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South 2020 Constructive Feedback
Here we are again! Please leave your feedback for the show.
Reminder: not liking things is fine. Being a jerk is not fine.
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In short, it's not dumb enough. What that means is that it felt like most of the advice was mid-level and not as the title suggested, for those who have no idea what to expect. The panelists were good, but they've been doing this so long that maybe they can't erase all that and remember what it's like to not know anything.
Noobs want to feel comfortable and welcome. They don't want to do anything stupid which will reveal their noobness. They also want to make the most of their time.
Here's a few specifics:
1. How do I join a tabletop game? Do I need to already know how to play that game?
2. How does the Expo work? Can I just help myself to any game? Is there a time limit? What's this tape on the ground in a queue shape for?
3. What are the top attractions?
4. How does console freeplay work?
5. How do I join a tournament?
6. Which things close at 5:00 and which stay open late?
7. What's this margarita thing about?
Though I know these things now, I didn't know them going in and I didn't find them in my limited time on the website.
I really liked the Outlaws ProAm, though I don't know if it's because I'm just bad at reading details but i didn't know until after it started they would have con randos playing with them. I'd definitely have wanted to do that.
The entry line security check felt like it moved a lot faster this year.
On the other hand, I actually really liked the smaller feel this year. This was my first PAX with a child and the crowds were just about perfect for her to be excited but not overwhelmed. Had a blast in the expo hall. Much more would have been too much.
In the past the Enforcers would compact people in lines to a somewhat unreasonable point, and that didn't seem to happen this year.
The PAX South app was not very stable and the UI was poorly designed. You couldn't see a chronological graph of the panels you favorited, and you couldn't see who was hosting the panels; you had to go to the website for that.
The expo hall was an embarrasement this year. It's always been light on AAA content but this year there was zero. That's ok with some people, but I think it's a real disappointment for most people. There were also less booths overall, less to see and do. I spent many hours in the expo hall looking for hidden gems and didn't see anything that interesting. I was in line for NIRV Ann-A and the line attendant was talking to a little kid, she asked him if he'd seen any fun games and he said "Nah, not really"; same.
I think PAX South is in real trouble. They haven't ever been able to attract very much AAA content and now they can't get anyone to show up. Ticket sales have always been anemic and they're going to get worse after this. Some people really like indie content and may even prefer the expo hall this way, but they're a significant minority. Most of us like indie content just fine, but we need the AAA steak too.
I think South can be saved, but it would take getting significantly more AAA devs to show up next year. No one is expecting West or East levels of bling, but something needs to change. I don't know if PA has any real way to make that happen, but I would strongly encourage them to look for ways to boost AAA turnout, as well as interesting indies and panels.
Just as important, PA needs to publicly acknowledge the situation and provide some reasonable assurance that the expo hall will be better next year, and back that up with results. If they don't acknowledge the issue they probably won't address it, and just as important, people will assume nothing will change and they won't come next year.
I love PAX South, I've been to every one except the first and I'll go next year. But I don't think a lot of people care enough to overlook the shortcomings this year, if PA doesn't convince them next year will be different they may not be back.
-- Vroomfondel
What a Quest! Pinny Pals After Dark did a great job organizing this years Margarita Quest. All locations were in reasonable walking distance from the HBGCC and some of the ones that were sort of further out were really nice spots too. The atmosphere of some of these locations definitely compensated for the distance. Especially discovering hidden gems like Ocho.
The best parts of the Quest was the locations gave an opportunity for PAXers to explore downtown a little bit more further out than just the simple touristy side of the Riverwalk. Seeing bartenders already wearing the pin and running into other groups also participating in the Quest made the activity even more encouraging to complete. Also, hearing from the restaurant/bar staff that the Quest was bringing in some real good business over the weekend was a plus.
It's nice to know that you didn't even have to drink at all if you are non-alcoholic to be able to participate. A selfie with a virgin drink or a simple pastry dish was good enough.
