It might be useful for them to make the "this is not fucking Disneyland" distinction a bit more explicit, to be fair. Just because there will be some people who can't be bothered to realize that PAX =/= Child's Play
I have so many problems with Aponivanya's post that I'm actually going to take the time to intelligently respond to her entire post. I apologize for the exposition in the forum, but it must be done.
We couldn't even give our eight-year-old his "goody bag" because of all of the blatantly sexual ads in the all the little fliers and even the program! Not cool. And this oversexed atmosphere is WHY it's difficult to get more girls, especially GROWN UP girls who understand what's really happening here, into gaming. The delusional representation of women in games is really getting old. I can't imagine ANYONE with a BRAIN who actually cares about their daughter's self-image bringing a little girl to this event.
I always find it interesting when someone chooses to attend a festival then complains about the culture that festival seeks to promote. The fault lies with the parent not properly researching a community before attending that community events. If your personal philosophy doesn't mesh with that of gamer culture, then perhaps you, and your children, shouldn't attend. Don't blame the community for not being inline with your religious or personal life philosophy.
Frankly, I don't think you have a very realistic world view. Open a copy of Vogue or Red Book, and tell me that the Ads there aren't worse than those included in the PAX bag. They sell those magazines off the rack to people of any age in grocery stores; you had to pay an event fee to attend this private community event. They can put whatever they want in the bag.
And it's not healthy for young guys either - it sets them up for disappointment and discontent and creates a rift between the sexes. I've seen it a million times
Really? A million times? Wow. Hasty generalizations get you no where fast. Again, as the parent of said young boy you should be taking the time to make sure that you choose what environments you expose him to, and what games he plays.
How about being more sensitive to that instead of just giving us females lip service? How about creating a real family friendly environment instead of just creating a sort of, "Yeah, if you have to bring the munchkins along... whatever..." tone?
I think you've got bigger issues here than should be addressed in this forum. Hollywood and the American Media conglomerates are promoting the same distorted picture of women as the gaming industry. Every one of these outlets is accounting for folks like yourself by employing a rating system. Just like with the movies, there's a maturity rating system employed on every game sold for a reason. The community as a whole doesn't have to conform to your standards, you as a parent have to choose whether or not the community is acceptable for your child or not. PAX doesn't advertise itself as kid friendly. There isn't a nursery. There aren't events geared towards children. There are no panels for kids. Perhaps this should be a clue to folks like yourself. PAX isn't going to be your daycare facility for the weekend. If you want to attend on your own, then perhaps leave the kids with the grand-parents. If you're going on the child's behalf, and the conference doesn't meet your standards it's your job to tell your child, "No, you cannot attend."
There is NO place for girls running around in boy shorts and string bikini tops at a TRULY family friendly event. It's not bright and warm out. You're not at the beach. Grow up. Is it so hard to be decent when you're surrounded by a large, diverse group?
I would argue that your perception of the girl wearing a bikini top and men's shorts is also out of context and off-base. Firstly, there's plenty of healthy feminism in the gaming community; those women chose for themselves to dress us that way. She is dressed up as a character, and she chose that costume for herself. PAX doesn't even begin to measure up to the costume insanity and partial nudity that occurs at the San Diego Comic-Con. Again, these are things you would know if you were an active community member
- Long lines for everything? Forget it. Lame. We've been trying to get a DnD game going at home and thought the DnD talks would be awesome. But when people are lining up for something an hour and half before it starts and that line is wrapping around the hall? Forget it. And lines for freeplay? Double lame.
Ever been to an amusement park? Ever attended a conference? Ever stood in line at a deli to pick up a sandwich? No? That explains a lot. You're not the only person in attendance. If you were, there would be no lines. This isn't a critique, this is flame-baiting.
- Where are the events and tournaments and talks for kids? I saw plenty of time and energy and SPACE devoted to twenty-something hardcore gamers with no lives but nothing for the little ones and not much for their parents, honestly. My kid got into an impromptu Mario Kart tournament but, seriously? An eight-year-old vs. grown ups? Please.
Again, I'm going to refer back to what I've already stated above, but I will repeat one core component of that original response: The fact that those things were not present at the conference may be a clue to parents that they shouldn't bring their kids to the festival, or limit the amount of time at the festival to the short list of things that do apply to the whole family. They can be done in a single afternoon, then you can leave. It is your choice to attend. Don't make your kids everyone else's problem. I'm a parent, and I made the decision to give my kids some personal time with their grand-parents. Perhaps you should do the same.
And on a similar note to your previous statement: You're going out of your way to insult the community with hate speech. Being a 20-something hardcore gamer does not inherently mean you have no life. Have you been paying attention while reading the comic? You're way off base, and your hate speech doesn't belong in this forum. ESPECIALLY this forum. (Wow.)
There were other problems too - serious overcrowding, crap sound, the expo hall was DEAFENING, too many industry people (I felt violated around every corner - marketing is CREEPY), and frankly the atmosphere was pretty lousy.
You're at an EXPO that promotes gaming, and you don't expect there to be marketing and loud noises trying to attract consumers to spend money? You've clearly never been to an expo of any kind prior to attending PAX. That's really too bad. This isn't unusual. In fact, I would argue that PAX is pretty laid back by comparison to some other CON's and Expos.
This was my first year at PAX. My husband has been the past three years and took our son last year. But even he now agrees that the whole thing is LAME and definitely NOT family and female friendly. I sort of get the feeling that he feels like he put his reputation with me on the line when he tried to convince me that it would be fine after going through our welcome bags Thursday night and the whole thing still ended up being crap. Even he seemed bored despite the fact we were able to split up because lines for everything is just obnoxious.
This is my favorite part about your post. Why would you put your marital problems into a post on a public forum for a gaming community event? If your husband has gone for the past three years and enjoyed himself then it follows that had you not been there he would have still enjoyed himself. Thus one could argue that you are the problem and not PAX. Here's a little marriage advice for you from an old pro who's been at it for going on 10 years: You're not going to enjoy everything that your spouse enjoys. You won't always agree on everything, and you don't have to always agree. It's okay to disagree. This event is clearly not for you. The problems you have with the event are things that are symptomatic of the type of event PAX is, and they can only be addressed to a moderate degree. I think your husband made an error in believing that you would enjoy yourself, but I don't think that hurt his reputation. If anything, I would say that you know your husband a little better now, and you can make better educated decisions on which events you attend together as a couple, together as a family, or individually. This was a learning experience for you. Consider learning from this experience and not criticizing the community, the event coordinators, and even your husband. We're all the same people we were before, and clearly you are as well.
