PAX East - How was it?

thx42

So, what happened at East? Did you collect the full set? Did you get everything you needed for pin pals? What did you have to do to get Gold Overwatch and Twitch pins?

Solelron

based on other threads: twitch was ok if you went to their town hall, hard to get otherwise. Overwatch Gold was almost worse then WOTC from south.

hacky

East was great! Managed the full set:

Gold Overwatch:
In line myself early Friday, was able to talk to someone who just earned one. Turns out it was his second, and wanted my Hearthstone Cards that I was wearing. One happy trade.

Twitch:
I missed getting a pin at the Twitch panel (first 500 in, turned into first 350 or so in line from the way they were distributed. As the panel ended, I went up to where many of the twitch casters were seated to try to entice them with trades. But as it turns out, I am now pindebted to twitch.tv/thegreatgq, who simply gave me his (as he had one frome earlier). He's an awesome caster too, I have no problems with the shoutout, if you get the chance, check him out
I got a second on Sunday from finding out about the 4pm giveaway (demo vainglory).

Gerzzog

I mentioned in the other post my feelings on how it went in a general sense. But I was very successful I think. I got my pals every pin but the gold Overwatch which I feel is a big success considering the volume of pins and difficulty of twitch.

SerpicoBC

Highlights for me:
-The panel, which was very nicely attended and a lot of fun.
-The food trucks, which were a fantastic alternative to con food or walking off-property.
-The gameplay in Overwatch.
-The concept of Catlateral Damage.
-Trading an Aus Kemper for two Gold Overwatches, courtesy of the exceedingly awesome, friendly and dedicated @digitalghost445.

crowtales

I thought I'd gotten everything I needed - until I got home. I noticed that the PaxEast2015 set I have is missing it's Tourist Gabe! Instead I have two Tourist Tycho's.

I totally didn't notice cause I bought like 5 of them. The other two sets I have are complete, but those will go to my PinPals and I'll just try to pick up the missing pin elsewhere.

That was my only mishap this year. I didn't get the Gold Overwatch pin, but that thing was difficult to get.

jwquinlin

Had a great time this year. Got a full set minus the MTG pin, which was just bad time management on my part. Also traded for a few missing pins while waiting in line.

Acquisitions Inc was great. Chatted with a lot of pin traders, booth employees, and enforcers as I spent most of the time in the expo hall. Also, got to play Thornwatch again which was fun and seems to be moving along quite well.

Gerzzog

Lol no joke I have the opposite. I have several sets but one of them has two Gabes I think We can trade if you want. If it's worth the shipping costs we can trade em. I'll look when I get home to make sure it Gabe and not Tycho, but I am pretty sure it's two Gabes.

surette

Had an awesome time as always! Of course, PAX is about more than the pins for me but I did pretty well with the pins too. Went to the staff trading event this year after missing last year's and was able to get a lot of pins I was missing, since the staff sets are a big chunk. I also made a couple people happy with trades -- I traded away my extra Valentine's Day & Carl pins for Gavin & Khoo original staff head pins. Also got to playtest Thornwatch which was a lot of fun. I didn't bother with Overwatch or Twitch, and I never bother with Behemoth, but I got everything I wanted -- as a local Bostonian this year's Kemper is one of my favorite pins ever, and the limited edition polygon Massachusetts is beautiful. Can't wait til next year!

SerpicoBC

surette wrote: »

Of course, PAX is about more than the pins for me

Don't judge me!

Clix

This was the most taxing PAX for Pinny Arcade to me. That Twitch, Overwatch, and MTG pin mind as well have been made of unobtainium.

I didn't like WeLoveFine disregarding the $10 discount on pin packs either. That TF2 pin set was $40 instead of the normal $30 (and the way better Mega Man set from ThinkGeek was only $20, or $15 on Sunday).

The pin trading event with the PA staff got capped, and the PAX Lines twitter account didn't share that nugget until a half an hour later.

Then I wasted an hour and a half for the Twitch panel only to get the pin, but came up empty handed.

Overwatch line was always capped, so yeah...

I'm pretty sure that this was the PAX that'll cause my breakup with Pinny Arcade.

