We spent the vast majority of our time in the tabletop area. This was our sixth PAX.
Not enough tables/chairs. I know others have said this but it bears repeating. Even after getting a game, it was extremely difficult to find table space to play it. The tabletop play area was far, far, too small for the number of games available to check out.
Not enough seats for panels. Again repeating others for a good reason. We had anticipated attending at least one panel every day, but with the panel queues reaching capacity 60 to 90 minutes in advance it simply wasn't possibile. It almost seemed like either 20% too many tickets were sold, or the venue was just plain too small for the attendance.
Poor library layout/access. We met great folks from both the CGS library and The Games Capital at their WinterCon show, the weekend prior to PAX. I'm saddened and dismayed that games went missing and/or were damaged at PAX. That makes it really hard for then to justify the time and effort to continuing supporting PAX. In my opinion, the library was a bit to "exposed" allowing bad-intentioned people to make off with games before anyone noticed. At Prime, the liibrary is in a walled room with only two exits, both monitored by Enforcers, to stop petty theft from occurring.
The Big Top area was too loud and smoky. Having food vendors on-site was a major improvement over Prime, but having them basically in the same "room" as tabletop/roleplay/console/handheld freeplay made it kinda rough on those of us with athsma issues. Also, with all of those elements combined, the room's noise level was on par with the expo hall. One if the reasons we tend to favor tabletop is because the expo hall is so loud - our group actually refer to it as "the hall of noise".
Overall, it was a great first year. A larger venue, or capping ticket sales at about 80% of what they were this year, and segregating things a bit better will make it even better.
Overall I am glad that I had the opportunity to go, but am disappointed too. This was my first convention of any type so I can only comment on how I expected it to be.
My thoughts:
• My primary source of disappointment comes from the fact that the theatre/halls were way too small. For many of the talks/panels I found that you needed to line up for in excess of an hour—some of them 1.5-2 hours and that didn't even guarantee you a spot. I was expecting to go from panel to panel all weekend but I only ended up getting into 2, over 3 days. The size of the Main Hall was great, and what I expected every talk/panel to be like. It sucks that so many people had to miss out like I did.
• I can only assume that the talks/panels were recorded given the cameras that were in the room at the time. It would be great for these to be made available online for the people that missed them. Even if it's only for PAX attendees for X number of weeks. As someone who went to the Expo to learn about developing games, I came away with very little.
• While the queuing organisation got better as the days passed, it was still subpar. They wouldn't have necessarily been a problem had the size of the venue catered to its audience a lot better.
• The Expo Hall was fun to walk around, but again, it was hard to get a go on a lot of things because they weren't rotating enough.
• The Jousting was great fun, it always drew a big crowd up the back and once you'd gotten the courage to play it once, you were addicted!
• I was hoping to come away with loot but was disappointed to see hardly anyone was actually selling stuff. I don't know if this is how PAX rolls, so it's only my expectation that people would be selling their wares if they were available. Games, hardware, merchandise, I wanted to spend money! Freebies would have also been nice.
• The attendees were all pleasant and I didn't see/experience any trouble at all.
• The Enforcers were generally helpful but when it came to the queues were a little clueless sometimes.
• More seating was required for eating. The food selection was good (as far as I was concerned).
• Some bigger developers would have been nice, just like what you see at PAX Prime/East. I get that it was the first year so many devs probably weren't keen on coming all the way out here without some idea of how big it would be. I was personally impressed by Nintendo and Ubisoft's presence and set up. While not my cup of tea, Riot Games put on a massive show with LoL. It was constantly packed and had activity going on.
• The public transport around the event was underwhelming. It was near impossible to get a taxi and the trams were choccers, leaving you waiting in the cold rain for up to an hour!
If I had to pick only one improvement it would be to over-cater for the attendance to talks/panels so everyone who is interested doesn't get turned away like this year—it left a very sour taste in my mouth. All in all, to have an event like PAX come to Australia is awesome, so I really hope it improves and keeps on happening!
Firstly, a huge thanks to everyone involved in bringing PAX to our wet and windy radial-azimuth of the globe.
My feedback as follows, mostly echoing above comments:
- Lines.
- Waiting in lines for a long time, and still missing the cut.
- Missing the cut, but not knowing you've missed the cut.
- Lack of under cover seating around food vendors.
+ Good food.
+ Good public transport to and from.
! So many people. Wow.
+ The Enforcers (visibly) worked hard, often in difficult or confusing circumstances. (Where there were multiple Enforcers working one event over a sizable area they could have used someone walking back and forth just to keep all the Enforcers up to date.)
+ The covered walkway between the sheds was a great relief at times. Highfive to whoever thought of doing that.
- The Indie Arcade was too cramped. Too squished together. A little too cheek-to-jowl.
+ Joust was fun to watch.
+ Great to see all those old consoles.
! More of everything in the Exhibit Hall would be cool.
+ Best cosplay: Fionna the Human
Much of the time I was at PAX I wondered why it wasn't being held at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. It's a much bigger space, all under cover, and right next to central Melbourne. Cost? Gnarly restrictions or rules? Already booked out?
I'm ready and keen to go again next year, regardless of where it's held or what the weather is like, but this subtle jerky gesture I'm making with my head is a friendly hint that I'd love to see the next one at the MC&EC.
Hey there, I'm just writing to give some feedback on my experience at PAXAus 2013.
For some background I'm 31, live in Melbourne and this is my first PAX event, but one of many pop culture expos I've been to in Melbourne. I attended on all three days.
Off the bat, I can easily say this is the best run pop culture expo that I've seen in Melbourne, well done. The showgrounds isn't a perfect venue and video gamers aren't famous for their patience so I think the complaints about lines were unavoidable. All lines I encountered seemed organised and safe.
My biggest request would be free drinking water. I'm not sure why, but there appeared to only be one very small drinking fountain on the entire site, which I would have thought would not even be legal for an event of this size. Maybe there is a reasoning behind this absence, but not being able to fill up my water bottle would be my only major gripe.
Something that has been on my mind is a way to alleviate the tedium of waiting in a line, the cookie brigade seemed to target these lines and they helped as a distraction somewhat. Personally, I think queues are a self made problem, if nobody queued, there would be no queue. But I feel that if people lining up for panels is something that can't be avoided, is there a way to make this less boring?
My experience of the main expo hall was positive, though my interests in PAX did not lie there. Traffic seemed a little congested but okay, the booth babes were unfortunate but hopefully the vendors will learn, the big vendors weren't actually THAT overbearing, and I figure they're a necessity to allow smaller vendors. Which brings me to the good stuff. More Indie. I want more indie. By far the most interesting stuff on the floor in the expo hall was this. I think the size of each stall was appropriate but just want to see more open more slots, more titles.
Personally I think retail spaces are a waste, but this may only be my opinion, and these vendors may be required to float other smaller vendors, and if that's the case, a necessary burden. So no big complaint there.
JSJoust was great, not sure if this can be a fixture but it was a highlight for me and was very easy to get in on a game, a nice little salve given the amount of time you would have to cue anywhere else in the main floor to get some gaming time in. I hope this returns for 2014 even though sports friends will have been out almost a year by then.
Enforcers. They all seemed very friendly and positive in my interactions with them. Their helpfulness/knowledge varied a lot, but I think they were good enough for a first con, I imagine most will return and will retain and share their knowledge so it will only get better. I think a little more confidence in an Enforcer can do a lot to quell "these people don't know what they're doing" comments.
Social Networking. Surprised this wasn't taken advantage of more. The PAXAus hashtag was being used a lot by the attendees, who were posting a lot. And the posts were majority positive across the board, but the official social networking accounts @PAXAus, @OfficialPAX and @TT_HQ didn't seem to tweet much at all nor retweet these positive tweets. Seems like a lost opportunity to me, as busy as everyone would be, a specific social networking manager could capitalise on this, not to mention share what is going on and where along with sharing a lot of the great photos, especially cosplay, this can also lure people to under populated areas in the con and new experiences. Just the act of official accounts retweeting encourages attendees to tweet because they want to be retweeted, all of this promotes the show to the attendees and everybody else on twitter.
The goodwill is already there in the hashtag and the tweets are free.
The Big Top. Easily my highlight for the entire con. The TT HQ crew did a stellar job, friendly and helpful. The three different enforcers I spoke to on different occasions recommending games knew their stuff and all gave solid recommendations (I tested them myself!). Tables filled up quick but players did move on there wasn't a horrible amount of 'table camping' but there was a little. This seems to me to be unavoidable though. I probably spent %70 of my three days in the table top freeplay area, and given the attendee numbers for this con, an increase of %20 in the table space in the freeplay area would easily be filled in my estimations from seeing the number of players trying to get a table. And given the positive buzz from table top free play this year there will be an increased interest in the area next year.
Other Big Top things, the MtG booth wasn't too obtrusive, its not my thing but the magic fans seemed to be having a really good time. Slight frustration, seeing empty magic tables (that were exclusively for magic) while magic was being played on non magic tables, no easy way to avoid this without interrupting gamers but its frustrating to see for us fans of the less competitive side of gaming.
Only real complaint, that @TT_HQ twitter account was dead quiet the whole con, this is covered above in social networking tbh.
Hope this feedback helps, plenty more I could say but this already seems ridiculously long.
Thanks for all of your efforts, it has been great and I'll be back next year without a doubt.
I found the whole con to be very enjoyable and spent most of my time in the big top with MTG only one thing dissapointed me which was the pax XP game in the app you where promised a "sweet pax xp cube" but when i handed in my phrase that i spent awhile collecting all i got was two jubes (american lollies) as it was quite late in the convention i thought they must of run out of product to reward people with so i asked about it and got snaped at that this was what it was and felt very cheated. I dont know if you did have something else for completed phrases or if it was always jubes and if it was i think listing them as pax xp cube wasnt a very good way to go about it.
Echoing everyone else - great job guys! I've organized several events in Australia so I know how challenging something like this can be. Australia doesn't do large events like the US does and there really aren't any "perfect" locations for something like PAX - especially near a CBD. The Showgrounds was a good compromise. For a first go, this was a good job.
Improvements:
1 - network connectivity. WiFi was an issue, but so was mobile data. Basically, several of the networks were "overloaded" as people used mobile phones to get online when WiFi wouldn't connect. It got better as the show went on, but this needs to be thought through a bit better in order to enable...
2 - stream the talks. At the very least have a few screens around the big top and other larger scale congregation points. Riot did this really well for their LoL stuff - maybe get them to help? But since we all have iPads and smartphones (smartphone adoption % is insanely high in Australia) it would be great to watch the talks if you can't get in.
3 - Eliminate queuing. Use an app to "register" for a talk. Use GPS to determine if a registrant is at the talk. If there are extra seats someone in the waitlist will get notified via push. Easy and you'll solve the issue with queue space, which also frees up an entire room (the entry room). Also, same for food - there's a company here called BeatTheQ (there are several that do this) which lets you order food (pay) from your smartphone and get notified when its ready. This will also solve the "Cash Only" problem.
