Someone suggested I post my suggestions here, so here are some:
limit total number of PAX admissions sold to prevent overcrowding and keep lines shorter
provide more seating
host all panels and presentations inside of actual enclosed theaters with PA systems
implement larger freeplay areas (perhaps via a "bring your own console" method akin to the "bring your own PC" area)
welcome the casual gamers into your community as well (don't just cater to the obsessed fanatics who are willing to stand in lines for hours)
divide tournaments up into skill level divisions... it's no fun to enter a tournament where everyone is lightyears beyond your own skills, which spooks a lot of people off
sell food
I would personally rather see more space for freeplay and tournaments and panels than see so much space used up by the exhibition hall... why do we need so many companies advertising so many products at a convention that is supposedly about gamers and the community?
dunno if someone else already addressed the food thing, but there was a big food selling place in the exhibit hall near rockband 2, and many restaurants IN the convention hall, AND places across the street, there was plenty of food sold.
The only suggestion I'd like to make is concerning the main Q&As with Gabe and Tycho.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE MODERATE THESE!!!
Just have an enforcer standing next to the mic where the line forms. Any question where someone wants to:
give something/get something signed/is canadian/wants to make a fool of themselves
should be turned away.
Honestly, this is probably the coolest part, and I'd say 2/3rds of the questions are not even questions or they're some weird plea for help/signing/gift.
I've been coming to PAX since '04 and it's only getting worse.
That is all.
Except then we would have missed the Broodax plush, the button case, and the Bad Horsing.
Broodax would have gotten through, and the big presentations could be set up through the enforcers or khoo.
I'm going to echo the "more seating" suggestion. There were TONS of Sumo bags in the lounges but they were always taken. I'm only 27 so I just sat on the floor when I needed a break but more real seating would be great.
Also, is there a way to school the Convention Center staff on what's going on? Some of them looked a little scared and/or angry at all the people. On Friday night for a time they refused to let people into Bandland while signings were still going on because the Exhibit Hall was closed and they said they were told no one could go "in there." Eventually they let people through but the some of ones I saw just seemed confused.
Yeah, this was my first PAX and I have to say that I'd love to see better line control. While I TOTALLY ADORED the Enforcers some of them that I dealt with were just a little overwhelmed with line/crowd control and ended up screaming, not calmly and loudly explaining, line instructions. They were really working hard and I didn't take it personal but after waiting for an hour in line to see a panel (Core vs. Casual Gaming) it's hard to deal with people screaming line instructions at you, especially when they change their minds three times in as many minutes on where they want you. "Dudes and dudettes", I wanted to say, "Chill. We're going to listen to you but it's called using your thoracic diaphragm and talking loudly and calmly. Stop yelling."
Also, I did notice that those of us who were waiting for the exhibit hall to open didn't actually get in before people who just walked up. I found myself thinking, "So why did I wait in line again? I could have used those hours to do other stuff."
More seating at the concerts would be nice and would it be possible to put some on platforms? Being 5'0" I spent the first couple of hours at the Friday concert not being able to see anything, even the screens. When I did move back to scrounge some seats (and there weren't many) for the Jonathan Coulton concert I could only see the screen because people on the house left side were sitting on the floor
Thanks for everything everyone who puts this together (staff and Enforcers). Even though I have suggestions I still totally loved PAX08 and even if nothing is planned different for PAX09 I'm still going to come back. Thanks!
First of all, people should know there isnt a magical massive amount of space available at the WSCTC. Sure the 6th floor is large but 5th floor? there is nothing there. The useable space on 5th floor is 2,000 sqft across 7 small offices. Quit dreaming of PAX doubling in floor space :P
To those who sugguested that booths go where the sumos were and the sumos go into a room...
uhh...
the sumos are in public space, you cant setup anything there, and what rooms were free? :P
They take most of the chairs out of the concert hall/omegathon final round because they want to be able to get as many people in there. There have usually been bigger spaces for people to sit, though. This year, the main theater seemed to be a bit smaller than the last years, which made it harder for people to get into things and made seating areas limited. I'm sure there will be a bit bigger of a main theater for next year...I hope...
The problem with that is the sumos are techanlly in public space, you can only put so much in there before violating a billion different firecodes.
Hopefully that changes for next year. Theres a few places on the 6th floor where the WSCTC wont allow anything "hard" to be setup but sumos should be ok. Hopefully.
The button case was arranged way ahead of time with Enforcer support, too. We just didnt have a guy hop in line.
I totally agree that personal requests should be screened by enforcers before people get to the mic. We get too many people wanting personal attention while an entire audience waits. Gabe "Cupcake" and "Ordinator" Tycho were awesome with those people, though, and overall the Q&A was fun.
Yeah I worked things out with PA and the theater manager about it ahead of time.
THE BUTTON TROOP HAS CONNECTIONS YO
Not just anybody can walk something up onto stage :P The suprise was kind of ruined though becuase while we were setting it up backstage gabe showed up early and was peering over our sholders and was like "Hey guys, whats that?"
At least we covered up the button case in time so when tycho showed up he didnt see it :P
*sees VT being a peace-maker. Chooses the darker path* FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! Ah, sweet elementary school memories! 8-)
I wanted to clarify my earlier position on Q&A. I'm totally cool with the gifting. It was fun and led to some funny moments. The PAX community rocks and, like it or not, it is a dominant part of PAX. I am more concerned about the "Can you sign my shit?" or "I'm so sad I didn't get a T-shirt, please drop everything and deal with me." or "Thanks to Gabe, Tycho, and my mom" type of questions/comments.
Booth Babes: Nice scenery, as long as they know something about the games. I talked to a normal staffer at the EA booth that knew about as much about the games on display as my dog and booth babes at least look nice! :winky:
For line management for the smaller panels, there were a few ideas implemented during the weekend but it would be better to extend them. In a perfect world, here is how I would manage lines for smaller panels:
1) Have space cordoned off for the line. Wolfman Theater was able to implement this on Saturday, and it was very helpful.
2) Hand out tickets to those in line that will be collected when they enter the theater. This will stop line-jumpers, and could also be used as a part of a larger pre-reg system for panels. It would also allow people who show up early to get a seat to get their ticket, then go enjoy something else for 30 minutes or so before the doors open for the panel. I realize that people will still line up for tickets, but this would at least ensure that only people who waited get into the theater, and that people #124-130 don't get in because person 60 was "holding space" for six people.
3) Keep count of the people in line and put up a sign when the capacity has been reached. Wolfman Theater tried to do this with a "Sorry! I'm the Last in Line" sign system, but without enough a method to foil line-jumpers this may wind up hurting those further back in the line. This would either need multiple Enforcers to watch the line or a ticket system as I described above.
