Most of my concerns have been addressed already, but there are two other things I wanted to point out that I didn't see mentioned previously:
1) The PC Freeplay selection was insultingly poor. You could take your pick of F2P games - ESPECIALLY MOBAs - but other than those it was a collection of incredibly outdated FPSes. UT2K4? L4D2? Where was Titanfall? BF4? I would have settled for anything made within the last half-decade. My party was looking forward to spending some time together in that area, but the lackluster selection turned us off completely.
I'm not entirely certain how the staff determines what goes onto the machines, and if they're donated keys and not sponsored installs, this year's selection makes a ton of sense. Assuming that scenario is how it actually works, let me say this to the relevant marketing staffs: a couple years back, I had heard of Payday but hadn't played it yet. I saw it was on the list of games available, stuck out a fairly long wait in line to get a crack at it, loved it, rushed home and bought it that Monday. Some of the people in my party might have been talked into buying a recent release like Titanfall had they been given the opportunity to try it out in the LAN environment.
2) People misusing the handheld lounge and tabletop freeplay areas. Are you tired? Did you stay up too late last night and you're now running on fumes? GO BACK TO YOUR HOTEL. Don't hog the limited space available to sleep for an hour plus because you're too lazy/out of shape to take the shuttle/T/walk back to your hotel.
Same goes for people eating lunch in the tabletop area with no box or cards in sight - there's an entire food court for you to occupy while downing your grub. If it's too full, that's not my problem. Find someplace else to eat, or better yet leave the convention area to grab a bite. It's one less body we have to deal with that's wasting precious space.
2) People misusing the handheld lounge and tabletop freeplay areas. Are you tired? Did you stay up too late last night and you're now running on fumes? GO BACK TO YOUR HOTEL. Don't hog the limited space available to sleep for an hour plus because you're too lazy/out of shape to take the shuttle/T/walk back to your hotel.
The Handheld Lounge has always been advertised as a place for people to relax during the event.
Positives:
- The Diversity Lounge and AFK Room were a great idea!
- The Wildstar booth was a great time all weekend. The folks from Carbine are pretty awesome.
- The Magic booth was easily the most organized booth on the expo floor. They were always willing to let people know exactly when the line would open up again, and on Sunday they had someone offering pin trading instead of standing in line solely for a pin.
- The Indie Megabooth is always a highlight of my PAX trip.
- Bethesda and Asus both had really fun parties, but Bethesda was my favorite. Hearing a band play Walk the Line and Paint it Black in German was great.
- PWNMEAL! My colon will never be the same.
- The trolley service for food was great, as always.
- The Ubisoft booth was really nice this year.
Negatives:
- Raffles. Stop allowing tiny booths to hold huge raffles that you have to be there for. They completely disrupt foot traffic, and make some booths completely inaccessible!
- Swag bags. Not having enough left on Sunday is inexcusable. I wouldn't mind seeing them removed entirely. There's hardly anything in them anymore, and the advertising could have been placed in the event guide.
- The Diversity Lounge should have been advertised better. I know quite a few people who never found it. Also, closing it at the same time as the expo hall seemed like a mistake.
- There seemed like there were more tables allocated for miniature war games and Magic than were really needed. Tabletop Freeplay seemed to suffer for it.
- The expo hall seems to be where you stick the Enforcers with shitty attitudes. Give them stuff to give out to the lines like you do the theater lines, and maybe they would be having more fun?
- Better placement of signs for the bag checks. The side most PAX attendees were coming from had the least signage.
Same goes for people eating lunch in the tabletop area with no box or cards in sight - there's an entire food court for you to occupy while downing your grub. If it's too full, that's not my problem. Find someplace else to eat, or better yet leave the convention area to grab a bite. It's one less body we have to deal with that's wasting precious space.
Actually there was no seating in the food court this year, at all. The closest place to sit was the tabletop area unless you wanted to sit on the concrete and annoy enforcers by being in lanes designated as 'line' lanes. So I'd put the negative on PAX. Put some seats around the eating area so people can ya know, eat.
Same goes for people eating lunch in the tabletop area with no box or cards in sight - there's an entire food court for you to occupy while downing your grub. If it's too full, that's not my problem. Find someplace else to eat, or better yet leave the convention area to grab a bite. It's one less body we have to deal with that's wasting precious space.
Actually there was no seating in the food court this year, at all. The closest place to sit was the tabletop area unless you wanted to sit on the concrete and annoy enforcers by being in lanes designated as 'line' lanes. So I'd put the negative on PAX. Put some seats around the eating area so people can ya know, eat.
I assume you mean the expo level food area for having no seats. The main food court had tons of seating.
The people resting in the handheld lounge wasn't as much of a problem as the increased amount of foot traffic in that area this year. ACAM was ok, but the one next to it (can't remember the name) had a huge line which further cut into the space that people could walk through. There were a few times I was accidentally kicked or someone tripped over my feet, and if there were a fire or emergency it would be difficult so many people to evacuate because the beanbags already take up half the floor space.
However, the people eating food court food while sprawling out in the beanbags was kinda gross IMO.
This is my 3rd pax, and probably my least favorite one.
The pluses
-The pins this year were awesome, and I'm not even a pin collector.
-Indy games were really fun this year. Liked them better than the triple a games.
-Definitely the single best after parties this year.
Cons
-bag check/queue line. My friends and I stayed at the Westin this year. We got to pax at 930, waited in bag check til 1045. When we finally got inside, we were told that we had to wait til the queue lines started getting in, because it wouldn't be fair to let us in. We were then told to go to the queue line to line up there. We started walking towards the queue line area, then they started letting people in at the area that just said they weren't letting people in at. This happened both Saturday and Sunday. A little better communication would of been awesome.
-Swag, no body was giving anything out. It was either "sign up", "wait in a 5 hour line, or "pre order our game".
-Pins, I love the idea of the pins, however a lot of people had no idea what they were. Second, according to the pin poster at the pax merch booth, to get a certain pin you had to visit the booth. Went to the booth only to be told I had to find a guy, in a sea of 20k+ to get the pin. Yeah, sure.
-I didn't get to play a lot of stuff I came to see, evolve had 7 hour lines, heroes of the storm was always at cap, forget about borderlands or Bethesda.
-A few times I would ask am enforcer where something was, only to be told the wrong directions. I hate this more than anything.
Yes, sorry, the expo food area. Most likely the flow over was from there, rather than people walking from the food court to the tt area.
Yeah, there definitely was not enough seating in the food court area for the demand it had. You basically had to get your food, your napkins and condiments, and wander around waiting for someone to leave their table, all while balancing your flimsy tray hoping not to spill anything. It would have greatly benefited from maybe a 10 or 15 minute time limit to consume your food and leave like the McDonalds in Manhattan.
The good:
My first is actually kinda about PAX and kinda about the game night in the Westin (thanks again to LexiconGrrl and the Westin for setting this up). I don't know how well it worked as a whole, but I found the little signup sheet and the numbered tables incredibly useful for finding a game a couple times and I would love to see something like that at the actual tabletop area in PAX, especially at prime where it's divided up across many rooms (or maybe something like this is already in place and I missed it).
The AFK room: I didn't make a whole lot of use of it myself, but I had a surprising number of attendees who were just kinda suffering from sensory overload who came to me looking for a place to just relax, and it was very nice to actually have some place to send them. Surprisingly enough though, I don't recall seeing much about it in the program. It was on the map, but I would be nice to have a little blurb about what it is in the future.
The bad:
Bathrooms: You've already heard this one so I'll skip the details. Hopefully the city of Boston will get their head on straight next year.
2) People misusing the handheld lounge and tabletop freeplay areas. Are you tired? Did you stay up too late last night and you're now running on fumes? GO BACK TO YOUR HOTEL. Don't hog the limited space available to sleep for an hour plus because you're too lazy/out of shape to take the shuttle/T/walk back to your hotel.
