PENNY ARCADE EXPO

The 'Penny Arcade Expo' ('PAX') is an annual gamer festival held in Washington. 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 video gamers, computer gamers, and tabletop gamers. No such show existed, so PAX was born.
Created in 2004, PAX has doubled in size each successive year and has grown into a weekend-long celebration of gamer culture. Defining characteristics include game-inspired concerts, panels on game industry topics, exhibitor booths, after-hours parties, tournaments, and freeplay areas.

Contents

PAX 2004

PAX 2005

PAX 2006

PAX 2007

External links

PAX 2004

On April 12, 2004, the authors of ''Penny Arcade'' announced PAX, the ''Penny Arcade'' Expo. PAX 2004 was a two-day event held in Bellevue, Washington from August 28 to August 29 2004, which they hoped would turn into an annual event. Several exhibitors, including Microsoft and Ubisoft, showcased videos and playable demos of their upcoming games at PAX 2004. Microsoft allowed attendees to experience a multiplayer level of ''Halo 2'' months before it hit stores in addition to a number of other Xbox games, while Ubisoft showed '', ''Ghost Recon 2'' and two other titles. Included amongst the events of the first PAX were live musical performances by bands including The Minibosses, Q&A panels featuring ''Penny Arcade'' creators Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins as well as others in the video game industry, and the Omegathon, a contest where twenty contestants played a series of games for a chance at winning an excessively large video game collection worth in excess of $25,000. The contestants competed in a tabletop dice game, called Diceland, ''Halo'' (Xbox), '' (GameCube), ''Dance Dance Revolution'', ''Doom'' (PC) and the original home version of ''Pong''. Sean Celaya defeated Kevin Potter in the final round to take home the ultimate prize becoming the PAX 2004 Omegathon champion. In an interesting turn of fate, precisely 1337 people pre-registered, to which Holkins mused, "though I ordinarily shun leet-speak that number clearly implies the blessing of gaming deities."[1] All told, about 3,300 people attended the event.

PAX 2005

PAX 2005 took place from August 26 to August 28 2005 at the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue, Washington, where the first PAX was held. PAX 2005, unlike its predecessor, occupied the entire center, effectively doubling the usable floor space. Sponsors included Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, Ubisoft and NCsoft, among others. Musical guests included the rock groups The Minibosses and The Neskimos, self-professed "professional hardcore gangster rapper" mc chris, pianists Martin Leung and Connie Lin, nerdcore hiphopper MC Frontalot, and rap/funk group Optimus Rhyme, who performed live in two separate concerts in a massive theater. Many favourite events from PAX 2004 such as Pitch Your Game Idea, Red vs. Blue, a screening of the 1989 film 'The Wizard', and Penny Arcade Q&A made encore appearances. New events included Play Against The Pros, and industry panels on online gaming, the videogame marketing process, and on controversy in the industry. Omegathon II was an even more elaborate affair than its predecessor. Krahulik said on February 9 2005 on penny-arcade.com that, "[At PAX 2005] we will deliver an even bigger prize to the winner of the Omegathon." On June 29 2005 [2], it was revealed that prize would be the complete NES video game library, being valued at least $10,099.99. The prize was locked in a large cage in the exhibition room and also included two Star Wars-themed Alienware gaming PCs, one of which would go to the winner and the other to the runner-up. Contestants competed in the tabletop game ''Diceland'', '', ''Katamari Damacy'', ''Karaoke Revolution'', ''Quake'', and the Atari 2600 game ''Combat''. In a thrilling four-round match, Luke "Coreside" Armstrong defeated Will "LeRoy" Garroutte by a single point to win the best-of-three series 2-1-1 and take home the grand prize. In total, more than 9,000 gamers attended PAX 2005, almost triple the previous year's attendance.
In response to Hurricane Katrina Penny Arcade auctioned off the original pencil sketch of the PAX 2005 program cover on eBay with 100% of the profit to be given to the American Red Cross. It was sold to Christian Boggs for the final price of $8,700. Mr. Boggs also placed the winning bid of $20000 on an auction to appear in a Penny Arcade comic strip at the 2005 Child's Play Charity Dinner. [3] [4]

PAX 2006

PAX 2006 was held from August 25 to August 27 2006. The Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue was again used as the venue, although the Tabletop Gaming area was moved offsite to the ballrooms at the nearby Red Lion hotel. Exhibit space at PAX 06 completely sold out in less than three months, with exhibitors including Nintendo, Microsoft, Ubisoft, Turbine Inc, Technomancer Press, NCSoft, Rooster Teeth Productions, Creative Labs, Wizards of the Coast, and nVidia. Because they applied one month before PAX 2006, Sony was unable to attend, as exhibitor space was also sold out. According to Gabe, there were 19,323 attendees[5].