I went to PAX with an open mind.
No, you didn't.
I play a few games regularly (though as a chick who doesn't feel the need to toss her IQ out the window to justify playing a bunch of sexist crap, I have a hard time identifying as a "gamer.")
I'm really curious what that list of games looks like. Your arguments are getting a bit reptitious now, so I'll simply counter by saying: Believe it or not, there are games out there with half naked women that require a fairly substantial amount of brain power, and quite the cognitive ability to complete. You're not lowering your IQ, you would be lowering your standards. By suggesting that one has to lower their IQ to play such games is, again, flame baiting. And that doesn't belong in this forum.
As a side note, we even included Child's Play in a short list of charities for our families to donate to instead of buying us presents when we got married.
Do you think this grants you special permission to criticize and flame bait on this forum? I generously donate to Child's Play every year. Charities are created for people to be able to give back to the community. People who seek to identify themselves as charitable givers are usually seeking to promote themselves, and not the charity. This act does not justify your actions.
We live in the area so getting there is easy. So we bought three day passes for the three of us and even flew my cousin up from FL and bought him a pass. I got all dolled up and even put on my ponyfalls in expectation of a good time. But ultimately, lame. We had MORE fun gaming on our DS's together when we got home.
Perhaps this should be a clue that you should not attend again, and simply hold family gaming events at home. That is also your choice. Family gaming nights can happen significantly more often than PAX, and you don't have to pay a surcharge to attend. Without being too critical here I will point out that getting, "dolled up" for a gaming expo is kind of absurd. And as a fairly stylish person, "Ponyfalls" Seriously? lol
Maybe it's just because this year was so much bigger but we didn't have a good time. Our family will not be back next year. As a 25-year-old mom with more experience and wisdom than is probably healthy for my age and as someone who did not get her values from the back of an energy drink can, I give this year's PAX a D.
I'm interested in knowing where you did get your values. I attended the conference with a group of people whose combined education, IQ, and income is staggering. My group was composed of mostly married men and women, who have children, and work full time as doctors, professors, lawyers, and engineers. In that group, there was not a single person who didn't enjoy themselves and find something about the Expo that was worthwhile and entertaining. I submit to you that my group represents a microcosm of adult, child rearing, healthy, right-minded, moral people who all disagree with you. Perhaps that is something worth considering.
I'd like to see things improve. I think this event has a lot of potential to be more inclusive. I hear you guys have kids and really want to include more people in this community. I hope that's the case. Clean up your act and maybe we'll be back one of these days.
Your inability to enjoy yourself is your own fault. There are many factors at play here that contribute to the problem, but most of them lay at your own feet. I think I can speak for the community at large when I say that we would all appreciate it if you chose not to attend again. Using this forum to espouse your distorted world view by flame-baiting people who really enjoyed themselves is really inappropriate. You should consicer consulting Gabe and Tycho's philosophy on forum participation located here: LINK before you post again next time.
I have so many problems with Aponivanya's post that I'm actually going to take the time to intelligently respond to her entire post. I apologize for the exposition in the forum, but it must be done.
WOW. Okay, so that should probably end this argument, so we can get back to the suggestions discussion at hand.
capnjack on
Q: "You are in the garden. You see a rose bush. You have a fishing rod. Exits are North, South and IN."
A: "What do you want from me?!?!?"
I will say this to the cranky mother who will not be back (thank Cuthulu), if there are ever children targeted panels or a large portion of children targeted marketing I will be done with PaX. Seriously, this isn't the E gaming convention and the day I walk into pax to see a bunch of 10 year olds running around screaming is the day I devour my PaX badge in a sandwich. PaX is fine the way it is now content wise, don't change a thing!
That aside, I HIGHLY (See: Beg) suggest you get Bawls back. PaX without bawls is just a sad day =(
-Finals in public: I think this should be done for every tournament. Have the semi-finals/finals on a big screen in a public place. Let people in and let them watch. This is what PAX is all about. I think this needs to be taken a step further; all finals should be done in the main theater on Sunday, all day long in series (no two at once), ending in the omegathon finals. They should be scheduled in advance, and all tournaments (including PC) should be given a slot.
I'd like to second (and third, and fourth) the suggestions made in the above link. I participated in the Rock Band tournament, and the improvements they made completely blew away all previous console tournaments. It was night and day really... if possible, this is how all PAX tournaments should be run.
On opening day, have the first panels start an hour after the doors open, but have the expo hall open right away so everyone in line has some place to go. It's nearly impossible to catch a 2:00 or 2:30 panel without being one of the first in line and spending 5 hours in it.... although this year they were very good about getting us in nice and efficient.
I like the idea of having an onsite blood drive that someone brought up at the comic panel. And I like the idea of having everything in the main building and not the Pike Annex (seriously, air conditioning SUCKED in there).
Ideas about better line management & making sure you actually get into a panel are good. But the Fallout 3 panel illustrated another problem... 4,000 people trying to get out 3 doors all on one side of the room. Luckily I was on the door side but I imagine it took forever to get out from the other side... maybe try to handle people flow better if possible?
I'd like to suggest a section of chairs or boxes at the back of the Main Theater for short people during standing-room only events. I'm 5'1", and during the final round of the Omegathon, I made my way to the very back, made sure I was not blocking anyone's view, and stood on a chair, only to be soundly bitched out by an Enforcer for it. I was able to see the top 1/3 of the screen...not very exciting.
I don't think us midgets need a special place at the front, but a set of chairs in the very back of the room for people 5'4" or shorter to be able to SEE THE GIANT SCREENS seems reasonable to me.
- Had two friends come from Toronto and Kansas City to attend. We had a blast overall.
- Several interesting panels (Casual Killing Core Games? was easily the best.)
- Great sense of community.
- People were friendly and personable; didn't see any significant altercations.
The Bad:
- Lines -- for panels, for Will Call (on Friday in particular), the Queue room. As others have suggested, if the rooms are the same size, just have people line up in the event room itself.
- Lack of breathing room and places to sit.
- Trash. Need to start kicking out litterers or something, I felt embarrassed.
- Enforcers seemed clueless about operations, though they were knowledgeable about where events were.
- People need to learn to draw more than human male anatomy on Pictochat.
- Crappy swag. I've had way better, and more, from free computer tradeshows.
...and now, The Fail.
- Some jerk pickpocketed my work-issued bus pass (-$50 for replacement.) Glad I had my wallet elsewhere.
- Tournaments were really poorly organized:
[1] No registration time blocks for WoW or Starcraft on the printed schedule.
