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PAX East 2012 BYOC Info/FAQ - Post-Event Feedback starts on page 14

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  • thr4sherthr4sher Registered User regular
    edited April 2012
    So there was another thread that got pretty out of hand. I didnt want to get involved in that one, but I do have a few suggestions that I think could be helpful. Lets keep this one civil ok?

    As I mentioned in the main pax suggestion thread, if we can get the byoc moved further away from the expo next time that would be a huge help. It got REALLY loud in the byoc to the point where I couldnt really hear anything that was being announced in there. Last year the byoc and freeplay areas were in separate rooms, but in 2010 they were both in the same room. I think that was the best setup so far. I understand the location of the byoc may not be totally up to the enforcers so im not pointing fingers, just making a suggestion.

    As for the whole casual vs. competitive argument that dominated the last thread. Let me get into that a little bit...

    [speech]

    As a competitive gamer I will say I was a little let down by the lack of an organized tournament for any fps game. For me its not really about prizes. Last year my friends and I won the TF2 tournament and we all got SSDs from intel. I didnt need mine so I gave it away to someone in the byoc who could actually use it. I cant speak for all the competitive gamers but for me I just really enjoy the organized structure and the intensity that comes with competitive play. Thats just a personal thing, not everyone enjoys that style of play but at the same time not everyone enjoys just random pubbing all the time. I understand not wanting to give all the prizes to competitive gamers, that wouldnt be fair to the casual players and I totally support that idea. The thing is that people enjoy winning a prize. The random goofball events are fun, and are always good for a laugh (I dont think i ever laughed so hard as I did during the spaghetti tower contest in 2011 lol), but people do these events to try to win the prizes. People wouldnt line up from one end of the room to the other to throw decks of cards into a box for hours just to do it. They want to win the prize. I honestly feel that a raffle is the way to go. The fact that we ended up doing a raffle this time gave me an idea. You could still give out prizes for whatever events you want, but if you keep most of the prizes for a raffle on sunday and give people a chance to win raffle tickets for other events like the goofball stuff or tournaments that could work really well. Everyone gets a ticket for each seat they bought, and say you do a counter-strike tournement and you get a bunch of pro CS players who show up and win it and they each get a few additional raffle tickets as a prize. Im sure they would be happy to be able to play the game the way they like to play it, and the CHANCE of maybe winning a prize in the raffle.

    I understand pax isnt about tournaments, because the majority of the players are casual gamers and that wouldnt be fair to them. The thing is that there are also a lot of people who come that DO enjoy tournaments, and its not fair to us that we dont get to play the way we like to play. Most of the games out there that are really successful in the competitive scene are the same games that are the most popular with casual players as well. CS (1.6/source), TF2, SC2, LoL... those are easily the most popular competitive games, and if you look around the byoc these are also the same games you see people playing casually. Last year there was a TF2 tournament and the signup was capped at 16 teams. That filled up FAST and there were still lots of teams who wanted to sign up. We convinced them to allow more teams and I think we ended up with like 25 teams or something. There were a good 5 or 6 teams filled with competitive TF2 players, but the rest were casual players who wanted to try it. I talked to a lot of them after the tournament and most of them really had fun with it even if they didnt win. It was a new way to play a game they already love.

    My point is we are all gamers and there is no reason for a casual vs. competitive argument. As a competitive player I know that the competitive scene (for any game) grows because casual players get into it and get good. I dont look down on casual players at all and im always happy to help them if they want to try getting into the competitive scene. I think this whole stance (at most lans, not just pax) on being anti-tournament comes from people who want to win all the best prizes in a tournament. Im happy with just playing a tournament because thats how I enjoy playing. If you do a raffle and reward tournament winners with an extra few raffle tickets they should be happy with that, and if they dont like it then too bad for them.

    [/speech]

    Ok so yeah... the other thing I wanted to suggest was a set schedule. I know red had stuff planned that got screwed up due to the network issues, so im not ranting about it or anything but ive been to every pax east byoc and a lot of the time it seems like random stuff happens with little or no notice, and because there is usually a prize involved everyone drops what they are doing to participate. This tends to really kill the flow of gaming. I always feel like everytime we get a good game going thats when an event starts and it kills the game. If we see a daily schedule on the screen and intranet saying like "paper airplanes at 10pm" we know not to try to get a game going at 9:30 =/

    I say no random events/contests/tournaments during expo hours so everyone has a chance to explore pax. Anyone who wants to play during expo hours obviously can if they want, but people dont have to worry about missing anything by going to explore during that time. Once the expo closes all the fun stuff in the byoc can really get going. I saw some comments in that other thread about the byoc not being a big serious lan or anything, but we usually have around 300 people... thats pretty damn big lol. These are people who lug their systems all the way to boston, and most of them want to play games! The enforcers and other staff put a lot of work into getting the network up and running so we CAN play. Its not "just a place to hang out" as someone said. This IS a LAN and besides seeing friends its the biggest reason I come to pax and I know im not the only one who feels that way. It certainly did feel like most of the lan servers were pretty empty most of the time this year. I would love to see more people actually playing on the servers next time, and I think a set schedule would be a HUGE help. Also, during times when nothing is going on the enforcers could use the PA system to encourage people to play a certain game so we can fill some servers up and have some fun.