I just want to point out that while I totally get your frustration, that this is a direct quote from the program this year: "You may notice a few beanbags lying around. Move them around, take a nap in them, play some DS games..." It was definitely a bit tough to find space there when it was super busy, but I would cut the people who were just relaxing some slack.
Tangent:
If anyone in here providing feedback had experience with the loud enforcer with the bird on his shoulder outside of Bumblebee (and briefly Arachnid) theater, that was me, and I'd love to hear your (both positive and negative) thoughts (In a private message of course as not to derail the thread), so I can try make PAX just as little bit better for you all in the future.
A few comments:
Bathrooms: You've already heard this one so I'll skip the details. Hopefully the city of Boston will get their head on straight next year.
I wouldn't blame the city, the expo center, or Penny Arcade for this. The fact is that PAX has a solid majority of men, and any convention center will be designed to cater to a balance of genders. Yeah, it kinda sucks, but realistically, what can be done about it?
PAX East Attendee. Professional Tabletop Gamer. Donut Enthusiast.
A few comments:
Bathrooms: You've already heard this one so I'll skip the details. Hopefully the city of Boston will get their head on straight next year.
I wouldn't blame the city, the expo center, or Penny Arcade for this. The fact is that PAX has a solid majority of men, and any convention center will be designed to cater to a balance of genders. Yeah, it kinda sucks, but realistically, what can be done about it?
From what I understand, Khoo proposed the idea of making more of the bathrooms gender neutral as opposed to exclusively men, but was shot down. That would be one option. Furthermore, anecdotal evidence is anecdotal, but it seems that there was far more outcry this year with the changes than there ever was in previous years where they didn't mess with them at all, so I would postulate that the standard 50/50 setup was also superior. Anyways, this has been discussed to death at this point already I suppose.
This was my first PAX and here is what I thought of it.
Stood in line 40 minutes to get inside, no big deal. Got inside, was going to check our backpacks at the coat check, was over an hour wait on that, so gave up. Stood in line for 45 minutes to watch a 3 minute Nvidia movie about already released tech. Infact, I recieved 3 bags, one from Nvidia, Asus, and New Egg but nowhere was giving away anything to put in them. Waited in line for an hour for the Nvidia panel, which they showed a couple neat tech demos, but it was mostly people screaming and begging for video cards. Give aways are fine, but to the point of BEGGING and jumping up and down on chairs, it was farther than I would go. All of the other things I wanted to see, the Bethesda Booth and the MTG booth had such long lines, we gave up. We flew in half way across the country and couldnt justify spending half of a vacation day in line to see 1 thing. Last gripe, they close down the floor at 6 pm. So basically, in 1 day of PAX, you would have enough time to get in the door, check your coat, get a beer, and see 1 booth before they started shutting it down for the day. I had fun in Boston, but packing people in so damn tight that you cant even move, removed all enjoyment for me. The plane ticket and badge costs would have been better spent on games and a new video card, and watch the panels I wanted to see on livestream.
I really, really wish Tabletop would copy the system Origins uses for finding people looking for more players. They have stacks of orange paper traffic cones that you can pick up from the area where you check out games. If you're looking for players for your game you put the cone on your table and hang the box lid on the cone so people can see at a glance what you want to play. The PAX system of "randomly accost people who look aimless" works decently, but I vastly prefer the ease of just looking out over the floor and being able to see all the open games. The #ttlfg hashtag is a nice idea but almost nobody uses it.
This was my first PAX and here is what I thought of it.
Stood in line 40 minutes to get inside, no big deal. Got inside, was going to check our backpacks at the coat check, was over an hour wait on that, so gave up. Stood in line for 45 minutes to watch a 3 minute Nvidia movie about already released tech. Infact, I recieved 3 bags, one from Nvidia, Asus, and New Egg but nowhere was giving away anything to put in them. Waited in line for an hour for the Nvidia panel, which they showed a couple neat tech demos, but it was mostly people screaming and begging for video cards. Give aways are fine, but to the point of BEGGING and jumping up and down on chairs, it was farther than I would go. All of the other things I wanted to see, the Bethesda Booth and the MTG booth had such long lines, we gave up. We flew in half way across the country and couldnt justify spending half of a vacation day in line to see 1 thing. Last gripe, they close down the floor at 6 pm. So basically, in 1 day of PAX, you would have enough time to get in the door, check your coat, get a beer, and see 1 booth before they started shutting it down for the day. I had fun in Boston, but packing people in so damn tight that you cant even move, removed all enjoyment for me. The plane ticket and badge costs would have been better spent on games and a new video card, and watch the panels I wanted to see on livestream.
Not to imply there is a wrong way to do PAX, but that is what's going to happen if you only focus on the AAA stuff. While you were waiting in line to watch that 3 minute nvidia video, you could've played half a dozen great indie games in the megabooth. And every year there a quite a few interesting panels that you can walk in the room as it starts and get a decent seat. And the floor may close at 6, but there's alot more going on after that too (I suppose unless Sunday was the day you came). If the big names are really what you came to PAX to see, great, just want you to know there's alot more going on that's worth checking out.
I really, really wish Tabletop would copy the system Origins uses for finding people looking for more players. They have stacks of orange paper traffic cones that you can pick up from the area where you check out games. If you're looking for players for your game you put the cone on your table and hang the box lid on the cone so people can see at a glance what you want to play. The PAX system of "randomly accost people who look aimless" works decently, but I vastly prefer the ease of just looking out over the floor and being able to see all the open games. The #ttlfg hashtag is a nice idea but almost nobody uses it.
That cone idea sounds great. Every year I say I'm gonna spend more time in TT, but never seems to happen. If there was something like the cone where I could see games I could immediately jump in, maybe I'd be more likely to do that.
Disclaimer, I did not go to PAX East, but I thought I could contribute a little to the bathroom talk.
The data says that women take twice as long just to use the toilets than men do (because they have to get in a stall and sit down). Plus they go to the bathroom more often than men. This is ignoring cultural and social factors that increase the time spent in the bathroom not using the toilet. It's why New York mandated more toilets for women awhile back. Given that PAX is 35% women (according to Robert Khoo in this Polygon story). If you assume only double usage (an underestimate) to serve Women's needs they need 52% of the bathroom capacity offered to men. Math hidden:
(2*0.35)/(0.35*2+0.65) = 0.52
So they were slightly behind before Boston stepped in.
I was advised by the Event Manager at the Westin that the best way to provide feedback about the convention decisions that were out of PA's control is to write a letter to the Mayor. No kidding. You can find that information here.
I tried this and got the following response:
Mayor Walsh does not have jurisdiction over the BCEC. It is a State Department under the jurisdiction of Governor Deval Patrick. You may send your comments to the Governor at www.mass.gov or contact his Office of Constituent Services at 617-725-4005.
CaveCibum, it sounds like you are getting the run around.
The Boston PD provided security at PAX, not the state police.
In addition, it was the Boston PD who laid down the rules, not the state police.
Gov Patrick has no authority over the Boston PD; that's all on Mayor Walsh.
You should rewrite your letter to Mayor Walsh, specifically addressing the problems caused by the Boston PD.
I've been to all four five (thanks Zerzhul) PAX Easts and thoroughly enjoyed this one!
Positive
- Pre-screened questions at the Draw a Strip panel was a huge improvement. It removed the people awkwardly talking nonsense for 5-10 minutes and then end with a question of "Will you sign my badge?".
- Acquisitions Incorporated was the best panel I have ever been to at PAX East.
- The tabletop library seemed to have a larger and better selection than previous years.
- Off-site parking. I possibly got very lucky but getting to/from my car offsite took 15 minutes.