These three things will fix a LOT of other issues and make the conference much easier to manage.
Discrider, I'm really disappointed to hear this. I know the team you speak of who won the competition and I will be definitely bringing that back into planning and debriefing meetings. As with my thoughts above this is only my thoughts but to hear this, I am really saddened by this. We understand many people did not like the selection of games. Ultimately we went with the more popular selections at the moment, however if you've got suggestions, once I know what's happening with 2014, I'll gladly open a BYOC COMPS 2014 thread to get ideas and game selections off you guys the players to make it better.
Look, I don't want to come across like I blame the winning team for my bad time. It's cool that they organised themselves and came to PAX knowing what they wanted to achieve. It's just a bit sad that they were the only team to do so, and thus didn't have adequate competition on the day.
As for solo BYOC problems, I think this could be fixed easily enough with some variation in the events run. What happened this year is everything was competitive, more or less (Minecraft looked like the exception here). That is, you have a fixed ruleset with eliminations that rewards skill in the game with progression through the event. This is strongly focused on people who have already played the game a lot and new players or solo players in team competitions get pushed aside for those who are prepared. And this is fair enough. But you can balance this with events for the new or solo players as well. Have strictly random team tournaments with small participation incentives over 1st place prizes. These could be either team vs team or time attack co-op. Run silly variants of the game (like you did for the Minecraft tourny) where skill in the game doesn't necessarily afford you an advantage because everyone's being thrown in the deep end. Just encourage people to play together (or play at all) in these over dissuading them from even joining because they know that they can't even compete.
The big problem with the BYOC was that it only drew off what you brought to the convention yourself rather than also connecting you with the other PAXians like other parts of the show (board game freeplay, panels, expo hall), so I wound up spending more time in these other areas because I could effectively BYOC at home after PAX.
Hello all,
I read the PAX Australia Forum leading up to PAX Aust and i only regisetered today in response to this thread. I attended PAX Aust for the full 3days and came across from Perth with a bunch of friends.
Lines; I lined up 6 times on Sunday and only saw 4 things, quite easily lining up longer than the time i saw panels. I just wanted to get that out there before I comment, as I am not thrilled to line up like most of you. Lines are a part of life and possibly new to many people attending Cons of this size, I only managed to see 4 panels over two days of trying. If you ever go to San Diego Comic Con, take a tent as the lines for some of their talks begin in the weeee hours of the morning. Increasing the venues will mean more people get in, sure, but more people will line up, more tickets will be sold, so it will even out to some degree.
- the best way to fix this was mentioned earlier and was to have some, if not all, panels filmed and televised somewhere else, perhaps a F&B mess hall type area.
- have all people queuing people counted and have clear signage stating that this is the end of the 'gonna get in line' this will remove some of the lining for nothing.
The actual convention was aces!! Loved it
Board/Tabletop area was great, I have to agree more actual free space and less reserved. Enforcers were great and always helpful Video Games I am more of the tabletop/boardgame gamer, so it was a little disappointing that there was very little of this in the Expo Hall, i understand that Video Game companies as a general rule have more cash to throw around, so hopefully next year. Alcohol I love the suggestion of a temporary beer garden, even if it only operated from 5pm-1130pm (or after expo hall hours) MERCH I really wanted to spend more money at PAX, but there was no First Party merch, so now i have to order online. Winter and on the same time as SDCC, please move the date, July is friggin freezing and i felt sorry for many cosplayers. I would suggest Spring, but the AFL grand final is during this time, so may not work either
not sure if the above even counts as constructive feedback. . .or just a rant LOL
Had a good time at PAX (first one) but as others have said it’s a learning experience for them down under. Hope to see an announcement for the next one and to improve from what they had this year.
Things that could have been added/improved:
• Game Stores - Surprised there were no game stores at a games expo. EB Games, Game, JB Hifi etc could of made a killing.
• Lack of Merchandise Stores - Comicon last year had so many in a much smaller venue and I must of spent heaps last year. Only saw probably 3-4 stores throughout the 3 days at PAX.
• Theatre Queues – One of the biggest annoyances was the queues for the theatres since they also bottlenecked the main tunnels getting to the Expo Hall, Big Top and to the Queue Room.
• Rome II Presentation – Such a small presentation for such a big game to come out, must have been 20 seats at least and the queue was always long.
• Ubisoft – Video corner too small, not enough seats and you ended up with people trying to get glimpses of Watchdogs/Black Flag etc from far back.
• Microsoft Booth – Why even bother, just an empty area of nothing unless the XBOX ONE is transparent.
• Trains – Why they stopped the service for most of the day I have no idea, since it’s probably one of the easiest modes of transport back to the CBD. I usually ended up getting taxi back while watching others get a tram.
• Eating Area – Not enough tables and chairs for people to eat in the warmth. So it was either outside where people had to use their wits and ninja skills to battle the winds, the cold and the seagulls!
• Schedule – Let’s be honest, it took forever to get a full schedule to be released (literally on the last week). Get a bigger line up and get more AAA publishers/developers to show off those smexy games you saw at either PAX Prime or E3.
Things I liked:
• RIOT – They had the biggest stage in the Expo Hall and really impressed everyone whether they’re new to the game or veteran players. They were constantly giving away prizes to the crowd, cosplayers were rewarded too, and they even got random people from the crowd to battle against the Riot staff.
• Big Top – The Relax area and the tabletop areas were always packed and it was nice to see people enjoying themselves.
• Indie Developers – They really outshined most of the big publishers at PAX and really amazed me how enjoyable some were. I’d have to say Assault Android Cactus and Infinity Wars left the biggest impression, I know a lot mentioned Particulars as well.
• Oculus Rift – There were quite a few booths that had one or two and it was great way to get a demo of the early stages of what the future holds.
One thing that's unfortunate, reading the folks that talked about being bored in lines, is that at the USA PAXes there's an entire Enforcer department dedicated to line entertainment to solve this precise problem. I believe it was cut for PAX Aus due to being heavily understaffed, but rest assured that it's a thing that does exist. I would expect it to make an appearance next year if enough new Enforcers volunteer.
As far as merch goes, since I've seen this brought up a bunch, in general PAX is not a merch heavy con. There are definitely more merch places at the USA paxes, but those are also much larger venues. When space is tight, I would expect things like merch to be the first thing thrown out the window.
One thing that's unfortunate, reading the folks that talked about being bored in lines, is that at the USA PAXes there's an entire Enforcer department dedicated to line entertainment to solve this precise problem. I believe it was cut for PAX Aus due to being heavily understaffed, but rest assured that it's a thing that does exist. I would expect it to make an appearance next year if enough new Enforcers volunteer.
As far as merch goes, since I've seen this brought up a bunch, in general PAX is not a merch heavy con. There are definitely more merch places at the USA paxes, but those are also much larger venues. When space is tight, I would expect things like merch to be the first thing thrown out the window.
All good, I played Penny Arcade Good vs Evil 4 player until my iPad ran out of power......great fun timesink
bring your own computer section just didn't really work, not sure how t make it better
My personal thought on this matter is, when 3DY & Single day passes sold out, all that was left was BYOC. The BYOC passes were more expensive than the 3DY passes however people who missed out on them bought them instead. This meant many BYOC passes were snapped up by non BYOCers in my opinion leaving many empty seats. I had many competitions planned for BYOC that ultimately had to be cancelled due to lack of people. I've spoken to our PAX contact and shared my thoughts, hopefully next year we'll have it far more awesome. Let me tell you though, we had a "Last Man Standing BYOC Rock/paper/Scissors" contest that was positively hilarious.
Thanks! I'll be BYOC next year and participate. I was a bit unsure this year but I'll give it a go and try and contribute to making the area work.
- It would be amazing if there were places to charge your phone. Pretty much everybody I know had issues with phones running out of batteries later on in the day.
- I didn't play as many games as I would have liked. After PAX I went to Cydus internet cafe and had a few games of LoL - would be amazing if you liaised with local net cafes for some post-PAX fun.
Good show! Would attend again
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Redlance71Victoria, AustraliaRegistered Usernew member
I heard mention that the event will most likely not be held at the same time next year. I'd suggest maybe the Australian summer?
While it would be great for us to show off Melbourne at a better time of year, I don't think summer is the time for it. I've attended conventions in summer in Melbourne. Arcanacon has been running on the Australia Day weekend for over twenty years. The weather can be moderate, but it can also be blisteringly hot.
At Arc, I've participated with 140+ people playing Warhammer 40K on two consecutive 40 degree days. While everyone managed to maintain civility, it was not the best atmosphere. Imagine queueing for 2 hours, with 4000 people, for a panel...either in the makeshift tent-halls, or in the sun...
I know, its Melbourne (if you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes) but I doubt anyone would enjoy a PAX in those conditions.
Another thing Arcanacon does well is the availability of alcohol after 5/6pm on the Saturday. It has always been well managed, and I've not heard of anyone getting carried away...but I cannot say it has never happened. I haven't witnessed problems amongst the wargamers...and if there were going to be problems, I think that's where they'd be. We can be a surly bunch.
Arcanacon is nowhere near the size of PAX though. Managing the provision of alcohol at such a large event would probably not be worth it. Not to mention, if a 375ml water is $5, imagine what a beer or a cider might cost?
Yes to Autumn or Spring. Winter also works. No way to Summer.
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Blake TDo you have enemies then?Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.Registered Userregular
The location I feel was the biggest issue.
Holding it at the show grounds meant space had to be dedicated to both food and food seating as there was really nowhere to go for food outside the con. Compared to prime where you just left the convention, grabbed something and came back in. This leaves more space for other stuff. Holding it more centrally in Melbourne makes it way more practical for people to get there. I was seeing people who stayed closer to the convention unable to get on the tram as it was so full.
Additionally talking to Khoo he said it was odd seeing everyone leave at six. This was because we all had to eat.
Circular tables are technically better, but when you are so tight on space the rectangular ones were better.
This isn't penny arcade's fault. But the lack of presence by Sony and Microsoft was extremely disappointing.
Everyone, including penny arcade and the exhibitors under estimated demand for things to purchase.
Again, I would have liked to see more pen and paper presence at pax.
The wifi network was so useless it would have been better not to even have one.
It would have been nice if Brian looked less disgusted when he signed my stomach.
Edit: A dedicated arcade section with proper old school arcade cabinets for the next PAX would be pretty awesome. Set up a bunch of machines near the relaxation/lounge area for a bit of casual play, or do a tournament thing with them. Lots of possibilities.
What a great idea. Nice seeing pinball machines there (first time my son had seen and played one) but an old school arcade would be awesome.
One other thing just occurred to me. At PAX Prime the queue room had a looping but very long video playing. Was basically random chats between Gabe and some fictional character and playing Zork. Was amusing and helped pass the time nicely without resorting to a DS.
As far as merch goes, since I've seen this brought up a bunch, in general PAX is not a merch heavy con. There are definitely more merch places at the USA paxes, but those are also much larger venues. When space is tight, I would expect things like merch to be the first thing thrown out the window.