[2] Enforcers didn't know what they were doing, it took over an hour for them to get started with the Starcraft tournament (create ladder, check in people, etc.) You can have 90% of the work done beforehand and there are free computer programs/websites to automate much of this.
[3] Would have been nice to know -- or have it be mentioned anywhere! -- that registration was opened the previous day for the tournaments.
[4] No way for friends to watch tournaments.
- Panels:
[1] Pink Godzilla -- used videogame retail store reps -- talking about sex in video games? I can think of several dozen people with better and more extensive qualifications.
[2] Law and Videogames panel was a boring rehash of industry insider perspectives. Not sure why the panelists would bother to issue disclaimers that their views are not those of their employer if they're just going to toe the industry line on intellectual property. Felt like a lecture, and I've had far better -- with real debate -- at university. It didn't help that one of the panelists (might he have provided a different viewpoint?) was double-booked and didn't even show up.
[3] Female Gamer Communities was similarly uninteresting (and my female friend agreed.) If the panelists are just going to repeat themselves, cut them off after the first 15 minutes and open up questions to the audience immediately.
Call me crazy, but I think the concerts would be generally more enjoyable if there were seats. Same with the final Omegathon round. There's really no reason why the chairs should be taken away. This way, things are more organized and you know how many people you can fit in. This locks out any kind of BS with moshers, and it leaves camera people room to move and it'd at least give enforcers a chance to sorta enjoy the show instead of having to guard rogue PAX attendees from futzing around near the stage.
Just a note on this. The chairs get removed as it allows more ppl to be in the space. It's a fire code thing. I don't know the exact numbers but with chairs the room can hold approx 4K ppl where as if you take the chairs out the room can hold approx 7K standing.
only to be soundly bitched out by an Enforcer for it.
I keep hearing these stories about them being aggressive. I didn't encounter this. Were they stricter than last year, or is it the more people = more incidents phenomenon?
Also, the lines weren't so bad (there were tons of great people there), but the whole thing with not clearing out the main theater between events was kind of a mystery to me. Not that I advocate throwing everyone out, but maybe leave a little more time in between to give some more people a chance to make it in. I ended up taking up space during several panels that I know someone else wanted to/could have watched, just so I could see the one following it.
That really depends on who you are... what day? I'm assuming if you know my profile either I gave you a button or we played some Mario Kart or something?
Just a note on this. The chairs get removed as it allows more ppl to be in the space. It's a fire code thing. I don't know the exact numbers but with chairs the room can hold approx 4K ppl where as if you take the chairs out the room can hold approx 7K standing.
Here's a thought then....
Why not allow a small number of exceptions?
If someone with crutches, or some obvious impairment to walking, or someone well known who has trouble standing for a long time (thinking Lewie P's Mummy randomly), or a very large, round, tired pregnant lady (me! :P) asks for extra seating when all the available chairs are already taken, could they be allowed to sort of "check out" an extra from one of the enforcers?
Not to be rude, but I think your above estimate for standing room may be a bit off.
The people I was trying to climb and step over to squeeze between weren't standing, they were sprawled all over the floor because they were exhausted and couldn't find an empty seat either.
It looked like a giant sleepover rather than a concert.
People laying on the floor take up more floor space than a chair, and plenty of people were lying all over the place in back towards the corners.
I kid you not, the woman next to me fell asleep on the floor friday night - which would normally be an amazing feat, although I think large quantities of alcohol might have had something to do with that....
Her arms and legs splayed out, with her baggage/swag in piles next to her took up enough space for 2 chairs easily.
Considering how many people were packed in there, the tiny amount of chairs tucked in back is still kind of weak sauce.
In today's news story, Tycho writes, half-seriously:
The convention's biggest hurdle is that it happens to be held within the confines of the physical universe, with its intractable laws and finite space. I wonder who we can talk to about that.
About a million years ago (internet time), I helped out with an event in Boston called the Geek Pride Festival. (This was still back in the days where people figured they could do things for free because you could get easy advertising dollars by holding up a piece of torn-out notebook paper and auctioning off the rights to its contents. Needless to say there was not a second Geek Pride Festival.) Anyway, this event attempted to go meta-geographic by endorsing satellite Geek Pride Festivals that were being held across the country / world. The rule was that these events would need to have a two-way live video/audio feed.
A the Boston event was a short row of workstations hooked up to webcams, each station hooked up to the two-way live feed with one of the satellite events. Now, this didn't work so well, because it was so simply and cheaply done, because of the lag involved (1.5 Mbps was considered a holy grail), because there wasn't much attention given to it, and because the satellite events simply weren't nearly as happenin' as the main one.
But anyway. Gaming is meta-geographic these days -- since as far back as, what, Quake 1? GameSpy? Bolo? Hell, since PBeM chess. Bandwidth is easier to get. "Webinar" is a big buzzword.
The point being that going meta-geographic is easier than ever, probably going to get easier, and it's not necessarily a new idea. Delegated properly, more than one PAX could be held at once and tied together online.
Oh I don't diagree with you at all. Ppl sitting/lying down on the floor when the chairs are taken out for sure take up more room than if the chairs are left in.
I was merely trying to give a reason why the chairs are removed. As I said it all has to do with fire code. The code says that if chairs are in the room then only ~4K ppl can be in there. If the charis are removed then ~7K ppl can be in the room.
Maybe you could put down some blankets in the front that delineate the "sitting room" area instead of putting chairs down, so anyone in that area should be sitting, and then have the standing room behind them where people can stand/bring their own seats or whatever? That might get around the fire code thing and help with people who are too tired to stand--I guess it wouldn't really help much though for people with disabilities though... and maybe.. chairs on the side?
Really though, I want to second the other short people in the forum requesting that the stage be raised more and the screens be higher. For the Omegathon final round I could only see blue racing
I bet you could do a brisk business in PAX pillows to plunk your rear down on!
This year was my first PAX ever. I came from Calgary, AB and drove with my boyfriend and Spinel (for the most part) to attend. We were amazed at...uhh...everthing. We've been to cons before, but nothing to this caliber.
We really enjoyed ourselves, but were in some...dumb situations. Standing in lines half the time were really aggravating. My boyfriend and I were trying to get into the Fallout 3 panel and...it didn't happen. A suggestion I would make is ticketing, or an overflow room where anyone who couldn't get into the actual panel would get to see a live screening of the event elsewhere.
Other than that...I don't really have much else to say. Oh wait, I'm a measely 4'10" in height and would appreciate...seeing things in the theatre.
