What to Love about PAX

I was completely unprepared for what lay ahead of me on Friday morning.  I was more than a little apprehensive, having never been to a convention.  Thankfully, PAX started off on the right note.  Matt, Chris and I filed into the queue room on the first floor of the Hynes Convention Center, and grabbed some floor space.  We considered what we would do.  We chatted with some people sitting nearby.  One course of action was clear: we busted out our DS’s.  Mario Kart was played; almost unbearably lagged by the sinkhole of Wi-Fi that the Hynes had become as it flooded with thousands of gamers, all playing games with their neighbors, surfing the net on their iPhones, and noodling around on their Netbooks.

And we waited.  For hours we sat on uncomfortable and clammy concrete floors.  We played more games, board games, card games, video games, we laughed, and we watched videos on the big screens erected for the amusement of the massing crowd.  We had a grande olde time.  And then the doors flew open, the parade of gamers began, and the panoply of gaming joys brought across the country to an eager and excited audience lay before us.

And just like that, it was all over.

It’s been three days since PAX, and I’m in that post-con funk that many discuss in the wake of such events.  I’ve been running through the events of the weekend, everything I saw, played, did, and I’ve come up with a list: What to Love about PAX.  Really, the answer is everything, but that would make for a lousy article.  In a few specific highlights, I’ve tried my best to pin down what made PAX so great, but at the end of the day it’s not entirely unlike trying to describe music to a deaf person.

Wil Wheaton’s Keynote

Mr. Wheaton did a fantastic job of setting the tone for PAX’s first visit to the east coast.  The theme of his speech was simple: the importance of games, the communities and friendships they build and maintain, and the feeling of home engendered therein.  In two words, Wil said “Welcome home.”  And home it was: no pretense, no judgments, no one to thumb their nose at the obsessions that peg gamers as geeks, nerds, and dorks.  It was just a three day celebration of games and gaming, and the feeling of community engendered by a shared love of those things.

The Moment: (An excerpt from Wheaton’s speech)

We are all here today because we love playing games. Some of the happiest days of our lives would not exist without games and gaming. Games are important. Games matter. PAX is where we come together to celebrate that, and today, I’m going to talk about the power games have to inspire as well as entertain us.

The Music

Friday and Saturday night, PAX was all about the music. The main theatre was cleared of chairs, and crowds formed to take in the best of nerdcore hip-hop, acoustic humorous acts, chiptunes and video game music tribute acts.  The Video Game Orchestra, Metroid Metal, The Protomen, Anamanaguchi, MC Frontalot, Paul and Storm, and Jonathan Coulton all took the stage and brought the house down again and again and again.

The Moments: Jonathan Coulton’s amazing performance of “Mr. Fancy Pants,” and Paul and Storm’s performance of “The Captain’s Wife’s Lament.”

The Guys

Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins.

Gabe and Tycho.

It doesn’t matterwhat moniker you know them by, only that you understand and appreciate their passion for gaming and the gaming community, and the wonderful things that passion has brought into the world.  They have carved out a huge and lasting niche in the collective consciousness of the gaming world with both their merciless skewering and unwavering support for the things they love.  They have been duly awarded the Games Developers Choice Ambassador Award for their contributions to their community.  As creators of the Child’s Play charity, they have raised an excess of one million dollars for the sole benefit of children in hospitals all over the world.  They are, to say the least, stand-up guys.

They take the stage at PAX multiple times.  You can watch them create one of their strips, start to finish, you can ask them questions, get them to sign just about anything, and you can bump into them as they wander the convention, play games, and strike up conversations with the fans that have made them the successes they are.

But whatever you do, don’t shake their hands.

The Moment: The entire Make-a-Strip Panel.  Watching these guys at work while fielding questions from an enthralled audience made evident the creative power of the duo, and assured me, more than even years of superb content on their website could, that they are the real deal; deserving of every bit of success that has come their way in the past twelve years.

The Enforcers

The backbone of PAX wore red shirts with pride, and endless patience, seemingly unaware that if this were an episode of Star Trek, they’d have all died horrible, horrible deaths.  Around every corner, for every question or concern, for every problem, big or small, there was an Enforcer to lend a hand.  Volunteers one and all, at the end of the day the success of PAX was entirely due to the efforts of the Enforcers.

The Moment: The whole show.  During one Q&A, Jerry Holkins said something about how they should have a panel where they do nothing but thank the enforcers for an hour and a half.  That seems about right.

The Games

What it all comes down to are the games.  Board games, console games new and old, PC games, arcade games.  They were all there, and all available to each and every attendee.  One room held an impressive library of board games, another, row after row of PCs.  You could find newer consoles with HD TV’s, and older consoles of every stripe.  Tournaments for games of all kinds were held during the convention.  At any time, you could find a room, find a seat, and find a game to while away the downtime between shows, panels, or whatever.  Gaming was what PAX was all about.  Not just showing them off, promoting upcoming releases, or discussing the act of creating them, but playing them; with friends, with strangers, with anyone and everyone.

The Moment: There were too many to list, but here’s a few.

1)  Playing Fantasy Flight Games’ Red November (incorrectly I might add) with some random people on line for the keynote

2)  Playing in a Perfect Dark tournament, even though I’ve never played the game, and not losing too badly.

3)  Badgering a group of guys milling around outside the Board Game Library into playing Munchkin Chtulhu.

4)  Watching a Megaman 2 competitive speed-run, complete with commentary from two announcers.

Wrap-up

There is another thing to add to the What to Love about PAX List:  It’s coming back next year.  That’s right, in one year’s time  fans will flock to Boston from all over the world to partake in another long weekend of unmatched gaming joy.

This is an experience that is not to be missed.  If you consider yourself anything of a gamer, make sure you join in the madness, the glory, the gamers’ utopia that at its very core, PAX represents.