The 1st Monday in PAX History

DJSchmitty

I'm interested in getting everybody's opinion about the show on Monday. Please feel free to bring up any stories or, positive or otherwise.

trickycoolj

I didn't buy a Monday pass. I need a recovery day before returning to work. I also unexpectedly have to go speak at a conference on the opposite coast next week since a colleague couldn't go, meaning I just can't play another day and run myself down risking con crud. 4 days is rough when you're almost 30 and work in an office with limited vacation that you don't want to waste on sleep/recovery.

Edit: One thing I did enjoy was having the full day Sunday until midnight. It always felt so cut off at 6pm Sunday in the past even though Monday is a holiday in the US. So if for some reason it went back to 3 days, I'd love to see Sunday go the full evening.

bacon_avenger

It was an extra day of PAX and all the greatness that is included.

I did notice a lot of people, attendees, enforcers and booth workers, seemed to be dragging today. The theory/reason for this after talking to a few people about it, is probably that most of them get into 'con mode' when arriving, and since just about every other con is three days, their mental and physical process adapts itself for three days then goes into relax/recovery mode.

Dr.Rocktipus

Everyone in my group was drained by today, and I kinda wished the panel selection had been as good as it was the other three days, so as to have a compelling reason not to go crash in my hotel. Still, I loved having even more PAX. The last day seems to always be the slowest, and this was no exception. However it allowed Sunday to still feel energetic, which was great.

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DJSchmitty

Frankly, I was surprised to so many people Monday. Talking to a few Enforcers, the word is the Expo Queue line was longer than Sunday! It's great to see everybody still having fun, even after such an exhausting weekend. But I still think there is plenty of room for improvement next year.

vespachica

So, this is the first year that I actually stayed until closing (I saw an Enforcer with a sign saying "The line for PAX ends here" and I have to admit to feeling really sad). Usually on Sundays I go home early because I'm so tired. I didn't go yesterday (gave my passes to my adult son and his wife so they could attend for the first time) so maybe that was enough of a rest day for me. Anyway, I definitely noticed exhibitors dragging and felt badly for them.

I was also surprised that there were so many people. I was expecting fewer people.

recycledair

I was actually surprised at how busy it was! I thought it was going to be a bit lighter at opening in terms of crowds, with people either just exhausted from the first 3 days, hungover, or traveling home. In actuality, it was busier than the previous day.

We ended up hanging out for a few hours, I got to thank Gabe for creating Pinny Arcade, tried out a few games I hadn't seen yet, bought an adorable Squishable Sloth (who we named Delores), and it was overall a good last day at PAX.

I am remarkably exhausted and sore though, so tomorrow should be an interesting day at work. But it's always worth it! I was happy to have Monday, so I felt like I could enjoy things more at a slower pace/not feel so rushed to squish in so much during the weekend.

Thornkin

The expo hall this morning definitely felt a lot busier than yesterday morning. I think a lot of new people were there today. Overall though, Monday felt just like Sunday usually does. Adding the extra day basically gave us two Saturdays. More time to hit panels or tabletop or indie rpgs without missing out on everything else.

zannah

Thornkin wrote: »

Overall though, Monday felt just like Sunday usually does. Adding the extra day basically gave us two Saturdays.

This is how I felt as well. I wasn't quite so rushed, had more time to hang out, game, socialize, meet new people, etc. I really liked the extra time.

Helljin

4 days burnt me out. I could tell who in the queue had only Monday passes compared to the people that had been there for a couple of days. I felt bad for the Monday only folk because the swag bags and booth swag ran out early. Also the game booth workers were beat but still put on a good show. I asked a few of them how they were doing on day 4 and got mostly eye rolls but a very positive attitude.

Initialdor

I loved it! More time to connect with people... more smiles on peoples faces when they recognize my cosplay. "Dude, I love seeing you here every year"... best feeling in the world, hearing that. The flip flops didn't even feel that bad for going for four (plus TWDT) days. Monday even gave me time to match up an MSI pin number; shout out to SomePAXthing \m/ You rock!

Enigmas

I think 4 days is just about perfect. Friday is getting into the con mode, making a tour of things to see in more details later.
Sat and Sun are full of busy, busy, busy running from panels to Expo to gaming.
Mon is pretty chill with a chance to see any of those games you've heard about all weekend but hadn't had a chance to see.

