I, of course, being the huge nerd that I am headed off to PAX 2007 to take in a massive dose of gamer culture before I head to the big smog. It was as good an experience as one could hope. The organizers were very aware of gamer needs and addressed virtually every issue before it occured - clever does not adequately describe the planning process for this event.
What did I see (abstract)?
There was way too much stuff to really internalize at PAX. I only got a fraction of the experience and I think I can say the same for virtually every attendee - it is simply impossible to do and see everything the convention has to offer, to the point where one is presented with opportunity paralysis, unable to discriminate due to equivalence in utility for options.
I decided beforehand I would forgo those events wherein I would be required to demonstrate familiarity with a particular game to really get anything out of it - that mainly means tournaments and/or game-specific events unless I was really into it (such as LotRO). I frankly have never played a miniatures game in its entirety (despite owning rules for no less than 5 minis games as well as a bevvy of Pirate ships and Mechs). I haven’t played a round of Magic…ever, even though I own about 200 magic cards. Come to think, other than the demo rounds of various games, I’ve never played a round of ANY CCG - despite owning complete decks for about a dozen. I’ve never played a full-fledged D&D and nobody was offering a rousing tabletop game of old WOD Vampire, Werewolf, or (shudder) LARP.
Aside from my minor quibble about not being able to buy the very thing they are trying to sell me the exhibition hall was a spectacle unrivaled in my experience as a gamer. A teeming box of electronic lights, mashing thumbs and excited gamers coursing about the place - it felt like a small city for my kind - like home.
The panels were good, if shallow in their exploration of the topics. An hour for 3 experts in the field to provide analysis on some pretty tought questions lead to a lot of qualitative answers with broad, truisms rather than hard quantitative facts/figures. I attended the panel on the future of Online Gaming, the future of MMOs, future of TTS, how to make a collectible game, the fragdoll panel, the state of gaming journalism and how to make a game under $10k.
Favourite thing about PAX 2k7?
This is obviously a difficult question to answer ‘thing’ is universally applicable. So, I’ll break it into categories.
Favourite new (playable) game: Tabula Rasa, my expectations for this game were mixed, it really impressed me in the addictive nature of actions that are punitive in typical MMO’s (combat particularly).
Favourite new (previewed) game: Mass Effect, while I knew I already loved this game - it’s BioWare for cripe’s sake, the demo really drilled home just how phenomenal the game is.
Favourite total surprise: Warhammer 40K Squad Commander, I didn’t even know this game was being made and it seems few still do, it was literally in the far corner of the hall BEHIND the THQ booth on a inconspicuous DS and PSP - I tried the DS version and really enjoyed the experience, if I can warrant the cost, I’ll pick this up for sure.
Favourite re-affirmed purchase: Company of Heroes Opposing Forces, I knew I was going to get this game anyways, trying out the demo just drilled it home.
Favourite panelist: Tyler Bielmann (I think that’s his name), his frankness and delivery were refreshing even if his powerpoint presentation was a bit cobbled - he reaffirmed my choice in gaming as a definite career possibility.
Favourite exhibitor:Kim Hansen (from BioWare) with a Patience from LotRO a close second. Kim is a QA Analyst at BioWare for Mass Effect. She spent many long days demo-ing the product and generally putting up with guys drooling on her. She was a refreshing change from the typical female presence which came off as shallow (Fragdolls may be awesome at R6V but they shouldn’t be advocates (a subject for a later post)), or cheap (the booth babes). Firstly, she was a honest-to-goodness developer, not someone paid to show up and be pretty (despite being totally hot). Kim’s shyness was very endearing. Patience certainly made an impression on me and reaffirmed my enthusiasm for LotRO. She’s not a young girl and that of itself was impressive. But she took the time, even at the end of a very long day before yet another very long day, to chat with me - one fan amongst legion.
Worst of PAX 2k7?
There was surprisingly little to complain about through the whole affair - it was easy enough to ignore those things that bothered me and to find something that totally engaged me. But here’s a list of those things that need mentioning:
Dumb questions to the panelists: While the panelists themselves were often top-notch pro’s in the industry who knew their shit and could provide a great deal of insight, the audience questions frequently and those questions posed by the moderator occasionally were lightweight and shallow - if not plain stupid. A better system for preparing questions needs to be implemented, moderators should inform panelists of the questions beforehand, audience members should either submit questions via email and the moderator can pick the best-of beforehand, or an Enforcer needs to filter the questions based on appropriateness and relevance. The panels were good for the most part and great in some cases - but more preparation and less “ad hoc”ery would go a long way to making these things worth the precious time they occupy.
Lack of wifi internetSetting up a gateway for WiFi access needs to be done. Getting AT&T or someone as a sponsor would be straightforward especially if you let them charge a nominal fee for the service “Go To the AT&T booth to buy your credentials for PAXWiFi.” It needs to be done for a tonne of reasons.
No on-site game purchasingEBGames/GameStop should’ve had a booth and should’ve been selling god-damned games (perhaps with a special PAX discount or with coupons connected with other exhibitors). If I were to do a PAX booth for the sake of it, a retailer would be it. I can’t imagine how many copies of BioShock, Gears of War, preorders of World in Conflict, etc etc could’ve been sold if a retailer could capitalize on that gamer rush. DS and PSP games would’ve been flying.
