Game Centered features roundups and reviews of the best in iOS games and gaming related news. Among the App Store’s myriad games and game news, it’s all too easy to overlook some great new releases and news stories. This week we recap what went down at one of the coolest gaming conventions of the year, this past weekend's PAX East event.
PAX happens four times a year, with three weekend-long events in America and one in Australia. PAX (an acronym for Penny Arcade Expo) is fast becoming one of the hottest video game convention attractions in the world. PAX is a up and coming venue where gamers of all ilk come together to celebrate the games and gaming culture that they love so much with osplay, conferences and lectures, dev sessions, competitions featuring some of today's most popular games and much more.
The schedule for this past weekend's PAX event in Boston, MA was packed with events with a focus on equality, diversity, and ethics. All topics that are important to address and that are dear to my heart since I'm a lifelong gamer myself. Events included such intriguing titles as "What Does Game Design Tell Us About Mental Illness," "Sexism in Gaming: Is Equality Attainable?" and "Diversity in Gaming: Equality for All!" to name a few.
This year's PAX East 2016 also featured a VR workshop with representatives from Oculus and Epic Games as well as the Invitational University League of Legends finals, the first-ever Vainglory collegiate tournament, the GEICO-sponsored Hearthstone tournamen,t and the HALO Championship Series Invitational, among many other popular, crowd-pleasing events. Along with the many activities at PAX East, it was also the perfect place to inspect the latest in gaming hardware and pick up T-shirts and other swag from your favorite game brands.
PAX is one of the coolest shows to attend if you're into games; and perhaps more than any other international gaming expo, such as E3 and Gamescom, PAX has always supported and emphasized an extremely mobile-game-friendly atmosphere. At PAX, gamers partial to any given platform are sure to feel completely welcome and right at home.
This weekend's was the last PAX event on U.S. soil until 2017, with the next PAX event taking place in San Antonio Texas in the early part of the year. If you are a gamer geek and anywhere in the area, mark your calendar. With close to 50,000 game fans expected to be in attendance, it'll definitely be worth the effort to try to be present for the competitions, reveals, fun, and festivities.