The pin design was beautiful and I like how it shared a similar style to the official South 2020 pin.
So yeah, it was the most enjoyable Quest I participated in at this show and I'm looking forward to doing it all over again next year.
Pros:
Tabletop space!!!!!
Getting into Acquisitions INC without having to wait 4-5 hours
Finding all the PAX XP stations
Meeting Amy T. Falcone
Seeing a new city and exploring a little (Riverwalk was pretty cool)
BomBARDed Panel - of the two panels we went to this was the best
Enforcers were chill, as were the Convention Center Staff (who seemed at least slightly pleased we were there)
Cons:
Mythic Quest - I think ReedPop over promised tickets so hundreds showed up for a showing that only a hundred could actually be allowed to enter.
Gearbox - Waited for an hour and a half for their party and there was no food (unless you count the chips we got before they took them away). All the important people were sequestered off on the deck while the rest of us stood around. We left pretty quick.
There wasn't a lot of lower cost food choices near the Convention Center, but I guess I am use to eating cheap and quick in Seattle so I can get back to the next thing. There was great food nearby, just wanting that sweet spot of cheap and quick (but probably terrible for me).
I guess most of my cons come from outside of the Con, so that's a good sign.
Probably won't be going back to South again, but I'm glad I did and think that this is and could continue to be a great convention. Thanks for having me.
All in all, 2020 was great. Im not complaining about it, just offering up my thoughts. I can't wait for 2021.
Also very disappointed to see the lootbox vendor was back again, even if they were relegated to the back this time.
I agree that this felt like the smallest PAX South on every metric, from number of booths to vendors to panels. But the community of people at PAX are the real reason I go. Meeting new people demoing games or playing board game tourneys, or finding a group of people to play secret hitler or blood on the clock work tower after the expo hall closes, all the cosplayers willing to take photos with my kids, the people are what keeps me coming back to PAX. I do hope that this downward trend for the convention is able to be turned around and PAX South continues to grow and be a successful convention.
-I strongly suggest being proactive with booths doing raffles and just set a dedicated area on Friday instead of waiting until Saturday before having raffles. Every year at 3, 4 or 5pm 1 or more booths does a raffle and draws a fire marshal alarming crowd, but then Saturday it's moved to a designated space. Just start this on Fridays please?
- The Acquisitions Inc XP trophy kiosk was not working after 8:30 (and likely earlier) making obtaining this timed trophy difficult if not impossible.
- I like tumblers, I don't like the water bottles (but still got one cuz of the bag) and just wish they'd sell a version of both each year.
- Since LE pins are set aside to have X amount per day, why wouldn't this be the case for most merch (like the full pin set?), to give Sunday pass holders a chance? That, or when there's clearly demand that was under-estimated how about letting people order some, and if you get enough orders you'll fulfill them post Pax (or if not just refund)?
Cheers:
- I like that the "spin the wheel" badge scan booths bumped up significantly the win rates for that card game. One of my favorite things ever about Pax was getting that free game in the swag bag in 2016 and while this isn't quite the same thing, its close enough. I miss more stuff like this
- I love PAX XP and Arcadia regardless of the reward.
- (added) I forgot how much better bag check was this year vs last.
Eh:
- I didn't really understand what Mixer's booth was doing other than showcasing Killer Queen and just being an area for dozens of people to stand and make it tougher for people to navigate past Mixer. I'm not too sure they've done nearly the same level of outreach that Twitch had done in the past in terms of explaining "why use mixer". And personally I never had issue with any streaming booths (Facebook, twitch, etc.) in the past.
- In prior South's, I generally skipped MS/Sony/Nintendo booths because it was always line capped so I'm not sure how much improvement I'd see with South if they returned. I like how relaxed South feels to me and I don't want to have to plan my day around getting to the CC at 8am to line up for 2 hours only to fail to get into an eternally capped line. I got West and East (if I ever went) for that.
