"E For All" Game Expo Withers, PAX Thrives

After the continued struggles of E3 this year, it looks like another IDG-based games conference will have its own troubles. BigDownload reports that most major game manufacturers are skipping E For All, in part due to their focus on the upcoming Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) and BlizzCon (which will be televised). E for All will have major presentations by Microsoft and EA, but you'll have to go to PAX to see events and exhibits from other big publishers; for example, the playable Jumpgate Evolution demo, the Guild Wars tournament, or the Omegathon. The Seattle Times ran a story about Penny Arcade's creators and how PAX came into existence. Further competition for E For All is coming from the Tokyo Game Show, which runs in the beginning of October.

Comments

Being a Penny-Arcade fan....

[RobBebop]

I can say that it is good that a convention where the focus on gaming is valued more than the focus on the "market for gaming".

Hell... Penny Arcade was pushing the latest edition of Dungeons and Dragons table game not too long ago. I would guess that this is a fairly small market, but they don't care because they enjoy the game.

Re:Being a Penny-Arcade fan....

[Silicon Jedi]

James Darkmagic the Third approves this message.

Re:Being a Penny-Arcade fan....

[Sethus]

There is so much truth to this. I went to PAX for the first time last year (and I'm going again this year, driving down to Houston from Dallas, and flying up) and the thing that struck me was how they don't sell games there. They showcase all these awesome games and you really get your consumer head going; but the total lack of stores there makes you realize; hey this is a Con for people who just love gaming.

Will Wheaton gave an excellent Keynote last year (and hopefully he's there again this year and I can have a chance to play some Smash or something with him) but really brought together my floating thoughts what it means to be a social gamer. In some ways it's simply parallel play, but PAX is about getting together with your best friends, going to have a blast and enjoy everything about gaming.

I'm no wordsmith, but this article comes as no huge surprise to me; PAX is awesome (and hopefully it continues to be).

Re:Being a Penny-Arcade fan....

[Anonymous Coward]

(of the New Hampshire Darkmagics)

Re:Being a Penny-Arcade fan....

[Nerdfest]

I don't think they advertise it this way, but it's really by gamers, for gamers. They seems like talented guys too, so it's pretty cool to see them do so well at something they love to do.

I'd love to go to PAX one of these years. They're talking about a PAX East at some point as well. I hope it doesn't spoil it.

Re:Being a Penny-Arcade fan....

[Anonymous Coward]

Silicon Jedi was assuming everyone knew that. They ARE kind of a big deal.

OMG JUMPGATE!!!

[CubeRootOf]

Wow!

I miss that game!

Man o man -- I'll be buying that on release day. I just hope it is half as good as the original jumpgate was when the servers had good traffic.

It wasn't nearly as much fun to turn the universe red when there weren't enough folks on to notice :(

Did they ever fix the 'nix hitbox? will be my very first question when I get my hands on this, the next will be 'Where am I going to find a decent joystick in 2009?!?!?! do they still make them?' followed by 'can we still replace the in game music with our own? and rewrite the HUDs?'

The original was awesome - its too bad 3DO screwed it up. Glad to see it back for with a sequel

Wow!

Re:OMG JUMPGATE!!!

[Kamokazi]

My understanding is it's a completely reworked game. Looks to be quite interesting and I am planning on checking it out myself.

Also, I love my Saitek x52 Joystick/Throttle. Lots of features and you can find it for about $90. Kinda salty, but not crazy expensive like some options, and I think it's a good value considering all the features and the quality feel. Thrustmaster has some cheaper ones (independent joy/throt) that work pretty well, but the feal cheaper and don't have nearly as many features. (As a side note, if you try to demo them in an electronics store, the x52 stick can loose it's tension if abused to hell and back by elementary children. I worked in such a store and ours was fine until some 11 year old punk thought he was Maverick and went nuts on it)

Stock sound effects

[tepples]

Did anyone else notice that many of the sound effects in Jumpgate appear to have been ripped from the first season of Babylon 5.

And a lot of games use the "pneumatic door open/close" sound effects from id Software's Doom.

I wonder if they ever got in trouble for that.

