CF_Fighter
Member
I really recommend Hostelling International on Stuart Street. Clean, great staff, and quite the value compared to other places. A number of Gaffers and a large number of PAX attendees stayed there.
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PAX East 2014 Thread | April 11-13, 2014 | It's Finally Spring
- Thread starter ActStriker
- Start date
I really recommend Hostelling International on Stuart Street. Clean, great staff, and quite the value compared to other places. A number of Gaffers and a large number of PAX attendees stayed there.
I second this post. The Hostel was an amazing experience. I plan to stay there again.
buying? selling? buying? selling?
need tickets? selling tickets? you need tickets, ya selling tickets? 24/7
Hoping next years PAX East has games I want to play**
*That aren't indies
*That don't have a 4 hour wait
Too much MOBA nonsense this year.
But to be honest I really only look forward to their being a Bungie or 343 presence every year since I have the closest ties to those communities.
*That aren't indies
*That don't have a 4 hour wait
Too much MOBA nonsense this year.
But to be honest I really only look forward to their being a Bungie or 343 presence every year since I have the closest ties to those communities.
My favorite thing was the announcer for the Infinite Crisis booth. The thing was huge, had some cool shirts to give away, but the content and fake enthusiasm for the game was mind boggling.
The only AAA title that mattered was Wolfenstein, and I got that done within the first half hour of the convention on Friday.
preheatedbibby
Banned
Just going to throw it out there: I think Pwnmeal stole the show. I went from "are you fucking kidding me" to "holy shit what an amazing joke." That has to be the most expensive joke I've ever witnessed.
Like last year I basically lived in the Halo 4 booth. Line was so short. I got to dong on kids in their tournament too, would have probably won one of those sweet TV with xbox game cases if the guy before me hadn't gotten such an absurdly large win streak lol. Probably the only monitors in the entire Expo hall that were fucking calibrated right. I hate when the people setting up don't realize the HORRID input lag on some of the displays. Puts me off to a game instantly.
What was that? I love oatmeal but never saw it other than a banner.
Next year will be the true test of the pull PAX East has. Given that it starts on literally the last day of GDC, a lot of companies will have to be making some hard decisions.
I have a feeling the list of non-attendees will be longer than it was this year. The one saving grace is that we'll be in the heart of the current gen, so I can see Sony choosing to attend.
Cards Against Humanity joke. Probably a reference to that energy shot (FOR GAMERS!) that was ubiquitous at PAX East 2013.
I have a feeling the list of non-attendees will be longer than it was this year. The one saving grace is that we'll be in the heart of the current gen, so I can see Sony choosing to attend.
Cards Against Humanity joke. Probably a reference to that energy shot (FOR GAMERS!) that was ubiquitous at PAX East 2013.
AlphaTwo00
Member
Swag bag had a "pwnmeal" packet claiming to be XTREME GAMING OATMEAL. Banners for that littered the halls.
Opening the package reveals oatmeal and 10 Cards Against Humanity cards, collecting all 27 to complete the set.
Edit: beaten.
Fake Edit 2: Those guys just kills it. On the showfloor one of the games that were launched by them (werewolf) had a pay what you want pile, when i saw it Saturday I dropped 10$ on just a large pile of cash, just because.
How do you know when next PAX East is though? I see its listed on the convention center schedule, but I think they could probably change it if need be. If it really conflicts with GDC I could see them pushing it for a earlier/later date.
According to the BCEC website Pax East is March 6-8th in 2015. Between GDC and Pax South, East should be interesting
AlphaTwo00
Member
It's hard set, they've signed with BCEC till 2016 IIRC to secure the location.
Well shit.
RIP PAX East 2014
I'll buy a 3 day regardless, but I might sell it off once I find out who is going or not going. I probably could have sold my pass this years PAX East. Wasn't much there for me to see.
Absolutely. As a Line Entertainer, we were handing them out left and right. We had TONS of boxes that we plowed through entirely by Sunday afternoon. Highlight was helping Matthew Rorie give them out during the Giant Bomb panel.
