It starts on the first day of Passover, effectively eradicating any chance that I can go this year.
Real nice for another (2!) convention to give me and all other Jews a choice between attending and being there for an important family holiday. Kinda sorry to say it, but go fuck yourself, PAX East.
[sarcasm]Man, yet another good thing ruined by tight connections to family.[/sarcasm] Also, that sucks. But at least you'll get to hang out with family, which should be awesome.
Real nice for another (2!) convention to give me and all other Jews a choice between attending and being there for an important family holiday. Kinda sorry to say it, but go fuck yourself, PAX East.
What about the poor Christians and their Easter? I got lucky this year because Greek Orthodox Easter is a week after regular Easter. Otherwise I'd be out too. >_>
Real nice for another (2!) convention to give me and all other Jews a choice between attending and being there for an important family holiday. Kinda sorry to say it, but go fuck yourself, PAX East.
What about the poor Christians and their Easter? I got lucky this year because Greek Orthodox Easter is a week after regular Easter. Otherwise I'd be out too. >_>
I personally love the fact that PAX East and/or AB are over Easter weekend: staying the night Sunday makes Sunday a much fuller con day (no dealing with luggage, rushing over dinner, etc...), and I don't have to blow a vacation day on it.
More to the point, PAX East will sell out every year no matter what. Having it over Easter actually reduces contention for tickets.
I'm excited about the Easter weekend crossover as well. It's not a general rule and I'm sure there will be some awesome people who have to miss a portion of PAX, but on the whole, PAX will be attended moreso by people who really want to be there. Personally, I think it's awesome that I don't have to waste a Sunday with my boring family. Instead, I'm just bringing the wife and baby and we're going to do PAX East together. Sure that will involve some compromise and I won't be able to game until 2 AM for 4 straight nights, but we're going to have a great time doing PAX in our own way.
Also, if anyone can find a sewing pattern for a 9-month-old horse costume, I'll totally bring some Rainbow Dash cosplay.
It's a bit difficult to find a free pattern on a non-shite website that doesn't have Comic Sans as text.
Your best option is just to either make or buy a light blue outfit then make alterations to it pony style. Here is a somewhat decent website to hopefully help even though there isn't a horse one.
We literally have half our holidays the week before or after just because someone is usually on a cruise or away on a trip.... no one minds it's not on the "right" day.
My family's never gonna stop practicing or wanting me there, and I love them. They're not so big on moving the dates around either. Can't let them down. Even talk of skipping a part of Rosh Hashana this year took me on a guilt trip across the country and back. My motha don't deserve that.
I personally love the fact that PAX East and/or AB are over Easter weekend: staying the night Sunday makes Sunday a much fuller con day (no dealing with luggage, rushing over dinner, etc...), and I don't have to blow a vacation day on it.
What the fuck? You have Monday off? =_= (<= glare of hatred)
So I was in the forums of PAX trying to fill my hotel room with extra bodies to cover costs. While on there I stumbled across this, nice to know someone knows how to count people at a convention. Source
In 2008 PAX had over 58,000 attendees. In 2009, PAX had 60,750 attendees!!! In 2010, PAX East sold out at over 52,000 in its first year. Also in 2010, PAX Prime sold out at 67,600 PAX East 2011 Sold out with 69,500 attendees.
Too many fun things have been in direct conflict with Jewish holidays these past couple of years. It's enough to keep chipping at my shoulder.
Plus, I just wanted to go. :<</p>
Well there are kind of a lot of them. There are only 2 major family Christian holidays; Christmas & Easter. PAX East conflicts with one of them; people will be making choices about whether to go to PAX or spend Easter with their families. I don't think it's an anti-Jewish thing. It's just that with so many major holidays, especially when they are lengthy or packed together, it is difficult to avoid them. I mean look at September this year: Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, & Shmini Atzeret. When are we supposed to schedule things? You make choices of what to prioritize every day. Everyone does. If you choose being with your family over the con, that's cool, but it is your choice.
As someone who gets to see her family maybe once or twice a year, I have a hard time being super sympathetic. I get that it is frustrating when you can't go to everything you want to, but that is life.
I'm pretty much done with Pax. Went the past 2 years and have not been impressed. In fact, I've been fairly frustrated each time I've gone.
