I'm overwhelmed, much bigger than I expected. #PAX
— thus spoke kate-san (masked+vaxxed) (@narutakiRT) April 11, 2014
The expo hall at #PAXEast is insane! NYCC on Saturday levels of crazy.
— Saber Fan # 1 (Disputed) (@hisuiRT) April 11, 2014
Category: Conventions
Pre-PAX East 2014: Feels Like the First Time
(note: No Type-Moon Weekly News Round Up or All Points Bulletin this week.)
It has been a long time since either of us was a first-time con-goer, but that is what we are when it comes to the PAX East and gaming conventions! Everyone talks so highly of this convention that we finally got roped into going. Look for us around the convention. We’ll be attending tons of panels and concerts, plus tweeting up a storm, and you might even get our Miis on Streetpass!
Pre-PAX East Podcast
Our tentative panel schedule:
Friday:
10:00 – Game Devs: The Next Generation
11:00 – Writer’s Workshop with Tonic Industries
11:30 – Kotaku’s Incredible Fantastic Panel Extravaganza XVIII-2
12:00 – How Urban Black and Latino Culture Can be the Next Frontier in Games
01:00 – Why No One Will Game with You
02:00 – Six Months Into the New Console War
03:00 – What Is Happening to Tabletop Roleplaying Games?
04:00 – Why Internet Jerks Aren’t Going to Win, And You Can Help
04:30 – Terrifying Adventures in Cyberland: A Toolkit for Bullying, Stalking and Harassment in Game Culture
05:00 – Pitch Your Game Idea
06:00 – Talk like a Board Game Geek
07:30 – The Art of the Table: GMing Beyond the Basics
08:30 – Friday Night Concerts
Saturday:
10:30 – Penny Arcade – Make a Strip
12:00 – Modernizing Fantasy RPGs
01:00 – Extra Credits
02:00 – How Arcade Games Influenced Home Console Gaming
03:00 – Why D&D Is Still Awesome: A 40th Anniversary Dungeons & Dragons Tribute
04:00 – Gaming Socially: A World at Play
05:00 – Dungeons & Dragons R&D Presents: The Art of the Dungeon Master
06:00 – Games That Are So Bad, They’re Good
06:00 – Foreplay: Romance in Games
07:00 – We Didn’t Start the DLC Fire, but We Fed the Monster. Now What?
08:00 – Was I Wrong? Revisiting Controversial Reviews
08:00 – Saturday Night Concerts
09:30 – Console Launches: A Post Mortem
Sunday:
10:00 – Isshoukenmei: Localizing Japanese Games
11:30 – Sex, Sexy & Sexism: Fixing Gender Inequality in Gaming
01:30 – Acquisitions Incorporated Live D&D Game: Dragons Over Easy
New York Comic Con 2013: Panels
To continue my analogy from the post about the heart, mind, and soul of a convention it is time to look at the brain of NYCC: The panels.
Panels are the part of the convention most likely to stimulate your mind and maybe teach you something. Unlike your average anime convention all the panels at NYCC are done by professionals. The upside is the overall quality is higher as you have people who theoretically should be experts on what they are talking about. Some panels still end up being real stinkers for one reason or another but overall if you step into a room you can bet that you are going to be entertained.
The downside is everyone is shilling something on any panel you’re at. There are very few panels that are pure theory or uncut fandom. Even when they are they plugging something then are working on that they want you to buy. I don’t really have a problem with that. I mean I plug the blog whenever I do work on another site so I can’t fault anyone talking a bit about what puts food on their plate. I only saw one panel last year that was just an unapologetic commercial for an hour but that was an unfortunate exception to the rule.
I only mention that because some people have a real problem with the commercialism as opposed to the “purer” fan experience of a fan run convention. But if you have that attitude you are in the wrong place.
At most conventions I spend a majority of my time in panel rooms, and I still spend plenty of time in them at NYCC, but it feels more like a piece of the convention as opposed to most of the convention for me.
The thing I enjoy most at NYCC is that I can go from webcomics to video games to classic cartoons all in a weekend. The panels most reflect the eclectic quality of the convention. I do however lament the lack of anime content that wasn’t simply screenings or industry panels. As such most of my attention was elsewhere.
Reverse Thieves 