So I also just listened to the link that Zerzhul posted, and I think that Mike and Jerry have a noble cause, but I don't think it's realistic. If a couple dozen people from the LOL tourney discover a tabletop game, does that justify the difficulties that the 6th floor panels had? And the hundreds or thousands of people who didn't get badges?
You start getting into a baby vs. bathwater situation when the con gets this big and has this many competing interests going on. I also fear (please don't kill me, everybody) that Mike and Jerry are getting to the place where they're too far removed from the common rabble (ie: us) to really understand how those decisions are affecting us. I mean, it's a lovely idealistic thought to invite everyone to your house, but is it really pragmatic to think it's going to work without some sort of organization? And if the most sensible organization is separation, then there's the sacrifice you have to make for inviting that many people.
I guess in different words, if they want to continue doing it they way it's been done in the name of cross-pollination, that's lovely and idealistic and great for a small con. PAX isn't a small con anymore and if you want people to enjoy it and have a good time and actually want to cross-pollinate, you've got to apply big-con thinking. We're not in the Maydenbauer anymore. Those tactics just won't work now.
Maybe segregated badges isn't a perfect idea. But it's the best and most logical one that's been presented to date. As a PM of mine used to say, "Don't give up Good for Great." I'd like to see action that prioritizes the PAX experience as a whole, in its current form, instead of just, "no, that doesn't meet our ideology". Lacking a better idea, what other choice is there?
Im glad to hear khoo was dealing with the scaplers. I have an issue with the street scalpers even if theor badges are legimate. What about some type.of swag for people who.turn.in their badges before leaving? I know their would be some.kinks but it would discourage people from selling their badges to scalpers imo. I keep.my badges as sounviers but I have seen people with 3
I love the PAX_Lines tweets, and agree they should be used early and often. However, for some reason this year even Twitter sending tweets as SMS messages to my phone were taking 15-30 minutes to arrive, which limits their usability severely - I never could get Twitter to load while I was around the WSCC all weekend. So perhaps in addition to more tweeting, there could be twitter display screens set up at various key points around the con? Like the ones that have been in the Queue Room in the past? That way you can check the display every so often even if you can't get your own twitter account to load.
I don't want this to sound like a complaint as this was my first PAX and I didn't know what to expect, but I would like to beg someone from PAX to speak with WSCC on their staff's behavior especially the older woman usually working on 4th floor. I figured my encounters with her were just isolated incidents until I was overheard telling a story to a fellow line member and three other people turned around and joined in saying how insensitive this woman is even if you are obviously impaired or have a medical badge showing. I have trouble walking and paused for, literally, a second near the entrance doors to keep from stumbling she yelled in my ear to move it "or else they'd throw me out." There were very few people around me at the time, so it wasn't like she was covering a crowd control issue. Another encounter with her almost caused me to fall down the escalator! (That would have been interesting...) If I was able to find 4 people immediately next to me in line, some in wheelchairs, that knew exactly who this woman was and all had horrible stories about her yelling at them for just being there or trying to manage getting around the best they can... it says something. PAX is wonderfully accommodating, and so it hurt even more to get whiplashed by the Center's staff.
But otherwise... Thanks to everyone else for making my first PAX overwhelming, but fun!
I think the PA Lines stuff had more to do with twitter / internet being, um, wonky, in the convention center more than anything else. They've done wifi in the past, and I was told that it went very, very bad. (The connection out of the convention hall can be difficult and slow, to say the least, and the building is made out of materials that do not play well with wifi signals IIRC). Same deal with the screens, ultimately those have to connect to the internet somewhere, and you'll run into the same problem.
The ideology is the core of PA though. Everything is done with that ideology in mind, of being a gamer community, IMO.
I don't want this to sound like a complaint as this was my first PAX and I didn't know what to expect, but I would like to beg someone from PAX to speak with WSCC on their staff's behavior especially the older woman usually working on 4th floor. I figured my encounters with her were just isolated incidents until I was overheard telling a story to a fellow line member and three other people turned around and joined in saying how insensitive this woman is even if you are obviously impaired or have a medical badge showing. I have trouble walking and paused for, literally, a second near the entrance doors to keep from stumbling she yelled in my ear to move it "or else they'd throw me out." There were very few people around me at the time, so it wasn't like she was covering a crowd control issue. Another encounter with her almost caused me to fall down the escalator! (That would have been interesting...) If I was able to find 4 people immediately next to me in line, some in wheelchairs, that knew exactly who this woman was and all had horrible stories about her yelling at them for just being there or trying to manage getting around the best they can... it says something. PAX is wonderfully accommodating, and so it hurt even more to get whiplashed by the Center's staff.
But otherwise... Thanks to everyone else for making my first PAX overwhelming, but fun!
Heh, I know EXACTLY who you're talking about as I noticed her barking at people as well. I understand the importance of keeping people from crowding up, but she was a bit overkill.
I don't know if it would be possible, but with the media problems some people were talking about (I really didn't notice any issues with them), could there be another room/building that is only for media, like the companies could set up one or two demos so media could play them and people won't be upset about cutting? Another idea would be if media was able to be in the hall Thursday afternoon to try games/talk to people (maybe with some kind of restriction that they can't talk about the game/demo until xtime) and then from Friday on their badges are just like normal ones.
2) The security company that was hired. Seriously, they weren't even trying to hide the open levels of disdain and hatred they inexplicably had for every last one of us. EVERYBODY noticed this.
4) Change security company. Seriously, the paid security people were so openly hostile towards everybody and not even trying to hide their disdain for us with their looks, even as people were just filing along minding their own business. I don't know if it was because most of them were so old that PAX'ers are just a shock to them or they were having flashbacks to being in high school and being able to beat up the nerds, only to be getting paid very little to have to watch the nerds have a good time, but those guys sucked.
Which of the hired security companies are you referring to? There where three on the payroll, A large company with suits, a smaller company with black shirts and tactical pants and the actual convention staff who had green vests(?).
The people in the green shirts were really friendly to me, or at least the few that I interacted with.
I thought the guys in the tactical pants where cosplaying at first but then came to realize they were actual guarding statues (Seriously who's going to steal a statue?).
I mean the main security force. I think they were AGV or AVG or some such. They were usually wearing blazers (suits). SO RIDICULOUSLY HOSTILE. None of them ever said a word to me, but I saw them yelling (yes, yelling) at a number of others, and any time we would walk by them (keep in mind, we weren't even cosplayed) they would just glare at us with this look of....I don't know if it was contempt or disgust, but just such sneery little puswads... There were also a couple of older people stationed on the 4th floor that were just constantly berating people for no real reason. We had lunch with some friends on Friday, had a big dinner on Saturday, and another dinner on Sunday at the end, and at all 3 of these times, everybody was commenting on how horribly these people were treating the convention goers and how unbelievably hostile MOST of the security force was.
