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Improve PAX! List your ideas here.
duderdude2
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
PAX 2005 was overall an awesome experience. It ran far smoother and had a lot more to do than last year's. However, PAX isn't perfect and I want to hear your ideas as to how to make it better. Here's a few ideas for starters:
1) Keep panels on time, or at the least update the white board outside the theater. Sitting through an hour of the Marketing panel for the PA panel was excruciatingly boring.
2) Screen the damn questions, or impose a time limit. That one girl who introduced every Tom, Dick and Hairy brought the Red vs Blue panel to a screeching halt, then kicked it in the uprights. I mean damn, that was boring.
3) Get an actual freeplay console room, not a hall.
So how would you guys make PAX even better?
1) Keep panels on time, or at the least update the white board outside the theater. Sitting through an hour of the Marketing panel for the PA panel was excruciatingly boring.
2) Screen the damn questions, or impose a time limit. That one girl who introduced every Tom, Dick and Hairy brought the Red vs Blue panel to a screeching halt, then kicked it in the uprights. I mean damn, that was boring.
3) Get an actual freeplay console room, not a hall.
So how would you guys make PAX even better?
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Agree, if not screen, at least make it a standard one question per person and maybe a followup. the i have 5034092.6 question people seemed to go on for quite some time about irrelevant stuff. Also, auditorally the panels could have used some work. the panelists were not miced effectivly and the floor mics had feedback issues because people would not get close enough to use them correctly. Station someone on the floor to assist with that and to keep questions rolling.
SOOOOOO
BORING
and it went on FOREVER
Great idea. I was trying to think of something they should do with those screens aside from being blank and showing that short CG video over and over.
Also, they need to brighten the screens (though it might have the poor stage lighting) and make sure the camera's in focus. All the panels I saw were blurry, though again that could be the poor lighting.
Agreed on moving console freeplay out of the hall. Of course, there's going to be a whole different venue next year, so that problem most likely won't exist.
Enforcers
Let me preface this with the fact that I'm not, nor have I ever been an enforcer.
-Have six-hour shifts for enforcers, and hold them to it. I don't care how much they want to keep working. Get them back into civvies and out to enjoy the show after their shift. This will majorly boost professionalism.
-Give them some extra stuff for their trouble. They're volunteering for days on end, and a shirt/kthxbye don't really compensate.
Panels
- One question per person, and one followup.
- Drop the marketing panel.
- 'Pitch Your Game Idea' needs to be done in a split-format, like many of the others. Half for ideas submitted in advance to a moderator, with any visuals/etc. they want to use, half spur-of-the-moment, like it is now.
-Bring back the webcomics panel, and invite some luminaries in the industry. Suggestions:
Scott Ramsoomair
Jeph Jacques
Scott Kurtz (OOOOooooh!)
The MacHall guys
Concerts
-Is a bigger theatre possible? If so, we need one.
-Earlier. Late is nice, but when you've been gaming all day, you can't enjoy the acts with the full fervor they deserve. Perhaps pursuing the State Fair model with acts all day would help.
Edit: Oh yeah. I don't mention The Good because by and large, it was ALL Good.
Get the PAX 2008 Countdown widget and while away your sad, pathetic life watching it tick down the hours to PAX '08!
http://homepage.mac.com/ctishman
That, and, it was almost basically "Concerts or parties?" this year. Well, for me at least.
By the time the concerts were out, I was dead tired and everyone back at the Doubletree had died. There was maybe one party...
Regarding the Enforcers... I generally like your idea. However, I felt like the Enforcers who were cool, were cool all the way to Sunday. And those who were dicks, were dicks on day one. Being a geek myself, it's hard for me criticize other geeks, but the bottom line is that some of these guys have been shit on all their lives... and for a short while they feel very important and get a taste for power and it goes to their heads.
So, I'd like to take a moment and thank some Enforcers who were really cool the whole time:
1) The guy with red hair in a pony tail outside the BYOC room. He was pleasant and helpful the entire time and always listened to my questions.
2) The girl who tried to rip my PAXsassins watch off, until she realized I wasn't her intended target. I chatted with her a couple times and she looked like she was enjoying herself a lot.
3) The tall dude with the headphone/mic in black combat boots. We flashed our badges at the back door so we could get in without walking all the way around and all the guys were like "we can't let you in; it says not to!" and he walked up and said "guys... they're all flashing badges, just let them in!" He was a voice of sanity when others just blindly followed rules.
It's hard to stay cool and these guys did it. Good job!
1) With the way PAX operates, I'd suggest either 4A or 6ABC as the main concert/panel hall. 4B can easily work for the exhibition hall.