4) Post signage for when the doors open for each panel, don't assume that everyone knows it will be 15 minutes before the panel begins. This can be included as a blanket statement on the Theater sign (that already states the schedule), or via a whiteboard attached to the door/wall that is updated. If a ticket system is implemented, also post the time that tickets will be handed out (preferably not more than an hour prior to the panel start time).
5) Do not allow people to wait outside a full panel in hopes that someone will leave and they can get in. This is confusing to those lining up for the next panel, distracting to those in the panel, and rude to the panel members themselves. Again, I know that Wolfman Theater implemented this policy on Saturday but I can't speak for any others.
6) In addition to the ticket method, have a cut-off time for ticketholders to enter a panel. Let's say the panel is at 3:00pm - have the doors open to ticketholders at 2:40pm, and open the doors to any others in line at 2:50pm. Those with tickets who have wandered off can still get in before the non-ticket-holders, yet empty seats will be filled by those who didn't get a ticket.
7) Have at least two Enforcers working the door at a panel - one to take tickets/count heads, and one to watch the line to kick out line-jumpers or clueless passerby. If the line is split at some point due to a hallway, then put another Enforcer at that split point to enforce the line. If you only have two Enforcers assigned to a theater, you could add a band of three Enforcers that are assigned to two theaters to assist in line management as long as the panel start times between the theaters are split by a half-hour or so.
Line management is pretty important to me (and it seems to others here) as I have a strong sense of fairness and so I have thought about this quite a bit since last weekend. Hopefully these points will be helpful to those who run PAX and supervise the Enforcers.
~~~~~~~~~~
Other observations:
--Nix the booth babes, they did not add to the expo room and instead made me feel uncomfortable. I hate feeling like I'm going to be ambushed with something, and booth babes with no job other than to look pretty and hand stuff out are annoying.
--Vendors should make sure that the exhibitors staffing their booths have some clue about the product they are demo'ing, or at least know who to send questions to. I had some detailed questions about the Guitar Hero: World Tour drum set and the woman working the booth had zero idea how to answer them or even the knowledge of the product to understand some of my questions.
--T-Shirts or other items for pre-reg would be very awesome. It might be even better to have these available at preregistration, so that you can purchase your PAX '09 T-Shirt with your ticket and have them sent to you together.
--Vendors in the Expo Hall need to be required to provide line management equipment of some sort, rather than just wrapping people around their booths. It will be easier to comply with fire codes about aisles and clearance if the lines are contained by a physical barrier, and will again increase line fairness.
--Big ticket vendors should be spread out around the Expo Hall, they do not all need to be at the front doors. I'm sure someone has their panties in a twist about the "desirability" of different locations, but traffic flow has got to be a higher priority than making all the vendors happy.
--Find a way to increase foot traffic bandwidth between the Main Theater and Expo Hall areas, whether this involves a complete redesign of how the space is used or simply a corridor built out of 6' panels across part of the computer gaming section.
--Bring back the PA comic posters, I missed seeing them.
--Someone upthread suggested auctioning off some of the World Map and other banners used for PAX with the proceeds going to Child's Play - this should be implemented for sure. Throw in the banners that were outside on Pike Street for the last month as well and you'd have quite an auction all by itself.
--Ask the WSTTC to provide more trash cans and more recycling bins. I carried stuff around all the time because there was not a good place to get rid of it - and this is Seattle, there should be more recycling bins than trash cans for goodness sake!
--Ask the WSTTC to warn its vendors and staff of the size of the convention and its hours so that they are prepared for the onslaught. I felt pretty bad for the Subway staff on the fourth floor, I really hope they called in extra people or at least didn't keep their employees on longer than they were scheduled for.
--Provide the Enforcers with nametags beyond their badges (which are hard to read), or small cards with their names on them to hand out, so that if someone has a rant or rave they can report it and have it attributed to the right person. Most Enforcers use nicknames, so using those for this purpose would be fine, as I wouldn't want my real name to be available to everyone so it's not right to ask that of the Enforcers either.
--Improve handling of the line moving from the lineup room to the expo hall. I was in the first group going in on Saturday morning and some guys were just ducking under the rope on the fourth floor and joining us, bypassing the hundreds of people in line behind me. The Enforcers tried, but I still fussed at and shamed a few people who slipped in into getting back out of the group.
And as for the whole "family friendly" fiasco, in my opinion if you're 25 with an 8yo child, you're not really up for telling someone else what their morals should be. :P
I guess better panels? Some of the panels were horrible. The "Writing for Games' panel's moderator didn't even have anything prepared and turned it into a Q&A, it was a completely wothless panel with questions like, "What tools do you use to write?" and them talking about "how to break out of writer's block on a deadline". Those are useless, I want to know how to break into writing for games or HOW to write for games. They had a girl up there from Harmonix that wrote the blips when you bought stuff from the Rock Band Marketplace. Seriously?
I was going to go to that panel till I saw that one of the 3 guests was from Harmonix. I realized then it was going to be worthless. :P
my main gripe was that after arriving around 2:30ish, I was informed by an enforcer on the 3rd floor that I couldn't go up since there were people that were still waiting in line at the theater to get into the expo hall. So I went to the main theater and stood in line and by the time I got out of the theater, I noticed that there was no longer any enforcer presence and people were just cutting in from everywhere. Of course, by the time I walked past the escalator where I was turned away, people were no longer being turned away and walking right in.
Then coupled with the fact that after about 30 or so minutes of mooing around in the expo hall I had to go back and stand in the same damn line I had just gotten out of for the keynote and then to be subsequently turned away due to a full theater, I thought Friday seriously blew twatvomit.
I had fun on Sat and Sun tho. Thanks for again putting together another memorable expo.
Misterioso on
Listen. And understand. That Misterioso is out there. He can't be bargained with. He can't be reasoned with. He doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And he absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead..drunk.
Line management is pretty important to me (and it seems to others here) as I have a strong sense of fairness and so I have thought about this quite a bit since last weekend. Hopefully these points will be helpful to those who run PAX and supervise the Enforcers.
You have some awesome ideas.
I fowarded your post to the line management manager (<-- lol)
Other observations:
--Nix the booth babes, they did not add to the expo room and instead made me feel uncomfortable. I hate feeling like I'm going to be ambushed with something, and booth babes with no job other than to look pretty and hand stuff out are annoying.
Technally PA has a policy of "No booth babes" from what khoo told me.