PAX_Skeletor

Every PAX, I wait for the posts that sound like:



Hope everyone sticks with us. Remember, even though you couldn't catch 'em all, Pokémon was still a really fun game. So it is with pins! :-)

pureval

I thought East was a blast, one of the better PAXes I have attended honestly. Doing the panel was really fun. I talked to someone afterwards who had literally decided within the last hour to start collecting the pins and had no idea what do. I managed to finally make a trade for my personal unicorn pin on Sunday and it felt great. The whole family played Splatoon and fell in love with it. Met some nice people in the community (really wish I could remember names better). Hotel decided not to charge me for my fridge and parking garage only charged for 2 days of parking.

dmosinee

Well, despite going in having just gotten over some semi-serious health issues (and being far from 100%) -- we had a truly amazing first PAX East.

List of Awesomeness:

1. Full Telltale games collection code at storytime, holy crap
2. Getting our only Twitch pin on Friday, by making a direct trade with a very nice Twitch staff member
3. Being able to buy an Overwatch gold off the winner (FPS god) on Friday for the $30 I had in my pocket
4. Meeting up with a bunch of our pin friends, still fresh in memory from South
5. Trading my MTG box and boosters to my last opponent for his tickets (for another Sarkhan Unbroken) because he was just going to use them on cards anyway
6. WINNING the Moonrise tournament on Saturday and getting the iPad Air -- still can't believe this because I'm typically awful at PVP in anything
7. Getting into the pin trading event line as the very last people before the cap (the above tournament ran into the timeslot)
8. Meeting up with the Undead Labs staff (who remembered us from South!) on Sunday and talking over their plans for Prime
9. Acquisitions Inc... GREEN FLAME!
10. Sunday afternoon, we got got into the Overwatch line (for a second try) about 50 people before the final cap for the day. Using a fully planned husband and wife tag-team strategy (me as Zarya up in the shit, her as Mercy acting as my personal healer and damage booster), we actually earned a gold Overwatch 100% straight up. I think we actually jumped for joy together when my name came up as play of the game.

So yeah, pretty crazy set of events. We're walking away with some amazing memories, and as one of the crazy few people to actually have a second Overwatch Gold available for trading.

DefaultGen

.

cookiekrush

Imsorad wrote: »

I didn't like WeLoveFine disregarding the $10 discount on pin packs either. That TF2 pin set was $40 instead of the normal $30 (and the way better Mega Man set from ThinkGeek was only $20, or $15 on Sunday).

When was it $40? I'm fairly certain I purchased it at $30 on Saturday. Mega Man was $15 on Sunday.

TheAggroCraig

TF2 set was $40 on Friday if you paid cash, and $40 + Tax if you paid with a card. IDK if they fixed it later in the weekend, but I only bought one set as opposed to more.

DefaultGen

.

gacbmmml

I got the full set, plus two extra Overwatch pins (one gold, one regular).

Twitch panel was key; wouldn't have gotten it otherwise!

Traded for all the new Behemoth pins, did the time to get the MTG pin and pretty much bought everything else.

Didn't attend the Pin Trading event because I knew it'd be super crowded with all the new Hobby pins; figured I'll grab them all at Prime.

All in all, very pleased.

TheAggroCraig

I had half of the staff done on friggin Thursday night, I ran into a few at the Westin/Info booth/merch booth making life way easier. Pin trading event I went in there only needing Gabbie (Mike was impossible to find at East for me for some reason, I didn't attend any panels/signings though, so I guess that makes it a bit harder).

My friends made a board game and brought it to PAX! It was a mashup of Hungry Hungry Hippos, Crossfire, Pinball and Spin Fighters. Jerry was walking by and he played with us for a bit and someone got a short video of it, there's tons of photos too since it drew a pretty large crowd, it was amazing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MliqI141kI

Overall my East was good, the dinner was a lot of fun Thursday, I got pretty wasted and then had to take off a bit early... so yeah. Hope everyone had a great time.

Clix

Don't let my pin chasing woes fool you, overall I still had a great PAX. But I've already started to slow down my Pin collecting.

My "gotta catch 'em all" attitude has been applied elsewhere (like amiibo). I just don't have the energy to chase down four full pin sets at a PAX event.

burned.fork

This was my first East (in spite of moving to Seattle from the east coast three years ago) and it was pretty great. I really enjoyed meeting the lot of you I ran into.

I managed to get a full set and also get an extra Gold Overwatch, regular Overwatch, Star Trek, Magic, and Twitch pins, by some miracle. I basically have an extra set of non-purchase pins.