    That about does it for me. I certainly hope I didnt offend anyone with this post, im just trying to give some feedback and make some suggestions so that hopefully everyone has fun next time. I appreciate all the work everyone puts into the byoc, and I hope next year is the best year yet.

    anyone who posts in reply to this please keep it civil.

    thr4sher on
  • WobbitWobbit Registered User regular
    Burn the cape.

  • BigRedBigRed Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    Jonoseel wrote: »
    tell intel to put the pictures up on there picasa

    Those pictures are in my possession (at least the prize pics are) and will go up as soon as I get home. I am in Detroit right now. I should have time to upload them tomorrow after I get home from work.

    <MoeFwacky> besides, BigRed-Worky is right
  • thorkonthorkon Registered User regular
    That picture with the jail cell is extremely satisfying.

    At op, probably should redirect this to the byoc thread. That's where most of the discussion is.

  • HaterotHaterot Registered User regular
    edited April 2012
    sigma8 wrote: »


    IMO, they need to get permission to do a bag check. I wonder if it really is illegal to require bag checks. I live in Massachusetts and feel like my bag gets checked fairly regularly by various places.

    I think Red has mentioned that requiring a bag check is not an option and I would have to agree. Mandating it or signing off on one as a provision of a BYOC ticket may not fly either. I only suggested RFID as that is a viable active system that could help. But let's face it, if the asshat who did steal gear was part of BYOC no security technology is going to circumvent them. They know what to look for and what to avoid. RFID will only be viable with one "solid" way in and out of BYOC. Also it comes down to honor among thieves. Which, again I hope was there, and those responsible for the 5-finger discounts came form outside our group.

    Haterot on
    steam_sig.png
  • BigRedBigRed Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    thorkon wrote: »
    That picture with the jail cell is extremely satisfying.

    At op, probably should redirect this to the byoc thread. That's where most of the discussion is.

    Yes, put everything BYOC related in the BYOC thread instead of spreading it around the forum.

    Also I have never been so happy to see a banned symbol as I am right now.

    <MoeFwacky> besides, BigRed-Worky is right
  • lirelentlirelent Registered User regular
    I know for a fact that BigRed does a ton to make BYOC what it is. The fact is he got stabbed in the back by the other groups of people supporting BYOC/PC freeplay. I think he did a great job of pushing everyone and their mother to resolve the issues. The reality is that a lot of the issues were mostly worked out by the time I came in on Saturday.

    With all the unfortunate bashing going on, I just wanted to go on record as saying THANK YOU BigRed for making the best of a bad situation.

  • BigRedBigRed Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    I posted takeaways in the OP.

    <MoeFwacky> besides, BigRed-Worky is right
  • VapokVapok Just a Guy. BostonRegistered User regular
    edited April 2012
    I'd like to just give an update and report on PC Security...

    First off, I think that overall, the PC Security staff did a great job. Here were the factors that we had to deal with during PAX East 2012:
    1) Boundary between Expo and BYOC
    2) Huge Common Area creating two entrances.
    3) Unplanned Choke Hold on the "main entrance" to BYOC.
    4) Duplicate Barcodes - Check In/Out Issues
    5) Prizing Gone Missing

    Overall, with the staff that PC Security had, we did an amazing job at providing the security that we can provide. There were only a few isolated events that occurred where people entered BYOC without a BYOC badge, and those events were dealt with swiftly. All things considered, I feel as though without as much planning and execution that was had to ensure the safety of the equipment in BYOC, it could've been a far worse experience.

    So let's talk about the points above.

    Boundary Between Expo and BYOC
    One of the major concerns going into the planning of BYOC and the PC Room this year was the Pipe and Drape boundary that had to be put up to separate Expo from the PC Room. This was a major security risk and one that I took to heart personally and as professionally as I could. In addition, I wanted this to be a boundary that was not very busy, and that the security measures placed within it weren't a distraction to add on top of all other distractions this year. All things considered, the security measures put into place on the Pipe and Drape wall were a success and I'm happy to report that there were ZERO Attendee infractions during the convention. We had 2 Exhibitor infractions which I dealt with personally as soon as it was reported to me.