They need to know about the product and be able to converse with the typical gamer on their level about the game. For the most part that was accomplished. Either by only using attractive employees that wanted to dress up or hiring attractive geek types.
I talked to a few the little time I was in expo and based on how much they knew the majority of them were just employees dressing up.
Other observations:
--Vendors should make sure that the exhibitors staffing their booths have some clue about the product they are demo'ing, or at least know who to send questions to. I had some detailed questions about the Guitar Hero: World Tour drum set and the woman working the booth had zero idea how to answer them or even the knowledge of the product to understand some of my questions.
The majority of the booths were pretty good about that, a few had some typical PR types that just know how to spin info rather than those who made it, but there was a high number of developers in attendance who actually knew things.
Other observations:
--Vendors in the Expo Hall need to be required to provide line management equipment of some sort, rather than just wrapping people around their booths. It will be easier to comply with fire codes about aisles and clearance if the lines are contained by a physical barrier, and will again increase line fairness.
Beleive it or not having barriers in such high traffic areas is a fire code violation in itself.
Other observations:
--Big ticket vendors should be spread out around the Expo Hall, they do not all need to be at the front doors. I'm sure someone has their panties in a twist about the "desirability" of different locations, but traffic flow has got to be a higher priority than making all the vendors happy.
Meh, the front entrance of expo is the most expensive and desireable spot because its the first thing attendees see.
Just need people there to keep the lines moving during open/close.
Other observations:
--Find a way to increase foot traffic bandwidth between the Main Theater and Expo Hall areas, whether this involves a complete redesign of how the space is used or simply a corridor built out of 6' panels across part of the computer gaming section.
That room wont be PC anymore (we are moving elsewhere) so that is already solved. PC has outgrown that space :P
Other observations:
--Ask the WSTTC to warn its vendors and staff of the size of the convention and its hours so that they are prepared for the onslaught. I felt pretty bad for the Subway staff on the fourth floor, I really hope they called in extra people or at least didn't keep their employees on longer than they were scheduled for.
I was talking to the subway manager during setup. He was like "yeah we got raped last year so I ordered 6 pallets of supplies, not losing business again"
That guy was pro. Subway rocked this year, didnt run out of much.
Other observations:
--Provide the Enforcers with nametags beyond their badges (which are hard to read), or small cards with their names on them to hand out, so that if someone has a rant or rave they can report it and have it attributed to the right person. Most Enforcers use nicknames, so using those for this purpose would be fine, as I wouldn't want my real name to be available to everyone so it's not right to ask that of the Enforcers either.
Good idea as well although I still wont have a nametag out of spite :P BigRed doesnt need a name tag :P
And as for the whole "family friendly" fiasco, in my opinion if you're 25 with an 8yo child, you're not really up for telling someone else what their morals should be. :P
I don't get this pretense about caring if booth babes know something about the game. Is it because some guys don't know how to go up to a pretty girl and talk to her, or maybe so they can justify it to their girlfriends whom they're afraid to tell that they like to talk to pretty girls? Who cares if they know anything about the game? Is it pure gamer pretentiousness, thinking that anyone who doesn't know anything about the games is inferior, or lying to themselves that sex doesn't sell? This issue just mystifies me. If the women do, great. Bonus. Awesome. If not, awesome, hot women to talk to.
I think you might be misunderstanding the source of the conflict.
It's really when "booth babes" are ONLY there for eye candy that people like me have a problem with.
If the women do, great. Bonus. Awesome. If not, awesome, hot women to talk to.
The former scenario means that this was a person who was there to help market the game in a meaningful way. The latter scenario indicates that they were there hoping that the person's physical assets would bring people to the booth.
The former scenario is understandable, and no one has a problem with that. The latter scenario is unfortunate and demeaning: both to women in general (as it sets a "women are to be seen and not heard" tone), and to us gamers (who their choice of advertising seems to suggest that they think we're simpletons drawn to one game over another due to sexual desires).
That's just my take on it though. I know there's another whole thread for this kind of discussion further down the list.
She's an example of someone who was extremely knowledgeable about the game, and came there to contribute meaningfully. In fact, she was one of the developers on the project! She's firmly in the "former" category of the aforementioned post.
Nice try, though. (it's a trap!)
EDIT: If I may add another point, even if she never talked to anyone (I passed her by a couple times, and I'm fairly certain that she was talking to someone about the game when I walked past at least once), she was more of a Cosplayer than a "Booth Babe". In her case, the outfit she wore was obviously (by its design) not meant to attract people to the booth due to sexual appeal... rather, it was meant to portray character. That's an entirely different advertising approach from "Oh, look, bewbs! You gamers like these, right?" (urgh! The stereotyped box we're fit into frustrates me so much...)
So in both aspects (the knowledgeable vs. unknowledgable, and the relevant costume vs. irrelevant sexualized marketing), the woman in the picture above doesn't at all represent a "Booth Babe".
Personally, I'd avoid booths that had booth babes because they made me uncomfortable. What was I supposed to do, wave at them? Ask for make-up tips and talk about bad pick-up lines? That's not what I was at PAX to do and there were plenty of other games that got my money because I felt comfortable approaching the booth - even welcome! If the devs want women gamers to respect their product, maybe they should return the favor. The Stardock "babe" was pretty cool, though, sweeping me a low bow when I smiled at her in passing!
Oh - and I second the gamertag pins. Those would be cool.
Mystral721 on
"Little baby Cthulhu hopping through the forest, picking up the field mice and Sucking Out Their Souls"
Ill say again that the majority of the "booth babes" at PAX are just employees of the company (and devs like the sins of a solar empire chick) who dressed up becuase it was fun to do so :P
You can talk to them about the game, more often than not they know a ton about it.
Ill say again that the majority of the "booth babes" at PAX are just employees of the company (and devs like the sins of a solar empire chick) who dressed up becuase it was fun to do so :P
You can talk to them about the game, more often than not they know a ton about it.
Aye, that kind of thing I've got no problem with at all... more power to 'em in that regard.
But if the woman at the booth is just there to be T&A to attract people to the booth though, that's where I draw the line on it... mostly because, as I said before, in that case it demeans both women AND us gamers. Because if a company stoops to that level, one can only imagine what they think of us as a community if they feel like a trick like that'll work on us.
I do agree with you that PAX's presence of the kind of "booth babe" I'm talking about is almost nonexistent compared to shows like E3 (ick), which bodes well for PAX.
I don't really have an opinion one way or the other on this, but it seems to me that regardless of their game knowlegde, or who employs them, they still serve as "T&A to attract people to the booth". You certainly can't tell before you walk up which of the two categories you present they fall into, and people interested in the latter won't care if they turn out to be in the former.