- The indie booth is just awesome.
- The extra tables scattered around.
Negatives
- Some indie developers weren't that great at handling people. For example, when there is a long line (10+ people), don't let someone play your game for 20 minutes! Nothing PAX can do about that though.
- Really, really loud obnoxious announcers (i.e. Evolve).
- Bag checks. Annoying but efficiently run.
Bathrooms
I am torn on this one. In prior years, as a male, the lines during peak times were huge. There was never more than 10 people in line this time around. I do think gender neutral would have been a better solution and I am sorry for women who had to walk a much further distance.
I am a progressive, married 30+ year old and attend PAX with my wife and sister. Neither of them has felt any level of fear or exclusion due to their gender at PAX. This isn't a real problem that needs fixing. It is a manufactured issue that needs ignoring, so you can deal with the very real issues of line/flow management. You're worried about your image, while PAX is still selling out in minutes. Why? Clearly the majority of people have no problem with PA or PAX, stop catering to ideologues.
I am female and I could not agree with this statement more. 1000% agreed. 10/10, would agree again. 5 stars.
PAX has always made me feel welcome and safe and never made me feel "excluded" as a female gamer. Even if they did, this is not a real issue, as you stated. The real issue is most certainly the insane amounts of people they let attend and the way it's organized.
I am also a female, and I disagree with this. Line management is most certainly an issue, but I absolutely see the value in panels discussing the video game industry and culture as a whole, and the issues that it faces regarding sexism. I went to a panel on Sunday regarding sexism in the video game industry, ranging from developers and journalists to cosplayers and tabletop gamers. This panel was completely full, so I would say a lot of people are interested in this issue. There have also been several personal accounts from people who have experienced horrible sexual harassment at PAX. I would agree that as a whole, the treatment of women at PAX is great, and it is a welcoming atmosphere, but I disagree that this means we should gloss over the issue in panels and other discussions because of overcrowding complaints.
-Enforcers were overall great, were happy to help out at any time (even kept us entertained for a bit during some of the lines).
-Bag checks really did not make it slow to get in at all, if anything it helped control the entry flow to prevent over crowding in that area.
-Hotel shuttles were great, super nice and even funny drivers.
-Overall the con was just awesome, i will never see any other con the same way. Really can not wait to come back next year.
Negative
-Found it hard sometimes to find some of the theaters, would be nice if some temp signs were put up pointing to the theaters name and not just the room number.
-Queue Room could have been better used, more tables and food areas more spaced out so the lines to not cross each other.
-Some lines were underused and capped wayy to early when there was still loads of space and the demo was less then 10 minutes.
-As much as the bag checks did not make a affect on the traffic, they really did not seem to do much other then poke around the top of my open bag. They really need to look more or invest in metal detectors like theme parks have (and those do not affect the traffic that much either it is very quick when you have LOTS).
Sgt.Mays on
Gaymer, Nerd and Fan of Freeman's Mind/Half-life/GTA/Red Vs Blue
Attended: East 14, 15 and West 16
Attending West 2019
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WolfieeWeb/Graphic Designer and IllustratorMARegistered Userregular
I am a progressive, married 30+ year old and attend PAX with my wife and sister. Neither of them has felt any level of fear or exclusion due to their gender at PAX. This isn't a real problem that needs fixing. It is a manufactured issue that needs ignoring, so you can deal with the very real issues of line/flow management. You're worried about your image, while PAX is still selling out in minutes. Why? Clearly the majority of people have no problem with PA or PAX, stop catering to ideologues.
I am female and I could not agree with this statement more. 1000% agreed. 10/10, would agree again. 5 stars.
PAX has always made me feel welcome and safe and never made me feel "excluded" as a female gamer. Even if they did, this is not a real issue, as you stated. The real issue is most certainly the insane amounts of people they let attend and the way it's organized.
I am also a female, and I disagree with this. Line management is most certainly an issue, but I absolutely see the value in panels discussing the video game industry and culture as a whole, and the issues that it faces regarding sexism. I went to a panel on Sunday regarding sexism in the video game industry, ranging from developers and journalists to cosplayers and tabletop gamers. This panel was completely full, so I would say a lot of people are interested in this issue. There have also been several personal accounts from people who have experienced horrible sexual harassment at PAX. I would agree that as a whole, the treatment of women at PAX is great, and it is a welcoming atmosphere, but I disagree that this means we should gloss over the issue in panels and other discussions because of overcrowding complaints.
To be clear, I wasn't talking about the panels (although I'm glad there were a lot less of those types of panels and more gaming/dev related ones this year). My response was regarding PAX, as a whole, putting a lot of time and effort into catering for individuals or much less significant "problems" instead of putting that work towards a MUCH bigger issue - like crowd control.
Because of things like the Polygon article that was posted, PAX is worried about (and caters to) keeping an image, as they rightfully should be. However, media outlets like Ploygon and Kotaku are always going to find and dwell on any sort of social issue in an attempt to start controversy - because controversy gets them (the media) exposure.
Like Yutt said, these are becoming manufactured problems. While it is most certainly important to take notice and monitor social discrimination at PAX, there is no need for it to take priority over (at least imo) larger scale issue like safety/crowd management.
Overall I had a blast this year- I conked out earlier than usual, but that was due to flat feet and a poor choice of shoes I will not repeat again.
Pluses
-I acknowledged the need for bag checks prior to the con (and in fact suspected they’d be in place prior to the announcement), but was prepared for them to be a shitstorm. They…weren’t. Took maybe 15 minutes of my time at any given point.
-Acquisitions Inc. Yes. More please.
-The sheer quantity of indie titles. I won’t lie, I’m a AAA guy, but dammit if years going to East haven’t worn down any resistance I might once have had.
-The nearly universally great people I ran into over the weekend, it’s a very welcoming environment.
-The Enforcers. You guys rule!
-The Roll for Diversity and AFK lounges- great ideas that I hope will be further expanded upon further.
-The concert lineup changes. Nice! Things were getting a bit stale lineup-wise, so some changes were much appreciated,
Minuses
-As said before, I’m a AAA guy…I’d have liked a couple more of the big players on the expo floor. And speaking of…
-The expo floor wasn’t so bad Friday. But Saturday and Sunday it was paaaaaaacked. I’m good in crowds and even *I* felt like I was being swallowed by the mass of humanity.
-The bathroom issue, but that wasn’t really PAX’s call, so we’ll move on.
-The lack of main theatre streams as in pervious year
-WiFi. Dear god, the WiFi. I’m from Canada, so using data would cost me an arm and a leg, but the WiFi seemed even spottier than previous years.
-The whole Onpeak Charlie-Foxtrot. I got my 3 days fine, but the hotel registration situation was inexcusable. Maybe don’t announce when the tickets go on sale in advance next year- that will keep everyone from hammering the servers all at once, maybe?
-No Paul & Storm, no Adam Warrock. Boo-urns!
‘Huh, wasn’t expecting that’
-The Royal Rumble panel. Dear god in Heaven, that was glorious chaos and carnage.
-I…might start getting into pin trading. May God have mercy on the blackened husk that is my marketing professional, ginger soul.
Positive
- Pre-screened questions at the Draw a Strip panel was a huge improvement. It removed the people awkwardly talking nonsense for 5-10 minutes and then end with a question of "Will you sign my badge?".
- Acquisitions Incorporated was the best panel I have ever been to at PAX East.
Yes, yes, and yes. When Mike & Jerry asked if people wanted them to go back to the old format and a bunch of people cheered and clapped I wanted to shout "NOOOOO!"
I don't want to hear 37 people give a sob story, say thank you, ask them to sign stuff, and give them snack cakes. No offense, I'm sure you're an interesting person and you have a great story, but I'm here because I want to hear from Mike & Jerry; and after hearing the 1853rd person talk about how PA's humor helped them get through tough times, it all starts to blend together. Please for the love of god keep doing this format.