I would say please require the exhibitors to have actual lines for their demos. Too many (like Mirror's Edge) were just crowds without any organization. Also it'd be nice to ask the exhibitors to enforce time limits on the demos to keep the line moving. Nobody needs to play a demo for 45 minutes.
aponivanya, I've read all of your posts and I only have one request:
Please don't come back. I speak only for myself, but PAX is obviously not a good fit for you.
That said, I'd like to congratulate the organizers for getting the 6th floor. Kinda wish you'd have anticipated it for this year, seeing as you knew how many people were attending, but better late than never!
6th Floor = See you next year!
Baelzar on
Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.
-P. J. O'Rourke
Kinda wish you'd have anticipated it for this year, seeing as you knew how many people were attending, but better late than never!
They don't choose how much space they want. The convention centre gives them a certain amount based on how many hotel rooms were booked for it the previous year or something.
Kinda wish you'd have anticipated it for this year, seeing as you knew how many people were attending, but better late than never!
They don't choose how much space they want. The convention centre gives them a certain amount based on how many hotel rooms were booked for it the previous year or something.
I have a forum suggestion: Don't let this thread get hijacked by drama. Where's a moderator when you need one. That complaint/discussion should have been moved to it's own thread.
Now an event suggestion:
-more Will call ticket booths (Why was there only one line for pre-reg will call tickets?)
-line managment devices to help manage the mob while waiting in lines and to help manage foot traffic (the things are called LINE BARRIER SYSTEM WITH RETRACTABLE WEBBING)
-Have a set number cap on each room and stop the line when it's reach capacity (Enforcers would need a device to count the persons in line, there's little clicker that I've seen used at other events)
-Schedule enforcers for shorter shifts (I saw the same room managers at the same rooms all day, they got tired and it showed. I know they must have had breaks but they should have ended their shifts and maybe moved to something else and not had to be at the same room for more than 12 hours)
More room and bigger booths. The waits to see Dragon Age, play Left4Dead, play Mirrors Edge, etc were ridiculous and they flooded into the main walk ways. It'd be nice if there was more room and more demo kiosks.
Someone most likely already said this but an Expo Hall that is 300-400% bigger aka the old Expo hall combined with the PC room and maybe the line room and band area. We can move all of those to the 5th or 6th floor. Just one big expo hall with larger walk areas and bigger spaces for the companies.
You know what would be great? Screening the fucking questions at the Q/A. How awesome is it hearing some person spout some obsequious bullshit like "So, what should we call you guys? Lord? Master? Liege?" without any fucking trace of irony. If the previous 15 people ahead of you have said "THIS IS MY FIRST PAX EVER LET ME SAY THANKS FOR EVERYONE EHREGSDFGHIKASFJ" you can stop what you're doing and sit your stupid fucking ass down. And if your question takes like 5 minutes to properly frame then you can go fuck yourself, because the answer is inevitably "Put that in an email" or "There's a venue for that."
Also, I know this is totally impossible, but how about less standing around in fucking lines? It's completely unavoidable in a lot of cases, but I think I spend more time at PAX in a queue than I did sleeping. And I didn't even wait to play Left4Dead or Fallout 3.
I know all this shit has been said, but I'm not digging through 8 pages of pure retarded spew to quote it.
EDIT - Also great: no more ironic gaming t-shirts. You neckbeards have totally killed the concept of irony for everyone.
I have no idea if this has been gone through before, but this was our first time at PAX, etc etc, it was totally awesome and we loved it and already decided we want to go next year (and really, every year).
BUT. If every year we are adding more: more panels, more exhibitors, more people...can we also add maybe a smidge more time? Honestly, my husband and I had three day passes, were there almost all of every day and felt like we only saw half the show. We saw a lot of the exhibit hall but didn't play many games, only a couple panels (had to go to Q&A #2, I was a buttoneer, also the Fallout demo showing was awesome) and didn't do much independent gaming (though I did play my first game of munchkin and now must buy it and find more local friends who would like that sort of thing). But there was so much that we DIDN'T see and I just kept thinking the show seemed so brief. Comic-Con in San Diego is four days, right? Maybe we could have three whole days instead of two-and-a-half-ish? Pretty please?
panels are prettymuch the primary reason my group comes to pax, so please take the following suggestions with regard to panels and theater seating:
- thank you for not clearing the theaters between panels.... it was GREATLY appreciated to not have to go through the cattle herd and just turn right back around and line back up. i know some have voiced opinions otherwise, but seriously, the way seating was handled this way was the only way to go.
- Project main theater into waiting room.... or... open the wall and make main theater twice as large....
- Pre-ticketing the major events would be a GRAND idea... let people who PREREGISTER have the advantage of guaranteed seating based on their sign up date.... a slight discount is nice, but the ability to plan your weekend and know you're going to get into the things you want would be a much better incentive to pre-reg.
Oh yeah one other thing.... table top gaming... i'm not sure if i just missed it, or if it wasn't happening this year....but previous years there were volunteers setup all around the table top room giving demos of games.... each year my group hooked up with some of these demo's and found a new (old) game that was really a lot of fun.... we didn't see any of that going on, and it was missed.... so if that could be brought back, that would be great... or if it happened, maybe better signage or notes in the program about it....
Also one of the enforcers in tabletop told my friend that he couldn't play magic with his own cards there...that you had to use purchased decks from the wotc booth or someshit only... that just seems odd in a free play room.... again better signage or explanation on what is allowed in what areas would be nice.... the way it was told to him, it really pissed my friend off.
i hated how the dts was handled this year. it was way better when it was just the hhdts. i was running around actually challenging people to games and winning badges. other people were getting them handed to them just cuz they looked hot in their cosplay outfit. very disappointed
This was my second PAX and I've noticed a few changes worth mentioning.
The lines for the Main Theatre were horrible. I think having a space designated as the "Line Up Room" is asking for trouble. I would like to see that room configured so that the wall is opened up more to allow, at the very least, a quicker flow from the waiting area. Just have the sound and video crews hanging from the ceiling fixed to the ceiling with liberal applications of duct tape and give us all your base.
The pallets of bawls was awesome. I'm sure passing out glass bottles is a nightmare somewhere along the planning line, but it was very appreciated. Maybe set them up at the first aid station, for distribution to those seeking energy aid.
Filter out jerks. While I'm not sure how exactly, I would imagine something along the lines of a meat processing facility...
I loved the expansion of the expo hall. I would like to see ATI or Nvidia, though. Nvidia was insanely popular in '07.
Also, and I might have missed something like this, a coupon or discount on the DVDs from the previous PAX for those with their previous badge would be friggin sweet. Actually, if there were just people passing out fistfuls of cash, that'd be cool, too.
princeven on
There is nothing more to the world than the apparent. Unless you believe...
