PAX: More Than Just Long Lines & Video Games
September 15th, 2009
2Recently I attended the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) with another Border Stylo team member, Lindsey. I’ve been to conferences before, but never something gaming related. And never as part of my job. Most of the conferences I’ve attended have been blogging related and I was there mostly to catch up and meet other bloggers, not necessarily for the topic/content provided.
I’m not really a big gamer, unless you include my addiction to Rock Band, so PAX was a very new experience for me. I had a moment similar to those Christmas M&M commercials where they, surprised to see Santa, utter “He does exist,” and Santa, in return, “They do exist.” Know what I’m talking about? I knew gamers existed, but mostly in an online-alternate universe kind of way. So to see hundreds of people who are usually online right in front of me was a bit overwhelming. It was really neat having Lindsey – the guru of all things awesome – as my guide. (Side note: I now have a minor addiction to Scott Pilgrim and a strange desire to play Castle Crashers.)
One thing that I really loved about PAX was that it wasn’t just about playing the games and getting free stuff in return (though I admit that some of the swag was pretty cool – hello TMNT sweatband!) They really wanted PAX attendees to interact and make some connections offline. They had multiple rooms set up for table-top play and comfortable lounges for all of the DSers. It didn’t stop there though. They encouraged you to connect with complete strangers.
PAX included two convention buttons in their swag bags. You were supposed to wear them on your lanyard and look out for other people wearing them. When you found someone with a PAX button you would challenge them to any game and the winner kept the loser’s buttons. I believe that at the end of the conference the person with the most buttons won something, or maybe just bragging rights.
NVIDIA did something similar. They’d give you a button with a number on it and somewhere in PAX was another person walking around with that same number on a button. You had to find your match (and I believe you also won something.) This was interesting because it forced you to strike up a conversation with a stranger. Trust me, those numbers were small and it was a little awkward walking around looking at people’s chests – especially the females.
I guess what I am saying is that even though I didn’t go for the games or the free stuff, I ended up having a lot of fun just watching everyone else. What can I say? I’m a people-watcher. I thought it was really cool that something that started off as solitary play has now grown into such a community event. It really makes me want to get more involved in gaming and maybe next year I’ll be waiting in some of those outrageously long lines to test out a few games.
Tagged with: Gaming, Interactions, Conferences/Conventions
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Jennifer Beese
Jennifer is the Community Manager. When she’s not blogging or tweeting you can usually find her practicing stand-up comedy in front of her bathroom mirror.
2 Comments Leave a comment
Oh it was! I think our Mario Kart group needs to go next year!
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Sounds like an awesome time!
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