Highlights:

★ Returning Omeganaut Will "LeRoy" Garroutte defeated David "Davertron" Davis in the final round of the Omegathon: head to head Tetris. LeRoy took away a brand new Scion car fully loaded with custom wheels, custom sound, LCD tv, Xbox 360 Premium, wireless controllers, and more. Davertron left with an Xbox 360 Premium and $500 Best Buy gift card, and will return as an Omeganaut in 2007.

★ Holkins and PA business manager Robert Khoo led the way into Omegathon Round 5, Guitar Hero II. After blistering through "Trippin on a Hole In a Paper Heart" on expert, Holkins smashed the guitar on stage.[6]

★ Krahulik and Holkins announced the first ever Penny Arcade video game. Titled "On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One", the game will feature PA characters in episodic adventure. Details were few; when asked what the game was about Holkins replied "Gabe. Tycho. And Cthulhu."[7]

★ Krahulik and Holkins also announced a Penny Arcade annual scholarship, wherein one applicant with an intention to work in the game industry will be awarded $10,000 toward tuition expenses.[8]

★ Several game companies ran large prize tournaments and giveaways, including ArenaNet ($10,000 prize tourney), TableStar ($2,500 prize tourney), and Nvidia (several thousand dollars' worth of video cards).

★ Thousands of PAX attendees spontaneously created a game/minor deity called "Ball".[9]

PAX 2007

The fourth annual Penny Arcade Expo will once again take place on the last full weekend on August, which for 2007 is August 24, 25, and 26. Robert Khoo, Penny Arcade's Director of Business Development, has stated in the official forums that PAX 2007 will occupy 130,000 square feet of the Washington State Convention and Trade Center, more than doubling the space of PAX 2006.
On July 31, 2006, it was announced that the massive Electronic Entertainment Expo (E³) would be heavily downsized and restructured[10]. With E³ effectively gone, PAX 2007 will become the biggest gamer festival in North America, and will increase dramatically in scale. ''Penny Arcade'' co-creator Mike Krahulik speculated in his blog that PAX, with its focus on gamers and geek culture, will become the new signature event for gaming.
On August 11, 2006, Krahulik gave some clarification on his announcement in an attempt to dispel the popular notion that PAX is "the next E3."
On January 26, 2007, Holkins quietly announced the opening of pre-registration for Penny Arcade Expo 2007 and the relaunch of the PAX site.
On March 22, 2007, the musical lineup for PAX 2007 was revealed: Freezepop, Jonathan Coulton, MC Frontalot, the Minibosses, Neskimos, the Oneups, and Optimus Rhyme.
On May 21, 2007, Wil Wheaton was announced as the keynote speaker for PAX 2007 and the Omegaprize was revealed.
On June 25, 2007, the floor plan for the exhibition hall was linked on the PAX home page.
On June 29, 2007, it was announced that TerraDrive Live, the first Massively Multiplayer Live Action Roleplaying Game would be hosted at PAX.
On July 23, 2007, Mike Krahulik ("Gabe") announced in that day's news post that the highly anticipated game Rock Band (video game) would be playable at PAX.
On August 10, 2007, the detailed PAX 2007 schedule was released. Along side this schedule a posting was made describing the nature and/or topic of most of the events. It was also announced in this post that preregistration count for 2007 had "crushed" the total from the previous year.

External links

★ ''Penny Arcade''

★ ''Penny Arcade'' Expo (PAX)

★ Gabe's post announcing PAX 06

★ PAX 2007 Exhibition Hall Floor Plan (PDF)

★ PAX 2007 Washington State Convention & Trade Center Floor Plan (PDF)

★ PAX Cross-Country Supertrip 2007

★ PAX Canadian Supertrip 2007

★ West Coast Train Trip 2007

★ Pre-PAX Dinner Headcount

★ The Forumer's Complete Guide To PAX

★ Hotel Space Sharing thread