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Constructive Feedback - South 2016
Please post civil constructive feedback of the show here
As always, it's fine to disagree and dislike things, just don't be a dick about it.
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Over all this is way better than being home with the kids and work. And hanging with gamers is awesome.
I am about a 5 year pax vet. And I'm giving this s 6 out of 10 on the satisfaction scale. Why? I'm not sure. There's something subdued about pax south imo, Its off brand somehow, but it's hard to say why. It's not all the big publishers. Although that can't be poo pooed because they really help. Its maybe the shortage of enforcers. Or the lack of line entertainment or maybe I'm just turning into an old prick.
One constructive thing I would recommend is to set up a room with stadium seating and have a tournament where people can come in and sit and watch. I think this is what arena tried to do but it was short in Seats and maybe had the wrong game (smash bros). I'm thinking of a recreation of what riot did at prime those few years, it was a great peopl sink and a good way to get off your feet.
This is a great venue I think its the best. I'm sure the culture will flesh out and develop over time.
Besides giving the Indie Tabletop Showcase more room (we demoed some games in there, and there was no room to move at all) the tabletop free play area needs to be at least TWICE the size it was this year. Don't get me wrong--it was huge. I didn't do a head count but I'd guesstimate maybe 700 seats? That's not including the tables reserved for tourneys. And yet those seats were packed every morning, afternoon, and evening. It stayed at capacity, preventing a lot of people from sitting down and starting games. Which is awesome, and not something PAX should be faulted for, but it absolutely must be addressed next year since South is already developing a strong tabletop vibe.
And this is more of a facilities issue, but it should be noted that the automatic sanitizer dispensers at the escalators all ran dry by day two. I tried them dozens of times and got nothing after the first day. Along a similar line, I went to the 2nd floor men's rooms around 4PM on Sunday, and both restrooms were completely out of toilet paper in both stalls. I've never encountered that before.
Overall, a good effort. Felt more PAX-like than last year.
Can we get elevators put on the maps of the convention center? I had to search the areas a lot to figure out how to get from one floor to another, and there were even times when Enforcers didn't know where the closest elevator was located.
Thank you!
G&T seemed to have a light schedule this year (only one autograph signing) but I think the reason for that was addressed, i.e. Mike needs to take a breather after his illness before PAX Aus.
I think some outreach into the Austin game developers community would bring a lot to the floor.
It was odd just how many major publishers were absent. No Sony, Microsoft OR Nintendo presence at all, and even Gearbox not showing up this year even though we're basically in their backyard?
I very much wanted to get in on the Indie Tabletop Showcase, but it was so tiny and cramped that it looked like it would have taken me hours to even try one of them.
At the end of 3 days, I feel like I accomplished everything I wanted to, excluding the Indie Tabletop Showcase. But every other PAX I've been to has had a long list of things I wished I could have made it to, or wished I could have spent even more time experiencing. South 2016 just feels... less. Less than last year, and far less than the only other one I can compare it to, Prime.
It was actually a huge improvement over where it was last year, at least in terms of being able to get around it in order to enter the "meat" of the expo hall.
I certainly enjoyed this year more than last, but I agree there could be more opportunities for casual observers of the tournaments. With a much larger footprint available in the convention center next year, maybe it will allow for growth of the con itself and also have more open space.
I think that the LFG cones were nice but I think some way to sign up in advance or get experts to run games; maybe I missed it but having a board to say "meet here for X game at X time" would have been nice.
The line for the main stage was pretty far from the main stage, but I dunno how to fix that one.
Con Cons:
I think I may have said this last year, but I repeat it enough offline anyways:
I would love it if they were to have a Rock Band/Guitar Hero setup of some kind. I was really hopeful that with new entries in both series coming out recently we'd have some of that at South this time around. The most fun I've ever had at any convention was playing Rock Band with total strangers and I bet it would be even better with the folks at PAX South!
I design games under the name New Experience Workshop.
Website. Facebook. Twitter.
I design games under the name New Experience Workshop.
Website. Facebook. Twitter.
1) Everybody was really friendly. While this directly isn't a PAX controllable thing, the atmosphere was clearly attendee focused and as a result people weren't flipping out - indirectly making for a good experience.
2) I've posted about this a couple of times, but 30.06/07 information ahead of time would have been nice. Yes signs themselves didn't appear to be 1" compliant (and thus unenforceable), but only a pre-PAX call to Reed gave me advance notice and a chance to be polite.
