At PAX You Are Among Family And Friends

Published on September 11, 2009 by Jules   ·   5 Comments
I have attempted to write this post five times now, and every time it has turned into a rant. It may just turn into a rant yet again. Let us see. Be prepared for a lot of reading. Some may think this should be on my blog and not here but it is my site and I will put things where I want. Oh yes, there may be language in this post as well.
What is PAX? This has been a question asked of me more times than I can count since I announced way back in April that I will be attending and covering it for my Geeky Pleasures show on Party 934 | 102.5 FM Hudson Valley NY.  According to the Wikipedia PAX is:
“The Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) is an annual gamer festival held in Washington state, USA. PAX was created by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, the authors of the webcomic, because they wanted to attend a show that gave equal attention to console gamers, computer gamers, and tabletop gamers.
Created in 2004, PAX has nearly doubled in size each successive year and has been hailed as a weekend-long celebration of gamer culture. Defining characteristics include an insider keynote speech, game-inspired concerts, panels on game industry topics, exhibitor booths, after-hours parties, tournaments, and freeplay areas.”
This definition does not cut it. There is one word however which needs focus: GAMER. PAX is all about the gamer. It is not about the developer, the exhibitor, the media, the panels, the movies and the numerous other things that occur at this magical time of year when thousands of people from all over the world descend upon Seattle.
Maybe I should just explain a little bit about the sheer volume of people who attend PAX. When I say thousands, I don’t mean a few thousand. On my bus ride home I overheard this lady talking to someone else one bus. She was coming back to Canada from Seattle as well. She attended some music thing that was happening that same weekend in Seattle. Her friend went down for PAX. They were talking about the H1N1 outbreak (I will be making a huge point about that in just a bit. This has been the source of my rants). This is the comment she made, “It is no wonder there was an H1N1 outbreak. That is what happens when 2000 geeks get together.” I smiled. Why did I smile? Because it was not 2000 geeks, but 10s of thousands of geeks. And not just a couple tens of thousands but over 50,000 geeks. There were 75,000 tickets sold. They were all sold out well ahead of PAX doors opening! These tens of thousands of geeks were not just from North America. They flew in from all over the world! I met some awesome people from different places throughout the UK and Australia and of course North America from one end of Canada and the US to the other. I also heard people attended from countries such as Mexico and Brazil.
Okay now back to gamer. There is one reason why I have decided to attend PAX. I have been trying to attend PAX for the past 3 years ever since I heard Wil Wheaton talk about PAX years ago. Every single year, something would come up where I would have to cancel my trip. Finally I was able to attend (even so I almost had to cancel 6 times this year. But if I had to move the Universe, move it I would. There was no way I was going to miss it again). This one reason is because it is all about the gamer and their love of games, in all of its forms. It does not matter if you only like console games, computer games, tabletop games, card games, are a casual gamer, hardcore gamer or any other variation of gamer you can come up with, PAX is the place for you.
PAX is also FAMILY. THIS! As soon as you walk through those convention center doors, you are at home and among family. I, like many others, attended PAX alone. Meaning I traveled down to PAX alone and returned to PAX alone. However, I was never alone. No one is ever alone at PAX. I really do not know how I can demonstrate this point enough. I am going to tell one small story (I have many small stories however I am already at the end of the first page) of something I witnessed while at PAX that hopefully truly illustrates this point.
This happened during Wil Wheaton’s panel “The Awesome Hour!!1” (if you missed it, no worries. It will be played on my show and then will be available for download after.). Wil had finished telling his beautiful stories and it was time to take questions from the audience. This lady stepped up to the mic and very shakily spoke, “Hi my name is Wesley.” She went on to tell this story about how growing up she never had a chance. First her parents named her Wesley. Second she was a gamer and a geek. During her teenage years she was teased because of these facts and ended up turning her back on games and being a geek. However, recently she had decided to come out of the geek closet. She told us how she never felt like she belonged anywhere and the shaky voice turned into one filled with tears as she struggled to finish her story. Somebody yelled out something to the affect, “You belong here and have a family here”, at which point the theatre filled with over a thousand people stood up and gave her a standing ovation and started to cheer her. I cried. I am crying remembering this little piece of awesome. THIS! This is PAX! This is why I attend and will continue to attend. You can walk up to anyone. You can talk to anyone. You are accepted no matter what. You are among peers. You are among friends. You are among family. For at least 3 days out of the year you belong no matter what your background may be. All lines that may divide us in our every day lives, vanish.
