Best Panel / Worst Panel 2014

BIGmog

While I try to make it to many panels, it's impossible to hit them all. For that reason I'm curious. Which panel did you attend that really impressed you? Also, any panels were you disappointed by?

belligerent

I wasn't disappointed with any of the panels I went to, but I picked specific ones. my favorite by far was evening with Pat rothfuss

hyrulehero96

I was very happy with all the panels I went to my favorites were both the AVGN movie screening and the AVGN Q&A

Rhea_starstorm

Patrick Rothfuss and Geeky Crafting were amazing. I was a disappointed by beyond the stars but that was partially my fault for not looking more carefully at the panelists descriptions

ottergal

Nthing Rothfuss. I showed up about 7 minutes late and am completely bummed that I missed that 7 minutes.

Ravenger

I popped in to a few panels in the evenings at the Sheraton, but was unimpressed. I'm a firm believer in taking public speaking lessons if you are going to do so where it affects your business and you need them. I'm sure the devs and producers I listened to were great, but unfortunately I did not find their tone or method of sharing their information to be very engaging

adambarg

PA should find a way to clone @jkalles and have him moderate every panel.

Headhunter

To me, the best panel was the Frag Dolls one: I'm not in the gaming industry, not specifically working towards that (but not opposed) and haven't been following their endeavours, but they made a believer out of me.

Evenstar

Going to have to agree with the selection of An Evening With Patrick Rothfuss for the best panel of the year. It was everything I hoped it would be and more, he is hilarious and a joy to listen to. Filled the void left by the Wil Wheaton Awesome Hour for me :')

PurpleSky

By far the worst panel was Bungie's Destiny panel. I'm not referring to the technical difficulties, I understand that happens. What I have an issue with is that the panelists seemed to have nothing to talk about. It seemed to be just a panel of us sitting there listening to them ramble and swear. No Q&A, no video, and nothing to really help promote the game. Granted the game doesn't need much promoting but something would have been nice to warrant us showing up.

Also Bungie can take a page from Riot's book. They did nothing to help engage the fan base and really get us pumped for the upcoming release. No swag, not a very big PAX presence overall, and a very boring, non-engaging panel. Again they don't need to push their game much but that wall between developer/player that Riot refers to is definitely a true concept. For the type of game that Bungie is making they might want to reconsider their approach to conventions like PAX.

Rhea_starstorm

Evenstar wrote: »

Going to have to agree with the selection of An Evening With Patrick Rothfuss for the best panel of the year. It was everything I hoped it would be and more, he is hilarious and a joy to listen to. Filled the void left by the Wil Wheaton Awesome Hour for me :')

After seeing his panel I've been wondering if Patrick Rothfuss is the new Wil Wheaton for pax. I miss you Wil and wish we could have both but having Pat did fill a void

StarYoshi

I went to the fewest panels of my pax career this year. (Partially because of Dev, partially due to a lack of interesting ones) I missed the swag-laden panels, but I enjoyed the media molecule and the what it takes to be independent panels.

SinoSamba

Was really happy with the few panels I attended. Loved the KF2 one, which was also the 1st one I attended this year.

BombClancy

I went to two panels, and I enjoyed both.
I got to meet/greet both the creator of Final Fantasy and Tetris. That was the highlight of the weekend for me.

Headhunter

PurpleSky wrote: »

By far the worst panel was Bungie's Destiny panel. I'm not referring to the technical difficulties, I understand that happens. What I have an issue with is that the panelists seemed to have nothing to talk about. It seemed to be just a panel of us sitting there listening to them ramble and swear. No Q&A, no video, and nothing to really help promote the game. Granted the game doesn't need much promoting but something would have been nice to warrant us showing up.

Oh really? I was literally the 1st person after the cut off, after an unexpected number of line jumpers occupied a bunch of seats (which worked out well, got to hop in line for Heroes of the Storm with a relatively sparse crowd).

Hopefully it was recorded and uploaded somewhere, I pre-ordered the game and definitely intend to spend a lot of time with it.

Aioua

Headhunter wrote: »

PurpleSky wrote: »

By far the worst panel was Bungie's Destiny panel. I'm not referring to the technical difficulties, I understand that happens. What I have an issue with is that the panelists seemed to have nothing to talk about. It seemed to be just a panel of us sitting there listening to them ramble and swear. No Q&A, no video, and nothing to really help promote the game. Granted the game doesn't need much promoting but something would have been nice to warrant us showing up.

Oh really? I was literally the 1st person after the cut off, after an unexpected number of line jumpers occupied a bunch of seats (which worked out well, got to hop in line for Heroes of the Storm with a relatively sparse crowd).

Hopefully it was recorded and uploaded somewhere, I pre-ordered the game and definitely intend to spend a lot of time with it.