3) There were enough classic consoles and Arcade boxes that we didn't have too much trouble playing what we wanted to play.
4) Better labeling on the console cards so you know how many controllers they have. Nothing worse that getting to your machine only to find a single controller for a two player game.
5) Indie showcase was pretty cool. I ended up buying on, Kickstarting a second, and committed to buy a third at final release.
6) Expo hall was a nightmare to navigate. The narrow entrance to the hall, in front of Twitch, was bottlenecked. Then, you have to get your badge looked at again (because you didn't have one to get into the building?). Some TT stuff was in-expo, others outside. And the in-stuff was way in the back. Having to swim through or around the video-gamers was a turn off for me, a boon for the flanked vendors.
7) Most enforcers were helpful and polite. A couple left a bad feeling, but that was a person problem and not the group. The vast majority were either helpful or unafraid of saying I don't know.
8) More room for TT and better processing. The checkout line for TT games was horrific at points. Wheb it looks like you're going to wait 30-45 just to borrow a game, you end up doing something else.
I had a great time and will very surely return next year. I just wish dates were already available so I could start planning now.
THIS.
I brought my own games that I knew would be new to people (usually Kickstarter stuff that wasn't available at retail yet) and offered to teach people. Sitting at a table with a box lid up and/or LFG cone simply didn't work. I had to yell and get in people's faces to advertise. LOL. It worked out, but I can't see many PAX attendees doing that. If there was a sheet for people to say, "I will bring X game at this time and can teach to X players, sign up here" that would be great. Of course, it would depend on the players showing up once committed and having table space to play. Which was in short supply this year.
Yes, I'm aware that there was some sort of Twitter tool to find players, but I think Twitter is a sewer and don't feel like taking a swim.
All questions like this basically become moot since the convention center is being radically redesigned. But, as someone who has worked at many of the big centers, I can tell you that the one here was never designed for sprawling mega cons. It is missing the routing options for public and private travel. Public would be the line you mentioned and private would be getting celebs to and from panels without having to lead them through crowds of fans. As a local, it's been fun attending cons here because I knew the best junction points to loiter in, and I could count on having celebs like Stan Lee walk right past me on the way to a panel.
For the past two years the Take This AFK Room signage/name has really confused me. Even after looking it up so that I know what it actually is, my stupid brain keeps trying to group the "Take This" with the "AFK Room". Maybe something like "The Take This(R) AFK Room" or "AFK Room by Take This".
This has been another edition of Solving Problems Only Tofy Has.
More basic essentials: food, TP, hand sanitizer. Though I think some of that stuff is the preview of the host, not the PA folks.
Also, $3 for a bottle of water? I know it could be worse -- I had to pay a monster $8 for water at an outdoor concert once. But...I dunno, I guess that's just a convention thing. And yes, next time I'll bring a bottle and refill it at the drinking fountains.
The Jamspace was awesome, but every time I went by there it seemed to be ruled by pre-formed bands looking to sell/show off... I was hoping for more like a "regular folks" kind of jam space. Maybe two rooms next time, or at least a Rock Band/Guitar Hero room like podunk was talking about? That place is huge, and I think it's getting bigger. There's an assload of meeting rooms that aren't being used (so much room to grow!)
I doubt it would happen, but I'd love it if all of the panels were taped and put up online somewhere (here, twitch, youtube, somewhere)...I had to choose between some that overlapped, and my weak, puny meat-sack body kept me from others. It would just be nice to have more freedom to play in a tourny, play some free-play, or even catch up on food and sleep without having to miss content I feel like I paid to see...or maybe I'm still too weak to truly PAX.
Anyway, I'm done bitching and moaning. My dogs are still barkin' and I can't really stand straight up, but PAX South #2 was an absolute blast -- thanks to all of you!
1. The "unofficial" pre-PAX party at Geekdom was great and I would love to see more of these style parties litter the downtown/riverwalk area. Small-to-medium venues, specific functionalities (tabletop, card, rpg, video, arcade, etc) with good fellowship and beer*
2. The Expo floor was outstanding compared to last year, especially the separation of the tabletop play area and vendors. I would really have preferred a bit better organization with some of the larger booths though because everything clogged going in or out due to Twitch-mobs and when you broke through that you repeatedly got slammed by either Dreadnought or Capcom's lines. I'm not sure how to address it other than spread them out a bit more instead of all the large-scale booths next to one another on the same side of the hall. Also, while I can see why they did this the Queue room was much too large (maybe 3/4 was the most I ever saw used) and could have been annexed to afford more tabletop gaming space.