-Expo Floor- you SHOULD be able to walk freely on an expo floor, regardless of the exhibition. Which says to me PAX needs to move. Now, I know that's not a popular idea around here but it's the truth. There's a saying about the viability of a organization and it applies to PAX. "If you're not growing, you're dying." PAX Prime has been hovering at the 70k mark for three years now and expanding to hotels doesn't work.
My suggestion is three hours north, but that's my bias showing. Fact is that PAX needs a bigger convention space, and it's just not getting that in Seattle, even if you expand to four days and add PAX Australia.
And to those that say that moving north won't happen because of the cost? Exhibitors don't care, they do this kind of thing every year for all sorts of events, otherwise far less lucrative events wouldn't bother going north of the border. And for Attendees? Getting a passport isn't that hard and quite honestly Vancouver is much better set up for folks coming in from out of town.
tl:dr
Loved the content and people, HATE the venue.
Why is it every single year someone's gotta try and start some nonsense about moving to another city (which is always, not coincidentally, closer to where that person actually lives)? It's not happening. Give it up. Not only because of PA's own roots, but because of the fact that most of the game developers and publishers happen to already be here in Seattle. This city is a gaming hub, of course they're going to host a gaming convention on home turf. And btw, Vancouver couldn't even begin to handle this convention.
... Security wouldn't be an issue, because for some strange reason we've already got people at the door to the expo hall checking badges (even though I've shown it like three times by then to get to that point). Sometimes I wonder if they're afraid people will hide in the ventilation system like Batman, hoping to get an extra day on the con floor with an "expired" badge...
I don't think it's as much that kind of security issue as much as simply having too many different kinds of badges. Right now we have at least 10 different types/colors of badges that I can think of. Next year we'll have at least one more to cover day #4. The door security has to keep track of these and know what people can access at various times. This usually isn't too much of a problem as there are a fairly short number of hours of restricted access (such as times that media is allowed in, but not standard awesome attendees.) When the doors open for general entrance, when the largest numbers of people are passing through the doors, the door people are doing a simple badge=access (if single day=today), rather than certain types of badges get access to certain areas. As it is now, during general access times, the door people simply have to turn away people that don't have a badge for that day, and that's easy to explain, rather than explaining that your "level" or "zone" of access doesn't grant access to this area. I would imagine the doors would become fairly bottlenecked with people dealing with these interactions.
Before someone mentions it, of course there's BYOC, but convention center staff were only giving "special" access to BYOC on Friday before 10 for BYOC setup, otherwise it's enforcers policing BYOC entrances.
I think it's an idea that deserves some merit, from a "getting more people in to the convention center" aspect, if that's your goal. I'm simply addressing the possible security issues that were questioned.
My suggestions are mostly for the BYOC/PC lan part of things.
I loved the new area, but man does it have its tradeoffs. It was nice to feel like BYOC owned this part of the convention (and the bathrooms are super swanky!), the BYOC-exclusive water cooler was a nice touch, and having an escalator that literally just put you in the expo hall right outside BYOC was great, but ...
It'd be nice to be near console freeplay/other after-PAX-expo-hall-hours-activities again; I really liked that we could wander in and out of BYOC to play other games. It's a pain to have to go all the way around after hours to get back into BYOC.
Also, I'd love for there to be more PC tournaments. There were only 4(ish) games being offered for tournament play. It was disappointing to me that there was no TF2/LoL/SC2 tournament this year.
I otherwise have no complaints. Hats off to the Enforcers and Big Red for yet another fantastic BYOC experience.
Why is it every single year someone's gotta try and start some nonsense about moving to another city (which is always, not coincidentally, closer to where that person actually lives)? It's not happening. Give it up. Not only because of PA's own roots, but because of the fact that most of the game developers and publishers happen to already be here in Seattle. This city is a gaming hub, of course they're going to host a gaming convention on home turf. And btw, Vancouver couldn't even begin to handle this convention.
I'm off topic, but that last sentence irks me.
For floor space, VCC is all of 3 years old and has 406,000 sqf in a very nicely laid out format while WSCC has 344,000 sqf of awkwardly laid out floor space. The layout would be nicer and more efficient. The 220,000 sqf exhibition space in the main building alone would be amazing.
However, I'm not at all for moving the convention. It belongs in Seattle and I would be very sad to see it leave for any reason.
Sampsen on
+3
sanovahNerd of the WestSan Diego, CaliforniaRegistered Userregular
Since factioning stuff out has been brought up by a lot of people myself included to a degree. Any chance PA would share numbers on how many people did what. More specifically in my case how many just went to the lol thing.
I k.now they want to keep everything avaliable for everyone(I actually rediscovered magic cause of this) like lexi said that is for small cons. While I don't agree with her and mc that we should go so far as to tickets for every area. I will repeat myself again that as long as PA wants to continue hosting super big events we should have seperate tickets for those that can be bough seperate or with a pass
Big exhibitors and indie devs are equally valid to different people and deserve equal consideration. Gaming is diverse and attracts a diverse audience.
Big booths keep badge prices down, and the WSCC's fire safety code makes segregated expo hall + panel badges a logistical nightmare. PAX has outgrown its small beginnings, and we should welcome the new changes and new attendees it brings.
Highlights:
1. The main expo floor was a bit less crowded, particularly on Friday
2. Panel lines (though I can't speak for the Sheraton as I didn't go there) were managed well
3. Freeplay had lots of great games available
4. Lots of tables available for tabletop
5. The community, of course
6. The classic arcade room. I'm surprised no one has mentioned it yet. I spent several hours in there over the weekend playing various pinball and arcade cabinets. Great addition, hope the organization PA partnered with for it can expand next year!
Glitches and suggestions:
1. The swag bags, though it sounds like this is handled
2. This is more in the hands of exhibitors, and the enforcers handled it well, but several times companies on the main expo floor decided it was a good idea to draw several hundred people to their booth for a raffle, swag, etc. it blocks the already thin walkways. Again, enforcers did their best to keep them clear, but I feel there should be some sort of regulation on this.
2A. This applies to lines as well. Several companies relied on the space outside their booth to hold the line to play their demo, further blocking aisles and other booths. They should be required to keep all lines within their rented space for safety and courtesy, not taken by a massive statue *cough* Borderlands 2.