Glad you mentioned this, because I thought it was v. strange walking around a gaming convention that didn't sell games. I actually went there hoping to find a couple (possibly discounted, ho!) but all I saw was a T-shirt stand and that's about it. Going from Oz Comic-con where you're drowning in merch, to this – it felt bizarre. I'm hoping to see at least one retailer there next year (I'm sure you could boot another company wasting their space, COUGH INVISIBLE XBOX COUGH).
Big Top was the highlight for me. Retro consoles rocked, couldn't believe I was playing 4-player Mario Kart 64 in 2013, loved it! Handheld gaming section cushion-bag-things worked quite well, although it made me laugh when you get up for 3 seconds, turn around and someone's pinched your cushion. More cushions next year!
As someone who placed in the semi-finals at the Mario Kart 7 tournament – worked beautifully + looking forward to next year's! I do have a few suggestions for future tournaments though (this coming from a MK enthusiast/crazy fan/madman).
1. I recommend having matches play in the best of 3. A lot of Mario Kart revolves around item luck/proper usage as well as track experience, so sometimes all it takes is 2 blue shells and it's essentially over (at least in 1v1 it is). At least in best of 3, you have a much, much better chance to recover from a single mistake or item unluckiness.
2. In addition to the 1v1 tournament rules, I'd like to see additional tournaments at different times of the day with 2v2, 3v3 and above. Or even preferably have a free-for-all 8 player tournament! I, and a lot of the competitors I spoke to, were actually expecting an 8 player tournament when we got there. And even though 1v1 turned out quite well, encore different-bracket tournaments and 8 player craziness would help people who are not able to show up at precisely 2:30pm.
3. Speaking of the time, according to the board the tournament was supposed to go for 2 hours. This simply wasn't so. After about 30 minutes (if that), the brackets were filled and the winner announced. As much as I love the idea of a single 1v1 tournament deciding the champion for that year (seriously, keep this), it's also disappointing that nothing is organised after this. I'd rather see matches announced every 15 minutes all day, so, you let people sign up for racing groups on the whiteboard, then those 8 or so people wander off in one group until their numbers whittle down to like 4, then they can return to the whiteboard to replenish numbers. It's strange to me that it was easier to organise 4 player Mario Kart 64 matches than it was to get a roster of 8 for MK7, when plenty of people were on cushions, racing.
4. Wi-fi. Had so many problems connecting to this, no matter what device I used (3DS, tablet, phone). Suspected there might be a connection overload. Hope it's fixed for future events!
Oh, and Nintendo had a really good expo. Enforcers there were really nice, games played beautifully, only downside is no Mario Kart 8 demo!
Had a lot of fun! Looking forward to next year :-)
As far as merch goes, since I've seen this brought up a bunch, in general PAX is not a merch heavy con. There are definitely more merch places at the USA paxes, but those are also much larger venues. When space is tight, I would expect things like merch to be the first thing thrown out the window.
Glad you mentioned this, because I thought it was v. strange walking around a gaming convention that didn't sell games. I actually went there hoping to find a couple (possibly discounted, ho!) but all I saw was a T-shirt stand and that's about it. Going from Oz Comic-con where you're drowning in merch, to this – it felt bizarre. I'm hoping to see at least one retailer there next year (I'm sure you could boot another company wasting their space, COUGH INVISIBLE XBOX COUGH).
At PAX East, I don't think there was a single company selling video games other than some retro game traders. There are usually a handful of tabletop vendors, and occasionally some general nerd merch vendors (thinkgeek, etc), but I don't think there's ever been a retail video game vendor at any PAX that I can remember.
I think the idea is (and I am speaking totally hypothetically here, I don't know what the pax organizers think for certain) about trying to maximize utility for attendees. Most people have a local video game store near where they live, it's not really a thing you need to "travel" for (at least not in the US, I don't know about Aus I guess). Lots of people don't have board game stores though, or direct access to places like thinkgeek or behemoth. If I saw an EBgames at PAX, I would consider it 100% wasted space versus other things that could be included. It's "just a store". There's nothing unique about it. It doesn't add anything to PAX that isn't easily accessible outside of PAX. Also while I agree that the Microsoft booth was probably not a great use of space, if you were just presented objectively with "would you rather have a microsoft games booth or an eb games store at pax?" I think most people would pick the microsoft booth, since it has the potential to bring something they aren't getting elsewhere (even if they don't live up to that potential).
Finally registered here to give feedback on this amazing experience.
Good stuff first of course!
Pros :
Coming at all, like Tycho said in today's news post.. we're used to people passing us by.
The board game library is amazing even if I didn't get to play much.
Anthony, who was running some old style D&D games near the Pokemon booth ran absolutely the most enjoyable game of D&D I have ever played.... Tame owlbear cubs and my character becoming a Lich!
The guys running War Machine did a great job at teaching me to play, even if I had to sprint off for the closing ceremony.
Indie game section was great, lots of fascinating games.
Props to Riot and Wargaming.net, two companies I don't enjoy the games of but did an amazing job on their presentations.
Brilliant selection of delicious food.
Cos' We Can made me realise I actually can cosplay
Enforcers did an amazing job.
Fire JENGA! Booooooo Desparious!
Cons :
Not enough space in the theatres, not to mention freezing to death in the queues.
Booth Babes, primarily the cop pair.. the others around were fairly reasonable.
Not enough seating, ATMs or rest areas.
Lack of vendors and loot. My wife and I deliberately brought 2 empty suitcases anticipating spending a LOT of money on cool games, etc, and of course free stuff... very few vendors as it turned out, and only Penny Arcade themselves were selling things I couldn't get at my local gaming store.
Lack of major names and devs, I think this corresponds with my next point.
Setting it for the same weekend as SDCC.
Malifaux "L2P" guys not turning up AT ALL.
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BekerChild's Play Program DirectorSeattleRegistered User, Penny Arcade Staffregular
Regarding PA official merch and XP swag. There where scarves and show shirts left over at the end, I saw the merch team filling boxes with them, a rarity at the American PAX's. They did indeed run out of pins early, but this is also only the second Pinny Arcade PAX. How many pins to bring is still something Merch guy Brian is working on. And he will figure it out, he is good at his job.
Far as the PAX XP rewards, we generally see a couple hundred people complete the PAX XP challenge at Prime and East. We started with 1000 XP cubes, I guess they figured that was a safe bet. When those ran out we handed out sticker packs, then we moved to Precipice 3 steam codes. By rough count we had over 3000 people complete the challenge, not something I think they could have predicted for such a small PAX. Rest assured, message was received, and I expect Info Booth will have an ample supply of rewards next time for whatever the next challenge is.
Far as what exhibitors do, or put in the swag bags, that is completely up to them. Whether they have stuff to sell, freebies, raffles, or just a both, isn't something PA has control over. That being said, maybe some of them read these, but telling them directly what you want from them might be more effective.
-Beker/Erick
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QuestorPAX Aus Tabletop [E]Melbourne, AustraliaRegistered Userregular
Beker is there any way for those of us who attended but missed out on pins to get hold of any, short of ebay?
Were there spares made but not shipped I guess is what I'm saying
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Blake TDo you have enemies then?Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.Registered Userregular
I was talking to Jeff (I think?) and I asked him what was to happen with the pins they receive from trading and he said they will stick them in a grey box sale or something. (So maybe ask Brian?)
First off, thanks for even coming out here. I had a great time, and it's wonderful that you did this. That said, is there room for improvement? Yes.
1. This is my big one, and it's not PAX Aus specific: Please, please improve and post up your Rules of PAX. Yes, I know, the rules are there somewhere. But we can't see them, so what we have is on the back of the pass. And as they stand, they're not a policy, they're just bravado, a statement of 'This shit will not stand'. I don't mind the current rules as a summary, but on the website or somewhere needs to be more. What constitutes harassment? Who gets to make the calls on whether something is a violation of the rules or not? What is the process for appeals? What does 'be dealt with' entail, and what punishment is appropriate for what offence? (Also, resist the urge to go all zero tolerance! That shit never works well!) And, something not even covered by a word in the current rules is kinda crucial: What records will be kept? What's the policy on reporting, and disclosure? It's not like Penny Arcade Expo hasn't had problems with this.
Like I said, I'm fine with the current rules being the summary. And really, guys, you're streets ahead of most of the cons out there already. But on the website, somewhere, we deserve to know what shit won't fly, what protections we're entitled to, and what we can expect to happen to wrongdoers.
2. Look, bigger theatres won't solve the line problems entirely. As supply increases, the value of waiting in line improves, and more people will line up. My recommendation is signpost the queues better. You know the queue lengths, and you have enforcers doing the counts. Put up big signs saying, "You are unlikely to get in past this point!" Make it clearer when the line has hit terminal, and people can shrug and say "Oh well, dang," and go do other things. It's cool! Waiting in line is the price you pay for a panel. Nothing you guys can do is going to change that. But you can stop people lining up for forty-five minutes for the geek parenting panel being told 'you're in, it's cool' and being turned away in the end. You can stop that.
3. That said? Yeah, bigger theatres.
4. The tabletop area was fantastic. That was the highlight of PAX Aus. It was just wonderful, the library was terrific. But yes, I'd agree with those suggesting fewer dedicated tables and maybe some table reservation scheme. Consider an electronic booking system: Book a table to play X at this time, and even let others sign up for it. Wanna play some Commander? Book a Magic the Gathering exclusive table, and anyone wanting to play Commander can sign up online!
5. Mind you, as many others have said, the Wi-Fi was kinda spotty at best. Seemed to improve as the con went on though. But it would be great to improve the wi-fi overall since many of your mechanisms for informing con-goers depended on internet access.
6. I suspect strongly next year won't be at the Showgrounds. But if it is, please put up a covered walk-way between main area and Skippy theatre. Melbourne is known as the rainy city for a reason.
The rest is all stuff I can't verify; I never saw the alleged booth babes, though if they were there, yeah, get rid of them. Enforce your policies and all that. And look, none of this can take away from one point: I saw Ron Gilbert be given a Guybrush Threepwood voodoo doll. I will remember this stuff. You made it happen. Thanks, guys.
(But for real: Get the full harassment policy up and going.)
Edit: Oh, heck. Such a simple one that I can't believe I didn't think of it:
7. Strive hard to improve your gender equity in the panels. Only 15% of the panelists at PAX Australia were female, as I understand it. Even the library panel was only 40% female! These are libraries! Now look, I get that the panels get submitted, and you might say, "Well, we work with what we have." But y'know what? That should be part of the job: Making the panels good is one of your jobs, but so is making the panels diverse. You have the platform to give voices to everyone, and that's a responsibility. Try hard to get 50% of the panelists for 2014 be female. Even if you don't succeed, if you can get that number up to 30% or higher, you can show progress. Given the very real issues Penny Arcade has shown with equality and diversity issues, this is a place to push back and improve.
Firstly, I had an amazing time. I didn't have any problem getting into the make a strip, and it was amazing.
