PAX08 = Lamest Day EVER

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  • InfidelInfidel Heretic Registered User regular
    edited September 2008
    Houn pretty much nails it.

    I had a hell of a good time at PAX. I didn't wait for anything barely. I just spent it with gamers and forumers and Phalla players and button traders and however else I could make friends.

    Make friends, have fun. This is not a PAX thing, this is a life thing. The OP may want to reevaluate his.

    Infidel on
  • ArcoArco Registered User regular
    edited September 2008
    The OP has valid points, but instead of addressing them in an adult manner he's whining. It's hard to take anyone seriously when they're riding the whaaaaaaaaaaaaambulance. It was over-crowded. It was. They need to move into a bigger space. Lines were very long for everything, whether it was game demos or console freeplay. If I would've jumped on everything I wanted to do and waited in the resulting line, I would've spent over half my expo in line. That's a problem, and it needs to be addressed. There's plenty more space at the venue for them to grow into, and I expect that next year they'll do just that.

    See how I said that without insulting anyone or crying about it?

    Also, and other people have said this, the expo hall is a bonus. The expo attracts massive crowds, companies want to sponsor the expo in exchange for exposure to those crowds, and that's where the exposure happens. PAX is about gamers coming together, sharing experiences, playing games, and having a good time. It isn't about swag. It's a wonderful bonus, and I absolutely spent a large part of the expo playing games just to get free stuff, but it's a bonus. It isn't the focus.

    They had a massive tabletop annex devoted JUST to playing games. They had a huge console freeplay area devoted JUST to playing games. They had several DS lounges devoted JUST to playing games. PAX is about playing games with people.

    Arco on
    Like this, not like the gas station.
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  • HounHoun Registered User regular
    edited September 2008
    Arco: Unfortunately, we're going to see the Expo Hall becoming less of a "bonus", but rather the Main Attraction for more and more people as time goes on. We're the E3 Replacement, you know.

    Houn on
  • BuraisuBuraisu Psychomancer Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    edited September 2008
    The floor is too hard, make it softer.

    Buraisu on
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  • DJBreslinDJBreslin Registered User regular
    edited September 2008
    Buraisu wrote: »
    The floor is too hard, make it softer.

    There is an honest request for that in the feedback thread. They're asking for carpet. :)

    DJBreslin on
  • darren66darren66 Registered User regular
    edited September 2008
    Twitch wrote: »
    Houn wrote: »
    What does this mean? The PAX People are harder to find amongst the crowds of self-centered E3 refugees and bandwagoneers. They're still there, but you must seek them out.

    So... PAX 09, no trade show, only games? I'm down for that!

    darren66 on
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  • dachibidachibi Registered User new member
    edited September 2008
    Initally, I was perplexed at PAX (they do somethings differently then some other cons.)... Then I settled in, and slowly became disappointed. And finally on Sunday morning, I was content. I didn't come to PAX with any expectations, so things like swag, quality of SUMO beanbags, penises (Penii?) in pictochat didn't really affect me.

    But one thing stood out: the amount people not doing things. Waiting lines, wandering around, chillin' in some random corner of the Centre, etc.

    It not about lines, or how many people came to the con. I seen small events with lines. I have seen big events with lines that disappear amazingly fast and orderly. What's it about the max capacity of your site and the total hours of programming you have. Now I don't have the max caps of the various rooms, but I work at a convention centre and we have similiar sized rooms so I make a reasonable educated guess at it. And going with the 58500 attendance, I came up with a number.

    About 5 hours per day. That is max amount of content a single attendee at PAX can have. Any more and you are taking away from someone else. Now this isn't counting waiting lines, and all those other non-programmed things (but it includes the Exhibitor Hall). I don't know about you, but I got roughly 4 hours of entertainment on Saturday (I could have more but outside forces prevent this). I missed Friday, and Sunday I was only able to attend one panel and then immediately leave for Canada. How many others do you think just had 5 hours of fun on one day. How many had more than that. And less?

    I understand the reason for the Line-Up room. But really? It sat empty most of the time. You could have turned it into another Main Events room or split it up into two smaller rooms. It could be a Line-Up in the morning and you can change it over to a theatre setup in two hours. People don't have to wait to do stuff, but when your max cap is probably under 9000, and you have a daily attendance of 19500? That's alot of people not doing stuff.

