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WCTT (PAXTRAIN) 08: The After Action Report
Augustus
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
UPDATED : THIS IS WHERE THE PICS AND VIDEOS ARE AT
http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showpost.php?p=6893157&postcount=1099 < Gidgets Flicker set
HEY THERE!
PAXTRAIN was a success, minus a few whiners. This thread is for those of you who loved PAXTrain and are ready to roll out those lovely pictures and videos, discuss what went right and what went wrong (with civility), and plan for next year.
GEE GOLLY, COMMISSAR! WHAT IS ON THE TABLE FOR NEXT YEAR?
- At least one private coach car courtesy of AMTRAK (talks already beginning and they look promising)
- Our own party, Rapture, to happen on Saturday night
- A small freebie bag for all attendees
- More video action
HOW WAS THIS POSSIBLE?
I didn't do it all. SHOUT OUTS TO THE FOLLOWING PEEPS:
RCars2 (Rob) - the Comms Officer!
TNTrooper (Trevor) - the Console Officer TWO YEARS RUNNING!
Puny Human (Clement) - the Night Shift Comms Officer!
Highfire (John) - Security Chief TWO YEARS RUNNING!
Raiden333 (Ollie) - Security!
AND MANY MORE
What makes PAXTrain possible is so many, so many people step up to the fucking plate - running RPGA-cert'ed D&D, joining in on Rock Band, keeping things cool.
WAAAH I DIDN'T LIKE PAXTRAIN
GET OUT
http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showpost.php?p=6893157&postcount=1099 < Gidgets Flicker set
HEY THERE!
PAXTRAIN was a success, minus a few whiners. This thread is for those of you who loved PAXTrain and are ready to roll out those lovely pictures and videos, discuss what went right and what went wrong (with civility), and plan for next year.
GEE GOLLY, COMMISSAR! WHAT IS ON THE TABLE FOR NEXT YEAR?
- At least one private coach car courtesy of AMTRAK (talks already beginning and they look promising)
- Our own party, Rapture, to happen on Saturday night
- A small freebie bag for all attendees
- More video action
HOW WAS THIS POSSIBLE?
I didn't do it all. SHOUT OUTS TO THE FOLLOWING PEEPS:
RCars2 (Rob) - the Comms Officer!
TNTrooper (Trevor) - the Console Officer TWO YEARS RUNNING!
Puny Human (Clement) - the Night Shift Comms Officer!
Highfire (John) - Security Chief TWO YEARS RUNNING!
Raiden333 (Ollie) - Security!
AND MANY MORE
What makes PAXTrain possible is so many, so many people step up to the fucking plate - running RPGA-cert'ed D&D, joining in on Rock Band, keeping things cool.
WAAAH I DIDN'T LIKE PAXTRAIN
GET OUT
I belong to no organized party. I am a Democrat. - Will Rogers
Augustus on
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This discussion has been closed.
Posts
*Pictochat*
THE PACT IS SEALED
I know there's a few people who flew down here just to take the trip up.
We need to talk more about Rapture. This needs to happen. A lot.
Organizer of the Post-PAX Party. You should come!
Satellite Theater for life!
I'm considering pooling an extra couple of hundred dollars to grab a flight to LAX and get in on the train trip next year.
I'll have to see if I can budget that.
~ Buckaroo Banzai
- Internet setup involving less clutter (all the cables were a nightmare, gonna make a stand to hold everything)
- Improved internet connection (bigger antennae with higher gain and built in ground plane, redundant connections, and possibly even distributed bandwidth across multiple cards for more speed)
- Intranet site for updates while on board (similar to the http:\\pax site available to the BYOC people)
- Better notification of internet status (something better than post-it notes)
- More organized PC freeplay (more games geared towards everyone and a server in a much smaller case)
This is just whats swimming in my head now. Its a year off but im preparing much better this time so its not all rushed at the end.
Thats not a bad idea actually. Would make it easier to stow away in my suitcase too. Only bitch will be the larger antenna but i think thats collapsible. I'll make it work either way. On top of everything else it would look classy too. 8-)
LOL, no promises but ill see what i can do. 8-)
I thought about it last year, but I've gotta start paying off student loans in a few months, so it's not really a good use of money.
I really don't want to hijack this thread like the last one... but since i didn't get a chance to post my comments on that thread before it got locked, i will here.
Myself and 5 friends rode the pax train both ways for the last 2 years, and i gotta say, we enjoyed 2007's experience a hell of a lot better than 08, and it was primarily because there was *less* organization. Granted we are disadvantaged to begin with due to our late arrival on the trip (southern oregon), but even still, let me recap our experience.....