The answer is that the Law for arenas/places like the BCEC is: 1 toilet per 30 women and 1 toilet per 60 men. Thus with PAX East's 35% / 65% female/male ratio, zero bathrooms should have been removed from feminine use. This is assuming the amount of toilets + urinals in both male and female bathrooms are the same.
I am also a female, and I disagree with this. Line management is most certainly an issue, but I absolutely see the value in panels discussing the video game industry and culture as a whole, and the issues that it faces regarding sexism. I went to a panel on Sunday regarding sexism in the video game industry, ranging from developers and journalists to cosplayers and tabletop gamers. This panel was completely full, so I would say a lot of people are interested in this issue. There have also been several personal accounts from people who have experienced horrible sexual harassment at PAX. I would agree that as a whole, the treatment of women at PAX is great, and it is a welcoming atmosphere, but I disagree that this means we should gloss over the issue in panels and other discussions because of overcrowding complaints.
Well, we're conflating a lot of issues here, I never intended to comment on "sexism in the video game industry", and am not going to discuss it in this thread.
What I am claiming is that no systematic or culture of harassment of women exists at PAX. Issues should be addressed on a case by case basis. Just as they would if they were any other negative human interaction.
Just feels that PAX is becoming less and less of a video game expo (good luck playing a game on the show floor), and more and more of a social engineering convention. It is vaguely creepy. But again, I'm not from the West Coast, I know this obsession with how-do-I-fix-everyone-other-than-myself is trendy there right now.
Yes, yes, and yes. When Mike & Jerry asked if people wanted them to go back to the old format and a bunch of people cheered and clapped I wanted to shout "NOOOOO!"
I don't want to hear 37 people give a sob story, say thank you, ask them to sign stuff, and give them snack cakes. No offense, I'm sure you're an interesting person and you have a great story, but I'm here because I want to hear from Mike & Jerry; and after hearing the 1853rd person talk about how PA's humor helped them get through tough times, it all starts to blend together. Please for the love of god keep doing this format.
Damn, when you put it that way, I think I agree. I did appreciate the "sob stories", but the gifts and signing requests were incredibly annoying and a waste of everyones' time.
-WiFi. Dear god, the WiFi. I’m from Canada, so using data would cost me an arm and a leg, but the WiFi seemed even spottier than previous years.
Fellow Canadian here my friend, best advice I can give you:
Unlock your LTE phone, get a T-Mobile simcard and go on their $3 per day unlimited data / text / talk pay as you go plan. The cell service was nigh on spotless, this is the first year my group has experienced that and...it...was...GLORIOUS!
Also, as an aside, I have seen the future, and the future is four day PAX East. It had really positive effects on the expo hall and prime, and the whole thing was more leisurely....after a three day pax, I need the following week to recover.
Note: This is not officially confirmed or anything, but we asked Robert about it directly this weekend, and he gave us one of those non-committal humming and hawwing, maybe sorta, one day answers, so that's something!
Yeah I think it's a thing that will eventually happen. Probably part of the deal they struck for the many years of pax east in Boston. The dates are on the calendar for east 2015 though so I doubt 4 day pax east will happen before 2016.
As far as the gender neutral solution for the bathrooms goes, I kinda feel like if there were more of them, the complaints would just change from "not enough bathrooms" to "too many gender neutral bathrooms full of creepers milling around, I didn't feel like I had enough privacy."
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ClixThis guy I knowSeattle, WARegistered Userregular
As far as the gender neutral solution for the bathrooms goes, I kinda feel like if there were more of them, the complaints would just change from "not enough bathrooms" to "too many gender neutral bathrooms full of creepers milling around, I didn't feel like I had enough privacy."
My wife was not very keen on the idea of gender neutral restrooms, and I fully understand. No woman wants to use a stall that has piss and pubes all over the toilet seat, which is what happens when men use stalls for #1. We now know that it was the city of Boston that took away the female bathrooms, so I won't waste any more time talking about it on the PA forums.
As far as the gender neutral solution for the bathrooms goes, I kinda feel like if there were more of them, the complaints would just change from "not enough bathrooms" to "too many gender neutral bathrooms full of creepers milling around, I didn't feel like I had enough privacy."
And at that point you get enforcers/security involved. I didn't ever feel weird or like there were creepy people hanging around when I went into the gender neutral bathrooms. And the bathrooms are usually busy enough either with PAXers using them or BCEC staff cleaning that I think anyone trying to "creep" would be spotted very quickly.
For me Pax was 100x better this year compared to the other years due to being more open to having conversations with people instead being terrified of them. But of course I have a few suggestions as well
1. Badges- Is there a way to run things like San Diego Comic Con? It was announced when tickets were going on sale earlier in the week and when you signed on that day you were put in a queue before the tickets went live. When the time came the queue was emptied at a nice pace and the site didn't crash. I'm not sure if it's possible to do something like this but it's worth looking into to avoid the mess we went through this time.
2. Swag Bags- Even though my friends and I were able to get one, the amount of people I saw taking waaaaaaay more pissed me off. I believe it was suggested a few posts back that a swag bag ticket come with the badges and we hand them in to receive the bag. But of course no matter what's in place if people want extra swag bags they're going to find a way to get them.
Just my 2 cents
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ClixThis guy I knowSeattle, WARegistered Userregular
edited April 2014
Pros:
Having PAX East in April instead of March. That one month barrier makes such a huge difference in the weather and the enjoyment of the whole show.
Enforcers were awesome. Yeah, I hate finding that enforcer at the end of a line that I was about to get into because "Line's capped." But every enforcer I interacted with was super positive and cool. Thank you!
Huge Indy Mega Booth! It was great to see Indy developers get a respectable space in the expo hall, and not be crammed into a corner like at PAX Prime.
Pre-screening questions at panels. It moved things along and helped prevent dumb rants or questions (there are such things as dumb questions).
Tons of shuttles! The parking lot shuttles weren't that important this year, but next year I imagine them being heavily relied upon with the March weather.
Pinny Arcade. This was a great PAX for pins, thank you!
Everything else that isn't listed above or below! PAX is awesome, it's what I look forward to all year long and it never disappoints. Thanks to the PA staff, enforcers, BCEC staff, exhibitors, and attendees. PAX is home.
Suggestions:
Get the BCEC to offer an overnight/weekend parking option. The $12 for parking at the convention was no problem, the $30 per night fee at the hotel was terrible though. If the BCEC could designate a section of parking lot for extended parking it would be awesome, even if it costs more.
Stop offering a discount for three-day badges. Seriously, it's nothing more then a lottery.
Don't announce the exact time badges will go on sale.
Make every swag bag the same. Shuffling a hot item like CAH into bags only promotes multiple passes through the line and generates butt loads of waste.
Stop renaming the dang auditoriums. It is much easier to find room 154 then it is "Gryphondor Theater" or whatever. No need to reinvent the wheel.
As an expectant parent the idea of a nursing room sounds like a very good one.
Addressing other things from other people or stuff outside of PA influence:
Don't like the carny food at the BCEC? Take the free three minute trolley ride, or ten minute walk to all the restaurants right across the highway. Seriously, there are so many food options within minutes of the BCEC.
I love AAA titles too, but due to the time of year that PAX East takes place it's kind of a crap shoot. This was the third PAX that I've seen Ubisoft primarily pushing Watchdogs. Yes, I like Watchdogs but I'm sick of seeing previews and just want to play it already. They had nothing for Assassin's Creed Unity, or The Division. Being just months before E3 really steals the wind from PAX East's sails.
