It’s just after Labor Day, the last day of PAX West, and for me PAX is now over for 2019 and to some extent I think for good. For years I’ve either done the 4-Day pass or gotten passes for each day if I wasn’t a panelist and ended up with a speaker/special guest badge and gone out for each day. This year has been different. This year things have changed on both my side and PAX’s side, and they’re neither good nor bad, but just are, and yet I’m no longer as fond of PAX as I once was, or at least the PAX that exists today.
I skipped Friday as I worked from home that day and by the time I wrapped up work stuff it didn’t make sense to fight traffic and the crowds to bus out for the last few hours. Saturday, Sunday, and Monday I took a leisurely morning, often not leaving the house until 10:30 or 11 a.m. and got home far earlier on all days, which is far different from what I used to do. I used to be up at dawn, shower, and head out to the bus so I could hit the con at around 10:30-11 a.m. each morning and would stay out until the early night hours.
A lot of this was because I often had friends up visiting for PAX that I’d not seen for about six months, and so it was an enjoyable time to catch up, play some games together, and partake in a convention that celebrated a shared hobby of ours. Many of those friends are no longer coming up to PAX for a variety of reasons. Two big ones though: the costs associated has ballooned and their lives have changed, and other things are taking precedence (all of which is okay and perfectly valid reasons).
The convention has changed a lot too, and in many ways I feel for the worse. I remember back when swag bags were physical and even further back when they actually had swag in them, and not just a bunch of discounts not worth the paper they were printed on. I remember back when booths would hand out t-shirts, hats, water bottles, and more for swag and without needing to jump through a bunch of hoops (wait in line to play each of three different demos, snap a pic with our mascot, and prove you posted it to social media, just for a cheap, plastic key chain).
I remember when PAX used to sell out in a heartbeat, and PAX didn’t even sell out this year. When the show ended there were still Monday badges that hadn’t been sold, and there were still Friday badges available for much longer than in the past. On top of that I know plenty of other people who were having trouble selling badges after friends who were going to attend bailed, even to the point of knocking $100 off or more a four-day badge’s price and taking that loss just trying to move it. I remember back when it was a mad rush to get badges and any that people needed to sell quickly because friends bailed were quickly snapped up by others that wanted to attend.
I remember back when you’d regularly find new and exciting games being shown there, often for the first time, and by indy developers, which there were more of back in the day. I remember when things weren’t near as crowded, and attendees were a bit more polite and understood things like stepping out of the flow of foot traffic if they wanted to watch something or check their phone. I remember back when it really felt like a gaming festival rather than a capitalistic, corporate money-grab by game publishers, accessories, gear, and other vendors there.
I know beneath the pop culture, capitalistic front, that deep beneath it all there still is that community festival, however it’s really hard to see these days. For me the straw that broke the camels back was the security for the queue lines this year. I think that is finally what flipped the switch for me and showed me that the PAX that I remember back in the 2000’s isn’t the PAX that exists today. Granted I never had a chance to attend the very first few PAXes as I didn’t have the time or money, but I’ve heard plenty about them from those who did attend given that I do live in the Seattle area.
With the current revelations has come the realization that it’s time to cut back on PAX. I’m not walking away, but I think it’s time to cut it back from a 4-Day, morning to night, go-go-go, geek-fest, to a more manageable and leisurely Saturday and Sunday convention visit. I’m still happy to talk on panels and I’m even working on some ideas for future panels, however my days of mega-geeking are over. And I’m not the only one who’s felt that PAX has lost it’s luster. I heard others share as much while I was walking around the convention this year about how lackluster it was and how much its changed (and not for the better). Others have even written about it.
Now if these dang kids would get off my digital lawn, while I read about PAX.