    I want to heavily thank the MCCA Public Safety and Staff for working with me and PC Security together for the same cause. We both knew how important that boundary line was. They provided us a Security Guard that sat inside of the pipe and drape wall the entire time. They provided us metal bike barriers as they're called (even made a special delivery on Thursday of that barrier direct from the Hynes convention center without extra cost). I had direct access to all levels of Public Safety and was able to notify them immediately if issues arose (which they didn't).

    To the best that I could, I felt as though this seemingly thin barrier between Expo and PC was almost as effective as a solid wall with two points of entry, which is typically the type of room that the BYOC is put into. I also want to mention that there were reports of equipment stolen from other areas of PAX within the BCEC, but within the PC Room, no MAJOR pieces of equipment were stolen.

    Take Away: Do our best to have a solid wall, however, all things considered, the ability for my team to manage the wall and provide a secure environment from that side was a success.

    Huge Common Area Creating Two Entrances
    If anyone wants to point fingers on the layout of the PC Room as it relates to the BYOC room, feel free to point them at me. I was one of the four or five people who were very closely trying to organize the layout of the PC Room, and it's definitely difficult to tell from planning to reality how a room is going to function. All planning lead to me thinking/hoping that the Primary Entrance/Exit for BYOC would've been what was the PC Security side of the Stage (next to the airwall). Turns out, people wanted to use the middle aisle (between Stage and PCFP) more often than going around the stage, which after getting on the ground I understood why. More direct.

    Take Away: We're going to see about limiting access to BYOC using one entrance/exit, and ensure that's not near any common area where a crowd can form. The pro's of this line of thought will be that it will limit the ability to get into and out of BYOC. The con's of this line of thought will be that it will limit the ability to get into and out of BYOC.

    Unplanned Choke Hold on the "main entrance" to BYOC.
    Not once during any of the planning of the PC Room did we realize that the area on the side of the stage was going to create such a large bottleneck when our PC Room Sponsors ended up doing events on the stage. We knew about Riot on Friday Night, and for the most part had that figured out, although we didn't realize it would choke up the BYOC entrance as badly as it did. However, the events that occurred on Saturday and Sunday were totally unplanned prior to Day 1 of PAX and we had to adapt on the fly.

    Sorry about the massive confusion on getting into BYOC during those periods of time, and thank you all for your patience with us.

    Take Aways: Ensure that the entrance to BYOC is not anywhere near the location of the stage to prevent choke holds and bottle necks. Also, try to plan ahead when and how our sponsors are going to use the stage.

    Duplicate Barcodes - Check In/Out Issues
    So, I had two main things I was trying to improve for this PAX East. One was get rid of the need to tape on a self made barcode onto the back of BYOC badges. As I'm sure you noticed, each badge now had a barcode on the back. I was under the impression that each of these barcodes were unique. However, as we quickly found out, some of the barcodes repeated, and because they repeated, it caused issues with out Check In/Out System. We mitigated by replacing BYOC badges with unique badges if needed, but that pretty much negated the speed enhancements I was going for on Friday morning.

    The other speed enhancement that I was trying to go for was that there'd be Enforcers on the front of the security desk affixing barcodes to equipment so that once you got up to the desk the desk, you were ready to be scanned. The initial plan did not fire off as well as I had hope because of a miscommunication. That miscommunication lead to a few enforcers going down the line faster than originally intended. That said, things ended up good at the end, and by 10AM on Friday Morning the line up for BYOC was all but gone.

    The other issue that we had was on Sunday Afternoon/Night as PAX was closing. The Network staff did a good job of turning off the network earlier than we needed. We needed to make sure everyone was checked out before they could tear the network apart, but alas, they were in a hurry to get moving. Apologies from all sides regarding the lack luster check-out experience.

    There have been a number of great ideas regarding things we could do in the future to improve this process, and we'll be looking into them for future PAX's.

    Take Aways: Ensure that badge barcodes are indeed unique. Ensure that Enforcers are correctly aware of what's going on. Ensure that the network goes down only after the last person has checked out of BYOC.

    Prizing Gone Missing
    Guys, Prizing that you receive during PAX needs to be secured by you. Whether this means you take it back to your hotel room or you secure it to your seat. This is something that is not new to BYOC at PAX. I remember that this happened during PAX Prime last year when someone "lost" a pair of Gunnars that they won. As difficult as it is to ensure that no one takes anything during PAX... Prizing is especially important because it's generally something that is easy to remove, and there's really no recourse if someone takes something. As BigRed said over the mic several times when he was giving out stuff, make sure you secure your prizes.

    The question of bag checking has come up, and the bottom line here is that we can't do that. We simply can't. We did get a suggestion of having a coat check style area within BYOC, but BigRed put it really well. That would pass the risk off to the Enforcers and PAX, that may not be well received. However, it is a suggestion that I'm going to take seriously for next PAX.

