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?

Re:

[Zelucifer]

Last year, PAX was so full most of the time that, walking was almost impossible. It'll probably be the same way this year, just with more stuff to stare at ;)

Embiggend

[queenb**ch]

Is that even a word? Gah! You guys sound like one of the Viaga emails....

Re:Embiggend

[mikkelm]

It's a perfectly cromulent word.

Re:

[Shrubber]

You couldn't have scripted that sequence better.

Re:

[rkanodia]

Every syllable is intended to be the one you heard.

Re:

[iocat]

Technically, it shouled be "embiggenated" but "embiggened" is an acceptable variation.

Pac is a TREMENDOUS show. My company has exhibited there and the show people are awesome, and also just as a fan, it was just awesome to attend. I can't wait for this year's show. It was packed last year, but it seemed everyone had a good attitude and a good time.

Re:

[Homr Zodyssey]

I, for one, welcome our new cromulent overlords. [wikipedia.org]

Re:

[SmittyTheBold]

"This year, organizers expect the Penny Arcade Expo to be positively engorged with attendees."

Is that better? =P

well then

[User 956]

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.

That event sounds quite cromulent.

What what what!

[Funkcikle]

Embiggened is a perfectly cromulent word!

A little background, perhaps?

[Myself]

30,000 is quite a lot of people. How many years has this been going on? I didn't find any links to past info on the site.

Re:

[CyanDisaster]

...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...

Did you happen to read the summary? Oh wait...what am I thinking? This is Slashdot after all...

Hope be with ye,
Cyan

Re:

[Breakfast Pants]

Read the summary or type 'wiki penny arcade expo' into your address bar (you do have a keyword setup for wikipedia searches right?).

Corrections

[Hamled]

I do believe that the first PAX was actually in 2004, not 2005.

Not a lot of surprises, but pleasent none the less

[bzarhandz]

The first PAX was indeed in 2004. This new venue was being talked about before PAX even opened last year, as there was far too little room for the gamers and talent that showed. Here's to hoping the larger spaces translate into less standing on line. Freezepop also comes as little surprise, as Jerry (Tycho) dropped their name in a Q&A panel in PAX'06 as the artists he was most interested in providing a venue for. Here comes a special con!

Re:Not a lot of surprises, but pleasent none the l

[Ray Radlein]

Freezepop also wrote a song for Achewood [achewood.com], so obviously they're all hip to that whole webcomics scene, man.

Re:

[Ray Radlein]

"Here comes a special con"

Duh. No, I was completely opaque.

Re:

[Kazzahdrane]

Usually they're very funny if you keep up-to-date on the daily happenings of the games industry.

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. :)

Re:

[Supercrunch]

As it says on their official hoodie [thinkgeek.com], "Penny Arcade: You wouldn't get it." In other words, the elitism is partly the point. People like PAX because it's a "convention for us", i.e. for the serious gamers who share an world-view similar to Holkins' and Krahulik.

They could use some robustifying and leadershippin

[kalpaha]

I think they should robustify [dilbert.com] their standing in the expo space by means of incentiments and good leadershipping before going for an embiggenment like this. I mean, wouldn't it be better to for example, flexitate the visitor experience instead of spending money doubling the space?

They should keep in mind that if you're not onboard with quality excellence, you're underboard. But really, why do I even bother to try moralify these people?

it was tiny before

[SP33doh]

it was SMALL before.
now it's where sakura-con is.

aka, it'll be big enough now. That means that I won't have fat sweaty men (wearing free nvidia tees) repeatedly bumping into my chair while I'm winning money playing guildwars.

So...

[Lifyre]

How long before they outgrow just one convention center and start renting cities?