Yellow Pages
My mom never let me have a Nintendo.
What games we had on our computer were always educational or — much to our chagrin — wholesome.
So when I was 11 years old in Duncan, Okla., I couldn’t rot my mind in front of my own television. No, I had to do it with a fistful of quarters down at the Duncan Mall Arcade or Mazzio’s Pizza, where I zapped centipedes, slew dragons and squished walking mushrooms.
Gaming was a social activity, elbow-to-elbow with your friend and a pile of quarters or tokens stacked in front of you.
So at 28 — and a proud owner of an Xbox 360 now, so Mom can’t stop me! — it feels like something of a homecoming as I prepare for PAX 2009, where I’ll once again play games with about 75,000 other people Friday through Sunday at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle.
Show Director Robert Khoo called PAX — Penny Arcade Expo — a celebration of gaming, whether you’re playing on a computer, a PlayStation or on a tabletop with cards, paper and dice.
“We don’t consider ourselves a pure play exposition,” Khoo said. “PAX at its core is a celebration of a lifestyle.”
The weekend will feature video games, table-top games, card games, roll-playing games — any kind (I’m sure if they could find a way to get reindeer games in there, they would). Even the concerts feature musicians who record music for games or write songs about games.
The event was conceived by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins, the artist and author team of the online comic Penny Arcade, found at http://www.penny-arcade.com.
Since 1998, the two men have taken their comic alter egos — Gabe and Tycho — through amusing encounters in gaming. Their comic has spent 10 years poking fun at video games, the players and developers. The comic rarely follows a linear story, allowing Gabe and Tycho to exist in and out of games, or just out in the real world verbally abusing game store employees or game developers.
Krahulik and Holkins started the event as a “party” for a few thousand fans of their online comic, Penny Arcade, rolling some dice, drawing some cards and mashing some buttons.
What started as a 3,500-person event has exploded. Khoo expects 75,000 people to attend this year. And according to its Web site, http://www.paxsite.com, this weekend’s event is sold out.
For people who game, this event is not unlike Bumbershoot is for music, Khoo said.
“Gaming has reached that echelon in terms of mainstream media,” Khoo said. “Back in the ’80s and ’90s, everyone listened to music. Gaming is very much the medium that I consume.”
The event is so popular that gaming stores feel a bit of a drought over the weekend. Dan Macken, owner of Docking Bay 93 in Mount Vernon, said it’s common for gaming stores to host events for “those left behind.”
“It’s a huge event,” Macken said. “I would love to find a way to become part of it at some point.”
Macken credited the event’s popularity to a growing and well-connected community of gamers. As gaming consoles and computers became more linked together, individuals who once had trouble finding others with common interests started to find millions.
Macken said gaming has cycled from a community event to an individual event, and back again.
“When arcades came about, people would go to these arcades together,” Macken said. “Now it’s coming back to where it’s a social activity again. You can play with people throughout the world.”
Or if you’re feeling nostalgic, Macken has his own quarter arcade in the back of his store.
“Arcades are still popular despite what some outlets would claim,” Macken said. “I think it does really well for itself considering it’s a quarter-a-play for everything we have back there.”
Those left behind in Mount Vernon will have something to do, Macken said. In addition to his arcade, Macken has a weekend full of gaming activities.
But those heading down to Seattle might want to make a list to make sure they don’t miss anything. Khoo has a schedule full of panels with game developers, concerts, table-top games and an exposition hall full of “glamorous and glitzy booths” featuring games that have not yet been released.
Aaron Burkhalter can be reached at 360-416-2141 or .