    Anyways just my Canadian 2 cents (which is probably less then your 2 cents, but meh.)

    -Nathan "Chibi" Johnston
    Animethon 4 - 15 and Anime-Evolution '05 - '08 Staff.

    P.S I echo the earlier comments about signage, and line control. Hell just look at the layout of place think how the trafiic will flow can help in so many ways.
    P.P.S. While I did pay for a service (PAX) it was largely volunteer run which always derserves a good deal of respect.

    dachibi on
  • AzioAzio Registered User regular
    edited September 2008
    yanyan wrote: »
    This was my first time at PAX and I thought it was awesome. My favorite part about it was meeting and chatting with people, because everyone there was great and really friendly. Also, the pub crawl was a blast!

    The one problem I had (aside from the massive crowd at times), and someone else touched on this, was waiting in line forever only to have the media come in and cut in front of everyone. I had waited at the Dead Space booth for about 2 hours and saw 3 different media groups come in, get shown a demo (about a 25 minute showing) and then chat a bit and ask questions. The booth only had 2 demo stations also so the wait was pretty long. In one particularly dick move, one of the guys in front of me had the controller in his hands and it was taken away from him so that the media could get shown the game.

    This might be more of a problem created by the company showing the game, and not a PAX management issue, but why was the media there in the first place? I had been told that PAX wasn't the new E3 but I'm really worried that is the direction the convention could head.
    Having the media there is pretty important and helps to promote the expo, although I would appreciate it if PAX were to take steps to make sure everyone gets a fair try, and if that means clamping down on this then I have to agree. This is not E3.

    Azio on
  • JaidenJaiden Registered User regular
    edited September 2008
    Buraisu wrote: »
    The floor is too hard, make it softer.

    Dear god, please, yes. I spent 97% of PAX walking around, and pacing through the expo hall over and over again, standing still for however long in the concert halls, etc etc, I would have killed for some damn carpet.

    Granted, yes, there's a request in the suggestions thread already, but this was one of the major points for me personally.

    Jaiden on
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  • HounHoun Registered User regular
    edited September 2008
    On Carpet: Could you imagine cleaning that every day? There's a reason they use painted concrete floors.

    Houn on
  • TransparentTransparent Registered User regular
    edited September 2008
    Damn there are a lot of walls of text in this thread. I'm sure I have something to say about all of this but I need sleep, I just got home from PAXtrain.

    Transparent on
    PAXtrain '10, let's do this!
  • DruhimDruhim Registered User, ClubPA regular
    edited September 2008
    yeah, I'm scratching my head at how you guys think PA is going to convince the convention center to install carpeting just for them..

    Druhim on
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  • JustinSane07JustinSane07 Really, stupid? Brockton__BANNED USERS regular
    edited September 2008
    Jaiden wrote: »
    Buraisu wrote: »
    The floor is too hard, make it softer.

    Dear god, please, yes. I spent 97% of PAX walking around, and pacing through the expo hall over and over again, standing still for however long in the concert halls, etc etc, I would have killed for some damn carpet.

    Granted, yes, there's a request in the suggestions thread already, but this was one of the major points for me personally.

    Or you could buy better shoes. I know there's alot of marketing bullshit that goes on, but it really does make a difference. Look for ones with lots of support and comfort.

    Seriously, I bought a nice pair of Sketchers sneakers last year for 50 bucks and I've had no problems walking anywhere. Even for 4 days in Seattle I had no issues. You don't even notice what kind of surface you're on with a nice pair of shoes.

    Also, this thread contains more WALLOFTEXT than any thread I've ever seen on these forums. This is crazy.

    JustinSane07 on
  • JaidenJaiden Registered User regular
    edited September 2008
    Or you could buy better shoes. I know there's alot of marketing bullshit that goes on, but it really does make a difference. Look for ones with lots of support and comfort.

    Seriously, I bought a nice pair of Sketchers sneakers last year for 50 bucks and I've had no problems walking anywhere. Even for 4 days in Seattle I had no issues. You don't even notice what kind of surface you're on with a nice pair of shoes.

    Also, this thread contains more WALLOFTEXT than any thread I've ever seen on these forums. This is crazy.

