I like expo, I bring a game there every year. so people can enjoy and play games. Yes I get the bracelet. that's what it's worth for me to play all weekend long for NO charge. Trust me I get my moneys worth. It's not like I get something for nothing. Just like MGC. I plan on bringing a game as I do every year. I get in all weekend and the best appreciating pinball after party ever!. For me the community is the people who bring games. not because they don't like someone or it's about profits. but the joy of playing. ALOT of people forgot about that.

Haha!

Good to meet you too Bryan, albeit briefly!

I spent a lot of time chasing Spooky KT around to introduce myself as we have been emailing each other from across the globe so it is always nice to put a face to the email address.

rd

Should not have been an issue per the exhibitor registration form. Just like vendor can't move out before 4:00 pm on Sunday; no exceptions-LOL!!! Expo 2015 exhibitor snip.JPG

Yeah that guy guarding his pins just laughed when we asked to play one. I know who I'm NOT buying my next game from. Really sad compared to someone like Zitt who brings his awesome one of kind Star Trek Mirror Universe for everyone to play!

Mikepin: read the above statement and rectify this please....

Well we need to adress this T o a certain point if a vendor pays for his space he sorta has the right to control his games Vendors have pointed out especially if games are sold they should have th right to turn off or remove as who is responsible if it brakes

The games from this vendor were not sold (probably due to there high prices) The vendor wouldn't let anyone play them - pretty lame..

I'm not picking sides or anything here, but he did somehow sell a T2, and 2 kiss pros. The price on his F14 was $2400 ~yikes

I can see this from both sides. I'm sure you would have been able to play them if you expressed interest, but there was a lot of time spent to get those games looking like that for retail. Having a conga line of people put 1200 games on them would mean they would have to be cleaned.

I get that more games to play is awesome, but I get what that guy is trying to do.

-c

We are trying to get the free play room to the level of community of mgc, and from an outsider to mgc I think we are almost there.

I'll talk to just about anyone

-c

I think you guys are picking on the wrong vendor....GAP would let you play if you asked. Yes, the machines that got sold were shut down or just off of free play. I see nothing wrong with that.

It was the vendor on the other side with very specialized machines. I wouldn't have put them on free play either.

No it was GAP. Asked if we could play some games and we were refused....

Duplicate...

When there are games set up behind a vendor's table, it's not very welcoming, at least to me and that's probably the intent. On the other hand, when CoinTaker (maybe not this year, but in year's past for sure) sets up a game right next to their booth to show off their LEDs, it does feel welcoming.

I'm much too passive a guy to attempt to play the games behind the tables, but I can't fault someone who paid $25 to expect to be able to play them, and it seems short-sighted for a vendor to flat out tell people they can't play them. It is certainly a turn-off to me, and I would not do business with them based on what I'm hearing here.

If a vendor is not going to have a game for free play at his booth, then he needs to put a big sign on it.
NOT FOR PLAY. Or FOR DISPLAY ONLY.
This would end the confusion. IMO

I have no problem with vendors not putting games on free play, but they NEED to be clearly labeled.

That seems to be the crux of it - confusion.

Perhaps you could trade a few of those Pepsi bottles for them

You have done an amazing job in that room. A lot of fun happening.

LTG : )™

I am glad you guys are going for that but without some sort of afterparty or time frame where ONLY the game bringgers are provided entry I am not sure how you can be even remotely close. Part of the large community vibe of MGC is the afterparty. It is a time to hang out with only those that bring games, play dollar games, have a few beers in our very own amazing arcade with basically no wait line for any game, and meet some new friends with similar mindset.

To me what makes the community feel of MGC is that the afterparty is a time to really hang with ONLY the game bringgers. I for one would be much more apt to bring a game to Expo if there was a similar sort of event. I want to be able to hang with the folks that make it happen and build relationships. To me expo is faceless game bringgers at this point. For example there were many games I REALLY enjoyed this year but had no idea whom to even look for and thank.

edit to add: If you guys ever decided to offer some sort of pre-party, I personally think Thursday night from 8-12pm would be prime time for that. Games are fresh, it seemed the majority were loaded in by then, and most people are still fresh.

Andrew is the driving force. I am only a minion. Nicky and Angela did a lot of work too. I'm just dumb muscle and snarky comments.