Some pin related highlights:

1. The guy next to me at Overwatch won both gold pins and then asked if anyone wanted the extra. I think I asked him at least twice if he was sure, but he insisted I take it.
2. I waited in line for the Twitch panel and missed the cut off for the pin by literally three people. I watched one get handed out right in front of me.
3. ...but made up for it by tracking down that damn unicorn twice.
4. Finally acquired a Hanna (one of the few rare pins I'm missing) in exchange for one of my spare Aus shields.
5. I found out that one of the new PA staffers used to work at my place of employment and apparently I sold him PAX tickets as part of our company's ticket pool (last year?). He asked me how my flight from Seattle went at the pin trading event, leading to much confusion until he explained. Small world.
6. Folks at Undead Labs making it rain pins because I dig their game. They're just awesome people and it makes me happy to see how excited they get when people love their game.


..and finally, a story about a new collector I met at the show. I met this guy in the merch line on Friday. He had something like two or three pins from the previous year, but was really excited to get more into it this time around. He was in line for two polys, of course, and we started chatting about how I acquired a bunch of the pins on my scarf.

I ran into him again on Sunday, and he was super excited about an awesome moment he had on the floor. It turns out that he had just ran into the artist of one of the third party pins and talked to him about his work, the pin collecting hobby, and the game in question. The guy was awesome and gave him one of the pins. He had a really good experience, and it was awesome seeing how excited he was.

Now, immediately as he started telling this story, he had pulled the pin in question out to show me. As he's telling me, I'm staring at it and thinking what you're all now thinking. Hell, before he mentioned that it was given to him for free, I was worried that he had just been screwed in a trade..

Anyway, moral of the story: this hobby is supposed to be fun. I know a lot of folks walked away from East frustrated at missing a pin or two, but you really don't need to get every pin, or the super rare coveted pin, to have a great time. Just think of the guy who had an awesome PAX moment from receiving a "junk" pin.

Calle

@dmosinee so you were the one who won on saturday! my friend david won on sunday and i tried sunday but the line was so big i never made it.

I have been trying that ipad since SOUTH LOL

ah your lucky u got the over watch gold pin.. its the only one i missed other than the behemoth. I feel i can get those anytime tbh lol

Awesome time at east..im trying for prime lets see what happens

PedroAsani

burned.fork wrote: »

This was my first East (in spite of moving to Seattle from the east coast three years ago) and it was pretty great. I really enjoyed meeting the lot of you I ran into.

I managed to get a full set and also get an extra Gold Overwatch, regular Overwatch, Star Trek, Magic, and Twitch pins, by some miracle. I basically have an extra set of non-purchase pins.

Some pin related highlights:

1. The guy next to me at Overwatch won both gold pins and then asked if anyone wanted the extra. I think I asked him at least twice if he was sure, but he insisted I take it.
2. I waited in line for the Twitch panel and missed the cut off for the pin by literally three people. I watched one get handed out right in front of me.
3. ...but made up for it by tracking down that damn unicorn twice.
4. Finally acquired a Hanna (one of the few rare pins I'm missing) in exchange for one of my spare Aus shields.
5. I found out that one of the new PA staffers used to work at my place of employment and apparently I sold him PAX tickets as part of our company's ticket pool (last year?). He asked me how my flight from Seattle went at the pin trading event, leading to much confusion until he explained. Small world.
6. Folks at Undead Labs making it rain pins because I dig their game. They're just awesome people and it makes me happy to see how excited they get when people love their game.


..and finally, a story about a new collector I met at the show. I met this guy in the merch line on Friday. He had something like two or three pins from the previous year, but was really excited to get more into it this time around. He was in line for two polys, of course, and we started chatting about how I acquired a bunch of the pins on my scarf.

I ran into him again on Sunday, and he was super excited about an awesome moment he had on the floor. It turns out that he had just ran into the artist of one of the third party pins and talked to him about his work, the pin collecting hobby, and the game in question. The guy was awesome and gave him one of the pins. He had a really good experience, and it was awesome seeing how excited he was.

Now, immediately as he started telling this story, he had pulled the pin in question out to show me. As he's telling me, I'm staring at it and thinking what you're all now thinking. Hell, before he mentioned that it was given to him for free, I was worried that he had just been screwed in a trade..

