So I'm back ... but is everyone else gone?

ElectricTurtle

After a decade of being away from PAX I have decided to return. However as I look around the community I see almost nobody I recognize (except @PikaPuff and @Coldbrew ). It seems like most of the crew from the naughties has grown up and moved on. I'm curious if anybody else who was active before 2012 is still around?

scotty2haughty

First Pax in '09, so ya, still around, I'm just not very vocal.

zerzhul

The forums in general are a lot quieter. covid stopping pax for a bit didn't help wrt the pax sections.

Pavio

Yeah it's definitely died down... I've been lurking since my first PAX in '07 but didn't make an account finally until I could start regularly coming in 2012. My brother has been going since the beginning and worked for PAX for the first several years (Robert Khoo told me about the time my brother took a punch for him from a drunk attendee at an early show), but he was lamenting that the old guard had mostly moved on, even most from the enforcer ranks. And so he himself stopped just before covid, though he is coming back with his daughter this year. Maybe we'll see a resurgence but... it would be sad but this might just not be it anymore. No more massive threads of people F5ing for the chance to go!

But I also think in part the show caters to a different audience, there's not as much of a prospect of AAA (which I hope changes but who knows) and there's a visible emphasis on streaming. I've kept going because I love indie games though depending on how this goes, it may be my last year, at least for a while. But attendee participation and things to do has kind of taken its toll, and most of my friends who go to PAX are not planning on coming anymore so my crew is pretty small this year, with definite uncertainty about the future of attendance.

I would be ecstatic if this year changed my perception back enough for me to convince friends to go again though.

7ucky

I'm the same as scotty2haughty in that I've been going to PAX a long time, but not really active on the forums from ye olden days. I was here, just under a different username I've long since lost.

PAX was interesting last year. It didn't have much in the way of content or exhibitors like it has in recent years pre-covid, but it reminded me of the days when PAX was Meydenbauer Center - a smaller, more intimate affair. While I loved the lack of lines, I hope more people turn up this year for the sake of the exhibitors and indies seeking more exposure.

S2000Gan

Personally I feel like PAX attendees were more active on the forums before like 2012.

ElectricTurtle

Definitely. It's really weird how tens of thousands of people are coming together, at rather steep expense, but the sense of community is all but gone. I can't fathom it. Like I get that forums are a pretty obsolete method of coordination, but we have a Discord and even that is pretty low engagement. It makes me sad honestly, because the sense of community in the 2000s was just so energetic.

R23

It’s changed a bit for sure but I’ve been going to every Prime since 08 and now one of my sons is going to be a gym leader for the PPL league. There’s still community if you’re looking

Coldbrew

Yo good to see ya! I still take a peek at the forums on occasion in the months leading up to a PAX, but that's usually about it. I do miss the community around here and all the local gatherings we used to have, but I'll still sometimes run into a few familiar faces during PAX itself.
These days I mostly only go for the concerts, just about all of my friends that I used to go with stopped attending.

bunny_shot

I attended my first Pax in like 2007 I think? But I started attending religiously every year in 2011. Haven't missed one since, but I'm very inactive on the forums. Last year was definitely not what I had hoped for, although I'd agree the small lines were nice. Really looking forward to Nintendo and some bigger vendors being back this year, disappointed I don't see my favorite -Annapurna on the list yet. . See y'all there!!

every day's great

zerzhul wrote: »

The forums in general are a lot quieter. covid stopping pax for a bit didn't help wrt the pax sections.

Removing the forum links from paxsite.com didn't help either. It killed the forum community that had existed for years and replaced it with ... nothing.
(Well technically there are twitter links but twitter tends to serve a different purpose vs. forums and discord.)
They should really add a "community" menu on west.paxsite.com with links to the forum and pax community discord.

every day's great

ElectricTurtle wrote: »

Definitely. It's really weird how tens of thousands of people are coming together, at rather steep expense, but the sense of community is all but gone. I can't fathom it. Like I get that forums are a pretty obsolete method of coordination, but we have a Discord and even that is pretty low engagement. It makes me sad honestly, because the sense of community in the 2000s was just so energetic.

