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Son of PAX
Dreamwriter
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
In the PAX Prime forum, we are discussing (as always happens this time of year) ticket sales, and the fact that there's way more demand than there is supply. And I came up with what I think could be an awesome solution, that could be something that works anywhere in the world: Son of PAX.
PAX started as a bunch of gamers just getting together, hanging out and having fun, very loosely organized by some people with no experience running such a thing (Penny Arcade!) Why don't we do that again, return to the days of a smaller event? People who wanted to go to PAX Prime, for example, but couldn't get a ticket, could pool their ticket money, rent a building (in this case, maybe Meydenbaur Center, a previous PAX Prime location that is no longer used), and hold their own small convention at the same time. It could have a small exhibition hall for indie developers that couldn't afford booths at the main PAX (or get into the indie megabooth), maybe some local bands for concerts (or PAXgoer bands), its own band of Enforcers, and people could bring their own game systems and tabletop games, with tournaments forming naturally. Some people could even hold their own panels.
The Penny Arcade folk seem to want PAX to evolve into its own organism that could go on without them, Son of PAX could be the true beginning of that future. What do you think?
PAX started as a bunch of gamers just getting together, hanging out and having fun, very loosely organized by some people with no experience running such a thing (Penny Arcade!) Why don't we do that again, return to the days of a smaller event? People who wanted to go to PAX Prime, for example, but couldn't get a ticket, could pool their ticket money, rent a building (in this case, maybe Meydenbaur Center, a previous PAX Prime location that is no longer used), and hold their own small convention at the same time. It could have a small exhibition hall for indie developers that couldn't afford booths at the main PAX (or get into the indie megabooth), maybe some local bands for concerts (or PAXgoer bands), its own band of Enforcers, and people could bring their own game systems and tabletop games, with tournaments forming naturally. Some people could even hold their own panels.
The Penny Arcade folk seem to want PAX to evolve into its own organism that could go on without them, Son of PAX could be the true beginning of that future. What do you think?
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http://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/26568583
No idea how it turned out, but more games and fun times seems a good thing.
The only thing I would advise is being careful about any potential use of the PAX brand, as that is something PA could frown on.
The way I usually describe it to people is that it's a 4 day long party devoted to video game music, and games of all types. For games, we have freeplay arcades, consoles, tabletop, and BYOC LAN going on all weekend. For music, we've got about 4 dozen different live performers, ranging in style from video game cover band, to DJ, to chiptune, to nerdcore/hiphop. We've also got various guests and panels. What's noticeably absent compared to PAX is an "Expo Show". Our main expo space is instead dedicated to freeplay gaming areas, and the only thing really resembling an "Expo" is our Marketplace area, which is a collection of independent artists, craftsters, musicians, apparel vendors, and classic game dealers. We do have an Indie Game Showcase, though, that we've been growing over the past couple years.
Essentially, if PAX is the community version of E3/CES/TGS, then MAGFest is the community version of PAX. If you're really interested in the mega-raffles, huge elaborate expo booths, first looks at the latest games, and swag swag swag swag swag, then MAGFest is probably not the event for you. If you want you want to play a lot of games, see a lot of concerts, meet a lot of people, and (at your option) drink a lot of beer, then I highly recommend checking out MAGFest.
It's somewhat unfortunate that MAGFest and PAX South have the same dates this year, but the geographic separation actually matters quite a bit for events like these, so the attendance lost on either side isn't enough to make anyone hurt (well, aside from the few people forced to choose).