graphic design and book layout
Went to PAX Unplugged. Came home. Ate a turkey. Thought about the show.
It was odd. Thousands of people showed up for the show and it seems to have been a success. But there were some strange things that don’t seem to be similar to other gaming conventions. As an exhibitor, I found the convention to be strange. As a gamer, I thought it was fun. As a professional attempting to network, I thought it was fantastic.
I’ve been looking forward to attending PAX Unplugged for a while. My major client, John Wick Presents, will be taking me to the convention to help sell 7th Sea games and related coolness. (I’ve got a two-minute demo down cold, which could expand to a five-minute demo with interest, and can talk about the game for as little or as long as interest remains.) While there are several things I want to see and do, I think this will be a rather laid-back event for me.
The show is in Philadelphia, and while it’s a bit lighter on the roleplaying side of things than say, Gen Con is, there are still a lot of people and colleagues I’d like to meet up with (and merchandise to check out). With the number of events scheduled, this feels like a larger RinCon, mainly by having a huge open gaming library (the no pre-registration for events is odd), and RinCon was only up to 800+ attendees. It appears PAX Unplugged is simply taking that small convention idea and upscaling it. Saturday tickets are sold out, but I really have no idea what number “sold out” translates to. Signups for tournaments and events are anywhere from 16 players to a few dozen. Smaller than PAX East? That’s the impression I’m getting.
I’m heading to PAX Unplugged over in Philadelphia in just a few days! That’s a gaming convention that I feel is a whole bunch of companies going to a gaming convention to see what it’s all about, and that’s what it’s all about. From what I’ve gathered, it’s going to be like RinCon, but with a much bigger open gaming library.
So over on reddit, someone asked about what to expect at this, their first ever boardgaming convention. Specifically, should they rush to the expo hall to purchase new games and limited edition items at crazy steep discounts? I wrote a short answer that turned into a longer answer, which turned into something that’s would be it’s own blog post. Ta da!