I have never been to a PAX event before, and, like I said, I applied for a media badge to PAX West, and I was granted a 4-day pass. I got the flight and stayed up until Sunday night. I am here to report back on everything I did during the event on Friday and Saturday. I am going to make it a little bit more digestible, but there will be a pretty relaxed video of me talking about the same stuff if you just want to watch.
I want to give a huge shoutout to PAX for the badge. I had a lot of fun in Seattle and at the convention.
Friday
I pleaded with the hotel to let me check in early, and they agreed. After figuring out the layout of the land, I went out to get my badge, which was easy to find in the Expo Hall. I was welcomed by a group of enforcers, who were incredibly nice.
After getting some food, I showed up just a few minutes late to the Konami panel on Silent Hill: Townfall and Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse.
Super dope room being doused in the deepest red. I haven’t played a Silent Hill game in a very long time, but I am always a fan of horror games. The panel can be found here, and it was really well presented. They talked about why they are making another Silent Hill game, which Konami should never feel sorry about, and what the focus is. The focus this time around is the narrative. I was surprised to see some big names up on the screen. The development team talked about some behind-the-scenes stuff, and they showed another really, really good trailer. Releasing September 24th.
I was more excited for Belmont’s Curse just because everyone likes Castlevania games. Releasing October 15th, the game centers around Rose Belmont, the daughter of Trevor Belmont, and her adventure (Paris 1499) to kill that bastard Dracula and save Paris. The game looks great, it is super stylish and I love the animated 3D backgrounds that were going on in the trailer. Also, the music. THE MUSIC SOUNDED SO GOOD.
I am and will forever be a huge fan of GDQ, so I checked out RequiemofSpirits run of Zelda: A Link to the Past. I really appreciate that PAX has run because it was super fun to be a part of, and I personally had loads of fun. I will always have a special place in my heart for the first Zelda game that I ever played, and the speedrun was awesome to watch. It was a shame that the run was being held in an opposing building, so the runner and the couch were not present to really vibe with the audience.
I was curious to see who Biggaming64 was and what horror game he was going to let’s play, and I headed over. I didn’t enjoy the amount of lights on in the room, as it made seeing the screen a little difficult to see. Regardless, his fans were there, loud and proud, and the game that he was playing was genuinely a spook. It was generally fun.
Lastly, on the docket for Friday was the Friday Night Concert with Winds5 and Magic Sword. I was too jet-lagged to stay up and watch Magic Sword, but I absolutely loved every single moment of the Winds5 set. I love classical renditions, and Winds5 really pulled through. Packed house, even with people hanging out in the back and standing right in front. It was awesome to hear renditions from Chrono Trigger, Ocarina of Time, Marble Madness, Pokémon, and Expedition 33. I loved the sound of the flute, oboe, clarinet, French horn, and bassoon.
Saturday
Back at it early in the morning. I participated in two GDQ runs: Chicory: A Colorful Tale (in the morning) by Hallow and Zelda: Majora’s Mask (At night) from moist. Once I saw Friday’s run, I wanted more, and so I did more. The Chicory run was fun because it had two members of the development team on the couch, talking about the game and the music, while Hallow was skipping pretty much the entirety of it. There was a nice vibe between the audience, the couch and the runner. It was a really good time.
Majora’s Mask run started a little later than I wanted it to, and the room was ABSOLUTELY PACKED with people. Someone who had a damn good Skull Kid Cosplaying, and I showed up and stood at the back wall until my legs started to hurt (FROM CLIMBING THE SLANTS THAT WAS SEATTLE), and I was satisfied and made my departure. Choice picks by GDQ and PAX to have the runners there. A+ moments.
Wellness for Geeks Who Sit All Day was a super fun and interactive talk about getting some exercise while still sitting all day. I do that because I am a metadata librarian who sits for pretty much the entire day, and then sits down to play video games for the rest of it. Robyn Warren of GeekGirlStrong had the whole room, and I do some stretches and such with the help of the Marvel Fitness Deck. It was pretty lively and interactive, with the audience participating. It was a good information session and, unfortunately, it had me sweating a little.
Because I was exercising in my chair for about an hour, I showed up late to The Art of Feedback talk. Being someone who does, on occasion, talk with developers about the quality of their games (especially demos), it is nice to have a panel of developers and a lawyer to discuss good etiquette.
As a fan of Helldivers 2, it was nice to hear people talk about the difference between feedback and suggestions, and that negativity should never be the first step a player takes. Positive feedback is just, if not more, important than negative.
I really liked that they said: 1. to just tell the developers how you honestly feel, and 2. Don’t force yourself to play a game that you won’t enjoy just to criticize it. It’s truly not worth it in the end; it doesn’t help anyone.
Lastly, for Saturday, I attended what I thought wasn’t going to be a recruiting event, but turned out to be one. The NASA panel was pretty underwhelming, to be honest. The videos that they showed looked really well-made, albeit being pretty expensive to produce. They talked about Artemis II, reassuring the crowd that humans will be living on the moon and even Mars!
The panelists were definitely qualified to speak, though it looked and felt like they were absolutely terrified to be up in front of so many people (the room was packed!).
They talked about modeling and how game developers and artists help: A. the public digest information easily regarding NASA programs, and B. help the public visualize the Artemis program.
Tech boiled down to using VR to run simulations over and over and over and over.
The section on the launch stories of the first Artemis was nice. It was nice to break away from the technical side of things to hear about personal stories. I thought it was fun and informative, though it just seemed like NASA wanted to recruit as many people as possible.