3. Back in 2010, there were several projectors and screens scattered around high-traffic areas showing the twitter feeds and general info, however I didn't see many last year and any this year. If those could be brought back that'd be awesome.
4. Regarding LoL: I agree that if something is going to take up that much space and make that much noise that it should be held at a different location, or at least in the annex like Halofest was. Having it as a separate pass is probably a good idea.
5.This isn't in the control of PA, but I wanted to voice the same concerns about the staffed security and WSCC staff. Plenty were kind enough; one offered to hold something while I tied my shoe. Others were simply rude. Yelling at people who "stop inside the box," at the head of the escalators off to the side against the railing for 5 seconds is too much; saw that a few times.
Great time though, as always. Excited to attend for 4 days next year
So let me clarify my position a bit - I don't think there should specifically be ticket separation. I think mcdermott's idea is good too. I just think that something's got to change, and the continuing discussion about ideas related to addressing the issues raised when pass holders only attend one thing at PAX is a good discussion to have.
I also think there's plenty of LOL and Halo folks who are perfectly nice people but the bottom line is that they're never going to stop in tabletop, and are never going to have that experience of discovery that Mike wants them to have. There are already plenty of people at PAX already who are just into one genre or another who will get an opportunity to have their own gamer ephiphanies without the need to invite 10,000 additional bodies to flood the convention.
Cosplay! I forgot that's what I came here to discuss.
PAX is the only convention I don't cosplay at all at. You'll notice a very minor % of attendees cosplay compared to other geek cons. Here are the major hurdles and some suggestions for overcoming them. Apologies that suggestions require space/resources which are both in limited supply.
1. Spread out layout.
Costumes are frequently a bitch to travel in, or can be destroyed when tread on, etc. PAX is laid out over several locations and requires a lot of street walking. Furthermore, parking is often far away unless you want to be reamed. Solution: A dedicated cosplay space, sort of like a mix between console freeplay and BYOC in that you can check in, be given some space to lay your giant prop/high heeled shoes/velvet cloak and go run off to the Paramount. No guarantees for items left overnight but the doors being locked at 6pm would help. Pre-reg may not be doable because most people wouldn't know about it ahead of time unless great effort was done to discuss it on the PAX site. This space could be staffed with volunteers, and you know what, I could assist with managing that, but yes, this means more enforcers, which is more resources, and it also means taking up some space (but it doesn't have to be central in-demand space).
2. Costumes need maintanence.
Sakura-Con has done the best thing ever for this which is the dedicated costume room which provides mirrors, an array of pins, trash cans, needles and thread, tape, tables and chairs, and a couple helpers. Solution: See above solution to issue 1.
3. It's frickin hot. Solution: Is there anything that can be done to adjust the air conditioning in some of the areas? The Sheraton queue area was pretty much unbearable in street clothes, can you imagine in costume? Also, the aforementioned costume room could be equipped with sticks of deoderant to reapply in the middle of the con?
4. Meeting celebrities!
PAX is an opportunity to meet our icons. Many people are happy to cosplay in front of a crowd of people they don't know, but when meeting the internet celebrities we look up to we often get concerned about appearing like we're spazwads or something. Let's be honest, cosplayers face some prejudice even from the most open minded among us. I wouldn't want to meet Khoo, dressed in his snappy suit (where do they come from!) dressed in my rediculously over the top cosplay. Solution: Hey, remember that cosplay space I mentioned? Where people can leave props and stuff? Yeah, continues to be useful! Also, just a general changing of the PA atmosphere to make all of us feel most accepted in our Cosplay, which is an end I believe PA could consiously attempt to reach. I'm not saying I've received hostility, I'm just saying the vacuum allows the aforementioned past experienced prejudices to rear their ugly heads.
5. No cosplay panel.
This issue helps to reinforce the issue I alluded to above with the general atmosphere of cosplay inacceptance. Solution: Pretty obvious that we hold a frickin cosplay panel. I recognize this requires a submission of a panel from somebody. A costume contest with prizes, or discussions of annecdotes and online resources for the steampunk, gothic lolita, or cosplayer all both ideas that could fill tons of time. Maybe I'll do some investigation on who would be willing and able.
Another suggestion I'd make to exhibitors (which is entirely on them, nothing PA does at all really) is to reward cosplayers of your IP with no-hassle swag.
Anyway, just some ideas. : ) Me and my Seattle Women's geekery group could work on making this happen if we got a green light (or even could engage in discussions). But ya know what, if there's not space or resources or manpower I can understand. There's kind of this convention thing going on that weekend which makes those things in short supply.
5. No cosplay panel.
This issue helps to reinforce the issue I alluded to above with the general atmosphere of cosplay inacceptance. Solution: Pretty obvious that we hold a frickin cosplay panel. I recognize this requires a submission of a panel from somebody. A costume contest with prizes, or discussions of annecdotes and online resources for the steampunk, gothic lolita, or cosplayer all both ideas that could fill tons of time. Maybe I'll do some investigation on who would be willing and able.
.
Last year, Crabcats Industries (for those unawares, they were the ones who made that AWESOME Krogan costume last year) had a cosplay panel that was one of the biggest hits of the convention. I noticed that they weren't hosting one this year, so I went to their site and reached out to them to ask why they weren't doing another one this year, instead opting to be "booth babes" for some other game. Got a response back stating that the PAX organizers had denied their request for a panel this year. I'd really like to know why that is, and suggest not denying it next year, because that panel alone encouraged a lot of the costumes last year.
I think I said this on page 1, but it probably bears repeating: If there was room for 8 or 9 panels on being a gay gamer in the 21st century (I think that's how many there were), surely there was room for 1 cosplay panel.
Announcements... when something big is announced at a panel or whatnot, like PAX Australia or the 4-day Prime, these should be made a ton more public. I only found out about AU from a forum thread, and the 4-day thing from a random comment inside an unrelated thread. There's an official twitter, there's a website, make use of these things!
Exhibitors... I know there likely isn't a lot that can be controlled with them, but it almost seems like they should have to submit their demo/swag plans ahead of time so that lines can be planned. For the last few years the first day has always been a mess and then on saturday I see the enforcers out with tape, getting the crowd into some sense of order. It would be great if that could be planned out ahead of time and have at least some of those lines start out managed. Ideally, they would be forced to build enough space into their booth to wholly contain their lines so we didn't have this issue in the first place, but I know that's not always possible given how enthusiastic we can sometimes be about lining up for things.