And here we go again! I will make my own suggestions, even if they repeat things already said, since I think this about as much as trying to figure out how popular certain opinions are as opposed to whether or not they actually exist.
I went to PAX07, so I'll start with things I thought were improved this year.
-Console freeplay. I know someone complained about it but it was vastly improved. From talking to the Enforcers in there (though I must admit two of them are acquaintances) the idea of the "take-a-number" system was so that you wouldn't have to stand in line for 45 minutes to an hour. For my group, this worked wonderfully - we were able to browse the web or use or DSes while sitting in the wireless lounge of the atrium area on the 4th floor. Last year this time would have been spent standing in line, and as we all know there was no shortage of that elsewhere at PAX this year.
There were certainly areas of improvement for console freeplay, though. I'm thinking it could be more efficient if there were Enforcers dedicated to returns and checkouts instead of kind of doing both. And just more staff in general there, especially when they're busiest (which I imagine was in the evenings, though I'm sure they have actual stats). Also, the TVs with the information and stats on them were great. What would be even better though is a website with some sort of setup so that we could see where the number was at any given point in time from anywhere in the building.
That's all, actually, I can't really think of anything else I liked better about PAX08. So onto the areas of improvement.
-The Expo hall needs to be organized somehow. I don't know the exact process of booth allocation, but I'd like that there are X number of slots of Y size. Companies buy what they want out of each, and then you guys organize it so that they don't collide. It seemed like most of the really popular booths were near the front of the expo hall, which made it difficult to even get inside and navigate between each side. I think people would have been at the Fallout 3 or Blizzard booths whether they were at the front of the hall or on top of the Space Needle.
-Console freeplay needs more space. Of course, I realize that they took almost two entire floors this year and there's probably not many other places it could actually go.
-Make the temporary path between the two sides of the convention center that went through the PC room permanent. Move the PC room for security reasons if required or erect more permanent barriers. This was a much more open area than the hallways to the side.
-If you're going to have a queue room, at least make it more efficient. It could have easily been organized so that the line could enter from two sides at once. Filing into the Omegathon, which was just an open floor, took nearly half an hour, so for events that were queued at the beginning of the day, why not just let people in earlier?
-I don't think we can keep the "spirit" of PAX and limit the number of badges sold. If attendance becomes capped at, say, 60k then badges will sell out within minutes of them going on sale, many of which are going to be turned around and re-sold above face value. But there is only so much physical space at the convention center.
(Speaking of which, for anyone curious, I'm looking at the floorplan of the convention center right now and I will say the expo hall is likely not going anywhere - at over 94000 square feet is the largest contiguous space in the convention center.)
only to be soundly bitched out by an Enforcer for it.
I keep hearing these stories about them being aggressive. I didn't encounter this. Were they stricter than last year, or is it the more people = more incidents phenomenon?
This was the only negative experience I had with an enforcer, actually. Most of them were quite nice, happy to answer any questions I had, and chatty when we ended up standing next to each other for whatever reason.
Kinda wish you'd have anticipated it for this year, seeing as you knew how many people were attending, but better late than never!
My fear for PAX 2009 is that the 6th floor won't be enough. Based on the attendance growth for the last five years, attendance at PAX 2009 would hit 85k+. I think the idea is that this number should be lower due to East Coast PAX, but I and many others are crazy enough to go to both.
Maybe instead of cramming more and more exciting stuff into a three day period, it should be expanded to four or five days with many of the panels repeating so everyone has a chance to see as much as they can.
How about if there was a place you could vote on panels/presentations that you went to, and on the last day the top 3 presenters did their presentation again, only this time in the giant hall so that everyone who wanted to come could come?
That way even if you missed some panels from gaming or whatever, you'd know that the very best panels/presentations would be available to see on the last day again?
Another idea (I'm editing to keep from spamming):
Maybe have a website or a place where people who brought their own consoles and hooked them up in their hotel rooms can sign themselves up looking for other people who might like to play with them? I don't know if many people did do this with their consoles, but some people posted in the forum about the setup to do this before PAX started.
Posts
I always find it interesting when someone chooses to attend a festival then complains about the culture that festival seeks to promote. The fault lies with the parent not properly researching a community before attending that community events. If your personal philosophy doesn't mesh with that of gamer culture, then perhaps you, and your children, shouldn't attend. Don't blame the community for not being inline with your religious or personal life philosophy.
Frankly, I don't think you have a very realistic world view. Open a copy of Vogue or Red Book, and tell me that the Ads there aren't worse than those included in the PAX bag. They sell those magazines off the rack to people of any age in grocery stores; you had to pay an event fee to attend this private community event. They can put whatever they want in the bag.
Really? A million times? Wow. Hasty generalizations get you no where fast. Again, as the parent of said young boy you should be taking the time to make sure that you choose what environments you expose him to, and what games he plays.
I think you've got bigger issues here than should be addressed in this forum. Hollywood and the American Media conglomerates are promoting the same distorted picture of women as the gaming industry. Every one of these outlets is accounting for folks like yourself by employing a rating system. Just like with the movies, there's a maturity rating system employed on every game sold for a reason. The community as a whole doesn't have to conform to your standards, you as a parent have to choose whether or not the community is acceptable for your child or not. PAX doesn't advertise itself as kid friendly. There isn't a nursery. There aren't events geared towards children. There are no panels for kids. Perhaps this should be a clue to folks like yourself. PAX isn't going to be your daycare facility for the weekend. If you want to attend on your own, then perhaps leave the kids with the grand-parents. If you're going on the child's behalf, and the conference doesn't meet your standards it's your job to tell your child, "No, you cannot attend."
I would argue that your perception of the girl wearing a bikini top and men's shorts is also out of context and off-base. Firstly, there's plenty of healthy feminism in the gaming community; those women chose for themselves to dress us that way. She is dressed up as a character, and she chose that costume for herself. PAX doesn't even begin to measure up to the costume insanity and partial nudity that occurs at the San Diego Comic-Con. Again, these are things you would know if you were an active community member
Ever been to an amusement park? Ever attended a conference? Ever stood in line at a deli to pick up a sandwich? No? That explains a lot. You're not the only person in attendance. If you were, there would be no lines. This isn't a critique, this is flame-baiting.
Again, I'm going to refer back to what I've already stated above, but I will repeat one core component of that original response: The fact that those things were not present at the conference may be a clue to parents that they shouldn't bring their kids to the festival, or limit the amount of time at the festival to the short list of things that do apply to the whole family. They can be done in a single afternoon, then you can leave. It is your choice to attend. Don't make your kids everyone else's problem. I'm a parent, and I made the decision to give my kids some personal time with their grand-parents. Perhaps you should do the same.
