I wasn’t able to attend Expo this year, so I can’t comment on the specific issues being mentioned, but as the head of the registration desk for Pintastic, I wanted to comment generally on a couple of details mentioned throughout this thread.

I often see people saying that they don’t want to bring their games to a festival because of the “poor treatment” the games receive. I know at our show, we take this concern very seriously, and monitor our rooms closely, but obviously it can be hard given the scope of these large shows to watch every game all day long. I would ask that if you’re at a show and see someone mistreating a machine to please find a staff member and let them know. I’ve brought my own games to Pintastic, and of course it was a lot of work to coordinate but in general it was a lot of fun to be able to share my games with my friends. My older games had a couple of issues crop up but nothing that couldn’t be fixed in 15 minutes or so, and my newer games worked fine the whole weekend. I’m not bringing them this year, but mostly because I’ve had a really rough year on the personal front. I certainly plan on bringing games again in future years.

The other point I wanted to make is the value of volunteering. I attended the 1st Pintastic as a complete noob—didn’t know anyone or anything about the industry—and by volunteering and getting involved, I’ve met lots of great people and had incredible experiences. The comment I hear from a lot of people is that they don’t want to volunteer because it “takes time away” from the fun and socializing. You might be surprised to realize how easy it can be to end up socializing more during a volunteer shift then you do when you are wandering the floor!

As I said at the beginning, I can’t speak for any specifics from Expo this year, but I know that we take criticisms very seriously at Pintastic and strive every year to address concerns and improve the experience for everyone. If you notice anything that disappoints you at Pintastic, please don’t hesitate to find one of the team leaders and let us know so we can address it. But also, if a thread pops up afterwards, we still appreciate the feedback and will always go through all of it so that we can make the next show better than the year before.