Anyway, moral of the story: this hobby is supposed to be fun. I know a lot of folks walked away from East frustrated at missing a pin or two, but you really don't need to get every pin, or the super rare coveted pin, to have a great time. Just think of the guy who had an awesome PAX moment from receiving a "junk" pin.

See? I'm not crazy. All the Pins are beautiful to some people.

I'm not crazy guys!

Hingo

PedroAsani wrote: »

burned.fork wrote: »

This was my first East (in spite of moving to Seattle from the east coast three years ago) and it was pretty great. I really enjoyed meeting the lot of you I ran into.

I managed to get a full set and also get an extra Gold Overwatch, regular Overwatch, Star Trek, Magic, and Twitch pins, by some miracle. I basically have an extra set of non-purchase pins.

Some pin related highlights:

1. The guy next to me at Overwatch won both gold pins and then asked if anyone wanted the extra. I think I asked him at least twice if he was sure, but he insisted I take it.
2. I waited in line for the Twitch panel and missed the cut off for the pin by literally three people. I watched one get handed out right in front of me.
3. ...but made up for it by tracking down that damn unicorn twice.
4. Finally acquired a Hanna (one of the few rare pins I'm missing) in exchange for one of my spare Aus shields.
5. I found out that one of the new PA staffers used to work at my place of employment and apparently I sold him PAX tickets as part of our company's ticket pool (last year?). He asked me how my flight from Seattle went at the pin trading event, leading to much confusion until he explained. Small world.
6. Folks at Undead Labs making it rain pins because I dig their game. They're just awesome people and it makes me happy to see how excited they get when people love their game.


..and finally, a story about a new collector I met at the show. I met this guy in the merch line on Friday. He had something like two or three pins from the previous year, but was really excited to get more into it this time around. He was in line for two polys, of course, and we started chatting about how I acquired a bunch of the pins on my scarf.

I ran into him again on Sunday, and he was super excited about an awesome moment he had on the floor. It turns out that he had just ran into the artist of one of the third party pins and talked to him about his work, the pin collecting hobby, and the game in question. The guy was awesome and gave him one of the pins. He had a really good experience, and it was awesome seeing how excited he was.

Now, immediately as he started telling this story, he had pulled the pin in question out to show me. As he's telling me, I'm staring at it and thinking what you're all now thinking. Hell, before he mentioned that it was given to him for free, I was worried that he had just been screwed in a trade..

Anyway, moral of the story: this hobby is supposed to be fun. I know a lot of folks walked away from East frustrated at missing a pin or two, but you really don't need to get every pin, or the super rare coveted pin, to have a great time. Just think of the guy who had an awesome PAX moment from receiving a "junk" pin.

See? I'm not crazy. All the Pins are beautiful to some people.

I'm not crazy guys!

@PedroAsani you're drawing a trend line through a single data point to extrapolate that you aren't crazy. Just sayin'.



(I actually have a positive outlook on most, if not all, pins as well, I just don't feel the need to own them all).

SerpicoBC

Here's a question for the group. What kind of trades did you make at PAX East this time around?

fishfishmonkeyhat

Pins, mostly.




THANKS FOLKS I'LL BE HERE ALL NIGHT!

BECAUSE I CAN'T SLEEP!

Clix

SerpicoBC wrote: »

Here's a question for the group. What kind of trades did you make at PAX East this time around?

I traded away an Elspeth for Sarkhan, an Anubis for Nemony, and some fodder pins for Gabbie, Tyche, and Kristen.

burned.fork

SerpicoBC wrote: »

Here's a question for the group. What kind of trades did you make at PAX East this time around?

The ones I can remember right now:

1. South Gabe and South Tycho for D&D Ampersand
2. Aus 10th Anniversary shield for Hanna
3. South Polygon for Gold Overwatch (from a guy who had two of them)

Clix

I didn't see any overt pin hunters thus year. Last year there were a number of pin hunters that would stalk expo hall lines for rare pins. I didn't see that this year, or maybe they've just gotten a lot more discreet.

aleph0

Off the top of my head, I traded:

Ugin for the East Shield
CTS for Sarkhan Unbroken
Emberjaw for East Garruk
Coffee Kemper for Bloody Bear
Prime 14 Logo for Giraffey
Giraffey for Sarkhan Unbroken with @evanephrine

dmosinee

I traded Aus Gabe for Leeroy, which accomplished one of my goals (getting a Leeroy for trade purposes). I was also able to trade a good trade for another Windborn Jin, although I forget what it was. We were also able to trade older Behemoth pins for all of the new ones, so we din't have to be at the mercy of random chonking.