So it is no wonder when I see and hear the following, I see red and go off on rants and piss off a few people in the lines at PAX (which by the way is one of the best places to make new friends). I also feel ashamed to be a member of the media when some of these things occurred.
When I was in one line, I heard someone say some shit about the organizers of PAX and how certain things were missing that are at other cons. PAX is not a con. Sure it has some con elements and you see cosplayerers etc, but it is not. If you are wanting a con, go somewhere else. Let me repeat: PAX is about the gamer and family. I told them PAX was different and started to talk about Mike and Jerry. They quickly cut me off and said Mike and Jerry have nothing to do with organizing PAX and it just done under the Penny Arcade banner. That is when I really saw red. I went on to quickly correct them (and maybe not so politely because I really want to tell them maybe they should leave PAX since there were people that would have died to have their tickets just for a chance to catch a glimpse of Mike and Jerry). Mike and Jerry are so involved. It makes my heart warm. One of my PAX highlights was seeing them at the Omegathon rounds and how they looked like proud parents as they watched the wonders that is the Omegathon. It is a beautiful thing that each Omeganaut receives a phone call from Mike and Jerry to let them know they are a chosen one. And this is again just a small example of exactly how hands on Mike and Jerry are when it comes to PAX and making it the family it is. I think I pissed those people off because they quickly cut me out of their conversation with another couple in line. Maybe I should stop talking about this now because it is about to turn into another long-winded rant.
And now my rant about the media. I want to tell all the media who decided to not show up until the last hours of PAX, complain that you did not have special privileges and then only report about H1N1, Fuck You! If you are wanting people to kiss your ass and treat you like some big deal, maybe next year you should go to something like E3. PAX is for the gamer. They paid their hard earned dollars to attend. They waited in long long lines. They traveled from all over the world. Maybe if you did not abuse media privileges and treated people like crap and actually reported about PAX, you would be more welcomed. And this is what I want to say about this whole H1N1 thing. I unfortunately contracted it. To make matters worse, I have Lupus and for me contracting it is very serious. HOWEVER, I knew full well before attending PAX, this was a huge possibility. Anybody who does not realize there is a huge chance of getting something when there are that many people in an enclosed space is fooling themselves. It is a risk you take. And let me tell you, I will continue to take this risk and it is a bigger risk for me than it is for most people. As a member of the media, I want to take this time to thank all wonderful people at PAX who organized us media types and took time out of your busy, long ass days to help me when I needed it and just chill out and talk. Oh by the way other media people, maybe you should thank them as well especially since they VOLUNTEERED over 12 hours of their day, each day to make sure you had what you may need. Special thank you to Jules and Joost. You rock!
While I am doing thank yous, I want to thank the over 400 Enforcers who also volunteered their time to make sure things ran smoothly. You could have been enjoying all the awesome that is PAX however very generously and graciously, you managed lines, dealt with the odd douche, answered peoples questions and a million other things. You wonderful men and women are the lubrication of PAX and without you this machine of awesome would not run.
Thank you Mr. Chief OmegaTech Travis Erikson for all your help to make sure I got what I needed to cover the Omegathon from beginning to end. It was a real pleasure meeting you.
Thank you Robert Khoo for being just plain awesome. We didn’t actually meet but I caught many glimpses of you.
And of course THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU Mike and Jerry for giving gamers from all over the world a real family.

