THE PAX POST: COMPARING 2013 & 2014

I am writing this totally drained - socially, physically and intellectually. I spent the last three days at the Penny Arcade Expo, Australia (PAX AUS). It is a 3 day festival, imported from the USA, which celebrates gaming culture (through things like friendly game competitions and music concerts), provides networking opportunities for those in gaming or technology related industries and, through discussion panels, creates safe and progressive environments for people to ask and answer questions about the future of games and its surrounding culture. 

I did not write anything about my experiences at PAX last year, which was its premiere year in Australia, as I just did not know where to begin. I had so many fantastic experiences, and met many excellent developers, writers and other creatives and yet the whole thing was marred by the overwhelmingly bad event and crowd management, and the terrible weather.

This year has been better in every way, and so I am planning on giving an overview of PAX by comparing my experiences at the two. So, let's start with the very large list of things that were done better, and then move on to the ugly. 

THE GOOD
PAX AUS 2013 was held at the Melbourne Showgrounds. This seemed a logical choice, given that many other conventions - such as Supernova and Armageddon - are held there every year. However, it was not so logical given the time of year (deep, deep Melbourne winter). The Showgrounds are a complex of buildings, rather than one large venue, meaning patrons have to walk around outside to get to all the different events they want to see. It was bitterly cold and windy for all three days of PAX AUS 2013, making things uncomfortable for regular patrons and catastrophic for cosplayers, whose costumes were in constant danger or being destroyed or blown away.

Crowd management was an absolute disaster last year too. I suppose you have to expect a few hiccups whenever you bring a big event to a new location, and PAX AUS 2013 was simply overwhelmed with guests. None of the event spaces were big enough to hold the amount of patrons who wanted to participate in those events, which led to what can only be referred to as the PAX Queuing Crisis of 2013. The queues were so bad that people jokingly began referring to PAX as a 'queue simulator', and most of the blogs you'll read about it were negative, because of the queues. Although the queuing was frustrating, I was simply so dazzled by finally finding a convention whose tone suited me so well, that I managed to push through my frustration, but for many it seems that it was too much. Venues that were designed to seat maybe 300 people would have close to 1000 queuing to get in. I queued for two hours to get into the entire event on the first morning, for at least one hour to get into all of the minor panels and, at worst, for around three hours to get into the Gearbox Panel. The general rule of thumb was if you don't queue at least one hour before the panel starts, you won't get in. 

Deeply aware of this failing of last year, 2014's PAX was instead held at the much bigger (and generally more suitable) Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre at South Wharf - walking distance from the CBD. This was an excellent choice and saw PAX run more smoothly and become a lot more fun for attendees, volunteers, exhibitors - everyone. The Showgrounds' isolated location meant that finding nearby and affordable food and accommodation was complicated. The new venue offered a far broader selection of both, and is also much more accessible via public transport. 

Another sore point for many of 2013's attendees was the terrible internet connectivity at the Showgrounds. Not only was the free wifi service so overflooded by users that it was impossibly slow, general phone service was in such high demand in the area, that 3G mobile internet was also useless. I don't really need to explain how frustrating a large number of nerdy people find terrible internet. But again, the organisers listened to the feedback and this year's service was the complete opposite - impossible to fault. I was totally connected the whole time I was at PAX and have not heard any complaints otherwise.

PAX has a clear rule about 'booth babes' (scantily clad people, usually  women, who use their sex appeal to try and sell and promote products), which is that they are 100% not allowed. To quote from the official PAX AUS 2014 program: "PAX has a strict 'no booth babe' policy with the purpose of creating an environment where everyone can feel comfortable and welcome, and the focus is on games, not hired booth staff." Last year exhibitors many exhibitors ignored the rule, but this year saw it actually enforced. This was refreshing, and made for a much more comfortable environment.

The thing I love most about PAX is the mood of it. It magically manages to create a fun and accepting environment in which you can say 'hi' to pretty much anyone you encounter, and they will not think you strange for doing so. In fact, my experience is they will usually be keen to have a chat with you. I suppose this is because by attending PAX, we all enter into a kind of unspoken agreement that games are awesome, but I think the Enforcers need to be given credit as well. 'Enforcers' are the PAX's volunteer force - and a force they are - fulfilling every useful job that needs doing. Enforcers do everything: working at the merch stall, ushering panels, running tabletop games, supervising tournaments, providing directions and information and much more. Without them, PAX would not be possible. Yet another failing of last year was the way the Enforcers were managed. There were simply not enough in many locations, which led to confusion, bad crowd management, and a sometimes tense atmosphere. This year, however, venue staff and hired security were present alongside Enforcers, which allowed the Enforcers to do their jobs properly, and not have to worry about problems they should not have to. This improved the overall mood of PAX dramatically. Every Enforcer I met was helpful, friendly and generally a fantastic human being, and their positivity was integral to the environment created at PAX. 

Finally, to the actual content of PAX. Everything at 2013 was awesome. This year, there was simply MORE awesome. The Expo Hall was bigger, tabletop and video gaming areas were bigger and more theatres meant more (and bigger!) panels. The amount of panels roughly tripled, making room for a larger number of interesting topics, and a greater mix of panelists. I also noticed that there were way more women invited to panels generally, which was great to see.

THE BAD 

Overall, I would say PAX AUS 2014 had far fewer failings than 2013, but there were still a few issues worth noting.  

The first is a semi-serious one regarding the wristbands.  To get onto the showfloor, or into any of panels, first you had to obtain a wristband, which proved your age, from an Enforcer. There was MA15+ or R18+. Last year, the Enforcers would ensure you put your wristband on in front of them, but this year (perhaps because of the large crowd sizes) they simply handed to them once you'd shown your I.D. This meant that someone under 18 could very easily have obtained an over 18 wristband.

Second, although there were many more panels this year, their topics were not as diverse as they could have been. There were very few panels which discussed roleplaying or tabletop games - which was disproportionate to the amount of the Expo Hall and stalls that were dedicated to this. Additionally, many of the panels with similar titles were repetitive in their content - especially the ones which featured some of the same panelists. A potential solution to this could be to introduce panel 'series' to ensure that the content of each panel with similar themes discussed different questions. Alternately, having the same moderator for all similar panels would ensure that the questions remained diverse. Similarly to last year, many of the panels felt too short. They could easily have extended many by an hour, but I understand how this is unfeasible due to the constraints of scheduling.  

Last, the Diversity 'Lounge'. While I agree that it is a great idea to have a safe space for the LGBT community to hang out and chat, the lounge also functioned as an event space, complete with booths and talks, and its isolated location meant that the content displayed there got zero exposure compared to the stuff in the Expo Hall. The Lounge should be just that - a lounge, and the booths inside it should have been on the show floor, so that they received as much exposure as everyone else. Separating LGBT products and organisations from the 'ordinary' stuff is exactly the kind of close-minded action that a 'Diversity Lounge' should surely discourage. I don't believe it was an intentional move by PAX, but I felt it was unhelpful. Their events were also not scheduled in the app or program.

I had fun at PAX, and was extremely impressed by how much feedback the organisers had obviously listened to, and acted upon. Much like last year, it had an excellent vibe, but was even better because we were not all freezing our asses off, squabbling for places in the queue. You can definitely count me in for the next five years.