2) Console freeplay should have a room at least the size of the PC Gaming rooms, if not larger. Work with some local game stores in the area to provide games, they'll usually provide what they have in stock in exchange for free advertising.
3) Have more than 1 panel going on at a time. There are some that will draw more interest than others, but when people are attending a panel because it's the only thing going on, then that's a bad thing.
4) If you use 4A for main events, use 6ABC for consoles, and 6D for PC gaming. There's a fairly large space in front of 6D that can be used for the BAWLS guys, or there are numerous spaces in the South Lobby of 4th floor.
5) Better signage as to where events are, it was hard at the Medynbauer because they didn't have very accessible hallways for their rooms. A large foamcore board in the main lobby can easily solve some of that.
6) Reminders sent out a week before PAX reminding people what tournaments they signed up for and when the times were. I know I signed up for two tournaments, but I think I slept though both of them.
7) A place on the badges for people to put their handles would be nice, that way you can recognize someone who you only know online.
Gamer Transit Authority
1. Better information sharing for Enforcers. Some basic questions were beyond them because people just didn't pass on info (get them radios).
2. Choose a hotel a little closer to the venue... the Doubletree was a bit of a walk if you just wanted to drop off some swag. (FYI - I stayed at the Bellevue Lodge because it was closer & cheaper... but I would have liked the nicer hotel).
3. More events & panels. This applies to the exhibitor room as well. Nintendo really represented, but wtf was with Sony & Microsoft's pathetic showing. Next year... make it E3 for us.
4. No offense Derek... but the camerawork was not good. Apart from the bad lighting & focus issues (which I will let you excuse as tech issues), the framing wasn't great and little things like simple panning was jittery as if the tripod was too tight. Hopefully it can be fixed in post.
407 Columbia St. New Westminster (GVA)
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some of the enfocers were kinda bossy, most were nice.
2) I agree, a time limit on questions. I know you guys love to chat. I'm just as guilty, I dunno if you saw me at the Break Into the Industry panel with the question about whether a demo game needs to be super-advanced. But seriously, the panelists usually hang out for a while after the show to chat, and you can get their contact info and even arrange to meet up with them if you want. Unless they're Khoo, they're almost always not busy enough to not want to talk to you.
3) Anyone who knocks Canada (*cough-jeff kalles-cough*) should be thrashed.
4) Roaming Bawls hawkers. While having them right next to the PC room was a good choice, I still found it irritating to have to go all the way up the stairs when I was playing consoles.
5) More free shit in the exhibition room. Seriously, I was expecting to at least get a sticker or something from Microsoft. The fridge magnet was nice, but damn.
6) And those army guys? What suckage! I filled out their damn survey and everything and all I got was a uniform, a pair of boots, and a trip to a shitty hotel. Seriously, room service keeps yelling at me for some reason.
7) My favourite, personalized badges: name, handle, hometown, favourite game(s), and email address. I met a few people (namely the guy from North Van who hung out with us because Sean was wearing a Canada T-shirt), forgot to get their address, and never saw them again.
That is all.
I'd suggest setting up a station next year for the more popular games (i.e. Smash Bros.) and leave the game and contollers there. Have the bottom two guys pass the controller and if a guy wins two rounds have him pass as well. From what I saw there were always at least 3 gamecubes playing Smash so if there was an enforcer there making sure noone stole controllers I don't see why not.
Of course if there was an actually free-play roon with enforcers and no bags allowed in it (like the console tournament room) it would solve this problem.
Other than that I thought it couldn't have run better.
Also, one of the enforcers told me that Gabe and Tycho were randomly giving away 5 computers or something? And that Gabe took em out to dinner...I don't think any of them felt like the got stiffed.
1: For the omeganauts that drop out before the final round: Give them tournament points for how far they got. I mean, yes, it feels great that I got to round four, but I have nothing but satisfaction to show for it, that and the single army of dice I got from round one's diceland. Give them an equivalent of points as if they were in a tourneyment - there are some I missed out of joining cause of omegathon anyways.
2. The priveleges granted by the omegathon pass were great (cutting in front of event lines and entry into concert), but in the end were useless to anyone that came with a friend, family member, or significant other. The enforcers bent themselves backwards trying to accomodate us for this, and I really appreciate their efforts. Next year, you might want to give out one "omeganaut guest pass," to prevent problems in the future.
These are the only two that I can think of at the moment - I will repost later if I come up with any more. Please, other omeganauts, if you read this, please add to it. And thank you so much for all your help, enforcers and Omegatechs, and Gabe and Tycho.
In the meantime, I can tell you that I won second place in Mario Kart
next year it'll be first
Still, all in all, I had a good time.