Board train, some guy comes up before we even have our tickets into the conductors hand and have been seated, telling us that he is in charge and not to go to the observation car until 2:30 because "we just got shut down".... sorry man, but guess what... I'm a ticketed customer, i'm going to use whatever amenities i want, and i don't feel the need to wait 3 hours because of whatever it was you guys did before we even got on the train and got "shut down" for.....
Act 2: you show back up all excited about a waiver which makes absofuckinglutely no sense to have...
Act 3 & 4 are pretty much like act 2, but its our "2nd chance" to sign it... and then our "final chance" or we won't be able to be in the group picture.
You totally rubbed us the wrong way... Maybe part of the problem was that none of us had gotten the memo that there was a need for a "pax train staff" and there there were people "in charge".... pax train 07 was a fucking blast because there was no organization... there was no staff... just people going to PAX getting to know each other, randomly roaming the train and having fun..... and guess what, the train still got there, and all was well with the world....
Anyway, just wanted to pass on our experience... and again, not intending to hijack this thread again.... feel free to plan what-the-fuck-ever awesomeness crazy stuff you want for next year, just keep in mind that there are those of us on the train that totally dig going to pax on the train and hanging out with cool people, but with LESS "officialness" and self appointed leadership.
Also as a constructive comment.... we need a PAX hat-check card that everyone can print out and slide into the overhead rack (coach people) next to the SEA destination sign that amtrak puts up there...that would make it really obvious who is a paxican and who is not.
… and also ladiez
I’m in the process of dumping all my tapes onto my hard drive. Even with out the four PAXTrain tapes from the trip up that I handed off to enforcers to give to Hicks and PorkFry for the DVD, I still have seven tapes of PAX goodness to dump. in the mean time . . . while rewinding tapes . . . I’ll be uploading pics from the SD card so I can get them posted ASAP . . . I would ask that anyone who requested that I not post something I filmed of you that you PM me and remind me what it is. I know I got at least one request, and the only reason I remember is he/she reminded me in the main WCTT thread (Which I read on a DS while still on the train.) I don’t, however, remember who they were.
{Fondly remembers the PAXTrain}
This PAX train was different in a few ways. For one, people brought more expensive equipment. I for one didn't want to have to worry about my TV while I was sleeping, I was happy to know there was someone taking care of that kind of thing. For two, there were enough of us on the train this time to cause palpable tension between us, the rest of the passengers, and the staff.
I've been considering this, and I think it's achievable with only one car. Getting a car with an arcade area is the less optimal option. No seating. Useless hunks of metal in the way everywhere. We should get one of the cars with seating downstairs, and designate that the hang out. We could set up a TV, play video games, and watch movies down there. Upstairs would be the quiet area. When I was exploring that room on train 14 it seemed like it would be a great theater like setup if we could manage to get a TV up high in the front.
We'll probably still need to spread out, but this would be add a much needed space to relax in.
thank you.
Flying sucks. Can't bring my own alcohol, geek out for an extra couple days, sleep for any extended period of time, etc.
3ds friend code: 2981-6032-4118
You can't bring your own alcohol on the train either.
To address your argument, point by point.
First, do realize that 100 people going to a convention who all want to be in the observation deck to not constitute a bunch of random people, to Amtrak they are a flash mob, and their job is to maintain order on a train for all passengers. They get itchy when 100 people are hanging around with no clear leader, because this means they have to babysit us and are more than likely to simply close the car and send people back to their seats then let something go on without their control.
Someone has to be in charge, because without clear leadership amtrak will impose their leadership, and they don't get why you want to be in the observation car at 4am.
As for the waver, it was explained to everyone, as soon as they got on, because we were filming the entire thing for the PAX DVD. Legally, you have to allow your image to be used in such documentaries and because you refused to sign, we now have to find every clip with you in it, and blur your face out. Way to ruin the DVD, prick. I'm sorry you can't think beyond yourself for 30 fucking seconds but it is massively easier if we could have gotten everyone on the pax train to sign the waver, and the reason it is done immediately after boarding is so you don't appear in the documentary before you sign it.
As for next year, PAX Train as the official organized trip will have its own private cars and much of these problems will be taken care of, but to make it clear. Those who choose to use the reduced rate such a thing will give us will be implicitly accpecting the fact this is ran and organized by people and you will be expected to behave as such. If you don't want to participate and you just want to sit on a train, bored and excluded because you can't handle an ounce of order, you are more than welcome to.
I am sorry you failed to join in, PAX Train 2008 was amazing and for 100 people we managed to both not get kicked off the train, and have fun, to that point I consider it an amazing success.
IT
STOP
Hammertime.
do do do do
EDIT: I wish someone had earned the $50 Squirminator offered to whoever could do the dance.