    We had a total of three incidents reported to me that I personally dealt with. Unfortunately, the only thing I can do is listen to you, take careful notes, and then apologize. That's pretty much the extend of recourse that I can offer. I'd like to also mention that on several occasions we kicked out MCCA Cleaners where were trying to pick up things on the tables and I feel as though those people were dealt with quickly. We do know, elsewhere in the convention (not in the PC Room), things walked off after hours, however, I feel as though the PC Room was secured so well, that the opportunities for that to happen for few and far between.

    Also on Friday Night and Saturday Night I personally made sure that I was the last person out of the PC Room area and that there was a guard present in the room.

    Take Away: It is up to you to ensure that your personal belongings, prizes, and other items that can "walk away" easily are taken care of. As much as I want to eliminate the threat of any theft whatsoever, the bottom line is I cant' secure everything.

    All in all, the end result of PAX East 2012 was that although it might not have been clear what safety measures were put in place to make each and every one of you feel safe and secure, a boat load of measures WERE in place and with the exception of three prizes in all, not a single piece of gear, not one computer, nothing walked off that we were keeping eyes on. This to me is a success, and as such I'm happy at the results.

    I am MORE than willing to listen to any complaints or suggestions regarding Security within the PC Room and I invite any commentary on the subject to be sent via Private Message or my email address with is simple "vapok rocks at gmail". No spaces. Derp.

    It was a pleasure seeing everyone... and I look forward to the next time we meet!

    Sincerely,

    Vapok
    PC Security Manager

    Vapok on
    enforceruserbarsplitcro.png
    Vapok
  • BigRedBigRed Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    I want to give a shoutout to the server team we had there.

    (If they showed up to the afterparty I would have bought them drinks)

    After the network was on fire and causing problems to my well laid contest schedule I went and requested a few servers be created to try and do some things on games that didn't need internet. I gave them like 4h of notice for this... but like 15min later they were like "Hey its up, let us know if there are problems". I felt bad that I didn't even need the servers for like hours after that.

    I don't recall all of their names so I cant thank them personally for being on the ball with servers.

    I know some of the LANfest FITES crew was on there, f3ar0n was always ready for server requests and TheShoctor brought his prophunt/dodgeball servers. He also did the intranet page which was super useful, but sadly under utilized (which I plan to use way more of next time!)

    <MoeFwacky> besides, BigRed-Worky is right
  • FartmancerFartmancer Registered User regular
    First of all, thank you to BigRed and Vapok and all of the rest of the Enforcers and other staff members of the event and the venue, the sponsors, everyone who made this possible. Despite the bumps, I thought it was pretty awesome and I had fun playing some games. On the whole, I enjoyed the experience, and I'll do it again next year except maybe I'll buy a laptop or one of those X51s because to hell with carrying even my new smaller PC around again! ;)

    The problems on Friday and again on Saturday night (to a lesser degree, but still a problem) with the Internet connection were frustrating for everyone, both the organizers and the attendees. Yes, it's a LAN event, but these days with things like Steam or Battle.net even single player games want to dial home before you can play. On Friday, I simply set Steam to offline mode and played some Orcs Must Die for a while. It was frustrating because even after I got on Steam, I couldn't launch TF2 to join the LAN servers because it has to do something with the Steam servers. I don't know if you can play on LAN servers in offline mode, I didn't try. Anyway, that's just a crappy reality we all have to deal with. I was more than happy to play some UT2004, which I did do on Saturday! Props to whoever came up with that idea.

    The intranet page was a great idea, and a useful tool for finding and organizing games. Sadly most of the servers listed there were empty most of the time, except for the GunGame server and the TF2 Payload server. We just need to utilize it a bit better! On a somewhat related note, I tried to play GunGame but I didn't have the maps and the download always failed so I gave up on that. No big deal. TF2 was plenty of fun. In particular when the server suddenly switched to DeGroot Keep and BigRed announced a prize to the winner of the round. That was a pretty hilarious game!

    Also, thr4sher, I like your suggestion regarding giving raffle tickets as prizes for the contests. I still liked the random "bring me the shittiest headset you have and you can win this" type contests because they were so hilarious.

    I had a suggestion as well, this is in regard to the demos for Diablo III, BF3 Close Quarters, SC2, etc. Would it be possible to have a handful of PCs set up for that kind of thing in the BYOC area for next year? Maybe have some signups for it for time slots to try and keep it manageable. It'd be a small but awesome perk. Perhaps it's just my impatience showing, but damn if I do not like standing in line for two or more hours to play a game for ten or fifteen minutes.

