“PAX West” Gaming Convention, 2024
Topics Covered: Gaming Culture, Live Competitions, Immersive Entertainment, User Experience, Indie Games, Nintendo Highlights
Conference Overall Ratings: Venue (5/5) - Food (3.5/5) - Speaker Content (4/5) - Networking Opportunity (5/5) - Likeliness to Return (2/5)
Initial Conference Overview: This event was extremely huge. There are two convention centers that are just a block and a half from each other… it was on multiple floors of both. In total 9 floors (plus a 10th local-branch at another venue). And it was very crowded! Thousands of people here. There was everything to do and see: games to try, booths to explore (all of the classic games were there), lots of interactive experiences. It was such a specticle and iconic event. It was fun to wander and explore, though, I just felt the overall “vibe” was so dark. Maybe that’s just video game people… not to say “video game people” but almost all of the games were so dark… devil-ish, over sexualized, spooky, freaky, fighting, weird/warpy… IDK. I wouldn’t say it’s the fault of the conference as much as the fault of the industry… everything was eerie or silly/fantasy.
What was missing? I would love to see more edutainment! More wholesome games that are truly practical, useful, building, project-based teamwork, fun, totally positivity, learning, maybe even no killing necessary… things that are a great investment for your intelligence and mind… Even as literal as “games that teach you skills that are helpful in school but also fun!” Helpful in problem solving, hands on. The most “on brand” of this goal I’m looking for (one of the only games I could nod my head to at this event with like “okay… see! we need more like THIS” would be Farm Simulator.). You see what I mean? Wholesome. Useful. Entrepreneurial, practical. I’d like to see Roller Coaster Tycoon there, The Sims (more prominently), Monopoly, Uno, hahah. Idk. And then “cooler games” that are also practical. Like “Farm Simulator” isn’t that catchy/cool sounding at all, yet you get the point - it’s great and practical. I’d like to see more variations of that, and more similar to this. It’d just make me happy for society/the future. If even more games were made like this, and people spent their time on more building, positive things like this. Getting a chance to manage, build, etc. (Roller Coaster Tycoon was such a building-block in the foundations of my understandings of business, debt, refinancinghahah. I realized that recently. Games like that are so useful. I’d love to see more of it celebrated and invested in.)
Bullet Point Notes from Conference :
“Pin Culture” Many booths have “pins” that you can stand in line for and get for free (like Nintendo) or buy from smaller companies. This seems to be a trend in this culture, to collect pins and put them on your badge lanyard.
Event Layout - The sections of the convention are spread out on different floors and distinguished by different gaming styles. Board games in the basement and part of the 3rd floor, local indie games was in a different location entirely, huge global games were all on top floors.
Merch is for sale between the biggest companies. They have lots of character hats and clothing.
Some of the brands have immersive experiences. The displays are huge castles with dragons, or haunted buildings…
I was extremely upset to see Four Nights at Freddie’s or whatever it is. I had never even noticed this brand before, but I saw it was so spooky and they had a big haunted house that was a :( pizza restaurant. Lately, the more you look into “terror” and “pizza” it is not good. There are a lot of allegations that “pizza” is code for some horrible things. So, with that in mind, there were so many symbols within this theory that were literally lit up in neon lights, it was so hard to ignore. This kids brand, getting kids to go into creepy haunted houses/pizza parlors, literally be scared by teddy bears with fake faces/masks on, and checkerboard floors where they get everyone to follow a dance. etc. I hated it. I hated seeing this brand. I hated seeing their customer experience. I hated knowing what I’ve learned lately, and seeing it right in our faces. This dark culture believes if they show it right in your face through symbols, they can go ahead with it. So... for me, I was in disbelief to see how blunt and sad this brand may actually be… It’s either insanely coincidental, (and… they just never got around to rebranding, cause I’m SUREEE people have pointed this on in many ways to them??) Or this is intentional/supported and promoted. It’s infuriating to see - but, at least more and more people are talking about it lately, and more will be exposed. In the meantime, I was really sad to see kids walking around this convention and the neighboring streets wearing their merch.
Some headline speeches were given by huge brand-name games, including “Civilization Seven”. I didn’t get to see the speech but I did get a poster. I read that people think this version of the game was made to be “too green”, like “green overboard” but idk. I didn’t hear the speech. I do extremely love Civilization though. I love that game. And I love to win by cultural victory, turn off the barbarians, and play on Pangea mode hahha.
Verizon Wireless surprised me. They were passing out free $10 gift cards to GameStop if you scanned a code and filled out a form. I was surprised that was the only time I saw anything referencing to GameStop at a GAMING event! For real. Get here.
