Plea for One More PAX

Palomon

I've been complaining about this on the D&D Forums and to my fellow gamers around my area, but I've become extremely jealous of the gamers on the coasts. Living in Minnesota, there is a significant lack of good, popular cons. Sure, we get our area groups hosting gaming weekends, but those consist of a few unknowns host a some random games. (The one that most attracts me has one person hosting 3 D&D events that are unconnected, and that's the extent of the D&D events for the weekend.) While watching Wil Wheaton's keynote speech and PAX East and reading the Tweets from some friends from the east coast who were able to attend that apparently amazing expo, I realized that there is not enough of these opportunities for us in the Midwest. Sure, some of you will say, "well, GenCon is in Indiana. That's in the Midwest." My response is that I have always thought that Indianapolis is only considered part of the Midwest because it couldn't be considered part of New England. When your located in the exact center of the US, the only options to travel the 600+ miles to GenCon is either to fly (not an option for a college student) or getting together enough friends to take turns between sleeping and driving.

My plea is this: with Penny Arcade expanding their repertoire of expos, it'd be awesome if they could create a PAX North. Host it in the Twin Cities and you'd have plenty of gaming store looking to sponsor it. There would be thousands of fans flocking to get to the only real con in the area, not to mention those who faithfully attend the other PAX conventions looking for one more opportunity to be a part of PAX! Or they can host it in Chicago and call it something like PAX Mid. That way, there would still be gamers from Minnesota, Wisconsin, North and South Dakota, Iowa, and everywhere else in the north Midwest taking a short train ride to be a part of it. Is anyone with me on this one? Should we start a petition?

SlickShughes

Palomon wrote: »

or getting together enough friends to take turns between sleeping and driving.

You mean like these guys do, for 2000+ miles, for PAX? Honestly, 600+ miles for a gaming con isn't that bad. I did it, swapping out drivers, when I was in college, to go to Origins (Albany NY - Columbus OH - Almost the exact distance you're talking about) and it was one of the most memorable experiences of my life as a gamer. Perhaps the most memorable before PAX.

proXimity

From one of the MANY earlier threads on this topic-

Moe Fwacky wrote:

AltDelete wrote:

I nominate PAXMyHouse, so that once a year we can have PAX at my house.

You might be thinking:

* Where do I live
* Am I zoned for commercial events
* What would the HOA think
* How do we keep under 21 attendees away from the abundant liquor
* Do I have chairs for 60,000 people
* This is a dumb idea

And while these are all valid concerns, I would like to remind you how convenient it would be for me to have PAX at my house. I wouldn't have to fly anywhere, and I probably wouldn't have to buy passes because I already live in the house.

I'm glad we could agree on this. See you at PAXMyHouse 2011!
This pretty much sums up the thread. I mean it seems this time around people are being a little more reasonable about where a third PAX should be held (not like that guy a couple years ago who thought Omaha was a good idea because he lived there). It really comes down to it though that people want PAX to be closer to them.

This subject has been beaten to death... Another PAX is not likely, not for several more years, and if what Gabe has said is any indication, a third PAX is more likely to be in Europe.

Moe Fwacky

What prox said