Saturday, being a day usually free of the obligations of work, is always the busiest of all PAX days. And since each succeeding PAX grows in size, this Saturday was the busiest PAX day of all time. And despite being riddled with dangerous pathogens, awkward psycho-social disorders, and occasionally a somewhat "musky" odor, there is definitively no better way you could have spent Saturday September 4th, the-year-of-our-lord-two-thousand-and-ten, than bustling about with PAX's teaming masses.
Morning: "the hall"
While each year has seen an increase in attendees, it has also seen a consistent expansion of the Expo hall, where now nearly every major gaming label attends to share their upcoming work with their target audience.
The Expo hall of PAX represents a tremendous strength for the fan-based convention, though it also could and is seen as potential threat to what makes PAX so unique from the rest of the commercially driven cons.
Letting gamers have a hands-on, unfiltered by marketing, unfiltered by media experience with upcoming content is tremendously important to PAX. It provides legitimacy to the its place in the industry, as well as providing a unique chance for consumer and producer to meet together. Long lines to play demos, especially ones like the ill prepared-for Portal 2 line fiasco this morning, as well as the de-emphasizing of the community aspects of PAX (the table top, the Bring-Your-Own-Computer LAN, the exquisite panels, the indie diamonds in the rough) is a potential danger to preserving the heart & soul of PAX.
PAX should house the opportunities to connect gamers to games and to provide stages for developers to make big annoucements, just like E3. But PAX should not become E3. If anything, PAX has become almost E3-enough, and could stand get a little more GDC. Bring the IGF here. Bring more indie & struggling developers. PAX is a love fest, and let's balance it with games that need love as much as ones that take it for granted.
Sorry, that waxed a little philosophical. I'll summarize all the cool games I saw when I wrap things up later this holiday weekend.
Short version of Saturday: Portal 2 coop is cool, Force Unleashed 2 is fun, where the @#$% is the Nintendo 3DS
Afternoon: "the panels"
I attended an interesting panel on Friday where community managers for company's like Naughty Dog, Harmonix, and several other notable studios tried to glean from fans what it is they want from a gaming community experience. Connecting with other humans, fan & developer alike, was the resounding response.
PAX panels provide that experience. I am an avid follower of podcasts and other net based communities of like-minded individuals, and there is nothing like feeling apart of group than getting together face to face. From Garnett Lee's always entertaining Weekend Confirmed to the Totally Rad Show to Lucasarts, letting fans & content providers get together in the space physical space is something that, barring holodeck technology, we will never be able to substitute. I only wish there was more time to attend them all (sorry Rebel FM, Giantbomb, GFW, & all the rest).
Man, there I go all philosophical again. Sorry about that.
Check the tweets for more, but here's the brief findings from each panel I was able attend Saturday:
Weekend Confirmed
Good words about Hothead studios new game The Swarm. Need to check that out.
Tepid words about Gearbox's surprise showing of the unicorn-like Duke Nukem Forever.
Similar worries about the future of PAX as the Expo Hall grows bigger.
Crowd singing the Patrick Leahy song was a highlight of my day.
TRS
Big announcement: TRS will be moving from a weekly show to daily shows starting sometime in September (20th I think?)
Better words about the Duke from Alex & Danny (I'll give you my personal opinions after I play it Sunday)
Alex keeps his hair so awesome via use of Children's tears & Unicorn Urine.
(That last one was an inside joke, by the way)
Lucasarts
New level shown off for Force Unleashed 2: Kato Nemodia. Interesting "God of War"-like boss fight in it.
Establishing that The Old Republic MMO will indeed have all the goodness (or not in my opinion) of MMOs.
Darth Revan will be important to TOR's story somehow, and HK-47 returns at long last to mingle with we "meatbags."
Evening: "the concert"
I have I hard time coming up with new superlative statements each year, so let me see if I can describe my unbridled joy from the traditional PAX Saturday Paul & Storm & Joco concert in a different way:
I came into PAX feeling a little under the weather, and despite managing it with a strong regimen of vitamins and various other "stave it off" remedies, even when I've been enjoying the heck out of PAX, I've a little crappy, healthwise, this weekend.
Once the concerts started, I was temporarily removed to a plane of existence where my fatigue and ailments seemed not to exist. It was as if the happiness being generated by the indescribable kinship between musician and geek simply did not allow for things like exhaustion or bodily pain to exist. Of course now I feel like sh#t, but during those few wonderful hours, I forgot that I had ever been feeling bad today.
Saturday concerts are something special. If you are of the geek persuasion in the slightest, I highly recommend attending one in your lifetime.
And with that, I will let the utter exhaustion and early onset PAX Pox settle in, and let delirium drift into dream. Talk to you again Sunday.