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PAX Prime: An Extra Day In 2013, and Plans For Australia
PAX Prime, probably by far the largest ongoing event spawned by a web comic, is in progress right now in Seattle, with an attendance of 70,000 gamers (and a smaller number of dancing stormtroopers). Two big announcements about future PAX events were announced on Saturday. The first is that next year's event will be a four-day gathering rather than the thus-far usual three; the second is that, some time next year, PAX will make its first international foray, with an event in Australia — exact time and place to be determined.
Never heard of it
We're all getting old.
Penny Arcade is a gamer webcomic, I believe the first gamer webcomic -- if not the first, then definitely the most successful.
E3 was an expo for Electronic Entertainment (games), but a few years back they decided to throw out the dirty hippies (gamers), which understandably pissed a large number of people off. On the other hand, it was completely out of control and the focus (a press event) was lost.
So, deciding that was quite absurd, the Penny Arcade guys decided to have their own Expo, and the timing was just right that all the people not allowed to go to E3, went to PAX. And it kind of exploded from there. PAX is now "the" place to get hype about your upcoming game / console / etc set up, especially among the actual consumers.
It's also a great place to trade Pokemon and Dragon Quest 9 maps.
I've been to E3 before PAX existed, and this year I'm at PAX Prime (And PAX Dev), and it's been a totally better experience all around.
1. No booth babes - don't get me wrong, I love the female form, but there's a huge difference between PAX fans of all shapes dressed up in what they genuinely want to, with real life behind it, and the going-through-the-motions gals hired at E3. Don't get me wrong - companies still specifically hire marketing girls between 20-30 from agencies in a lot of cases, but the lowered sleaze factor helps in making for an environment where nerd-sexy can thrive - and I fully support that.
2. Parties are way better. I remember the Rockstar events at E3, and so on - but just last night, I came from a creepy, but superb costume party held in a Mansion clone of the level they've been demoing, compete with a rather well-done ARG - it was certainly money wasted that really should have gone into the development, but as long as these companies waste the money, I did find the whole experience far more compelling than "here's some drinks and music and trailers, don't you think we're cool."
3. The folks are really a functioning community. Any time there's a slack, of someone's having a hard time, you'll find a lot of humanity there. I left my laptop in a room on the first day, and a chain of people helped make sure it got to the lost-and-found - and that's just a tiny story. "Don't be a dick" is still in its functional golden era there, and it doesn't look like it's faltering soon.
Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of healthy skepticism and differences in opinion, and hardships exist all over (mostly from 70,000 people), but it all works remarkably well. Enforcers (small army of volunteers) helps too.
Final day is tomorrow - bittersweet and exhausting, but still awesome.
Ryan Fenton
This is what Gabe has to say about the incident, the emphasis "IMPORTANT PART" label, was added by me. http://www.penny-arcade.com/2011/1/28/
It’s true that we have decided to remove the Dickwolves shirt from the store. Some people are happy about this but a lot more of you are upset. You think we’ve caved into to pressure from a vocal minority and you’re not entirely wrong. let me at least break down why we did it though.
First of all I would never remove the strip or even apologize for the joke. It’s funny and the fact that some people don’t get it, or are offended by it doesn’t change that. People complained about the strip and that’s fine with me, my response as always is “if you don’t like it don’t read it.” It is very easy not to log on to Penny Arcade and read our bullshit. We’ve always made offensive comics and that’s not going to change anytime soon. If jokes about violence,rape,aids,pedophilia,bestiality,drugs,cancer,homosexuality, and religion bother you then I recommend reading a different webcomic.
IMPORTANT PART
PAX is a different matter though. We want PAX to be a place were everyone feels welcome and we’ve worked really hard to make that happen. From not allowing booth babes to making sure we have panels that represent all our attendees. When I heard from a few people that the shirt would make them uncomfortable at PAX, that gave me pause. Now whether I think that’s a fair or warranted reaction doesn’t really matter. These were not rants on blogs but personal mails to me from people being very reasonable. It’s how they feel and according to them at least, removing the shirt would make them feel better about attending the show. For me that’s an easy fix to the problem. I really don’t want to have this fight and if not having it is as simple as not selling a shirt then I’ll do it. Contrary to what they might think I’m not a complete asshole.
Now for some people removing the shirt isn’t enough. They don’t want to come to PAX or support PA because of the strip or because they think Tycho and I are perpetuating some kind of rape culture and that’s a different matter. First off it assumes a lot about us that simply isn’t true but more importantly it’s not something I can fix. I’ve gotten a couple messages from people saying they are “conflicted” about coming to PAX. My response to them is: don’t come. Just don’t do it. In fact give me your name and I’ll refund your money if you already bought a ticket. I’ll even put you on a list so that if, in a moment of weakness you try to by a ticket we can cancel the order.
So there you go. It’s not a simple decision. No matter what we do we’ll have people mad at us. If you want to talk more about it we can chat at PAX.
-Gabe out
Huh ? Following Penny Arcade regularly, I didn't know about this controversy. Apparently some people have been offended by that joke :
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/8/11/
I... just don't understand how this kind of outrage works. How can someone construe the comic as saying that rape is fun or something to mock? They point out that most med-fan video games give us a disney-land version of a medieval universe where there is a lot of unacceptable things happening : slavery, murder, torture, violent monsters, snatched children, eternal damnation, violent battles, lost limbs and, yes rape. I just don't get it : the guy is a slave, chained, whipped all day long, can be killed when his master wants, can be tortured for fun, and the thing people focus on is... rape?
So yes, if you understood this as an endorsement of rape you clearly missed the point totally and it is fair to make fun of you in a non-offensive and totally tongue-in-cheek way.
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.