The theme of this year’s PAX for me is…Story.
Creating a well crafted story and conveying differences in perspectives across your audience, or across a mass audience. As much as I want to join in on the more technical Game Development panels, or the Data Analytics panels like “Games User Research” or “Awesome Video Game Data”, I want there to be a growth in my abilities at this years PAX. There are plenty of great panels to go to, plenty of amazing games to try ( Indie and Triple-A), plenty of cool people to meet and greet, but there needs to be some cohesion in the experience.
You go to these trade-shows, tech conferences and celebratory events and you need to come out of it with something that wasn’t in your arsenal beforehand. Knowledge, skill, a developed social circle. There should be growth somewhere to make these things worthwhile. Else-wise, you’re just blowing a few hundred dollars to go up to Seattle for a few days. This isn’t a bad plan, but there’s plenty else to do in Seattle than be in a mass of sweat and vested fedoras (sorry Yahtzee, don’t hate me) overflowing through a few thousand square feet of convention room hallway.