People asked me if it's edible; I advised to folks to eat it at their own risk. There were also Condoms Against Humanity with holes in them.
Chums Knifeblade
Neo Member
Great meeting you guys, wish I could have stayed longer. I am so damn exhausted, wait wait for next year
Quadratic. I'll be attending EVO but only as a spectator. I'll probably pick up Decapre when USF4 hits.
Would this explain why the 4 panels that I managed to go to all kinda sucked? They were all either late (a.k.a. short), poorly moderated, PAX insider navel-gazing, or telethons asking over and over for money.
btw, those complaints translate to the panels:
Extra Credits, OCRemix;
Extra Credits;
Indie Megabooth, Pitch Your Game;
OCRemix
I was very disappointed in OCRemix. Last time I was at Prime ('11) they played some snippets of songs from the site, and talked about the process of creating, and how the Remixes were fitting into greater popular culture. This time, they just flat out told us to buy their CDs, without even playing a sample.
Was I just unlucky? Or was this an indicator of a severe panel-quality issue?
Shadowhaxor
Member
Dropping some more cosplay pics!
Shadowhaxor
Member
I agree. I was expecting a new song or at least a performance. The only real good thing was before the panel even started when there was singing from Wind Waker,
I even recorded the panel, think I was the only one who did - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jG3LfFL-Lsc
I really felt like this Pax East was pretty much a disappointment I should have just sold my passes when I was offered money for them. If this is any indication for next year then I'm not even going to bother. The Lines were too long and ended up getting capped so most of AAA games were inaccessible (Evolve, Wolfenstien, Heores of the Storm). I mostly spent my time in the Indie Media Booth.
AlphaTwo00
Member
Maybe. From what I remembered, the first three PAXEast (2010-2012, I didn't go last year), the panel selection always felt like a nice mix of community, media, game promo, and industry talk (the first two year had talks sponsored by the IGDA, typically for folks who are getting their feet wet for GDC talk experience), almost all of those are gone now, and some of the other ones just felt weak this year. I'm shocked at the OCRemix one as you described, because I remember the one I went to at Prime, and that one was fantastic.
Lines were always like this before, I recall my previous experiences like waiting 2 hours for Portal 2 or L4D2, or even Red Dead. It's just that if you aren't into MOBAs this year, you really didn't have much variety left to look at as far as new game content that wasn't released. If you ignore MOBA/WoW based stuff, off the top of my head, the following aren't publicily accessible:
Evolve
Wolfenstein
Trials (but that's out this week)
The Crew
Child of Light
Even Project Spark is in open beta, but I think that was an ok one to try only to have someone walk you through it.
ActStriker
Member
Overall I think it probably felt like more of a down year in terms of who showed. I did have an enjoyable time though; spent most of my time in and around the indie megabooth. Lots of great games there. I didn't go to any panels, though, but I usually don't.
StarCreator
Member
I only took two cosplay photos (well, one photo and one video):
preheatedbibby
Banned
There were also Condoms Against Humanity with holes in them.
Looks like I'm throwing that away.
AlphaTwo00
Member
Given the nature of those guys and what they would say/do, would you have actually used them?
This is awesome.
Here's a couple of images I don't have time to get the rest at the moment.
Well hey, there's me! I was the Enforcer in the left aisle of this picture directing traffic with all my crazy hand signals.
Yeah Project Spark was a long line to just watch a demonstration which seemed odd. Apparently at the start they were letting people play, but it took them too long to actually get into it and understand how to use it that they just settled on giving demos.
AlphaTwo00
Member
I managed to catch a demo/trial at the end of the last day, it's actually a pretty cool creation tool, but it really doesn't lend well to a showfloor like this. But I really appreciate the concept and them explaining it, cause it did a hell lot more than trying the open beta.
And I also got WAY too excited seeing kodu getting a second chance in their scripting language.
When you have a good setup, giving a demo is sometimes better than a hands on attempt.
LA Noire was a good example of this a few years ago.
