For whatever reason, Prime 2012 did not have that problem. It was sold the same way as East, and was packed every time I was there. I hope that some simple information changes can improve turnout for East.
From what I hear, the network was great this year, so hopefully that will bring some faces back as well.
What a fantastic weekend!! How about that network team? *standing ovation*
Couple notes that I wanted to pass along regarding things that happened this year.
1) I apologize for the Drop Off issues on Friday morning. There are a lot of pieces involved when trying to coordinate something as "rule breaking" as having a special entrance for a small portion of people to use. The groups that needed to know were the Enforcers, PA staff, MCCA staff, MCCA Public Saftey, and MCCA Transportation Department. As far as whom Enforcers can even talk to, our options are pretty limited. So the issue Friday morning took some time figuring out. There were even some emotional conversations that occurred that I attempted to smooth out, that I think I did.
For the Sunday Drop Off, I personally made sure that there weren't going to be any issues and posted an Enforcer at the door to alert me if there were. My understanding, load out was a non-issue.
2) Wanted to touch on a question above regarding no-shows. The answer is, yes, we had some no shows this year. I have my assumptions as to why there were so many, but I have no hard evidence as to why we had so many. I assume that the badge mailing delay caused a few people not to get badges in time, and opted not to stand in line at Will Call to sort it out.
3) How'd everyone like our new check-in software and procedure? I think it felt less chaotic than in years past, and was a pretty smooth process all together. We had some slight issues with the Seat picking and then making sure that people got in their right seat, but over all, I liked the idea of people being able to pick their own seats. The labels were awesome! It helped us identify who's equipment was whose easily without the person even being there.
4) Give @s7arbuck a round of applause. He did a great job running the contests. Anyone have any suggestions or feedback so that we can be even more awesome-er at Prime?
On a personal note, I wanted to say that I really enjoyed getting to talk to several of you this year. I always enjoy meeting new people, and I had some really engaging conversations during the show regarding ways to improve BYOC. Trust me when I say, your voice is being heard. But I'd like to hear from more of you. Please feel free to email pax_pc@penny-arcade.com (which will eventually route to me) or me directly at vapok.pax@gmail.com (remove all dashes).
Already looking forward to Prime!
So what was my favorite thing that I saw in BYOC? Two things:
1) The air ship case. Just amazing!
2) I REALLY enjoyed the "Case Building" contest that Corsair put on. That was really fun to watch.
Thanks Vapok! As I said in the other Thank an [E] thread, I managed to leave Baltimore without a mouse or keyboard. The awesome guys at the PC Help Desk were kind enough to loan me ones for the weekend that are nicer than what I have at home (all they needed was a drop of blood, my driver's license, and mother's maiden name).
We didn't have any issues coming across the skybridge from the Westin around 8:30 or so Friday morning, which was a great way to start off PAX. There were a couple little hiccups with the sticker printing, but that's probably just because I was among the first group in and the little server crashed. I missed the Presence that is Big Red in BYOC, but S7arbuck did a great job running things - no network issues FTW!
My biggest regret is that I didn't get time to play any LAN games this year. Some of our friends didn't get a BYOC badge, and we ended up sticking as a group most of the time and doing Tabletoppy things. Didn't even get in a single game of Robot Unicorn Attack! Next year I will have to change that.
flatline on
East 2014 Status: Badge [ Friend got it ] Hotel [Crappy] BYOC [YES] Transport [ ] Name on Forum Badge [ ] Challenge Coin [ ]
Yeah a lot of people purchased it because it was next to 3 day pass this year and thought of it as a locker, but then never even used it.
I had a BYOC seat, my poor laptop sat down there lonely without me the whole time. I ended up consumed by Cookie Brigade stuff and literally only actually sat at my computer once all weekend.
I missed BYOC.
I also kept hearing how awesome BYOC was this year too. So jelly.
There were even some emotional conversations that occurred that I attempted to smooth out, that I think I did.
My bad for getting that guy's panties in a bunch. Didn't make it easy on you, Tried to follow the "Don't be a dick" rule, but it was hard when he wasn't!!!
2) I REALLY enjoyed the "Case Building" contest that Corsair put on. That was really fun to watch.
I'm still calling foul that I got a bum screwdriver....and I had to do it on the floor.....and I was up against kids.....and ....and... But Corsair did hook me great this weekend! Even threw in Vengance1500 for the defective screwdriver!
With everything said...Kudo's to @Vapok@s7arbuck and the rest of the BYOC team! Great BYOC this year!
Pax East 2014 checklist:
3 Day Pass [X] - BYOC [X] - Accomodations [X] - Travel [ X ] - Time Off [ X ]
+2
sary100% pure awesomesaucemanchester, nhRegistered Userregular
thanks for the great time!
even with the new system throwing issues, y'all were awesome friday morning - which meant i actually got to see the expo hall, the rest of the weekend it was just too crowded for me to navigate).
also a bunchton of thanks for understanding and helping me with trading that case i won. i could barely push it a couple inches across that cement floor (which made it kind of hard to be excited about winning it at the time. i could write an essay about how my back issues make every unplanned thing a hurdle, but you'd just skip to the tl;dr anyway ) now i have a snazzy new tweaked xbox controller. and that's awesome.
only thing i'd like to see is perhaps a bit more communication out during the con - i'm thinking namely of twitter, seems the byoc_east account got no use during pax proper... unless you had a friend in the byoc area, there was no way to know when a lot of the non-traditional (like hdd shuffleboard and such) contests were starting.
other than that, no complaints. allay'all enforcers are awesome
only thing i'd like to see is perhaps a bit more communication out during the con - i'm thinking namely of twitter, seems the byoc_east account got no use during pax proper... unless you had a friend in the byoc area, there was no way to know when a lot of the non-traditional (like hdd shuffleboard and such) contests were starting.