3. Numerous in-state publishers (Gearbox, Roberts Space Industries, etc) were MIA along with a lot of big names. More of a surprise than a gripe.
4. Multiple times would I see a panel in Falcon, Cactus or even Bobcat 2.0 (expanded from last year) at capacity and the main stage hardly populated in the bottom area (let alone the other levels) for 2-3 sessions. I think placement of some of the panels could have gone a little better (FRAXIS in Main, the DM/GM panels in Cactus or Falcon, etc). By the same respect some of the medium rooms (Cactus and Falcon) could easily have squeezed into Bobcat or Armadillo.
5. I'm a local Texan, but I thought everyone (attendees, enforcers, exhibitors) were super candid and friendly and was not the only one to do so.
6. Personally I found a big lack of programming draws on Saturday, but it left me alone for TT and Expo traversal.
7. Much as I love San Antonio and the Rivercenter the place was a mad house trying to get a seat with your food. Oh well, perks of malls on weekends :biggrin:
(now a few actual gripes)
8. The "official" afterparty, especially Twitch's was horrible. The venue was way too small, downstairs was like a can of sardines, no telling how they didn't get shut down with the fire marshall. The half hour I was upstairs was lackluster to say the least. I joined a fairly large group that left in disgust and walked to Howl at the Moon, had a good time for a few hours.
9. I understand that (especially vendors and exhibitors) need to sleep, but for a gaming community that prides itself on sleepless nights and hours on end, I was surprised how early a lot of the public spaces shut down. 7pm the tabletop enforcers were asking us to wrap it up. I did see the Arcade open at 11pm, but I'm otherwise not sure how late the other gaming areas were open. I wouldn't mind a few rooms be set aside for night-time meet ups if people want to run a game or two.
That's my thoughts in a nut shell. It didn't have all the flash and pin-ash of a huge mega con, but having seen the evolution of some cons go that way this low-key feel is a fresh experience. It affords the chance to mingle, see a few panels, meet a few "names" and not have to spend 2/3 a day in lines for the chance. Big thumbs up if all the panels get posted on their Youtube/forums that I saw them recording all weekend. Looking forward to possibly Enforcing next year.
@Official_PAX needs to PLEASE stop tweeting the % complete. I'm dead serious about this. I look at the comments on these tweets and there's a strong predominance of "please stop!" and "you're depressing me!" and they're not a joke. I'm looking for a fun and (relatively) stress free time, away from my day job where I'm constantly pressed to meet a deadline with someone hounding a "% complete" over my head. They're a serious, unfortunate, and absolutely unnecessary buzz kill from day one. Please somehow get this feedback to them where they'll listen. Please.
1. My friends and I couldn't find public wifi at all for the event except for whatever Hotspots other attendees had set up. Couple this with the fact that our hotel didn't have Internet until Saturday night meant we went several days without Internet. We saw companies saying to Tweet and what not, but there was no way for us to connect.
2. The whole pin thing was confusing for us. Still didn't end up with one, which we were disappointed with.
3. Console Freeplay. We thought there would be machines with all kinds of games preloaded. We ended up waiting about 10 minutes to get a game and got to the machine only to find out it needed to install the game before we could play. We ended up just returning the game instead of waiting an hour or more for the game to install. Also, we were surprised at the lack of recent game releases such as Star Wars: Battlefront and the lack of the ability to play the consoles online. They had games like Siege but you could only do training as there was no Internet connection.
4. The PC room had ridiculously long lines that it often wasnt worth waiting the line time only to play for 45 minutes. We saw one guy waiting in the line, came back about an hour later and found him waiting in the exact same spot. My friends and I were from all over the country so we don't often have the chance for local play, so we found the console and computer areas to be severely lacking. Lesson learned though. Next year we'll just bring our own and play it in the room.
5. The prices of the food offered at the center. The burgers looked like they came from Walmart and because they were cooked cost 6 dollars more. We ended up going to Walmart and bringing our own stuff the next day to save on money.
6. Some of the panels were a bit lackluster, especially Cliff's. It was a way different experience from the Indie panels and gave almost 0 advice.
7. Some stuff went on that we had new clue was going on, such as the Pokémon event. We had no idea how we were supposed to find out about things like that, especially without Internet access in the convention center.
I guess a lot of things were really confusing and that might have just been because we were new to the whole thing. We would have liked to see more meet and greets for indies. There was one on Saturday but we ended up missing it. The only times we were ever around other developers were at some of the panels.