    When you're walking for 17-18 hours a day, four days in a row, the type of shoes you have tends to not matter quite as much. Regardless, the type of shoes I have wasn't the problem. It's that I was walking all damn day.

    Jaiden on
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  • JustinSane07JustinSane07 Really, stupid? Brockton__BANNED USERS regular
    edited September 2008
    Jaiden wrote: »
    Or you could buy better shoes. I know there's alot of marketing bullshit that goes on, but it really does make a difference. Look for ones with lots of support and comfort.

    Seriously, I bought a nice pair of Sketchers sneakers last year for 50 bucks and I've had no problems walking anywhere. Even for 4 days in Seattle I had no issues. You don't even notice what kind of surface you're on with a nice pair of shoes.

    Also, this thread contains more WALLOFTEXT than any thread I've ever seen on these forums. This is crazy.

    When you're walking for 17-18 hours a day, four days in a row, the type of shoes you have tends to not matter quite as much. Regardless, the type of shoes I have wasn't the problem. It's that I was walking all damn day.

    Then URDOINITWRONG.

    I was at PAX, I was walking 17-18 hours a day. My feet did not hurt, my back did not hurt. I was gravy all weekend. Hell, we walked to the Space Needle and back Sunday night and had no issues. I have a bum knee and that didn't even bother me.

    If your shoes are good and you still have pain, then something else is wrong with you.

    JustinSane07 on
  • taumesontaumeson PAX PC Room Manager Minnesota?Registered User regular
    edited September 2008
    Azio wrote: »
    yanyan wrote: »
    This was my first time at PAX and I thought it was awesome. My favorite part about it was meeting and chatting with people, because everyone there was great and really friendly. Also, the pub crawl was a blast!

    The one problem I had (aside from the massive crowd at times), and someone else touched on this, was waiting in line forever only to have the media come in and cut in front of everyone. I had waited at the Dead Space booth for about 2 hours and saw 3 different media groups come in, get shown a demo (about a 25 minute showing) and then chat a bit and ask questions. The booth only had 2 demo stations also so the wait was pretty long. In one particularly dick move, one of the guys in front of me had the controller in his hands and it was taken away from him so that the media could get shown the game.

    This might be more of a problem created by the company showing the game, and not a PAX management issue, but why was the media there in the first place? I had been told that PAX wasn't the new E3 but I'm really worried that is the direction the convention could head.
    Having the media there is pretty important and helps to promote the expo, although I would appreciate it if PAX were to take steps to make sure everyone gets a fair try, and if that means clamping down on this then I have to agree. This is not E3.

    Media had their "cut in line" privileges suspended this year -- they weren't officially "allowed" to cut into any lines run by an enforcer. So if you had issues, it was because the exhibitor (and let's face it, trade shows are ALWAYS about media and getting the word out from the point of view of an exhibitor) had a policy to give the media time.

    This was probably not a huge problem. I heard way more bitching from the media about this than from attendees bitching about the media. No offense -- you know what I mean, right?

    taumeson on
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  • InfidelInfidel Heretic Registered User regular
    edited September 2008
    Jaiden wrote: »
    Or you could buy better shoes. I know there's alot of marketing bullshit that goes on, but it really does make a difference. Look for ones with lots of support and comfort.

    Seriously, I bought a nice pair of Sketchers sneakers last year for 50 bucks and I've had no problems walking anywhere. Even for 4 days in Seattle I had no issues. You don't even notice what kind of surface you're on with a nice pair of shoes.

    Also, this thread contains more WALLOFTEXT than any thread I've ever seen on these forums. This is crazy.

    When you're walking for 17-18 hours a day, four days in a row, the type of shoes you have tends to not matter quite as much. Regardless, the type of shoes I have wasn't the problem. It's that I was walking all damn day.

    Or, when you're walking an excessive amount is exactly when good shoes would make a huge difference? Why would you think otherwise? o_O

    Infidel on
  • TwitchTwitch Registered User new member
    edited September 2008
    Infidel wrote: »
    Jaiden wrote: »
    When you're walking for 17-18 hours a day, four days in a row, the type of shoes you have tends to not matter quite as much. Regardless, the type of shoes I have wasn't the problem. It's that I was walking all damn day.

