I know you've probably been hearing enough about how E for All ranged from being "just okay" to "meh" to "somewhat mediocre," but you haven't yet heard from me about it, so you don't have the whole story. Without further ado, I present to you my top ten reasons why PAX was an all around better time than E for All.

10. Super Smash Bros.
I know what you're thinking. "But Super Smash Bros. Brawl was playable at E for All, and it wasn't at PAX!" And you're right. It was nice having the opportunity to play the new Smash game, but as far as overall enjoyment, there was much more to be had at PAX. While at E for All, I spent a good two hours in line to play a total of three two-minute matches, two of which were played with the most awful control scheme for Smash ever (Wiimote on its side). At PAX, on the other hand, there were dozens of GameCubes set up to play Super Smash Bros. Melee with no waiting at all, and with the controller best suited for the job: the GameCube controller. Bottom line: you know something is wrong if I finish playing a game of Super Smash Bros. and I'm more frustrated than excited.

9. Location Location Location
This one is arguable, for sure, because Los Angeles is much bigger, with much more to do than Seattle, but in my opinion, I really enjoyed the fact that one could walk from one end of downtown Seattle to the other in a reasonable amount of time, hitting up the ferries and the Pike Street Market and the art museum and the Space Needle all in one go. Everything was so centralized, so meeting up for outside-of-convention activities was a snap. Additionally, I think the Seattle Convention Center was a much better fit than the Los Angeles Convention Center. It's a bigger convention center, with a bigger exposition floor, and with all the little rooms for free play. As far as I know, the only room open at E for All was the show floor, with no other areas for other activities.

8. Attendance
It's no secret that E for All 2007 was a bit empty, and on the one hand, it was a good thing. If one wanted to play anything other than Super Smash Bros. Brawl or Rock Band or Metal Gear Solid 4, then he wouldn't have to wait longer than ten minutes to do it. On the other hand, the old adage of "the more the merrier" certainly holds in this situation, where after hours activities would have been much better with the Destructoid mob that was in force at PAX. I would estimate that only about a third of the number of people from Destructoid who went to PAX were at E for All.

7. Tournaments
Certainly, MLG was at E for All, and there were a few tournaments to play in, including Halo 3 and Guitar Hero II and Super Smash Bros. Melee, but the tournaments at E for All paled in comparison (pardon the cliché) to those at PAX. At E for All, the usual competitive games were represented, but at PAX, there were also handheld tournaments, rock-paper-scissors tournaments, and of course, the one tourney to rule them all: the Omegathon. For a convention focused on gaming, E for All really lacked a variety of options. Which brings me to...

6. Breadth of Exhibitors
The big news a few months back were that neither Sony nor Microsoft were going to be present at E for All, which is certainly something IDG needs to rectify for next year. But going further than that, there were a number of gaming-related groups that were present at PAX but weren't at E for All, like Rooster Teeth, Mega 64, or (obviously) Penny Arcade. I think Colette had a similar complaint; there just wasn't any cool stuff to buy at the convention.

5. Concerts
Yes, there were concerts at both conventions, and yes, they were both excellent. The difference lies in the fact that the concerts at PAX were free for attendees, whereas Video Games Live was an extra thirty bucks (in addition to the exorbitant price of attendance). Another factor is that of variety, again. PAX had two concerts, featuring a total of seven different bands, where Video Games Live was just one concert and it was all orchestrated (but it was still great!).

4. Other Types of Gaming
This might be the most up-for-debate topic on here, since Destructoid is a site for video games, but I really liked the fact that PAX includes video games, tabletop games, board games, and pen and paper games, even though I'm not a fan of all of them. One of my good memories from PAX was when I wanted to take a break and play some old school Settlers of Catan, and some random person came by, asked to play with us, and totally schooled us. Could that have happened at E for All? Probably not. Which is a bit of a segue into my next point...

3. Leisure Areas
One of the coolest parts of PAX, in my opinion, was the fact that at any given time, you could take a break, hit up a Handheld Lounge, and just play your PSP or DS. In addition to that, there was the huge hall that was literally filled with top of the line PCs, all hooked up to one another. I don't get to play PC games much (on account of only having a four year old laptop), so that was a really nice addition to the already awesome show. Especially considering that most of the people attending these shows are people who haven't ever met one another in real life, one of the main things they want to do is just hang out and play games together. Was there anything like that at E for All? Nope.

2. Hours of Operation
I'll admit, this issue was compounded for me in particular because rather than staying in my friend's cousin's apartment within walking distance of the convention center (like at PAX), I was taking hour long bus/train rides to the LA Convention Center from Pasadena. So I never made it to the show floor before two in the afternoon, and you know what that meant? I got six hours (actually closer to five because of the blackout) of play on Friday and only four hours on Saturday. I know, the exhibition floor at PAX closed down around the same time too, but the Seattle Convention Center as a whole stayed open until three in the morning, and you know what, people were still there at three in the morning. We gamers just want to sit around and play games, so closing shop at six in the evening on a Saturday doesn't make a lick of sense.

1. Price
I've already alluded to this in some of the earlier entries, but by far, the biggest problem with E for All was the price. The four-day pass was nearly double that at PAX ($90 vs. $50). "But wait," you say, "E for All was four days long and PAX was only three!" You're right. However, PAX allowed you to attend each day individually if you felt so inclined, where your only options at E for All were Thursday/Friday, Saturday/Sunday, or all four, and for somebody like me, who only attended on Friday and Saturday, one would have to pay the full price (which is already inordinantly high) for only two days of convention. In fact, how many people outside of the gaming press were able to make it on Thursday (considering its status as a work day), and still had to pay for Thursday because it simply wasn't an option not to?

Really, it comes down to those last three points. If, for next year, IDG brought the price of attendance down, while extending the hours and "things-to-do" off the show floor, then more people would want to come, and with more people wanting to come, more exhibitors would be attracted to show off their stuff. All in all, E for All wasn't bad, it just wasn't nearly as great as PAX, but with a little work, it could get up there.