Bag checks and security were well executed. Did anybody ever have to stand in line for more than five minutes to get their bag checked? I doubt it. Bag checks for an event as big as PAX are a necessary precaution in today's world. Some people complain that they were not thorough enough, others that they were too invasive. Listen, just the show of security is often enough to dissuade a potential attack. I think security was well handled by the staff and Boston Police. Bravo Zulu.
I'm a swag whore. I love swag. Swag swag swag. If any exhibitors want my attention they now know how to get it. Swag me.
1. Badges- Is there a way to run things like San Diego Comic Con? It was announced when tickets were going on sale earlier in the week and when you signed on that day you were put in a queue before the tickets went live. When the time came the queue was emptied at a nice pace and the site didn't crash. I'm not sure if it's possible to do something like this but it's worth looking into to avoid the mess we went through this time.
This is more or less how it was done with EAST this year.
It was announced in advance the day and time it was one sale. You signed on at the time they started and were put in a queue and got to buy tickets when it was your turn.
Also, It's very very clear that someone is going to be unhappy no matter how they do tickets. Everyone was asking for pre-announced sale date, and now that they've gone that route, people (I assume other than those asking for a pre-announced date) are asking that it isn't announced.
Someone is going to be unhappy no matter what PA does, I do feel that giving slight notice is the best compromise. It avoids having to camp twitter non stop the month after PAX.
1. Badges- Is there a way to run things like San Diego Comic Con? It was announced when tickets were going on sale earlier in the week and when you signed on that day you were put in a queue before the tickets went live. When the time came the queue was emptied at a nice pace and the site didn't crash. I'm not sure if it's possible to do something like this but it's worth looking into to avoid the mess we went through this time.
This is more or less how it was done with EAST this year.
It was announced in advance the day and time it was one sale. You signed on at the time they started and were put in a queue and got to buy tickets when it was your turn.
Also, It's very very clear that someone is going to be unhappy no matter how they do tickets. Everyone was asking for pre-announced sale date, and now that they've gone that route, people (I assume other than those asking for a pre-announced date) are asking that it isn't announced.
Someone is going to be unhappy no matter what PA does, I do feel that giving slight notice is the best compromise. It avoids having to camp twitter non stop the month after PAX.
Actually, this doesn't describe my experience at all. I was added to the queue, kicked off the server, added to the queue again, ordered my two 3 day badges, was kicked off the server again before I could pay, was bumped back in the queue again, had this happen once more, back in queue, 3 day's sold out, finally got three individual passes for two people. Repeat with the hotel. It was a fiasco. I'm all for a queue if the servers can handle it and not kick people to the back of the line after having waited and started the process.
That said, I had a great time at Pax and look forward to it every year. My personal highlight? Playtesting Thornwatch. Awesome game. I plan to stalk it until I can buy it and bring it home.
Pros:
Stop renaming the dang auditoriums. It is much easier to find room 154 then it is "Gryphondor Theater" or whatever. No need to reinvent the wheel.
Actually this year I figured it out. Look at the maps and see that each floor has four locations for a theater, and starting in the upper left corner they go A, B, C, and D. Stuff that flies is on the top level, stuff that walks is on the middle floor, stuff that swims is on the bottom floor. So, I knew that "Condor" was on the top floor, at the bottom left corner of the map, and "Dragonfly" is at the bottom right, just down the hall. Where is Cuttlefish? Two floors directly below Condor. etc.
I will say that signage could be better, though. Like, at the bottom of major escalators and entrances/exits, a quick "Dragonfly, this way" could help. But there was at least ample map displays such that I was rarely completely lost this year. That said, it wouldn't hurt to just put the room number in parentheses on the map, right? So if Condor is 501 (or whatever), we could use the existing signage as well.
That said, it wouldn't hurt to just put the room number in parentheses on the map, right? So if Condor is 501 (or whatever), we could use the existing signage as well.
I agree. It's nice to have your own map and all, but a lot of people have difficulty reading maps and/or orienting themselves withing the convention center. I wish they would just add the existing room numbers to the maps and be done with it, so that people can use the overhead signage for what it's supposed to be there for.
Yeah, the community maps do that, which is nice. I believe the problem with additional signing is that there's restrictions on what types of signs they're allowed to hang for directions. I don't think they can cover up existing signage and put up "condor this way." There may be more that they can do, but I believe that most of it is restriction based. My personal take is that the numbers should be on the official maps like they are on the community-made maps. Then all the existing signage works.
I am also a female, and I disagree with this. Line management is most certainly an issue, but I absolutely see the value in panels discussing the video game industry and culture as a whole, and the issues that it faces regarding sexism. I went to a panel on Sunday regarding sexism in the video game industry, ranging from developers and journalists to cosplayers and tabletop gamers. This panel was completely full, so I would say a lot of people are interested in this issue. There have also been several personal accounts from people who have experienced horrible sexual harassment at PAX. I would agree that as a whole, the treatment of women at PAX is great, and it is a welcoming atmosphere, but I disagree that this means we should gloss over the issue in panels and other discussions because of overcrowding complaints.
Well, we're conflating a lot of issues here, I never intended to comment on "sexism in the video game industry", and am not going to discuss it in this thread.
What I am claiming is that no systematic or culture of harassment of women exists at PAX. Issues should be addressed on a case by case basis. Just as they would if they were any other negative human interaction.
Just feels that PAX is becoming less and less of a video game expo (good luck playing a game on the show floor), and more and more of a social engineering convention. It is vaguely creepy. But again, I'm not from the West Coast, I know this obsession with how-do-I-fix-everyone-other-than-myself is trendy there right now.
I'm an East Coaster myself, so I can't comment on how people act on the West Coast or whether it's trendy or rooted in people's personal viewpoints. You made some comments in your original post about the panel quality dropping because they focus on how to tell PAX-goers to "behave more like they want us to". I was responding that I actually find some of these panels, such as the one I discussed, enlightening and worthwhile in addition to addressing harassment on a case-by-case basis. Sort of preventative maintenance if you will, instead of a reaction-based approach. I can certainly appreciate you not wanted to be preached at about how everything you say/do is wrong. You are there to play games and learn about games, not the culture. Furthermore, I do love the panels discussing game design/development and think they should be a strong focus at PAX. I just believe there should be a healthy mix of the two (games/culture). There is enough of an audience for each to defend the validity of having both.
Regarding the expo floor, a couple of years ago I stopped visiting the AAA game booths and focused solely on the indie booths. It's made my expo floor experience a lot more enjoyable, and I've discovered a lot of cool games I never would have heard of otherwise. It is a major bummer that I can't check out (AKA I am not willing to wait 4-5 hours in line to check out) any of the AAA games that I might be interested in. I can't think of a viable solution for this that doesn't present a different set of problems.
Anyway, this PAX is big enough for the both of us. Do you have any game industry contacts? Post regularly in any game company forums? Perhaps you could reach out to them about panels you would like to see in the future, and they could propose them to PA if they are interested. As I said previously, there is enough interest in the details of making video games to make these types of panels worthwhile.
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1) The PC Freeplay selection was insultingly poor. You could take your pick of F2P games - ESPECIALLY MOBAs - but other than those it was a collection of incredibly outdated FPSes. UT2K4? L4D2? Where was Titanfall? BF4? I would have settled for anything made within the last half-decade. My party was looking forward to spending some time together in that area, but the lackluster selection turned us off completely.
I'm not entirely certain how the staff determines what goes onto the machines, and if they're donated keys and not sponsored installs, this year's selection makes a ton of sense. Assuming that scenario is how it actually works, let me say this to the relevant marketing staffs: a couple years back, I had heard of Payday but hadn't played it yet. I saw it was on the list of games available, stuck out a fairly long wait in line to get a crack at it, loved it, rushed home and bought it that Monday. Some of the people in my party might have been talked into buying a recent release like Titanfall had they been given the opportunity to try it out in the LAN environment.