5. No cosplay panel.
This issue helps to reinforce the issue I alluded to above with the general atmosphere of cosplay inacceptance. Solution: Pretty obvious that we hold a frickin cosplay panel. I recognize this requires a submission of a panel from somebody. A costume contest with prizes, or discussions of annecdotes and online resources for the steampunk, gothic lolita, or cosplayer all both ideas that could fill tons of time. Maybe I'll do some investigation on who would be willing and able.
Absolutely this! I'll be back in costume next year and would love to be at an actual cosplay panel! Saturday would probably be the best day as it seems that most cosplayers are out in force that day.
Since factioning stuff out has been brought up by a lot of people myself included to a degree. Any chance PA would share numbers on how many people did what. More specifically in my case how many just went to the lol thing.
I k.now they want to keep everything avaliable for everyone(I actually rediscovered magic cause of this) like lexi said that is for small cons. While I don't agree with her and mc that we should go so far as to tickets for every area. I will repeat myself again that as long as PA wants to continue hosting super big events we should have seperate tickets for those that can be bough seperate or with a pass
How would they have numbers on this? They don't count door entries and they don't track where badges went. They may have rough estimates based on crowd density in areas, but that couldn't possibly tell you how many people from LoL did or didn't cruise the expo floor at some point or another.
I wasn't at the LoL tournament more than a pass-by to see what they were doing with the space, but maybe the the organizers of the LoL tournament could tell you if any or how many of the participants never left the area, maybe based on login times or something. But, again, that wouldn't tell you where the ones that left went to, if they went to somewhere within PAX, out to dinner, party, sleep, etc.
Personally, I'm less interested in that aspect than I am in the neighbor aspect, how the tournament noise affected the panels on the 6th floor. The place seemed more like a concert than a game tournament.
This was PAX #5 for me and it was pretty much as awesome as years previous. So while I'll point out some things that occurred to me know that, like pretty much everyone here, I had an amazing time despite any issues I ran into.
#1 Gearbox really needs a main theatre slot if they have something next year. I think it's been something like 3 years in a row now that they get the Sheraton slot and it always gets packed far earlier than most of the other panels. The demand outstrips the available space and it keeps happening every year. Of course if they get the main theatre slot they're probably not going to want to buy enough pizza for a few thousand enthusiasts... there are always tradeoffs, I suppose.
#2 Last year I really, seriously missed the rock band freeplay area which was a great spot to eat meals or just rest up and recharge for a bit and so I was super happy to see it included once again this year. I'm glad it's back, and I hope it'll still be there next year too!
#3 This isn't directly involved with physical PAX but I noticed the website, even with print options, wasn't showing the complete schedule in a nice grid format this year, only a list. I didn't get hands on a grid schedule until the program was actually in my hands; since one was made for the programs, next year stick it up on the website earlier! Apologies if I somehow missed it.
#4 I am probably in the minority here but I had no problems with the buffet setup for the swag bag. However, I was badged for all 3 days and knew I'd have plenty of chances to get one, and prior experience had taught me that the entry swag bag is basically a cool bag (this year at least, previous years it's just plastic), a box of magic cards and a dozen pieces of paper I will never look at more than once. I ignored the friday line for them and everyone was clued in on saturday/sunday with no lineups for the bag at all. Basically, while handing full bags out on entry worked fine, the buffet setup would also work fine if there was someway to convince people that dropping an hour+ in a line there is unnecessary. Probably harder than it sounds.
#5 The second-last omegathon round got postponed due to technical issues and I never figured out where it was going to happen and subsequently missed it. Would it have been possible to get an enforcer out between acts that night to announce a new time/spot for it? Or at least mention to check the twitter feed or something for the rescheduled location.
#6 Something someone mentioned higher up this page: screens in the queue room with twitter feeds would be fantastic. I don't have 3g access in the convention hall and the wifi is spotty as hell which means my only reliable access to the twitter feeds was in my hotel room that I'm never at.
Those are pretty much the only big things that jumped out at me this year. Already looking at the long wait between now and next year.
Can I say that the new BYOC was amazing? It was big enough, and much more private/quiet than being next to the LOL tourney at East last spring. Security was tight and Red and the Enforcers did an outstanding job; I felt like my things were always safe. The games were fun but not intrusive if you didn't want to play, and the [E] team working the desk was effective without being dickish. It was great.
I like the suggestion about having dedicated games for media, so other people could not be booted off after they stood in line for so long. Another approach would be to schedule a particular hour or two (that is posted and announced) that is reserved for media. When not in those times, media will have to wait.
I understand booths have the power to dole out time however they like, but they really have little incentive to let gamers play and every incentive to let the media play. An added incentive to let gamers play would be if pax "encouraged" them in a tangible way.
And really, PAX is supposed to be about us, not them. If the companies want to media whore, they have E3 for that. The expo hall in general felt very impersonal this year as booths have gotten bigger, and louder and consequently dumber because they're more concerned with topping their neighbors than they are about us. If the booths even bother to have devs around, then they're usually tied up in interviews all day instead of talking to us. The expo hall in general is becoming the thing that PAX was supposed to not be. If a company needs a lot of space to demo a bunch of games then sure, I get that. Capcom shows off a LOT of shit in the space they operate in but does Wargaming.net really need that massive of a space just to show off two games, one of which is there every year anyway? Ubisoft's gigantic Assassin's Creed 3 section is another great example. Does SOE really need a live DJ playing unrelated music at the Planetside 2 booth just so that they can have an excuse to make some noise? The big guys are getting out of hand and they need to have their wrists slapped. Limit the amount of space these companies can use unless they've got a damn good reason to need a ton and limit how loud they're allowed to be. Having more knowledgeable staff around to talk about things would be nice. Getting opportunities to talk to the actual industry people is becoming harder and harder. Basically the experience was generally "play our shit, buy our shit, now get the fuck out."
Obviously the indy guys are all cool and none of this applies to them.
EDIT: The Enforcer presence in the expo hall felt kinda light this year. Lines were messy, crowds bunched up and restricted flow, etc. It felt like a much bigger clusterfuck this year than it has in the past.
EDIT EDIT: The LoL Regionals took WAY too much valuable space and was generally just loud and obnoxious. They need to host that shit somewhere else at a different time. This is PAX, not LoLcon.
There should be a limit to how many badges one can purchase. That way 50 of them don't all go to one dude trying to sell them on ebay for 300% their value. If you want to purchase more than say, four badges, then you should have to use an alternate payment source for the next ones.
I also agree about the LoL regionals. Sure it was a high profile event but there were plenty of people there who couldn't have cared less about it and it took up a lot of valuable space.
