I spent much of yesterday wandering around PAX (AKA The Penny Arcade Expo) with tens of thousands of gamers. It was a smorgasbord of video games, tabletop games, gaming gear, and energy drinks. Alongside the gaming companies there were musicians like Jonathan Coulton, MC Frontalot and Beantown favorites Freezepop. The directors of movies like Nerdcore Rising and Reformat the Planet were also in attendance.
PAX is first and foremost a user conference. The booths were aimed squarely at potential gamers – not partners. The hits on the floor were Rockband 2 (fun!), Little Big Planet (beautiful!) and Rayman Raving Rabbits (a Wii game for dancing). The action yesterday was definitely on the Expo floor. I am sure today more people will go to the panels.
In short if you are ever in need of an immersion course in gamer culture attend. I’ve uploaded more pics to Flickr if you are curious.