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East 2019 - Pre Pax Game Night
LexiconGrrl
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
PRE-PAX GAME NIGHT 2019!!!!!
Where: The Westin Waterfront, downstairs ballroom (I don't remember the official name of it, but the same room as the last few years)
When: Wednesday, March 27, 4 p.m. - midnight (and the Westin assures me that games may go on after midnight - they're just shutting down the cash bar at that time
Games: Please bring them! I'll pack what few board games I can fit; but, as always, this event relies on the bringing and sharing of games. We WILL have a check-out/check-in protocol, and table numbers, so we'll be able to track which games are where at any given time (within the honesty of the users, of course).
Food/Drink: Please, please, PLEASE make every effort to purchase your evening food and drink from the Westin. THEY DON'T CHARGE US ANYTHING FOR THE ROOM OR THE TABLES AND CHAIRS and, like it or not, they are in the business of making money, so please make use of the fine, fine restaurants within the Westin and the cash bar that will be operating right there in the PPGN room.
Just come on in, check in with the greeters table (which I will probably be at most, if not all of the evening), and we'll go from there! Anybody planning to come and bring their games to share, do me a favor and post that in this thread, so others will know what will be available to play. I'll start: Catan, Concept, Chess, and probably some MTG Commander decks if anybody wants to get a pod going to keep me company.
OP
Where: The Westin Waterfront, downstairs ballroom (I don't remember the official name of it, but the same room as the last few years)
When: Wednesday, March 27, 4 p.m. - midnight (and the Westin assures me that games may go on after midnight - they're just shutting down the cash bar at that time
Games: Please bring them! I'll pack what few board games I can fit; but, as always, this event relies on the bringing and sharing of games. We WILL have a check-out/check-in protocol, and table numbers, so we'll be able to track which games are where at any given time (within the honesty of the users, of course).
Food/Drink: Please, please, PLEASE make every effort to purchase your evening food and drink from the Westin. THEY DON'T CHARGE US ANYTHING FOR THE ROOM OR THE TABLES AND CHAIRS and, like it or not, they are in the business of making money, so please make use of the fine, fine restaurants within the Westin and the cash bar that will be operating right there in the PPGN room.
Just come on in, check in with the greeters table (which I will probably be at most, if not all of the evening), and we'll go from there! Anybody planning to come and bring their games to share, do me a favor and post that in this thread, so others will know what will be available to play. I'll start: Catan, Concept, Chess, and probably some MTG Commander decks if anybody wants to get a pod going to keep me company.
OP
Game Night has been confirmed and will happen at the Boston Waterfront Westin on the Wednesday night before PAX. Event starts at 4pm and runs till midnight.
Thorough Details will be posted shortly.
Super Short N00by Informacion: This is a big, free, all-ages, no-badge-required game night at the hotel adjoining the conference center. It happens the night before PAX starts and can seat a few hundred people. People bring their own games and share/lend them to each other. It's fun and a great way to kick off PAX, relax after your flight/drive/ride and meet some like minded PAX goers.
mod edit: Fixed the day (it's Wednesday).
Lexedit: Thanks!
Thorough Details will be posted shortly.
Super Short N00by Informacion: This is a big, free, all-ages, no-badge-required game night at the hotel adjoining the conference center. It happens the night before PAX starts and can seat a few hundred people. People bring their own games and share/lend them to each other. It's fun and a great way to kick off PAX, relax after your flight/drive/ride and meet some like minded PAX goers.
mod edit: Fixed the day (it's Wednesday).
Lexedit: Thanks!
Happily on Sabbatical. Don't bug me.
LexiconGrrl on
+2
Posts
PPTN is happening, come hell OR high water.
hopefully neither! thanks for organizing. i helped one year, but my timing is such that i can't arrive early enough to be of much assistance. glad you're on this, friends, and see you there!
It's always a nail biter, isn't it.
Can we get an update to the OP?
PRE-PAX GAME NIGHT 2019!!!!!
Where: The Westin Waterfront, downstairs ballroom (I don't remember the official name of it, but the same room as the last few years)
When: Wednesday, March 27, 4 p.m. - midnight (and the Westin assures me that games may go on after midnight - they're just shutting down the cash bar at that time
Games: Please bring them! I'll pack what few board games I can fit; but, as always, this event relies on the bringing and sharing of games. We WILL have a check-out/check-in protocol, and table numbers, so we'll be able to track which games are where at any given time (within the honesty of the users, of course).