Also more recuirtment for the cookie.bridage? I know its own thing but maybe it could be advertised when badges are mailed? I talked to some of the briadgers and they seemed really shorthanded this year.
SpawnOfCthulhuAlso that Snifit guy.Gig Harbor, WARegistered Userregular
The biggest issue I had this weekend was with the way the Hideo Kojima signing was handled on Saturday.
I got there at around 12:30 (the signing started at 3), and asked a nearby enforcer if I could line up yet. He said no, and that they would begin lining up at 1pm.
I thought this would make for a good time to go grab some food, so I did, and I came back at around ten to 1.
I asked a nearby enforcer (a different one from the original) where to go, and he told me where the line was.
I followed the line back, and saw ANOTHER enforcer standing near the way to get to the line. I asked if the signing was here, and he said it was, but it had been capped.
"But, I just talked to an Enforcer like 20 minutes ago, he said they weren't even lining up until 1!" I said.
He looked at me and said "Sorry, but the line has been filling up for hours. It was capped 20 minutes ago."
I was so incredibly frustrated.
This has happened to me a number of times now, and it's absolutely infuriating when I can't get in line, because either the Enforcers aren't communicating, or an Enforcer is breaking the rules (maybe without knowing), and letting people in early.
Strict, specific times need to be set when people can line up for things, especially something like a Kojima signing. Then, those times need to be enforced and monitored, and people need to be dispersed from lingering around.
Because if you say that the line starts at 1pm, and there are already 200+ people in line when I ask you, and I don't get in, I'm going to be pissed. It's how that works.
I got over it, but this needs to be fixed; it's happened to me at least once a year.
#5 The second to last Omegethon round was postponed due to technical issues and I never figured out where it was going to happen and subsequently missed it. Would it have been possible to get an enforcer out between acts that night to announce a new time/spot for it? Or at least mention to check the twitter feed or something for the rescheduled location.
Ediit:Nevrmind, I apparently confused jerry wth cheebus. >_<
aioua on
life's a game that you're bound to lose / like using a hammer to pound in screws
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
The biggest issue I had this weekend was with the way the Hideo Kojima signing was handled on Saturday.
I got there at around 12:30 (the signing started at 3), and asked a nearby enforcer if I could line up yet. He said no, and that they would begin lining up at 1pm.
I thought this would make for a good time to go grab some food, so I did, and I came back at around ten to 1.
I asked a nearby enforcer (a different one from the original) where to go, and he told me where the line was.
I followed the line back, and saw ANOTHER enforcer standing near the way to get to the line. I asked if the signing was here, and he said it was, but it had been capped.
"But, I just talked to an Enforcer like 20 minutes ago, he said they weren't even lining up until 1!" I said.
He looked at me and said "Sorry, but the line has been filling up for hours. It was capped 20 minutes ago."
I was so incredibly frustrated.
This has happened to me a number of times now, and it's absolutely infuriating when I can't get in line, because either the Enforcers aren't communicating, or an Enforcer is breaking the rules (maybe without knowing), and letting people in early.
Strict, specific times need to be set when people can line up for things, especially something like a Kojima signing. Then, those times need to be enforced and monitored, and people need to be dispersed from lingering around.
Because if you say that the line starts at 1pm, and there are already 200+ people in line when I ask you, and I don't get in, I'm going to be pissed. It's how that works.
I got over it, but this needs to be fixed; it's happened to me at least once a year.
Oh wow, looks like I didn't even have a chance to get a signature as I was at his panel.
There was no announcement about any signing at the panel, so I had no idea it even existed until yesterday.
#5 The second-last omegathon round got postponed due to technical issues and I never figured out where it was going to happen and subsequently missed it. Would it have been possible to get an enforcer out between acts that night to announce a new time/spot for it? Or at least mention to check the twitter feed or something for the rescheduled location.
For what it's worth, the postponed round was both announced on twitter and I jumped on a mic shortly after Paul and Storm and announced the new location/time to the audience.
I noticed a few "I was lost..." comments which made me think of suggesting a Public Service Announcement ("The More You Know") type thing 15-20 minutes before PAX opens in the main que room. The PSA could explain things like lines, where things are, Wheadon's Rule, and other useful things. It of course be done by someone hilarious to maximize effect.
I also missed que room entertainment and I don't mean whoever did it last year wanting people to yell "I am a Space Marine!", that was silly.
First I have to say that Prime was amazing. The enforcers were awesome as always and did a great job keeping things moving well. One thing I was really worried about having only experienced East was the smaller space/congestion. It was never a problem. Even when the floor felt a little full on Saturday, the enforcers kept everything moving well. Thank you guys so much for that!
Also @LexiconGrrl did an amazing job with Pre-PAX gaming. Hope to see you organizing this next year.
Sugguestions:
-- Increase focus on smaller devs and indie devs
For both East and Prime, the indie area of the expo hall has been my favorite area. I see plenty of info about the bigger booths (eg ACIII, Last of Us, ect.) outside of PAX but this is the time when I get to check out all those amazing game I never would have stumbled on otherwise. I know there is a line of vendors trying to get booths so it would be great if some of the larger ones went down a little in size so that we could get more smaller devs.
-- Increased tweeting from @pax_lines
Like others have mentioned, the coverage was a little sparse. Would love to see it done a bit more like it was at East this year - 25% full, 50% full, 75% full, etc. Things like "the line is filling up but there is room" isn't very helpful. We saw that tweet for Khoo's panel, made a mad dash for the theater and got there only to discover that it was about 10%-15% full.
-- Table Top was too spread out / hard to find areas
I would love to see TT all together in one location, even if it was outside the expo hall. At East, there were vendors right there doing game demos and you could try out the game. We never were able to find the area where that was going at Prime. Also the freeplay TT rooms felt a little small and closed in with all the tables and people. We didn't end up spending much time in there because of it.
-- Organization of Areas
I don't really have a answer for this but one thing we really had a problem with was finding all the areas for something. I am not sure we would have ever found the booths on the 6th floor had we not been looking for the Supergiant Games booth. It would be great if areas that are related to each other could be in the same locations. For example, instead of the hand held lounge being by the expo areas, move the non-TT vendors from the 6th floor down there and the hand held to it's own area. It seems like some rearranging could really help people get around easier.
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You start getting into a baby vs. bathwater situation when the con gets this big and has this many competing interests going on. I also fear (please don't kill me, everybody) that Mike and Jerry are getting to the place where they're too far removed from the common rabble (ie: us) to really understand how those decisions are affecting us. I mean, it's a lovely idealistic thought to invite everyone to your house, but is it really pragmatic to think it's going to work without some sort of organization? And if the most sensible organization is separation, then there's the sacrifice you have to make for inviting that many people.
