Penny Arcade Expo
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[edit] Penny Arcade Expo
From the official site:
"What is PAX? PAX is a three-day game festival for tabletop, videogame, and PC gamers. We call it a festival because in addition to dedicated tournaments and freeplay areas we've got nerdcore concerts, panel discussions, the weekend-long Omegathon event, and an exhibitor hall filled with booths displaying the latest from top game publishers and developers. Even with all this amazing content the best part of PAX is hanging out with other people who know their shit when it comes to games."
[edit] PAX 2004
On April 12, 2004 the authors of Penny Arcade announced PAX, the Penny Arcade Expo. PAX 2004 was a two-day event held in Bellevue, Washington from August 28 to August 29, 2004, which they hoped would turn into an annual event. Several exhibitors, including Microsoft and Ubisoft, showcased videos and playable demos of their upcoming games at PAX 2004. Microsoft allowed attendees to experience a multiplayer level of Halo 2 months before it hit stores in addition to a number of other Xbox games, while Ubisoft showed Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, Ghost Recon 2 and two other titles. Included amongst the events of the first PAX were live musical performances by bands including The Minibosses, Q&A panels featuring Penny Arcade creators Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins as well as others in the computer and video game industry, and the Omegathon, a contest where twenty contestants played a series of games for a chance at winning an excessively large video game collection worth in excess of $25,000. The contestants competed in a tabletop dice game, called Diceland, Halo (Xbox), Mario Kart: Double Dash!! (GameCube), Dance Dance Revolution, Doom (PC) and the original home version of PONG. Sean Celaya defeated Kevin Potter in the final round to take home the ultimate prize becoming the PAX 2004 Omegathon champion. In an interesting turn of fate, precisely 1337 people pre-registered, to which Holkins mused, "though I ordinarily shun leet-speak that number clearly implies the blessing of gaming deities." All told, about 3,300 people attended the event.
[edit] PAX 2005
PAX 2005 took place from August 26 to August 28, 2005 at the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue, Washington, where the first PAX was held. PAX 2005, unlike its predecessor, occupied the entire center, effectively doubling the usable floor space. Sponsors included Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, Ubisoft and NCsoft, among others. Musical guests included the rock groups The Minibosses and The Neskimos, self-professed "professional hardcore gangster rapper" mc chris, pianists Martin Leung and Connie Lin, nerdcore hiphopper MC Frontalot, and rap/funk group Optimus Rhyme, who performed live in two separate concerts in a massive theater. Many favourite events from PAX 2004 such as Pitch Your Game Idea, Red vs. Blue, a screening of the 1989 film 'The Wizard', and Penny Arcade Q&A made encore appearances. New events included Play Against The Pros, and industry panels on online gaming, the videogame marketing process, and on controversy in the industry. Omegathon II was an even more elaborate affair than its predecessor. Krahulik said on February 9, 2005 on penny-arcade.com that, "[At PAX 2005] we will deliver an even bigger prize to the winner of the Omegathon." On June 29, 2005 [1], it was revealed that prize would be the complete NES video game library, being valued at least $10,099.99. The prize was locked in a large cage in the exhibition room and also included two Star Wars-themed Alienware gaming PCs, one of which would go to the winner and the other to the runner-up. Contestants competed in the tabletop game Diceland, Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, Katamari Damacy, Karaoke Revolution, Quake, and the Atari 2600 game Combat. In a thrilling four-round match, Luke "Coreside" Armstrong defeated Will "LeRoy" Garroutte by a single point to win the best-of-three series 2-1-1 and take home the grand prize. In total, more than 9,000 gamers attended PAX 2005, almost triple the previous year's attendance.
