The Rebel Alliance
Video game exposition has long been a known venue where avid gamers and software developers can participate and witness the new trend in the Gaming industry; these events are not to be taken lightly as evidence with the number of participants swamping such Game Expos.
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There are tons of video and computer game exposition being held around the world such as the Consumer's Electronic Show (CES) and the European Electronic Trade Show (EETC). These trade shows can either be sponsored by groups like Entertainment Software Association (ESA) or could be company-owned such Blizzard's Blizzcon. But none can match the popularity of the Electronic Entertainment Exposition (E3).
For quite some time since its establishment, the E3 Exposition has dominated the market and was able established itself as the world's premier trade show that showcases services and products pertaining to the computer and video game industry. Riding from its past successes, E3 has surprisingly announced that there expos will be invitation-only event, limiting participants to strictly game industry professionals only. Such a decision gained general displeasure among avid gamers, fans, and media personnel who were shut out from the expos.
E3's move of specificity, which ultimately caused its collapsed, has created a new trend in the trade show scenario. The new trend is for developers to hold their own conference. Blizzard, after deciding to separate from ESA, has started to host its own conference through Blizzcon. Microsoft and Nintendo followed after with X06 and Nintendo's Fall Conference, respectively.
But there is one event that rebels against the idea of specificity in the gaming conference - and it is PAX.
Penny Arcade Exposition (PAX)
PAX, also known as the Penny Arcade Exposition, is a celebration of general gaming culture. It is a semi-annual game festival for tabletop, video game, and PC gamers; largely participated by many game developers such as Konami, Microsoft, NCSoft, Nintendo, NVidia, Rooster Teeth Productions, Sony, THQ, Ubisoft, Vivendi and Wizards of the Coast.
Created in April 12, 2004, PAX has been known to be a weeklong celebration of gamer culture. Aside from showcasing exhibit booths displaying latest games from independent and major game developers and publishers; PAX also features dedicated game tournaments, free play areas, game-inspired concerts, after-hours parties, and panel discussions on game industry topics.
Every PAX expo also features a one-of-a-kind event called Omegathon. Omegathon is a weekend long tournament of randomly selected attendees competing for a grand prize. The final round of the Omegathon is also the show's closing ceremony. Prizes for winning competitors of Omegathon can range from cash prizes, custom-themed Alienware Personal Computers (PCs), Xbox 360 Premiums, or/and excessively large video collection. The grand prize for PAX 2005 was a complete NES video game library with an estimated value of at least ,099.99.
PAX was created by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, the authors of the Penny Arcade webcomic. PAX was created to rebel against the idea of specificity imposed by E3 and exclusivity exhibited by company-owned expos like Blizzcon.
Despite objecting to its recent change of direction, the two founders believed in the true purpose of E3, which is to create a venue where people of like interest can gather and interact. They strongly believed that game conventions are a way to physically connect the public to games, either released or currently developed. Through these conventions, game designers are able to meet and socialize with each other; while game publishers and businessmen can freely discuss business plans and distribution deals.
Believing strongly that a game convention should give equal opportunity and attention to every console, computer, and tabletop games, as well as giving every individual equal rights to participate; Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik launched PAX in 2004 with a rebel chant "E3 FOR ALL."
History of PAX
PAX was created by the authors of Penny Arcade on August 12, 2004. The first PAX started out as a two-day event held in Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue, Washington. It's first launched was from August 28 to August 29, 2004. During this dates, several exhibitors showcased their videos and playable demos of their upcoming games. Notable among these distributors are Microsoft and Ubisoft. Through PAX 2004, Microsoft was able to prematurely launched Halo 2 months before the game hit the stores; while Ubisoft showed trailers of Ghost Recon 2 and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. The first PAX expo have a pre-registered attendants of 1337, but 3300 people turned up for the event.
From 2004 to 2008, the PAX expos are held at the end of August (around August 24 to 30) with the exception of PAX 2009 which was held around September 1 to 4. These conventions are held initially at Meydenbauer Center, Washington for PAX 2004, PAX 2005, and PAX 2006; and then at Washington State Convention and Trade Center for PAX 2007, PAX 2008, and PAX 2009.
During these years, the number of participants attending PAX expo started to grow from 3300 at PAX 2004 culminating to 60,000 participants at PAX 2009.
By March 2010, PAX has launched its first PAX East. PAX East is a name used by PAX to designate a PAX convention whose venue would be centered in Boston; while Washington-based conventions are termed PAX Prime. PAX East 2010 was held on March 26 to March 28 at John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center in Boston. The first Penny Arcade Expo outside Washington State which was attended by around 53,000 participants.
At the same year also, PAX Prime 2010 was launched from September 3 to 5 and took place at the Washington State Convention Center. With the showcase of notable games such as Star Wars: The Old Republic, Guild Wars 2, and Halo Reach; the expo attendance skyrocketed to 67,600 attendees, compared to PAX 2009's 60,000.
Recently PAX East 2011 was held last March 11 to March 13, 2001. Contrary to the previous PAX East convention, the venue for PAX East 2011 was held at Boston Convention and Exhibition Center and not at John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center. PAX East 2011 was known to be the largest PAX to date with a reported 69,500 total attendance.
PAX Prime 2011 will take place from August 26 to August 28, 2011.
Penny Arcade Exposition Esa
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