The lowdown on the bawls situation

xxhennersxx

I've heard a lot of reasons as for the Bawls Situation.

Khoo or anyone else wanna throw out there what the reasoning was?

Druhim

I thought it had already been explained several times that it was a contractual issue with the convention center. They don't allow any outside vendors of food or beverages in the convention center, which I can understand from the employees perspective.

Googalash

The convention center has a contract to only sell from certain vendors and therefore they cannot allow outside vendors to sell things. Though they can buy items from the outside vendor and resell them. Hence the reason that food stand was selling BAWLS for $2.50 a pop.

So yeah BAWLS could be given away for free but the BWALS folks could not sell their product do to contract/vendor issues of the convention center. It had nothing to do with PA. I'm sure if PA could have pulled it off they would have found a way to have BAWLS there.

Anyway thats the knowedge I have but don't quote me on it it may not be 100% accurate.

xxhennersxx

Alright cool, I heard it was the convention center just wanting to make a profit and shit off of it. I knew the PA folk had nothing to do with it, I figured they gave bawls away to partially rectify the situation.

Druhim

Yeah, I personally feel the other advantages of the location more than offset the inconvenience with Bawls. Even if PAX hadn't outgrown Meydenbauer, Bellevue just isn't as much fun as Seattle.

Samyel

Druhim wrote: »

Yeah, I personally feel the other advantages of the location more than offset the inconvenience with Bawls. Even if PAX hadn't outgrown Meydenbauer, Bellevue just isn't as much fun as Seattle.

I think it was pretty damn awesome to have cafes, fast food, restaurants, and food courts within spitting distance of the Exhibition Hall and game rooms. Worth a few sacrifices (like more expensive hotel rooms!) to have the convenience, I think. God bless those poor sons of bitches who had to work the Subway in the convention centre, though. I felt horrible ordering a sammich from them at 11:30pm... I felt like my very presence was contributing to torment of a fellow human's soul.

xxhennersxx

Druhim wrote: »

Yeah, I personally feel the other advantages of the location more than offset the inconvenience with Bawls. Even if PAX hadn't outgrown Meydenbauer, Bellevue just isn't as much fun as Seattle.

I agree. I just wish I knew before hand! My work sells bawls for 1.69 and I didn't stock up because I thought 1 dollar Bawls was going to be there...

Googalash

Samyel wrote: »

I think it was pretty damn awesome to have cafes, fast food, restaurants, and food courts within spitting distance of the Exhibition Hall and game rooms. Worth a few sacrifices (like more expensive hotel rooms!) to have the convenience, I think. God bless those poor sons of bitches who had to work the Subway in the convention centre, though. I felt horrible ordering a sammich from them at 11:30pm... I felt like my very presence was contributing to torment of a fellow human's soul.

Oh god those subway folks where not prepared at all.........oh well they'll know better for next year I guess

Druhim

Next year those of you that didn't should venture up to Capitol Hill, Belltown, or Pioneer Square to check out the Seattle nightlife. Also the renovation of the bus tunnel (which was closed for over a year now) will be complete by then and it will make busing downtown much faster since buses won't need to contend with street traffic downtown.

Officer

Agreed. I did, however, hit up a few very delicious establishments. Elephant and Castle Pub (I think that was it's name) was excellent, their shephard's pie did not disappoint. Georgio's sub shop was FANTASTIC. The Pike Market Bar and Grill was great, very nice staff and all you can eat belgian waffles for 6.50. Tasty! And P.F. Chang's was a very tasty meal. I can't wait to head back next year and try some more delicious Seattle foods. Hopefully by then, I will be living a lot closer.

Bionic Monkey

Googalash wrote: »

Samyel wrote: »

I think it was pretty damn awesome to have cafes, fast food, restaurants, and food courts within spitting distance of the Exhibition Hall and game rooms. Worth a few sacrifices (like more expensive hotel rooms!) to have the convenience, I think. God bless those poor sons of bitches who had to work the Subway in the convention centre, though. I felt horrible ordering a sammich from them at 11:30pm... I felt like my very presence was contributing to torment of a fellow human's soul.

Oh god those subway folks where not prepared at all.........oh well they'll know better for next year I guess

Talking about unprepared, why the fuck was that guy in the pizza place the only one working all weekend?

eelektrik

Bionic Monkey wrote: »

Googalash wrote: »

Samyel wrote: »

I think it was pretty damn awesome to have cafes, fast food, restaurants, and food courts within spitting distance of the Exhibition Hall and game rooms. Worth a few sacrifices (like more expensive hotel rooms!) to have the convenience, I think. God bless those poor sons of bitches who had to work the Subway in the convention centre, though. I felt horrible ordering a sammich from them at 11:30pm... I felt like my very presence was contributing to torment of a fellow human's soul.

Oh god those subway folks where not prepared at all.........oh well they'll know better for next year I guess

Talking about unprepared, why the fuck was that guy in the pizza place the only one working all weekend?

Yeah, I was gonna try some but the line just moved too slow, I feel sorry for the guy, and don't know why he didn't call someone else in at least on Saturday and Sunday after seeing the craziness of Friday. If he tried too and no one would come in, he needs to hire new employees.

So I ended up getting pizza upstairs but the main theater, and god was it awful. It was a complete waste of money as I took two bites of that so called pizza and trashed it. You know your pizza is bad when I'm throwing it out. Its a cheese pizza, its nearly impossible to fuck up and somehow they did.

ctishman

So enough about how not having Bawls sucked. The question is how do we get our fix next year?

We need to do something off Meydenbauer property. Can we work something out with Gameworks to let Bawls set up a stand on their property?