Violence Jack
Member
It sucks that wasn't able to meet up with you guys. My traveling buddy didn't feel like going anywhere other than the convention center and the hotel since they did nothing but complain about their feet hurting. Next year, I may try coming alone and getting a closer hotel.
I will say that I didn't particularly care for all the MOBA games, and the expo hall was far more packed than what I'm used to at other cons. But I had a good time.
I will say that I didn't particularly care for all the MOBA games, and the expo hall was far more packed than what I'm used to at other cons. But I had a good time.
PedroLumpy
Member
I spend most of my time in panels. My general rules are:
Panelists are usually more important than the topic. Focus on people you find funny/interesting. The right people can make a good panel out of anything.
Generally avoid anything that only has Journalists/Community Managers/PR.
Keep an open mind. I've gone to parenting panels despite not having kids. Gender issues in gaming panels despite not being a woman. Trans portrayal in games panels despite not being LGBT. I'm there to learn, and I sure as fuck didn't know much before attending those panels.
Man there was this 'Demo scene' panel 2 years ago that blew my mind. Granted it was like 1am and that stuff is trippy as fuck, but I remember it being amazing.
I have a personal rule that I've stopped going to panels that center around a single game. They're generally pretty boring given that they're purely all RAH RAH, and any new info that comes from the panel will be posted to all the news sites within an hour of the panel ending.
Yeah I had one then too, was a cool tool (and pin
), and I actually went home and downloaded the program on my computer cause I might tinker around with it sometime. I just found it odd to have a huge presentation on a stage and then a line for demo kiosks where you could... watch the same presentation essentially. I would've liked to tinker around with it there too is all.Mully, Shorty, and Quadratic are visible in this pic.
Fun fact!
I'm the Mark who gets defeated in the Shaq-Fu battle!
God damn, that character was impossible to control. I don't know how other Mark managed to do anything with it. I chose it because it looked kinda cool.
Full disclosure, I left the panel shortly after the match, because they went back to asking for money without playing music, and my wife and I had basically lost our patience by then. (Around minute 35 of that video)
I only took two cosplay photos (well, one photo and one video):
HAHA! OH MAN I KNOW THAT YUN!
Also, really wish I had gotten my cosplay together. Next year for sure. I guess the bright side is now I have time to make it even more amazing than I had planned.
PedroLumpy
Member
I'd generally agree. I've gone to some good 'post-mortem' panels, but pre-launch has generally sucked.
Oh, forgot one, but this is pretty well known. Q&A portions generally aren't good. Skip em unless you're confident the audience isn't a bunch of idiots.
Yeah I wished I cosplayed this year too. I feel like it makes the PAX experience that much better.
I agree! Everyone should go to those!
Because we try hard but our audience is never full.
AlphaTwo00
Member
Just a question: what were people's hotel rates/where did you book/which hotel/how far. I'm just looking ahead, and Boston hotels for next year's date is looking at above $450 per night. Is this suppose to be nuts?
Usually. I normally do the Renaissance, it's about $540 or so for three nights. Usually split it with at least four people.
Definitely, I was quite curious about the Trans Issues panel, in part because of Gabe's lingering issues on the topic, and whether they'd be a spark point, and in part because I have a lot of trans friends/acquaintances/relatives. (Probably %1.5 of my FB friends)
Ultimately, I was going to panels partly based on how timing worked out.
Oh yeah, I also went to the Mass Effect Cosplay panel, which had some good points, but also had a terrible MC, and was also guilty of spending a lot of time saying "wow, aren't we awesome for doing this?!" Hearing the character models' experiences with discovering the ME community was amusing.
I was there instead of free copies of the new Borderlands game so I can yell Super Robot Wars
AlphaTwo00
Member
$540 Total for all 3 nights? So 270 per night? As a two bed?
Just to note, that's how much I paid for the westin.
It's been two beds every year, yeah. I never book the room, so don't have final invoice. I paid $180 this year though.
Yeah, what the guy said above me. I think it's the PAX rate.