    As far as the placement of the BYOC LAN, I am of two minds on this. The proximity to the main expo floor was both a boon and a curse. On the plus side, I could get onto the floor quickly and get back quickly. I didn't feel cut off from the rest of the show, and my friends could see where I was from outside the BYOC area if they were passing by (or above on the skywalk thing). However, that also meant being subject to the crowd forming outside of the entrance/exit area, and the immense amount of noise, especially from the Riot booth. The noise was a problem mostly when announcements were being made, and I could largely ignore it at other times. Other people may have other opinions on that, and I respect that :)

    Anyway, I think that's enough out of me for now. I just want to say thank you again to everyone who busted their butts to organize this event and make it as awesome as they could! If I think of anything else I'll post it later. I should probably get some work done.

  • JonoseelJonoseel Here Be Unicorns and Dragons Boston, MARegistered User regular
    I think BYOC should get some exclusive items in there swag bags that way we would seem more superior to normal people who just attend pax.

    Pax Eat Stuff: 3 Day Badges[]; BYOC Badge[]; A Roof to stay under[X]; A ride of some sort[].
  • Moe FwackyMoe Fwacky Right Here, Right Now Drives a BuickModerator mod
    Jonoseel wrote: »
    I think BYOC should get some exclusive items in there swag bags that way we would seem more superior to normal people who just attend pax.

    That's sort of the opposite attitude of PAX.

    E6LkoFK.png

  • ransimransim Registered User regular
    Moe Fwacky wrote: »
    Jonoseel wrote: »
    I think BYOC should get some exclusive items in there swag bags that way we would seem more superior to normal people who just attend pax.

    That's sort of the opposite attitude of PAX.

    While I agree that's the wrong attitude, what I would like to see is maybe some games to try out that are being exhibited at PAX.

    For example, by random luck I picked up AirMech on the floor, but because of internet issues I didn't get a chance to try it. But after being home and giving it a go would have LOVED to try this at PAX and I would have happily told more people about it to visit their booth. I already have five of my friends playing the game now. I would have played the devil out of that game in versus in BYOC.

    Unlike a lot of people at PAX BYOC attendees have their rigs with them to try the games. I think if anything it might be beneficial to the exhibitors to offer trials or copies of the game to BYOC player because its basically free advertising.

    Even just a cheap USB stick or copies on the LAN server would be a great idea with just a sheet of paper in our swag bags letting us know what is available to try out/play with others.

    Contrary to what the media people will tell you I rarely hear about games from the media. I hear about them from friends who recommend them. A friend telling me something rocks is going to get more attention from me personally then just some media outlet saying so.

    I dunno maybe that's just me, but it really would be awesome if exhibitors did this.

    About BYOC in general, you guys did a great job considering the situation. I do hope next year if were on the show floor the curtain wall is replaced with at least a more sturdy partition and that they take consideration into what booths are right near BYOC, the LoL booth was crazy loud. I had a lot of fun even with the network issues.

  • BigRedBigRed Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    <MoeFwacky> besides, BigRed-Worky is right
  • TipperzackTipperzack Registered User regular
    Had a great time at the lan, looking forward for a even better lan next year.
    To make a better lan I think you could add
    1.) Try to find a network solution, I know your bound to the conventions network but maybe you could get a internet supporter to sponsor the lan like a Verizon, Comcast, etc. I seen other lans with this type of sponsorship
    2.) For people that work the lan I know Big Red is the one man who runs the whole lan. And his say is rule but I think their should be a second in command, as every-time I wanted to ask a question. Big or small Big Red was the only guy to know it. Like when is the like game, who won the this contest, and general information. As I saw him he was swamp thought-out the whole event with small things.
    3.) Have the lan in a corner instead of in between tabletop and the expo hall. As it was too loud
    But all in all the lan was great and there was many prizes even being a small event compare to the whole convention
    Zack

  • efessefess Registered User new member
    I second everything ransim said. This seems sooo easy for game publishers to do, especially since there's so many free-to-play games coming out, it doesn't cost anything to hand out a few free DVD's. We saw razor walk around handing out stickers, game publishers should be jumping the gun to hand out demos and trials to us!

  • flatlineflatline Registered User regular
    Jonoseel wrote: »
    I think BYOC should get some exclusive items in there swag bags that way we would seem more superior to normal people who just attend pax.

    I thought we got a League of Legends skin this year that normal attendees didn't get... was that just my imagination?

    East 2014 Status: Badge [ Friend got it ] Hotel [Crappy] BYOC [YES] Transport [ ] Name on Forum Badge [ ] Challenge Coin [ ]
  • zerzhulzerzhul Registered User, Moderator mod
    flatline wrote: »
    Jonoseel wrote: »
    I think BYOC should get some exclusive items in there swag bags that way we would seem more superior to normal people who just attend pax.

    I thought we got a League of Legends skin this year that normal attendees didn't get... was that just my imagination?

    It was an old skin from previous paxes, and I think anyone could come over and ask for one, right?

