So I came back from the Pax East and took a while to decompress everything and get my final thoughts on the event as a whole. The reason it took me so long was...well there was a lot to take in. As you might have imagined this was indeed the biggest convetion I have been to. Many people that I talked with was either in the category of this was thier first convention ever or this was the first pax ever. Now I have had my share of conventions I have been to before having the last one being Zenkaikon last week (yes folks that is an anime convention) and planning to attend some others on the horizon, but for now I am going to lay a big of ground work in my comparision to another convetnion.
There is a good chance that if you are reading this you are a fan of TGWTG.com, where you know the persona and other work from myself. In this I am going to assume you have heard of a little convention known as MAGfest. It is a hotel con around 3,000 people where PAX is a corporate con with an attendence of 69,500*, so to say that PAX is better then a hotel con is an understatement. However I can compare aspects on what the convention did right and wrong to MAGfest and some of my issues are going to shock you. So lets get to breaking down the event itself.
1) Main events
Yea, this is a landslide on this one. The main events from the keynote speaker of Jane McGonical to the Q&A sessions, the make a strip panel, the G4 Q&A, the Omegathon, and anything featured by the site itself just utterly kicked the ass of smaller convetnions. That is why people go to these conventions, I am in a minority when going to the convention for the simple fact that I was not a Penny Aracde fan, sure I knew of its existantance and seen a few comics in the past, but as a fan of the site I was luke warm. Sure I could have attended these events and be the outsider in the room and probility had a few laughs at the jokes that took place, but all in all unless you are a fan of the site or part of the cummunity you can actually pass on the vast majority of these events except for the keynote and the omegathon. Which leads me too...
2) Panels
Now I know what you are thinking: surely PAX has the better panel selection as all the bigwig people go there and present things right? Well...yes and no. The thing with panels is that I am of the hardcore people that will go to a convention JUST for the panels sometimes, I enjoy learning things about various shows or games that I do not know about. So when you first look at the list of panels at PAX your first reaction is HOLY SHIT THIS IS AWESOME!
Then you step back and take a closer look, if we were to elimate the panels that are community panels or as I like to call them "hey were famous and you acknowledge this, come and watch us dick around for an hour," also take away the company panel where the sole purpose is "we have shit to sell you, come and let us convince you to buy it," and what you have left is the panels that are to inform and educate you, the real crux of panels at conventions.
Frankly...they sucked. I am serious the IGDA track is for people who were there wanting to get into the industry (and elimated from this discussion for reasons for another day) and generic topics ranging from what Minecraft tought us about gamers, how to be a geek parent, and how to be a better DM in games. I attended a panel on how to become a writer in the gaming industry which boiled down to here are people in the industry ask us questions, sorry if I have to give you content in which you react to my questions instead of telling me stories which would be more insiteful then just user submitted questions then I am leaving.
MAGfest at least brings in professionals (MAG 9) and has a moderator who has an agenda to keep them on point on a discussion topic at hand. This is how you do panels people, and unless you fall into the trap of seeing panels that lack the oompth and inspiration MAGfest has better panels.
3) Concerts
This...is a hard comparision. MAGfest is known for concerts, that is what the M in MAGfest stands for, PAX is not, but they bring something else to the table, and that is venue. The main event room in PAX can hold 15,000 people easily, MAGfest concert hall is a spec compared to this. You could easily get in, rock out, and leave whenever you like. MAGfest the room is packed an hour before concerts start and they rock out all night.
Now as for the selection of bands were as followed: Protomen (also at MAGfest but awesome none the less), MC Frontalot (awesome, but many people who do not enjoy live MC work would be underwhelmed at what was done on stage), Metroid Metal (who are ok, but needed a smaller venue to feel the vibe, I will explain later), Video Game Orchestra (a student orchestra who games game music, I prefer the One Ups), Paul and Storm (if you seen them once, you know the stick), and finally Johnathan Colton (see Paul and Storm, only to a lesser degree).
Now the wildcard in this was...Jamspace. Yes Jamspace was at PAX brought to you by the friends at MAGfest who had chiptune jam concerts, Brental Floss, Arm Cannon, Protomen, Metroid Metal who did a BETTER show in the small room, live jams with various band members, DJ Cutman, and Mega Rand. The PA Forum was buzzed with the fact that many people missed these shows since they were not known since they were not in the schedule. But if you had a smart phone device and knew how twitter worked people were posting about these "secret" concerts abound once they where known. So in all honesty, music goes to MAGfest since they know that when a singer falls off the stage you simply do not hold him in the air...
4) Tourinments (not including the Omegathon)
Well this was underwhelming. With the venue as big as PAX was (think 3 aircraft hangers stacked on top of one another), you would think they have a nice set up for tourniments that allow a crowd to come in and watch the competitors go at one another. Nope is was the typical sign up on the sheet, sit in front of your console and go at the tourney. Not that there was anything wrong with this but MAGfest does the same thing, hell most other gaming conventions do at least this, some actually have a bleacher stand and cut into various players as they compete with one another. Sure the prizes were nicer to obtain but the presentation was...average. I call this a draw.
