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South 2019 Constructive Feedback
Hey folks, it's that time again! Please leave your feedback for the show.
Reminder: not liking things is fine. Being a jerk is not fine.
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1) Acquisitions Inc to later in the evening was a great move. Acq Inc is lots of fun, but having to account for half the day for it was a tough sell. I got best of both worlds with this move, so thanks.
2) I don't remember the board game learning area from last year / previous years? Either I missed it, or it's new. Either way, it was very cool.
3) Omegathon. Round 1. You REALLY didn't think the Omeganauts wouldn't have purchased the game and memorized the cards? I was so hoping you would have surprised them with home made cards...
4) The only thing I was disappointed with was the panels. The number and types seemed to have really declined over the last couple years. It may simply be the smaller nature of South, and we just have to set expectations accordingly, but the number and variety have simply been lower the last few years.
All in all though, I had a great time, and look forward to it next year!
It felt like there were too many "just vendors" on the show floor, which made the floor feel smaller than past years, even though that's not the case.
Merch rewards apparently changed this year. Past years when I spent more than $100 I got duplicates of the patch/snapbracelets/cloths/sunglasses/pins/etc. This year I was aggressively told that it was one additional bonus item for every $100 spent after the first $100, and that this had been how it has been handled at past PAXs, including South, which has obviously not been the case.
Reaper Minatures could, as always, use more space.
Wasn't very fond of the goopy/drippy theme. Adding the pizza details is a mild sidegrade.
*The Arcadia/XP was much better this year, especially the prize. I don't drink coffee so the mug is just hanging out with my Club PA one, but I still like it.
*Overall this may have been my favorite year, or at least close. Obviously if I was able to cherry pick the vendors I wanted in attendance it would have been better, but I'm not God. I like having a broad mix of vendors in terms of company size with only a few being of absolutely zero interest to me.
I like the metal tumbler but no flip top lid kind of sucked and it was smaller than last year's. I wish that the tumbler design used at west 2018 would be the tumbler design used everywhere/all years, aside from colors and the pattern.
Panels have always been underwhelming to me but I really really liked the community panel Saturday night.
1. I missed the Saturday night concert. Also, I don't think Knight of the Round went over as well as we thought it would. Respect to those guys as musicians, but I don't think the music scratched the nostalgia itch the way we expect gamer bands should. And it's kind of a shame that's what they get judged on.
2. The digital swag bag was a good idea, logistically. I miss "real" swag bags with real stuff, but a digital bag is better than a flat, depressing bag of paper.
3. The classic arcade needs more pinball. A lot more pinball.
4. Also did not like the drippy pizza theme. It looks like Nickelodeon threw up on it. I feel like someone thought "gatekeeping 90's kids" theme was a good idea.
Overall, good game had fun.
The bad: Swag was almost nonexistent. Very few booths seemed to be giving things out. I'm aware that this really has very little overall bearing on the show experience, but it's a noticeable change from East and West where around a dozen t-shirts will materialize in your luggage as you leave. Also, hurry up and grow this PAX into a 4-day show! East and West have spoiled me, and I was ready for one more day...
The ugly: Merch... this design really did not speak to me. I get that it's not "for" me, but I didn't even want to buy a show shirt this time around. I'm hoping this isn't the theme for the entire year.
General dissatisfaction in the panels. I attended a few and one of them was literally putting people to sleep.
The only other thing was we all thought the expo floor space could have been better used. There was a lot of empty space that could have been used to move booths out and make the lanes a bit larger which would have helped so much.
Bad stuff: No PAX South swag bag
PS. Please make the Arcade area bigger :biggrin:
There was also a large standup sign in the lobby detailing this
BYOC continues to be an awesome and chill place to be. I'm glad that we're able to continue using the loading dock entrance for load/unload on Friday and Sunday for BYOC folks.
Lines for the Merch Lite booth seemed both shorter and faster this year than two years ago (I missed South 2018 to attend East instead).
There seemed like a good mix of booths across the Expo hall and tabletop area, although it did seem like a few of the booths in the Expo hall would have more appropriately been in Tabletop.
I also appreciate the move of the AcqInc panel to Saturday night. Adding the Sunday C-Team panel was also cool.
Room for Improvement:
Security theater. This is Texas, not Boston. Metal detectors and perfunctory bag checks don't actually make people safer, they just waste time and look secure to people who don't know better.
Inconsistent Enforcer Instructions on Sunday. Friday and Saturday, media were allowed in through the exhibitor entrance. Suddenly on Sunday, this was no longer the case. If the media entrance is going to change mid-show, then at a minimum, a quick email to the media mailing list ought to be in order to let folks know that procedures are changing. The next issue was access to BYOC. On Friday, we were let in early for load-in and setup as usual. On Friday and Saturday we were let in by the entrance to Tabletop. On Sunday this abruptly became not the case, and when I asked one of the enforcers doing line door control about it, I was told that I was mistaken, and that had been the case for Saturday as well. It most certainly was not the case for Saturday, as I and a number of other BYOC folks can attest.
Final Thoughts
I've been able to attend West, East, and South now. I've been a regular attender, exhibitor, and media. South is by far my favorite show. West was my "home" show for many years, because I lived near Seattle. Since I'm now a South Dakotan, and all PAX events are roughly an equally inconvenient distance away, I consider South to be my PAX home. It feels a lot like how West did, maybe seven or eight years ago before it outgrew the WSTCC. I love it.