2) People misusing the handheld lounge and tabletop freeplay areas. Are you tired? Did you stay up too late last night and you're now running on fumes? GO BACK TO YOUR HOTEL. Don't hog the limited space available to sleep for an hour plus because you're too lazy/out of shape to take the shuttle/T/walk back to your hotel.
Same goes for people eating lunch in the tabletop area with no box or cards in sight - there's an entire food court for you to occupy while downing your grub. If it's too full, that's not my problem. Find someplace else to eat, or better yet leave the convention area to grab a bite. It's one less body we have to deal with that's wasting precious space.
The Handheld Lounge has always been advertised as a place for people to relax during the event.
Positives:
- The Diversity Lounge and AFK Room were a great idea!
- The Wildstar booth was a great time all weekend. The folks from Carbine are pretty awesome.
- The Magic booth was easily the most organized booth on the expo floor. They were always willing to let people know exactly when the line would open up again, and on Sunday they had someone offering pin trading instead of standing in line solely for a pin.
- The Indie Megabooth is always a highlight of my PAX trip.
- Bethesda and Asus both had really fun parties, but Bethesda was my favorite. Hearing a band play Walk the Line and Paint it Black in German was great.
- PWNMEAL! My colon will never be the same.
- The trolley service for food was great, as always.
- The Ubisoft booth was really nice this year.
Negatives:
- Raffles. Stop allowing tiny booths to hold huge raffles that you have to be there for. They completely disrupt foot traffic, and make some booths completely inaccessible!
- Swag bags. Not having enough left on Sunday is inexcusable. I wouldn't mind seeing them removed entirely. There's hardly anything in them anymore, and the advertising could have been placed in the event guide.
- The Diversity Lounge should have been advertised better. I know quite a few people who never found it. Also, closing it at the same time as the expo hall seemed like a mistake.
- There seemed like there were more tables allocated for miniature war games and Magic than were really needed. Tabletop Freeplay seemed to suffer for it.
- The expo hall seems to be where you stick the Enforcers with shitty attitudes. Give them stuff to give out to the lines like you do the theater lines, and maybe they would be having more fun?
- Better placement of signs for the bag checks. The side most PAX attendees were coming from had the least signage.
Actually there was no seating in the food court this year, at all. The closest place to sit was the tabletop area unless you wanted to sit on the concrete and annoy enforcers by being in lanes designated as 'line' lanes. So I'd put the negative on PAX. Put some seats around the eating area so people can ya know, eat.
However, the people eating food court food while sprawling out in the beanbags was kinda gross IMO.
This is my 3rd pax, and probably my least favorite one.
The pluses
-The pins this year were awesome, and I'm not even a pin collector.
-Indy games were really fun this year. Liked them better than the triple a games.
-Definitely the single best after parties this year.
Cons
-bag check/queue line. My friends and I stayed at the Westin this year. We got to pax at 930, waited in bag check til 1045. When we finally got inside, we were told that we had to wait til the queue lines started getting in, because it wouldn't be fair to let us in. We were then told to go to the queue line to line up there. We started walking towards the queue line area, then they started letting people in at the area that just said they weren't letting people in at. This happened both Saturday and Sunday. A little better communication would of been awesome.
-Swag, no body was giving anything out. It was either "sign up", "wait in a 5 hour line, or "pre order our game".
-Pins, I love the idea of the pins, however a lot of people had no idea what they were. Second, according to the pin poster at the pax merch booth, to get a certain pin you had to visit the booth. Went to the booth only to be told I had to find a guy, in a sea of 20k+ to get the pin. Yeah, sure.
-I didn't get to play a lot of stuff I came to see, evolve had 7 hour lines, heroes of the storm was always at cap, forget about borderlands or Bethesda.
-A few times I would ask am enforcer where something was, only to be told the wrong directions. I hate this more than anything.
Yeah, there definitely was not enough seating in the food court area for the demand it had. You basically had to get your food, your napkins and condiments, and wander around waiting for someone to leave their table, all while balancing your flimsy tray hoping not to spill anything. It would have greatly benefited from maybe a 10 or 15 minute time limit to consume your food and leave like the McDonalds in Manhattan.
The good:
My first is actually kinda about PAX and kinda about the game night in the Westin (thanks again to LexiconGrrl and the Westin for setting this up). I don't know how well it worked as a whole, but I found the little signup sheet and the numbered tables incredibly useful for finding a game a couple times and I would love to see something like that at the actual tabletop area in PAX, especially at prime where it's divided up across many rooms (or maybe something like this is already in place and I missed it).
The AFK room: I didn't make a whole lot of use of it myself, but I had a surprising number of attendees who were just kinda suffering from sensory overload who came to me looking for a place to just relax, and it was very nice to actually have some place to send them. Surprisingly enough though, I don't recall seeing much about it in the program. It was on the map, but I would be nice to have a little blurb about what it is in the future.
The bad:
Bathrooms: You've already heard this one so I'll skip the details. Hopefully the city of Boston will get their head on straight next year.
The rest:
I just want to point out that while I totally get your frustration, that this is a direct quote from the program this year: "You may notice a few beanbags lying around. Move them around, take a nap in them, play some DS games..." It was definitely a bit tough to find space there when it was super busy, but I would cut the people who were just relaxing some slack.
Tangent:
If anyone in here providing feedback had experience with the loud enforcer with the bird on his shoulder outside of Bumblebee (and briefly Arachnid) theater, that was me, and I'd love to hear your (both positive and negative) thoughts (In a private message of course as not to derail the thread), so I can try make PAX just as little bit better for you all in the future.
I wouldn't blame the city, the expo center, or Penny Arcade for this. The fact is that PAX has a solid majority of men, and any convention center will be designed to cater to a balance of genders. Yeah, it kinda sucks, but realistically, what can be done about it?
Stood in line 40 minutes to get inside, no big deal. Got inside, was going to check our backpacks at the coat check, was over an hour wait on that, so gave up. Stood in line for 45 minutes to watch a 3 minute Nvidia movie about already released tech. Infact, I recieved 3 bags, one from Nvidia, Asus, and New Egg but nowhere was giving away anything to put in them. Waited in line for an hour for the Nvidia panel, which they showed a couple neat tech demos, but it was mostly people screaming and begging for video cards. Give aways are fine, but to the point of BEGGING and jumping up and down on chairs, it was farther than I would go. All of the other things I wanted to see, the Bethesda Booth and the MTG booth had such long lines, we gave up. We flew in half way across the country and couldnt justify spending half of a vacation day in line to see 1 thing. Last gripe, they close down the floor at 6 pm. So basically, in 1 day of PAX, you would have enough time to get in the door, check your coat, get a beer, and see 1 booth before they started shutting it down for the day. I had fun in Boston, but packing people in so damn tight that you cant even move, removed all enjoyment for me. The plane ticket and badge costs would have been better spent on games and a new video card, and watch the panels I wanted to see on livestream.
Not to imply there is a wrong way to do PAX, but that is what's going to happen if you only focus on the AAA stuff. While you were waiting in line to watch that 3 minute nvidia video, you could've played half a dozen great indie games in the megabooth. And every year there a quite a few interesting panels that you can walk in the room as it starts and get a decent seat. And the floor may close at 6, but there's alot more going on after that too (I suppose unless Sunday was the day you came). If the big names are really what you came to PAX to see, great, just want you to know there's alot more going on that's worth checking out.
That cone idea sounds great. Every year I say I'm gonna spend more time in TT, but never seems to happen. If there was something like the cone where I could see games I could immediately jump in, maybe I'd be more likely to do that.