Everyone has gone over the big issues. Suffice to say, the size and layout had some issues. It's the Mk I of PAX AUS so that's expected, I imagine they didn't even know for sure the response they'd get when they booked it, or when the advertisers booked into the expo. So expect Sony to buy in next year, having seen how well it did to show off their competitor's products. So I'll just leave all queues, food, seating, water, etc comments.
I was pretty sad to miss out on an XP cube, and of course I only found out right at the end. I was doing this lunch time on Saturday so they must have gone pretty quick! We love treasure-hunt/scavenger hunt things in Australia, they are a staple of university/college orientation weeks and student weeks.
On the Merch front, Australia is very different from the US. If I wanted to buy Paint The Line on the penny arcade store, I'll pay $30 US for the product, and $21 US for the shipping. Not much you can do about that, but it means that people won't be buying single items on your store to ship to Australia. So they'll buy it at PAX. I only got a Saturday ticket, and by Saturday many of the items were sold out. I did buy paint the line, and it was great to see them sold at basically US price. If you bring merch next year, and sell it at US price, you will sell a lot! I could see Robert on Saturday talking to a lot of people at the Merch stands, probably marvelling at the thirst of Australians for your strange American trinkets. On a side note, you guys no doubt have working relationships with companies that sell stuff at PAX EAST and PRIME. I know it was the prototype, so you had nothing to base it on, but if someone brings US products here, and sells them at US prices and they are aimed at PAX goers, they will sell a LOT! Robert - I don't know how feasible it is, but you could consider using PAX staff to sell products for some of these companies if they are unwilling to send staff here, and taking a cut. I imagine that penny arcade could consolidate a lot of products into shipping containers to send here, and you guys could take a fair cut for handling the sales. But they should see hopefully from this year's PAX that there is a thirsty market. On the $20 US to $30 AU shirts (not penny arcade products) that will have an effect! If it can retail with staffing etc at $20 in the US, then Australian's will see $30 as profit-taking. Hopefully that was just to test the waters on demand.
WRT booth babes, I think it's great you guys had a dress code and enforced it!
I was only there Saturday, but it's good to see wargaming fixed the "problem" they apparently had on Friday, I agree on the trivia question. Be classy wargaming.net, and people will thank you for it.
Whoever organised the display Aussie indie developers. BRAVO!
It was great to hear about all the projects, some of which were simply staggering. I'm looking at you Armello.
I will definitely be back next year, a three day pass if I can get my hands on one, or perhaps as an enforcer!
EDIT: Oh, and the table top area was the highlight. I got time on some gaming tables, and hats off to the dedicated guys/girls running warma/40k/etc games! You guys did a phenomenal job!
I really enjoyed PAX, was well worth the trip down from Brisbane. Had a fantastic time, with my only grumble (and this being a minor one) that there didn't seem to be any organisation in the Wargaming / RPG area. I would love to see some form or organised play next year (Something like book a spot using the App / internet / go see someone at a desk to get in on a game, be it D&D Next, or any other RPG).
I was also keen to check out Malifaux (the Learn to Play session) and my partner and I went along to both the Saturday and Sunday sessions and were unfortunately disappointed.
Tabletop library was awesome. And the guys from GoodGames and Games Laboratory were great (a few times we played a game at the library, decided it was awesome and went and threw money at these two stalls to purchase said game). Very friendly crowds, and really had a good time.
Official pax merch was cool, I grabbed a scarf and shirt, probably luckily, I wasn't interested in pins.
While I hadn't expected to purchase video games etc. at PAX I was ready to throw all of my money at all kinds of official merch from different companies. Which there seemed to be next to nothing of. I guess I already have enough money saved up to go to PAX again though ;D
Other things pretty much echo others, panels, queues, space but that is most likely a teething thing. Already looking forward to next year c:
Regarding PA official merch and XP swag. There where scarves and show shirts left over at the end, I saw the merch team filling boxes with them, a rarity at the American PAX's.
One of the guys working in merch remarked to me that the scarves weren't really selling and it was strange.
I think that Australians being from a country than ranges from warm to moderate weather just aren't big scarf wearers. Melbourne in particular has a winter average of 8 - 15 degrees hardly 'cold'.
Pax Aus stubby holders, now those would have sold!
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JFedPAX AUS PC Competitions 2ICMelbourneRegistered Userregular
Discrider, I'm really disappointed to hear this. I know the team you speak of who won the competition and I will be definitely bringing that back into planning and debriefing meetings. As with my thoughts above this is only my thoughts but to hear this, I am really saddened by this. We understand many people did not like the selection of games. Ultimately we went with the more popular selections at the moment, however if you've got suggestions, once I know what's happening with 2014, I'll gladly open a BYOC COMPS 2014 thread to get ideas and game selections off you guys the players to make it better.
Look, I don't want to come across like I blame the winning team for my bad time. It's cool that they organised themselves and came to PAX knowing what they wanted to achieve. It's just a bit sad that they were the only team to do so, and thus didn't have adequate competition on the day.
The big problem with the BYOC was that it only drew off what you brought to the convention yourself rather than also connecting you with the other PAXians like other parts of the show (board game freeplay, panels, expo hall), so I wound up spending more time in these other areas because I could effectively BYOC at home after PAX.
Agreed entirely discrider and I don't believe you were blaming anyone. You provided full and frank feedback and I know the PC Comps team love you for it. We had a few hiccups throughout the PC Arena. Much like many of the attendees with internet issues. The problem is for those wondering about the WiFi (As a semi-skilled engineer)...
10,000 data hungry devices
1Gbit of data (Which is shared with the likes of Riot and PC Arena)
You can only imagine how heavily loaded the connection was continuously. Not to mention that 3G/4G cell sites "breathe" when more devices cluster around a certain cell antenna/zone.
On an unrelated PC FreePlay thing:
I went to buy merch on the Sunday (spending money I really shouldn't have), they had nothing above 2XL, No Pinny Arcade, nothing. I could buy a scarfe and that was it. So I went online to look, its like $20 shipping from the US, practically doubling the price of Pinny Arcade even with conversion adding another $4 pushes it up toward the $50 basic 4 set mark. Which I was a little shocked with but I know the first time, everyone grabs merch! I'll know not to blackshift next time.
PAXAus was awesome but there were things I'd love to see improved for future years.
In know it's been said but queuing was a big pain. I was able to get into the Good Game panel which I was really looking forward to but only because I was lucky enough to be late for the Nintendo line, GG's line was at 100% as soon as it was created because of Nintendo overflow.
A digital system would definitely be better, possibly similar to an airline style where, if there is space, you can book a seat, otherwise you can book into a standby list. If people on standby only had to wait in line for 5-10 minutes before being told they couldn't get in I doubt they'd be too disappointed. Seeing as the Wifi situation was pretty bad (something else to fix) instead of people using their own devices for digital queuing I'd suggest booths or kiosks coupled with barcodes on passes.
If PAX decides to keep the physical lines I would love to see them integrated into the gaming areas. Most people passed time in the lines on Street Pass, if the handheld gaming area was also in the same hall that would've been a big improvement. Things like the Jenga and Connect 4 from the Big Top would've also been welcome in the Queue Hall, if only to spectate. For me I just found it weird that I was at PAX with 2 hours of gap between panels, and there was literally no way for me to play games in that time (I'm not picky, any game would've been ok).
I heard a few enforcers say they were surprised by how popular panels were, so I hope this means we'll get bigger venues next year. Although I have to wonder what they expected us to be doing; whenever I went into the expo hall it was packed, the gaming areas were full and people were sitting on the concrete in the Big Top because there wasn't space on the carpeted area. If the panels weren't popular I have no idea where all those people could actually have gone.
The only enforcer I had an issue with was the guy in the Queue Hall who shouted 'wristbands!' every 30-60 seconds. To be fair though I didn't ask him to stop myself because I was stuck in line, but I feel like I shouldn't have had to and he could've been more considerate of the people around him.
Again its been said but I want to reaffirm the lack of general seating. By the end of the three days I'd figured out some good places to rest (outside the Big Top there was a ledge near the gas cylinders), but having benches would obviously have been better. In a lot of the theatre queue enforcers seemed very keen to get people to pack together as much as possible, while I can see where they're coming from standing in one place for over an hour is very uncomfortable, giving everyone more space so they can sit would've made the experience better.
I loved the tabletop area, but I could only really get a spot by ambushing people just about to play and kneeling on the floor, or waiting until 8-9pm. More tables are a must for future PAX. The green/blue signs inviting people to join games were also awesome, I probably wouldn't have gotten a game without them.
I persuaded my wife to come with me even though she is not a gamer. She loved the whole event and even picked up some board games after chatting to the stores in the table top area. She would even like to get a three day pass next year so well done PAX
My points of concern have already been covered adequately regarding merchandise availability and the booth staff outfits. If you are coming all the way from the states please bring more stuff (especially the PINs) with you. I was most interested in the Turtle Beach stand as I have been using their products for years, I was very surprised to find they didn't have ANY products for sale and the staff told me to go on eBay!
-the queuing system needs to be worked on and a prebooking option would work well in my opinion.
-Even though you have 'proof of age' wristbands I would not want to see alcohol at PAX, there is no need and as stated in the rules 'drugs are bad'
-Why were the halls so smoky?
I had a great time at PAX! Just want to be clear on that as I whinge.
I have a small gripe, but one that easily fixed so I think it's worth mentioning: MAPS! The were really hard to find online before PAX, and then when I'd manage to dig them out of this forum (which is the only place I could find them) they didn't show the area for parking, just an arrow saying "this way".
So I was driving "this way" and saw no signs for PAX parking, and as I got close the signs were for parking at an Arms and Military Fair. The Arms and Military Fair has signs and PAX doesn't? Lucky the parking guys knew what they were doing once I got in there.
I know there was maps in the program, but having them a few days before hand helps people organize their time and get around efficiently.
7. Strive hard to improve your gender equity in the panels. Only 15% of the panelists at PAX Australia were female, as I understand it. Even the library panel was only 40% female! These are libraries! Now look, I get that the panels get submitted, and you might say, "Well, we work with what we have." But y'know what? That should be part of the job: Making the panels good is one of your jobs, but so is making the panels diverse. You have the platform to give voices to everyone, and that's a responsibility. Try hard to get 50% of the panelists for 2014 be female. Even if you don't succeed, if you can get that number up to 30% or higher, you can show progress. Given the very real issues Penny Arcade has shown with equality and diversity issues, this is a place to push back and improve.
I'm gonna be "that person", but, and as a female, I really couldn't care for the gender of the panelists. That's not what I'm there for. I would much rather the panelists are made up of whoever is the most engaging, entertaining, and able to answer any questions properly. I want information and entertainment out of a panel. And given that the games industry does employ a greater percentage of males than females, there is a higher chance those people will simply be male.
Their gender doesn't make them a good panelist. How they handle the panel and crowd does.
But then, to me, equality is not considering gender at all, and choosing the best for the job based on abilities alone, rather than aiming for a 50-50 split.