  • flatlineflatline Registered User regular
    edited April 2012
    zerzhul wrote: »
    flatline wrote: »
    Jonoseel wrote: »
    I think BYOC should get some exclusive items in there swag bags that way we would seem more superior to normal people who just attend pax.

    I thought we got a League of Legends skin this year that normal attendees didn't get... was that just my imagination?

    It was an old skin from previous paxes, and I think anyone could come over and ask for one, right?

    I dunno... like I said in other posts, I've never played LoL, but it sure seems to be popular with the Kids These Days.

    Also... I just realized that I shipped my computer back to myself via the FedEx in the BCEC (same as last year) and they said it would be two days.... only I haven't seen it yet and now it's been 4. Crap. I hope I can find that receipt with the tracking number on it - I was in a bit of a rush to get to the airport. Nevermind, computer just showed up. Assuming it boots up, all is well.

    flatline on
    East 2014 Status: Badge [ Friend got it ] Hotel [Crappy] BYOC [YES] Transport [ ] Name on Forum Badge [ ] Challenge Coin [ ]
  • BigRedBigRed Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    flatline wrote: »
    Jonoseel wrote: »
    I think BYOC should get some exclusive items in there swag bags that way we would seem more superior to normal people who just attend pax.

    I thought we got a League of Legends skin this year that normal attendees didn't get... was that just my imagination?

    The lol skin didnt make it into the swag bags this year. you could get them from the riot booth if you wanted to wait in line, but I made a point to ask the riot people if they would give some for BYOC people.

    I could try to ask in advance if some booths will give BYOC some codes/demo disks for PC demos they are showing off. But the gotcha with that one is the booth reps like to talk to everyone and give it out to get feedback.
    Or at the very least I could see if anybody wanted to come into BYOC to give out some demos of things after expo hours.

    Its a good idea but I don't know how feasible it would be to make it happen.

    However getting exclusive stuff to BYOC for the sake of being exclusive, I am kind of against.

    <MoeFwacky> besides, BigRed-Worky is right
  • FartmancerFartmancer Registered User regular
    I noticed that some of the vendors/sponsors like Alienware and Razer went around and dropped off stuff for people who had their products. I have a Razer Deathadder mouse and they left a little packet of stuff (stickers, a pin, lanyard, etc.) at my spot which I found on Saturday morning. My friend next to me has an Alienware laptop and they left him a tshirt and some other stuff. That was pretty cool. Just thought I'd mention it.

  • BigRedBigRed Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    Fartmancer wrote: »
    I noticed that some of the vendors/sponsors like Alienware and Razer went around and dropped off stuff for people who had their products. I have a Razer Deathadder mouse and they left a little packet of stuff (stickers, a pin, lanyard, etc.) at my spot which I found on Saturday morning. My friend next to me has an Alienware laptop and they left him a tshirt and some other stuff. That was pretty cool. Just thought I'd mention it.

    Yup, I knew they were doing that :) The alienware guy commented on how surprised he was that there were so many alienware laptops in the BYOC.

    The Razer guy gave me a "l33t Pack" too since I had a razer mouse and keyboard on my laptops at the BYOC desk.

    <MoeFwacky> besides, BigRed-Worky is right
  • JobiwanKenobiJobiwanKenobi Registered User regular
    This may have been mentioned already, but... it would be great if all the projectors around BYOC had the same set of messages and if they pointed out additional helpful stuff: such as tournament schedule, lan resources, etc. I was in the last row of BYOC facing out towards the expo hall, so there was only one projector that was near my field of vision. I know that the projector on the stage had info that was occasionally different from the other two projectors... but I didn't really pay attention to that unless I was on my way out.

    Red, would it be helpful to have an web app that you could host on the lan to manage announcements/schedule info and distribute it to the PCs attached to the projectors? If so I might be able to help with that... let me know if that is something you'd like to discuss.



    PAX Prime '09 - H1N(erd)1 Survivor - Never Forget (Your Hand Sanitizer)
    PAX Prime '14 Omeganaut - Result: KO in 3rd Round (Damn you, Super Avalanche 2!)
  • BigRedBigRed Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    This may have been mentioned already, but... it would be great if all the projectors around BYOC had the same set of messages and if they pointed out additional helpful stuff: such as tournament schedule, lan resources, etc. I was in the last row of BYOC facing out towards the expo hall, so there was only one projector that was near my field of vision. I know that the projector on the stage had info that was occasionally different from the other two projectors... but I didn't really pay attention to that unless I was on my way out.

    Red, would it be helpful to have an web app that you could host on the lan to manage announcements/schedule info and distribute it to the PCs attached to the projectors? If so I might be able to help with that... let me know if that is something you'd like to discuss.

    We started off using google docs to try and keep this the same but the connection issues prevented that. We tried to keep them updated as much as possible.

