I spent 4 solid days at PAX Prime 2014 and all I can say is, people. So MANY people.  Just…  a lot.  As a whole, that’s pretty much 75% of the takeaway from my first Expo.  The sheer size of this event is hyperbolic.   And as they say, if you build it….  Branded as a Gaming Expo, the variety of exhibitors is astoundingly broad.  I encountered so many interpretations of the word game I think the only thing missing was a dedicated “Head Games” area where emotional vampires could go to feed.

To ease my anxiety, I pretty much abandoned the concept of scheduled events for this convention.  I stayed completely present no matter where I found myself and as such was able to enjoy everything I encountered.  I quickly discovered that the PAX volunteer staff, dubbed Enforcers, have solved the theoretical equation for line-waiting.  It seems to be some sort of ratio between wait time and number of people multiplied by the popularity of the event and then divided by area of the space.  Give or take.  I’m not sure how the units of measurement are defined, however I plan to submit a What If? question to the xkcd guy to find the correct math.

My memory is admittedly spotty from that 24-hour day so I made sure to occasionally take pictures of random things.  My camera only survived the first half of the day.  I switched to Instagram from there as it’s more suited to the fast-paced environment.  I’ll need the skills of a nature photographer to get actual pictures.  The stills I did take are random, blurry and I can rarely tell exactly what inspired the shot.  Now all I see is a chance to analyze marketing techniques and make speculations about human nature.  It’s been super fun.

I’m sure there will be more than one entry for this event.  So I’ll just start chronologically.  No promises where my mind will go from there.

Friday.

I got in to town around 0200 and power-napped a few hours before the Sheraton staff gave me a complementary wake-up call around 6AM.  Blessed with early check-in I found a place to stow my stuff just before 0900.  Sleep-deprived, I moved through the day as a raft gently bumping along the current of people.  Truly a stranger in a strange land, I tried to channel James Cavendish.  Mostly I remember the League of Legends (LoL) mayhem and the room with orange chairs.  My pictures brought back some memories, but it’s all mostly a blur.

I can’t recall specifically what was in the room with the orange chairs.  I just know it was less crowded that day.  With no memory of any specific games I do know I was able stop and watch whenever I wanted.  That wasn’t possible in any other room the rest of the weekend.  My Canadian roommates (and PAX veterans) posited that I found the top floor of the convention.  They said a lot of people never even make it to the 6th floor on the first day.  Leave it to me to find the least crowded room among thousands of people.  =D

The LoL event scheduled that weekend was apparently a pretty big deal.  It was the North American Regional Finals or something?  The game is a MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) which is a  relatively recent format that gained massive popularity in the last decade or so.  Essentially, it’s a virtual Thunderdome and is treated more like a sporting event than the video games based on sporting events.  I didn’t know a whit about it it until this event, so I decided to check it out.

In my search for more information about LoL, I found a huge antechamber bathed in blue lights and the glow of televisions.  I have a sense memory of falling asleep while watching TV and waking up, cold and hungry, swathed in that eerie, antiseptic glow.  It makes me shiver a little bit.  I swear I heard a voice whisper, “Turn back, there is nothing for you here.”  I can usually ignore the voices in my head, but this one struck a chord and I followed my gut.  If you want to know more about that part of PAX Prime 2014, I’m sure Google can point you in the right direction.

While backing away from the blue pill, directly to my left I saw a duo of keyboardists playing live music.  Calling themselves the Super Soul Bros, I got a decent video of their groovy style and wish I’d stayed to hear more.  It is fabulous to discover contemporary musicians have carved a niche out in the gaming industry.  As a music lover, I always want to see quality music incorporated into all parts of life.  I am often more annoyed with the music in games than anything else.  (The most notable exception is Little Big Planet.  That soundtrack got added to my music collection real quick.)  It heartens me to think that actual musicians are influencing the direction of the industry on some level.

After that I was subjected to a haze of marketing bells and whistles that I’ve spent the past few years building an immunity to.  Around 1500 I succumbed to sensory overload and had to go take a nap.  Stay tuned to hear about part two of my Friday.  I’ll remember it any time now!