The first round of every Omegathon should be held at the previous PAX in the form of a Running Man competition. Omeganauts are chosen from that pool of winners.
I do know some SCA folks who are part of a large cohousing project. They're called Camelot Cohousing, and together with another project called Mosaic Commons (which I believe has some SCAdians as well), form a larger community called Sawyer Hill EcoVillage.
Now, of course, there's a lot of hippie bullshit in this kind of setup, but the principle of a collective community of geeks is a sound one. If you could get enough like-minded people together, you could hypothetically found PAX Village somewhere.
The first round of every Omegathon should be held at the previous PAX in the form of a Running Man competition. Omeganauts are chosen from that pool of winners.
I see no flaw in this plan.
I think Pete is still thinking of Arnold Schwarzenegger Running Man and not Yoo Jae-Seok Running Man.
I submit that part of what will destroy PAX is our own kind, as we age and change... so too will the convention. And lo, for when you whisper the words, "It was better when..." you will know how far we have fallen.
I'm only half joking. I feel like the same thing has happened to Gencon over the years. We are at least lucky in that our stewards at Penny Arcade have a vision of keeping things alive.
Edit: Also is anybody else here doing any pre-pax things? I'm attending the dinner and bar crawl this year.
PAX has not changed substantially in the years we've attended, and where it has changed it's only gotten better.
With every PAX, I look forward even more to the next PAX. Compare to Otakon, where every Otakon left me less excited for the next one.
I've never liked Gencon-style conventions. Most longstanding gaming cons (outside of MAGFest and PAX and a handful of others) have a culture and way of going about things that really deter me from attending.
1. Charges for individual events 2. Pre-con signup for events 3. Lack of substantial/good panel/lecture content 4. General disorganization 5. The "smelly fat guy" demographic (mostly at the smaller ones)
Unity Games might not have any panels/lectures, but we are very well organized and have very few "smelly fat guy"s, and we have the largest gaming library I've ever seen.
The people I know that attend Gencon every year are a lot like us... only ten-to-twenty years older. I've known them for ~12 years now... and it's amazing how much they've changed and the con has changed with them. I'm not saying I know things... I'm just saying that I think it's quite possible that some part of the change will come from among the PAX communities collective membership. But I'm optimistic.
As for Prepax I am planning on doing a Boston Indie Dev party taking place about 15 miles away from it. It appears most of the people who will be at PAX (well the indies) will be there. If interested I can send you to the eventbrite page with the code to get in for free.
I've never liked Gencon-style conventions. Most longstanding gaming cons (outside of MAGFest and PAX and a handful of others) have a culture and way of going about things that really deter me from attending.
1. Charges for individual events 2. Pre-con signup for events 3. Lack of substantial/good panel/lecture content 4. General disorganization 5. The "smelly fat guy" demographic (mostly at the smaller ones)
These are all things, it's true. But if you know people, you can do GenCon without having to deal with ticketing and scheduling by just playing with friends and friends of friends or finding pickup games.
But all the cool awesome games are ticketed, no? There are other conventions where such awesome games are not ticketed.
No the ticketed stuff kinda sucks. All the good games take place in the hotels around the convention. It's like people go to Indianapolis just to hang out with their friends from all over the country and the convention is just an excuse to be there at the same time.
At least in my experience.
Going to the ticketed stuff, you're more likely to run into the cat-piss-men and other major failures.
But all the cool awesome games are ticketed, no? There are other conventions where such awesome games are not ticketed.
No the ticketed stuff kinda sucks. All the good games take place in the hotels around the convention. It's like people go to Indianapolis just to hang out with their friends from all over the country and the convention is just an excuse to be there at the same time.
At least in my experience.
Going to the ticketed stuff, you're more likely to run into the cat-piss-men and other major failures.
Ah, but if the ticketed stuff were not ticketed would that still be the case?
All the good games take place in the hotels around the convention. It's like people go to Indianapolis just to hang out with their friends from all over the country and the convention is just an excuse to be there at the same time.
So it's the people, but there's no reason to actually buy a badge. ;^)
All the good games take place in the hotels around the convention. It's like people go to Indianapolis just to hang out with their friends from all over the country and the convention is just an excuse to be there at the same time.
So it's the people, but there's no reason to actually buy a badge. ;^)
True enough, depending on what you want to do. You, or someone in your group, needs to preorder badge to get access to the housing system to get a hotel room. You need a badge to get into the massive dealer hall, if that's interesting to you. A friend of mine has a badge just so that he can participate in True Dungeon.
Ah, but if the ticketed stuff were not ticketed would that still be the case?
I'm guessing here, but I suspect they use the ticketing information from year-to-year to allot space and people. Some events are big budget, and centralizing payment makes sense. I agree that $2/hour tickets for tabletop rpgs are goofy.
The GMs for ticketed events usually get comp'd badges. I had a comp'd badge one year for GMing three events. There's a problem with that though... it incentivises people that are not necessarily "quality" GMs to run things. This is further complicated by the usually poor adventure quality. There are exceptions, but in general every "ticketed" event I've been to has been pretty poor.
Ah, but if the ticketed stuff were not ticketed would that still be the case?
Yes. Absolutely. Unless making them non-ticketed fixed the other underlying problems, which is beyond my probability trance.
So it's the people, but there's no reason to actually buy a badge. ;^)
Yep. At least, that's what it's become... for the sub-selection of people I know that go.
My preference is for a place like PAX where I know I am surrounded by great gamers and have never had a problem immediately finding a pickup game. Second to that would be events with a pre-published lineup of games where you can sign up in advance after paying one flat rate, not paying per event. Think NerdNYC or hotel cons.
I used to frequent the local NJ hotel cons back in the late 90's when I was much more into miniatures wargaming, and the schedule business made much more sense then b/c people would prepare scenarios with special rules and terrain and such. I'm not much of an RPGer but it's probably a similar level of pre-planning and effort. That sort of effort demands a scheduled game with sign-ups for the seats. The only problem is now I'm way more into board games, which require none of this structure that the con scene has built itself up around, making it hard to justify the price of admission.
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Now, of course, there's a lot of hippie bullshit in this kind of setup, but the principle of a collective community of geeks is a sound one. If you could get enough like-minded people together, you could hypothetically found PAX Village somewhere.
I mean, we're talking about hardcore PAXers. How bad do you want it?
I'm only half joking. I feel like the same thing has happened to Gencon over the years. We are at least lucky in that our stewards at Penny Arcade have a vision of keeping things alive.
Edit: Also is anybody else here doing any pre-pax things? I'm attending the dinner and bar crawl this year.
With every PAX, I look forward even more to the next PAX. Compare to Otakon, where every Otakon left me less excited for the next one.
I've never liked Gencon-style conventions. Most longstanding gaming cons (outside of MAGFest and PAX and a handful of others) have a culture and way of going about things that really deter me from attending.
1. Charges for individual events
2. Pre-con signup for events
3. Lack of substantial/good panel/lecture content
4. General disorganization
5. The "smelly fat guy" demographic (mostly at the smaller ones)
At least in my experience.
Going to the ticketed stuff, you're more likely to run into the cat-piss-men and other major failures.
I used to frequent the local NJ hotel cons back in the late 90's when I was much more into miniatures wargaming, and the schedule business made much more sense then b/c people would prepare scenarios with special rules and terrain and such. I'm not much of an RPGer but it's probably a similar level of pre-planning and effort. That sort of effort demands a scheduled game with sign-ups for the seats. The only problem is now I'm way more into board games, which require none of this structure that the con scene has built itself up around, making it hard to justify the price of admission.