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| This was the line to get into the Expo Hall 30 minutes before it opened. It was twice as big by the time 10 AM hit. |
Game Design Panels
I also went to a couple of panels that were absolutely fantastic
looks in game design.
One was “Modernizing [Pen and Paper] Fantasy RPGs”, run by
- Adam Koebel (Kobold, Mouse Guard)
- Luke Crane (Dungeon World, Burning Wheel)
- Thor Olavsrud (Torchbearer).
It was a great rundown of the history of Pen
and Paper fantasy RPGs, and the concepts they think are really being brought to
bear in modern game design.
The other was “Next Generation MMO Games: What’s Next for
Multiplayer Trends?”, run by
- Dave Georgeson (Director of Development, Landmark, SoE)
- Ian Fisher (Director of Design, Robot Entertainment)
- Kjartan Pierre Emilsson (Principal Game Designer, EVE)
- Stephen Frost (Design Producer, Wildstar)
- Stephan Johnston (President of Guild Launch, who seemed to be there largely to plug his product).
They talked about where MMOs have been,
where they think the future is, and what are the biggest hurdles to developing
MMOs.
I’ll be putting up far more in-depth coverage of those talks
later here on Gamer By Design, but for now just know that some really cool
content is coming. They were fantastic talks.
Cosplay Interlude
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| Lulu, Auron, and Lightning. Wonderful details! |
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| Ringabel! And the book is a fantastic touch. |
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| Link! |
Diversity Lounge
Later I went to check out the Diversity Lounge. For those
who don’t remember, a while back there was a kerfuffle when news
of said Diversity Lounge leaked. In a nutshell, the Diversity Lounge was to
be a space set aside for PAX attendees to get information on women, LGBTQ,
people of colour, disabled folks, and mental health issues in gaming. The
Internet being what it is, of course people blew up, panicked, and nobody on
any side of the aisle was happy.
How’d it turn out in practice? Not too bad. There were
actually three pieces to this puzzle.
The first was an actual gender-neutral restroom. Granted,
they had to convert a ladies room into one, and due to local bylaws and rules
at the convention center, that was as far as they could go, but it was pretty
cool.
The second was the AFK room. A quiet space off the beaten
path for folks who are overwhelmed to come sit and chill out, and talk to mental
health professionals on site if they wished. I walked by it and didn’t check it
out (and certainly didn’t take any photos of the space), but the concept was
again pretty cool. I didn’t see how many people were using it, but having the
option is awesome. Kudos to Khoo and company for this.
The third was the Roll for Diversity Lounge itself. The area
had a number of booths, including a couple of Seattle-based ones (an LGBT book publisher called Northwest Press and a local gay-gaming comic strip), a transgender in gaming booth, a
women in Magic: The Gathering booth, a Toronto LGBT group, an Ablegamers table
dedicated to disabled people and gaming, a race and color in games booth, and an
University-provided Ethicist who you could ask questions of. There were
purple-pink lanyards you could use for your badge, and there were a couple of
tables and a bunch of bean bags for people to use. The Northwest Press booth in particular had a fantastic sticker, which the URL gives you the gist: http://northwestpress.com/shop/wibbly-wobbly-sexy-wexy-vinyl-sticker/, but it is amazing!
On Friday the lounge was rather empty for the couple times I
passed it, and Saturday morning it was also rather empty. Saturday afternoon,
however, saw the tables full, the bean bags full, and every booth had two or
three visitors, which was really cool to see. The folks at the booths seemed
happy to be there, and excited to chit chat, and the enforcers were awesome as
usual.
I talked with the Ethicist for a bit, asking him the
slightly snarky question of why an ethicist? He responded quite well with
everything from how people are represented (or lack of representation) in
games, to things like gambling addiction and Free-to-Play models. I was rather
impressed, and he made some excellent points.
I think overall, the concept is a net-positive for the show;
however, the one thing that still nags at me is the fact that they’re separate
spaces. Less so for the AFK room, as that makes sense, but the Diversity Lounge
rightly should be a space on the Expo Hall floor, like the Indie Megabooth. The
fact that there’s a sequestered space, while on the beaten path if you’re going
to panels, but still to the side, still feels wrong to me. The entire show
should be a safe space, and the Diversity Lounge should be placed in a spot
where more people will see it and have the opportunity to ask the questions
they need to ask.
#PAX, #DiversityLounge, #Cosplay, #GameDesign
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