Goodbye PAX, welcome back real life. To all the FRC forum people, whether we talked for an hour or only crossed paths for 30 seconds: Ro, Jeremy, Emily, Ruffas, Natalie, Ryan, Justin, Andrew, Lyddi, and anyone else I may be forgetting, thanks for making the awkward ritual of meeting internet people very painless. I had a great time every minute I was at PAX. I think the theme of this con was people overload, as I was also meeting up with MDP writers, GeekDad writers, and college friends.
Highlights of PAX: keynote, make-a-strip, the GeekDad panel, lots of gaming in Westin lobby and cafeteria tabletop, great interview with Steve Jackson, meeting tons of new people and seeing old friends again. BTW, I took a long video of Mike drawing the pony in the make-a-strip for all you ponies fanatics. Will upload later today.
Lowlights:
Having to leave early (again). For the second PAX East in a row, someone in my car pulled the "oh my god I didn't realize PAX goes so late on Sunday. I need to be home by 10PM to prepare for work," and everyone caved to their request. Will not be making this mistake ever again. If we're traveling together, you're committing to the 5-day experience.
Action Castle game was lame compared to last year's. There was too much trolling by the players on one hand, and too many people not understanding how to play on the other. The game didn't get any intro and felt rushed the whole time, which didn't help. For instance, people made dumb mistakes like referring to a branch as a stick. Instead of taking the time to say "you don't have a STICK" (wink wink), making the other players realize that the game must be played with the same precision as an old PC adventure game, these mistakes were handled with a quick dismissive "you don't have one. next player", leading to people repeating dumb mistakes.
Inability to get a table into the back of the overflow room on Saturday night for the concerts. Led to use taking our Mansions of Madness game down to cafeteria tabletop, where we still had fun, but the original plan would have been great.
I'm so freaking excited about this! I'm bringing my partner (who is more of a casual Gamer), so I'm not sure what their reaction will be. What do you guys think abou bringing a casual Gamer to PAX?
I'm curious to know how this went. Sorry I didn't get to chat longer when you stopped by (we were in the middle of a Wrath of Ashardalon score challenge). I brought my wife to Prime last year and had a great time with her, although it required I sacrifice some portion of my time to make sure she was getting the proper experience. Would do it again and I think she'll be coming to Boston again next year. How did it go for you?
Just got back to 74 degree Atlanta after the flurries I experienced in Boston this morning. I had a great time at PAX East this year, spending almost 90% of my time gaming. Some highlights were the free miniature painting at TT (I've been wanted to paint again for the longest time. The resulting model wasn't very good as I was out of practice, but it was still enjoyable), the secret gaming room (i.e. Cafeteria), and Ikaruga Omegathon finale. I picked up Mansions of Madness which is a bitching game, although it's fairly difficult to setup. I've never played Arkham Horror before, but I hear it's a bit unwieldy. Major props to Nuri for helping learn the rules (and keeping the keeper in check ~_^).
Those con dates are highly unlikely to change from what is on the MCCA website, and even if they do, almost all hotel reservations can be cancelled up to the day before. The only reason to wait is if you can't negotiate the PAX rate on your own and want to save some money by booking through them.
I neglected to mention it, but as is usual at the create a strip panel, audience suggestions are taken into account. Gabriel will draw anything that is requested, and often solicits feedback about particular poses or gestures. So it was on Saturday, when a young man flush with ponylove did request that such a beast be appended to the strip in the final panel. Maybe it's his patronus or something; I didn't ask. Brenna suggested that the pony was skulking around down there, as what she called a "sinister accomplice of evil," but I'm not certain that a pony can skulk. I mean, physically.
Those con dates are highly unlikely to change from what is on the MCCA website, and even if they do, almost all hotel reservations can be cancelled up to the day before. The only reason to wait is if you can't negotiate the PAX rate on your own and want to save some money by booking through them.
Well the hotel that my pals and I have dubbed the hotel to go to was not even listed on the PAX site so I guess jumping the gun now will pose as an advantage.
Khoo gave us a few cool factoids at the Enforcer afterparty: - In 2004, we had about 130 attendees per enforcer. This PAX was 169 attendees per enforcer. - This was the biggest PAX, and we're now the biggest gaming convention in the America.
And now my voice is on the internet. I'd forgotten that I sound like an idiot. Welp, nothing I can do now.
Don't worry about what you sound like. Nobody likes the sound of their own voice, but it takes balls to get up on on the mic and everyone respects that.
Khoo gave us a few cool factoids at the Enforcer afterparty: - In 2004, we had about 130 attendees per enforcer. This PAX was 169 attendees per enforcer. - This was the biggest PAX, and we're now the biggest gaming convention in the America.
Did he say how many enforcers there were, total, this year?
And now my voice is on the internet. I'd forgotten that I sound like an idiot. Welp, nothing I can do now.
Don't worry about what you sound like. Nobody likes the sound of their own voice, but it takes balls to get up on on the mic and everyone respects that.
Khoo gave us a few cool factoids at the Enforcer afterparty: - In 2004, we had about 130 attendees per enforcer. This PAX was 169 attendees per enforcer. - This was the biggest PAX, and we're now the biggest gaming convention in the America.
Did he say how many enforcers there were, total, this year?
69,500 attendees / 169 attendees per Enforcer = 411 Enforcers
We were understaffed and had to work lots of double shifts this year.