Why, it was recorded and uploaded to our livestream!


http://www.twitch.tv/pax2/c/5058818

Headhunter

Aioua wrote: »

Headhunter wrote: »

PurpleSky wrote: »

By far the worst panel was Bungie's Destiny panel. I'm not referring to the technical difficulties, I understand that happens. What I have an issue with is that the panelists seemed to have nothing to talk about. It seemed to be just a panel of us sitting there listening to them ramble and swear. No Q&A, no video, and nothing to really help promote the game. Granted the game doesn't need much promoting but something would have been nice to warrant us showing up.

Oh really? I was literally the 1st person after the cut off, after an unexpected number of line jumpers occupied a bunch of seats (which worked out well, got to hop in line for Heroes of the Storm with a relatively sparse crowd).

Hopefully it was recorded and uploaded somewhere, I pre-ordered the game and definitely intend to spend a lot of time with it.

Why, it was recorded and uploaded to our livestream!


http://www.twitch.tv/pax2/c/5058818

Oh great, thanks!

Foo_Dog

PurpleSky wrote: »

What I have an issue with is that the panelists seemed to have nothing to talk about. It seemed to be just a panel of us sitting there listening to them ramble and swear.

Likewise, I was disappointed in Video Games are Stupid for similar reasons.

Rothfuss was wonderful and Scott & Rym (How to Win Every Game) were superb, as usual.

Magmaros

Foo, you didn't think that a panel with Max Scoville, and Brian Altano wouldn't just derail and go elsewhere. Also, they pointed out in great detail why video games are stupid.

Elbasunu

I didn't attend, so my sample is only form what I saw on TWITCH's two channels:

Acquisitions Inc was my favorite, hands down. Chris knocked it out of the park, along with the prop crew, and production crew. But I don't consider this a panel, but a show so:

Favorite: An Evening with Patrick Rothfuss. He read some great stories, told some great jokes, and all in all was just entertaining.

Least favorite: I was hype for the THornwatch panel, but, and I hate saying it because he's an amazing guy, and a brilliant designer; Mike Selinker isn't a very good panel host I feel like we could have gotten a half hour more out of Mike K if Mike S. hadn't taken so long with his portions. That said, his input was still great to hear.

I also watched the Grim Fandango panel, which had a slow start, but some really juicy nuggets.

adias.angel

Hands down the Royal Rumble and the Giant Bomb panel are my favorite ones every year.

lokar82

I liked Bioware's panels that they ran in their own little world and it was cool to talk to the Mass Effect designers there as well. As for actual Pax panels, the Art of the Dungeon Master was great and I wished I would have gone to Acquisitions Inc instead of wasting my time in line Saturday night for parties I never got into at all. It would have been nice if Pax would have better publicized that Acquisitions Inc was streamed at the Paramount for people who were too late to get into the panel, something I didn't see until it was too late. It's not like they didn't know it was going to fill up.

Worst panel I went to was the NIS America Localizing Japanese Games, I had high expectations because I love Disgaea and Danganronpa. I wanted to hear more info about things they have to censor and why and basically differences in Japanese and American culture, but they played it way too safe by just talking about names and literal translation issues. It was cool to meet the Disgaea translator though and badger him about these issues.

BouwsT

Absolutely loved the AI game, it was amazing to be there in person after watching it on YouTube all these years.

I think the worst I saw (and they were all alright in their own way) was the Intel Future of Computer Gaming... I don't know what I was expecting, really. But I wasn't blown away by it like I was at all the others.

I also had a great time at the AVGN screening, but got penalized pretty hard for being in the first 100 people in line. Enforcer forced us to go front row center. It was a pretty rough viewing angle for the screens, and I was kind of wishing the sides would have been filled up sooner.

All in all, I will be concentrating on panels even more next year, it was an absolute blast.

Cennedi

My least favorite panel by far was the videogames of forgotten realms in 2015. I was so excited, thinking that they were going to come out with a great game, but all they talked about was Neverwinter, a game that is already out and didn't wow me, and redoing the graphics of Baldur's Gate.

Baldurs Gate has held and always will hold a special place in my heart, but if that is what you're using as the highlight for 2015, you are sad sad people. It remains the only panel I got up and left early from.

pogoplay

Btw, was the Penny Arcade Q&A panel uploaded anywhere this year? I've been looking everywhere (Youtube and thats it) for it.

Aioua

pogoplay wrote: »

Btw, was the Penny Arcade Q&A panel uploaded anywhere this year? I've been looking everywhere (Youtube and thats it) for it.

@pogoplay‌

The Q&A: http://www.twitch.tv/pax/c/5047240
and the Make-a-Strip, which is also Q&A: http://www.twitch.tv/pax/c/5041578

We're hoping to get a youtube channel for these, because twitch just isn't great for looking at past content.