Additionally, some more stuff on Sunday would have been nice to see. We didn't go on Sunday because all we saw on the schedule was tournaments we didn't have an interest in.
On Friday I thought we got asked to return our TT games around 11:30 or so (11:45?), but maybe it was earlier - it was a blur of a day. Was the 7pm shutdown on Sat?
The Queue Hall was logistical waste. A ton of room devoted to cattle guides and then a flood of empty space between those and the doors (beyond the swag tables). I'd guess 150-200 people could have been easily accommodated, more if the tables were arranged right.
You do know it was actually unofficial and not "unofficial", right? Meaning: it wasn't affiliated with PAX in any way. It was purely community-run from this forum. So, if you want to see more of those, volunteer to host one! ;-)
Now, if you are suggesting that PAX should host additional parties outside of the PAX main venue or outside of the PAX time window, that will get a resounding "no" from them based on all prior experiences. The main event is a gargantuan undertaking itself, so they have their hands full. But fan groups and companies looking to generate some buzz are definitely missing out because there is a big demand for exactly what you are asking for.
Ditto. I assume it was Sunday because we were tossed out at midnight on Saturday by an enforcer (who was a real jerk about it, but that's an isolated incident not indicative of the generally great enforcer team). And the TT hours were posted on a big sign right in the center of the space.
No I wasn't asking PA to host more parties. Gods know Jerry, Mike, and Co have their hands full and shouldn't have to worry about something like that. Definitely pushing for smaller organizations, businesses, etc to go this format. It was very laid back and chill.
Thanks for the input! It's a tough to hone the balance of pre-booked bands to open-jam time at new events, but we'll work on refining our formula next time around.
I think that might indeed be the explanation. Schedule shows a tourney at 8, and I've heard talk that the table layout in there was a bit confusing and/or lacking...
PAX East 2012 Omeganaut. Awesomest. Time. Ever.
Thank you
- I agree that the Twitch booth was in the way of the Expo Hall entrance. Especially when the older lady guarding the entrance got angry when I tried to go in the left side entrance so I didn't have to walk so far around the Twitch booth.
- I also had to sit on the floor in the Queue Hall to eat one day. Not a big deal but some more tables and chairs near the Queue Hall like what was in the far back of the Expo Hall would be nice.
- I agree that Indie Showcase needs more space.
- I agree that the % complete tweets should not exist.
- One thing that kinda bummed me was the Gabe & Tycho autograph session. I may be the odd one but autographs don't do anything for me. I'd end up with just a piece of paper I'd stick in a drawer. I asked the enforcer if I could just go say hey and take a picture (not like a posed one with them, just a quick shot of them sitting at the table to show I got to meet them) and was told no photos, they were only signing autographs. I probably could have made my intentions more clear but I left disappointed.
- This is probably my own noobness, but I wished it was clearer how the free-play areas worked. For example, something simple (either on the website or on some signage in the room) explaining that in the pc area you wait in line and then are escorted to a pc where you can play pre-installed games for approximately 45 minutes, or that in the console area you look through a list of available games then wait to check it out and are assigned a console to go play it on. I know it seems minor, I just approached each of these areas very unsure of what I specifically had to do to get going. I learned and will do better next time, but some things felt intimidating as a first timer.
- Another possible example of my own dumbness is wishing that there were more obvious signs of where I was on the map, particularly near the escalators. A few times I took the escalator up to the 2nd floor and had no clue where that put me on the floor to know which way I needed to go to get to my desired room. Maybe that was there and I missed it.
That's all I got. Nothing major. I had an amazing experience.
You folks should try to collaborate with the San Antonio Food Truck Association (SAFTA) to get food trucks at the convention center during the convention.
Once they got down to about half and hour remaining in the autograph time they had, they told everyone no more photos, just sign and go. They were running us through there as fast as they could. Last year I got a picture with them and signed like five things, so it was probably just a time thing. And I'm sure they would have done more except for the Eyrewood panel Mike had to do, and the fact that he's taking it easy (and probably other commitments as well).
We had the same a couple of times, before finally learning, and this was our 2nd year. Improved "go this way for X" signage is needed in those weird spots.
I don't know this for sure but I am guessing the convention center has some kind of clause that does not allow this, due to them having their own internal food vendors. I go to a few conventions at that convention center a year, and have never seen food trucks nearby for any events that I can recall.
It's probably more like they don't let 'em down the Riverwalk area at all.