PAX Embiggened For 2007

The Penny Arcade Expo has moved to a new venue and plans to double in size over the 2006 show. The Washington State Convention center is the new home of PAX for the forseeable future, boasting 200,000 square feet of usable space. Organizers of the convention, started by the duo behind the Penny Arcade comic in 2005, are conservatively expecting 30,000 people to attend the three-day long event. Information about this year's show: "In addition to a show floor filled with contests, tournaments, and unreleased games, PAX 2007 will play host to the annual Omegathon three-day gaming competition, as well as a number of musical acts. Penny Arcade writer Jerry Holkins told GameSpot today that Jonathan Coulton ('Code Monkey,' 'Re: Your Brains') and Freezepop (whose music can be heard in games like Amplitude and Guitar Hero) will be performing at PAX 07."

E3 runoff?

[TheGreatHegemon]

Could they be anticipating a lot of people no longer going to E3 (Due to downsizing) will go to PAX instead?

The "political cartoons" of the game industry

[jchenx]

Am I the only one who finds Penny Arcade's seeming influence inexplicable? The problem with Penny Arcade strips is that most of them aren't even comprehensible -- much less funny -- without a dozen paragraphs of supplementary commentary.

While certainly some of their comics could be funny to anyone who doesn't follow the games industry (such as today's comic [penny-arcade.com]), I agree that there are others that you wouldn't "get" unless you were into gaming (such as one earlier this week [penny-arcade.com] regarding WoW). But you know what? I don't think that's a bad thing at all.

If you don't get the jokes, then they probably weren't meant for you in the first place. In the meantime, all of us video game junkies still get a kick of out them (hence their massive popularity).

If that attitude seems a bit elitist, then yeah, I guess we're guilty of that. :)