RE: What things I thought would/could be in the swag bag:
Nothing particularly large, but I thought more companies would do things like stickers, decals, demo disks or codes for game demos (not that CDs are overly expensive in bulk these days), jelly bracelets, small character prints, pins, etc. Things that people would want to display or use, and at the same time advertise the company.
Mind you, the lack could just be a reflection of the lack of larger companies being there in the first place.
I'm gonna be "that person", but, and as a female, I really couldn't care for the gender of the panelists. That's not what I'm there for. I would much rather the panelists are made up of whoever is the most engaging, entertaining, and able to answer any questions properly. I want information and entertainment out of a panel. And given that the games industry does employ a greater percentage of males than females, there is a higher chance those people will simply be male.
Their gender doesn't make them a good panelist. How they handle the panel and crowd does.
But then, to me, equality is not considering gender at all, and choosing the best for the job based on abilities alone, rather than aiming for a 50-50 split.
I hear you, but it's also not just about us: It's about the industry culture as a whole, and if we don't make efforts to change that culture, the industry as well will not change. You're not wrong that there are more men than women: There's ten times as many in the Australian Industry... and the disparity is increasing. That's disturbing! I certainly wouldn't want the panels to suffer either, but pushing back on those numbers is something I feel should happen.
I'd love it if we could ignore gender and just choose the best for the job. But that's not what we have. To draw an analogy, there's a reason the Lady Planeswalkers Society exists, and is needed. In an ideal world, it wouldn't be. But we don't have an ideal world.
+1 for larger theaters. Panels were what I was looking forward to most, so I was disappointed to only get into two. I realize that I could have lined up for longer and gotten into nearly any panel, but it's not very appealing when you're already spending more time lining up for things in the expo hall than playing games. I felt like I just didn't have the time to spare to warrant waiting an hour or more for a single panel, and I had a three day pass!
I thought that enforcers did an awesome job of keeping walkways clear throughout the expo hall, but I feel like Riot's booth could have been better planned. Maybe this is the responsibility of Riot to sort out, but I feel like it became a problem when matches were on and crowds were pressing into nearby booths (Ubisoft etc) just so that they could get a view of the screen. Given the popularity of LoL, I didn't think it was surprising that there were so many spectators there, so I found it a bit disappointing that there was so little space allotted when those matches were scheduled ahead of time.
Joust was absolutely awesome, and I'd love to see it or similar, easily accessible, quick-fire multiplayer games at future PAX's.
I really enjoyed PAX, was well worth the trip down from Brisbane. Had a fantastic time, with my only grumble (and this being a minor one) that there didn't seem to be any organisation in the Wargaming / RPG area. I would love to see some form or organised play next year (Something like book a spot using the App / internet / go see someone at a desk to get in on a game, be it D&D Next, or any other RPG).
I really felt the lack of D&D to be honest. The "how to play" and Dungeon Delve WoTC usually run are great fun. And since they use a booking system it works well.
Regarding queuing. Why not take a leaf out of Disney's play book and introduce a Fastpass style system. Fastpasses are made available at the beginning of the day for each event. When they run out they are gone. People have a window to return in to be guaranteed a seat. After the window expires anyone in the standby line is allowed in. Enforce a 2 pass/2hour or expired return window limit on each ticket (whichever comes first).
Granted, would need some sophisticated (and portable) tech but would reduce the queue (and disappointment) significantly.
Just a quiet few general notes for a lot of the suggestions/criticisms in this thread from an enforcer:
A considerable portion of the issues raised were entirely out of the PAX organiser's control (or at least were out of control once the venue was selected, but the reasons for that are long and complicated). Developers, studios and publishers will only come if they want to come. Theatre sizes were only as big as the venue could allow for. Queuing arrangements only worked as well as we could with the amount of space we were able to use, pending weather (I 100% assure you that we had a much easier time with organising lines when it wasn't raining).
So overall a lot of the issues being raised would be solved by a different venue, or a combination of more of the showgrounds being used during a time of year with somewhat more predictable, less wet, weather. Do please keep that in mind, in addition to the issues that were entirely out of PAX's control to begin with!
In addition, the enforcers were somewhat understaffed. I know for sure that an extra enforcer during my shifts at the theatre I was working would've made things CONSIDERABLY more manageable.
Also yes, there is likely to be line entertainment next year.
Anzekay on
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Blake TDo you have enemies then?Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.Registered Userregular
Regarding PA official merch and XP swag. There where scarves and show shirts left over at the end, I saw the merch team filling boxes with them, a rarity at the American PAX's.
One of the guys working in merch remarked to me that the scarves weren't really selling and it was strange.
I think that Australians being from a country than ranges from warm to moderate weather just aren't big scarf wearers. Melbourne in particular has a winter average of 8 - 15 degrees hardly 'cold'.
Pax Aus stubby holders, now those would have sold!
Man I am not trying to be mean, but the scarves were bright yellow.
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Not enough tables/chairs. I know others have said this but it bears repeating. Even after getting a game, it was extremely difficult to find table space to play it. The tabletop play area was far, far, too small for the number of games available to check out.
Not enough seats for panels. Again repeating others for a good reason. We had anticipated attending at least one panel every day, but with the panel queues reaching capacity 60 to 90 minutes in advance it simply wasn't possibile. It almost seemed like either 20% too many tickets were sold, or the venue was just plain too small for the attendance.
Poor library layout/access. We met great folks from both the CGS library and The Games Capital at their WinterCon show, the weekend prior to PAX. I'm saddened and dismayed that games went missing and/or were damaged at PAX. That makes it really hard for then to justify the time and effort to continuing supporting PAX. In my opinion, the library was a bit to "exposed" allowing bad-intentioned people to make off with games before anyone noticed. At Prime, the liibrary is in a walled room with only two exits, both monitored by Enforcers, to stop petty theft from occurring.
The Big Top area was too loud and smoky. Having food vendors on-site was a major improvement over Prime, but having them basically in the same "room" as tabletop/roleplay/console/handheld freeplay made it kinda rough on those of us with athsma issues. Also, with all of those elements combined, the room's noise level was on par with the expo hall. One if the reasons we tend to favor tabletop is because the expo hall is so loud - our group actually refer to it as "the hall of noise".
Overall, it was a great first year. A larger venue, or capping ticket sales at about 80% of what they were this year, and segregating things a bit better will make it even better.
My thoughts:
• My primary source of disappointment comes from the fact that the theatre/halls were way too small. For many of the talks/panels I found that you needed to line up for in excess of an hour—some of them 1.5-2 hours and that didn't even guarantee you a spot. I was expecting to go from panel to panel all weekend but I only ended up getting into 2, over 3 days. The size of the Main Hall was great, and what I expected every talk/panel to be like. It sucks that so many people had to miss out like I did.
• I can only assume that the talks/panels were recorded given the cameras that were in the room at the time. It would be great for these to be made available online for the people that missed them. Even if it's only for PAX attendees for X number of weeks. As someone who went to the Expo to learn about developing games, I came away with very little.
• While the queuing organisation got better as the days passed, it was still subpar. They wouldn't have necessarily been a problem had the size of the venue catered to its audience a lot better.
• The Expo Hall was fun to walk around, but again, it was hard to get a go on a lot of things because they weren't rotating enough.
• The Jousting was great fun, it always drew a big crowd up the back and once you'd gotten the courage to play it once, you were addicted!
• I was hoping to come away with loot but was disappointed to see hardly anyone was actually selling stuff. I don't know if this is how PAX rolls, so it's only my expectation that people would be selling their wares if they were available. Games, hardware, merchandise, I wanted to spend money! Freebies would have also been nice.
• The attendees were all pleasant and I didn't see/experience any trouble at all.
• The Enforcers were generally helpful but when it came to the queues were a little clueless sometimes.
• More seating was required for eating. The food selection was good (as far as I was concerned).
• Some bigger developers would have been nice, just like what you see at PAX Prime/East. I get that it was the first year so many devs probably weren't keen on coming all the way out here without some idea of how big it would be. I was personally impressed by Nintendo and Ubisoft's presence and set up. While not my cup of tea, Riot Games put on a massive show with LoL. It was constantly packed and had activity going on.
• The public transport around the event was underwhelming. It was near impossible to get a taxi and the trams were choccers, leaving you waiting in the cold rain for up to an hour!
If I had to pick only one improvement it would be to over-cater for the attendance to talks/panels so everyone who is interested doesn't get turned away like this year—it left a very sour taste in my mouth. All in all, to have an event like PAX come to Australia is awesome, so I really hope it improves and keeps on happening!
My feedback as follows, mostly echoing above comments:
- Lines.
- Waiting in lines for a long time, and still missing the cut.
- Missing the cut, but not knowing you've missed the cut.
- Lack of under cover seating around food vendors.
+ Good food.
+ Good public transport to and from.
! So many people. Wow.
+ The Enforcers (visibly) worked hard, often in difficult or confusing circumstances. (Where there were multiple Enforcers working one event over a sizable area they could have used someone walking back and forth just to keep all the Enforcers up to date.)
+ The covered walkway between the sheds was a great relief at times. Highfive to whoever thought of doing that.
- The Indie Arcade was too cramped. Too squished together. A little too cheek-to-jowl.
+ Joust was fun to watch.
+ Great to see all those old consoles.
! More of everything in the Exhibit Hall would be cool.
+ Best cosplay: Fionna the Human
Much of the time I was at PAX I wondered why it wasn't being held at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. It's a much bigger space, all under cover, and right next to central Melbourne. Cost? Gnarly restrictions or rules? Already booked out?
I'm ready and keen to go again next year, regardless of where it's held or what the weather is like, but this subtle jerky gesture I'm making with my head is a friendly hint that I'd love to see the next one at the MC&EC.
Thanks again for bringing PAX our way.
For some background I'm 31, live in Melbourne and this is my first PAX event, but one of many pop culture expos I've been to in Melbourne. I attended on all three days.
Off the bat, I can easily say this is the best run pop culture expo that I've seen in Melbourne, well done. The showgrounds isn't a perfect venue and video gamers aren't famous for their patience so I think the complaints about lines were unavoidable. All lines I encountered seemed organised and safe.
My biggest request would be free drinking water. I'm not sure why, but there appeared to only be one very small drinking fountain on the entire site, which I would have thought would not even be legal for an event of this size. Maybe there is a reasoning behind this absence, but not being able to fill up my water bottle would be my only major gripe.
Something that has been on my mind is a way to alleviate the tedium of waiting in a line, the cookie brigade seemed to target these lines and they helped as a distraction somewhat. Personally, I think queues are a self made problem, if nobody queued, there would be no queue. But I feel that if people lining up for panels is something that can't be avoided, is there a way to make this less boring?
My experience of the main expo hall was positive, though my interests in PAX did not lie there. Traffic seemed a little congested but okay, the booth babes were unfortunate but hopefully the vendors will learn, the big vendors weren't actually THAT overbearing, and I figure they're a necessity to allow smaller vendors. Which brings me to the good stuff. More Indie. I want more indie. By far the most interesting stuff on the floor in the expo hall was this. I think the size of each stall was appropriate but just want to see more open more slots, more titles.