Poorly Prepared or Irrelevant ExhibitorsDeVry university just didn’t have their shit together, they were marketing programs that were non-game related to people who can’t or wouldn’t attend their college, don’t waste the cash or booth space next year DeVry - people were just taking your water bottles. Strategy computers was possibly the most forlorn booth I saw - they just didn’t meet the tempo of their surroundings, and it showed.
Bad booth-baberyBad booth babes fall into many categories. They can be too young (Sword of the New World’s gun-toting teen looked to be 16. Hot? Yes. Wrong? Also yes.) They can be insufficiently good looking, often these are normal looking women who are selling the game - but they’re jammed into ridiculous clothing and tarted up like an import-car model, it’s awkward at best laughable at worst (the TTG companies seemed the most guilty of this). The worst of all booth babes are those who simply don’t get the product. They can be pretty, flat out gorgeous sometimes, but they are hired models who took a training seminar on gaming and the product they’re selling - and it shows. They’re poor salespeople AND poor spokespeople for the game or hardware they’re selling. Sony’s booth babes were glorified tether posts for the new slim PSPs, they gave scripted answers to questsions if they could answer at all - not a good showing.
As a gamer what was the upshot for me at PAX?
Well, it pounded out my shopping list. Firstly, I’m not going to buy a PSP and I’ll get a 360 before a PS3. Secondly, it reinforced my awarness that if I plan on using my laptop to game I’m going to have to invest in a new one. The games I’m going to purchase /subscribe to are as follows:
- Tabula Rasa : It’s some unholy combination MMO and twitch shooter. When I demoed the game, an entire hour and fifteen minutes went by without my even glancing around, a good sign for ANY game. Also, it is the closest thing I can get to Mass Effect without owning a 360 (or TV for that matter).
- EvE Online : I always knew it was a good game - I just need to find a community of fellow gamers, this game, more than most needs a real-life group.
- Warhammer 40K Squad Commander : This will likely be my DS game of choice, the only mobile game I’ve stuck with for an extended period of time is Final Fantasy Tactics: Advance.
- Dungeon Runner : If I’m in a dorm, having a free-to-play MMO seems like a good choice, especially if I’m going to be an “advocate” for the game.
- Logitech USB Gamepad : I’ve got GameTap - having two of these essentially gives me a portable SNES/Genesis wherever I have WiFi - a uni must.
- New laptop : If I want to take mobile gaming seriously, I’m going to have to be buying hardware every two - three years. When more than half of the new titles being released simply will not run on your machine and those that do run piss poorly, I need to assess whether I want to invest in a better laptop or upgrading my desktop.
- An XBoX 360 : Once they simmer down on the versions of the damn hardware I’ll probably invest in a system. But this dropping of lines, introduction of upper-end models and other fragmenting of the market is ridiculous - it defeats the advantage of the consoles over the PC (which is uniformity of platform target for development). Mass Effect, Halo 3, and other games are coming out as exclusives - in order for me to get in on that action I’ll have to drop the monays.
Any to do lists?
I like to use events like this to really refine what I want to accomplish in the gaming sphere. Obviously what I want to do, what can be done and what makes money are often in completely different spaces - conventions, as well as constant internets vigilance are required to identify that sweet-spot where they overlap.
So, are you going into gaming after school?
If I’m going to take my education anywhere in the gaming sphere it’ll have to be applied to serious gaming, there’s very little opportunity to apply what I’m going to learn directly in the gaming sphere. That said, serious gaming is a difficult market to penetrate, it is VERY small and consists mainly of contractors to big corporations. Also, very few developers want to make a game for a few million dollars when, if the game is really good, it could be sold at retail and make hundreds of millions.
That said, I think there’s a market for serious-casual-games. Games with a very limited scope and development budget which teach a specific skill or paradigm rather than whole-sale simulations of a given activity.
How do you plan on breaking into the industry?
Well, I want to get a job as a game designer - so doing that is key. I think if I can get a board game released, maybe an RPG with a digital-conversion template and have a portfolio of ideas ready to hawk to anyone who stands still for 30 seconds it’ll be enough to get into somesort of entry-level designer job. I’ve been evading the serious programming bullet for several years now - while I understand software design and such, the act of simply sitting down and learning an language inside and out is tough to reconcile with others.
So I should really just decide on a target platform and be unafraid to exclude others. C# seems the most obvious candidate.
What about releasing your own titles
Technomancer basically sells hand-bound xeroxed copies of original game material. It’s cheap - like $13 for a 100 page book or so, and very dirty (it’s black and white often very lossy copies). I don’t know how much thought they put into production cost-reduction. If I were to do my own Technomancer it would be a manifold process. I would develop an RPG system so people would never have to dump $120 on a core rulebook. I would also create my own OGL-based D&D core rulebooks ala Mongoose for budget retail. I would also include some more marketable premiums in production - full-colour covers, perhaps coloured inserts for the art, I would conduct a great deal of market research on binding methods. Stay-flat binding seems the obvious choice to me, this opens up using the book itself as a play-space for a game (maps with minis).
The hope would be I could sell enough of these books to purchase a printer and completely self-publish rather than out of kinkos. A decent quality, high-throughput printer is reasonably priced these days and I could “waterfall” the production costs as my investment capital grows.
I would also take on the space occupied by Cheap-ass games. I would produce budget priced games, perhaps with a modular/expandable system as a core with various one-offs along the way.