-c

I don't think it would be a good plan to close the free play room on Thurs. Fri. or Sat. night for a game bringers only party... That is prime time Expo and people complain that it is closed too much as it is. The free play room opens at noon on Wed. for folks bringing games to set up. We started unloading and setting up about noon and finished getting our 9 games set up leveled, and tested to make sure they were working and ready by around 5PM, in that time frame some of our friends (from our Cincy group) arrived and we helped them unload and set up their games. Wednesday night the free play room opens from 6PM to 11PM for everyone to play and socialize and then there is the Bumper Blast at 8PM there is free food and drinks and a live band. This is put on for people who bring games or anyone who arrives early for set-up. I know this time frame doesn't work for everyone, (some can't get there till Thur. or Fri. some from our group can't get there till then.) but they do have this for folks that bring games and helpers, so it is offered. I'm not sure what solution there is for more incentive for people to bring games, but I don't think closing the free play room for game bringers only during prime Expo time is a good plan either.

Phoebe

As someone who came to Expo mostly to play some pinball, I'd much prefer machines in the game room be set to accept quarter drop:

-more and higher quality machines
-shorter lines
-less abuse of the games
-the kind folks that bring games might actually make enough to compensate them for the damage done to their machines
-fewer people would abandon their games, etc.

I know there might be some logistical hurdles, but if possible I think it'd be wayyy better.

People go ape crap quicker if they have money in a game. And a quarter gets stuck here comes the banging and kicking on the door.

LTG : )™

Phoebe thanks again for bringing so many fun games! I always love playing Varkon (some people didn't know there's a face/lower playfield!) and I didn't realize the Star Light is yours too? My friend is also in love with Joust now that she's discovered it too

This time already exists... it's called "wednesday night thru thursday evening." Bring games, get early access to the hall to set them up, meet n greet all the other Expo folks, and check out everyone else's games before the crowds hit. That's a 14 hour pre-party. I honestly wouldn't even WANT a "game-bringer-only" afterparty... there's simply too many other people to see and too much to do at Expo as it is... wed+thurs is plenty of orgainzer-exclusive time.

I'll change the tone.

My wife came with me this year, she loves pinball. She saw the Color Dmds and loved the look of the upscaled ones. We already have 3 Color Dmds and i will be upscaling them, as well as ordering a few more displays.

I come to expo for the mix, nice to play a few pins but also nice to see what the vendors have available that can improve our pins and gameroom.

thanks to all that bring games and the vendors that do what they can

(I live close to Patz and have been able to support that show)

rob

Please remember we give really good meal on weds for EVERYONE at expo.. I dont believe any show gives anything that great for free... Over 200 people there AND Band

Hi Mike. Appreciate the effort for the expo.

However I went along to the Weds night thing, and there was not many people there at all. Maybe 40? Poor old Trudeau was playing to an empty house. Heaps of food sitting there uneaten.

Weds night

I think you could drop this event and save some bucks.

I also heard a suggestion that maybe the Saturday banquet could be moved to a Sunday afternoon luncheon, which would "wrap up" the event, and not close up the halls on Saturday. I thought that had some merit.

Just my 2c worth.

Cheers
Dave

You need to play drinking joust!

This would likely require tax collection and licenses...

Andrew

Odd, when I went it was hard to find a spot to sit. Don't drop this. Hot dogs were fun, but this is the real deal. The people bringing games and working to set them up really look forward to this event after game setup.

Andrew

That picture was taken at 820pm odd ... Maybe 830. The event started at 8. There was plenty of food and soda.

Maybe it picked up later, I don't know. Some other guys said they were there at 9 and it was quiet.

I must compliment the banquet food on Saturday, I don't usually like banquets but it was good. Good steak and turkey, and fruit and salad as well. Nice one.

rd

First off let me say that the games in my vendor area were not on free play. Second thing is the two pins mentioned were both HUO machines and one was signed by Slash and the other a 1 of 300 made, which means they are for sale only. When you only get a 8 or 10 x 12 area For $300.00 and have tables with parts, your kind of limited on play space. Most of us vendors that set up, put out a large amount of money for the show that we try to recoup by selling parts.
Hotel, Fuel, Vendor Space, $$$ for labor, Food, Etc.

I brought a few games to the free play area for others to enjoy. I always try to bring a few if I have the room.

As far as the form that was posted earlier in this thread, its a joke, even the one that try's to enforce it is tearing down his stuff at 8 am on Sunday. Hell there booth was torn down and loaded, along with there pins before noon!!!!!!