    Or, when you're walking an excessive amount is exactly when good shoes would make a huge difference? Why would you think otherwise? o_O

    I had just purchased a pair of Rocket Dog shoes before PAX '07. They were super squishy and promised to be really comfortable. By the end of Friday night's concerns the heels and padding had completely crushed and I was crippled. Even after missing Saturday and only showing up for part of Sunday to walk around, my feet were slaughtering me for weeks to follow.

    This year I invested in a good pair of well made Vans and did twice as much standing/walking on Friday even more all-day walking on Saturday and while I was tired, even exhausted, my feet were dandy. My heels seemed a little bruised Sunday morning, but they've since recovered fine and weren't any worse than I would have expected after putting as many miles on them as I did.

    Regardless of how long you're walking, quality matters. That's why people actually pay for "First Class" seats on an airplane. Sure, it sucks to be on a plane for 8 hours, but it sucks a lot less when your seat is more comfortable. ;-]

    - ] Twitch ]-

    Twitch on
  • FiregauntletsFiregauntlets Registered User regular
    edited September 2008
    heres the gist. I was one of the handful of Brittish there
    I payed, close to $1000 for my flight + accomodation, ridiculous ammounts on other stuff from the convention itself.
    Yes there were things that werent as good as id hoped, yes it was alot of money to queue for a fair ammount of time.
    Heres the thing
    i would do it all again every year for ever. If you freaking stop, talk to some guys and just try to get involved without getting in a hissy fit after 20 minutes then maybe youd have a good time. I can honestly think of nothing which made me think, fuck i wish that had been better, because the whole experience as a whole was amazing, and from the looks of this forum as a whole, as well as the people i spoke to, against the author of this topics writing, i think the majority had a freaking awesome time. Dont like it? dont come, the majority wins, we're not all there to get out of the way for you when you want to play a game or to move from you if you feel too crowded.

    Firegauntlets on
  • PanopeaPanopea Registered User regular
    edited September 2008
    This was my first PAX, and as someone who has only attended anime conventions before I must say that it took some time to get the hang of it. I'm used to the con being mainly a rush on a colossal dealer's room (for most people, anyway...I prefer the artists's alley), with a smattering of panels I want to attend and one main event each day. PAX is nothing like that; there's a handful of dealers in the exhibit hall, and the real attraction is the chance to preview new games and/or win them, along with tons of other giveaways. It wasn't until the last day that I began enjoying the exhibit hall, since it took me that long to discover that a great number of booths had quests for con-goers to complete with swag as rewards.

    I expected the crush of people, and the long lines to try to games were of course annoying, but really, what do you expect when heading to a con with 50k+ attendance? If you want the fans to part for you like the red sea, perhaps become uber famous? Otherwise, learn to deal.

    I also can't really see the point in complaining about the quality of swag. People want to GIVE you things for FREE, and they're not good enough for you? If you don't like em, don't take em! I walked away with a really cute plush, some cool shirts, one of those coveted puppets, a ping pong ball gun, and a compy fan. I can't even begin to count the number of consoles, handhelds, and PC parts that were raffled off.

    This was also my first time in the Seattle Convention Center, and I must say that it's an amazing location. Not only is the building FULL of decent restaurants that are NOT selling $10 hot dogs, but other restaurants, a gaming center, convenience stores, and grocery stores are ALL within a few blocks!

    My only complaint is that of a short person; at 5'1", I managed to see jack and shit of the final round of the Omegathon. When I sought out a chair at the very back of the room and made sure I was not blocking anyone's view before standing on it, I was soundly bitched out by an enforcer. A kind PAXer offered to let me sit on his shoulders, but I was in a cosplay that would have made that a bit awkward. As a result, I was able to see the top third of the screen only - not very thrilling. I'd like to request a little love for us midgets in the future, at least in the room that's meant to hold 4k people.

    Panopea on
  • nearlysobernearlysober Registered User regular
    edited September 2008
    So wait... let me get this straight...

    This guy waited in line forever to play a game... then said it wasn't worth it because he could just watch footage of the game online... and he's complaining why? Did he think they were giving free handjobs while you played the game or something? Did he not SEE the gigantic line he was waiting in?

    The OP is either a troll or a completely spoiled noob. I don't understand why this thread is even open.

    nearlysober on
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