So a few things happened and it appears that I will be attending Pax West 2009. Being someone who did not know the convention existed until about a week ago I like to consider my position at PAX as ‘complete noob.’
Anyway why I am I posting this? Well I have nothing to say about Pax in particular, like I said I have never been there and my general understanding is its like an E3 only good and open to the public. I was roped into taking this trip by a friend and we plan to spend a week along the west coast. That being said Pax started out as only a minor side attraction for us, as we had already planned on traveling out there. It was not until I started reading about community events and enthusiasm that a lot of people seem to have that I started to seriously look forward to attending the conference.
First off, Pax is a convention where all sorts of game company’s get together to show their stuff. It is from the Penny Arcade people so that was +1 in my book right away. Now, I have also attended CPL which was fun, but I was disappointed with the sponsor turnout and activities. I did not attend to compete, I was only there to have fun and promote Prodod.
Recently, the exhibitor list was published here and I am quite pleased with the turnout. First off I just want to say that Knights of the Old Republic is my favorite RPG of all time. Of course I am excited about Bioware’s new MMO; I am even more excited to see it at PAX. I have sort of gotten off track here let me back up.
What has struck me most during these last few days is the amount of fan participation in the event. There are pre-pax events, post-pax events, during-pax events, and each and every one of them sound like a ton of fun. Need to travel to PAX? If you go by car or train there is a group for you. During the event there will be several games going on between groups of attendees including Pax-Prank, Assassins, and Pax Buttoneers. All these events got me thinking about the substantial amount of time that volunteers are spending on an event they are paying for themselves.
There was a point in there somewhere but I seem to have misplaced it. Truth be told I just felt like writing another article and I had nothing else to write about. My current projects are on hold while I get accustomed to working full time and I have had no design revelations as of late. I am trying to keep this site free of political sway so I cannot comment on recent events.
I will be taking a camera so expect a ‘Pics’ thread in a month or so.