And on a similar note to your previous statement: You're going out of your way to insult the community with hate speech. Being a 20-something hardcore gamer does not inherently mean you have no life. Have you been paying attention while reading the comic? You're way off base, and your hate speech doesn't belong in this forum. ESPECIALLY this forum. (Wow.)
You're at an EXPO that promotes gaming, and you don't expect there to be marketing and loud noises trying to attract consumers to spend money? You've clearly never been to an expo of any kind prior to attending PAX. That's really too bad. This isn't unusual. In fact, I would argue that PAX is pretty laid back by comparison to some other CON's and Expos.
This is my favorite part about your post. Why would you put your marital problems into a post on a public forum for a gaming community event? If your husband has gone for the past three years and enjoyed himself then it follows that had you not been there he would have still enjoyed himself. Thus one could argue that you are the problem and not PAX. Here's a little marriage advice for you from an old pro who's been at it for going on 10 years: You're not going to enjoy everything that your spouse enjoys. You won't always agree on everything, and you don't have to always agree. It's okay to disagree. This event is clearly not for you. The problems you have with the event are things that are symptomatic of the type of event PAX is, and they can only be addressed to a moderate degree. I think your husband made an error in believing that you would enjoy yourself, but I don't think that hurt his reputation. If anything, I would say that you know your husband a little better now, and you can make better educated decisions on which events you attend together as a couple, together as a family, or individually. This was a learning experience for you. Consider learning from this experience and not criticizing the community, the event coordinators, and even your husband. We're all the same people we were before, and clearly you are as well.
No, you didn't.
I'm really curious what that list of games looks like. Your arguments are getting a bit reptitious now, so I'll simply counter by saying: Believe it or not, there are games out there with half naked women that require a fairly substantial amount of brain power, and quite the cognitive ability to complete. You're not lowering your IQ, you would be lowering your standards. By suggesting that one has to lower their IQ to play such games is, again, flame baiting. And that doesn't belong in this forum.
Do you think this grants you special permission to criticize and flame bait on this forum? I generously donate to Child's Play every year. Charities are created for people to be able to give back to the community. People who seek to identify themselves as charitable givers are usually seeking to promote themselves, and not the charity. This act does not justify your actions.
Perhaps this should be a clue that you should not attend again, and simply hold family gaming events at home. That is also your choice. Family gaming nights can happen significantly more often than PAX, and you don't have to pay a surcharge to attend. Without being too critical here I will point out that getting, "dolled up" for a gaming expo is kind of absurd. And as a fairly stylish person, "Ponyfalls" Seriously? lol
I'm interested in knowing where you did get your values. I attended the conference with a group of people whose combined education, IQ, and income is staggering. My group was composed of mostly married men and women, who have children, and work full time as doctors, professors, lawyers, and engineers. In that group, there was not a single person who didn't enjoy themselves and find something about the Expo that was worthwhile and entertaining. I submit to you that my group represents a microcosm of adult, child rearing, healthy, right-minded, moral people who all disagree with you. Perhaps that is something worth considering.
Your inability to enjoy yourself is your own fault. There are many factors at play here that contribute to the problem, but most of them lay at your own feet. I think I can speak for the community at large when I say that we would all appreciate it if you chose not to attend again. Using this forum to espouse your distorted world view by flame-baiting people who really enjoyed themselves is really inappropriate. You should consicer consulting Gabe and Tycho's philosophy on forum participation located here: LINK before you post again next time.
Cheers!
~ Shakes
WOW. Okay, so that should probably end this argument, so we can get back to the suggestions discussion at hand.
A: "What do you want from me?!?!?"
That aside, I HIGHLY (See: Beg) suggest you get Bawls back. PaX without bawls is just a sad day =(
I'd like to second (and third, and fourth) the suggestions made in the above link. I participated in the Rock Band tournament, and the improvements they made completely blew away all previous console tournaments. It was night and day really... if possible, this is how all PAX tournaments should be run.
On opening day, have the first panels start an hour after the doors open, but have the expo hall open right away so everyone in line has some place to go. It's nearly impossible to catch a 2:00 or 2:30 panel without being one of the first in line and spending 5 hours in it.... although this year they were very good about getting us in nice and efficient.
I like the idea of having an onsite blood drive that someone brought up at the comic panel. And I like the idea of having everything in the main building and not the Pike Annex (seriously, air conditioning SUCKED in there).
Ideas about better line management & making sure you actually get into a panel are good. But the Fallout 3 panel illustrated another problem... 4,000 people trying to get out 3 doors all on one side of the room. Luckily I was on the door side but I imagine it took forever to get out from the other side... maybe try to handle people flow better if possible?
I don't think us midgets need a special place at the front, but a set of chairs in the very back of the room for people 5'4" or shorter to be able to SEE THE GIANT SCREENS seems reasonable to me.
Please give us short people some love! ^_^
- Had two friends come from Toronto and Kansas City to attend. We had a blast overall.
- Several interesting panels (Casual Killing Core Games? was easily the best.)
- Great sense of community.
- People were friendly and personable; didn't see any significant altercations.
The Bad:
- Lines -- for panels, for Will Call (on Friday in particular), the Queue room. As others have suggested, if the rooms are the same size, just have people line up in the event room itself.
- Lack of breathing room and places to sit.
- Trash. Need to start kicking out litterers or something, I felt embarrassed.
- Enforcers seemed clueless about operations, though they were knowledgeable about where events were.
- People need to learn to draw more than human male anatomy on Pictochat.
- Crappy swag. I've had way better, and more, from free computer tradeshows.
...and now, The Fail.
- Some jerk pickpocketed my work-issued bus pass (-$50 for replacement.) Glad I had my wallet elsewhere.
- Tournaments were really poorly organized:
[1] No registration time blocks for WoW or Starcraft on the printed schedule.
[2] Enforcers didn't know what they were doing, it took over an hour for them to get started with the Starcraft tournament (create ladder, check in people, etc.) You can have 90% of the work done beforehand and there are free computer programs/websites to automate much of this.
[3] Would have been nice to know -- or have it be mentioned anywhere! -- that registration was opened the previous day for the tournaments.
[4] No way for friends to watch tournaments.
- Panels:
[1] Pink Godzilla -- used videogame retail store reps -- talking about sex in video games? I can think of several dozen people with better and more extensive qualifications.