    Feel free to PM me with ideas on this. I think this is the first year that we had multiple projectors used for spreading info. A local hosted webapp sounds interesting.

    <MoeFwacky> besides, BigRed-Worky is right
  • KiashienKiashien Medford, MARegistered User regular
    BigRed wrote: »
    Feel free to PM me with ideas on this. I think this is the first year that we had multiple projectors used for spreading info. A local hosted webapp sounds interesting.

    A local hosted webapp would be pretty simple to hack together... I'm sure if you laid out what the server has available for use (PHP, ASP.Net, SQL Server Express / MySQL, etc) someone would step forward and slam something together. I could certainly if it was ASP .Net and SQL Server Express... but I couldn't in another language (Sorry, not learning a new web stack for a side project at this time ;))

    The pirate hat riding bobcat compels you...

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  • ransimransim Registered User regular
    edited April 2012
    Kiashien wrote: »
    BigRed wrote: »
    Feel free to PM me with ideas on this. I think this is the first year that we had multiple projectors used for spreading info. A local hosted webapp sounds interesting.

    A local hosted webapp would be pretty simple to hack together... I'm sure if you laid out what the server has available for use (PHP, ASP.Net, SQL Server Express / MySQL, etc) someone would step forward and slam something together. I could certainly if it was ASP .Net and SQL Server Express... but I couldn't in another language (Sorry, not learning a new web stack for a side project at this time ;))

    This is actually crazy easy. There are more then a few "web server" on a USB stick options.

    http://www.server2go-web.de/
    http://portableapps.com/apps/development/xampp

    There are also options for specific types of dev environments. I personally love ColdFusion, and there is a portable version of railo (http://code.google.com/p/rampp/), as a developer this sort of stuff is incredibly useful for just tooling around and testing stuff.

    Really with something like that you could theoretically just pop in the server, start it up and then create a basic html page in the root and browse to that page using the IP of the machine it was attached to and the file name. Then you'd just have to update one HTML page to change both screens.

    But that's kinda over complicating the issue entirely I think. You have the intranet site, why not just dump a HTML file there and point to it? You could even use a shared document in Microsoft Word or Abiword as well shared over the local network.

    ransim on
  • KiashienKiashien Medford, MARegistered User regular
    ransim wrote: »
    Kiashien wrote: »
    BigRed wrote: »
    Feel free to PM me with ideas on this. I think this is the first year that we had multiple projectors used for spreading info. A local hosted webapp sounds interesting.

    A local hosted webapp would be pretty simple to hack together... I'm sure if you laid out what the server has available for use (PHP, ASP.Net, SQL Server Express / MySQL, etc) someone would step forward and slam something together. I could certainly if it was ASP .Net and SQL Server Express... but I couldn't in another language (Sorry, not learning a new web stack for a side project at this time ;))

    This is actually crazy easy. There are more then a few "web server" on a USB stick options.

    http://www.server2go-web.de/
    http://portableapps.com/apps/development/xampp

    There are also options for specific types of dev environments. I personally love ColdFusion, and there is a portable version of railo (http://code.google.com/p/rampp/), as a developer this sort of stuff is incredibly useful for just tooling around and testing stuff.

    Really with something like that you could theoretically just pop in the server, start it up and then create a basic html page in the root and browse to that page using the IP of the machine it was attached to and the file name. Then you'd just have to update one HTML page to change both screens.

    But that's kinda over complicating the issue entirely I think. You have the intranet site, why not just dump a HTML file there and point to it? You could even use a shared document in Microsoft Word or Abiword as well shared over the local network.

    I simply was saying that who could volunteer their time depends on back-end- for instance, I couldn't manage a non-microsoft stack before next East due to my current learning constraints (I'm learning different tech while coding in .Net right now :P) and that doesn't come on a USB stick.

    The pirate hat riding bobcat compels you...

    Relevant info: #PAX East: 3 Coin Lunch organizer. 2012 Trading card available. Pokecrawl Assistant 2012. Pokecrawl attendee 2011. Cult of the Leaf attendee 2012.
  • jonxpjonxp [E] PC Security Registered User regular
    BigRed wrote: »
    This may have been mentioned already, but... it would be great if all the projectors around BYOC had the same set of messages and if they pointed out additional helpful stuff: such as tournament schedule, lan resources, etc. I was in the last row of BYOC facing out towards the expo hall, so there was only one projector that was near my field of vision. I know that the projector on the stage had info that was occasionally different from the other two projectors... but I didn't really pay attention to that unless I was on my way out.

    Red, would it be helpful to have an web app that you could host on the lan to manage announcements/schedule info and distribute it to the PCs attached to the projectors? If so I might be able to help with that... let me know if that is something you'd like to discuss.