PAX definitely needs an East Coast community manager to foster the same sort of Enforcer culture you guys have out west. Colonies need substantial garrisons.
PAX definitely needs an East Coast community manager to foster the same sort of Enforcer culture you guys have out west. Colonies need substantial garrisons.
Yea, definitely they can't survive on on their west coast leaders forever. They will start having a leadership vacuum in the east if they don't start looking for talent... Hint hint hint.
PAX definitely needs an East Coast community manager to foster the same sort of Enforcer culture you guys have out west. Colonies need substantial garrisons.
Yea, definitely they can't survive on on their west coast leaders forever. They will start having a leadership vacuum in the east if they don't start looking for talent... Hint hint hint.
I had a long conversation with Father Fletch and a few other table top enforcers. Talked about PAX culture, board gaming culture, and geekery in general for what I thought would be a good roundtable discussion post (it was, still working on post). The unintended side effect is that it has made me want to pitch in myself. I've got all the skills. Years of conference and event planning plus an undying love for tabletop gaming and PAX. Possibly enforcing next year instead of media?
One way to save Enforcer power is to have drop-in events with semi-external staffing. People who aren't in the Enforcer structure (and thus receive no Enforcer perks), but who nonetheless provide services like running tournaments, moderating panels, etc...
Yea, they need a year where there west coast leaders step to the side and pretty much train a couple of East coast enforcers to do their job. Right now everyone in any position of authority is West coast. I'm not even sure if there are any non-west coast people in any position of any leadership (unless they have been going to prime for a while).
One way to save Enforcer power is to have drop-in events with semi-external staffing. People who aren't in the Enforcer structure (and thus receive no Enforcer perks), but who nonetheless provide services like running tournaments, moderating panels, etc...
You do see some of this at tabletop already. You've got companies like WotC and Mayfair showing up and running their own events and tournaments. This sort of thing could be encouraged.
WotC ran crap content. There, I said it. The D&D; they had going was OK, but more people were playing Magic on their own than with the WotC guys, and that Magic area was mostly empty most of the con, especially compared to the rest of tabletop.
Mayfair was doing much better, and I'm sure we could get more groups to do the same. What we'd really want to see are non-industry types running content in sanctioned areas. "Learn to Play X" events in the schedule. Podcaster groups or gamer clubs running tournaments in out-of-the-way places. An RPG area slightly separated from general tabletop.
There's a lot more PAX can get done without having to overly extend the Enforcer blanket.
WotC ran crap content. There, I said it. The D&D; they had going was OK, but more people were playing Magic on their own than with the WotC guys, and that Magic area was mostly empty most of the con, especially compared to the rest of tabletop.
I bet you that they sold out every event, that was anything close to peak running times (not saying 9 am here)
I bet you that they sold out every event, that was anything close to peak running times (not saying 9 am here)
I swung through at numerous points throughout Friday and Saturday, and have video to prove it. Very rarely, even during peak times, was the Magic area even close to full.
I swung through at numerous points throughout Friday and Saturday, and have video to prove it. Very rarely, even during peak times, was the Magic area even close to full.
I bet they were in between tournaments and such. That or they didn't have an event going at that time (or they were not using their space efficiently or didn't have enough staff) I just know that when I worked Tabletop last year they were pretty much running at capacity (I.E. they needed more GM's) the whole time. You couldn't get into a game after Saturday Morning they were all already filled. That being said they probably had more space then they had staff to run games.
Comments
And I must say, Rym won at PPT with his Rainbow Dash reference.
Highlights of PAX: keynote, make-a-strip, the GeekDad panel, lots of gaming in Westin lobby and cafeteria tabletop, great interview with Steve Jackson, meeting tons of new people and seeing old friends again.
BTW, I took a long video of Mike drawing the pony in the make-a-strip for all you ponies fanatics. Will upload later today.
Lowlights:
- Having to leave early (again). For the second PAX East in a row, someone in my car pulled the "oh my god I didn't realize PAX goes so late on Sunday. I need to be home by 10PM to prepare for work," and everyone caved to their request. Will not be making this mistake ever again. If we're traveling together, you're committing to the 5-day experience.
- Action Castle game was lame compared to last year's. There was too much trolling by the players on one hand, and too many people not understanding how to play on the other. The game didn't get any intro and felt rushed the whole time, which didn't help. For instance, people made dumb mistakes like referring to a branch as a stick. Instead of taking the time to say "you don't have a STICK" (wink wink), making the other players realize that the game must be played with the same precision as an old PC adventure game, these mistakes were handled with a quick dismissive "you don't have one. next player", leading to people repeating dumb mistakes.
- Inability to get a table into the back of the overflow room on Saturday night for the concerts. Led to use taking our Mansions of Madness game down to cafeteria tabletop, where we still had fun, but the original plan would have been great.
See you in Boston next year!- In 2004, we had about 130 attendees per enforcer. This PAX was 169 attendees per enforcer.
- This was the biggest PAX, and we're now the biggest gaming convention in the America.
Math.
Its more like 150-200 Enforcers. We were understaffed and had to work lots of double shifts this year.
Mayfair was doing much better, and I'm sure we could get more groups to do the same. What we'd really want to see are non-industry types running content in sanctioned areas. "Learn to Play X" events in the schedule. Podcaster groups or gamer clubs running tournaments in out-of-the-way places. An RPG area slightly separated from general tabletop.
There's a lot more PAX can get done without having to overly extend the Enforcer blanket.