[2] Law and Videogames panel was a boring rehash of industry insider perspectives. Not sure why the panelists would bother to issue disclaimers that their views are not those of their employer if they're just going to toe the industry line on intellectual property. Felt like a lecture, and I've had far better -- with real debate -- at university. It didn't help that one of the panelists (might he have provided a different viewpoint?) was double-booked and didn't even show up.
[3] Female Gamer Communities was similarly uninteresting (and my female friend agreed.) If the panelists are just going to repeat themselves, cut them off after the first 15 minutes and open up questions to the audience immediately.
I keep hearing these stories about them being aggressive. I didn't encounter this. Were they stricter than last year, or is it the more people = more incidents phenomenon?
Also, the lines weren't so bad (there were tons of great people there), but the whole thing with not clearing out the main theater between events was kind of a mystery to me. Not that I advocate throwing everyone out, but maybe leave a little more time in between to give some more people a chance to make it in. I ended up taking up space during several panels that I know someone else wanted to/could have watched, just so I could see the one following it.
That really depends on who you are... what day? I'm assuming if you know my profile either I gave you a button or we played some Mario Kart or something?
Here's a thought then....
Why not allow a small number of exceptions?
If someone with crutches, or some obvious impairment to walking, or someone well known who has trouble standing for a long time (thinking Lewie P's Mummy randomly), or a very large, round, tired pregnant lady (me! :P) asks for extra seating when all the available chairs are already taken, could they be allowed to sort of "check out" an extra from one of the enforcers?
Not to be rude, but I think your above estimate for standing room may be a bit off.
The people I was trying to climb and step over to squeeze between weren't standing, they were sprawled all over the floor because they were exhausted and couldn't find an empty seat either.
It looked like a giant sleepover rather than a concert.
People laying on the floor take up more floor space than a chair, and plenty of people were lying all over the place in back towards the corners.
I kid you not, the woman next to me fell asleep on the floor friday night - which would normally be an amazing feat, although I think large quantities of alcohol might have had something to do with that....
Her arms and legs splayed out, with her baggage/swag in piles next to her took up enough space for 2 chairs easily.
Considering how many people were packed in there, the tiny amount of chairs tucked in back is still kind of weak sauce.
About a million years ago (internet time), I helped out with an event in Boston called the Geek Pride Festival. (This was still back in the days where people figured they could do things for free because you could get easy advertising dollars by holding up a piece of torn-out notebook paper and auctioning off the rights to its contents. Needless to say there was not a second Geek Pride Festival.) Anyway, this event attempted to go meta-geographic by endorsing satellite Geek Pride Festivals that were being held across the country / world. The rule was that these events would need to have a two-way live video/audio feed.
A the Boston event was a short row of workstations hooked up to webcams, each station hooked up to the two-way live feed with one of the satellite events. Now, this didn't work so well, because it was so simply and cheaply done, because of the lag involved (1.5 Mbps was considered a holy grail), because there wasn't much attention given to it, and because the satellite events simply weren't nearly as happenin' as the main one.
But anyway. Gaming is meta-geographic these days -- since as far back as, what, Quake 1? GameSpy? Bolo? Hell, since PBeM chess. Bandwidth is easier to get. "Webinar" is a big buzzword.
The point being that going meta-geographic is easier than ever, probably going to get easier, and it's not necessarily a new idea. Delegated properly, more than one PAX could be held at once and tied together online.
I was merely trying to give a reason why the chairs are removed. As I said it all has to do with fire code. The code says that if chairs are in the room then only ~4K ppl can be in there. If the charis are removed then ~7K ppl can be in the room.
Maybe you could put down some blankets in the front that delineate the "sitting room" area instead of putting chairs down, so anyone in that area should be sitting, and then have the standing room behind them where people can stand/bring their own seats or whatever? That might get around the fire code thing and help with people who are too tired to stand--I guess it wouldn't really help much though for people with disabilities though... and maybe.. chairs on the side?
Really though, I want to second the other short people in the forum requesting that the stage be raised more and the screens be higher. For the Omegathon final round I could only see blue racing
I bet you could do a brisk business in PAX pillows to plunk your rear down on!
We really enjoyed ourselves, but were in some...dumb situations. Standing in lines half the time were really aggravating. My boyfriend and I were trying to get into the Fallout 3 panel and...it didn't happen. A suggestion I would make is ticketing, or an overflow room where anyone who couldn't get into the actual panel would get to see a live screening of the event elsewhere.
Other than that...I don't really have much else to say. Oh wait, I'm a measely 4'10" in height and would appreciate...seeing things in the theatre.
Please don't come back. I speak only for myself, but PAX is obviously not a good fit for you.
That said, I'd like to congratulate the organizers for getting the 6th floor. Kinda wish you'd have anticipated it for this year, seeing as you knew how many people were attending, but better late than never!
6th Floor = See you next year!
-P. J. O'Rourke
They don't choose how much space they want. The convention centre gives them a certain amount based on how many hotel rooms were booked for it the previous year or something.
That . . . is stupid.
I'm sorry, did you just say that in Yellow Size Three Trebuchet? Without cracking a self-conscious smile?
Yes indeed; I love non-generic text.
-P. J. O'Rourke
okay, not cool, small red text against a blue background just plain hurts
Now an event suggestion:
-more Will call ticket booths (Why was there only one line for pre-reg will call tickets?)
-line managment devices to help manage the mob while waiting in lines and to help manage foot traffic (the things are called LINE BARRIER SYSTEM WITH RETRACTABLE WEBBING)
-Have a set number cap on each room and stop the line when it's reach capacity (Enforcers would need a device to count the persons in line, there's little clicker that I've seen used at other events)
-Schedule enforcers for shorter shifts (I saw the same room managers at the same rooms all day, they got tired and it showed. I know they must have had breaks but they should have ended their shifts and maybe moved to something else and not had to be at the same room for more than 12 hours)
More room and bigger booths. The waits to see Dragon Age, play Left4Dead, play Mirrors Edge, etc were ridiculous and they flooded into the main walk ways. It'd be nice if there was more room and more demo kiosks.
What decade of gaming influenced you the most?
http://www.Twitter.com/samhouston
Also, I know this is totally impossible, but how about less standing around in fucking lines? It's completely unavoidable in a lot of cases, but I think I spend more time at PAX in a queue than I did sleeping. And I didn't even wait to play Left4Dead or Fallout 3.
I know all this shit has been said, but I'm not digging through 8 pages of pure retarded spew to quote it.
EDIT - Also great: no more ironic gaming t-shirts. You neckbeards have totally killed the concept of irony for everyone.
