But no one saw this coming when one of the biggest gaming cons in America, spawned off from a very popular web-comic would be coming here.
Yes, this happened to everyone's surprise...including me. PAX Australia happened over the weekend and I started off with one Saturday pass but kicked myself when some of the best stuff happened on Friday and Saturday, also the possibilities of so many games appearing, both from big league and indie developers so more than one day was needed.
After being at the Melbourne Showgrounds for two days, I can say that it's one of the best cons I've been to a long time and being video game related really resonates with me. It's not without it's problems but it's definitely not much of a problem for me to destroy the experience for me.
Starting off with the positives...
PAX was REALLY well organized with events being on time, plenty of enforcers around and the queues are very well placed that it doesn't block people's way when walking around the Expo hall. What makes it even better is that the walkways for the Expo Hall, the Main theatres and the Big Top, they had tents placed up to keep people under cover when it was raining and boy, it was raining on Saturday a lot which makes it really helpful.
Also, as with most cons, they have a cloak room which asks for a gold coin donation which goes to a charity fund called Child's Play which they raise money to give video game related gifts to kids in hospital. I commend them strongly for that.
They had a good array of different panels to check out within the video game industry or anything geek related. Special guests like Ron Gilbert of Secret of Monkey Island fame, Mick Gordon who is the composer behind the new Killer Instinct and even the development team behind Borderlands 2 came along as well!
The Expo Hall and the Big Top were very spacious, even when there was so many people at PAX. There was also a great amount of games and stalls to check out (including a laser skirmish battlefield) and they not only focus solely on video games, they also allow card games, board games, table top games, etc. but that's where I lead to some of the biggest problems I have with PAX this year which I hope they improve in 2014.
While there was plenty of developers showcasing their video games, there was only 3 big league developers showing off their games. Nintendo, Ubisoft and Mindscape (the aussie publisher for Konami and Tecmo/Koei's games) and that's about it where as the rest were mostly indie developers and the bigger stands were for World of Tanks and the ever popular MOBA game League of Legends. While the variety of games was awesome, I still feel they needed more big league developers to even out with the indies. Not there's anything wrong with having a lot of indie developers showcasing their material but still, needs more showcasing for big titles coming out.
Another problem is that there wasn't enough merchandise stalls, while it's cool to buy PC parts, accessories, T-shirts and Jewellery (not counting in PAX's main merchandise) but not enough variety for those who want different things, not even video games! Which is baffling to me. The last problem I had with PAX which is only a minor one, there wasn't enough cosplayers at the event. A lot of my friends came in costume but most people who came was in plain clothes. Not a big deal considering that I knew a lot of gamers aren't cosplayers but still.
The disappointments I had was (as I mentioned) missing a few interesting presentations and panels on Friday, one featuring Bioware, another featuring Mick Gordon on the music behind the new Killer Instinct and Nintendo Presents but those are more of a personal issue than anything else.
So overall it was fantastic and I hope they improve the next time I come and will be getting a 3 Day Pass so I won't miss anything. But what about what I played and checked out? Well, that's gonna have to come next in about two parts, so stay tuned!
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