Penny Arcade has a small staff and therefore the convention is heavily reliant on what they like to call, the "Enforcers". "Enforcer" is a fancy ninja name for "convention volunteer". Enforcers do anything from foot traffic direction inside the convention center, to registration, to security, to monitoring the PC and console rooms, to assisting in the theaters and with the panels, to running around like madmen trying to get messages or items from one place to another, to running errands for ehibitors, etc., etc. You get the idea; PAX would not run without the Enforcers.
This year, I volunteered to be an Enforcer. Last year, I went and saw the con as an attendee, which was great. I saw panels on various topics, walked the expo hall floor, played game demos, talked to game developers, and just generally enjoyed the atmosphere of having 40,000 people together who all have the same hobby. This year, I did that, and more. Oh, and there were about double as many people, since the con moved from the rather modest Hynes Convention Center to the stunningly huge Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.
Being an Enforcer isn't glamorous. Rule Number 1 of Enforcing is "make the convention fun for the attendees" and although that might be fun in some scenarios, usually it's just a matter of repeating "Lanyards, programs and swag bags are down the hall, very end, take a right before the escalators, you'll see the line" over and over again. Which, at one point, I did. For about 3 hours. Oddly enough, it was very satisfying, even if it was the same question again and again. Other than that, I helped Nvidia set up their booth on Thursday (awesome folks - they were really cool), and then gave directions, ferried swag and helped at the Registration desk for the rest of the weekend. It was fun seeing everyone else had fun. Occasionally, at the Registration desk, we had to give bad news to people (lost tickets, etc.), but mainly it was a good time.
Penny Arcade is really good to their Enforcers, treating us like real people who are trustworthy and can think for ourselves. The attendees love us, and seem to instinctively know that they can just pull aside anyone with the distinctive red shirt on and just ask us whatever. All the exhibitors and speakers I ran into were alight with praise. I can't wait to return next year (or maybe at the summer PAX in Seattle, we'll see).
Now, onto the convention. It was packed. It was loud. Some of it was really weird. The panels are always alluring, but watching the demos on the expo hall floor are better. Everything - seriously - was in 3D. It took me a good 45 seconds, looking at all the computer screens, to figure out why everything was blurry. Alienware had a crazy-looking booth, the Dungeons and Dragons booth was faux-stone, the Duke Nukem Forever booth looked like the inside of a classy casino, there was a giant Pikachu hanging overhead, and Bioshock had a pretty girl in a corset-dress taking pictures with people. There was a demo of Portal 2, 3D Fable III and World of Warcraft, the new Magic: The Gathering card set. It was crazy. People had fun. Everyone was talking about something geeky. Everyone caught everyone else's references. One of the girls working the Registration desk with me is a legit nuclear physicist, and another girl is a member of the World of Warcraft guild Elitist Jerks - the foremost theorycrafters and numbers people behind the game. It was crazy and awesome.
Here are some pictures. Here's the Registration line on Friday morning from above. People waiting to pick up badges at will-call.
Here's the very crowded expo hall from the top of the stairs. This is only a small portion; the length of the hall is something like half a mile. It certainly felt like it while walking.
The Portal 2 demo station! Very cool - can't wait.
And, of course, the giant Pikachu balloon hanging over the Pokemon booth.
So, bottom line: PAX is awesome. Being an Enforcer is awesome.
0 comments:
Post a Comment