Again, I'm not bothered, but I can see how some people are.
Ahh, that is a good point as well, and that reminds me of one situation I ran into in the expo hall...
I know there was a booth near the Turbine booth that had a couple of women there in some skimpy outfits... and though they may have ended up being Devs for all I know, I did avoid the booth out of a kind of silent protest. The thought hadn't occurred to me that they might not just be booth babes (and might've just happened to be wearing that attire because it somehow fit whatever game they were working for), but I definitely felt like the physical display was perpetuating a stereotype about gamers that I didn't want to support, and I walked on.
First of all, people should know there isnt a magical massive amount of space available at the WSCTC. Sure the 6th floor is large but 5th floor? there is nothing there. The useable space on 5th floor is 2,000 sqft across 7 small offices. Quit dreaming of PAX doubling in floor space :P -snip-
I accept your challenge.
6th Floor = 6453 asses in seats at any one moment, and that is in mostly schoolroom (ie, PAX Panel) format.
2nd-5th Floors = 2765 total, and I actually was over-generous by using the "pack'em in" formats on those.
So we can see, the 6th floor, alone, has nearly 2.5 times the space of floors 2-5 combined. More than double the space.
Baelzar on
Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.
-P. J. O'Rourke
Ill say again that the majority of the "booth babes" at PAX are just employees of the company (and devs like the sins of a solar empire chick) who dressed up becuase it was fun to do so :P
You can talk to them about the game, more often than not they know a ton about it.
30 dollars an hour? Cha-ching! I guess the joke, in the end, is on us. D'oh. =(
Also, Baelzar... the color you choose for your text is... blinding. No offense intended, mind you. It's just painful to read. tp; dr (Too painful; didn't read )
First of all, people should know there isnt a magical massive amount of space available at the WSCTC. Sure the 6th floor is large but 5th floor? there is nothing there. The useable space on 5th floor is 2,000 sqft across 7 small offices. Quit dreaming of PAX doubling in floor space :P -snip-
I accept your challenge.
6th Floor = 6453 asses in seats at any one moment, and that is in mostly schoolroom (ie, PAX Panel) format.
2nd-5th Floors = 2765 total, and I actually was over-generous by using the "pack'em in" formats on those.
So we can see, the 6th floor, alone, has nearly 2.5 times the space of floors 2-5 combined. More than double the space.
Those the counts from the WSCTC site?
They are kind of invalid for PAX. They let us use a lot of the "public space" (rockband stage, sumo lounges for a couple examples) on floors 2-4 for a lot of stuff thats not in any "official" count.
In my own personal predictions/opinions (no way affiliated with PA or its partners, yay disclaimer) 6th floor is best served as moving PC up to and for moving some of the satelite theaters up there.
Ill say again that the majority of the "booth babes" at PAX are just employees of the company (and devs like the sins of a solar empire chick) who dressed up becuase it was fun to do so :P
You can talk to them about the game, more often than not they know a ton about it.
Not sure if this has been mentioned or not (sorry, no time to wade through 11 pages before posting) but I stumbled across an album by a rapper named MadHatter called 8-Bit bullshit... http://www.scrubclubrecords.com/music/8bit.html
Basically he took the original 8-bit songs from several games, added some back beats and a bit of bass, then composed a hip-hop song about the game / genre over the entire mix. I laugh everytime I listen to it.
Just a thought for a possible live performance next year.
/g
PAX 2008 was my third time at PAX, and the one that ultimately got me on the forums because I met/partied with forumers this time around! I have a few suggestions for next year:
1. Move the Will Call and Registration lineups to the downstairs foyer area - it would reduce the congestion upstairs. This open space could become a nice Sumo Lounge - if we could get Bawls back next year they could set up there.
2. Have some more chairs out for the concerts, but keep the middle area free for everyone who wants to stand. There is more than enough space on the left and right of the stage for some extra seating for anyone not interested in standing for the entire concert.
3. Since there is a PA Panel every day of PAX, give preferred access to these panels. Upon entry to the panel, Enforcers could hole-punch your badge to identify that you've already been to one of the PA Panels. This would make it easier to ensure that attendees who haven't been to a panel get preferred access before anyone who has already been to one. If there's room, people could wait on standby if they want to attend a second PA panel. Since the Comic panel is a little different, a third Q&A panel will have to be added! 8-)
4. Early Pre-Reg swag package! If you pay the early Pre-Reg price, you get a T-shirt and other cool swag! Maybe we could get in an hour or two earlier if we have Early Pre-Reg? Pretty Please?
5. More Small/Girly Tees. I'm a girl. I like t-shirts. I like t-shirts better when they fit. Please pass this on to the vendors and also the expo hall dealers who offered me a free L/XL t-shirt after I spent time to try out their game ("sorry, that's all we brought!"). I know they're considering their demographics, but there are more girls at PAX every year, so it wouldn't hurt to bring a bigger range of sizes!
6. Space out the Rock Band and Guitar Hero freeplay consoles. It got really noisy in one small room with four Rock Band and two Guitar Hero setups. At one point I was sitting at the drums for one and couldn't even hear the song I was supposed to be playing. I really liked the freeplay stage set up in the Atrium. Let's have more stages like this set up around PAX. One in the line room... one outside the expo hall... etc.
7. Make PAX a four-day weekend. Friday-Sunday is great but so packed full of stuff that there isn't enough time anymore. Thursday-Sunday would be bloody sweet.
8. Please mail/courier pre-reg passes to Canadian attendees. Please. Please, please, please. I would pay for shipping to avoid more line-waiting!
I thought this year's PAX was a load of fun, and it was great to say "see you next year" to people I just met at the start of PAX. I am already looking forward to PAX 2009, and hope I get to participate in the Cookie Brigade and the Button Exchange this time- I was so jealous of you guys!
Technally PA has a policy of "No booth babes" from what khoo told me.
They need to know about the product and be able to converse with the typical gamer on their level about the game. For the most part that was accomplished. Either by only using attractive employees that wanted to dress up or hiring attractive geek types.
The ones that come to mind were the set of 3-5 matching "princess" ladies at the booth in the lower right-hand corner (if you were standing at the door to the expo hall looking in). They made me feel extremely uncomfortable and I never even went near that booth because of that. Other folks that were more cosplay (like the lady dressed as an assassin to promote a game who would pose for pictures) don't bother me at all and I actually like seeing the costumes people come up with.
