The Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) is a very special convention. For the average gamer, it’s the closest he or she will ever get to the heart of the game industry, as most trade shows are reserved for press and industry insiders. Though the focus is on reveling in the joy of being a gamer with like-minded individuals, PAX owes a big part of its allure to the ability for the average gamer to see new and upcoming games and products in the E3-like expo hall. It’s a staple of the PAX experience for many, and a personal favorite of mine for the last 3 years I’ve attended PAX Prime in Seattle.

However, there’s a serious problem with the expo hall, one that’s become steadily more grating over the past few years. PAX is a culturally significant event for gamers, and it stands to reason that the gaming press would want to cover it as a service to the audience. However, the media presence at PAX has encouraged many developers to grant special access and rights to members of the game enthusiast press, often alienating fans in the process. While we all appreciate the presence of respected journalists at conventions like this, I think expo hall presenters need to remember that the main reason they’re at PAX every year is to better connect with the fans.

My Pleasure is to Play

My circle of PAX friends and I first started noticing the trend towards special press treatment in 2008. Many booths and installations in the expo hall featured Press-Only lines that allowed game journalists to circumvent the public. The most notable example was Valve’s Left 4 Dead booth, which not only featured a dedicated press line, but also an enclosed area for journalists to play uninterrupted. This wasn’t so bad in itself; at least the public got a chance to play the game after a long wait. However, over time, we saw more and more booths with press access lines, including BioWare’s Dragon Age booth at PAX 2009. It got to a point where a large portion of the show floor seemed to be reserved just for people with special media badges. It got even worse when, at PAX East this year, Obsidian decided to only show Alpha Protocol to the press, ignoring regular show goers entirely.

While it’s annoying to see press get special treatment at what is ostensibly a fan-centric convention, I can understand the reasoning behind it. Every convention is a chance to show off your new projects, and for every journalist you win over with a private demo, there’s a potential to influence large portions of your target audience through preview write-ups. But while I can understand this approach, I don’t necessarily agree with it.

Researchers often posit that word-of-mouth advertising is more effective than attribute-based advertising. That’s why game developers and publishers work with the press to get gaming coverage in front of your spending eyes. Having a real person talking about your product is much more effective than a static advertising campaign, though results are greater when the two strategies are executed in tandem. However, for all of the respect and admiration I have for professional game journalists, they fall into the middleman category. They’re the gatekeepers, disseminating and delivering information to us, and while they do an excellent job year round of keeping us informed, we simply don’t need them covering games for us at PAX.

Vox Pop

The focus at PAX should always be on the fans. At PAX, developers, publishers, and PR crews have a unique opportunity to interact with as many as 65,000 members of their target market over a three-day period. Essentially, they can deliver their message directly to the people most likely to purchase their products with a minimum of signal noise. There’s a strong possibility of the classic “and they tell two friends” scenario occurring. No matter how much you respect game journalists, the word-of-mouth of a close friend or colleague about a new game will always be worth more than a byline in a magazine.

There’s also the opportunity to make the average gamer feel special and important. Through the expo hall, fans get a glimpse of what it’s like to be at a real industry trade show. The atmosphere of such an experience, combined with the feel-good vibe endemic to PAX events, creates a level of furvor and excitement that most companies only dream of inspiring in their target audiences. Unfortunately, few presenters ever capitalize on it.

Capcom made a solid attempt at making gamers feel special in 2009 with Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles. PAX attendees had a chance to sign up, two at a time, for access to two private demo rooms every half hour. Those lucky enough to get on the list got to try a build of the game first hand, complete with developer guidance and plenty of time for questions. As a bonus, players also received a pretty awesome free t-shirt, sold normally at the Capcom booth for around $20 and available regularly for those who pre-ordered the game. It was a nice treat, and while it would have been nice for all attendees to have the chance to see the game, it proved to me that at least one company realizes that PAX is for the fans.

Everybody Gets One

It’s not that I don’t want to see press at PAX at all; on the contrary, it’s a great chance to meet some of my personal heroes, and I look back on those times fondly. I love eating drinking, and playing games with you guys. And I want to make it clear that I’m not blaming the press for taking advantage of the opportunities put in front of them by developers and publishers. My issue here is with the shortsighted game companies that, in an effort to generate more interest in their products, have forgotten what PAX is all about.

The gaming press has E3, the Leipzig Games Convention, Tokyo Game Show, and several other trade shows, as well as independent studio visits and private demos. They want to see your products, and have numerous chances to do so throughout the year. PAX is all we have. Let the press focus on covering the event itself. Let them unwind and interact with us so they can serve you better in the long run. Show us how much you appreciate our support of your games and products. Make us feel special, because in the end, we’re the ones you really need to woo.