- I think the LatinX lounge should've been more lounge than panel room... Panels should've probably been in a distinct, separate room (next door?) and have the lounge be more like how the diversity lounge is, with tables for people to showcase and room to network vs doing that during a panel in the room. (post 6pm panels seems like a good idea though, and the Salsa dancing should've been 2 nights not just 1)
- Last thing. I think the themes are ok, some themes work better than others and some items themed a certain way works better than others. What has annoyed me though is using 2018 as an example, the tumblers were different between South, East and then West. East had the best looking tumbler and was a style very different from South and identical to West/Aus/Unplugged but the design varied slightly (South was plastic, East et al were metal but the East design was black with a red glitch while the others were Pax colors with a black glitch). In 2019, East lacked the tumbler and had a weird water bottle while South and West/Aus/Unplugged all had tumblers, and South came with a "cap" not a flip top lid like West did. Bag designs in 2019 were different too as South and East were similar but West/Aus/Unplugged were very different, so I want Pax Merch designs to at least retain the same consistency. Not that this would help me with my Tumbler collection addiction
I played a few games at South that I probably wouldn't have seen otherwise and enjoyed visiting the different booths. Raffles are becoming my favorite things (winning a Swag bag in 2017 helps) at Pax even if my feet hurt and I lose. I would rather South be at the end of January and not MLK weekend, and I hope that if East is scheduled in late march or in April that might help South a bit and not force potential exhibitors to have to choose. (Does the proximity to Unplugged have any effect as well?) Maybe next year with the new consoles we could see more interest by MS/Sony, and if I do go back in 2021 I should look closer at the card/table top games.
I think this kinda sums up where I'm at this year too. Don't get me wrong. For me, South has always been the "chill" or "indie" PAX, and when I do come to South, I'm looking for that more laid back atmosphere. But this year I think swung a bit too far in the other direction where at one point, I hit the show first thing in the morning and then went back to the hotel and seriously contemplated if I even needed to come back later in the day. That's not a good sign. I also realize with East literally in about 3-4 weeks, it may not have been helped, but in the future, I think even just getting 1-2 "major" devs willing to show up can make a difference. I've always kinda taken an "every other year" approach with South, so I'll be curious to see how things go next year.
The panels are good. I want to be on the PAX 101: How Do I PAX? I checked it out because I've been to every PAX South, and I always missed this panel. After I fielded a couple audience questions, they said I should be on the panel next year, and I really want to be.
The Geek Knights presentation on board games was fun and useful. The Q & A was great. Hidden Gems was really fun. The board games tournaments ran well.
I didn't go to the Adventurer's League games, but they seemed to have a much bigger presence this year, and that's great.
I'm noticing I have very different wants from a lot of attendees. I have never stood in line for a AAA booth, but this might be my favorite PAX so far.
Cons: Mythic Quest. Whoever organized this event wanted to be sure of a full theater and got it by overbooking it more than double without telling people what they were doing. I don't feel like it's a mistake. Someone made a choice to waste a lot of people's time because that was the opportunity cost to get what they wanted to achieve.
If you're going to do this again, I'd suggest you get the Alamo Drafthouse's people to organize the event (their San Antonio theater is a ways away, but they do a lot of stuff outside their theaters). If I heard you're doing that, I might go to another event like this. Otherwise, I won't. There's other stuff I want to do.
But yea in general I had a good time with the board games, wish it was a bigger spectacle like east.
I was not overly impressed with the panels overall this year. Maybe I'm still spoiled by Storytime with Perkins, and panels with Patrick Rofthfuss, and Firaxis, and Bioware. Like stated above, it seemed a bit smaller this year, both in content and the number of people who came.
I had a couple of PAX newbies come with us this year and they enjoyed themselves for the Saturday they were there. I enjoyed myself as well, but I think it was more because of the people that were there rather than content. We spent more time playing tabletop games than in years past.
Going into next year, I'll probably wait for final schedule to be released before. I understand South is not going to be a East or West (and honestly don't think I want it to), but South simply has sort of slumped since years 2 and 3.