I guess in different words, if they want to continue doing it they way it's been done in the name of cross-pollination, that's lovely and idealistic and great for a small con. PAX isn't a small con anymore and if you want people to enjoy it and have a good time and actually want to cross-pollinate, you've got to apply big-con thinking. We're not in the Maydenbauer anymore. Those tactics just won't work now.
Maybe segregated badges isn't a perfect idea. But it's the best and most logical one that's been presented to date. As a PM of mine used to say, "Don't give up Good for Great." I'd like to see action that prioritizes the PAX experience as a whole, in its current form, instead of just, "no, that doesn't meet our ideology". Lacking a better idea, what other choice is there?
PAX Prime Attendee since 2006, BYOC Attendee 2008-2012, Buttoneer 2010-2014
https://www.pinnypals.com/pals/alegria
But otherwise... Thanks to everyone else for making my first PAX overwhelming, but fun!
The ideology is the core of PA though. Everything is done with that ideology in mind, of being a gamer community, IMO.
Heh, I know EXACTLY who you're talking about as I noticed her barking at people as well. I understand the importance of keeping people from crowding up, but she was a bit overkill.
I mean the main security force. I think they were AGV or AVG or some such. They were usually wearing blazers (suits). SO RIDICULOUSLY HOSTILE. None of them ever said a word to me, but I saw them yelling (yes, yelling) at a number of others, and any time we would walk by them (keep in mind, we weren't even cosplayed) they would just glare at us with this look of....I don't know if it was contempt or disgust, but just such sneery little puswads... There were also a couple of older people stationed on the 4th floor that were just constantly berating people for no real reason. We had lunch with some friends on Friday, had a big dinner on Saturday, and another dinner on Sunday at the end, and at all 3 of these times, everybody was commenting on how horribly these people were treating the convention goers and how unbelievably hostile MOST of the security force was.
Why is it every single year someone's gotta try and start some nonsense about moving to another city (which is always, not coincidentally, closer to where that person actually lives)? It's not happening. Give it up. Not only because of PA's own roots, but because of the fact that most of the game developers and publishers happen to already be here in Seattle. This city is a gaming hub, of course they're going to host a gaming convention on home turf. And btw, Vancouver couldn't even begin to handle this convention.
I don't think it's as much that kind of security issue as much as simply having too many different kinds of badges. Right now we have at least 10 different types/colors of badges that I can think of. Next year we'll have at least one more to cover day #4. The door security has to keep track of these and know what people can access at various times. This usually isn't too much of a problem as there are a fairly short number of hours of restricted access (such as times that media is allowed in, but not standard awesome attendees.) When the doors open for general entrance, when the largest numbers of people are passing through the doors, the door people are doing a simple badge=access (if single day=today), rather than certain types of badges get access to certain areas. As it is now, during general access times, the door people simply have to turn away people that don't have a badge for that day, and that's easy to explain, rather than explaining that your "level" or "zone" of access doesn't grant access to this area. I would imagine the doors would become fairly bottlenecked with people dealing with these interactions.
Before someone mentions it, of course there's BYOC, but convention center staff were only giving "special" access to BYOC on Friday before 10 for BYOC setup, otherwise it's enforcers policing BYOC entrances.
I think it's an idea that deserves some merit, from a "getting more people in to the convention center" aspect, if that's your goal. I'm simply addressing the possible security issues that were questioned.
I loved the new area, but man does it have its tradeoffs. It was nice to feel like BYOC owned this part of the convention (and the bathrooms are super swanky!), the BYOC-exclusive water cooler was a nice touch, and having an escalator that literally just put you in the expo hall right outside BYOC was great, but ...
It'd be nice to be near console freeplay/other after-PAX-expo-hall-hours-activities again; I really liked that we could wander in and out of BYOC to play other games. It's a pain to have to go all the way around after hours to get back into BYOC.
Also, I'd love for there to be more PC tournaments. There were only 4(ish) games being offered for tournament play. It was disappointing to me that there was no TF2/LoL/SC2 tournament this year.
I otherwise have no complaints. Hats off to the Enforcers and Big Red for yet another fantastic BYOC experience.
@meloncollie | steam hiokaybye
I'm off topic, but that last sentence irks me.
For floor space, VCC is all of 3 years old and has 406,000 sqf in a very nicely laid out format while WSCC has 344,000 sqf of awkwardly laid out floor space. The layout would be nicer and more efficient. The 220,000 sqf exhibition space in the main building alone would be amazing.
However, I'm not at all for moving the convention. It belongs in Seattle and I would be very sad to see it leave for any reason.
I k.now they want to keep everything avaliable for everyone(I actually rediscovered magic cause of this) like lexi said that is for small cons. While I don't agree with her and mc that we should go so far as to tickets for every area. I will repeat myself again that as long as PA wants to continue hosting super big events we should have seperate tickets for those that can be bough seperate or with a pass
Big booths keep badge prices down, and the WSCC's fire safety code makes segregated expo hall + panel badges a logistical nightmare. PAX has outgrown its small beginnings, and we should welcome the new changes and new attendees it brings.
Highlights:
1. The main expo floor was a bit less crowded, particularly on Friday
2. Panel lines (though I can't speak for the Sheraton as I didn't go there) were managed well
3. Freeplay had lots of great games available
4. Lots of tables available for tabletop
5. The community, of course
6. The classic arcade room. I'm surprised no one has mentioned it yet. I spent several hours in there over the weekend playing various pinball and arcade cabinets. Great addition, hope the organization PA partnered with for it can expand next year!
Glitches and suggestions:
1. The swag bags, though it sounds like this is handled
2. This is more in the hands of exhibitors, and the enforcers handled it well, but several times companies on the main expo floor decided it was a good idea to draw several hundred people to their booth for a raffle, swag, etc. it blocks the already thin walkways. Again, enforcers did their best to keep them clear, but I feel there should be some sort of regulation on this.
2A. This applies to lines as well. Several companies relied on the space outside their booth to hold the line to play their demo, further blocking aisles and other booths. They should be required to keep all lines within their rented space for safety and courtesy, not taken by a massive statue *cough* Borderlands 2.
3. Back in 2010, there were several projectors and screens scattered around high-traffic areas showing the twitter feeds and general info, however I didn't see many last year and any this year. If those could be brought back that'd be awesome.
4. Regarding LoL: I agree that if something is going to take up that much space and make that much noise that it should be held at a different location, or at least in the annex like Halofest was. Having it as a separate pass is probably a good idea.