FUN, LIVE VIRTUAL TEKKEN COMPETITIONS w/ AUDIENCE
Live video game watching, arena style, is extremely fun. As a kid, this was one of my favorite things to do. Go to a friends house and everyone would watch each other play Super Smash, etc. I thought this was wayyyy more fun than I ever thought it could be and I think this industry will grow, into movie theaters.
the players had their coaches next to them sometimes, so watching their interactions was so entertaining.
as an audience, you could hear what they said, the camera jumped from the game, to them, etc… it was much like a sports game, except they had a small frame inside a frame, so at every moment you could see the game but sometimes you’d watch the players, the audience, etc. It was very very cool
The time between the rounds every now and then was even entertaining too, cause they’d let the competitors mics be on for the audience to hear & talk a bit of friendly trash to each other - or just comment how the rounds were going so far. It was pretty immersive/interactive/fun as an audience member. I’d totally go again!
SuperFans were in the audience cheering on their favorite players. Some of these players knew each other from online battles too. I thought that was cool.
In the future these will get more immersive and I bet Pokemon will have virtual competitions that peopel can go see in “stadium” setups in AR. So everyone can watch projections of the Pokemon fight that these trainers worked with over time. Would be incredible. I think I’ll see that technology in this lifetime.
SPEECH ON ANIMAL CROSSING + NINTENDO
A funny speech by a couple from Oklahoma City was memorable. They did math on the prices on Animal Crossing -How is Tom Nooks pricing? Is a house on the New Leaf even affordable? Well… the price of one "bell" is just over a nickel.
Nintendo had a HUGE section where people could go solo or in groups and play games. Lots of mini games one by one. I think it was like traveling from console to console to play different Mario Party Games. Mario Party is a blast, and this sorta fun user-experience was a neat thing to try…
I did see that they had a lot of empty consoles towards the back… and a HUGEEEE line the entire time… it’s hard to explain, but, logistically, their setup didnt’ work. They’d need to go back and look at that whole plan and rework it for next year. Because half of their equipment wasn’t being used the entire time, but the lines were TOO long. Like the lines could have been half as long and still had that “we’re cool” appeal. These lines were too long, seeing all that wasted opportunity.
Conference “Overall Rating” Further Elaboration:
VENUE - 5/5
ALLOW ME TO ELABORATE: This was a huge event and it required a lot of space! I don’t think they could have picked anything better. It was extremely organized, easy to navigate… the only thing I found a little awkward was like the “waiting rooms” where they wanted you to sit/stand on tape on the floor until presentations opened up. I ended up just walking around and even sometimes going into speeches late.
FOOD - 3.5/5
OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT: I mean, the prices were pretty fair and the food was good. But it was all provided by the convention center. It’d be cool to see food vendors there - even free food somehow haha. But, I just didn’t see anything “wow” about their food. Incorporating more food vendors that offer unique dining experiences or samples could elevate this.
SPEAKER CONTENT - 4/5
ALLOW ME TO ELABORATE: There were A LOT of speeches, but I didn’t make a lot of them. I just felt like there was so much more interesting stuff to do than sit and watch too many speeches. I attended a few speeches that were interesting, but prioritized walking around the conference. There were a few speeches I wish I could have attended.
NETWORKING OPPORTUNITIES - 5/5
ALLOW ME TO ELABORATE: This event had so many parties tied to it and ways to meet people. Playing games, chatting randomly hahah. That being said, again, I was kinda kept to myself. I met a few people one night, but at the same time, this isn’t quite my world. I love GameStop a lot - and certain games (Tetris, Polytopia, etc) but I think these games weren’t really for me. So, if I’d tried a little harder I probably could have met a lot of people. Instead I just didnt’ really take any of the opportunities, and when I did - it wasn’t something I wanted to stay and be a part of for too long. I like to go to bed early these days, hahaha.
LIKELINESS TO RETURN - 2/5
OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT: As I said from the start, I’d like to see an overall shift from the video gaming industry. I’d like to see a push back towards more games that are educational while also fun. I’d like to see less glamorization of these speculatively perverted brands (i’d like to see them investigated and potentially removed from these events) though…I also realize that so much of this culture that I don’t agree with is “just the way it is”. Be it the over sexualization of kids/women in these games, the overload of killing, the lack of content I’d like to see.
I will say, that only 2% of the population play games (yet its a $200B/year industry). I heard this at a convention last year, I believe it was an Education/Games convention, and they were talking about how there’s such a HUGE market of people who aren’t playing games… 98% of the population. If more types of games were made, this market will continue to grow. They want to see more types of games being made for different preferences…
Gaming is already a thriving multi-billion dollar market, it will continue to grow into the future. I even read that actors are picking “video game acting roles” over “movie acting roles” lately for a fun change of pace. I think there’s a huge huge huge gap ready to be filled in the gaming industry. It will be recognized.
I’d go back to this event in a few years. I’d be really happy if I were to return and see more games that are cheesy, wholesome, and based on values. Call me a nerd, but that’s what I’d like to see.
Until next time, I wish you the motivation and success to search for opportunities around your area. Search and explore: Who is out there giving talks? There are new things happening all of the time (and sometimes social media manager procrastinate to announce things, so new events pop up last minute!)
Find relatable or interesting topics to check out… maybe even something hosted at a cool venue, if there’s no other reason to go. Let’s see what you can learn and discover, not too far from home. 😊