Other observations:
--Vendors in the Expo Hall need to be required to provide line management equipment of some sort, rather than just wrapping people around their booths. It will be easier to comply with fire codes about aisles and clearance if the lines are contained by a physical barrier, and will again increase line fairness.
Beleive it or not having barriers in such high traffic areas is a fire code violation in itself.
Really? Even the little retractable seat-belt ones? I know the fire codes have some weird shit in them and they get picky about the weirdest things, of course, it just surprises me that the little seat-belt ones would qualify as "barriers." Nothing you can do about the codes, of course, but if there's something available that would be great.
Heck, even taping a line area out on the floor would be better than nothing, that way there is a clear place for the line to form instead of the nebulous mob that slowly turns into a line. At the very least, make sure vendors have a plan in place for handling lines, especially those like RB2 and Dragon Age who will be having people wait for an hour plus at a time.
Good idea as well although I still wont have a nametag out of spite BigRed doesnt need a name tag
Not as long as you wear the cape, you don't. Many Enforcers do have distinguishing characteristics, especially at PAX, but it's unfair for them to be memorable while those who are more "normally" dressed are forgettable, at least when it comes to rant or rave recognition.
i experienced the same thing talking briefly to 2 or 3 of them bigred
Me too. I'm curious which ones you talked to Red, because the Sins girl was the only one I met that was even slightly knowledgeable. You must have some kind of radar.
On a lighter note, PAX 09 sponsored by Axe body spray??
Please god NO. This stuff literally causes me to choke and brings tears to my eyes, and I know many people with the same issue. The only person at PAX08 I actually hated was the guy spraying it at the Friday concert. It feels like your sinuses are bleeding.
I have to say that I totally agree with this. Many people are very sensitive to artificial scents and to subject these people to something so offensive would ruin the event for all affected.
First of all, people should know there isnt a magical massive amount of space available at the WSCTC. Sure the 6th floor is large but 5th floor? there is nothing there. The useable space on 5th floor is 2,000 sqft across 7 small offices. Quit dreaming of PAX doubling in floor space :P -snip-
I accept your challenge.
6th Floor = 6453 asses in seats at any one moment, and that is in mostly schoolroom (ie, PAX Panel) format.
2nd-5th Floors = 2765 total, and I actually was over-generous by using the "pack'em in" formats on those.
So we can see, the 6th floor, alone, has nearly 2.5 times the space of floors 2-5 combined. More than double the space.
I don't really know where you got your numbers from, but more important than seating numbers is probably square footage. The expo hall alone this year was over 94,000 square feet, and this number is not going to increase by a significant amount.
Based on what I've heard from Enforcers and responses to this thread, if I had to guess next year the following will happen:
1) The Expo Hall stays where it is
2) PC freeplay/BYOC moves upstairs to the main ballrooms
3) The existing PC space is turned into a number of smaller rooms with to allow a hallway to go through the middle to accommodate traffic from each side of the center.
4) Tabletop moves upstairs, utilizing one of the ballrooms and possibly several of the side rooms.
5) The "theaters" that are currently in some public spaces move into the larger rooms on the 6th floor
6) The existing PC area also connects to what was the line room this year, perhaps this could be utilized as well
There's a lot they can do with the 6th floor, but mostly it will allow for slight improvements in efficiency. It won't get rid of lines for the main theater or the Expo Hall.
Of course, I'm probably wrong on several counts here. And this whole thing is a year away. Lots can change.
i experienced the same thing talking briefly to 2 or 3 of them bigred
Me too. I'm curious which ones you talked to Red, because the Sins girl was the only one I met that was even slightly knowledgeable. You must have some kind of radar.
She talked? I spent 3 hours over the course of the weekend at the Stardock booth, and I never saw her open her mouth once.
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Moderator, PAX Prime 08, 09, 10, 10-East, panels on "Legal Issues in Gaming"
Contributing Editor, http://www.gamepolitics.com
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i experienced the same thing talking briefly to 2 or 3 of them bigred
Me too. I'm curious which ones you talked to Red, because the Sins girl was the only one I met that was even slightly knowledgeable. You must have some kind of radar.
She talked? I spent 3 hours over the course of the weekend at the Stardock booth, and I never saw her open her mouth once.
She did to me... then again I was enforcing at the time.
i experienced the same thing talking briefly to 2 or 3 of them bigred
Me too. I'm curious which ones you talked to Red, because the Sins girl was the only one I met that was even slightly knowledgeable. You must have some kind of radar.
She talked? I spent 3 hours over the course of the weekend at the Stardock booth, and I never saw her open her mouth once.
She did to me... then again I was enforcing at the time.
gertbeef talked to her briefly before he managed to insult her by asking if she was the secretary.
My only complaint is that all of the PC demo stations were raised... I understand its so people can watch from behind people playing, but for those in wheelchairs it sucked. I hate the awkwardness of reaching up to play a game.
Everything else was great as far as accessibility goes.
And hmm. On topic. Yeah. Lg/xl shirts are not the only size we wear. Vendors make note.
One and the same. Were you at PAX? I got a picture of me and ScAvenger001 outside my panel.
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0
SpawnOfCthulhuAlso that Snifit guy.Gig Harbor, WARegistered Userregular
edited September 2008
Man, I agree to the whole
"No booth babes policy" Almosteveryone who goes to these things is either
A) Married In a VERY serious relationship
C) A teenager
It makes it extremely awkward.
I just want to play the damn game, not have some chick come up and start bouncing around in her underwear. I CAN'T DO TWO THINGS AT ONCE DAMMIT.
Also, I'm really embarrased at some of the games I play with "Booth Babes".
Especially because most of them have spent 50+ hours with the game, and i'm just picking it up for the first time. Especially in the cases where you have the possibility to win swag.
For example:
The Rockstar booth had not exactly booth "babes" but very attractive women managing the booth.
They would challenge you to Midnight Club.
They would whip your sorry ass all around the place.
You would feel depressed.
You then go home and cry at the fact you just got pwnd (even worse than owned) by somebody hired off the street/catalog doing something most of us have been doing for a significant portion of our lives.
Posts
...Noone appreciates the ninja gorillas....
dunno if someone else already addressed the food thing, but there was a big food selling place in the exhibit hall near rockband 2, and many restaurants IN the convention hall, AND places across the street, there was plenty of food sold.
Broodax would have gotten through, and the big presentations could be set up through the enforcers or khoo.
Also, is there a way to school the Convention Center staff on what's going on? Some of them looked a little scared and/or angry at all the people. On Friday night for a time they refused to let people into Bandland while signings were still going on because the Exhibit Hall was closed and they said they were told no one could go "in there." Eventually they let people through but the some of ones I saw just seemed confused.