As I noted, unfortunately they removed any forum or community links from the *.paxsite.com web sites.
The discord servers during the online PAX events were hopping though. They could really use a better community onramp between events.

I really think that PAX has the ability to bring everyone into the tent of gaming fun. There's a kind of positive attitude that I get from PAX where almost anyone you meet could bring some happiness to your life - from exhibitors who talk about their games, to panelists who talk about any and all games, to attendees who are all there to have fun and talk about and play games! Games and tournaments also provide structure for social interaction, making it easy and expected. Not to mention that it's great when people magically show up just when you needed someone to fill out your gaming table - or maybe you show up and get to join a game yourself!

Karoneth

Hello All! I too have been away from PAX for several years due to starting an IT business. I have never attended West/Prime, only East. I organized the last Pre-PAX Pig Roast if any of you ever heard of that. Happy to see Zerzhul is still here, and hope he can make West. I planned a family cruise to Alaska from Seattle to coincide with West, and so for the first time for West, will be attending on Sunday, Sept 4th with a 17 YO when our ship returns. I'll only have 5 hours or so but at least I'll get to see some of it. Back in the day, East had a lot of community involvement, from dinners, to bar crawls, to sightseeing tours, to swag like challenge coins and mugs (still have all of those, many of which I contributed to the design choices!) and pre-PAX game night. The community for East was amazing. I don't see that level of involvement here, and assume the entire community has just moved on from all of that, unless it's just a West thing to not be so involved. Haven't been through the forums thoroughly yet, just popped in via my old link. Take care everyone, hope to see you there.

zerzhul

I expect I won't be attending a PAX until Unplugged 2022 at the very earliest. I do miss Seattle though. I had skipped West 2019 to vacation in Montreal (my first missed West/Prime since 2010!), expecting to be back in 2020, etc, but now here we are and by 2023 if I attend it will have been 5 years away from Seattle...

Pavio

Karoneth wrote: »

Back in the day, East had a lot of community involvement, from dinners, to bar crawls, to sightseeing tours, to swag like challenge coins and mugs (still have all of those, many of which I contributed to the design choices!) and pre-PAX game night. The community for East was amazing. I don't see that level of involvement here, and assume the entire community has just moved on from all of that, unless it's just a West thing to not be so involved. Haven't been through the forums thoroughly yet, just popped in via my old link. Take care everyone, hope to see you there.

West used to have all that too.... but covid really killed a lot of that unfortunately. There's a post for the pre-PAX game night this year (and we did a small one last year) but the other stuff hasn't returned..... yet.

Karoneth

Saw that but I can only make Sunday, as my cruise returns early that morning. As I am a bit out of touch especially for West, if anyone hears of any parties that night, please let me know. I fly out early Monday, so Sunday is my only day for PAX. Thanks for the replies. 5 years for me for PAX as a whole, Zerzhul.

ElectricTurtle

Pavio wrote: »

Karoneth wrote: »

Back in the day, East had a lot of community involvement, from dinners, to bar crawls, to sightseeing tours, to swag like challenge coins and mugs (still have all of those, many of which I contributed to the design choices!) and pre-PAX game night. The community for East was amazing. I don't see that level of involvement here, and assume the entire community has just moved on from all of that, unless it's just a West thing to not be so involved. Haven't been through the forums thoroughly yet, just popped in via my old link. Take care everyone, hope to see you there.

West used to have all that too.... but covid really killed a lot of that unfortunately. There's a post for the pre-PAX game night this year (and we did a small one last year) but the other stuff hasn't returned..... yet.

Indeed, my former spouse and myself used to run the first Pre-Pax dinner from 2005-2009. I also started the Dim Sum Brunch tradition that Hypatia ran in my stead for a few years. I plan to revive that, in fact, but I think the dinner is better left buried.

ArtDragon

I will likely get the Pax Party Line up sometime this week. School and all have been chomping at my free time. I am still disappointed that nowhere on west.paxsite.com does it have any forwarding to the forums that I can see. My concern is that the PAX West forums will eventually dry up to a point where it becomes discontinued.