    We started off using google docs to try and keep this the same but the connection issues prevented that. We tried to keep them updated as much as possible.

    Feel free to PM me with ideas on this. I think this is the first year that we had multiple projectors used for spreading info. A local hosted webapp sounds interesting.

    If only there was some enforcer who builds web apps for PAX every year designed for disseminating information.

    Every time you write parallel fifths, Bach kills a kitten.
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  • VapokVapok Just a Guy. BostonRegistered User regular
    jonxp wrote: »
    If only there was some enforcer who builds web apps for PAX every year designed for disseminating information.

    You should get in with the PAX Engineering team. They came by on Saturday to the PC Room asking me what I needed in terms of software for check in/out for BYOC. It seems they are trying to centralize all web/winform applications across PAX into one "department".

    enforceruserbarsplitcro.png
    Vapok
  • FartmancerFartmancer Registered User regular
    Did someone say web apps? ;)

  • JobiwanKenobiJobiwanKenobi Registered User regular
    Wow... this is a forum with a lot of devs! And its great how everyone want to help.

    Red and Vapok,
    If the PAX Engineering team is looking for volunteers feel free to pass my name along to them.



    PAX Prime '09 - H1N(erd)1 Survivor - Never Forget (Your Hand Sanitizer)
    PAX Prime '14 Omeganaut - Result: KO in 3rd Round (Damn you, Super Avalanche 2!)
  • TrandescentTrandescent Registered User regular
    You know, looking back at it, while it was really loud during the expo hall hours, it did give us the ability to yell as loudly as we wanted while playing TF2.

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    PAX East 2018 4-Day Pass [X] BYOC Pass [X] Hotel Reservation [X]

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  • testsubject23testsubject23 King of No Sleep ZzzzzzzRegistered User regular
    You know, looking back at it, while it was really loud during the expo hall hours, it did give us the ability to yell as loudly as we wanted while playing TF2.

    :) You guys sure can holler. Daaaamn.

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    Steam: Chaos Introvert | Twitch.tv: Chaos_Introvert | R*SC: Chaos_Introvert | PSN: testsubject23
  • testsubject23testsubject23 King of No Sleep ZzzzzzzRegistered User regular
    One of the things that could be helpful for future years is more group organization concerning which games will be played. I wasn't sure, for example, what to install prior to showing up.
    It'd be great if we could get some way of polling the attendees to see what games each person is interested in playing, and building a list of most popular/requested titles, or a tag cloud or something like that. Another thing for us devs to play with. :)

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  • efessefess Registered User new member
    i'm a .net backend dev w/ MVC, JS, and PHP experience, I wouldn't mind donating time if a project came together.

  • japerryjaperry Registered User regular
    ping, also a developer. I do large scale enterprise content management systems (drupal/php/nodejs)

    I'd definitely be interested in helping on the engineering side of things!

    7jIDTca.png
  • japerryjaperry Registered User regular
    So BYOC this year. Red, thanks for being humble, understanding, and just downright awesome.

    Networking wasn't good.
    The pipe coming in wasn't great, but what I heard from the networking team was even worse. They decided to divide what bandwidth we did have to 1.5mb/ea switch. I see the point of being able to keep one person from taking down the whole network (by only taking down the switch) but that sucks for those 40 or so people on that switch. There is technology out there to throttle people who end up using too much bandwidth. Hard-wired limits shouldn't be on the switches.

    This is supposed to be a LAN, but unfortunately we need to be on the net these days to do even lan style stuff. I couldn't login to SC2, kept getting dropped from TF2/steam, and I had a small update (my fault I was on a road trip for 3 weeks before) to some game that wouldn't load, preventing me from playing it.

    Seating Arrangements
    It'd be nice if people could indicate how much time the plan to spend in BYOC. With ~300 stations, and it being loud as hell, its pretty much impossible to organize anything. It'd be neat if there were tables/sections that were dedicated to people who wanted to spend more time in BYOC, and sections that were more casual. with the network issues, I don't think we ever saw BYOC over 1/3rd occupancy. I know this cannot be perfect, but it'd be nice to see the more BYOC-centric people together instead of scattered around the venue.

    +1 for crappy location in the venue. 'nuff said.

    Security / RFID
    While you might not be able to search people, I think it would help to have one entrance and put some type of visual security component.. IE the grocery store alarms. The RFID labels are relatively cheap, as well as the radios. I don't know if the random stealing of stuff will end, but it might act as deterrent. It only takes one persons laptop not getting stolen to make the system worth it.

    Refund..
    Thanks for offering the refund, but I definitely got my $30 worth. I want to see BYOC continue. The worst thing that could happen is that so many people got upset that it gets highly curtailed next year, 'fixed' in a way that causes more problems.

    7jIDTca.png
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