I'll take the blame on that one. I hadn't had time to communicate to S7arbuck the information for the twitter account, and I was too busy with other things going on to drive it myself. My hope is that the BYOC Contest crew will manage that account going forward.
Also, sorry about misspelling your name, and then frackin' mispronouncing it during the raffle. All the 's to you though. Enjoyed having you out and glad you could make it!
Vapok
0
sary100% pure awesomesaucemanchester, nhRegistered Userregular
Also, sorry about misspelling your name, and then frackin' mispronouncing it during the raffle. All the 's to you though. Enjoyed having you out and glad you could make it!
no worries, i pretty much thought it was hilarious (mostly because i feel like i look a lot more welsh than i do any sort of asian. could have been worse, you could have put 'wang'!)
Posts
From what I hear, the network was great this year, so hopefully that will bring some faces back as well.
Couple notes that I wanted to pass along regarding things that happened this year.
1) I apologize for the Drop Off issues on Friday morning. There are a lot of pieces involved when trying to coordinate something as "rule breaking" as having a special entrance for a small portion of people to use. The groups that needed to know were the Enforcers, PA staff, MCCA staff, MCCA Public Saftey, and MCCA Transportation Department. As far as whom Enforcers can even talk to, our options are pretty limited. So the issue Friday morning took some time figuring out. There were even some emotional conversations that occurred that I attempted to smooth out, that I think I did.
For the Sunday Drop Off, I personally made sure that there weren't going to be any issues and posted an Enforcer at the door to alert me if there were. My understanding, load out was a non-issue.
2) Wanted to touch on a question above regarding no-shows. The answer is, yes, we had some no shows this year. I have my assumptions as to why there were so many, but I have no hard evidence as to why we had so many. I assume that the badge mailing delay caused a few people not to get badges in time, and opted not to stand in line at Will Call to sort it out.
3) How'd everyone like our new check-in software and procedure? I think it felt less chaotic than in years past, and was a pretty smooth process all together. We had some slight issues with the Seat picking and then making sure that people got in their right seat, but over all, I liked the idea of people being able to pick their own seats. The labels were awesome! It helped us identify who's equipment was whose easily without the person even being there.
4) Give @s7arbuck a round of applause. He did a great job running the contests. Anyone have any suggestions or feedback so that we can be even more awesome-er at Prime?
On a personal note, I wanted to say that I really enjoyed getting to talk to several of you this year. I always enjoy meeting new people, and I had some really engaging conversations during the show regarding ways to improve BYOC. Trust me when I say, your voice is being heard. But I'd like to hear from more of you. Please feel free to email pax_pc@penny-arcade.com (which will eventually route to me) or me directly at vapok.pax@gmail.com (remove all dashes).
Already looking forward to Prime!
So what was my favorite thing that I saw in BYOC? Two things:
1) The air ship case. Just amazing!
2) I REALLY enjoyed the "Case Building" contest that Corsair put on. That was really fun to watch.
Safe Travels home and See ya next year!
Vapok
We didn't have any issues coming across the skybridge from the Westin around 8:30 or so Friday morning, which was a great way to start off PAX. There were a couple little hiccups with the sticker printing, but that's probably just because I was among the first group in and the little server crashed. I missed the Presence that is Big Red in BYOC, but S7arbuck did a great job running things - no network issues FTW!
My biggest regret is that I didn't get time to play any LAN games this year. Some of our friends didn't get a BYOC badge, and we ended up sticking as a group most of the time and doing Tabletoppy things. Didn't even get in a single game of Robot Unicorn Attack! Next year I will have to change that.
I had a BYOC seat, my poor laptop sat down there lonely without me the whole time. I ended up consumed by Cookie Brigade stuff and literally only actually sat at my computer once all weekend.
I missed BYOC.
I also kept hearing how awesome BYOC was this year too. So jelly.
With everything said...Kudo's to @Vapok @s7arbuck and the rest of the BYOC team! Great BYOC this year!
3 Day Pass [X] - BYOC [X] - Accomodations [X] - Travel [ X ] - Time Off [ X ]
even with the new system throwing issues, y'all were awesome friday morning - which meant i actually got to see the expo hall, the rest of the weekend it was just too crowded for me to navigate).
also a bunchton of thanks for understanding and helping me with trading that case i won. i could barely push it a couple inches across that cement floor (which made it kind of hard to be excited about winning it at the time. i could write an essay about how my back issues make every unplanned thing a hurdle, but you'd just skip to the tl;dr anyway
only thing i'd like to see is perhaps a bit more communication out during the con - i'm thinking namely of twitter, seems the byoc_east account got no use during pax proper... unless you had a friend in the byoc area, there was no way to know when a lot of the non-traditional (like hdd shuffleboard and such) contests were starting.
other than that, no complaints. allay'all enforcers are awesome
PAX East 2012 Omeganaut. Awesomest. Time. Ever.
I'll take the blame on that one. I hadn't had time to communicate to S7arbuck the information for the twitter account, and I was too busy with other things going on to drive it myself. My hope is that the BYOC Contest crew will manage that account going forward.
Also, sorry about misspelling your name, and then frackin' mispronouncing it during the raffle. All the
Vapok
no worries, i pretty much thought it was hilarious (mostly because i feel like i look a lot more welsh than i do any sort of asian. could have been worse, you could have put 'wang'!)
PAX East 2012 Omeganaut. Awesomest. Time. Ever.