Personally I think retail spaces are a waste, but this may only be my opinion, and these vendors may be required to float other smaller vendors, and if that's the case, a necessary burden. So no big complaint there.
JSJoust was great, not sure if this can be a fixture but it was a highlight for me and was very easy to get in on a game, a nice little salve given the amount of time you would have to cue anywhere else in the main floor to get some gaming time in. I hope this returns for 2014 even though sports friends will have been out almost a year by then.
Enforcers. They all seemed very friendly and positive in my interactions with them. Their helpfulness/knowledge varied a lot, but I think they were good enough for a first con, I imagine most will return and will retain and share their knowledge so it will only get better. I think a little more confidence in an Enforcer can do a lot to quell "these people don't know what they're doing" comments.
Social Networking. Surprised this wasn't taken advantage of more. The PAXAus hashtag was being used a lot by the attendees, who were posting a lot. And the posts were majority positive across the board, but the official social networking accounts @PAXAus, @OfficialPAX and @TT_HQ didn't seem to tweet much at all nor retweet these positive tweets. Seems like a lost opportunity to me, as busy as everyone would be, a specific social networking manager could capitalise on this, not to mention share what is going on and where along with sharing a lot of the great photos, especially cosplay, this can also lure people to under populated areas in the con and new experiences. Just the act of official accounts retweeting encourages attendees to tweet because they want to be retweeted, all of this promotes the show to the attendees and everybody else on twitter.
The goodwill is already there in the hashtag and the tweets are free.
The Big Top. Easily my highlight for the entire con. The TT HQ crew did a stellar job, friendly and helpful. The three different enforcers I spoke to on different occasions recommending games knew their stuff and all gave solid recommendations (I tested them myself!). Tables filled up quick but players did move on there wasn't a horrible amount of 'table camping' but there was a little. This seems to me to be unavoidable though. I probably spent %70 of my three days in the table top freeplay area, and given the attendee numbers for this con, an increase of %20 in the table space in the freeplay area would easily be filled in my estimations from seeing the number of players trying to get a table. And given the positive buzz from table top free play this year there will be an increased interest in the area next year.
Other Big Top things, the MtG booth wasn't too obtrusive, its not my thing but the magic fans seemed to be having a really good time. Slight frustration, seeing empty magic tables (that were exclusively for magic) while magic was being played on non magic tables, no easy way to avoid this without interrupting gamers but its frustrating to see for us fans of the less competitive side of gaming.
Only real complaint, that @TT_HQ twitter account was dead quiet the whole con, this is covered above in social networking tbh.
Hope this feedback helps, plenty more I could say but this already seems ridiculously long.
Thanks for all of your efforts, it has been great and I'll be back next year without a doubt.
Aus14 Omeganaut - Nef
Improvements:
1 - network connectivity. WiFi was an issue, but so was mobile data. Basically, several of the networks were "overloaded" as people used mobile phones to get online when WiFi wouldn't connect. It got better as the show went on, but this needs to be thought through a bit better in order to enable...
2 - stream the talks. At the very least have a few screens around the big top and other larger scale congregation points. Riot did this really well for their LoL stuff - maybe get them to help? But since we all have iPads and smartphones (smartphone adoption % is insanely high in Australia) it would be great to watch the talks if you can't get in.
3 - Eliminate queuing. Use an app to "register" for a talk. Use GPS to determine if a registrant is at the talk. If there are extra seats someone in the waitlist will get notified via push. Easy and you'll solve the issue with queue space, which also frees up an entire room (the entry room). Also, same for food - there's a company here called BeatTheQ (there are several that do this) which lets you order food (pay) from your smartphone and get notified when its ready. This will also solve the "Cash Only" problem.
These three things will fix a LOT of other issues and make the conference much easier to manage.
Good luck and see you guys at the next PaxAUS!
Look, I don't want to come across like I blame the winning team for my bad time. It's cool that they organised themselves and came to PAX knowing what they wanted to achieve. It's just a bit sad that they were the only team to do so, and thus didn't have adequate competition on the day.
As for solo BYOC problems, I think this could be fixed easily enough with some variation in the events run. What happened this year is everything was competitive, more or less (Minecraft looked like the exception here). That is, you have a fixed ruleset with eliminations that rewards skill in the game with progression through the event. This is strongly focused on people who have already played the game a lot and new players or solo players in team competitions get pushed aside for those who are prepared. And this is fair enough. But you can balance this with events for the new or solo players as well. Have strictly random team tournaments with small participation incentives over 1st place prizes. These could be either team vs team or time attack co-op. Run silly variants of the game (like you did for the Minecraft tourny) where skill in the game doesn't necessarily afford you an advantage because everyone's being thrown in the deep end. Just encourage people to play together (or play at all) in these over dissuading them from even joining because they know that they can't even compete.
The big problem with the BYOC was that it only drew off what you brought to the convention yourself rather than also connecting you with the other PAXians like other parts of the show (board game freeplay, panels, expo hall), so I wound up spending more time in these other areas because I could effectively BYOC at home after PAX.
I read the PAX Australia Forum leading up to PAX Aust and i only regisetered today in response to this thread. I attended PAX Aust for the full 3days and came across from Perth with a bunch of friends.
Lines; I lined up 6 times on Sunday and only saw 4 things, quite easily lining up longer than the time i saw panels. I just wanted to get that out there before I comment, as I am not thrilled to line up like most of you. Lines are a part of life and possibly new to many people attending Cons of this size, I only managed to see 4 panels over two days of trying. If you ever go to San Diego Comic Con, take a tent as the lines for some of their talks begin in the weeee hours of the morning. Increasing the venues will mean more people get in, sure, but more people will line up, more tickets will be sold, so it will even out to some degree.
- the best way to fix this was mentioned earlier and was to have some, if not all, panels filmed and televised somewhere else, perhaps a F&B mess hall type area.
- have all people queuing people counted and have clear signage stating that this is the end of the 'gonna get in line' this will remove some of the lining for nothing.
The actual convention was aces!! Loved it
Board/Tabletop area was great, I have to agree more actual free space and less reserved.
Enforcers were great and always helpful
Video Games I am more of the tabletop/boardgame gamer, so it was a little disappointing that there was very little of this in the Expo Hall, i understand that Video Game companies as a general rule have more cash to throw around, so hopefully next year.
Alcohol I love the suggestion of a temporary beer garden, even if it only operated from 5pm-1130pm (or after expo hall hours)
MERCH I really wanted to spend more money at PAX, but there was no First Party merch, so now i have to order online.
Winter and on the same time as SDCC, please move the date, July is friggin freezing and i felt sorry for many cosplayers. I would suggest Spring, but the AFL grand final is during this time, so may not work either
not sure if the above even counts as constructive feedback. . .or just a rant LOL
Things that could have been added/improved:
• Game Stores - Surprised there were no game stores at a games expo. EB Games, Game, JB Hifi etc could of made a killing.
• Lack of Merchandise Stores - Comicon last year had so many in a much smaller venue and I must of spent heaps last year. Only saw probably 3-4 stores throughout the 3 days at PAX.
• Theatre Queues – One of the biggest annoyances was the queues for the theatres since they also bottlenecked the main tunnels getting to the Expo Hall, Big Top and to the Queue Room.
• Rome II Presentation – Such a small presentation for such a big game to come out, must have been 20 seats at least and the queue was always long.
• Ubisoft – Video corner too small, not enough seats and you ended up with people trying to get glimpses of Watchdogs/Black Flag etc from far back.
• Microsoft Booth – Why even bother, just an empty area of nothing unless the XBOX ONE is transparent.
• Trains – Why they stopped the service for most of the day I have no idea, since it’s probably one of the easiest modes of transport back to the CBD. I usually ended up getting taxi back while watching others get a tram.
• Eating Area – Not enough tables and chairs for people to eat in the warmth. So it was either outside where people had to use their wits and ninja skills to battle the winds, the cold and the seagulls!
• Schedule – Let’s be honest, it took forever to get a full schedule to be released (literally on the last week). Get a bigger line up and get more AAA publishers/developers to show off those smexy games you saw at either PAX Prime or E3.
Things I liked:
• RIOT – They had the biggest stage in the Expo Hall and really impressed everyone whether they’re new to the game or veteran players. They were constantly giving away prizes to the crowd, cosplayers were rewarded too, and they even got random people from the crowd to battle against the Riot staff.
• Big Top – The Relax area and the tabletop areas were always packed and it was nice to see people enjoying themselves.
• Indie Developers – They really outshined most of the big publishers at PAX and really amazed me how enjoyable some were. I’d have to say Assault Android Cactus and Infinity Wars left the biggest impression, I know a lot mentioned Particulars as well.
• Oculus Rift – There were quite a few booths that had one or two and it was great way to get a demo of the early stages of what the future holds.
As far as merch goes, since I've seen this brought up a bunch, in general PAX is not a merch heavy con. There are definitely more merch places at the USA paxes, but those are also much larger venues. When space is tight, I would expect things like merch to be the first thing thrown out the window.
All good, I played Penny Arcade Good vs Evil 4 player until my iPad ran out of power......great fun timesink
Thanks! I'll be BYOC next year and participate. I was a bit unsure this year but I'll give it a go and try and contribute to making the area work.
- I didn't play as many games as I would have liked. After PAX I went to Cydus internet cafe and had a few games of LoL - would be amazing if you liaised with local net cafes for some post-PAX fun.
Good show! Would attend again
While it would be great for us to show off Melbourne at a better time of year, I don't think summer is the time for it. I've attended conventions in summer in Melbourne. Arcanacon has been running on the Australia Day weekend for over twenty years. The weather can be moderate, but it can also be blisteringly hot.
At Arc, I've participated with 140+ people playing Warhammer 40K on two consecutive 40 degree days. While everyone managed to maintain civility, it was not the best atmosphere. Imagine queueing for 2 hours, with 4000 people, for a panel...either in the makeshift tent-halls, or in the sun...
I know, its Melbourne (if you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes) but I doubt anyone would enjoy a PAX in those conditions.
Another thing Arcanacon does well is the availability of alcohol after 5/6pm on the Saturday. It has always been well managed, and I've not heard of anyone getting carried away...but I cannot say it has never happened. I haven't witnessed problems amongst the wargamers...and if there were going to be problems, I think that's where they'd be. We can be a surly bunch.
Arcanacon is nowhere near the size of PAX though. Managing the provision of alcohol at such a large event would probably not be worth it. Not to mention, if a 375ml water is $5, imagine what a beer or a cider might cost?
Yes to Autumn or Spring. Winter also works. No way to Summer.
Holding it at the show grounds meant space had to be dedicated to both food and food seating as there was really nowhere to go for food outside the con. Compared to prime where you just left the convention, grabbed something and came back in. This leaves more space for other stuff. Holding it more centrally in Melbourne makes it way more practical for people to get there. I was seeing people who stayed closer to the convention unable to get on the tram as it was so full.