5.This isn't in the control of PA, but I wanted to voice the same concerns about the staffed security and WSCC staff. Plenty were kind enough; one offered to hold something while I tied my shoe. Others were simply rude. Yelling at people who "stop inside the box," at the head of the escalators off to the side against the railing for 5 seconds is too much; saw that a few times.
Great time though, as always. Excited to attend for 4 days next year
I also think there's plenty of LOL and Halo folks who are perfectly nice people but the bottom line is that they're never going to stop in tabletop, and are never going to have that experience of discovery that Mike wants them to have. There are already plenty of people at PAX already who are just into one genre or another who will get an opportunity to have their own gamer ephiphanies without the need to invite 10,000 additional bodies to flood the convention.
PAX is the only convention I don't cosplay at all at. You'll notice a very minor % of attendees cosplay compared to other geek cons. Here are the major hurdles and some suggestions for overcoming them. Apologies that suggestions require space/resources which are both in limited supply.
1. Spread out layout.
Costumes are frequently a bitch to travel in, or can be destroyed when tread on, etc. PAX is laid out over several locations and requires a lot of street walking. Furthermore, parking is often far away unless you want to be reamed.
Solution: A dedicated cosplay space, sort of like a mix between console freeplay and BYOC in that you can check in, be given some space to lay your giant prop/high heeled shoes/velvet cloak and go run off to the Paramount. No guarantees for items left overnight but the doors being locked at 6pm would help. Pre-reg may not be doable because most people wouldn't know about it ahead of time unless great effort was done to discuss it on the PAX site. This space could be staffed with volunteers, and you know what, I could assist with managing that, but yes, this means more enforcers, which is more resources, and it also means taking up some space (but it doesn't have to be central in-demand space).
2. Costumes need maintanence.
Sakura-Con has done the best thing ever for this which is the dedicated costume room which provides mirrors, an array of pins, trash cans, needles and thread, tape, tables and chairs, and a couple helpers.
Solution: See above solution to issue 1.
3. It's frickin hot.
Solution: Is there anything that can be done to adjust the air conditioning in some of the areas? The Sheraton queue area was pretty much unbearable in street clothes, can you imagine in costume? Also, the aforementioned costume room could be equipped with sticks of deoderant to reapply in the middle of the con?
4. Meeting celebrities!
PAX is an opportunity to meet our icons. Many people are happy to cosplay in front of a crowd of people they don't know, but when meeting the internet celebrities we look up to we often get concerned about appearing like we're spazwads or something. Let's be honest, cosplayers face some prejudice even from the most open minded among us. I wouldn't want to meet Khoo, dressed in his snappy suit (where do they come from!) dressed in my rediculously over the top cosplay.
Solution: Hey, remember that cosplay space I mentioned? Where people can leave props and stuff? Yeah, continues to be useful! Also, just a general changing of the PA atmosphere to make all of us feel most accepted in our Cosplay, which is an end I believe PA could consiously attempt to reach. I'm not saying I've received hostility, I'm just saying the vacuum allows the aforementioned past experienced prejudices to rear their ugly heads.
5. No cosplay panel.
This issue helps to reinforce the issue I alluded to above with the general atmosphere of cosplay inacceptance.
Solution: Pretty obvious that we hold a frickin cosplay panel. I recognize this requires a submission of a panel from somebody. A costume contest with prizes, or discussions of annecdotes and online resources for the steampunk, gothic lolita, or cosplayer all both ideas that could fill tons of time. Maybe I'll do some investigation on who would be willing and able.
Another suggestion I'd make to exhibitors (which is entirely on them, nothing PA does at all really) is to reward cosplayers of your IP with no-hassle swag.
Anyway, just some ideas. : ) Me and my Seattle Women's geekery group could work on making this happen if we got a green light (or even could engage in discussions). But ya know what, if there's not space or resources or manpower I can understand. There's kind of this convention thing going on that weekend which makes those things in short supply.
Last year, Crabcats Industries (for those unawares, they were the ones who made that AWESOME Krogan costume last year) had a cosplay panel that was one of the biggest hits of the convention. I noticed that they weren't hosting one this year, so I went to their site and reached out to them to ask why they weren't doing another one this year, instead opting to be "booth babes" for some other game. Got a response back stating that the PAX organizers had denied their request for a panel this year. I'd really like to know why that is, and suggest not denying it next year, because that panel alone encouraged a lot of the costumes last year.
I think I said this on page 1, but it probably bears repeating: If there was room for 8 or 9 panels on being a gay gamer in the 21st century (I think that's how many there were), surely there was room for 1 cosplay panel.
Exhibitors... I know there likely isn't a lot that can be controlled with them, but it almost seems like they should have to submit their demo/swag plans ahead of time so that lines can be planned. For the last few years the first day has always been a mess and then on saturday I see the enforcers out with tape, getting the crowd into some sense of order. It would be great if that could be planned out ahead of time and have at least some of those lines start out managed. Ideally, they would be forced to build enough space into their booth to wholly contain their lines so we didn't have this issue in the first place, but I know that's not always possible given how enthusiastic we can sometimes be about lining up for things.
Absolutely this! I'll be back in costume next year and would love to be at an actual cosplay panel! Saturday would probably be the best day as it seems that most cosplayers are out in force that day.
How would they have numbers on this? They don't count door entries and they don't track where badges went. They may have rough estimates based on crowd density in areas, but that couldn't possibly tell you how many people from LoL did or didn't cruise the expo floor at some point or another.
I wasn't at the LoL tournament more than a pass-by to see what they were doing with the space, but maybe the the organizers of the LoL tournament could tell you if any or how many of the participants never left the area, maybe based on login times or something. But, again, that wouldn't tell you where the ones that left went to, if they went to somewhere within PAX, out to dinner, party, sleep, etc.
Personally, I'm less interested in that aspect than I am in the neighbor aspect, how the tournament noise affected the panels on the 6th floor. The place seemed more like a concert than a game tournament.
#1 Gearbox really needs a main theatre slot if they have something next year. I think it's been something like 3 years in a row now that they get the Sheraton slot and it always gets packed far earlier than most of the other panels. The demand outstrips the available space and it keeps happening every year. Of course if they get the main theatre slot they're probably not going to want to buy enough pizza for a few thousand enthusiasts... there are always tradeoffs, I suppose.
#2 Last year I really, seriously missed the rock band freeplay area which was a great spot to eat meals or just rest up and recharge for a bit and so I was super happy to see it included once again this year. I'm glad it's back, and I hope it'll still be there next year too!