The data says that women take twice as long just to use the toilets than men do (because they have to get in a stall and sit down). Plus they go to the bathroom more often than men. This is ignoring cultural and social factors that increase the time spent in the bathroom not using the toilet. It's why New York mandated more toilets for women awhile back. Given that PAX is 35% women (according to Robert Khoo in this Polygon story). If you assume only double usage (an underestimate) to serve Women's needs they need 52% of the bathroom capacity offered to men. Math hidden:
For more reading, see this Wikipedia article.
I tried this and got the following response:
Mayor Walsh does not have jurisdiction over the BCEC. It is a State Department under the jurisdiction of Governor Deval Patrick. You may send your comments to the Governor at www.mass.gov or contact his Office of Constituent Services at 617-725-4005.
The Boston PD provided security at PAX, not the state police.
In addition, it was the Boston PD who laid down the rules, not the state police.
Gov Patrick has no authority over the Boston PD; that's all on Mayor Walsh.
You should rewrite your letter to Mayor Walsh, specifically addressing the problems caused by the Boston PD.
Positive
- Pre-screened questions at the Draw a Strip panel was a huge improvement. It removed the people awkwardly talking nonsense for 5-10 minutes and then end with a question of "Will you sign my badge?".
- Acquisitions Incorporated was the best panel I have ever been to at PAX East.
- The tabletop library seemed to have a larger and better selection than previous years.
- Off-site parking. I possibly got very lucky but getting to/from my car offsite took 15 minutes.
- The indie booth is just awesome.
- The extra tables scattered around.
Negatives
- Some indie developers weren't that great at handling people. For example, when there is a long line (10+ people), don't let someone play your game for 20 minutes! Nothing PAX can do about that though.
- Really, really loud obnoxious announcers (i.e. Evolve).
- Bag checks. Annoying but efficiently run.
Bathrooms
I am torn on this one. In prior years, as a male, the lines during peak times were huge. There was never more than 10 people in line this time around. I do think gender neutral would have been a better solution and I am sorry for women who had to walk a much further distance.
I am also a female, and I disagree with this. Line management is most certainly an issue, but I absolutely see the value in panels discussing the video game industry and culture as a whole, and the issues that it faces regarding sexism. I went to a panel on Sunday regarding sexism in the video game industry, ranging from developers and journalists to cosplayers and tabletop gamers. This panel was completely full, so I would say a lot of people are interested in this issue. There have also been several personal accounts from people who have experienced horrible sexual harassment at PAX. I would agree that as a whole, the treatment of women at PAX is great, and it is a welcoming atmosphere, but I disagree that this means we should gloss over the issue in panels and other discussions because of overcrowding complaints.
-Enforcers were overall great, were happy to help out at any time (even kept us entertained for a bit during some of the lines).
-Bag checks really did not make it slow to get in at all, if anything it helped control the entry flow to prevent over crowding in that area.
-Hotel shuttles were great, super nice and even funny drivers.
-Overall the con was just awesome, i will never see any other con the same way. Really can not wait to come back next year.
Negative
-Found it hard sometimes to find some of the theaters, would be nice if some temp signs were put up pointing to the theaters name and not just the room number.
-Queue Room could have been better used, more tables and food areas more spaced out so the lines to not cross each other.
-Some lines were underused and capped wayy to early when there was still loads of space and the demo was less then 10 minutes.
-As much as the bag checks did not make a affect on the traffic, they really did not seem to do much other then poke around the top of my open bag. They really need to look more or invest in metal detectors like theme parks have (and those do not affect the traffic that much either it is very quick when you have LOTS).
Attended: East 14, 15 and West 16
Attending West 2019
Because of things like the Polygon article that was posted, PAX is worried about (and caters to) keeping an image, as they rightfully should be. However, media outlets like Ploygon and Kotaku are always going to find and dwell on any sort of social issue in an attempt to start controversy - because controversy gets them (the media) exposure.
Like Yutt said, these are becoming manufactured problems. While it is most certainly important to take notice and monitor social discrimination at PAX, there is no need for it to take priority over (at least imo) larger scale issue like safety/crowd management.
Badges [ ] Hotel [ ] Complete Pixelist.net [x] Excitement [x]
Pluses
-I acknowledged the need for bag checks prior to the con (and in fact suspected they’d be in place prior to the announcement), but was prepared for them to be a shitstorm. They…weren’t. Took maybe 15 minutes of my time at any given point.
-Acquisitions Inc. Yes. More please.
-The sheer quantity of indie titles. I won’t lie, I’m a AAA guy, but dammit if years going to East haven’t worn down any resistance I might once have had.
-The nearly universally great people I ran into over the weekend, it’s a very welcoming environment.
-The Enforcers. You guys rule!
-The Roll for Diversity and AFK lounges- great ideas that I hope will be further expanded upon further.
-The concert lineup changes. Nice! Things were getting a bit stale lineup-wise, so some changes were much appreciated,
Minuses
-As said before, I’m a AAA guy…I’d have liked a couple more of the big players on the expo floor. And speaking of…
-The expo floor wasn’t so bad Friday. But Saturday and Sunday it was paaaaaaacked. I’m good in crowds and even *I* felt like I was being swallowed by the mass of humanity.
-The bathroom issue, but that wasn’t really PAX’s call, so we’ll move on.
-The lack of main theatre streams as in pervious year
-WiFi. Dear god, the WiFi. I’m from Canada, so using data would cost me an arm and a leg, but the WiFi seemed even spottier than previous years.
-The whole Onpeak Charlie-Foxtrot. I got my 3 days fine, but the hotel registration situation was inexcusable. Maybe don’t announce when the tickets go on sale in advance next year- that will keep everyone from hammering the servers all at once, maybe?
-No Paul & Storm, no Adam Warrock. Boo-urns!
‘Huh, wasn’t expecting that’
-The Royal Rumble panel. Dear god in Heaven, that was glorious chaos and carnage.
-I…might start getting into pin trading. May God have mercy on the blackened husk that is my marketing professional, ginger soul.
PSN: L00nyEclip
Steam: Loony Eclipse
Twitter: @Loonyeclipse
Yes, yes, and yes. When Mike & Jerry asked if people wanted them to go back to the old format and a bunch of people cheered and clapped I wanted to shout "NOOOOO!"
I don't want to hear 37 people give a sob story, say thank you, ask them to sign stuff, and give them snack cakes. No offense, I'm sure you're an interesting person and you have a great story, but I'm here because I want to hear from Mike & Jerry; and after hearing the 1853rd person talk about how PA's humor helped them get through tough times, it all starts to blend together. Please for the love of god keep doing this format.
Look in Section 10.10, item 18 Table 1.
The answer is that the Law for arenas/places like the BCEC is: 1 toilet per 30 women and 1 toilet per 60 men. Thus with PAX East's 35% / 65% female/male ratio, zero bathrooms should have been removed from feminine use. This is assuming the amount of toilets + urinals in both male and female bathrooms are the same.
What I am claiming is that no systematic or culture of harassment of women exists at PAX. Issues should be addressed on a case by case basis. Just as they would if they were any other negative human interaction.
Just feels that PAX is becoming less and less of a video game expo (good luck playing a game on the show floor), and more and more of a social engineering convention. It is vaguely creepy. But again, I'm not from the West Coast, I know this obsession with how-do-I-fix-everyone-other-than-myself is trendy there right now.
Damn, when you put it that way, I think I agree. I did appreciate the "sob stories", but the gifts and signing requests were incredibly annoying and a waste of everyones' time.
Fellow Canadian here my friend, best advice I can give you:
Unlock your LTE phone, get a T-Mobile simcard and go on their $3 per day unlimited data / text / talk pay as you go plan. The cell service was nigh on spotless, this is the first year my group has experienced that and...it...was...GLORIOUS!