Yeah, this was my first PAX and I have to say that I'd love to see better line control. While I TOTALLY ADORED the Enforcers some of them that I dealt with were just a little overwhelmed with line/crowd control and ended up screaming, not calmly and loudly explaining, line instructions. They were really working hard and I didn't take it personal but after waiting for an hour in line to see a panel (Core vs. Casual Gaming) it's hard to deal with people screaming line instructions at you, especially when they change their minds three times in as many minutes on where they want you. "Dudes and dudettes", I wanted to say, "Chill. We're going to listen to you but it's called using your thoracic diaphragm and talking loudly and calmly. Stop yelling."
Also, I did notice that those of us who were waiting for the exhibit hall to open didn't actually get in before people who just walked up. I found myself thinking, "So why did I wait in line again? I could have used those hours to do other stuff."
More seating at the concerts would be nice and would it be possible to put some on platforms? Being 5'0" I spent the first couple of hours at the Friday concert not being able to see anything, even the screens. When I did move back to scrounge some seats (and there weren't many) for the Jonathan Coulton concert I could only see the screen because people on the house left side were sitting on the floor
Thanks for everything everyone who puts this together (staff and Enforcers). Even though I have suggestions I still totally loved PAX08 and even if nothing is planned different for PAX09 I'm still going to come back. Thanks!
To those who sugguested that booths go where the sumos were and the sumos go into a room...
uhh...
the sumos are in public space, you cant setup anything there, and what rooms were free? :P
Going to adress what I can here:
The problem with that is the sumos are techanlly in public space, you can only put so much in there before violating a billion different firecodes.
Hopefully that changes for next year. Theres a few places on the 6th floor where the WSCTC wont allow anything "hard" to be setup but sumos should be ok. Hopefully.
Yeah I worked things out with PA and the theater manager about it ahead of time.
THE BUTTON TROOP HAS CONNECTIONS YO
Not just anybody can walk something up onto stage :P The suprise was kind of ruined though becuase while we were setting it up backstage gabe showed up early and was peering over our sholders and was like "Hey guys, whats that?"
At least we covered up the button case in time so when tycho showed up he didnt see it :P
I wanted to clarify my earlier position on Q&A. I'm totally cool with the gifting. It was fun and led to some funny moments. The PAX community rocks and, like it or not, it is a dominant part of PAX. I am more concerned about the "Can you sign my shit?" or "I'm so sad I didn't get a T-shirt, please drop everything and deal with me." or "Thanks to Gabe, Tycho, and my mom" type of questions/comments.
Booth Babes: Nice scenery, as long as they know something about the games. I talked to a normal staffer at the EA booth that knew about as much about the games on display as my dog and booth babes at least look nice! :winky:
1) Have space cordoned off for the line. Wolfman Theater was able to implement this on Saturday, and it was very helpful.
2) Hand out tickets to those in line that will be collected when they enter the theater. This will stop line-jumpers, and could also be used as a part of a larger pre-reg system for panels. It would also allow people who show up early to get a seat to get their ticket, then go enjoy something else for 30 minutes or so before the doors open for the panel. I realize that people will still line up for tickets, but this would at least ensure that only people who waited get into the theater, and that people #124-130 don't get in because person 60 was "holding space" for six people.
3) Keep count of the people in line and put up a sign when the capacity has been reached. Wolfman Theater tried to do this with a "Sorry! I'm the Last in Line" sign system, but without enough a method to foil line-jumpers this may wind up hurting those further back in the line. This would either need multiple Enforcers to watch the line or a ticket system as I described above.
4) Post signage for when the doors open for each panel, don't assume that everyone knows it will be 15 minutes before the panel begins. This can be included as a blanket statement on the Theater sign (that already states the schedule), or via a whiteboard attached to the door/wall that is updated. If a ticket system is implemented, also post the time that tickets will be handed out (preferably not more than an hour prior to the panel start time).
5) Do not allow people to wait outside a full panel in hopes that someone will leave and they can get in. This is confusing to those lining up for the next panel, distracting to those in the panel, and rude to the panel members themselves. Again, I know that Wolfman Theater implemented this policy on Saturday but I can't speak for any others.
6) In addition to the ticket method, have a cut-off time for ticketholders to enter a panel. Let's say the panel is at 3:00pm - have the doors open to ticketholders at 2:40pm, and open the doors to any others in line at 2:50pm. Those with tickets who have wandered off can still get in before the non-ticket-holders, yet empty seats will be filled by those who didn't get a ticket.
7) Have at least two Enforcers working the door at a panel - one to take tickets/count heads, and one to watch the line to kick out line-jumpers or clueless passerby. If the line is split at some point due to a hallway, then put another Enforcer at that split point to enforce the line. If you only have two Enforcers assigned to a theater, you could add a band of three Enforcers that are assigned to two theaters to assist in line management as long as the panel start times between the theaters are split by a half-hour or so.
Line management is pretty important to me (and it seems to others here) as I have a strong sense of fairness and so I have thought about this quite a bit since last weekend. Hopefully these points will be helpful to those who run PAX and supervise the Enforcers.
~~~~~~~~~~
Other observations:
--Nix the booth babes, they did not add to the expo room and instead made me feel uncomfortable. I hate feeling like I'm going to be ambushed with something, and booth babes with no job other than to look pretty and hand stuff out are annoying.
--Vendors should make sure that the exhibitors staffing their booths have some clue about the product they are demo'ing, or at least know who to send questions to. I had some detailed questions about the Guitar Hero: World Tour drum set and the woman working the booth had zero idea how to answer them or even the knowledge of the product to understand some of my questions.
--T-Shirts or other items for pre-reg would be very awesome. It might be even better to have these available at preregistration, so that you can purchase your PAX '09 T-Shirt with your ticket and have them sent to you together.
--Vendors in the Expo Hall need to be required to provide line management equipment of some sort, rather than just wrapping people around their booths. It will be easier to comply with fire codes about aisles and clearance if the lines are contained by a physical barrier, and will again increase line fairness.
--Big ticket vendors should be spread out around the Expo Hall, they do not all need to be at the front doors. I'm sure someone has their panties in a twist about the "desirability" of different locations, but traffic flow has got to be a higher priority than making all the vendors happy.
--Find a way to increase foot traffic bandwidth between the Main Theater and Expo Hall areas, whether this involves a complete redesign of how the space is used or simply a corridor built out of 6' panels across part of the computer gaming section.
--Bring back the PA comic posters, I missed seeing them.
