One of the chief complaints I had about going last year was that I didn’t attend too many panels. This year, I decided that I would spend one of the days going to some panels that I wanted to see. Day 2 allowed me just that (but I did go to a few on Day 1, and I will talk about those as well).
My first panel of PAX was Anxiety and Depression in Gamers. This small panel was full of emotion and coping mechanisms for video game fans who happen to live with these conditions. It was comforting to know that this type of programming was available and also that some of the feelings and experiences I’d had over the last few months were not unique to me.
As a side note, PAX featured an ‘AFK Room’ which had volunteers to help attendees who may need to talk about things or just simply get away from the chaos of the convention floor. The fact that such an option is available is tremendous.
The great thing about it was that the panelists, even after getting kicked out of the room, stayed behind to talk to people and even offered their contact information in case someone needed to talk later.
I attended another panel, held at the Bioware Base, about leveraging your skills to get a job in the games industry. It offered tips and the experiences of the panelists who almost all came from another industry.
On Day 2, I began with “All the Feels: Empathy in Indie Game Narrative” which included the creators of This War of Mine (11 bit Studios), Always Sometimes Monsters (Vagabond Dog), Ninja Pizza Girl (Disparity Games), Gone (Logan Harrington), and Project Untold (Anna Megill, the link is to her Patreon but it does describe the game’s intention. I am not endorsing or encouraging anyone to contribute, there’s just no official site yet!). The center focus of the panel was how these games created empathy by telling stories from perspectives that were previously not told from.
This War of Mine, which has received several accolades and was also available at PAX East 2014, tells the story of war from the perspective of the civilians who live (or don’t) through the conflict. When the topic of whether or not this was exploitative of the victims of war, he said war games that glorify war and conflict were more exploitative. The other panelists seemed to agree with that statement.
Ninja Pizza Girl tells the tale of a pizza girl who works for an independent pizza shop against a giant mega-corporation who suffers from the bullying of the pizza ninjas for said mega-corporation. The main protagonist, a teenage girl, is modeled after the developer’s teenage daughter, who told her parents that the biggest enemy she faces is other teenagers. It’s pretty cool that her parents made a game about her being a kick-ass pizza girl.
After that, I attended a panel about Game Developer Livestreaming. It is what you expect, developers streaming the progress of their projects and answering questions via Twitch.tv or YouTube or the medium of their choice. This is a really awesome trend that I expect will catch on with more studios over the next few months.
I spent a good portion of the afternoon of Day 2 at the Bioware Base. I attended “Women in Game Development” and “Dragon Age.” As someone who aspires to one day be a part of the game industry, the insight was tremendous.
Patrick Weekes, who recently became the Lead Writer for Dragon Age, shared the changes that were made to the game. Did you know the Inquisitor almost got their job at the beginning of the game (as a figurehead)? Did you know The Iron Bull almost had one hand? Neither did I. Thankfully for us neither of these made it into the final game.
If you didn’t have an opportunity to attend a few panels, some were streamed on Twitch.tv or YouTube and some were even recorded independently and should be available soon.
Which panels did you see? Were there any that you wish you had been able to make? (I missed GameOverGreggy’s panel on Sunday) Let me know!