ElectricTurtle

It would be sad to lose the legacy, but I don't care about the medium more than the message. I just wish somewhere was active.

zerzhul

The link removal is a bummer, but it's not super surprising to me as the show has become far more Reed and far less PA over time. I expect Reed will continue to focus on community aspects that can be more easily monetized, and those require attention to modern social media methods as opposed to legacy relics like us

I do think there's an opportunity there for new communities to form and hopefully people get as much enjoyment out of them as we all did/do out of the earlier paxen and this type of community.

Coldbrew

Ah yes, the Pre-PAX Dinner in 2008 was my first community event (outside of the Golden Gardens BBQ but that doesn't happen during PAX). Community events surrounding PAX were huge back then. I myself was lightly involved with the Post-PAX Party, getting musical acts and such. I feel like these things would be hard to do now, but it would be nice to see some of it make a comeback eventually.

ElectricTurtle

Coldbrew wrote: »

Ah yes, the Pre-PAX Dinner in 2008 was my first community event (outside of the Golden Gardens BBQ but that doesn't happen during PAX). Community events surrounding PAX were huge back then. I myself was lightly involved with the Post-PAX Party, getting musical acts and such. I feel like these things would be hard to do now, but it would be nice to see some of it make a comeback eventually.

Yeah apparently... like I started a thread just trying to collect 9 people to go to brunch with me. Posted it both here and the Discord. Total signed up after several days: zero.

It's bloody surreal, when I did the first brunch 14 years ago it filled up in ONE DAY. And the Pre-PAX Dinner... well you were there. We had HUNDREDS of people. Seeing the community this disengaged mere weeks before PAX makes me sad.

Karoneth

This saddens me as well as a fellow PAX community organizer. I coordinated the pre-Pax East pig roast years ago. We only had 20 slots for that, and despite it being $60 at the time, it always filled with a waiting list whether me or somebody else ran it. PAX used to be a very social, community event in years past. We'd be involved in the design of the coin, the mug, etc. I still have my PAX East mug.

zerzhul

Karoneth wrote: »

This saddens me as well as a fellow PAX community organizer. I coordinated the pre-Pax East pig roast years ago. We only had 20 slots for that, and despite it being $60 at the time, it always filled with a waiting list whether me or somebody else ran it. PAX used to be a very social, community event in years past. We'd be involved in the design of the coin, the mug, etc. I still have my PAX East mug.

mmm, that pig tho. I miss citizen public house

Coldbrew

Yeah the Post-PAX Party was like that too, we had to throw a ticket price on it but it was always very popular. That first Pre-PAX Dinner was huge, and I still have the recording of the 'keynote' speech by Chris Taylor of GPG somewhere. I don't think we ever put that online but I should dig it up and do that some time.

It was all nice while it lasted at least. I'd probably join in for some things but I only plan to be down there for a couple days and don't even have a place to stay yet haha.

P.D.B. Fishsticks

I definitely enjoyed the Post-PAX Party when I got the opportunity to go! The extracurricular community events have been a great part of the overall experience.

R23

Nothing saying we can’t rebuild these things we love.

Darkphibre

It's hard when there's not a community to reach out to. I've been an attendee since the beginning. God I miss the heyday of the Buttoneers and such.

I popped in to see if there was a room-share thread (rarely get a hotel, but it'd sure be nice now that I'm getting into cosplay)... but it's like a ghost town.

Alazull

Darkphibre wrote: »

It's hard when there's not a community to reach out to. I've been an attendee since the beginning. God I miss the heyday of the Buttoneers and such.

I popped in to see if there was a room-share thread (rarely get a hotel, but it'd sure be nice now that I'm getting into cosplay)... but it's like a ghost town.

Yeah, it was a little shocking to see threads from last year on the front page this close to the convention. That being said, I showed up for the room share thread and am just waiting to hear back from Zerzhul on whether it's cool to start one up. My entire usual group I've been going with since 2010 had to drop out for different reasons, which is definitely a bummer but I intend to try to make the best of it and still have a good time.

As far as the community goes, I feel a perfect storm of world events, a decent amount of the folks running the events getting to a point where they're no longer attending/able to attend, and a rather lackluster con last year really took a toll. On the hopeful side, as long as the con keeps going and people care about it, that doesn't stop the community bouncing back.