--Someone upthread suggested auctioning off some of the World Map and other banners used for PAX with the proceeds going to Child's Play - this should be implemented for sure. Throw in the banners that were outside on Pike Street for the last month as well and you'd have quite an auction all by itself.
--Ask the WSTTC to provide more trash cans and more recycling bins. I carried stuff around all the time because there was not a good place to get rid of it - and this is Seattle, there should be more recycling bins than trash cans for goodness sake!
--Ask the WSTTC to warn its vendors and staff of the size of the convention and its hours so that they are prepared for the onslaught. I felt pretty bad for the Subway staff on the fourth floor, I really hope they called in extra people or at least didn't keep their employees on longer than they were scheduled for.
--Provide the Enforcers with nametags beyond their badges (which are hard to read), or small cards with their names on them to hand out, so that if someone has a rant or rave they can report it and have it attributed to the right person. Most Enforcers use nicknames, so using those for this purpose would be fine, as I wouldn't want my real name to be available to everyone so it's not right to ask that of the Enforcers either.
--Improve handling of the line moving from the lineup room to the expo hall. I was in the first group going in on Saturday morning and some guys were just ducking under the rope on the fourth floor and joining us, bypassing the hundreds of people in line behind me. The Enforcers tried, but I still fussed at and shamed a few people who slipped in into getting back out of the group.
And as for the whole "family friendly" fiasco, in my opinion if you're 25 with an 8yo child, you're not really up for telling someone else what their morals should be. :P
PAX Prime Attendee since 2006, BYOC Attendee 2008-2012, Buttoneer 2010-2014
https://www.pinnypals.com/pals/alegria
I was going to go to that panel till I saw that one of the 3 guests was from Harmonix. I realized then it was going to be worthless. :P
Then coupled with the fact that after about 30 or so minutes of mooing around in the expo hall I had to go back and stand in the same damn line I had just gotten out of for the keynote and then to be subsequently turned away due to a full theater, I thought Friday seriously blew twatvomit.
I had fun on Sat and Sun tho. Thanks for again putting together another memorable expo.
You have some awesome ideas.
I fowarded your post to the line management manager (<-- lol)
Technally PA has a policy of "No booth babes" from what khoo told me.
They need to know about the product and be able to converse with the typical gamer on their level about the game. For the most part that was accomplished. Either by only using attractive employees that wanted to dress up or hiring attractive geek types.
I talked to a few the little time I was in expo and based on how much they knew the majority of them were just employees dressing up.
The majority of the booths were pretty good about that, a few had some typical PR types that just know how to spin info rather than those who made it, but there was a high number of developers in attendance who actually knew things.
Beleive it or not having barriers in such high traffic areas is a fire code violation in itself.
Meh, the front entrance of expo is the most expensive and desireable spot because its the first thing attendees see.
Just need people there to keep the lines moving during open/close.
That room wont be PC anymore (we are moving elsewhere) so that is already solved. PC has outgrown that space :P
I was talking to the subway manager during setup. He was like "yeah we got raped last year so I ordered 6 pallets of supplies, not losing business again"
That guy was pro. Subway rocked this year, didnt run out of much.
Good idea as well although I still wont have a nametag out of spite :P BigRed doesnt need a name tag :P
LOL pwned
It's really when "booth babes" are ONLY there for eye candy that people like me have a problem with.
The former scenario means that this was a person who was there to help market the game in a meaningful way. The latter scenario indicates that they were there hoping that the person's physical assets would bring people to the booth.
The former scenario is understandable, and no one has a problem with that. The latter scenario is unfortunate and demeaning: both to women in general (as it sets a "women are to be seen and not heard" tone), and to us gamers (who their choice of advertising seems to suggest that they think we're simpletons drawn to one game over another due to sexual desires).
That's just my take on it though. I know there's another whole thread for this kind of discussion further down the list.
Contributing Editor, http://www.gamepolitics.com
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Nice try, though. (it's a trap!)
EDIT: If I may add another point, even if she never talked to anyone (I passed her by a couple times, and I'm fairly certain that she was talking to someone about the game when I walked past at least once), she was more of a Cosplayer than a "Booth Babe". In her case, the outfit she wore was obviously (by its design) not meant to attract people to the booth due to sexual appeal... rather, it was meant to portray character. That's an entirely different advertising approach from "Oh, look, bewbs! You gamers like these, right?" (urgh! The stereotyped box we're fit into frustrates me so much...)
So in both aspects (the knowledgeable vs. unknowledgable, and the relevant costume vs. irrelevant sexualized marketing), the woman in the picture above doesn't at all represent a "Booth Babe".
Or maybe offer pre-reg's a chance to buy a PAX09 nametag with their name printed on it?
I'm jealous of those people with those pins: "My gamer tag is:"!
Oh - and I second the gamertag pins. Those would be cool.
http://www.logicalcreativity.com/jon/plush/01.html
You can talk to them about the game, more often than not they know a ton about it.
Aye, that kind of thing I've got no problem with at all... more power to 'em in that regard.
But if the woman at the booth is just there to be T&A to attract people to the booth though, that's where I draw the line on it... mostly because, as I said before, in that case it demeans both women AND us gamers. Because if a company stoops to that level, one can only imagine what they think of us as a community if they feel like a trick like that'll work on us.
I do agree with you that PAX's presence of the kind of "booth babe" I'm talking about is almost nonexistent compared to shows like E3 (ick), which bodes well for PAX.
Again, I'm not bothered, but I can see how some people are.
I know there was a booth near the Turbine booth that had a couple of women there in some skimpy outfits... and though they may have ended up being Devs for all I know, I did avoid the booth out of a kind of silent protest. The thought hadn't occurred to me that they might not just be booth babes (and might've just happened to be wearing that attire because it somehow fit whatever game they were working for), but I definitely felt like the physical display was perpetuating a stereotype about gamers that I didn't want to support, and I walked on.
6th Floor = 6453 asses in seats at any one moment, and that is in mostly schoolroom (ie, PAX Panel) format.
2nd-5th Floors = 2765 total, and I actually was over-generous by using the "pack'em in" formats on those.
So we can see, the 6th floor, alone, has nearly 2.5 times the space of floors 2-5 combined. More than double the space.
-P. J. O'Rourke
Also, Baelzar... the color you choose for your text is... blinding.
Those the counts from the WSCTC site?
They are kind of invalid for PAX. They let us use a lot of the "public space" (rockband stage, sumo lounges for a couple examples) on floors 2-4 for a lot of stuff thats not in any "official" count.