I have attempted to write this post five times now, and every time it has turned into a rant. It may just turn into a rant yet again. Let us see. Be prepared for a lot of reading. Some may think this should be on my blog and not here but it is my site and I will put things where I want. Oh yes, there may be language in this post as well.

What is PAX? This has been a question asked of me more times than I can count since I announced way back in April that I will be attending and covering it for my Geeky Pleasures show on Party 934 | 102.5 FM Hudson Valley NY. According to the Wikipedia PAX is:

“The Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) is an annual gamer festival held in Washington state, USA. PAX was created by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, the authors of the Penny Arcade webcomic, because they wanted to attend a show that gave equal attention to console gamers, computer gamers, and tabletop gamers.

Created in 2004, PAX has nearly doubled in size each successive year and has been hailed as a weekend-long celebration of gamer culture. Defining characteristics include an insider keynote speech, game-inspired concerts, panels on game industry topics, exhibitor booths, after-hours parties, tournaments, and freeplay areas.”

This definition does not cut it. There is one word however which needs focus: GAMER. PAX is all about the gamer. It is not about the developer, the exhibitor, the media, the panels, the movies and the numerous other things that occur at this magical time of year when thousands of people from all over the world descend upon Seattle.

Maybe I should just explain a little bit about the sheer volume of people who attend PAX. When I say thousands, I don’t mean a few thousand. On my bus ride home I overheard this lady talking to someone else one bus. She was coming back to Canada from Seattle as well. She attended some music thing that was happening that same weekend in Seattle. Her friend went down for PAX. They were talking about the H1N1 outbreak (I will be making a huge point about that in just a bit. This has been the source of my rants). This is the comment she made, “It is no wonder there was an H1N1 outbreak. That is what happens when 2000 geeks get together.” I smiled. Why did I smile? Because it was not 2000 geeks, but 10s of thousands of geeks. And not just a couple tens of thousands but over 50,000 geeks. There were 75,000 tickets sold. They were all sold out well ahead of PAX doors opening! These tens of thousands of geeks were not just from North America. They flew in from all over the world! I met some awesome people from different places throughout the UK and Australia and of course North America from one end of Canada and the US to the other. I also heard people attended from countries such as Mexico and Brazil.

Okay now back to gamer. There is one reason why I have decided to attend PAX. I have been trying to attend PAX for the past 3 years ever since I heard Wil Wheaton talk about PAX years ago. Every single year, something would come up where I would have to cancel my trip. Finally I was able to attend (even so I almost had to cancel 6 times this year. But if I had to move the Universe, move it I would. There was no way I was going to miss it again). This one reason is because it is all about the gamer and their love of games, in all of its forms. It does not matter if you only like console games, computer games, tabletop games, card games, are a casual gamer, hardcore gamer or any other variation of gamer you can come up with, PAX is the place for you.

PAX is also FAMILY. THIS! As soon as you walk through those convention center doors, you are at home and among family. I, like many others, attended PAX alone. Meaning I traveled down to PAX alone and returned to PAX alone. However, I was never alone. No one is ever alone at PAX. I really do not know how I can demonstrate this point enough. I am going to tell one small story (I have many small stories however I am already at the end of the first page) of something I witnessed while at PAX that hopefully truly illustrates this point.

This happened during Wil Wheaton’s panel “The Awesome Hour!!1” (if you missed it, no worries. It will be played on my show soon and then will be available for download after). Wil had finished telling his beautiful stories and it was time to take questions from the audience. This lady stepped up to the mic and very shakily spoke, “Hi my name is Wesley.” She went on to tell this story about how growing up she never had a chance. First her parents named her Wesley. Second she was a gamer and a geek. During her teenage years she was teased because of these facts and ended up turning her back on games and being a geek. However, recently she had decided to come out of the geek closet. She told us how she never felt like she belonged anywhere and the shaky voice turned into one filled with tears as she struggled to finish her story. Somebody yelled out something to the affect, “You belong here and have a family here”, at which point the theatre filled with over a thousand people stood up and gave her a standing ovation and started to cheer her. I cried. I am crying remembering this little piece of awesome. THIS! This is PAX! This is why I attend and will continue to attend. You can walk up to anyone. You can talk to anyone. You are accepted no matter what. You are among peers. You are among friends. You are among family. For at least 3 days out of the year you belong no matter what your background may be. All lines that may divide us in our every day lives, vanish.

So it is no wonder when I see and hear the following, I see red and go off on rants and piss off a few people in the lines at PAX (which by the way is one of the best places to make new friends). I also feel ashamed to be a member of the media when some of these things occurred.