Probably not. I'd start by assuming good faith and guess that Jumpgate and B5 just happened to license the same stock sound effects library.

Re:Stock sound effects

[geminidomino]

And a lot of games use the "pneumatic door open/close" sound effects from id Software's Doom.

...

Probably not. I'd start by assuming good faith and guess that Jumpgate and B5 just happened to license the same stock sound effects library.

Probably. Those same door effects from doom were used in Xcom: UFO Defense/Enemy Unknown (depending on where you lived) which came out the same year as Doom.)

Hell, those doors are pretty much the game equivalent of the "Wilhelm scream"

Re:Stock sound effects

[Dutch Gun]

And a lot of games use the "pneumatic door open/close" sound effects from id Software's Doom.

...I'd start by assuming good faith and guess that Jumpgate and B5 just happened to license the same stock sound effects library.

Good guess. I can't answer specifically about Jumpgate and Babylon 5, but I know a bit about the Doom sounds. Quite a few of the sounds in Doom are pulled (often completely unaltered) from a huge general-purpose sound library called "The General 6000" from Sound Ideas. Most game companies I've worked for own a copy of this as part of the core of their sound library. Of course, if possible, modern sound designer will not use such common stock sound effects anymore unaltered, as a lot of these sounds are pretty recognizable.
http://sound-ideas.com/6000.html

Colour Me Unsurprised.

[Bieeanda]

E for Everyone eradicated a lot of goodwill the other year, when it had people wandering around outside PAX with televisions shoved up their shirts, handing out E4E advertising crap. Their chief organizer's smarmy attitude, an 'Oh, we didn't realize that this other little con was going on' probably damaged a lot of what was left.

I still love how PAX's would-be competitors just don't get it, like there's some kind of Feng Shui about their display rooms that draws fans, instead of not being treated like a walking wallet with a desperate libido.

It's not because PAX that E for All is failing

[MoFoQ]

It's not PAX's fault that E for All is failing.
Just think of just the name "E for All"...it sounds so.....cheesy (for lack of a better term).
(plus there's that dreaded drug reference in the name....not so good for the public image).

anyways...the last good "E"-anything conference (formerly "E3") was the one in 2005 before they started instituting just stupid rules for a conference; they banned booth babes.

Then in 2006, attendance numbers were less than previous years and they announced that the 2007 E3 would be "downsized". (nail in coffin)

They tried to salvage it by spinning off the "non-invite only" conference as "E for All" but the damage was done. By then PAX was gaining lots of steam....plus the price was right. It had a bigger attendance numbers and wider range for its attendance demographics.

But...E for All has fata1ity!

[Anonymous Coward]

That'll bring the kids in, right? Right?

I did have to laugh that PAX promised that fatal1ty wouldn't be there -- I think it's clear which convention understands their market.

Re:Omegathon?

[ElectricTurtle]

Uh, last year's Omegathon featured Halo 3. Before it was released. Probably pretty major for the publisher.

Re:Being a East Coast Resident....

[ElectricTurtle]

Have you even been to PAX? Ever met Jerry and Mike (Tycho and Gabe)? There's going to be an East Coast PAX because metric ftons of people begged on their knees for it. It will have all the same features for what I would wager will be the same cost. How is that profiteering? Sources on the inside of PA Inc. have said that at their current, dirt-cheap ticket price they only about break even. I don't see how doing the same thing in another place that other people have requested is somehow magically sleazy. There's no sound ethical rationale for that.

Re:Being a East Coast Resident....

[NevermindPhreak]

Why don't we just try it out once, and see if it's something that would be good to do again.

You know, kinda like they did with the first PAX?

Re:Omegathon?

[Sir Toby]

Last year's Omegathon also featured Rock Band before its release.

Re:Being a East Coast Resident....

[ElectricTurtle]

I think you're afraid that PAX East will kick the ass of everything over there right now. Might your name be Ed Fleming?

No concerts and no developers? What are you smoking? What sound, rational basis do you have for believing that PA Inc. would abandon all the things that have made the PAX model a success in the first place? Robert Khoo has already said the developers are not only on board, they were a force in bringing this about. Perhaps you forget about the East Coast game companies like Firaxis?