XBox LIVE: Bogestrom | Destiny
PSN: Bogestrom
BUT. If every year we are adding more: more panels, more exhibitors, more people...can we also add maybe a smidge more time? Honestly, my husband and I had three day passes, were there almost all of every day and felt like we only saw half the show. We saw a lot of the exhibit hall but didn't play many games, only a couple panels (had to go to Q&A #2, I was a buttoneer, also the Fallout demo showing was awesome) and didn't do much independent gaming (though I did play my first game of munchkin and now must buy it and find more local friends who would like that sort of thing). But there was so much that we DIDN'T see and I just kept thinking the show seemed so brief. Comic-Con in San Diego is four days, right? Maybe we could have three whole days instead of two-and-a-half-ish? Pretty please?
Wii: 4521 1146 5179 1333 Pearl: 3394 4642 8367 HG: 1849 3913 3132
man, I hung out with some friends for 45 minutes and didn't have to wait a second in line.
- thank you for not clearing the theaters between panels.... it was GREATLY appreciated to not have to go through the cattle herd and just turn right back around and line back up. i know some have voiced opinions otherwise, but seriously, the way seating was handled this way was the only way to go.
- Project main theater into waiting room.... or... open the wall and make main theater twice as large....
- Pre-ticketing the major events would be a GRAND idea... let people who PREREGISTER have the advantage of guaranteed seating based on their sign up date.... a slight discount is nice, but the ability to plan your weekend and know you're going to get into the things you want would be a much better incentive to pre-reg.
Oh yeah one other thing.... table top gaming... i'm not sure if i just missed it, or if it wasn't happening this year....but previous years there were volunteers setup all around the table top room giving demos of games.... each year my group hooked up with some of these demo's and found a new (old) game that was really a lot of fun.... we didn't see any of that going on, and it was missed.... so if that could be brought back, that would be great... or if it happened, maybe better signage or notes in the program about it....
Also one of the enforcers in tabletop told my friend that he couldn't play magic with his own cards there...that you had to use purchased decks from the wotc booth or someshit only... that just seems odd in a free play room.... again better signage or explanation on what is allowed in what areas would be nice.... the way it was told to him, it really pissed my friend off.
The lines for the Main Theatre were horrible. I think having a space designated as the "Line Up Room" is asking for trouble. I would like to see that room configured so that the wall is opened up more to allow, at the very least, a quicker flow from the waiting area. Just have the sound and video crews hanging from the ceiling fixed to the ceiling with liberal applications of duct tape and give us all your base.
The pallets of bawls was awesome. I'm sure passing out glass bottles is a nightmare somewhere along the planning line, but it was very appreciated. Maybe set them up at the first aid station, for distribution to those seeking energy aid.
Filter out jerks. While I'm not sure how exactly, I would imagine something along the lines of a meat processing facility...
I loved the expansion of the expo hall. I would like to see ATI or Nvidia, though. Nvidia was insanely popular in '07.
Also, and I might have missed something like this, a coupon or discount on the DVDs from the previous PAX for those with their previous badge would be friggin sweet. Actually, if there were just people passing out fistfuls of cash, that'd be cool, too.
I went to PAX07, so I'll start with things I thought were improved this year.
-Console freeplay. I know someone complained about it but it was vastly improved. From talking to the Enforcers in there (though I must admit two of them are acquaintances) the idea of the "take-a-number" system was so that you wouldn't have to stand in line for 45 minutes to an hour. For my group, this worked wonderfully - we were able to browse the web or use or DSes while sitting in the wireless lounge of the atrium area on the 4th floor. Last year this time would have been spent standing in line, and as we all know there was no shortage of that elsewhere at PAX this year.
There were certainly areas of improvement for console freeplay, though. I'm thinking it could be more efficient if there were Enforcers dedicated to returns and checkouts instead of kind of doing both. And just more staff in general there, especially when they're busiest (which I imagine was in the evenings, though I'm sure they have actual stats). Also, the TVs with the information and stats on them were great. What would be even better though is a website with some sort of setup so that we could see where the number was at any given point in time from anywhere in the building.
That's all, actually, I can't really think of anything else I liked better about PAX08. So onto the areas of improvement.
-The Expo hall needs to be organized somehow. I don't know the exact process of booth allocation, but I'd like that there are X number of slots of Y size. Companies buy what they want out of each, and then you guys organize it so that they don't collide. It seemed like most of the really popular booths were near the front of the expo hall, which made it difficult to even get inside and navigate between each side. I think people would have been at the Fallout 3 or Blizzard booths whether they were at the front of the hall or on top of the Space Needle.
-Console freeplay needs more space. Of course, I realize that they took almost two entire floors this year and there's probably not many other places it could actually go.
-Make the temporary path between the two sides of the convention center that went through the PC room permanent. Move the PC room for security reasons if required or erect more permanent barriers. This was a much more open area than the hallways to the side.
-If you're going to have a queue room, at least make it more efficient. It could have easily been organized so that the line could enter from two sides at once. Filing into the Omegathon, which was just an open floor, took nearly half an hour, so for events that were queued at the beginning of the day, why not just let people in earlier?
-I don't think we can keep the "spirit" of PAX and limit the number of badges sold. If attendance becomes capped at, say, 60k then badges will sell out within minutes of them going on sale, many of which are going to be turned around and re-sold above face value. But there is only so much physical space at the convention center.
(Speaking of which, for anyone curious, I'm looking at the floorplan of the convention center right now and I will say the expo hall is likely not going anywhere - at over 94000 square feet is the largest contiguous space in the convention center.)
That's all I can think of for now.
SE++ Forum Battle Archive
This was the only negative experience I had with an enforcer, actually. Most of them were quite nice, happy to answer any questions I had, and chatty when we ended up standing next to each other for whatever reason.
My fear for PAX 2009 is that the 6th floor won't be enough. Based on the attendance growth for the last five years, attendance at PAX 2009 would hit 85k+. I think the idea is that this number should be lower due to East Coast PAX, but I and many others are crazy enough to go to both.
Maybe instead of cramming more and more exciting stuff into a three day period, it should be expanded to four or five days with many of the panels repeating so everyone has a chance to see as much as they can.
That way even if you missed some panels from gaming or whatever, you'd know that the very best panels/presentations would be available to see on the last day again?
Another idea (I'm editing to keep from spamming):
Maybe have a website or a place where people who brought their own consoles and hooked them up in their hotel rooms can sign themselves up looking for other people who might like to play with them? I don't know if many people did do this with their consoles, but some people posted in the forum about the setup to do this before PAX started.