Haha yeah, go figure that the winners would be the only ones interested in reading/watching an encore performance
Yes. At the very least, put a small square (maybe 1" x 1") area on the badge where there is no critical info so that we can put a guild/clan logo or avatar sticker (or other sort of personal info) on there. Maybe outline it with a dotted line or something.
That would be fantastic, having two pools of players. Sure, let the pros have larger tournament prizes, but it gives us little fish a chance.
That was Gary, one of our two "PAX Lieutenants," meaning he had the authority to make decisions and go outside the normal parameters when he wanted to. But, yes, he's a great guy.
How would you enforce this? Is there a threshold as to how good a group of friends needs to be before they're allowed into a tournament? It's a competitive tournament, fer chrissakes.
And no more Fragdolls stomping us in the GR2 finals.
I agree. Tournament's are all the best vs the best. If you start breaking it down by groups, you've just watered down the entire point. And how would they keep the clans out of the tournys anyway?
Honour system. Besides which, I figure most clan players would rather play other clans than a bunch of kids off the street. Makes for a more interesting game for everyone. This is supposed to be about fun, right? What fun is there in completely owning, or getting completely owned?
Heh, thats what we said last year... This year, we got knocked out in the first round.
As suggested in another thread, I love the idea of having all the console tournament finals saved for the last day and done leading upto the Omegathon Final. A few hours of some of the best game matchs youll witness in the convention theatre.
A Caracassonne tournament would be a kick ass addition to the table-top games tourney list.
Rearange the concerts some more, Connie Lin just doesnt fit in with the rest of the show Saturday night, and as talented a pianist as she is I still find myself annoyed and nodding off to the music she played... Get more acts next year and group them more coherently.
The sound quality was awful during the RvB Panel for some reason, after seeing the first episode of Season 4, I left because I couldnt understand a word any of them were saying. Didnt seem to notice that much on the other panels but the sound setup needs to be looked at so it doesnt happen again next year.
Boy do I ever second this motion. My friend, whom had only seen a few episodes, could barely make out what was being said half the time. Hell, even I missed some of the jokes, despite having seen all the episodes.
Granted, RvB has never had the best sound quality to begin with, but that combined with perhaps the room's poor acoustics provided for a pretty lousy showing. Regardless, I'd suggest RvB turn off the voice filters next year, and perhaps do a sound check prior to the panel.
At least 99% of the people who go to PAX aren't competitive at the games they play. Having a seperate tournament for the good and the bad not only trivializes the tournaments, but it makes it hard if not impossible to have a "pro" tournament since there just won't be enough good teams or participants to hold one. In all of the PC tournaments there was a single team who had practiced as a team before the event, and they came in second for the BF2 tournament behind a skilled pug. The CSS tournament was dominated by a pug.
As for console games, a much larger percentage of the players compared to PC games have limited competitive experience due to limited exposure to decent players and real tournament events. Seattle has a pretty active fighting game community, and Halo 2 has a very active online/tournament scene, but most console games aren't going to draw in any ringers. Instead of having alternate tournaments, use some of the better competitive games (sc2, tekken 5, halo 2, css, ut/q4, wc3) to have higher profile tournaments with larger prizes and more polish (the trophies were an appreciated step in this direction, and the on-stage or filmed finals would be a nice thing for next year) to attract more serious players from around the nation. Throw in a bunch of fun tournaments and contests for games that have a broad appeal but lack the gameplay or community to support a competitive tournament which gives everyone a chance at placing.
Hell yeah we kicked ass at BF2!!
But seriously, I dont think seperate tourneys is a good idea.
If they really wanted to do something a long these lines, the easiest method would be to do the following:
A) Folks wanting to play in the PUG tournament sign their name to a list, or sign a scrap of paper and put it in a hat.
C) Team names and who is in them are put up on the white board/projector 30 minutes ahead of the tournament (earlier if practical). Gives time for the teams to meet up, and go over strategies.
Problem is, this means signups have to occur earlier. It requires more involvement from the PAX staff. The two of which would likely limit the number of tournaments unless it can be streamlined.
I don't know this is all really neccessary, I'm just tossing out ideas.
Seriously, though--WTF is a *PROFESSIONAL* clan? I didn't see any at PAX outside of the Frag Dolls, and Ubisoft gave away the Grand Prize to the 2nd place (losing) team anyway. You have nothing, nothing at all, to complain about.
The tournament that I competed in was an 8v8 tourney. If you didn't think about forming a team some time before the event and practicing a little bit and foolish enough to enter, well... it's not our fault you suck.
IMHO, IMHO...
Hey, legion of fire did have t-shirts! They were pretty scarry..that is until we crushed them!