know that big thing made of metal and magic that you drove to Boston.
So you paid for a place to hang out for a couple hours? Makes complete sense. Especially after all great things I heard about the previous PAX East BYOCs..2011..2010..when people actually played games.