"E For All" Game Expo Withers, PAX Thrives 64
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.
Re:Being a Penny-Arcade fan.... (Score:5, Insightful)
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).
Stock sound effects (Score:3, Insightful)
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:OMG JUMPGATE!!! (Score:1, Insightful)
It could be Babylon 5 got them from some pack of stock sound effects, rather than make their own. Not that uncommon, actually. I know there's one distinctive "holstering pistol" sound effect that's been used in a few older (98-2000) games and more TV shows than I can remember.
Colour Me Unsurprised. (Score:5, Insightful)
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 (Score:5, Insightful)
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 [wikipedia.org].
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! (Score:4, Insightful)
That'll bring the kids in, right? Right?
I did have to laugh that PAX promised that fatal1ty wouldn't be there [kotaku.com] -- I think it's clear which convention understands their market.
Re:Being a East Coast Resident.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Being a East Coast Resident.... (Score:1, Insightful)
There's going to be an East Coast PAX because metric ftons of people begged on their knees for it.
And there you have it. They're doing PAX currently because its fun. They'd be doing PAX east because there is demand for it.
The best you can hope for it PAX east to be a shadow of the real PAX and the real PAX will be completely unaffected.
That's highly unlikely, what's much more likely is that the real PAX will suffer while PAX east will simply have none of the things that make PAX what it is: no concerts, no developers, no point.
There are already plenty of conventions on the east coast, but there's a reason all the big conventions (ComicCon, PAX, BlizzCon) are on the west coast. Hell, even "E For All" is on the west coast.
PAX east is doomed to fail, and the best we can hope is that it doesn't take PAX with it.
Re:Being a East Coast Resident.... (Score:4, Insightful)
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:Being a East Coast Resident.... (Score:1, Insightful)
Because there already are east coast conventions?
There are two other east coast game conventions mentioned in this thread. There's no need to stretch the PAX organizers (and I don't just mean Gabe and Tycho) thin just to get Penny Arcade in the name.
Re:Being a East Coast Resident.... (Score:2, Insightful)
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?