Druhim

ctishman wrote: »

So enough about how not having Bawls sucked. The question is how do we get our fix next year?

We need to do something off Meydenbauer property. Can we work something out with Gameworks to let Bawls set up a stand on their property?

Dude, Meydenbauer is the convention center in Bellevue where PAX had been held previously. This year it was the Washington State Convention & Trade Center. The Meydenbauer had no problem with Bawls.

ctishman

Yeah, rather WSCTC property. My question stands.

Marco Esta

I bought like 2-3 bottles of Bawls at PAX...



???

Crit_Fail

ctishman wrote: »

Yeah, rather WSCTC property. My question stands.

I wonder if something could be arranged with the Bawls folks so that those of us who wanted to could pre-order a case or two for the weekend (If we really want to feel that kind of pain, I mean.) and pick it up somewhere near-by. That would get them in and out on one day, they'd have minimal time spent at the convention where they can't sell items. I would certainly consider pre-ordering a case for pick-up on Thursday or Friday (I'd even consider paying more than we did at PAX '06 to be able to have it) and just keeping the case on ice in my car/hotel/backpack/bag-o-bawls-holding+5 for the weekend.

Though stashing them across the street at Gameworks is a pretty bitchin' idea if we can get that to work, too. =D

-- CF

BlackDragon480

Recruit wrote: »

Agreed. I did, however, hit up a few very delicious establishments. Elephant and Castle Pub (I think that was it's name) was excellent, their shephard's pie did not disappoint. Georgio's sub shop was FANTASTIC. The Pike Market Bar and Grill was great, very nice staff and all you can eat belgian waffles for 6.50. Tasty! And P.F. Chang's was a very tasty meal. I can't wait to head back next year and try some more delicious Seattle foods. Hopefully by then, I will be living a lot closer.

Yeah it was Elephant and Castle in the Red Lion on Fifth Avenue. I stopped in there for breakfast Sunday morning, it was pretty damn nice. One of the best corned-beef hashes I've ever had and they make a very good bloody mary.

Anexkahn

bawls needs to sponsor a 24-hour tabletop / bring your own console room at one (or more) of the pax hotels... this way the bawls-by-the-case problem can be properly rectified, and there is a place to meet up with a group of people and chill and play shit at the hotels that isn't the lobby.

aioua

Anexkahn wrote: »

bawls needs to sponsor a 24-hour tabletop / bring your own console room at one (or more) of the pax hotels... this way the bawls-by-the-case problem can be properly rectified, and there is a place to meet up with a group of people and chill and play shit at the hotels that isn't the lobby.

We did have 24 hour rooms this year, i just don't think anyone knew about them...
I like this idea.

So much, I'm going to say it again:
Bawls sponsored 24 room at one of the hotels!

eelektrik

Yeah, the Sheraton is probably the closest hotel to the convention center. They could rent a ballroom there for a 24 hour table-top room and have a Bawls booth setup in there. A second Bawls booth setup at the Gameworks during the day would give people two close spots to hit for their fix without spending the 2.50 a bottle the convention center was charging. Throw a Bawls flier in the swag bags listing the locations and they'd be good to go.

Marx

Yes, yes and more yes. A 24-hour room game... enough caffeine to kill an elephant thrice over... what more could a gamer ask for?

ArcSyn

Thinkgeek sells bawls on the cheap by the case. I think it works out to like $1.30 after shipping or so iirc. I used to order from there all the time. Outside of that energy drinks are overpriced at all stands. $2.50? Yuck. Definitely need to get Bawls in the convention again next year.

I loved getting $1/bottle cases at the LAN parties I would attend.

Bambooza

Aioua wrote: »

We did have 24 hour rooms this year, i just don't think anyone knew about them...

There was???

And yes I agree a Bawls sponsored 24 room at one of the hotels would be perfect. Now just to talk to the powers that be to see if we cant get it to happen.

Dreamwriter

Seattle is trying to attract vendors to Freeway Park (which is right behind the convention center), Bawls should setup a stand out there during PAX.

aioua

Dreamwriter wrote: »

Seattle is trying to attract vendors to Freeway Park (which is right behind the convention center), Bawls should setup a hojillion stands out there during PAX.

Fix'd

Darkphibre

Googalash wrote: »

The convention center has a contract to only sell from certain vendors and therefore they cannot allow outside vendors to sell things. Though they can buy items from the outside vendor and resell them. Hence the reason that food stand was selling BAWLS for $2.50 a pop.

So yeah BAWLS could be given away for free but the BWALS folks could not sell their product do to contract/vendor issues of the convention center. It had nothing to do with PA. I'm sure if PA could have pulled it off they would have found a way to have BAWLS there.

Anyway thats the knowedge I have but don't quote me on it it may not be 100% accurate.

In the press Q&A, Tycho said that they were only able to give away a bottle of BAWLS after a week of negotiations... and that they had really, really tried to get BAWLS in as a vendor (but the convention center stuck to its guns).

Crazy tidbit from the Q&A: Running the power for the BYOC/Freeplay room for a weekend? I believe he said $40,000.

munkyboy0930

I was thinking that if giving out free bawls is ok then I would probably be willing to pay extra for my pax pass to get more free bawls

BigRed

Aioua wrote: »

Anexkahn wrote: »

bawls needs to sponsor a 24-hour tabletop / bring your own console room at one (or more) of the pax hotels... this way the bawls-by-the-case problem can be properly rectified, and there is a place to meet up with a group of people and chill and play shit at the hotels that isn't the lobby.

We did have 24 hour rooms this year, i just don't think anyone knew about them...
I like this idea.

So much, I'm going to say it again:
Bawls sponsored 24 room at one of the hotels!

There were no official 24h pax areas.