Didn't feel that way in 07
3ds friend code: 2981-6032-4118
Hip flask + can of pepsi = concealed win. Plan for next year: they sell those little tiny bottles of booze for like $5 a nip, right? I'll buy one at the start of the trip, and keep that next to my whiskey and pepsi. Resonable doubt if staff walks by and catches a whiff.
I'm affiliated with Penny Arcade Expo's West Coast Train Trip, a collective trip on the Coast Starlight from Los Angeles, CA, to Seattle, WA. We use AMTRAK to travel to Penny Arcade Expo, a massive (60,000+ people) video game/computer/electronics convention held every year in Seattle. The reason we use AMTRAK is because we coordinate with participants all across the West Coast, and get everyone together on the train for a sort of mini-convention prior to the expo in Seattle. We just finished our 2008 trip over Labor Day weekend.
The reason I'm e-mailing is because on this last trip, we did not register with AMTRAK as a group. Aside from missing out on the discount, we also had difficulties because our members were spread across multiple cars, because the staff wasn't fully aware of our presence on the train, and because the passengers weren't aware of our presence on the train. Overall our experience was very good, but the consensus among our members was that we might be able to make it better by more effectively communicating with AMTRAK. I do not know if we've registered as a group in years prior, but I do know that this last year, we did not. We're a pretty unique group, bringing lots of electronics on board like LCD televisions, X-Box gaming consoles, and even equipment to establish a working, wireless Internet connection on the train (via cellular networks). For the most part the staff and passengers were wonderful and willing to let us set this equipment up on the train, but as you can imagine, there were some who were not so cooperative and frustrated with us. In the case of the latter, I think this was because they had no idea that such a large and unique group would be on board, and they weren't prepared for what they had to deal with on the train. The passengers on the train were also a mixed bag - some of them enjoyed our presence, while others were rude and hard to deal with. Again, I think this is because they were uninformed, but also because we were in effect annexing their cars instead of staying in a designated area specifically for us, which is what we would liked to have done.
What I'm wondering from you is whether registering with AMTRAK as a group far in advance would make our trip easier. What I would like to see is for us to have one or two cars dedicated to our members (100+ this year, and we grow every year by a large number of people), better relations with the train staff and passengers who will know and expect us, and of course, a discount. In your opinion, would registering with AMTRAK accomplish these things? What, exactly, would we gain by registering with AMTRAK? I'm really interested in specifics, and if you need any more information I can certainly provide it. My goal is to have everything ironed out and predicted as accurately as I can, as far in advance as I can, before the trip next year.
Thank you very much for your time and consideration,
- Jace Proctor
Here was their reply:
Thank you for your inquiry into a Group trip from Los Angeles, CA to Seattle, WA for next years Penny Arcade Expo Convention.
What you are looking into doing is not normally available as far as people joining a group by boarding the train down line. Our policy is a group will get on and off the train at the same locations. I spoke with a supervisor on this issue and here is what was decided.
You are looking at booking an Exclusive Occupancy of 1-2 coach cars for the Coast Starlight train. Those cars hold 74 passengers each. You would actually purchase for 74 or 144 passengers from Los Angeles to Seattle and if the space was approved you would have 1-2 cars to work with. We would than have to work with our persons that work with and onboard the train to see if you could have ? number of people boarding at this city and or that city. It would be up to them for the approval of that possibility.
The advantage of booking as a group is that you are boarded and seated together. You can qualify for a discount of up to 20% off. The disadvantage of booking an Exclusive Occupancy of a 74 seat car is if you only have 20 passengers, you still pay for all 74 seats.
Another choice would be if passengers could board at 1 or 2 stops other than Los Angeles, would be to book your basic reservation from Los Angeles to Seattle and then book a different reservation for 20 or more from, say San Jose to Seattle and a different reservation or 20 or more to travel from Sacramento, (Klamath Falls, OR, or Eugene, OR) to Seattle. Then we would cross reference the reservations and they would all be connected for travel. Again, we don’t know for certain if these would work. These are merely possibilities to work with.
Unfortunately, the issue really cannot be addressed until you are ready to book for next years convention. We book 11 months ahead and you always have a better chance of the lower prices and of exclusive occupancy if booked as far ahead as possible.
Please contact the Group Sales Department Monday through Friday between 6:00am – 4:30pm PT at 1-800-872-1477 for assistance.
Thank you for considering Amtrak. We look forward to assisting you with your travel plans. Please send all responses or inquiries to groupsales@amtrak.com
Regards,
Amtrak Group Sales
Internet Requests
Cc:JEH
So, it sounds like the first thing we need to do is get 74 people together who are boarding in L.A. and buy a car.
Organizer of the Post-PAX Party. You should come!
Satellite Theater for life!
EDIT: One concern - I don't think we want to mention Penny Arcade so prominantly in our communications without clearing it with Khoo first. They may not want to be associated so directly with the trip, for any nubmer of reasons.