There was a good decade there when E3 seemed like an unflappable institution, the only annual game industry event that mattered. How times have changed. The video game trade show--or convention, or expo, or whatever you call it these days--has been in a weird place since the ESA let E3's relevance lapse the last few years. We in the press have come to rely on international shows like Leipzig and TGS, and--more importantly--individual publisher-run events to get early exposure to the games you want to know about.
But shows like the Penny Arcade Expo aren't even for us. They're for you, the public, just a bunch of dudes and dudettes who live and love games a little too often and too much. PAX has a great positive vibe, like you can feel it in the air that everyone who's there really wants to be there. There were these flashes of nerdy brilliance all around us. You'd never see an impromptu Game Boy-driven sidewalk noise show at an event like E3, but that kind of thing seemed to be commonplace at PAX. It's awesome enough that for $30 you can show up and check out stuff like Fallout 3, Left 4 Dead, Starcraft II, and LittleBigPlanet, but to see all the concerts, films, thoughtful panels--in essence, a gigantic celebration of gaming culture that was nearly 60,000 strong this year--is truly invigorating. For nerdy video game nerds. It's okay, I am one too.
Here's a few random pictures I snapped here and there while we were wandering around doing whatever it is we do at these things.
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