The Latinx lounge also seemed poorly put together, the games that where there should of been treated like the Pax Together in the future and instead of holding panels in the lounge use the room that was empty between the diversity lounge and jamspace if you plan to bring it back. I didn't even know there were games in the Latinx lounge till we went inside looking for Pax XP booths, if they were in the expo hall how many more people would have interacted with them.
I loved the Pax Together, and if I was running the show I would try to do more things like that and and the Indie Showcase and Pax Rising. If South is going to lose more of the table and non electronic games and the big companies are going to skip it to go to West and East, focus more on bringing in more little guys would be my idea.
True dungeon as always was a blast and their new location was perfect.
From a press standpoint, it's definitely easier to book appointments and talk to more indie devs at South than at East or West. My appointment book was still full for all three days, and there were plenty more booths that I didn't have time to see. A couple of my favorite booths probably never would have gotten any visibility at the larger shows, simply because they were small and very weird.
As an aside, I picked up three boxes from the loot box vendor to bring home to my kids that weren't at the show. Maybe I just got lucky, but it seemed like the value of the box contents was about inline with what I paid
The LatinX lounge felt like an interesting idea that wasn't all that well thought out. The games probably should have been on the Expo show floor, and then the lounge used as more of a meet and greet/panel space, than trying to do all the things in one place.
Acquisitions, Inc. is still my favorite panel at the con, with the Omegathon final round coming in a close second.
The security theater at the entrance continues to be an utterly worthless waste of time and energy. Please stop doing that.
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That said, this was by far the most boring PAX South. I'm okay with the explanation that it's because PAX East is so soon after (about a month), but it's insulting that they knew this would be the case yet still chose to increase badge prices. PAX South isn't living up to its potential, and I'm concerned it never will again.
Pros
- I still love the tabletop area, especially the First Looks (possibly planning a trip to PAX Unplugged to get a concentrated tabletop experience)
- I asked for change... any sort of change... and they changed some things. But, I don't think I cared for some of them (see below).
- Security at the entrance seemed to move more quickly, but security requirements were inconsistently applied.
Cons- More than any con before, we stood in lines that never came to fruition. So much time wasted and back pain (I'm getting old y'all).
- As DaPaladin said above, Mythic Quest - way too many passes given out - see previous comment about lines.
- The expo hall was simply lacking, perhaps because of no big names - as I described to a friend, it was completely lacking in glitz and glamour.
- I'd previously asked to move PC free play to a lower-ceiling, dimmer-light area, and they finally did... but, it was WAY far away from the rest of the things we do (but, at least it was a straight shot to the exit when they shut down each night).
- Extension of the last item, it seems like every year since the first they've utilized space less effectively than the last. This year there was even more walking and walking and walking through empty space.
- Booths didn't seem to have booth numbers displayed - I do a first quick run through the whole thing to note booth numbers to visit in detail later.
Requests and SuggestionsPros:
-This was the first year there were panels I was interested in going to. I saw the dueling writer's society at Unplugged, and was glad to see it come to South. Seeing the megagames panel, learning about them, and hearing that they operate near my location was fantastic. Rampart was a great final Omegathon choice. Several very hype moments. I'm hoping to see Nidhogg at some point.
-Expo hall, while there were fewer stalls, the usual traffic jams and crushes didnt seem to happen as often. I liked seeing the 3d effect glass art stall this year, and wish that the Ukiyo-e Heroes booth would have brought some more stock.
-Tabletop area continues to impress.
-Jackbox was run very well this year. None of the moderators seemed too prudish. Won my first multiplayer pin.
Cons:
-Nothing in the First Look games stood out to me or my group.
-The AVGN panel. Spent an hour or more in line only to learn that not only was the nerd not there, but the promised new episode had already been released. Had no interest in listening to James' hangers on, so we dipped right out after they gave the news.