5) Tabletop Gaming
Let me put it this way, MAGfest claims to have tabletop...they don't. Sure they have about 5 games for you to play and a handful of tables to use, but the real sole purpose of PAX was the table top. Think of an open football field, place table in said field, have the field overflowing with games going on. That was the PAX table top experience in a nut shell. People acutally move their games from table top to the satelliete food court to have a more quieter space for when they played their games. So if you are in tabletop gaming there was no reason for you to leave that area of the convention.
6) Expo floor/Vendors
Well MAGfest has an assortment of vendors that you would find in anime conventions as well as gaming conventions. PAX has been called a mini E3. Well here is where I ruffle some feathers...it was ok. Don't get me wrong if you wanted to get some exclusive gaming going on with upcoming titles it had that in spades. However if you are a person that fancys yourself in this role you needed to go and wait in lines, long long lines. Now I hate lines, why do I want to wait to play the 3DS for over an hour? Sure I would be the first person in my group of friends to say I played it but not even two weeks later there are kiosks of the 3DS at my local best buy, and the best part of that was there was no line to use it. The indie games were awesome, since the vast majority of people tended to skip that thus being no line. If you didn't care about the AAA titles you could easily go up and down the aisles once, played games that looked interesting, and then never go back there. Sure there was plenty of swag to be given away, most of which sucked in my opinion, but if you were the luckiest person at the convention (see FreyaMau) you are going to throw it all away after a week or two. The vendors kicked ass selling things upwards of $500 on the floor, too rich for my blood. However if you wanted to get some really high quality stuff this was the event for you. PAX wins this category however your mileage may vary here depending on whether or not you want to play the game, or just wait until all the press do the dirty work for you.
7) PC and Modern Console gaming
Wow...this is a hard one. If you are looking for quanity PAX has that in spades. If you are looking for quality...that is another issue altogether. How it works is that if you wanting to play a specific game you go and get a number, you then wait until your number is called. Once called you turn in your ID (driver license most times) and tell them what game you want, if they have it they tell you where to go and get to play for about 15 minutes, once the time is up you return the game and get your ID back. Well this is nice if you are looking to play a specific game, but if you are the person that is going to play smash bros, call of duty, or insert popular multiplater game here then MAGfest will have it out by default. In all honestly the PC gaming is better at PAX where the modern console gaming is better at MAGfest.
8) Classic Console/Arcade Gaming
This may shock you...MAGfest wins this easily. Not due to the fact that they have a better focus on classic consoles but more on the fact how it is presented at the convention. PAX has it where you look on a list and if your game is on there you can go and play it, where at MAGfest it is more along the lines of find an open area if the game in there isn't what you want trade it for a game you are interested in and go at it. However what actually does this over is the arcade. MAGfest had about 50 machienes available to play with a variety of genres including pinball. PAX had about 15 dating to the late 80s with no pinball. I love funspot, I really do but when I go to a convention I want an actual arcade and not a please touch museam that happens to have arcade games. So yea...MAGfest wins this handily.
9) Staff
The Enforcers are awesome, point blank. I think their sole goal is to make sure everyone has a good time there, if there is a douchbag ruining fun, they get kicked out. I have seen many people try to go against the rule, have an enforcer tell them to stop or have their badge pulled, and then comply with what they say. MAGfest...not so much. It is really not a fair comparision since one is stricky a volenteer convention and the other being a business run convention with volenteer help. If you want to go to PAX and can not afford to go, ask to enforce. You can easily be above most professional convention staff in that role even once...I am not kidding.
10) Vibe
This is hard, PAX you have a vibe where people want to make this the greatest 3 days of their lives, PAX provides the tools and it is yours to take. MAGfest has a vibe of a party, were people are going to have a good time, play to win, and rock out as much as possible. This is more of a personal preference issue then anything else. I prefer the party atmosphere since I can find my way around a convention and never be borded for a moment unless you choose to be. PAX you need to work to get that excitement, but once you do you are going to have a limitness amount of fun. So I may prefer MAGfest but you are going to ultimately decide which one for you.
11) Final Thoughts
Even though my comparision may be even there is no question I am going to find a way to go next year. Hell I am going to see if I can plan to reserve the hotel room in the near future to ensure I have a prime location and not have to worry about commuting to various locations. If you are a geek of any kind and are thinking about going, just go. Even if you are not a fan of Penny Arcade like myself there is so much for you to do and see that you are going to have a wonderful time there. PAX brings so much to the table you would need to be an absolute fool not to enjoy yourself there.
*69.500 number is actualy inflated due to turnstyle count, the event in my estimate is around 24,000 people however the west coast cons count different then other geek conventions to inflate numbers. All in all there were a lot of people there, Otakon is still bigger.
