I first read Penny Arcade in college, around the early 2000’s. The artist and writer duo, then known only by their Internet monikers of Gabe and Tycho, made comic strips on the Web using Comic Sans with punchlines involving John Romero (one of the creators of Doom, for you non-gamer scum.) The art was crude, as was the humor, and I found it strangely compelling. Little did I, or anyone, know that the webcomic would grow to be a commercial success, and not just as a webcomic: the Penny Arcade team now organizes some of the largest video- and tabletop gaming conventions in the world, all branded as the Penny Arcade Expo, otherwise known as PAX.
The first PAX was held back in 2004 in Bellevue, Washington. Around 3,000 nerds showed up. Now, PAX is held in four locations, three in North America and one in Melbourne, Australia, and attendance is in the tens of thousands. There’s also a “PAX Unplugged” devoted solely to tabletop and board games, hosted in Philadelphia. (And if you’re a developer, there’s “PAX Dev.” But that one is kind of specialized so a lot of what I’m writing won’t apply to it.) Ticket sales are announced the day of on Twitter and sell out quickly, if not instantly. Everyone who is anyone in the gaming industry makes an appearance.
But the real stars of the show, besides the crew of Penny Arcade, are the gamers themselves. Events like E3 were press- and industry-only. PAX was, and is, open to everyone. Of course, companies jumped on the opportunity to showcase their latest games and hardware, and they started piling in with booths and booth babes. But here was the chance for an average gamer, with no affiliation to a publication or company, to see and try things out before release. And eventually the organizers asked the booth babes to put some clothes on.
There’s another group that deserves special mention, the Enforcers, easily identified by their t-shirts with the word “ENFORCER” on them. These are volunteers who help control the queues, troubleshoot A/V during speaker panels, remove troublemakers, and do whatever else is needed to manage the event and its crowds to ensure a successful and enjoyable PAX.
Because attendance is high and space is limited, there’s only so many people allowed in queue for game demos. You’ll know a line is capped when you see an Enforcer at the end of the line with a sign saying so. But worry not, because the other thing that PAX offers to the gamer masses is the opportunity to listen and interact with the game developers themselves. Panels occur at all hours throughout all days, and you can grab a seat and listen to some pretty important industry heavyweights talk about upcoming releases, and field questions from the audience.
Not every panel is worth going to. Some of them are obviously put together last-minute by folks who didn’t do enough planning. And others are just awkward to see, like the Bioware one promoting Mass Effect: Andromeda done by people who were doing their best to reassure a skeptical audience that Bioware was back in fighting form and wouldn’t screw up again. (Guess what, they screwed up again. The Mass Effect series is now on indefinite hiatus.)
And a more recent phenomenon that has me a bit puzzled is the heavy amount of cosplaying. I’m not talking about the folks who dress up as their favorite characters and go enjoy the show, neither am I talking about the professional ones who get paid to staff the company booths in the expo halls. I’m talking about folks who claim a space the whole day with light rigs around them. Like, seriously, there’s a ton of them, and it got bad enough that cosplay photos are no longer allowed in the expo halls because they seriously disrupted foot traffic. I’m amazed at the entrepreneurship cosplayers and cosplay photographers show, but I’m curious to see how that will work in the future. Mostly, though, the cosplayers you see are people who do it for fun, and you’re probably going to see them demoing games and sitting in on panels throughout the day.
There’s also a lot more emphasis on streamers these days, with Twitch and Discord occupying a lot of expo hall real estate. Not all attendees are happy with this, but I guess the inevitable future of gaming is watching someone else play the game for you.
But if there’s one genuinely cool “Let’s Play” to watch at PAX, it’s the amazing Acquisitions Incorporated. This live Dungeons & Dragons session is played (and sometimes run) by the co-creators of Penny Arcade, Gabe and Tycho, whose real names are Mike and Jerry and whose appearances bear no resemblance to their comic strip alter egos. Common recurring guest stars include the fantasy author Patrick Rothfuss (whether you like his writing or not, his antics as the rogue Viari are truly hilarious.) Much like PAX, Acquisitions Incorporated had humble beginnings, starting out as a podcast of those two plus friends playing D&D. Now it’s the main event, with spinoffs (such as the “C Team”). It’s also now part of the D&D canon setting. The sessions are lively and hilarious as all the players try their best to succeed in the most disastrous way possible.
With the comic strip on its 20th year and PAX on its 15th, who knows what the future holds. Attendance figures aren’t released but I think it might be growing overall, since PAX East was extended to 4 days from 3 and the fact that they started PAX Unplugged. But I’m sure running a webcomic and a series of national events + one international event isn’t getting any easier for the PA team.
Still, as long as they hold PAX, I’ll continue to go. I think they’ve succeeded in keeping the focus on the gamer, even with the big companies establishing a presence. And it’s always nice to meet up with fellow gamers in another city to enjoy the festivities and to forget about the drudgery of normal life.
There is one gaming event that I like a bit better, though. And it’s one that isn’t held that often and probably won’t be around for as long.
I’ll write about that next time.
