What are you going to do for the next PAX (East or Prime)?
What I learned: The train is only good for 3-4 hour rides, other then that the time lost is worse.
An early Friday arrival is best. Leaving late Sunday is good too.
Bring Baby Powder
Bring a Bucket to sit on crip walking every time you get up after a long stint on the concrete floors isn't fun. Plus you can hold stuff in it.
Always always always have Cash.
One clip, one kill.
I am a monster truck that walks like a man.
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Join the PAX Train(12hr drive ftl)
More cash to fund the habit
Create some awesome fan run event
WoW - US Quel'Dorie - Daxius DwPr(Disc/Shadow) 80
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You don't want to take the train since you are coming from Baltimore. I did the same thing and It was grueling.
I am a monster truck that walks like a man.
On Thursday, I was apprehensive that I'd fall into some sort of stereotype by being nerdy, but by Sunday, I found myself wishing I'd dressed up more.
Setting aside more cash for swag.
Getting into the queue room on Day 1 at least two hours before opening.
Setting aside more time for demos and tabletop gaming.
After time adrift among open stars
Among tides of light and to shoals of dust
I will return to where I began
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Origin story of costume:
- "Dude, where did you get a Bowser costume?"
- "I got drunk and ordered it from China on eBay."
-start prepping weeks in advance with walking, feet were killing us friday and saturday night
-get a DS of some form, was very jeolous of those around me, have always been curious but haven't had a portable game unit since grey/white gameboy
-plan out meals better, maybe bring food rather then spending big bucks on restaurant food
-meet more people, play more games with strangers, need to kick and scratch my way out of this anti-social shell
Yeah, PAX really revitalized my desire to lose weight. My current goal is to drop at least a shirt size by next year's PAX East, and I think I can do it.
Back to the gym tomorrow morning, dammit!
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Did you take the PAX Train with all the other PAXers or just a train by yourself? There's a big difference between the two.
-Look into getting a huge meeting room at the Sheraton for pre and post PAX events for the community
-Find more 18+ (not 21+) places to grab some food and entertainment at
-Kick back and relax a bit more. I was far too wound up at PAX East 2010.
To make it worse I was chosen to go to Florida by my company on an all expense paid vacation - so 40 coworkers and spouses on the beach/pool at the end of May. I really need to get myself down to just 1 x in my shirt size
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-Bring cell phone wall charger
-3 day pass!
* Wear a Costume (40k was not properly represented at PAX)
* Buy official PAX apparel on Day 1
* Take that Friday off from work. (going down to PAX at 5 was nice because i didn't have to use a vacation day, but i sure missed out on things)
* Bring My laptop with me
* Bring Drinks (a 6 pack of soda was much cheaper than 1 drink at the event. They did not stop you from bringing external food)
* Bring a pack of sorts to hold all SWAG and needed items.
2. Making sure I know how to play Assassins before signing up for it.
3. Prioritizing a bit better
-Because of my delay in decision making/prioritizing events, I missed the X-play signing, PA signing, Naughty Dog panel, and IGN bar party. Boo me.
4. Learn demos of tabletop games early as they sell out of stuff REALLY fast!
*edit*
5. Buying merch on day one, hour one. Period. Likely to be nothing left on hour two.
I am a monster truck that walks like a man.
Hmm...maybe we should make a thread about it? We can't be the only fatties who want to drop tons before the next PAX East.
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Trying to hang out with members of the gaming community (ex, a dinner). The last two P.A.X. primes I was all by myself.
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"I don't know why people ever, ever try to stop nerds from doing things. It's really the most incredible waste of time." - Tycho
* AVOID HYNES. (In the unlikely event that PAX East is there in 2011, I'll just go to Prime instead thankyouverymuch. Hynes was ill-equipped on pretty much every level to handle the crush of people. Also, while Enforcers were with one exception amazingly awesome, the convention center staff were predominantly jerks.)
* Try to find the extra cash to not have to take the red-eye train home.
* Bring somewhat warmer clothes.
* Try to hide location of nearest Starbucks from girlfriend
* Eat at the convention center, rather than waste precious Con time dicking around at slammed restaurants
* Avoid the corned beef hash
* Sign up for D&D sessions earlier
* Bring food items like trail mix, etc, to stave off mealtimes AND save money
* Avoid the Hilton. By Hilton standards, it was a shithole. Had a rotten time. I have never felt so nickel-and-dimed in my life. Awful.
(Best decisions: PAX Train, BYOC, signing up for PlayOn's HDTV raffle)
A: "What do you want from me?!?!?"
I say a biggest loser PAX attendee challenge, percentage based. Winner gets 2 3-day passes to next PAX East!
WoW - US Quel'Dorie - Daxius DwPr(Disc/Shadow) 80
Give Back to those who serve us Become a Black Pie Day Pieoneer!
