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PAX South Aftermath
Qumaden
World's Mightiest MortalRegistered User regular
World's Mightiest MortalRegistered User regular
in Pinny Arcade
So, I wanted to start this up before the dust even settles on PAX South; how was everyone's PAX?
Positives:
-It was a ten minute trip from my apartment to the convention hall.
-It was an inaugural PAX, and I got to be a part of it in what is currently "my city"(that I know almost nothing about since I've only lived here like a year)
-The people. This was the most community involvement I've ever encountered in my PAXen experience. I spent almost the entire time with people from these very forums. It seemed like everytime I was in a line, ready to go eat, playing a game, all the time there were friendly faces that I knew. It felt so great to experience together with people within this community that I've met before, and see on these forums all the time; but it just had such a sense of coalescing these digital interactions and short social bursts into genuine friendships. This may be a bit maudlin, and I don't know if anyone else got that from their first South, but I had a great time with you people.
-Moonrise. Love me some Moonrise and Undead Labs as a whole.
Negatives:
-The MTG pin handling. Not gonna beat a dead horse, think I've covered this enough
-None of the pins were available on Friday because they hadn't made it to the convention center. Thankfully, Brian and the merch team, as well as all the vendors, handled it very well and adapted quickly to this unexpected hurdle. Kudos on that, again, not gonna beat a dead horse
How about everyone else? Pros, Cons? I've got my bag packed for East in less than forty-five days!
Positives:
-It was a ten minute trip from my apartment to the convention hall.
-It was an inaugural PAX, and I got to be a part of it in what is currently "my city"(that I know almost nothing about since I've only lived here like a year)
-The people. This was the most community involvement I've ever encountered in my PAXen experience. I spent almost the entire time with people from these very forums. It seemed like everytime I was in a line, ready to go eat, playing a game, all the time there were friendly faces that I knew. It felt so great to experience together with people within this community that I've met before, and see on these forums all the time; but it just had such a sense of coalescing these digital interactions and short social bursts into genuine friendships. This may be a bit maudlin, and I don't know if anyone else got that from their first South, but I had a great time with you people.
-Moonrise. Love me some Moonrise and Undead Labs as a whole.
Negatives:
-The MTG pin handling. Not gonna beat a dead horse, think I've covered this enough
-None of the pins were available on Friday because they hadn't made it to the convention center. Thankfully, Brian and the merch team, as well as all the vendors, handled it very well and adapted quickly to this unexpected hurdle. Kudos on that, again, not gonna beat a dead horse
How about everyone else? Pros, Cons? I've got my bag packed for East in less than forty-five days!
+3
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Overall, they really understood pin-trader psychology, and used it very effectively to generate interest in their (awesome) product. I think this qualifies as a win-win.
Overall, the lessons from this were to build on the community portions with a meetup before PAX, and do a podcast recording afterwards. Whatsapp made a huge difference, and keeping in touch with everyone really makes things easier and more fun. I'd like to have all of this be a regular thing, and it really takes such little effort to set up.
I don't really see the non-delivery of Pins on the Friday as a negative. PA were on top of the problem and I didn't encounter anyone who was fazed by it. In fact, it really meant that the first day was less frantic, and I'd love to have that pace set for the rest of the year. Aus really did set the bar for easy-going PAXen, and South continued it.
Khoomunity was fantastic. I had intended to get the Community wrap up done and then interview Khoo, but having him sit in and listen to the questions, concerns and yes, downright bitching gave us all the opportunity to address issues and I now have a fantastic pun for the episode.
Game-wise, I saw a lot of stuff that I liked the look of. I'm expecting the big AAA will be at East yelling far too loud and waving their bright shiny noisemakers at us, but honestly I don't know if they will compare to the satisfaction of an iron skillet connecting with a zombie's cranium. Undead Labs are 5 star golden people.
The only real negative has been addressed. Hopefully measures will be put in place to prevent a reoccurrence. But maybe we need a Nightmare Pin Of The Convention, because having a common enemy unites us in a different way from a common pleasure or goal. And if we weren't griping on the podcast, would it really be the same?
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Highlights:
-The panel. I had a wonderful time up there on Friday and got plenty of great feedback throughout the rest of PAX. For those folks that came up and said nice things, thank you so much for that. If we do get to do it again at East, the focus definitely will shift towards newer folks, but will still have a lot of specifics meant for everyone. The Q&A at the end was a great reminder that everyone, no matter the experience level, can get more knowledge about this awesome hobby.
