PAX: Did anyone go? Seattle

[coreys429]

I was waiting for a correct thread for this and it never came. With all the events how come this one doesn't come up for people. I enjoyed PAX this year with all the demos and shwag. I will go into detail more later when I have more time.

[diskoboy]

And how was the orgy?

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=147863

[Dobie]

I was there, I was an Omeganaut. It was a sweet show this year. Much bigger amd better than in the past. Swag was ridiculous--plentiful, high quality, and relatively easy to obtain. I had to check a bag on my flight home because I had so much stuff. The flight attendants were nice enough to let take a large poster tube w/o counting it as extra carry-on as well.

My favorite moments from this year's show were the panels, of which I was able to attend many. Playing Duke Nukem Forever was definitely not expected going in, but a definite highlight.

Seeing nobody lining up to try Kinect was a sad, but simultaneously triumphant moment. I was taken by surprise by several XBLA games--the Ubisoft game in particular (can't remember the name), it combined mechanics of Ikaruga and Metroid into one sweet looking platformer with a fantastic art direction.

Meeting publishers, developers, and enthusiasts, all under one roof. Awesome.

[NE146]

Nope.. I've never been even though for many years I lived literally across NE 8th street in Bellevue which was less than a 5 minute walk from my front door to where they used to hold it.

I guess I had no clue that it was all that big a thing.. especially since it just seemed to be based upon the PA online comic deal which I never thought was all that. Heck, I'm still bewildered by it. It kind of seems to me if like some other 2-bit site all of a sudden had a huge videogame expo. i.e. Where the heck did that come from?

[Dobie]

It blew up into a big thing the year they shrunk E3. There was a sudden and large void that publishers needed filled. PAX met those needs. That, and the fact that there really aren't any other large non-retro gaming shows that cater just to consumers. A media badge gets no special treatment over a standard badge, aside from early entrance on day 2. They had to stand in line to see everything just like we did.

This year's show encompassed the entire convention center, plus convention space in the Sheraton, plus Benaroya Hall. It was nuts.

[gum_drops]

I didnt realize it had grown so big, here is the attendance history. I will probably go next year, as I only live about 20 minutes away.

2004 3,300
2005 9,000
2006 19,323
2007 39,000
2008 45,000
2009 60,750
2010 67,600

[GameDeals.ca]

We had a blast this year, but I do miss the smaller attendance a few years back.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFc1CVjNJVc

[Solertia]

No, but I went to PAX East earlier this year and it was great!! Already got my ticket for PAX East 2011!