The show floor itself is basically "behind-closed-door" previews for games that I don't really care about. And getting into seminars is akin to getting your teeth pulled.
They moved it to the convention this past year - which is an absolutely massive space - and still put a lot of seminars in tiny conference rooms with 100-person capacity. Dumb.
If you are looking for an extremely fun and inexpensive con, go to Templecon in Warwick, RI in February. Next to GenCon it's probably one of the best gaming crowds I've seen at a con.
I give the PAX folks props for organization, but it was sadly lacking in content unless you wanted to spend your time parked in front of a video game console playing the same games you would at home. The seminar I attended was good, even if it was presented by a bunch of prima donnas, but having to line up an hour in advance was absurd.
Meh. While those arguments may have some sort of validity from their own point of view, I feel they are more than likely niche gamer types that don't see PAX as a whole.
It's pretty amusing, at best.
I've never been to any other gaming con other than PAX, so I really can't compare it anything else. However, I've never heard of Templecon.
While this doesn't strictly speak to the convention's good/badness, I live less than half an hour from Warwick, and I've never even heard of Templecon.
I have been to Gencon and PAX, and I think this is fairly indicative of the differences between the two. Somehow a large segment of Gencon goers have accepted that Gencon is great because of all the gaming they do (many of which are in private games outside the convention in hotels and such). Yet they don't comprehend that PAX is all about gaming (mostly inside the convention). It's just bizarre.
There's also something of an age and market gap. Gencon is more table-top "focused" by not having quite as much of everything else, and the crowd is maybe 10 years older on average. I think both are great though.
It sounds like those guys are just looking for a generic hotel con where they can get together with their friends and game for a weekend. They tried it with PAX but it just wasn't their bag, maybe they just couldn't get that sense of community? Bad luck, bad experience? I'd think so if they love the gaming crowd at GenCon but not at PAX. They just weren't looking in the right places, and must have gotten lost in the hugeness that is PAX East.
They could have easily gamed just as much at PAX as GenCon, but they spent their time waiting in line for a crowded panel and for a video game they didn't care about. Doesn't make much sense to me.
I on the other hand love PAX primarily b/c I get to connect with so many different groups of people, and get to do it with the backdrop of a mega-convention. People from this forum, other forums, writers and editors that I work with daily online but never get to see, people I've met solely through PAX, and random new people I will meet at PAX.
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Real nice for another (2!) convention to give me and all other Jews a choice between attending and being there for an important family holiday. Kinda sorry to say it, but go fuck yourself, PAX East.
Also, that sucks. But at least you'll get to hang out with family, which should be awesome.
More to the point, PAX East will sell out every year no matter what. Having it over Easter actually reduces contention for tickets.
Your best option is just to either make or buy a light blue outfit then make alterations to it pony style. Here is a somewhat decent website to hopefully help even though there isn't a horse one.
Plus, I just wanted to go. :<
We literally have half our holidays the week before or after just because someone is usually on a cruise or away on a trip.... no one minds it's not on the "right" day.
My family's never gonna stop practicing or wanting me there, and I love them. They're not so big on moving the dates around either. Can't let them down. Even talk of skipping a part of Rosh Hashana this year took me on a guilt trip across the country and back. My motha don't deserve that.
As someone who gets to see her family maybe once or twice a year, I have a hard time being super sympathetic. I get that it is frustrating when you can't go to everything you want to, but that is life.
Well yeah. What the fuck are you doing going to the exhibition hall and panels about how to be a game developer? You're doing it wrong!
It's pretty amusing, at best.
I've never been to any other gaming con other than PAX, so I really can't compare it anything else. However, I've never heard of Templecon.
There's also something of an age and market gap. Gencon is more table-top "focused" by not having quite as much of everything else, and the crowd is maybe 10 years older on average. I think both are great though.
They could have easily gamed just as much at PAX as GenCon, but they spent their time waiting in line for a crowded panel and for a video game they didn't care about. Doesn't make much sense to me.
I on the other hand love PAX primarily b/c I get to connect with so many different groups of people, and get to do it with the backdrop of a mega-convention. People from this forum, other forums, writers and editors that I work with daily online but never get to see, people I've met solely through PAX, and random new people I will meet at PAX.