-The Undead games. Moonrise and the XBox One port of State Of Decay were both good games and worth the wait for me even without the pin. But the fact that we got pins was an added bonus, and I enjoyed how the folks working there handled the mix of "ooo, cool game" and "yeah, I'm just here for the pin" folks. Heroes, they. Heroes.
-New friends. While @Diffusion, @TheAggroCraig and I have been bumping into each other at these things for years now, I was able to get to know @Qumaden, @Shadowscars22, @Duckie @00Fayt00 and plenty of other folks that much better at South.
-Dreadnought. I want to buy that and blow up spaceships.
Lowlights:
-Food. The food options immediately surrounding the Convention Center skewed tourist and, as such, were overpriced and not terribly thrilling. Heck, the best meal I ate in town was at Fuddruckers until I stumbled into a decent place far down the Riverwalk.
-The Magic Pin. I entirely get why they did what they did. They wanted to spread the love. The issue, though, is that there is a large and growing number of folks that want to playtest something or wait in line for something just to get the pin. If you want happy PAXers, you need to realize that as an exhibitor.
-The Pin Trading Event. I had a great time, so this is a mediumlight (instead of a lowlight), but I kind of wish there was a better system. Folks were just packed around every table. Should they let in less people per iteration? What would fix it?
I had a fantastic time, and was thrilled I went. You guys are all great.
Always looking to trade.
The only downside was the stupid Doom Blizzard New England is getting because it freaked me out and I left on Sunday and missed all of Sunday. I got most of the pins I promised people, So I hope I don't let anyone down.
Hope to see people at PAX East!!
I talked at great length with the CEO of Undead Labs and his wife, who were both manning the booth on Sunday. I passed along to them how much the community appreciated their handling of the pins, and I even showed them some of the forum posts. They were very grateful and said they intend to continue to keep this model of pin distribution at East and Prime this year. They didn't want to speak negatively of any of the other companies distributing pins, but said they thought handing them out for free after a demo was what you're "supposed to do" and they don't see the benefit in doing it any other way. I totally agree.
- Tinman (from Aus)
- 10th Anniversary (Limited Ed)
- Carl (Limited Ed)
- Valentine's Day
- Merch x3 (Version 1.0)
- CTS x2
- Hannah (Limited Ed)
I only lost one pin during the weekend; my Triple Town (which I ultimately just purchased on eBay)...
PS. I was the guy that was wearing all my pins on my shoulder canvas bag.
Do you recall what they were? I'm trying to figure out what to send over with any pins I trade.
"Damn fine pins!"
[X]PAXsouth 2015
[X]PAXaus 2015
[?]PAXeast 2016 ???
As an ex-competitive MTG player, I was super happy with my tournament performance, I gave away pins to new collectors (even met randomly some Canadians on the way to the hotel Sunday night - new pin pals!), and I loved, loved seeing how everyone was just grateful for PAX being here.
Now, life seems bleak and boring when compaired to the last few days - luckily, I have pins to help me remember the awesomeness, and East is right around the corner.
I didn't even see the ghost-looking pin at the show? I didn't know it existed. Didn't get a limited inaugural pin because no one would trade it for anything (except one guy who wanted 4 pins in exchange, incl. my pax east 2014 one).
I had a wonderful time at PAX and someone hooked me up with a magic pin and a greater than games pin, thank goodness, because otherwise I'd have left with nothing but the ones I bought from the merch booth and the adventure time one I got at the G&T signing.
Shitty Food Cart was in the food court near Bandland. It wasn't the main counter that is part of the convention center. It was just a small, shitty food cart. Their Breakfast burritos were gorgeous and just $2. Lunch each day was new and great, $6. Staff were pleasant and human rather than service droids.
The only disconcerting thing was walking through the convention center on Monday and Shitty Food Cart being nowhere to be found. Was it a mirage? Did I dream it?
Oh right. It had wheels.
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My Digital Pin Lanyard
"Oh there it is."
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That panel went really well. There were many people new to pin trading, and it's really exciting to trade with and talk to them.
If it was easy, who would want it, right? There's something to be said for playing hard-to-get...
It is quite a burden to put on a single person and their credit card. I'm thinking for East we should have a volunteer list to share the load.
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My Digital Pin Lanyard
I did not, to my great and everlasting shame.
I had fine food all over Austin, but nothing worth eating in San Antonio. I will hunt this Shitty Food Cart next year.
Always looking to trade.
2015 PAX Prime Omeganaut (I will forever hate Katamari)
Agree -- before the show I looked at the list of people that Happendy was supposed to take care of and my eyes glazed over. I was hoping it would be otherwise, but my gut/life-experience told me that he was in for a world of pain and a PAX with a severely reduced fun component. A handful of extra merch pins is not worth serious bank account drama and a 100% stressed-out PAX experience.