-Was disappointed that Reaper wasn't there this year. I've always enjoyed decompressing from the Saturday crush by spending an hour on the paint and take.
-Not much new video game content. I don't care about seeing AAA booths, but nearly everything seemed to be already released, mobile games, pre-early access indie projects, or games that have been shown for years and still havent come out.
I have to agree on a number of things - tabletop is great, especially First Looks. And change was good this year - particularly moving the loud streaming-related areas further away from the tabletop area. Security seemed pretty much identical to last year, yet still moved somewhat faster somehow.
I had zero problems with wasted time in lines, and while I didn't see much in the Expo Hall that was of interest, a large part of that was because I had already seen a number of booths at GenCon not too long before. The expo hall was not compelling, but I found it about as interesting as the expo hall of 2019.
I enjoyed flying in on the same flight from Chicago that Patrick Rothfuss did last year, but only because I got to hit him up with an inside joke at the SAT airport. While I enjoy his books and his past participation in Acq Inc, future participation is of neutral interest to me. The McElroy brothers would be of negative interest - I would actually consider them less appealing than someone I'm not familiar with at all.
I don't see any need to cram things any closer together than they are already. More interesting exhibitors in the main expo floor would be nice, but barring that the layout this year was the best in my experience thus far (every PAX South except for the first).
PAX South is held in San Antonio, Texas. I saw a many location across PAX that were inclusive to the gaming community LatinX, Diversity Lounge, etc. In saying that there is one thing that San Antonio has that is not present at other locations across the US, San Antonio is literally Military City, USA (trademarked by San Antonio). Demographically San Antonio's population of 1.5 Million and is home to roughly 250,000 veterans and 80,000 active-duty personnel. I believe that PAX South is missing out on a big section of the local population that are passionate about gaming and usually fall between the 15-40 year old demographic for PAX convention goers. If inclusion and representation of the gaming community as a whole is a key to PAX then our military personnel should be represented in the convention as well, this includes things like panels, speakers and booths.
Ah, so inclusiveness is only important when it caters to specific groups? Get that BS attitude out of here.
You realize PAX South is held in San Antonio, right? Tell me, what are the oppressed minority groups here (or in this whole region for that matter)?
Final fact for you to chew on: military veterans and active-duty military are quite a diverse group, full of what you probably consider "oppressed minorities".
Army already has a massive space, so I think booths are covered.
As to panels/speakers? Anyone who wants to is welcome to volunteer to host a panel. All they have to do is apply. Given both the variety and quality of panels I've seen at South over the years, the lack of panels either hosted by veterans or related to veteran-specific gaming concerns at the con is far more indicative of a lack of interest on the part of veterans in creating such a panel than it is of a lack of interest on the convention's part.
Want military-related panels? Find some military personnel or veterans who are willing to create quality content, host a panel discussion, and send a proposal to PAX South. If they come up with something worthwhile, it'll be there. Here's a softball for you: find someone willing to table a panel discussion about things like always-on internet connection requirements, Microsoft's initial proposals for how the Xbox One was supposed to function, and similar that would be hugely difficult for military personnel overseas to adhere to.
But if military personnel and veterans who are also gamers would rather just continue to attend PAX South as they no doubt have been doing en masse for years, then that's cool too. Maybe they don't feel like they need any more representation than simply as gamers, ya know?
As a veteran:
While it seems your heart is in the right place, the actual result would be misguided and not actually productive for anyone.
We don't need more military recruiters at game conventions. Military booths are already recruiting, so having recruiting panels and speakers are not cohesive with what PAX is.
The DOD does not need more military presence.
If you want Military-Connected things, that's a different story.
Orgs like Operation Supply Drop would be a good invite, if they can afford the booth space.
Panels about veterans in gaming communities might be ok.
The only other way to be military friendly would be this:
Add an option for badge-purchasers to donate $5 (or more) to a military badge fund and then let all the Air Force recruits on liberty for graduation weekend get 1-day passes with that fund.
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