PAX, to me, seems like an unlikely event. Ten years of growth and loyalty to a couple of guys that wrote a web comic that struck to the heart of games and gamers and developed into a large and thriving community of game loving individuals and nerdcore people in general. I remember when they hooked me.
Unprecedented numbers of attendees. So many that they filled the entirety of the huge Convention Center.
Last year (2008) PAX had over 58,000 attendees. This year, ticket sales are capped at 75,000 and there are less than 2,500 tickets left!
Quoted from their forums. With the exception of a few day passes, PAX 09 was completely sold out. That’s a lot of gamers.
Ian’s Favorites:
- The free play area. Anyone could check out titles from a huge library of games and play them with other attendees.
- Indi game showcase: The PAX 10
- Left 4 Dead 2 (the three levels of demo were really great)
- Brink, the new FPS RPG-ish title from Splash Damage and Bethesda
- Shank
- Gunnar digital lifestyle specs. I liked them so much, I bought three.
Crowd Favorites:
- Left 4 Dead 2
- Borderlands
- Blizzard [ Starcraft 2, Diablo 3, and the latest World of Warcraft expansion ]
- Cosplayers (with a good gallery at Kotaku)
- The handheld play area with tons of lounging around pillows
- The TMNT bus
Here is a few details on really neat things that escaped the central focus of the convention and captured mine.
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I made the expected powerglove references at their booth, but I really wanted to see how this worked. I didn’t really get a feeling about how this would make pro gamers faster over a keyboard, as they claimed it is a different way to play. Is it better? I’d like to hear about your experiences with it.
These are described as reducing eye strain and the affects of Computer Vision Syndrom (CVS).
I found that I could tell the difference and increased quality of vision almost immediately. Since I’m in front of screens for a lot of my waking life, I bought three pair.
We also seem to be entering the age of the MMO FPS RPG. To name a few:
One Last Thing:
Here’s a video podcast that I made for you guys showing some of the gems of this years PAX and informal interviews that I was able to capture. I hope you enjoy it.
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