-- Buy a Goddamn DS. Possibly pick up a 360. Bring Zombie Dice.
-- Bring a reusable grocery bag from home or a smaller-sized backpack (I was golden until I decided to buy the books collection)
-- Bring others. It sucks going by yourself, even to something such as PAX (my wife and daughter came along for the trip, but did non-PAX stuff)
-- Find a way to enjoy 6+ total hours in line while watching others prance along enjoying themselves (see second point above?).
Also, I want to do a different cosplay as well (anyone have any suggestions? I was Vanille this year and would prefer a character with read hair as I am loathe to dye my hair or get a wig because I'm lazy. But I would like to try a more difficult costume, I think).
And I definitely want to actually be there for the keynote and all the panels I want to see, rather than missing most of them. And I want to spend some time in console freeplay, because I didn't actually play that many games this PAX since I was busy trying to get to panels.
The amount of attendance at Hynes was unprecedented. The wheels are already in motion and PAX East 2011 will be at the BECE.
Vapok
Spend more time playing board and table-top games.
No more magic tournaments. I usually do one a year.. But the cost and time to be trounced that hard is not worth it anymore.
Loose more weight. I lost 25lbs before PAX East and it helped tremendously. I had more energy and stamina. However I was still a wretch when it ended.
Look at the sizes of stuff I bought. I took it on face value that when I asked for an XXL I would get an XXL.
Be a bit more outgoing. I brought a number of games that I enjoy playing, but never got a group to play. I need to try a bit more to get folks attention to the awesomeness that is "Give me the Brain" and "Deduce or Die!".
Also, I can count to "boat".
Also, getting peoples Steam IDs would have been a good idea
This list kinda got away from me, but these are my 'New PAX Resolutions', as well as some of the things I did right this time around.
Things I did differently this PAX
Things I Did perfectly from the start, by sheer luck as much as anything:
- See the Scott Kurtz panel if he's doing another one (it was either him or the Saturday concert - hard one to choose between)
- Go see the classic arcade room (can't believe I missed that!)
- Get to the merchandise booth a lot earlier
- Cosplay (I already have something in mind and it's not anime or video game related. I'm crap at creating costumes so this one will be easy but clever)
And for those who didn't do it this time, I strongly encourage two things for future PAXs:
-Attend after parties. They were so much fun! I met some amazing bloggers and got my ass handed to me at Tetris and Street Fighter at the Gamers Gone Wild party.
-Start a conversation with a stranger. Most people at PAX won't bite, and we've all got a little bit of awkward in us. Just ask what our favorite part of PAX has been or what our favorite game is, and you've got yourself a long conversation with people that share your interests! I loved meeting people this way.
As for the PAX Biggest Loser thing, I'd definitely talk to the organizers and suggest that, but also make it a per event thing. Like Biggest Loser: East and Biggest Loser: Prime, so that if you want to go to one over another, you can make that choice.
-Make sure to spend some sort of time in the console/classic freeplay. I didn't play anything but Steel Battalion at their dedicated room
-Meet more people. It was just me and a buddy, and I met no one at the convention. Hooray for social anxieties! Would have been nice to make some new friends
-Make sure to hunt out more swag. Apparently hoodie codes for XBL were given out somewhere during the con, I didn't know anything about this. Now I see I have missed out.
-Do some after hours stuff. I was just too wiped out, and went back to the room to crash pretty much every night.
-Bring some more gaming stuff with me. Like some vintage handhelds like Game Gear or Lynx, fun conversation starters, and a little something different than the typical DS/PSP crowd.
EDIT:
-Make/bring business cards so people can track me down after the con.
-Lurk less on the boards so I can be more apart of this fine community
-Take more photos!
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- Talk with more people. At my age friends are fading away faster and faster. Less time to spend gaming and more time... doing whatever it is they do with their free time now. It was nice to be around so many people that still find plenty of time for gaming, video, table top, cards, whatever it is. It was nice for a short time to be around other gamers.
- Bring a camera, durrrrrr
- Learn to play Magic, Settlers and some others that everyone but me were playing
- Play more games! Only spent about an hour in the PC free play room all weekend.
- I like the business card idea that people have mentioned, met some cool people that I'll probably never talk to again.
PAX was sort of a religious awakening to me, the nerd gods spoke to me from their beanbag chairs saying "you need to play wow less, you dont need 5 level 80's... play some new, different games!" So yea, I'll be playing a bigger variety of games so I can play them @ PAX next year
they were given out in the queue room on sunday afternoon before the closing ceremony, and they seemed to go pretty fast. at least that was the only place/time i saw them being handed out.
Get some athletic tape and wrap your feet before you put on socks/shoes.
Best thing Ive ever done. not a single blister, just sore feet (easily recoverable).
All you gotta do is put tape over the places where you usually get blisters.