#3 This isn't directly involved with physical PAX but I noticed the website, even with print options, wasn't showing the complete schedule in a nice grid format this year, only a list. I didn't get hands on a grid schedule until the program was actually in my hands; since one was made for the programs, next year stick it up on the website earlier! Apologies if I somehow missed it.
#4 I am probably in the minority here but I had no problems with the buffet setup for the swag bag. However, I was badged for all 3 days and knew I'd have plenty of chances to get one, and prior experience had taught me that the entry swag bag is basically a cool bag (this year at least, previous years it's just plastic), a box of magic cards and a dozen pieces of paper I will never look at more than once. I ignored the friday line for them and everyone was clued in on saturday/sunday with no lineups for the bag at all. Basically, while handing full bags out on entry worked fine, the buffet setup would also work fine if there was someway to convince people that dropping an hour+ in a line there is unnecessary. Probably harder than it sounds.
#5 The second-last omegathon round got postponed due to technical issues and I never figured out where it was going to happen and subsequently missed it. Would it have been possible to get an enforcer out between acts that night to announce a new time/spot for it? Or at least mention to check the twitter feed or something for the rescheduled location.
#6 Something someone mentioned higher up this page: screens in the queue room with twitter feeds would be fantastic. I don't have 3g access in the convention hall and the wifi is spotty as hell which means my only reliable access to the twitter feeds was in my hotel room that I'm never at.
Those are pretty much the only big things that jumped out at me this year. Already looking at the long wait between now and next year.
And really, PAX is supposed to be about us, not them. If the companies want to media whore, they have E3 for that. The expo hall in general felt very impersonal this year as booths have gotten bigger, and louder and consequently dumber because they're more concerned with topping their neighbors than they are about us. If the booths even bother to have devs around, then they're usually tied up in interviews all day instead of talking to us. The expo hall in general is becoming the thing that PAX was supposed to not be. If a company needs a lot of space to demo a bunch of games then sure, I get that. Capcom shows off a LOT of shit in the space they operate in but does Wargaming.net really need that massive of a space just to show off two games, one of which is there every year anyway? Ubisoft's gigantic Assassin's Creed 3 section is another great example. Does SOE really need a live DJ playing unrelated music at the Planetside 2 booth just so that they can have an excuse to make some noise? The big guys are getting out of hand and they need to have their wrists slapped. Limit the amount of space these companies can use unless they've got a damn good reason to need a ton and limit how loud they're allowed to be. Having more knowledgeable staff around to talk about things would be nice. Getting opportunities to talk to the actual industry people is becoming harder and harder. Basically the experience was generally "play our shit, buy our shit, now get the fuck out."
Obviously the indy guys are all cool and none of this applies to them.
EDIT: The Enforcer presence in the expo hall felt kinda light this year. Lines were messy, crowds bunched up and restricted flow, etc. It felt like a much bigger clusterfuck this year than it has in the past.
EDIT EDIT: The LoL Regionals took WAY too much valuable space and was generally just loud and obnoxious. They need to host that shit somewhere else at a different time. This is PAX, not LoLcon.
I also agree about the LoL regionals. Sure it was a high profile event but there were plenty of people there who couldn't have cared less about it and it took up a lot of valuable space.
I got there at around 12:30 (the signing started at 3), and asked a nearby enforcer if I could line up yet. He said no, and that they would begin lining up at 1pm.
I thought this would make for a good time to go grab some food, so I did, and I came back at around ten to 1.
I asked a nearby enforcer (a different one from the original) where to go, and he told me where the line was.
I followed the line back, and saw ANOTHER enforcer standing near the way to get to the line. I asked if the signing was here, and he said it was, but it had been capped.
"But, I just talked to an Enforcer like 20 minutes ago, he said they weren't even lining up until 1!" I said.
He looked at me and said "Sorry, but the line has been filling up for hours. It was capped 20 minutes ago."
I was so incredibly frustrated.
This has happened to me a number of times now, and it's absolutely infuriating when I can't get in line, because either the Enforcers aren't communicating, or an Enforcer is breaking the rules (maybe without knowing), and letting people in early.
Strict, specific times need to be set when people can line up for things, especially something like a Kojima signing. Then, those times need to be enforced and monitored, and people need to be dispersed from lingering around.
Because if you say that the line starts at 1pm, and there are already 200+ people in line when I ask you, and I don't get in, I'm going to be pissed. It's how that works.
I got over it, but this needs to be fixed; it's happened to me at least once a year.
Ediit:Nevrmind, I apparently confused jerry wth cheebus. >_<
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
Oh wow, looks like I didn't even have a chance to get a signature as I was at his panel.
There was no announcement about any signing at the panel, so I had no idea it even existed until yesterday.
For what it's worth, the postponed round was both announced on twitter and I jumped on a mic shortly after Paul and Storm and announced the new location/time to the audience.
I also missed que room entertainment and I don't mean whoever did it last year wanting people to yell "I am a Space Marine!", that was silly.
Also @LexiconGrrl did an amazing job with Pre-PAX gaming. Hope to see you organizing this next year.
Sugguestions:
-- Increase focus on smaller devs and indie devs
For both East and Prime, the indie area of the expo hall has been my favorite area. I see plenty of info about the bigger booths (eg ACIII, Last of Us, ect.) outside of PAX but this is the time when I get to check out all those amazing game I never would have stumbled on otherwise. I know there is a line of vendors trying to get booths so it would be great if some of the larger ones went down a little in size so that we could get more smaller devs.
-- Increased tweeting from @pax_lines
Like others have mentioned, the coverage was a little sparse. Would love to see it done a bit more like it was at East this year - 25% full, 50% full, 75% full, etc. Things like "the line is filling up but there is room" isn't very helpful. We saw that tweet for Khoo's panel, made a mad dash for the theater and got there only to discover that it was about 10%-15% full.
-- Table Top was too spread out / hard to find areas
I would love to see TT all together in one location, even if it was outside the expo hall. At East, there were vendors right there doing game demos and you could try out the game. We never were able to find the area where that was going at Prime. Also the freeplay TT rooms felt a little small and closed in with all the tables and people. We didn't end up spending much time in there because of it.
-- Organization of Areas
I don't really have a answer for this but one thing we really had a problem with was finding all the areas for something. I am not sure we would have ever found the booths on the 6th floor had we not been looking for the Supergiant Games booth. It would be great if areas that are related to each other could be in the same locations. For example, instead of the hand held lounge being by the expo areas, move the non-TT vendors from the 6th floor down there and the hand held to it's own area. It seems like some rearranging could really help people get around easier.