Additionally talking to Khoo he said it was odd seeing everyone leave at six. This was because we all had to eat.
Circular tables are technically better, but when you are so tight on space the rectangular ones were better.
This isn't penny arcade's fault. But the lack of presence by Sony and Microsoft was extremely disappointing.
Everyone, including penny arcade and the exhibitors under estimated demand for things to purchase.
Again, I would have liked to see more pen and paper presence at pax.
The wifi network was so useless it would have been better not to even have one.
It would have been nice if Brian looked less disgusted when he signed my stomach.
Satans..... hints.....
What a great idea. Nice seeing pinball machines there (first time my son had seen and played one) but an old school arcade would be awesome.
Glad you mentioned this, because I thought it was v. strange walking around a gaming convention that didn't sell games. I actually went there hoping to find a couple (possibly discounted, ho!) but all I saw was a T-shirt stand and that's about it. Going from Oz Comic-con where you're drowning in merch, to this – it felt bizarre. I'm hoping to see at least one retailer there next year (I'm sure you could boot another company wasting their space, COUGH INVISIBLE XBOX COUGH).
Big Top was the highlight for me. Retro consoles rocked, couldn't believe I was playing 4-player Mario Kart 64 in 2013, loved it! Handheld gaming section cushion-bag-things worked quite well, although it made me laugh when you get up for 3 seconds, turn around and someone's pinched your cushion. More cushions next year!
As someone who placed in the semi-finals at the Mario Kart 7 tournament – worked beautifully + looking forward to next year's! I do have a few suggestions for future tournaments though (this coming from a MK enthusiast/crazy fan/madman).
1. I recommend having matches play in the best of 3. A lot of Mario Kart revolves around item luck/proper usage as well as track experience, so sometimes all it takes is 2 blue shells and it's essentially over (at least in 1v1 it is). At least in best of 3, you have a much, much better chance to recover from a single mistake or item unluckiness.
2. In addition to the 1v1 tournament rules, I'd like to see additional tournaments at different times of the day with 2v2, 3v3 and above. Or even preferably have a free-for-all 8 player tournament! I, and a lot of the competitors I spoke to, were actually expecting an 8 player tournament when we got there. And even though 1v1 turned out quite well, encore different-bracket tournaments and 8 player craziness would help people who are not able to show up at precisely 2:30pm.
3. Speaking of the time, according to the board the tournament was supposed to go for 2 hours. This simply wasn't so. After about 30 minutes (if that), the brackets were filled and the winner announced. As much as I love the idea of a single 1v1 tournament deciding the champion for that year (seriously, keep this), it's also disappointing that nothing is organised after this. I'd rather see matches announced every 15 minutes all day, so, you let people sign up for racing groups on the whiteboard, then those 8 or so people wander off in one group until their numbers whittle down to like 4, then they can return to the whiteboard to replenish numbers. It's strange to me that it was easier to organise 4 player Mario Kart 64 matches than it was to get a roster of 8 for MK7, when plenty of people were on cushions, racing.
4. Wi-fi. Had so many problems connecting to this, no matter what device I used (3DS, tablet, phone). Suspected there might be a connection overload. Hope it's fixed for future events!
Oh, and Nintendo had a really good expo. Enforcers there were really nice, games played beautifully, only downside is no Mario Kart 8 demo!
Had a lot of fun! Looking forward to next year :-)
I think the idea is (and I am speaking totally hypothetically here, I don't know what the pax organizers think for certain) about trying to maximize utility for attendees. Most people have a local video game store near where they live, it's not really a thing you need to "travel" for (at least not in the US, I don't know about Aus I guess). Lots of people don't have board game stores though, or direct access to places like thinkgeek or behemoth. If I saw an EBgames at PAX, I would consider it 100% wasted space versus other things that could be included. It's "just a store". There's nothing unique about it. It doesn't add anything to PAX that isn't easily accessible outside of PAX. Also while I agree that the Microsoft booth was probably not a great use of space, if you were just presented objectively with "would you rather have a microsoft games booth or an eb games store at pax?" I think most people would pick the microsoft booth, since it has the potential to bring something they aren't getting elsewhere (even if they don't live up to that potential).
Good stuff first of course!
Pros :
Coming at all, like Tycho said in today's news post.. we're used to people passing us by.
The board game library is amazing even if I didn't get to play much.
Anthony, who was running some old style D&D games near the Pokemon booth ran absolutely the most enjoyable game of D&D I have ever played.... Tame owlbear cubs and my character becoming a Lich!
The guys running War Machine did a great job at teaching me to play, even if I had to sprint off for the closing ceremony.
Indie game section was great, lots of fascinating games.
Props to Riot and Wargaming.net, two companies I don't enjoy the games of but did an amazing job on their presentations.
Brilliant selection of delicious food.
Cos' We Can made me realise I actually can cosplay
Enforcers did an amazing job.
Fire JENGA! Booooooo Desparious!
Cons :
Not enough space in the theatres, not to mention freezing to death in the queues.
Booth Babes, primarily the cop pair.. the others around were fairly reasonable.
Not enough seating, ATMs or rest areas.
Lack of vendors and loot. My wife and I deliberately brought 2 empty suitcases anticipating spending a LOT of money on cool games, etc, and of course free stuff... very few vendors as it turned out, and only Penny Arcade themselves were selling things I couldn't get at my local gaming store.
Lack of major names and devs, I think this corresponds with my next point.
Setting it for the same weekend as SDCC.
Malifaux "L2P" guys not turning up AT ALL.
Far as the PAX XP rewards, we generally see a couple hundred people complete the PAX XP challenge at Prime and East. We started with 1000 XP cubes, I guess they figured that was a safe bet. When those ran out we handed out sticker packs, then we moved to Precipice 3 steam codes. By rough count we had over 3000 people complete the challenge, not something I think they could have predicted for such a small PAX. Rest assured, message was received, and I expect Info Booth will have an ample supply of rewards next time for whatever the next challenge is.
Far as what exhibitors do, or put in the swag bags, that is completely up to them. Whether they have stuff to sell, freebies, raffles, or just a both, isn't something PA has control over. That being said, maybe some of them read these, but telling them directly what you want from them might be more effective.
Were there spares made but not shipped I guess is what I'm saying
Satans..... hints.....
For some reason I can post in every thread but this one on the mobile site.
I am using dolphin (also on ios7) but my girlfriend had the same problem on dolphins with ios6
Satans..... hints.....
Satans..... hints.....
First off, thanks for even coming out here. I had a great time, and it's wonderful that you did this. That said, is there room for improvement? Yes.
1. This is my big one, and it's not PAX Aus specific: Please, please improve and post up your Rules of PAX. Yes, I know, the rules are there somewhere. But we can't see them, so what we have is on the back of the pass. And as they stand, they're not a policy, they're just bravado, a statement of 'This shit will not stand'. I don't mind the current rules as a summary, but on the website or somewhere needs to be more. What constitutes harassment? Who gets to make the calls on whether something is a violation of the rules or not? What is the process for appeals? What does 'be dealt with' entail, and what punishment is appropriate for what offence? (Also, resist the urge to go all zero tolerance! That shit never works well!) And, something not even covered by a word in the current rules is kinda crucial: What records will be kept? What's the policy on reporting, and disclosure? It's not like Penny Arcade Expo hasn't had problems with this.
Like I said, I'm fine with the current rules being the summary. And really, guys, you're streets ahead of most of the cons out there already. But on the website, somewhere, we deserve to know what shit won't fly, what protections we're entitled to, and what we can expect to happen to wrongdoers.
2. Look, bigger theatres won't solve the line problems entirely. As supply increases, the value of waiting in line improves, and more people will line up. My recommendation is signpost the queues better. You know the queue lengths, and you have enforcers doing the counts. Put up big signs saying, "You are unlikely to get in past this point!" Make it clearer when the line has hit terminal, and people can shrug and say "Oh well, dang," and go do other things. It's cool! Waiting in line is the price you pay for a panel. Nothing you guys can do is going to change that. But you can stop people lining up for forty-five minutes for the geek parenting panel being told 'you're in, it's cool' and being turned away in the end. You can stop that.
3. That said? Yeah, bigger theatres.
4. The tabletop area was fantastic. That was the highlight of PAX Aus. It was just wonderful, the library was terrific. But yes, I'd agree with those suggesting fewer dedicated tables and maybe some table reservation scheme. Consider an electronic booking system: Book a table to play X at this time, and even let others sign up for it. Wanna play some Commander? Book a Magic the Gathering exclusive table, and anyone wanting to play Commander can sign up online!
5. Mind you, as many others have said, the Wi-Fi was kinda spotty at best. Seemed to improve as the con went on though. But it would be great to improve the wi-fi overall since many of your mechanisms for informing con-goers depended on internet access.
6. I suspect strongly next year won't be at the Showgrounds. But if it is, please put up a covered walk-way between main area and Skippy theatre. Melbourne is known as the rainy city for a reason.
The rest is all stuff I can't verify; I never saw the alleged booth babes, though if they were there, yeah, get rid of them. Enforce your policies and all that. And look, none of this can take away from one point: I saw Ron Gilbert be given a Guybrush Threepwood voodoo doll. I will remember this stuff. You made it happen. Thanks, guys.
(But for real: Get the full harassment policy up and going.)
Edit: Oh, heck. Such a simple one that I can't believe I didn't think of it:
7. Strive hard to improve your gender equity in the panels. Only 15% of the panelists at PAX Australia were female, as I understand it. Even the library panel was only 40% female! These are libraries! Now look, I get that the panels get submitted, and you might say, "Well, we work with what we have." But y'know what? That should be part of the job: Making the panels good is one of your jobs, but so is making the panels diverse. You have the platform to give voices to everyone, and that's a responsibility. Try hard to get 50% of the panelists for 2014 be female. Even if you don't succeed, if you can get that number up to 30% or higher, you can show progress. Given the very real issues Penny Arcade has shown with equality and diversity issues, this is a place to push back and improve.
More edits!
8. OK, this is very minor, but hey. I noticed you guys provided Coles bottled water. Makes sense: Coles was right next door, it's cheap. But have you considered providing ThankYou Water instead? It's an Australian non-profit that sends all the profit from its sales into providing clean water in the third world. It's a small thing, but it'd be a way to make PAX Australia just a touch better for the world.
Firstly, I had an amazing time. I didn't have any problem getting into the make a strip, and it was amazing.
Everyone has gone over the big issues. Suffice to say, the size and layout had some issues. It's the Mk I of PAX AUS so that's expected, I imagine they didn't even know for sure the response they'd get when they booked it, or when the advertisers booked into the expo. So expect Sony to buy in next year, having seen how well it did to show off their competitor's products. So I'll just leave all queues, food, seating, water, etc comments.
I was pretty sad to miss out on an XP cube, and of course I only found out right at the end. I was doing this lunch time on Saturday so they must have gone pretty quick! We love treasure-hunt/scavenger hunt things in Australia, they are a staple of university/college orientation weeks and student weeks.
