Not Happy With What PAX Has Turned In To

JChace029

I left PAX today feeling very "meh" and not that excited to return this weekend. I couldn't quite figure it out. I spent some time in the car on the ride home, and it finally hit me.

PAX has been ruined by "Lounges". It used to just be Twitch, where they had a small private area for Streamers to stream, chill out, etc. before meet and greets, etc. But now it has taken over PAX. Every big name there has a "Lounge" and essentially a velvet rope separating the average con-goer, and the "VIPs". Discord, Mixer, Aurus, Geico Gaming, Twitch, Alienware, Facebook Gaming, and others all had these exclusive areas, offering less and less square footage for actual experiences for the conference goers. It's really turned in to a "We're more important than you" situation, which is really unfortunate. Even the swag given out, is reserved for "insiders", partners, and preferred members.

It's a real bummer. PAX should be accessible to everyone. Not just the super famous.

ilikemwmorethanilikeyou

Meh. It's fine.

kylechu

People have been having this argument for years, except it used to be about media badges. The only difference was that media lounges were out of sight while streamer lounges are glass boxes.

If you really want PAX to be "accessible to everyone," you should be glad the streamers and media are there. They're expanding the event beyond just the people who are in / had the money to make the trip to Boston.

I know it feels like the streamers are the haves and you're the have not, but you need to realize those of us lucky enough to be at the event are the haves and the people stuck watching it from home through a twitch window are the have nots.

Zombiewski

kylechu wrote: »

I know it feels like the streamers are the haves and you're the have not, but you need to realize those of us lucky enough to be at the event are the haves and the people stuck watching it from home through a twitch window are the have nots.

I agree with you that we all are lucky to be able to afford to go to PAX, but to me PAX should ideally be what Mike and Jerry set out to create, which is an E3 for everyone. A place where fans get to play new games and demos and interact with developers. There's always going to be that push/pull of getting stuff everyone can play and the big booths like Facebook that drop a lot of money to be there and in doing so support the show. But I'd like PAX to curate a bit more and focus more on games people can actually pick up and play, and not these lounges that take up space and look good online.

TurQ

JChace029 wrote: »

I left PAX today feeling very "meh" and not that excited to return this weekend. I couldn't quite figure it out. I spent some time in the car on the ride home, and it finally hit me.

PAX has been ruined by "Lounges". It used to just be Twitch, where they had a small private area for Streamers to stream, chill out, etc. before meet and greets, etc. But now it has taken over PAX. Every big name there has a "Lounge" and essentially a velvet rope separating the average con-goer, and the "VIPs". Discord, Mixer, Aurus, Geico Gaming, Twitch, Alienware, Facebook Gaming, and others all had these exclusive areas, offering less and less square footage for actual experiences for the conference goers. It's really turned in to a "We're more important than you" situation, which is really unfortunate. Even the swag given out, is reserved for "insiders", partners, and preferred members.

It's a real bummer. PAX should be accessible to everyone. Not just the super famous.

I completly agree. Too many lounges. Even Chips Ahoy had a lounge. Wow, just wow.

JoGagne

I agree. I’ve been going for 8 years now and when we first started going there were cosplay contest. The past 4 or 5 years there’s been none or at least I haven’t heard of any. I work very hard on my costumes every year and use to aleast get a recognition of my costumes on Pax East website photos of highlights. Nothing this year. I had to get Sunday tickets this year and I guess there were no Pax, magizne, or form photographers or very little. Out of 8 years this was the second Sunday we’ve gone to and it first was the same way. I guess Sunday is wind down It’s most likely my last year and it was disappointing. I made power ranger costumes, the new armor and original helmets. Would have loved to see them on here.