Also, as an aside, I have seen the future, and the future is four day PAX East. It had really positive effects on the expo hall and prime, and the whole thing was more leisurely....after a three day pax, I need the following week to recover.
Note: This is not officially confirmed or anything, but we asked Robert about it directly this weekend, and he gave us one of those non-committal humming and hawwing, maybe sorta, one day answers, so that's something!
My wife was not very keen on the idea of gender neutral restrooms, and I fully understand. No woman wants to use a stall that has piss and pubes all over the toilet seat, which is what happens when men use stalls for #1. We now know that it was the city of Boston that took away the female bathrooms, so I won't waste any more time talking about it on the PA forums.
And at that point you get enforcers/security involved. I didn't ever feel weird or like there were creepy people hanging around when I went into the gender neutral bathrooms. And the bathrooms are usually busy enough either with PAXers using them or BCEC staff cleaning that I think anyone trying to "creep" would be spotted very quickly.
1. Badges- Is there a way to run things like San Diego Comic Con? It was announced when tickets were going on sale earlier in the week and when you signed on that day you were put in a queue before the tickets went live. When the time came the queue was emptied at a nice pace and the site didn't crash. I'm not sure if it's possible to do something like this but it's worth looking into to avoid the mess we went through this time.
2. Swag Bags- Even though my friends and I were able to get one, the amount of people I saw taking waaaaaaay more pissed me off. I believe it was suggested a few posts back that a swag bag ticket come with the badges and we hand them in to receive the bag. But of course no matter what's in place if people want extra swag bags they're going to find a way to get them.
Just my 2 cents
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Having PAX East in April instead of March. That one month barrier makes such a huge difference in the weather and the enjoyment of the whole show.
Enforcers were awesome. Yeah, I hate finding that enforcer at the end of a line that I was about to get into because "Line's capped." But every enforcer I interacted with was super positive and cool. Thank you!
Huge Indy Mega Booth! It was great to see Indy developers get a respectable space in the expo hall, and not be crammed into a corner like at PAX Prime.
Pre-screening questions at panels. It moved things along and helped prevent dumb rants or questions (there are such things as dumb questions).
Tons of shuttles! The parking lot shuttles weren't that important this year, but next year I imagine them being heavily relied upon with the March weather.
Pinny Arcade. This was a great PAX for pins, thank you!
Everything else that isn't listed above or below! PAX is awesome, it's what I look forward to all year long and it never disappoints. Thanks to the PA staff, enforcers, BCEC staff, exhibitors, and attendees. PAX is home.
Suggestions:
Get the BCEC to offer an overnight/weekend parking option. The $12 for parking at the convention was no problem, the $30 per night fee at the hotel was terrible though. If the BCEC could designate a section of parking lot for extended parking it would be awesome, even if it costs more.
Stop offering a discount for three-day badges. Seriously, it's nothing more then a lottery.
Don't announce the exact time badges will go on sale.
Make every swag bag the same. Shuffling a hot item like CAH into bags only promotes multiple passes through the line and generates butt loads of waste.
Stop renaming the dang auditoriums. It is much easier to find room 154 then it is "Gryphondor Theater" or whatever. No need to reinvent the wheel.
As an expectant parent the idea of a nursing room sounds like a very good one.
Addressing other things from other people or stuff outside of PA influence:
Don't like the carny food at the BCEC? Take the free three minute trolley ride, or ten minute walk to all the restaurants right across the highway. Seriously, there are so many food options within minutes of the BCEC.
I love AAA titles too, but due to the time of year that PAX East takes place it's kind of a crap shoot. This was the third PAX that I've seen Ubisoft primarily pushing Watchdogs. Yes, I like Watchdogs but I'm sick of seeing previews and just want to play it already. They had nothing for Assassin's Creed Unity, or The Division. Being just months before E3 really steals the wind from PAX East's sails.
Bag checks and security were well executed. Did anybody ever have to stand in line for more than five minutes to get their bag checked? I doubt it. Bag checks for an event as big as PAX are a necessary precaution in today's world. Some people complain that they were not thorough enough, others that they were too invasive. Listen, just the show of security is often enough to dissuade a potential attack. I think security was well handled by the staff and Boston Police. Bravo Zulu.
I'm a swag whore. I love swag. Swag swag swag. If any exhibitors want my attention they now know how to get it. Swag me.
This is more or less how it was done with EAST this year.
It was announced in advance the day and time it was one sale. You signed on at the time they started and were put in a queue and got to buy tickets when it was your turn.
Also, It's very very clear that someone is going to be unhappy no matter how they do tickets. Everyone was asking for pre-announced sale date, and now that they've gone that route, people (I assume other than those asking for a pre-announced date) are asking that it isn't announced.
Someone is going to be unhappy no matter what PA does, I do feel that giving slight notice is the best compromise. It avoids having to camp twitter non stop the month after PAX.
Actually, this doesn't describe my experience at all. I was added to the queue, kicked off the server, added to the queue again, ordered my two 3 day badges, was kicked off the server again before I could pay, was bumped back in the queue again, had this happen once more, back in queue, 3 day's sold out, finally got three individual passes for two people. Repeat with the hotel. It was a fiasco. I'm all for a queue if the servers can handle it and not kick people to the back of the line after having waited and started the process.
That said, I had a great time at Pax and look forward to it every year. My personal highlight? Playtesting Thornwatch. Awesome game. I plan to stalk it until I can buy it and bring it home.
Actually this year I figured it out. Look at the maps and see that each floor has four locations for a theater, and starting in the upper left corner they go A, B, C, and D. Stuff that flies is on the top level, stuff that walks is on the middle floor, stuff that swims is on the bottom floor. So, I knew that "Condor" was on the top floor, at the bottom left corner of the map, and "Dragonfly" is at the bottom right, just down the hall. Where is Cuttlefish? Two floors directly below Condor. etc.
I will say that signage could be better, though. Like, at the bottom of major escalators and entrances/exits, a quick "Dragonfly, this way" could help. But there was at least ample map displays such that I was rarely completely lost this year. That said, it wouldn't hurt to just put the room number in parentheses on the map, right? So if Condor is 501 (or whatever), we could use the existing signage as well.
I agree. It's nice to have your own map and all, but a lot of people have difficulty reading maps and/or orienting themselves withing the convention center. I wish they would just add the existing room numbers to the maps and be done with it, so that people can use the overhead signage for what it's supposed to be there for.
I'm an East Coaster myself, so I can't comment on how people act on the West Coast or whether it's trendy or rooted in people's personal viewpoints. You made some comments in your original post about the panel quality dropping because they focus on how to tell PAX-goers to "behave more like they want us to". I was responding that I actually find some of these panels, such as the one I discussed, enlightening and worthwhile in addition to addressing harassment on a case-by-case basis. Sort of preventative maintenance if you will, instead of a reaction-based approach. I can certainly appreciate you not wanted to be preached at about how everything you say/do is wrong. You are there to play games and learn about games, not the culture. Furthermore, I do love the panels discussing game design/development and think they should be a strong focus at PAX. I just believe there should be a healthy mix of the two (games/culture). There is enough of an audience for each to defend the validity of having both.
Regarding the expo floor, a couple of years ago I stopped visiting the AAA game booths and focused solely on the indie booths. It's made my expo floor experience a lot more enjoyable, and I've discovered a lot of cool games I never would have heard of otherwise. It is a major bummer that I can't check out (AKA I am not willing to wait 4-5 hours in line to check out) any of the AAA games that I might be interested in. I can't think of a viable solution for this that doesn't present a different set of problems.
Anyway, this PAX is big enough for the both of us. Do you have any game industry contacts? Post regularly in any game company forums? Perhaps you could reach out to them about panels you would like to see in the future, and they could propose them to PA if they are interested. As I said previously, there is enough interest in the details of making video games to make these types of panels worthwhile.