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Impressions of PAX 2009
2009-11-09 00:00:00
This past weekend I was fortunate enough to be able to spend a few hours at the Penny Arcade Expo otherwise known as PAX at the Seattle Convention Center. This year’s incarnation of PAX was much bigger and boisterous then the previous PAX I attended back in 2006. As in previous trade shows like E3 I tend to hover around the MMO company booths.As I only had a couple of hours to spare, I decided spend my time walking around the exhibit hall instead of attending yet another talk on game design. Therefore my report is going to be somewhat limited and reflective of my own MMO preferences. All of the big hitters were there except for SoE which I’m going to discuss later on in the article.General ImpressionsAs I wandered through the exhibit hall the influence of WoW’s highly polished user interface could be seen on almost every monitor as game after game looked eerily the same. Strangely enough the only games that didn’t seem to emulate the WoW interface were the 2 “other” offerings by Blizzard — Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2.Part of me is worried about the lack of originality and experimentation given this apparent grand consolidation of gaming features. This is probably because of WoW’s success and the simple fact that most people in the industry creating video games have either played WoW or are playing WoW and are understandably enamored of its success. I suppose in some ways it’s good to see features becoming standard much like a rear view mirror and seat-belts became much like standard features in the automobile industry. Still, it is a bit unsettling that all games seem to be converging into one game.Blizzcon Lite…Very LiteTo be expected, my goal was to locate the Blizzard area as fast as possible. After watching the whole weekend of Blizzcon via PPV on the Internet I felt compelled to check out the demos of Cataclysm myself.The Blizzard booth was manned by community reps who were there almost as a token form of representation. There were no Blizzard panels or any sense of any kind of new or expanded information being released or discussed at PAX which naturally is anti-climactic coming after recent big event at Blizzcon. The Blizzard reps were basically babysitting maybe 60 or so computers set up to demo all 3 of their future games: Cataclysm, Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3.When I asked the reps about changes to fishing and the new MMO they were working on their lips were predictably sealed. I got the understandable “when it’s ready” response. One nice woman there who’s part of their PR department told me that she used to be in customer service — most likely a Blizzard GM. She explained that Blizzard believes in hiring from within. She also told me how much she likes working there and how cool the Blizzard culture is.No swag at the Blizzard booth but it would have been nice if Blizzard would have been able to give out a few beta slots for Cataclysm. The truth is they didn’t need it. Instead they let their games speak for themselves. Warcraft: Cataclysm, Starcraft II and Diablo III were all being previewed and opened to convention attendees.The Blizzard presence at PAX was a pittance o...
2009-11-09 00:00:00
This past weekend I was fortunate enough to be able to spend a few hours at the Penny Arcade Expo otherwise known as PAX at the Seattle Convention Center. This year’s incarnation of PAX was much bigger and boisterous then the previous PAX I attended back in 2006. As in previous trade shows like E3 I tend to hover around the MMO company booths.As I only had a couple of hours to spare, I decided spend my time walking around the exhibit hall instead of attending yet another talk on game design. Therefore my report is going to be somewhat limited and reflective of my own MMO preferences. All of the big hitters were there except for SoE which I’m going to discuss later on in the article.General ImpressionsAs I wandered through the exhibit hall the influence of WoW’s highly polished user interface could be seen on almost every monitor as game after game looked eerily the same. Strangely enough the only games that didn’t seem to emulate the WoW interface were the 2 “other” offerings by Blizzard — Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2.Part of me is worried about the lack of originality and experimentation given this apparent grand consolidation of gaming features. This is probably because of WoW’s success and the simple fact that most people in the industry creating video games have either played WoW or are playing WoW and are understandably enamored of its success. I suppose in some ways it’s good to see features becoming standard much like a rear view mirror and seat-belts became much like standard features in the automobile industry. Still, it is a bit unsettling that all games seem to be converging into one game.Blizzcon Lite…Very LiteTo be expected, my goal was to locate the Blizzard area as fast as possible. After watching the whole weekend of Blizzcon via PPV on the Internet I felt compelled to check out the demos of Cataclysm myself.The Blizzard booth was manned by community reps who were there almost as a token form of representation. There were no Blizzard panels or any sense of any kind of new or expanded information being released or discussed at PAX which naturally is anti-climactic coming after recent big event at Blizzcon. The Blizzard reps were basically babysitting maybe 60 or so computers set up to demo all 3 of their future games: Cataclysm, Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3.When I asked the reps about changes to fishing and the new MMO they were working on their lips were predictably sealed. I got the understandable “when it’s ready” response. One nice woman there who’s part of their PR department told me that she used to be in customer service — most likely a Blizzard GM. She explained that Blizzard believes in hiring from within. She also told me how much she likes working there and how cool the Blizzard culture is.No swag at the Blizzard booth but it would have been nice if Blizzard would have been able to give out a few beta slots for Cataclysm. The truth is they didn’t need it. Instead they let their games speak for themselves. Warcraft: Cataclysm, Starcraft II and Diablo III were all being previewed and opened to convention attendees.The Blizzard presence at PAX was a pittance o...