I know people want to help out the community, but a much better solution is for a lot of people to each help 2-3 others than one person try to help 80.
http://pinmash.info - Two pins enter, one pins leaves... then the other pin leaves with a lower Elo rating
Not for me. Buy a $2 breakfast at IKEA in Minneapolis? OMG HIS CARD WAS STOLEN AND IS BEING USED IN SWEDEN! SHUT IT DOWN!
Spend ~$1500 at Prime in Seattle? That looks legit, don't stop any of those payments.
2015 PAX Prime Omeganaut (I will forever hate Katamari)
As long as you call your CC company and let them know they typically won't shut it down. I called my CC company before heading to Vegas and Chicago and they just mark it on your account. Granted I didn't spend thousands of dollars like you... :P
Another year of Prime gone by... commence the struggle!
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- Pinny Pals dinner: It was great to meet people, but difficult to talk to everyone at a 20 person long table
- It was my first time as an Enforcer, so that was cool
- Somewhat shorter lines for things than Prime; didn't really have to deal with capped lines everywhere
- Pin Panel: Great turnout, very interesting
- ClubPA Q&A: This was the first time I had stayed up for the ClubPA photo - I didn't realize they did a Q&A afterwards, lot of great stuff there
- Kris Straub + LRR: Only $10 for their pins!
(-)
- The weather: obviously not blaming anyone, but it was disappointing.
- Too many purchased pins, as a percentage. This might just be because there weren't a lot of big companies there, like Blizzard and Microsoft.
- State of Decay: The people at the booth were great, but they only had 3 demo stations - I was in line for 2 hours late on Saturday.
(?)
- Magic: I didn't necessarily have a problem with the 1 pin per person policy, it was just a challenge to overcome. I wound up offering one of my opponent's 20 bucks for his pin.
- Pin Trading Event: I'm still convinced that they should spread the tables out more. Didn't wind up with anything interesting, mostly just South core pins.
It was awesome.
Looking for Pins: DLC
There has been an awakening. Have you felt it?
I thought that was going in a different direction for a second.
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I have pneumonia :-(
2015 PAX Prime Omeganaut (I will forever hate Katamari)
Check out my YouTube Pinny Arcade Videos!
As for South, was such a new PAX experience. Friday I browsed the expo hall, which took very little time because it was so small. Saturday was spent all day in tabletop, a first for me and I loved it. Tried so many new games. Sunday was short since we left early. Disappointed in the Inside Gearbox panel only because I wasn't wowed with anything and I hyped myself up since they always give away stuff.
I thought the pin trading event was a little...I dunno. I guess crowded? I can't really hate on it. I just didn't find anything I was really looking for (Behemoth, KI). Got myself a few extra Hotstepper Gabes for my own reasons. Got my Jamie and Ranger pins. And traded a Hanna for the South LE pin. Wasn't really worth the wait to check out the tables of pins that weren't anything exciting. But everyone has a different opinion on it.
Overall, was a fun trip. Not sure if I will be back just because East is closer (although tickets and hotel are getting insane with availability).
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Was one of them TheAggroCraig?
Was the other one me?
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Yes, you can get some really good stuff, but you basically have to mill around taking up the space of other people, and be ready to snatch anything good that comes up. Not really my thing.
The other issue is it can be very difficult / impossible to navigate for smaller people, my pin wife, who is also my wife wife, doesn't even bother with Pin Trading events any more, she stands off to the side because it's too hard to get to a table.
I'm a fairly big guy, and I try to be mindful of those around me...but I still accidentally jostle smaller people, and I see a lot of people who don't seem to have any regard for those around them.
I think at east, I'll just play the fun games (definitely the highlight at South!) everyone has setup, and then move on.
ಠ_ಠ
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"Players are artists who create their own reality within the game." - Shigeru Miyamoto
I'd like to see it run in a more orderly fashion. We're already lined up, so just run the line through in a procession. If people want to go back and see what other people have left as trades, go back to the end of the line, like Ouroboros.
The free for all at Prime was hectic, and like you say, did not encourage waiting politely for your turn. Meanwhile, standing outside wondering why the line was barely moving every 20-30 mins or whatever it was also felt like a weird way to spend time. Sure we were chatting and swapping pins, but there was a level of concern as to whether we were going to get in or not, plus people freely moving around in the line to budge in, under pretence of making a trade. Watching a pin crew jump 30-40 spots like a classic dine and dash was a line up low light for someone who tries to have manners and play by the rules.
Pro: I can now force my corgi to wear an effigy.
Con: He keeps trying to eat it.