I went to PAX in '06. It was actually a pretty good time. I mean, it was fucking weird though. I'm a pretty sociable guy and I really enjoy being social through gaming. This however, was another level.
Throngs of gamers clustered about in the hallways. There wasn't really any reason to be in the halls, it was just a matter of them wanting to be "in" the con, but due to a lack of space they started just piling up in the halls. You'll see tons of Nintendo DS players there. I didn't bring mine, but I saw a lot of picto-chat going on (penises galore) and a good deal of Mario Kart. I had my PSP with me, but nobody wanted to play Street Fighter Alpha 3 or anything totally awesome with me. Only found about 10 guys with PSP's there and Lumines was the main game because of the upcoming tournament that year.
Its a diverse group. There are a lot of shy people there. They come with their friends and don't really talk to too many people outside that group. My buddy and I spotted two guys with PAX shirts on around town and asked them where to find the convention center (we had just got into town). I could tell they saw us nearing them and tried to pretend they didn't. They wanted to avoid us for whatever reason. We're both really tall, and these guys were sporting a neckbeard and a duster. Maybe they didn't consider us "their kind", but in a way, we totally are. I think they were surprised to hear us ask them about PAX and even more surprised to hear how friendly we were trying to be. Maybe nobody else had done that to them yet?
That said, there were a fair number of outgoing people too. We needed two more people for our 4-man Halo 2 Tournament team, so I decided to do a pick-up. I sat outside the signup room with a sign on my chest that said "Need 2 more players for Halo 2 team". It totally worked. I had a few people volunteer within 10 minutes. They turned out to be decent people. We had a good time with them and actually picked them up for the Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter tourney later that day. We were also interviewed by a couple different people with small websites. Also, the hotel room next to us housed 3 guys and a girl who ended up playing Halo with my buddy until 5 AM one night.
I'll be attending next year, but I think everyone goes for different reasons. My reason is that our website will need promoting, as well as material (we already have plans for funny shit) but I also want to go to play the latest games, talk to people, and play in the tournaments. Not just that, but I want to see more of Seattle. Hit a club at night, visit a local restaraunt, etc. PAX is the main reason for me to be there, but the stuff outside the show is not to be neglected. I'm not interested in sitting in a theater with people to watch "The Wizard" or attending any of the nerdcore concerts. Its just not my thing. Doesn't mean PAX isn't my thing though. Parts of it totally are.
We talked about PAX on The Moofcast this week, briefly, but anybody who wants a good laugh should download our 3rd episode. The audio quality blows for the first hour or so (back in our early days), but skip to about a half-hour to go and we get into stories about our time at PAX. The audio quality is fine for that part.
http://moofcast.libsyn.com