As far as my overall out look of the show, attendance was way down, Free play area was very light on games (thanks to those that brought games), Maybe half the hall was full of vendors (looked like more because every one was spread out in the back)
A lot of vendors I spoke with over the last few years will not come back, due to conflict with people in charge of expo!!!!!!! IMAGINE THAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They don't advertise the show to the public as far as I know through Local TV Radio or Bill boards!!!!!!

JT

this seems to be the very sad reality from what I can see. Things would obviously go much better if the current organizers were no longer doing the show ans would let the new/younger folks just take it over.

Pin-a-GoGo provides water and drink to all helpers throughout the entire show. Breakfast and lunch on setup days, donuts, pastries, coffee on most others.

NWPAS provides drink, sandwiches, snacks during load-in, and a great breakfast for helpers on Saturday, great pizza on tear-down.

MGC provides huge amounts of food and drink for everyone that brings a game.

--
Rob Anthony
Pinball Classics
http://LockWhenLit.com
Quality Board Work - In Home Service
borygard at gmail dot com

Honestly this was my most disappointing expo experience yet. I used to go for several days and bring a game. Last time I did that I came on Thursday and I was treated like I was an asshole for not bringing it on Wed. Sorry for the inconvenience of setting up my game on Thurs morning. I was told to go away and come back when "he" wasn't busy 2 or 3 separate times. I was basically in a holding patern until late afternoon. What an A-hole! Since then I have stopped going for multiple days and obviously stopped bringing games.

This year everything seemed down. Few games, few vendors, few bits of new information. This was the first time I stayed at the Westin and I was looking forward to playing into the night, but frankly, once 10:30 rolled around, I just didn't feel like waiting around for people to get back from the banquet to open things up. I ended up not even going back down.

To all those saying expo is dying, I agree. I'm seriously contemplating not even attending next year, and almost certainly not spending the night. Sad, as I really used to love going to this event.

is that an invitation?

Pintastic has Polar beverages on site all weekend giving out free drink samples! Of course don't forget the after party Friday night FREE food provided by our sponsors. One big party till 2am
Don't forget the kids. FREE ammusment rides out side, free face painting, clowns, magician and more were working on!

I can only wonder what Expo would be like if someone like Terry from Pinball Life organized it.

That was a blast will be back next year. all he did was count the cash drawer.lol

How long ago was this? Andrew has been running the free play room the last few years which would keep you from dealing with the notorious "he". any of the volunteers would have been happy to help you load in your game.

-c

As someone who brings a game or two, I've attended the Weds night buffet for the past several years now.
It's a nice touch & appreciated.

However... we're there to hang out & talk with each other & meet new people. But the place seems to empty out as soon as the band starts, because they're just too loud to talk over.

The background music that was playing before the band was perfectly fine & perfect volume.
If I want to see/hear a band... I'll go to a concert.

Drop the band. (Same goes for MGC too.)

My old-man-yelling-at-the-clouds 2-cents.

For some context, people have been saying Expo is dying, sucks, or Pacak is a jerk since I started going in 1997, and probably for years before that as well. Yet it still keeps chugging along and it keeps being the biggest show by far.

I think that when people say "it was better last year/the year before/etc." part of their opinion is based on them having experienced it a bunch of time so it gets less and less new each time. First time is amazing, second time is okay, third time is meh. Sort of like White Castle.

Come on now, White Castle was always Meh, at best...

Andrew

I think last year, at least from a free game room stand point, was much better than it had been for the few years before, even if you remove the 40 or so EMs that were brought in. The fact that there was a need for an overflow room says a lot. Maybe this was due to the 30th anniversary. I don't think the vendor area was necessarily better last year then in the past, and most vendors each year say there are less or less, but I can't intelligently comment on that, I don't pay close enough attention.

Certainly seems that one of the issues I hear from folks bringing games, is that there is just no incentive to bring more than one game. If someone is local and can only fit one game in their vehicle, you need to give them a good reason to make multiple trips to drop off and take home. From what I have heard, seems other shows provide additional benefits for bringing multiple games.

Ignoring the social aspect of Expo... meeting new people - I thought Expo sucked. The leadership of this show is just horrible.

Sorry guys; but I can't support a show that is managed by these people. I saw way too much hate for the vendors from the Show organizers.

I can't see going to expo again in the coming years; In this case everything is truly bigger and better in Texas. (TPF 2016)

When the two main organizers on the Expo website both have email addresses hosted by AOL, it let's you know they maybe alittle behind the times!

<dial-up modem handshake>
"You've got mail!"