I also traded with @pureval 's young son in the pin trading line, and it was totes adorbs.

Evenstar

Wow burned.fork, great trades!

TabooPhantasy

I was feeling too introverted this weekend to introduce myself directly to any of you, but I did chat with a few of you (I was the girl in the black trilby/fedora). Those messenger bags looked SO GOOD!
I was able to get my hands on an Overwatch pin (a friend was able luck out and get in line), I got the Disruptor Beam one through trading, and bought the Adventure Time set. I've also got a Twitch pin coming my way via a friend of a friend.
I'm pretty happy with how things went! Hopefully next year I will feel more outgoing.

silrn

TabooPhantasy wrote: »

I was feeling too introverted this weekend to introduce myself directly to any of you

I've got a friend or two that are similarly introverted. I'm impressed that you even make it to PAX! In order for my buddy to do crowded places, he usually has to literally take a day or two off work before and after just to deal with the increased mass of people.

That being said, I'd love for you to get a chance to hang out with the PinPals at PAX sometime, you seem like one of us, so hopefully it wouldn't be as stressful!

PedroAsani

TabooPhantasy wrote: »

I was feeling too introverted this weekend to introduce myself directly to any of you, but I did chat with a few of you (I was the girl in the black trilby/fedora). Those messenger bags looked SO GOOD!
I was able to get my hands on an Overwatch pin (a friend was able luck out and get in line), I got the Disruptor Beam one through trading, and bought the Adventure Time set. I've also got a Twitch pin coming my way via a friend of a friend.
I'm pretty happy with how things went! Hopefully next year I will feel more outgoing.

You should have said hi, I love meeting new Pin people. We are always eager to meet more friends.

pureval

dmosinee wrote: »

I also traded with @pureval 's young son in the pin trading line, and it was totes adorbs.

Which of his trades were you? I lost track of what he was trading quickly. That kid is a machine. He managed to trade for an Order pin during the Club PA meet up (a pin I do not have yet). I offered to trade it for my spare 15th Anniversary that he has been coveting for a while. He responded "Maybe for that and one or two other pins. One of them should start with a D and end with a C." I am now blocking Pawn Stars on our tv. He then managed to pull a 15th Anniversary out of the bag during the panel. During the staff trading event he played Khoo's color wheel game. He came in second and won the Valentine's pin he has been wanting (just missing out on a Prime Shield).

My almost 3 year old has caught the pin bug as well. Watch out next PAX.

Edit: On the way out he fell in love with one of the art prints that Bit Brigade had up. The print was $40. He offered them the money he had left ($14). The guy gave it to him for $10 since he did not want to wipe out all of his money.

Frostbyte

Despite being the worst trip I've ever taken, the show itself was great! lol

evanephrine

silrn wrote: »

TabooPhantasy wrote: »

I was feeling too introverted this weekend to introduce myself directly to any of you

I've got a friend or two that are similarly introverted. I'm impressed that you even make it to PAX! In order for my buddy to do crowded places, he usually has to literally take a day or two off work before and after just to deal with the increased mass of people.

That being said, I'd love for you to get a chance to hang out with the PinPals at PAX sometime, you seem like one of us, so hopefully it wouldn't be as stressful!

Maybe we could do a Pinny Pal game night or something the day before PAX to avoid this? Like get our own table at the pre-PAX East gaming on the Westin mezzanine and invite all of us to stop by. Games bridge all levels of awkwardness!

North

crowtales wrote: »

I thought I'd gotten everything I needed - until I got home. I noticed that the PaxEast2015 set I have is missing it's Tourist Gabe! Instead I have two Tourist Tycho's.

I totally didn't notice cause I bought like 5 of them. The other two sets I have are complete, but those will go to my PinPals and I'll just try to pick up the missing pin elsewhere.

Send an email to merch@penny-arcade.com They will get you straightened out.

Vhaul

I didn't see anyone else mention this, but the MTG panel did give out a promo card and Sarkhan Unbroken pin. Line was REALLY long at 90 minutes prior can't imagine how much longer it would have been had they announced it.