Food/Drink: Please, please, PLEASE make every effort to purchase your evening food and drink from the Westin. THEY DON'T CHARGE US ANYTHING FOR THE ROOM OR THE TABLES AND CHAIRS and, like it or not, they are in the business of making money, so please make use of the fine, fine restaurants within the Westin and the cash bar that will be operating right there in the PPGN room.
Just come on in, check in with the greeters table (which I will probably be at most, if not all of the evening), and we'll go from there! Anybody planning to come and bring their games to share, do me a favor and post that in this thread, so others will know what will be available to play. I'll start: Catan, Concept, Chess, and probably some MTG Commander decks if anybody wants to get a pod going to keep me company.
Absolutely! There's always groups looking for players to hop in. Especially those games that are better with a larger group of players (Secret Hitler, Lords of Waterdeep, etc.).
Every year the Weston shoots itself in the foot at this event by both charging significantly more money at their pop up bars than they do 50 feet away at their normal bar while simultaneously refusing to accept cards at the party. It's inconvenient and frankly insulting to be told to go to an ATM just so I can pay a premium for weaker drinks with less selection!
I'm tired of making the extra effort of bringing cash just to support this event! They can make a ton more from the drinks at the party if they simply make it convenient for those of us who like a nice cocktail with our games to actually buy those more expensive drinks.
@zerzhul is correct. This is a purely community-run event...one of the last if I dare...and while I love getting swag as much as the next person (and I, in fact, own a Hyperkin NES console) I'm afraid we will have to decline.
This. Jesus.
Yep, Z speaks truly here. Thanks for chiming in for me.
Thanks also @Terbografx for the offer - it’s good to know that in the future, if we get into a place where sponsorship means the difference between this event happening or not, we have someone to reach out to.
Roger that. Thanks for the heads-up.
This is crazy. I'm sorry I don't want to keep raining on anyone's parade, but why is the Westin still asking this every year? I absolutely must be the ONLY person who actually tries to follow these requests!
Sauciety closes after lunch. Have any of you ever seen it open during this event?????
The Birch Bar, where I end up eating every year around 4 or 5pm, seats 20 or 25 people max. (I seem to be the ONLY person attending the Preparty each year eating at Birch Bar at this time BTW, it is not busy then and it is EASY to spot people going to the preparty ). Birch Bar is expensive but also it is a bar, and a lot of people who attend this event are underage. So the apparently the only Westin operated place available for food during the pre-pax party is actually 21plus. How the organizers on this thread (especially those who go every year) have not realized this yet baffles me.
I am sorry to advise against the Westin's requests, but if the Westin wants us to spend more money with them (and not their partners for some reason) then they MUST make it easier for people to spend that money. And no one, especially those under 21, should feel even a modicum of guilt for getting takeout at MJ O'Connors or Starbucks before going to the event! I guess just don't take your food into the event?
As someone who regularly coordinates free or nearly-free spaces for my theater group, I can tell you that the Westin folks are already being INCREDIBLY generous with their time, energy, and staff, every year. The Westin gives us a gigantic space, fully set-up and staffed, for free. All they ask is that we bring some cash for the (multiple!) bars they staff in the basement, and purchase our food from Birch Bar, where it will go to them directly. They don't even police those few people who do order or bring outside food in. They just ask that, when possible, we don't do that. It's not a big ask, considering what they're putting out to help make this happen, and we can and should do our best to keep this relationship friendly, because that's literally the only thing that keeps this event happening (well,that and a ton of behind-the-scenes organizing that Lexi and others, including myself one year, have taken on).
They don't HAVE to "make it easier for people to spend that money"; they don't have to let us use the space AT ALL. It's their space, their chairs, their tables, and their staff. They could easily rent the space to Microsoft or whatever, or they could just let it sit and have their staff tend to the hotel guests instead.
As for your Birch Bar fears: I have literally never been carded or seen anyone being carded ordering food from Birch Bar. I usually get the burger. It's pretty great and they give you adorable tiny ketchup and mustard bottles in a little to-go container. Folks who are under 21 and would like to eat will not encounter any issue ordering food from them; it's exactly the same process as ordering food at a restaurant that happens to serve alcohol. Just ask a server for the food you want and say you'll be back in 20 minutes to pick it up, or hang out nearby on your phone until your food arrives. Give them a card or cash, and include a tip because you're not a monster. Done. It's not hard or scary and nobody should be worried just because the place is also a bar.