When I was in one line, I heard someone say some shit about the organizers of PAX and how certain things were missing that are at other cons. PAX is not a con. Sure it has some con elements and you see cosplayerers etc, but it is not. If you are wanting a con, go somewhere else. Let me repeat: PAX is about the gamer and family. I told them PAX was different and started to talk about Mike and Jerry. They quickly cut me off and said Mike and Jerry have nothing to do with organizing PAX and it just done under the Penny Arcade banner. That is when I really saw red. I went on to quickly correct them (and maybe not so politely because I really want to tell them maybe they should leave PAX since there were people that would have died to have their tickets just for a chance to catch a glimpse of Mike and Jerry). Mike and Jerry are so involved. It makes my heart warm. One of my PAX highlights was seeing them at the Omegathon rounds and how they looked like proud parents as they watched the wonders that is the Omegathon. It is a beautiful thing that each Omeganaut receives a phone call from Mike and Jerry to let them know they are a chosen one. And this is again just a small example of exactly how hands on Mike and Jerry are when it comes to PAX and making it the family it is. I think I pissed those people off because they quickly cut me out of their conversation with another couple in line. Maybe I should stop talking about this now because it is about to turn into another long-winded rant.

And now my rant about the media. I want to tell all the media who decided to not show up until the last hours of PAX, complain that you did not have special privileges and then only report about H1N1, Fuck You! If you are wanting people to kiss your ass and treat you like some big deal, maybe next year you should go to something like E3. PAX is for the gamer. They paid their hard earned dollars to attend. They waited in long long lines. They traveled from all over the world. Maybe if you did not abuse media privileges and treated people like crap and actually reported about PAX, you would be more welcomed. And this is what I want to say about this whole H1N1 thing. I unfortunately contracted it. To make matters worse, I have Lupus and for me contracting it is very serious. HOWEVER, I knew full well before attending PAX, this was a huge possibility. Anybody who does not realize there is a huge chance of getting something when there are that many people in an enclosed space is fooling themselves. It is a risk you take. And let me tell you, I will continue to take this risk and it is a bigger risk for me than it is for most people. As a member of the media, I want to take this time to thank all wonderful people at PAX who organized us media types and took time out of your busy, long ass days to help me when I needed it and just chill out and talk. Oh by the way other media people, maybe you should thank them as well especially since they VOLUNTEERED over 12 hours of their day, each day to make sure you had what you may need. Special thank you to Jules and Joost. You rock!

While I am doing thank yous, I want to thank the over 400 Enforcers who also volunteered their time to make sure things ran smoothly. You could have been enjoying all the awesome that is PAX however very generously and graciously, you managed lines, dealt with the odd douche, answered peoples questions and a million other things. You wonderful men and women are the lubrication of PAX and without you this machine of awesome would not run.

Thank you Mr. Chief OmegaTech Travis Erikson for all your help to make sure I got what I needed to cover the Omegathon from beginning to end. It was a real pleasure meeting you.

Thank you Robert Khoo for being just plain awesome. We didn’t actually meet but I caught many glimpses of you.

And of course THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU Mike and Jerry for giving gamers from all over the world a real family.

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Readers Comments (5)
  1. cho says:
    September 11, 2009 at 4:35 pm

    Awww… THIS, THIS THIS!!!

    I didn’t get a chance to meet you this year, saw you in passing a couple of times but then whoosh, you had disappeared but definitely next year! <3

  2. Jules says:
    September 11, 2009 at 4:40 pm

    My whole weekend was spend whooshing from one thing to the next.

    Definitely next year! <3

  3. Ryan says:
    September 11, 2009 at 5:01 pm

    Well said. This was my 3rd PAX and it always moves me to see everyone come together. Wil’s Keynote in 07 actually put me in tears of joy.
    I can give first hand example of how PAX is for every level of gamer. I convinced my wife to attend Sunday. She plays a few games but most would not consider her a geek or gamer. She constantly made claims of nothing being at PAX for her.
    After that one day she is committed to future PAX sundays, we have multiple game we are looking forward to in the near future and she spent $150 on the board game Last Night on Earth and all its addons.
    PAX is probably the one thing I look forward to most each year. The one time I can be with my kind.
    Once again great read.

  4. Wesley says:
    September 28, 2009 at 10:28 am

    Did you record the awesome hour? and if so do you know when you will post it?

  5. Jules says:
    September 28, 2009 at 10:37 am

    Hi Wesley! :)

    It was recorded by both Wil and myself. Wil is going to give me his copy once he has had a chance to do with the audio what he wants to do with it. It will be broadcasted on my show and then posted on my site. He is super busy at the moment, so unfortunately I do not have a specific date for when it will be available. I will be sure to let you know :)





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