This was the first year I was ready to say goodbye to PAX, instead of feeling like I was too rushed to see everything I wanted. It actually made me want to come back next year, something I was waffling about doing.

FourT2

I was really happy about that 4th day this year. You now have more opportunities to play more games and you can take your time exploring things at a slower pace. It sure is exhausting, but it is great to have the 4th day option for people that desire it.

WizEye

I took a good chunk of the week off for PAX and having the extra Monday was a great treat. This year I could take all the time I wanted to check out panels, knowing that I would still have plenty of time for the expo hall and all the other goodness. Very happy with the 4th day. Thoroughly enjoyed the Gearbox and Veterans panels.

createacat

4th day was great. Gave me time to catch some stuff I missed on the floor. Spending most of Sunday at the Halo GC, needed the extra day.

Dopeski

I liked how it was 4 days but I hated how everything shut down at 11:30. As a person who likes to stay up really late, I miss playing in the Console Freeplay area until 1 AM (Or 2 AM, I forget what it was in previous years).

trickycoolj

I loved midnight closing. I actually very dangerously almost fell asleep at the wheel after dropping off my last carpool person in 2009. I've never driven since. For locals, bus schedule logistics are so much easier before 1am. Then again, y'all are making me feel old. :shock:

bloatedhippo

I'm happy it's 4 days.

MortonStromgal

I was done by Monday. I think for now PAX is less my thing though, I've been going since they moved it downtown and since then all my friends who were in the video game industry have moved on to better paying less exciting jobs. I have a kid that i have to put down for a nap for 2 hrs in the middle of the day. I'm also not into the big swag, id rather have t-shirts for everyone than a raffle or tourney for a laptop. This is the first time I've had to stand in line longer than 2 people or so to see some indie games. All that combined means I'll buy a single day pass for me and my wife next year so some new people can get to go for the rest of the time though I wouldn't mind doing the enforcer, cookie brigade, or volunteering for some company. I'm not done with PAX but I'm less enthusiastic but thats sort of a good thing as it frees up tickets for other people

DaveRH

I found 4 days to be the perfect mix for our group. We always thought three was not quite enough to do everything we wanted, but this year we got everything we wanted done and had a less frantic pace. It was great...any more would be too much.

Spud387

4 days was great in that it gave us another night (Sunday), but I did not like the closing at 12am. After leaving the expo hall and eating I found it didn't give us enough time to finish some of our longer board games

alexalgebra

This was my first PAX, but I thought four days was great! I didn't feel rushed and I got to see everything I wanted to see over the course of the weekend. It was nice to have an extra day to catch up on everything I'd missed, buy stuff, etc.

Twizzle

I agree that 4 days was perfect amount of time. I was exhausted on Sunday but with the power of PAX I made it until close on Monday evening. Having 4 days to enjoy all things PAX made for one of the best vacations ever! I am already planning our PAX'mas vacation for next year.

japerry

Having monday was great. It gave us two full days in BYOC (Sat and Sun) to game, and some extra time to do table top games, eat, and explore the expo hall. Even though we lost 2 hours (I'd love to stay in BYOC until 2am), we gained 6 sunday night, in addition to the 8 on monday, which was well worth it.

Aractor

Spud387 wrote: »

4 days was great in that it gave us another night (Sunday), but I did not like the closing at 12am. After leaving the expo hall and eating I found it didn't give us enough time to finish some of our longer board games

I felt exactly the same way...I enjoyed having 4 days of PAX, but once expo closed & my friends went out to grab dinner (which usually took longer than normal, as expected during PAX) we'd come back with barely enough time to checkout a tabletop game & play it. :?

Cabadrin

I was a little beat after staying out until 2:30am on Sunday, but I enjoyed Monday. Like others have said, I adapted Sunday into another Saturday, and Monday became my cooldown period. I do like that more panels were fit in because of the four days. I'm hopeful that PAX East will be the same next year.

Incenjucar

I rather enjoyed it, especially since I'm in the industry and trying to make contacts. Every day is another opportunity to meet new cool people and to make up for all the cool stuff I have to skip over because I'm trying to meet new cool people.

