When Gamespot did that recent piece on the new practice mode being introduced in the sequel, I was hoping there'd be a couple track announcements to go alongside - it was not to be. Luckily, IGN just dropped some coverage of an Australian event where three new songs are being made available - Anthrax ("Madhouse") and Stone Temple Pilots ("Trippin' On A Hole In A Paper Heart"), to say nothing of that most Motley of Croos ("Shout At The Devil"). They have videos of each one, but these aren't straight gameplay vids - they're more promotional vehicles. The one for STP is probably the best of the three from a raw information perspective, and the song looks to have some exceedingly tender gameplay.
(CW)TB
Two cons enter, one con leave!
I'm just kidding. We already knew PAX was the best gaming festival in North America and after today's announcement from the ESA it's also the biggest. With a projected attendece of something like 13 thousand people and exhibitors like Nintendo, Ubisoft, Microsoft and ATI PAX is in position to pick up where E3 left off. Apparently we're not the only ones who noticed either. The site has been pretty wonky and that's because everyone and their mother is talking about what the lack of and E3 convention means for PAX. We're used to a fuck ton of traffic here at the arcade but when we get 30,000 concurrent users even our hardware feels the burn.
So what does this mean for PAX? Well honestly I think it's too soon to say for sure. I personally never thought of E3 as our competitor. The two conventions had very different goals. Now E3, at least as we know it is gone but the focus of PAX has not changed. PAX is about gamers not publishers and geek culture instead of multi-million dollar business deals. We have no desire to turn PAX into a new E3 so don't worry about that. The only place I think we might see a noticeable change is in our exhibition hall. It's already quite a spectacle but I think that the lack of an E3 event means our exhibition hall is going to get fucking nuts.
We've already started getting phone calls from publishers and developers asking about exhibition space for PAX 2007. There simply won't be anything else like it. No matter how big it gets the PAX exhibition hall will always be about developers connecting with gamers. It's also just be one piece in the PAX puzzle. We'll still have the 24 hour table top gaming, the geek rock concerts, the giant LAN party and bring your own computer rooms, the free console gaming and tournaments, the Omegathon and all the panels. All of that stuff and everything I can't remember right is what makes PAX special. I'm definitely proud of what it's become and I'm excited to watch it grow but I'm mostly just thrilled that I get to attend it. It's the show we've always wanted to go to and as long as we're running things that will never change.
We'll be closing online registration for PAX 06 on August 3rd at 6:30 PM. If you want to save yourself some money and get your badge early you only have a few more days. Take a few minutes to hit the PAX website. Look around at the exhibitors and the bands we've got lined up for this year's event. Scroll through the list of tournaments and special guests and then figure out some way to get your ass to Bellevue Washington at the end of August for the best three days in gaming.
-Gabe out
San Diego is an opportunity not only for wookiees and slave girls to be joined in holy matrimony, but also for readers to suggest we bring this or that back into rotation. Div has been requested many times. Also Annarchy, who will return the moment we can do her justice. Today, the vocal Twisp & Catsby lobby gets their due.
In the Finding Your Audience panel we partook in, helmed by unstoppable bibliophile Bill Barnes, one the first questions asked was "How Often Do You Pander To Your Readers." It helps, I think, that we create something actively aggressive to new readers, that would only really appeal to people who share our interests, so we're able to "pander" (and thus, succeed) without undue exertion or dilution of our true desires. It's phrased in an odd way - the value laden pander raised like a boil - but I keep thinking about it.
When I serviced educational technology for Spokane Public Schools - my long World War I trenchcoat studded with buttons exhorting the young to Read! - I regularly restored computers to full functionality. I wonder: by doing what was expected of me, was I pandering to librarians? Should I have, in an effort to express my unique perspective, rebound the enter key to the space bar?
The idea that art can't be something the viewer enjoys is just one of these ideas that is hanging around out there. Art must whirr and whine like the dentist's drill, skipping off the enamel to bury itself in the gum. Something that was created in joy, with the purpose of creating joy in others, well, we've got a term for that.
The last thing I will say about the reinvention of E3 into an invite-only press fandango is that I wonder who will be invited.
I always love it when someone declares - as though the universe must necessarily agree - that there is "no such thing as bad press." I know this to be a falsehood, because Penny Arcade is the belching foundry that fabricates this supposedly nonexistent material. I work its waiting levers and greased knobs like a pervert. I don't think many outlets (particularly independent ones) could get away with what Dan Shoe did and retain their access. They may still invite me because I'm a world-class fucking raconteur, but it is dangerous in the extreme to let us see your stuff before you have crossed the Ts. They would, no doubt, like access to you, but knowing they must traverse our savage gauntlet of two-dollar words and pointed .jpegs may give them pause.
(CW)TB out.