In my own personal predictions/opinions (no way affiliated with PA or its partners, yay disclaimer) 6th floor is best served as moving PC up to and for moving some of the satelite theaters up there.
I said the majority of them that I talked to in a previous post :P
Basically he took the original 8-bit songs from several games, added some back beats and a bit of bass, then composed a hip-hop song about the game / genre over the entire mix. I laugh everytime I listen to it.
Just a thought for a possible live performance next year.
/g
1. Move the Will Call and Registration lineups to the downstairs foyer area - it would reduce the congestion upstairs. This open space could become a nice Sumo Lounge - if we could get Bawls back next year they could set up there.
2. Have some more chairs out for the concerts, but keep the middle area free for everyone who wants to stand. There is more than enough space on the left and right of the stage for some extra seating for anyone not interested in standing for the entire concert.
3. Since there is a PA Panel every day of PAX, give preferred access to these panels. Upon entry to the panel, Enforcers could hole-punch your badge to identify that you've already been to one of the PA Panels. This would make it easier to ensure that attendees who haven't been to a panel get preferred access before anyone who has already been to one. If there's room, people could wait on standby if they want to attend a second PA panel. Since the Comic panel is a little different, a third Q&A panel will have to be added! 8-)
4. Early Pre-Reg swag package! If you pay the early Pre-Reg price, you get a T-shirt and other cool swag! Maybe we could get in an hour or two earlier if we have Early Pre-Reg? Pretty Please?
5. More Small/Girly Tees. I'm a girl. I like t-shirts. I like t-shirts better when they fit. Please pass this on to the vendors and also the expo hall dealers who offered me a free L/XL t-shirt after I spent time to try out their game ("sorry, that's all we brought!"). I know they're considering their demographics, but there are more girls at PAX every year, so it wouldn't hurt to bring a bigger range of sizes!
6. Space out the Rock Band and Guitar Hero freeplay consoles. It got really noisy in one small room with four Rock Band and two Guitar Hero setups. At one point I was sitting at the drums for one and couldn't even hear the song I was supposed to be playing. I really liked the freeplay stage set up in the Atrium. Let's have more stages like this set up around PAX. One in the line room... one outside the expo hall... etc.
7. Make PAX a four-day weekend. Friday-Sunday is great but so packed full of stuff that there isn't enough time anymore. Thursday-Sunday would be bloody sweet.
8. Please mail/courier pre-reg passes to Canadian attendees. Please. Please, please, please. I would pay for shipping to avoid more line-waiting!
I thought this year's PAX was a load of fun, and it was great to say "see you next year" to people I just met at the start of PAX. I am already looking forward to PAX 2009, and hope I get to participate in the Cookie Brigade and the Button Exchange this time- I was so jealous of you guys!
Raen
Thank you!
The ones that come to mind were the set of 3-5 matching "princess" ladies at the booth in the lower right-hand corner (if you were standing at the door to the expo hall looking in). They made me feel extremely uncomfortable and I never even went near that booth because of that. Other folks that were more cosplay (like the lady dressed as an assassin to promote a game who would pose for pictures) don't bother me at all and I actually like seeing the costumes people come up with.
Really? Even the little retractable seat-belt ones? I know the fire codes have some weird shit in them and they get picky about the weirdest things, of course, it just surprises me that the little seat-belt ones would qualify as "barriers." Nothing you can do about the codes, of course, but if there's something available that would be great.
Heck, even taping a line area out on the floor would be better than nothing, that way there is a clear place for the line to form instead of the nebulous mob that slowly turns into a line. At the very least, make sure vendors have a plan in place for handling lines, especially those like RB2 and Dragon Age who will be having people wait for an hour plus at a time.
Not as long as you wear the cape, you don't.
PAX Prime Attendee since 2006, BYOC Attendee 2008-2012, Buttoneer 2010-2014
https://www.pinnypals.com/pals/alegria
Me too. I'm curious which ones you talked to Red, because the Sins girl was the only one I met that was even slightly knowledgeable. You must have some kind of radar.
I have to say that I totally agree with this. Many people are very sensitive to artificial scents and to subject these people to something so offensive would ruin the event for all affected.
http://www.wsctc.com/our_space/space_details.aspx
I don't really know where you got your numbers from, but more important than seating numbers is probably square footage. The expo hall alone this year was over 94,000 square feet, and this number is not going to increase by a significant amount.
Based on what I've heard from Enforcers and responses to this thread, if I had to guess next year the following will happen:
1) The Expo Hall stays where it is
2) PC freeplay/BYOC moves upstairs to the main ballrooms
3) The existing PC space is turned into a number of smaller rooms with to allow a hallway to go through the middle to accommodate traffic from each side of the center.
4) Tabletop moves upstairs, utilizing one of the ballrooms and possibly several of the side rooms.
5) The "theaters" that are currently in some public spaces move into the larger rooms on the 6th floor
6) The existing PC area also connects to what was the line room this year, perhaps this could be utilized as well
There's a lot they can do with the 6th floor, but mostly it will allow for slight improvements in efficiency. It won't get rid of lines for the main theater or the Expo Hall.
Of course, I'm probably wrong on several counts here. And this whole thing is a year away. Lots can change.
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She talked? I spent 3 hours over the course of the weekend at the Stardock booth, and I never saw her open her mouth once.
Contributing Editor, http://www.gamepolitics.com
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And hmm. On topic. Yeah. Lg/xl shirts are not the only size we wear. Vendors make note.
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She did to me... then again I was enforcing at the time.
gertbeef talked to her briefly before he managed to insult her by asking if she was the secretary.
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Everything else was great as far as accessibility goes.
One and the same. Were you at PAX? I got a picture of me and ScAvenger001 outside my panel.
Contributing Editor, http://www.gamepolitics.com
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"No booth babes policy"
Almost everyone who goes to these things is either
A) Married
C) A teenager
It makes it extremely awkward.
I just want to play the damn game, not have some chick come up and start bouncing around in her underwear. I CAN'T DO TWO THINGS AT ONCE DAMMIT.
Also, I'm really embarrased at some of the games I play with "Booth Babes".
Especially because most of them have spent 50+ hours with the game, and i'm just picking it up for the first time. Especially in the cases where you have the possibility to win swag.
For example:
The Rockstar booth had not exactly booth "babes" but very attractive women managing the booth.
They would challenge you to Midnight Club.
They would whip your sorry ass all around the place.
You would feel depressed.
You then go home and cry at the fact you just got pwnd (even worse than owned) by somebody hired off the street/catalog doing something most of us have been doing for a significant portion of our lives.
That's it.
I'm done, I promise.
/rant