This was the first year that I brought one of my kids, and my teenage son had a blast. He's already looking forward to next year, and telling his sister how much fun she's going to have as well! It means a lot that I can go to PAX (any PAX, really, but South is a lot less overwhelming to newbies) turn a thirteen-year-old-boy loose, not see him for hours until a pre-planned rendezvous time, and not feel worried about whether the kid is going to get himself into trouble.
Thanks to everyone involved for another great year.
Contributing writer at Marooner's Rock
Twitch broadcasting! Currently playing through Wing Commander: Privateer
Pinny Lanyard
Sorry, I'll be sure to check on Twitter for the next PAX :sad:
About the standup sign I'm truly sorry that I should have totally missed it the 3 whole days, I remember entering through the query zone on Friday and directly through the lobby on sat and sun but I don't remember seeing anything, only the Merch stand on my right, the PAX XP register help module and some little booths on the left :bigfrown:
I will be sure to check thoroughly next year :biggrin:
as an additional data point, I definitely didn't see the sign, myself. A good place to look if you can't find information on a thing for future cons is the information booth, which should be marked on any given pax map. the folks there can likely answer most of your in-con questions, or at least point you to the right place to get an answer.
Was it ever explained why Twitch stopped coming and what could have them come back?
I am disappointed PAX management cut off the adult beverage sales in the courtyard on the second day. We've enjoyed that in years past as a way to get outside, enjoy a beer, and get back into the convention quickly. I'm not sure what the story was, but it never was crowded and never saw anyone get out of hand in my years of coming. If I had to guess, the end result will be people who would be trouble will leave the convention and feel the need to have a few extra since they don't want to leave again and actually create an issue.
PAX XP was much more understandable this year compared to last, and I liked the little prize for getting all ten of the places of power, even if I wasn't much into the actual story, even once I twigged on to the fact that Cowboy Yellow and Cowboy Blue were Gabe and Tycho.
Did not like the drippy theme this year at all, on anything that featured the design.
Did not like seeing the military doing faux-recruitment at a video game/board game convention again, but at least this year they weren't specifically hyped up in the program.
Other than those minor complaints things went pretty swimmingly. The multiple metal detectors made getting in pretty simple, didn't have to wait in line long at all on opening day.
- At South there is always talk about a lack of big names in the Expo Hall. I can see that argument but since I was expecting it this year it actually made it fun to just focus on so many indie games. So I won't make that complaint anymore.
- My only negative experience: I don't know if PAX can do anything about this or if it is the responsibility of the booth, but getting into the Days Gone line was incredibly inconsistent and frustrating. Their line was very short and would cap fast, which is probably due to their booth design with merch in the corner. However, when we tried to stand nearby and wait for the line to open, we were told by the exhibitors that we weren't allowed to linger around. We moved further away, staying out of traffic, but were still told by an Enforcer we had to leave. Yet as we passed by the booth multiple times during the weekend to see if we could get in, we watched other groups stand right in the middle of the aisle until the line opened. I know it sounds like I'm just griping, but one time we were told we can't stand around waiting, and then another group walked up right after us and just stood right in the middle of the aisle and were let in a few minutes later.
- I also was not a fan of the melty PAX logo, but I bought a tshirt anyway because that's always my souvenir.
- I know this has nothing to do with the show's control, but the cosplay seemed better than past Souths.
- I loved the massive amount of tabletop space and it was cool seeing it so filled up with players.
- I enjoyed PAX XP and thought the prize at the end was worth it.
- I understand how hard it has to be to man the VR freeplay area, but that line is soooooo slow. The room could easily double in size and number of headsets and there would still be a line.
- My biggest regret is that I didn't go to Mariachi Entertainment System until the last 15 minutes of their set, and then realizing I didn't go see them at all at past shows. They were amazing! I definitely hope to see them at future shows.
I'll start with one "wth" thing - On the official PAX South Facebook page, on Sept 13th, they posted "What do you want to see at PAX South 2019?" Out of over 50 replies, mine was the ONLY one on which official PAX account clicked "like". It was weird enough that they did, so yes I took the time to check the rest and scratch my head trying to figure out what was unique about mine. The first thing I said was simply "something new/different" - so, maybe this was what they "liked". If so, I saw nothing new or different this year, at least not materially different enough that I noticed it. Definitely feels like this PAX has stagnated.
Other things I suggested in my FB reply:
Additional stuff:
A few brief key positive things that I want to recognize:
This was leading up to be my last PAX South, because the con seems to be stagnating and it's getting hard to justify the expense. Since my friend wasn't able to go this year, I'll probably be there next year to treat 2020 as my final test. For the love of God, please do something new and different, because I really want to look forward to going due to the con experience, not just the getting away from work part, which I could do for a lot less money closer to home.
How much of the changes to South is due to it being around MLK weekend, rather than 2 weeks later at the end of January which is when it used to be? Last year I hated being downtown on that Monday because a lot was closed and I vowed to stay an extra day but this year I felt over it and was ready to go home by Monday.
San Antonio and Austin have massive D&D communities who get together to help facilitate, but we're always limited by the area size.
Same here, please work with the convention center to improve cell phone reception for all providers, or have some sort of decent wifi option.
I would also like to see better panels, the first couple years of pax south I thought the panels were very good!
I also liked the seating for the board game area, it was nice and big even on saturday where previous years it was hard to find tables. I really liked the selection of new games from Essen as well.
It's been downhill ever since League of Heels pulled out.