On the Merch front, Australia is very different from the US. If I wanted to buy Paint The Line on the penny arcade store, I'll pay $30 US for the product, and $21 US for the shipping. Not much you can do about that, but it means that people won't be buying single items on your store to ship to Australia. So they'll buy it at PAX. I only got a Saturday ticket, and by Saturday many of the items were sold out. I did buy paint the line, and it was great to see them sold at basically US price. If you bring merch next year, and sell it at US price, you will sell a lot! I could see Robert on Saturday talking to a lot of people at the Merch stands, probably marvelling at the thirst of Australians for your strange American trinkets. On a side note, you guys no doubt have working relationships with companies that sell stuff at PAX EAST and PRIME. I know it was the prototype, so you had nothing to base it on, but if someone brings US products here, and sells them at US prices and they are aimed at PAX goers, they will sell a LOT! Robert - I don't know how feasible it is, but you could consider using PAX staff to sell products for some of these companies if they are unwilling to send staff here, and taking a cut. I imagine that penny arcade could consolidate a lot of products into shipping containers to send here, and you guys could take a fair cut for handling the sales. But they should see hopefully from this year's PAX that there is a thirsty market. On the $20 US to $30 AU shirts (not penny arcade products) that will have an effect! If it can retail with staffing etc at $20 in the US, then Australian's will see $30 as profit-taking. Hopefully that was just to test the waters on demand.
WRT booth babes, I think it's great you guys had a dress code and enforced it!
I was only there Saturday, but it's good to see wargaming fixed the "problem" they apparently had on Friday, I agree on the trivia question. Be classy wargaming.net, and people will thank you for it.
Whoever organised the display Aussie indie developers. BRAVO!
It was great to hear about all the projects, some of which were simply staggering. I'm looking at you Armello.
I will definitely be back next year, a three day pass if I can get my hands on one, or perhaps as an enforcer!
EDIT: Oh, and the table top area was the highlight. I got time on some gaming tables, and hats off to the dedicated guys/girls running warma/40k/etc games! You guys did a phenomenal job!
I was also keen to check out Malifaux (the Learn to Play session) and my partner and I went along to both the Saturday and Sunday sessions and were unfortunately disappointed.
Tabletop library was awesome. And the guys from GoodGames and Games Laboratory were great (a few times we played a game at the library, decided it was awesome and went and threw money at these two stalls to purchase said game). Very friendly crowds, and really had a good time.
Official pax merch was cool, I grabbed a scarf and shirt, probably luckily, I wasn't interested in pins.
While I hadn't expected to purchase video games etc. at PAX I was ready to throw all of my money at all kinds of official merch from different companies. Which there seemed to be next to nothing of. I guess I already have enough money saved up to go to PAX again though ;D
Other things pretty much echo others, panels, queues, space but that is most likely a teething thing. Already looking forward to next year c:
One of the guys working in merch remarked to me that the scarves weren't really selling and it was strange.
I think that Australians being from a country than ranges from warm to moderate weather just aren't big scarf wearers. Melbourne in particular has a winter average of 8 - 15 degrees hardly 'cold'.
Pax Aus stubby holders, now those would have sold!
Agreed entirely discrider and I don't believe you were blaming anyone. You provided full and frank feedback and I know the PC Comps team love you for it. We had a few hiccups throughout the PC Arena. Much like many of the attendees with internet issues. The problem is for those wondering about the WiFi (As a semi-skilled engineer)...
10,000 data hungry devices
1Gbit of data (Which is shared with the likes of Riot and PC Arena)
You can only imagine how heavily loaded the connection was continuously. Not to mention that 3G/4G cell sites "breathe" when more devices cluster around a certain cell antenna/zone.
On an unrelated PC FreePlay thing:
I went to buy merch on the Sunday (spending money I really shouldn't have), they had nothing above 2XL, No Pinny Arcade, nothing. I could buy a scarfe and that was it. So I went online to look, its like $20 shipping from the US, practically doubling the price of Pinny Arcade even with conversion adding another $4 pushes it up toward the $50 basic 4 set mark. Which I was a little shocked with but I know the first time, everyone grabs merch! I'll know not to blackshift next time.
In know it's been said but queuing was a big pain. I was able to get into the Good Game panel which I was really looking forward to but only because I was lucky enough to be late for the Nintendo line, GG's line was at 100% as soon as it was created because of Nintendo overflow.
A digital system would definitely be better, possibly similar to an airline style where, if there is space, you can book a seat, otherwise you can book into a standby list. If people on standby only had to wait in line for 5-10 minutes before being told they couldn't get in I doubt they'd be too disappointed. Seeing as the Wifi situation was pretty bad (something else to fix) instead of people using their own devices for digital queuing I'd suggest booths or kiosks coupled with barcodes on passes.
If PAX decides to keep the physical lines I would love to see them integrated into the gaming areas. Most people passed time in the lines on Street Pass, if the handheld gaming area was also in the same hall that would've been a big improvement. Things like the Jenga and Connect 4 from the Big Top would've also been welcome in the Queue Hall, if only to spectate. For me I just found it weird that I was at PAX with 2 hours of gap between panels, and there was literally no way for me to play games in that time (I'm not picky, any game would've been ok).
I heard a few enforcers say they were surprised by how popular panels were, so I hope this means we'll get bigger venues next year. Although I have to wonder what they expected us to be doing; whenever I went into the expo hall it was packed, the gaming areas were full and people were sitting on the concrete in the Big Top because there wasn't space on the carpeted area. If the panels weren't popular I have no idea where all those people could actually have gone.
The only enforcer I had an issue with was the guy in the Queue Hall who shouted 'wristbands!' every 30-60 seconds. To be fair though I didn't ask him to stop myself because I was stuck in line, but I feel like I shouldn't have had to and he could've been more considerate of the people around him.
Again its been said but I want to reaffirm the lack of general seating. By the end of the three days I'd figured out some good places to rest (outside the Big Top there was a ledge near the gas cylinders), but having benches would obviously have been better. In a lot of the theatre queue enforcers seemed very keen to get people to pack together as much as possible, while I can see where they're coming from standing in one place for over an hour is very uncomfortable, giving everyone more space so they can sit would've made the experience better.
I loved the tabletop area, but I could only really get a spot by ambushing people just about to play and kneeling on the floor, or waiting until 8-9pm. More tables are a must for future PAX. The green/blue signs inviting people to join games were also awesome, I probably wouldn't have gotten a game without them.
My points of concern have already been covered adequately regarding merchandise availability and the booth staff outfits. If you are coming all the way from the states please bring more stuff (especially the PINs) with you. I was most interested in the Turtle Beach stand as I have been using their products for years, I was very surprised to find they didn't have ANY products for sale and the staff told me to go on eBay!
-the queuing system needs to be worked on and a prebooking option would work well in my opinion.
-Even though you have 'proof of age' wristbands I would not want to see alcohol at PAX, there is no need and as stated in the rules 'drugs are bad'
-Why were the halls so smoky?
I have a small gripe, but one that easily fixed so I think it's worth mentioning: MAPS! The were really hard to find online before PAX, and then when I'd manage to dig them out of this forum (which is the only place I could find them) they didn't show the area for parking, just an arrow saying "this way".
So I was driving "this way" and saw no signs for PAX parking, and as I got close the signs were for parking at an Arms and Military Fair. The Arms and Military Fair has signs and PAX doesn't? Lucky the parking guys knew what they were doing once I got in there.
I know there was maps in the program, but having them a few days before hand helps people organize their time and get around efficiently.
I'm gonna be "that person", but, and as a female, I really couldn't care for the gender of the panelists. That's not what I'm there for. I would much rather the panelists are made up of whoever is the most engaging, entertaining, and able to answer any questions properly. I want information and entertainment out of a panel. And given that the games industry does employ a greater percentage of males than females, there is a higher chance those people will simply be male.
Their gender doesn't make them a good panelist. How they handle the panel and crowd does.
But then, to me, equality is not considering gender at all, and choosing the best for the job based on abilities alone, rather than aiming for a 50-50 split.
RE: What things I thought would/could be in the swag bag:
Nothing particularly large, but I thought more companies would do things like stickers, decals, demo disks or codes for game demos (not that CDs are overly expensive in bulk these days), jelly bracelets, small character prints, pins, etc. Things that people would want to display or use, and at the same time advertise the company.
Mind you, the lack could just be a reflection of the lack of larger companies being there in the first place.
I hear you, but it's also not just about us: It's about the industry culture as a whole, and if we don't make efforts to change that culture, the industry as well will not change. You're not wrong that there are more men than women: There's ten times as many in the Australian Industry... and the disparity is increasing. That's disturbing! I certainly wouldn't want the panels to suffer either, but pushing back on those numbers is something I feel should happen.
I'd love it if we could ignore gender and just choose the best for the job. But that's not what we have. To draw an analogy, there's a reason the Lady Planeswalkers Society exists, and is needed. In an ideal world, it wouldn't be. But we don't have an ideal world.
I thought that enforcers did an awesome job of keeping walkways clear throughout the expo hall, but I feel like Riot's booth could have been better planned. Maybe this is the responsibility of Riot to sort out, but I feel like it became a problem when matches were on and crowds were pressing into nearby booths (Ubisoft etc) just so that they could get a view of the screen. Given the popularity of LoL, I didn't think it was surprising that there were so many spectators there, so I found it a bit disappointing that there was so little space allotted when those matches were scheduled ahead of time.
Joust was absolutely awesome, and I'd love to see it or similar, easily accessible, quick-fire multiplayer games at future PAX's.
I really felt the lack of D&D to be honest. The "how to play" and Dungeon Delve WoTC usually run are great fun. And since they use a booking system it works well.
Regarding queuing. Why not take a leaf out of Disney's play book and introduce a Fastpass style system. Fastpasses are made available at the beginning of the day for each event. When they run out they are gone. People have a window to return in to be guaranteed a seat. After the window expires anyone in the standby line is allowed in. Enforce a 2 pass/2hour or expired return window limit on each ticket (whichever comes first).
Granted, would need some sophisticated (and portable) tech but would reduce the queue (and disappointment) significantly.
A considerable portion of the issues raised were entirely out of the PAX organiser's control (or at least were out of control once the venue was selected, but the reasons for that are long and complicated). Developers, studios and publishers will only come if they want to come. Theatre sizes were only as big as the venue could allow for. Queuing arrangements only worked as well as we could with the amount of space we were able to use, pending weather (I 100% assure you that we had a much easier time with organising lines when it wasn't raining).
So overall a lot of the issues being raised would be solved by a different venue, or a combination of more of the showgrounds being used during a time of year with somewhat more predictable, less wet, weather. Do please keep that in mind, in addition to the issues that were entirely out of PAX's control to begin with!
In addition, the enforcers were somewhat understaffed. I know for sure that an extra enforcer during my shifts at the theatre I was working would've made things CONSIDERABLY more manageable.
Also yes, there is likely to be line entertainment next year.
Man I am not trying to be mean, but the scarves were bright yellow.
Fashion wise they are hard to work into things.
Satans..... hints.....