Constructive Feedback - Aus 2019

zerzhul

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.

Morblitz

So, I didn't go this year as it's a big trip from across the country but my brother did.
I watched a few things that I would have really liked to have seen like the Cthulhu session on Twitch so I don't know if this counts - however I think this was an on-site technical issue - but the audio levels of the mics were all over the place. I messaged my brother in the audience who said he had noticed it too. I watched it on my TV and when everyone talked I had to turn the volume up, but when Ryan spoke loudly or laughed I had to turn the volume right down to where I couldn't hear anyone else. Rinse and repeat for most of the event until I gave up and watched it on my PC with headphones.

Anyone else particularly in the audience notice a similar thing or am I just being a filthy casual?

MelOz

There were audio issues and skips throughout David Gaider's talk, which was disappointing. I didn't make it to the theatre on time and I was disappointed in the stream. Think there were a number of audio issues to the Twitch streams.

MelOz

Pin Trading - if we wanted the horoscope staff pins, we had to find specific enforcers, but there were no photos in the app to help us along. We ended up having to haunt the trade boards to find the months we needed, and felt like stalkers trying to find Dora.

vonhist

Hi MelOz, there was also staff trading Saturday afternoon where you could get them all. The staff are used to people asking them to trade, so just be polite and you'll do fine next year.

Carva

The crowd on Saturday was insane. Want to play a game? Nope, all lines capped. Want to move in the expo hall? Good luck. Want merch? Enjoy your 2 hour line. Saturday is always busy, but it was leaps and bounds worse than last year. A balance needs to be found between ticket sales and not completely killing the experience. There was just far too many people this year. If interest is increasing in PAX, I'd rather have to buy tickets earlier and competitively (like SDCC) than play queue simulator: sardine edition all day. Maybe I'm in the minority, but I'd even be happy with a (reasonable) ticket price increase if it meant you could sell less tickets.

The PAX XP reward wasn't great. Given how long the search takes (if you do it legit), a popsocket feels disappointing compared to previous years. There was also the issue with one of the codes not being available on the floor and only a few people getting a medal to compensate for time wasted. Could've been handled better.

Lines at PAX are usually done so well, but this year they were a bit chaotic. It was particularly frustrating on Friday when I was lining up for Cyberpunk and they started sending people upstairs for overflow. The lines got flipped and the back went up first. I missed out on seeing the panel because of this, even though I got there earlier. It really sucked. The Click panel also had multiple rows of lines rush into the theatre at once, which was odd.

Positives: The tabletop area was excellent. Nintendo having hand sanitizer at their booth (at least for the Pokemon demo) was amazing and more booths should do this. The pin hunts (WoW, Prescribed Respawn, Zelda) were awesome and got me doing stuff I otherwise wouldn't. Panels were consistently top notch (especially The Great Debate - Jordan Raskopoulos had me in tears). Enforcers and booth staff were all lovely.

tomandjebinspace

Moving band land seemed to be at a detriment to the artists actually there. But the few times I walked past it there were no artists there at all, no lines, not really any enforcers either. It seemed abandoned.

Having the GenerOzity team do their constant charity stream from wombat (which had swapped with EB theatre) was a nice touch! Meant that the panels in there were a bit different and more about entertainment than education.

I was confused about the wrist bands this year. When I had my stepson on the Friday I had to put one on, but over the weekend when I wasn't being a parent I seemed to not need one? And my other friends didn't have one either. Not sure if I was supposed to have one or not.

Collaboratory was hard to find this year. Not well sign posted and it seemed messily set up. I couldn't find it without my friends giant banner for his game, and the tables seemed squished in and not well defined. It was good they had table numbers, but nothing seemed to reference back to them so that was a bit confusing too.

The outside bar bit with mountain goat was really cool. Live music and giant connect four was awesome and a nice change. Didn't spend much time out there, but it was very chill.

I will agree that Saturday seemed over capacity. We got stuck in expo hall near the teams doing giveaways as we were trying to get through to the tabletop area (it was before the side doors were opened and you had to go through the queue hall).

I look forward to the Aus logo not being cheese.

CaptainLazerGuns

I like the idea of having content in the queue room, but I'm not sure having it exclusive to Bethesda is a great choice because not everybody is there for Bethesda. Everybody is there for PAX and I personally feel a live show hosted either on the floor or in the corner of the queue room showcasing some of the games on display around the floor would be a great opportunity to get people excited for the event. You could also use it as an opportunity to showcase the best indie games, cosplays, personalities at the event, etc. It'd allow you to get a taste of PAX and what in you're in for before going through the doors.

Dark King

Getting a table in the tabletop area has always been a bit of a challenge. After a certain time in the morning the place is packed and finding space to set up a game is practically impossible. How about setting aside a few tables that can be reserved in advance? People could visit the Tabletop HQ and book time slots.

I thought the volume in the Queue Hall was a bit loud. By all means let Bethesda (or whoever else wants to sponsor) put on a show, but I felt like I was risking industrial deafness. Also, bring back the beach balls and targets!

BruceLGL

The Queue hall was WAY too scary and loud for kids. Many people are there for the tabletop section, it would be far better to have a 'chill' queue at the other end for people who don't want to run the terrifying gauntlet of the expo hall. I'm OK with getting in a bit later, but not having any option other than through smoke, announcers yelling and violent videos is just bad.

PDP11

BruceLGL wrote: »

The Queue hall was WAY too scary and loud for kids...
...and violent videos is just bad.

Just out of curiosity. Would you say the videos were so violent that they would have a rating that made them unsuitable for children under 15 years? I.e. Parental Guidance for under 15 year old children is taken as "Violence should be mild and infrequent, and be justified by context".

BruceLGL

PDP11 wrote: »

BruceLGL wrote: »

The Queue hall was WAY too scary and loud for kids...
...and violent videos is just bad.

Just out of curiosity. Would you say the videos were so violent that they would have a rating that made them unsuitable for children under 15 years? I.e. Parental Guidance for under 15 year old children is taken as "Violence should be mild and infrequent, and be justified by context".

I noped out of there pretty quickly, so I'm not sure. Looked like standard FPS gameplay videos.