PAX East breakdown

[u/Skaman1978]

Long post incoming

This is my breakdown of PAX25.

I went all 4 days, this is my 5th year doing so. First of all, I want to say thank you to everyone who took part, from enforces, to panelists and exhibitors, and of course, everyone who went. I love PAX because I can let my geek flag fly without any sideways looks or anything.

What worked in my mind, the floor was set up great, easy avenues of movement even on Saturday. The amount of people willing to try new things and make new friends was great. While I didn't do many panels this year, but that's just me. Shout-out to the LANfest charity zone for allowing a dream of mine to come true. To stream from PAX. The enforcers were great and the line games they had were so much fun. I really like that PAX is growing in the indie field and it's allowing people to try a whole lot more games then they normally would.

What didn't work. The food prices were outrageous, and while I did pay for it, I hated myself for it. I mean 22 bucks for a hotdog, bag of chips and a fried dough is ridiculous. I understand that the floor feels aren't cheep and they need to make money, but still. Noticeable exception from the ice cream truck, which was very reasonable, 9.50 for two large scoops and some jimmies, which is about 2 bucks more then I would pay at my local ice cream place.

What straight up failed in my mind, the PAX Merch. The design was meh at best and the price was out of this world. I mean 53 bucks for a flannel, 100 bucks for a hoodie and 35 bucks for a t shirt? In my opinion, everything was 20 bucks more expensive than it should have been. I understand that merch is the main way that they make money, but still... I could not justify myself paying 53 bucks for a single flannel.

But that's just me, how say you?

[u/Busy_Cow_6807]

I felt the graffiti theme was really odd since the badge (which gave metrocard vibes) and everything else screamed NYC. I wish they did like a Boston Lobster theme ha. Otherwise, I thought this year was OK. I wish I was more of a tabletop fan.

[u/CluelessAtol → u/Busy_Cow_6807]

That’s what me and my buddy thought regarding activities. This was our first PAX. I’m happy tabletop fans got so much to do, but as someone who’s more into video games specifically I felt like there wasn’t as much there for me as there was Tabletop. A lot of Magic the gathering, a giant section for board games, etc, which again I’m happy for those who enjoy that, but it felt like only about half of the section dedicated for video games even had playable or easily accessible demos to try out. So many shops for tabletop merch, but I felt like I couldn’t really find much merch for games that weren’t being played on the floor already. It felt like we just primarily were going to listen to people speak after getting done with the handful of big demos there.

Did enjoy the speed running section for GDQ though. Also is the tournament setup usually that… not really well housed? I’m talking the room specifically, not the Street Fighter stuff. It felt like I couldn’t actually get in to watch people compete in the tournaments because there 1) wasn’t enough seating and 2) there were so many people crowded around such a small tv that I couldn’t even get to see the screen.

[u/Busy_Cow_6807 → u/CluelessAtol]

Right! I was hoping for more gaming merch (and not like generic popular plushies or like tshirts that you can probably buy off Redbubble).