In response to Hurricane Katrina Penny Arcade auctioned off the original pencil sketch of the PAX 2005 program cover on eBay with 100% of the profit to be given to the American Red Cross. It was sold to Christian Boggs for the final price of $8,700. Mr. Boggs also placed the winning bid of $20000 on an auction to appear in a Penny Arcade comic strip at the 2005 Child's Play Charity Dinner. [2] [3]
[edit] PAX 2006
PAX 2006 was held from August 25 to August 27, 2006. The Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue was again used as the venue, although the Tabletop Gaming area was moved offsite to the ballrooms at the nearby Red Lion hotel. Exhibit space at PAX 06 completely sold out in less than three months, with exhibitors including Nintendo, Microsoft, Ubisoft, Turbine Inc, Technomancer Press, NCSoft, Rooster Teeth Productions, Creative Labs, Wizards of the Coast, and nVidia. Because they applied one month before PAX 2006, Sony was unable to attend, as exhibitor space was also sold out. According to Gabe, there were 19,323 attendees[4].
Highlights:
- Returning Omeganaut Will "LeRoy" Garroutte defeated David "Davertron" Davis in the final round of the Omegathon: head to head Tetris. LeRoy took away a brand new Scion car fully loaded with custom wheels, custom sound, LCD tv, Xbox 360 Premium, wireless controllers, and more. Davertron left with an Xbox 360 Premium and $500 Best Buy gift card, and will return as an Omeganaut in 2007.
- Holkins and PA business manager Robert Khoo led the way into Omegathon Round 5, Guitar Hero II. After blistering through "Trippin on a Hole In a Paper Heart" on expert, Holkins smashed the guitar on stage.[5]
- Krahulik and Holkins announced the first ever Penny Arcade video game. Titled "On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One", the game will feature PA characters in episodic adventure. Details were few; when asked what the game was about Holkins replied "Gabe. Tycho. And Cthulhu."[6]
- Krahulik and Holkins also announced a Penny Arcade annual scholarship, wherein one applicant with an intention to work in the game industry will be awarded $10,000 toward tuition expenses.[7]
- Several game companies ran large prize tournaments and giveaways, including ArenaNet ($10,000 prize tourney), TableStar ($2,500 prize tourney), and Nvidia (several thousand dollars' worth of video cards).
- Thousands of PAX attendees spontaneously created a game/minor deity called "Ball".[8]
[edit] PAX 2007
The fourth annual Penny Arcade Expo will once again take place on the last full weekend on August, which for 2007 is August 24, 25, and 26. Robert Khoo, Penny Arcade's Director of Business Development, has stated in the official forums that PAX 2007 will occupy 130,000 square feet of the Washington State Convention and Trade Center, more than doubling the space of PAX 2006.
On 2006-07-31, it was announced that the massive Electronic Entertainment Expo (E³) would be heavily downsized and restructured[9]. With E³ effectively gone, PAX 2007 will become the biggest gamer festival in North America, and will increase dramatically in scale. Penny Arcade co-creator Mike Krahulik speculated in his blog that PAX, with its focus on gamers and geek culture, will become the new signature event for gaming.
| “ | We already knew PAX was the best gaming festival in North America and after today's announcement from the ESA it's also the biggest. With a projected attendece [sic] of something like 13 thousand people [actual attendance was over 19,323] and exhibitors like Nintendo, Ubisoft, Microsoft and ATI PAX is in position to pick up where E3 left off.[10] | ” |
On August 11, 2006, Krahulik gave some clarification on his announcement in an attempt to dispel the popular notion that PAX is "the next E3."
| “ | PAX is not the new E3. E3 failed. If someone else wants to be the new E3 they are welcome to it. They can even set up shop in the carcass of the giant and claim his power, but E3 is dead and it died for a reason. If I were them I wouldn't be in such a hurry to stuff myself in that coffin, and I certainly wouldn't boast about it.[11] | ” |
On January 26, 2007, Holkins quietly announced the opening of pre-registration for Penny Arcade Expo 2007 and the relaunch of the PAX site.
| “ | PAX preregistration opens today, and since we've had a couple of these now you probably know if it's something you'd like to attend. You save ten dollars over the door price, which is, like, ten bucks. This is money you could put toward some other purpose![12] | ” |