Like, I get that it would certainly be nice if they made it easier to give them money! I agree it would be more convenient if they set up a credit-card POS downstairs, and if they sent a server down instead of making people come to the bar and carry out! That would be lovely and probably result in them making more money (though it would also cost them money, and effort). And if your suggestions were phrased as that -- suggestions, constructive critiques -- they'd perhaps even be open to them. But again, acting like they are obligated to make things as smooth as possible, when they aren't obligated to do anything for us at all, and are in fact already going above and beyond to help make this event happen, is counter-productive at best.
And actively encouraging people to flout the hotel's requests, because you don't like the answers you're getting, is a sure way to get this whole thing shut down.
Congratulations on your organizational bone fides-
As someone who is merely an attendee every year and who simply tries to follow all these requests and actually does spend money at the Westin- I have every right to provide feedback to the organizers of this event. The fact that the same request goes out every year but so few actually try to follow it is the problem. Not me giving people a heads up about how confusing it is.
I have been supporting this event for years. Last year I brought $300 cash to support this event specifically. I bought my friends drinks since they always forget the Westins crazy rule against using credit cards at this event. I bring new people every year too-- the kind of people who don't order takeout and sneak in sandwiches they brought from home, which I have watched even some of the people who seem to be involved in organizing do-- every year. I am super respectful about trying to keep this going. But it is super frustrating to be preached to about how I'm supposed to spend my money, ignored, and then basically accused of being the problem for pointing out areas of improvement.
I'm a local and know of a hundred better places to eat, but I still show up at the Westin early so I can pay more than I need to for their food (I respectfully disagree with your hamburger review- they are fine at best).
Personally, I would rather pay a cover or maybe see sponsorship, but I'd settle for reasonable expectations without the constant reminders about how the Westin doesn't have to do this as if we are some kind of charity (while we're being reminded how we should be spending money.)
All I had meant to do was give some feedback on how the Westin could get more money from us. I wasn't asking for a silver platter, just suggesting that they make it easier for us to do exactly what they want rather than turning it into our job to have to track where we are and aren't supposed to eat. Ya know so we don't lose this precious, precious not actually free space.
I apologize. Sorry for rocking the boat. I will not be criticizing the amazing organizational job of this event anymore. Please everyone just listen to what you are told and eat at Sauciety!
Could they make it easier to get food and pull in more dollars? absolutely. I don't think anyone has argued otherwise. Is that a thing that can be suggested to the Westin? sure! It might even have been already! It's also super ok to criticize that the Westin hasn't accepted credit cards at the pop-up bars. If somehow nobody thought to suggest that before, I am certain that it will be communicated to them! You may not believe it, but the organizers of this event actually take it seriously! It may surprise you to learn that not having your suggestions implemented by the venue does not mean that your specific input has been ignored! in fact THE PRIMARY ORGANIZERS OF THE EVENT AGREED WITH THIS POST:
Also, nobody is saying that you MUST eat and drink at the event. If you don't want to eat the Birch Bar food or drink the Birch Bar or Popup Bar drinks, just do so somewhere else. Leave and come back, do it ahead of time, do it after, who cares? All that is being said is that it helps the event to spend money at the Hotel and please spend your money at the hotel if you can do so. It's a reasonable thing for the organizers to ask that people do that, and it's a reasonable thing that people might eat and drink somewhere else before or during the event if they don't like the food or they think it's too big a hassle. I don't think there is an expectation that every attendee of the event eats at the westin.
Ultimately, if you prefer other types of events, go to them until this event meets your expectations? It would suck for this event to lose your contribution, but life's too short to spend your time and money on something that is frustrating you so much.
Looking forward to seeing you all there!
oooo that would be awesome
It's super cute and fun, and easy to pick up, I def think it's worth it to have. They also have a new version, called Llamas Unleashed, which is mostly the same game but with llamas, goats, rams, and alpacas instead of Unicorns. Unfortunately they don't stack together but the games are fairly priced that I wouldn't mind owning both!