ElectricTurtle

Coldbrew wrote: »

Yeah the Post-PAX Party was like that too, we had to throw a ticket price on it but it was always very popular. That first Pre-PAX Dinner was huge, and I still have the recording of the 'keynote' speech by Chris Taylor of GPG somewhere. I don't think we ever put that online but I should dig it up and do that some time.

It was all nice while it lasted at least. I'd probably join in for some things but I only plan to be down there for a couple days and don't even have a place to stay yet haha.

I would be interested in that, half because I introduced him, though it'd be awkward to see myself in my mid 20s ostensibly male form...

Bursar

I was never a part of a PAX community, mainly because of location (California), which had enough conventions that I needed to attend professionally that jetting off to a different part of the country was not really something I needed or wanted to do*. I did attend East '14, though aside from a forumer badge I didn't get much "community" out of it.

*I do remember a dinner one E3, maybe before 2010? It was at a seafood restaurant.

Now that I am both geographically close to a PAX and have the freedom to attend conventions as an attendee, I'm a little saddened that there isn't as much of a forum hubbub about it as there used to be.

Mighty

I always checked here for the coins, (and the dice we did in.. 2013?) but nothing seems to be going on in here anymore

hobbseltoff

It definitely is sad that the forums are not what they used to be. I have met lifelong friends through here and through the subreddit and I feel bad that future generations aren't really going to have that as an option.

Karoneth

Is Cookie Brigade something only found at East? They had a whole bunch of volunteers to run that if I recall correctly. We never made dice at East to my knowledge, but would have been nice. Back in the day, East would sell out of the 3 day passes in like 7 minutes, and I think you here for West/Prime would sell even quicker, very high demand for PAX. Was surprised these passes were not sold out for West when I looked this summer, and even more surprised at the lack of pages of activity on this forum for it this year. Hope to see some of you soon, we had the best community of most any event and hopefully, in years to come, folks will re-energize it.

Pavio

Karoneth wrote: »

Is Cookie Brigade something only found at East?

No, it's always a staple at West too. In fact, this year the map shows a physical Cookie Brigade location in the Sheraton level 3.

SirUberNoobPwnr

Everyone is talking about making friends at PAX via this forum. I am a long time PAX South attendee and this is my first West. I have no one going with me on this trip and I don't know anyone in Seattle. If anyone wants to hang at any point I would be down.

Karoneth

My time at this PAX West is very short as I am here for about 4 hours at the end of a cruise before my flight home, or I'd take you up on the offer, Sir Uber.

SirUberNoobPwnr

Karoneth wrote: »

My time at this PAX West is very short as I am here for about 4 hours at the end of a cruise before my flight home, or I'd take you up on the offer, Sir Uber.

Thanks for considering it. I hope you enjoy your cruise and the convention.

Karoneth

Thanks, you enjoy the convention as well!

Bladed Cicada

ElectricTurtle wrote: »

Definitely. It's really weird how tens of thousands of people are coming together, at rather steep expense, but the sense of community is all but gone. I can't fathom it. Like I get that forums are a pretty obsolete method of coordination, but we have a Discord and even that is pretty low engagement. It makes me sad honestly, because the sense of community in the 2000s was just so energetic.

I feel like the community aspect of PAX has long departed. It feels like it died with Robert leaving and Reedpop just trying to make it a cash grab. I have many friends who stopped going after they took over and can't really blame them. Obviously covid didnt help nor the shift from forums. Sakuracon feels like the last community con in Seattle. 😔

Karoneth

I miss Khoo, I could talk to him directly, and he would always accommodate the best he could. One year we had a disabled friend going and needed to secure an accessible room, he came through for us. I think you are correct. I am still friended with him on Facebook. I believe East may have topped 100K people at least once, so yeah, there should be a lot more community involvement like there used to be, but the lack of links from the site is a primary cause. Even old timers without this bookmarked, may assume the forums were shut down when they see the PAX site. Wish we could go back to 2013/2014 Pax, those were really busy and active!