Lindabear

This was my first PAX, and if I could go back and re-do this entire weekend I would've taken my time going through booths. My friends and I went through everything we wanted by about Sunday night, and Monday was extremely draining.

We were thinking... "What do we do now?" We used Monday to hoard swag and buy last day posters/shirts and whatnot.

Madpoet

Spud387 wrote: »

4 days was great in that it gave us another night (Sunday), but I did not like the closing at 12am. After leaving the expo hall and eating I found it didn't give us enough time to finish some of our longer board games

I was going to post this near verbatim. However, on Monday, we skipped the expo hall almost entirely and just played tabletop games. There was definitely fatigue showing, and I overheard a few vendors counting down to close. I think I would rather have 3 days with the extra two hours at night, with Monday free to detox. But, if I weren't an antisocial asshole, maybe I could meet some people and just play games at the hotel -I might try that next year.

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Aercadia

First time PAXer! 4 days seemed just about right. It was exhausting (so many people and I'm generally an introvert, feet worn out, sensory overload, etc), but if it had been shorter it would have felt crammed and rushed. The 4th day was little more lax, and allowed me to get to some of the nooks and crannies of the con that I might have otherwise missed. Loved my first experience, definitely planning on doing it again next year if at all possible!

DashD

By the final round of the Omegathon came I was absolutely dead on my feet. However, I loved having the 4th day. Having a full Sunday to bum around gave me the extra chances I needed to see everything I wanted to see.

nil8r

I've been attending PAX since 2005 and generally speaking, the addition of the 4th day was a win for me. It gave me the space to invest in more 2-4 hour long events without feeling like I've wasted an entire day in lines. I played more Tabletop and MtG than I would otherwise throughout the long weekend. Monday, was about winding down, one last loop through the expo or merch tables, collect more Streetpass tags, play a board game, grab a pre-Omegathon drink and just soak in the atmosphere one last time. I also scheduled Tuesday off from work, so I had the recovery day, otherwise I'd be too exhausted.

Komi

It was kind of draining for me, I definitely liked it though. I actually ended up starting to get a cold on Sunday, so I kind of rushed my body to do everything else I wanted to on that day. Spent the most of Monday resting until the Omegathon final round because I refused to miss it, my body went into overdrive for that and I managed to have a great time at it and at the buttoneering meetup, but as soon as I made it back to the hotel I was pretty messed up.

That being said, I loved having the extra day. Gives you time to slow down and soak things up instead of running around trying to do everything as quickly as possible.

EnderWiggum

Had a good time on Monday, but I felt I should have rested that day. Wouldn't have been so bad if the panels I was looking to attend hadn't filled up. The tabletop gaming has really picked up this year and there were no easy demo's to get in line for.

DJSchmitty

Quick Sidenote: Thank you zerzhul for not closing this tread. You are doing a great job! (PS: Is this less creepy?)

MissFish

I feel like Monday would have been a good panel day (Unfortunelty there were none that interested my group). But it was fun. We spent most of the day playing some of the newer console games we haven't had money for in free play. Sunday was abig day for us because of the Bioware cosplay panel and the fact that we spent it in costume, so Monday was a nice slow letdown from the high.

Wizard

On one hand, I like what Monday did for Sunday. There was less pressure to get all of the swag on Saturday, and there was also additional copies of Wonderful 101 available as a result. It made Sunday a full and fulfilling day of PAX.

On the other hand, it was brutal on the enforcers and exhibitors. Everyone was clearly pretty worn down, and I don't know if the trade-off was worthwhile.

jjjewels

Lindabear wrote: »

This was my first PAX, and if I could go back and re-do this entire weekend I would've taken my time going through booths. My friends and I went through everything we wanted by about Sunday night, and Monday was extremely draining.

We were thinking... "What do we do now?" We used Monday to hoard swag and buy last day posters/shirts and whatnot.

We horaded so much swag on Monday. It was swaglicious.

skylatron

We only spent about 3 hours there on Monday, to get last minute things that we forgot and/or to do the "swag roundup". Having a 4th day let me do 3 days of cosplay and then have the last bit for winding down, which was awesome. Definitely a win.