I’ve been going to, and covering, PAX Australia for 10 years now, and I’ve loved every event I’ve attended. Sure, there are some things I don’t like, but overall things are great when you go and get amongst fellow gamers to talk and celebrate this hobby that we all share.
However, this year will be a bit different for me due to some changes in my lifestyle that happened recently, and this gives me a way to view PAX Australia from a whole new perspective.
So, What Changed?
July 7th, 2024 is a date that will be with me forever. Two days beforehand was my 7th Anniversary with my wife (relationship, not marriage), and I was in pain. I was having back pain for about two weeks before that, which is not uncommon given my background of not lifting correctly during my younger years and a few years of pro wrestling. July 7th is a key date because that morning, I was hit suddenly with Cauda Equina Syndrome.
As you can see in the image above (Not my X-rays, but ones found through Google Images), a bludged disc formed between my L5 and S1 vertebrae, located in my lower back, and shot like a bullet into the nerves that run down the spinal column, doing damage to them and resulting in half of my left leg going numb, complete numbness in my pelvic region (both sides), and extreme back pain. Thankfully, my wife was around and called the “Nurse on call” system which recommended I get an ambulance IMMEDIATELY and go to hospital… I was in surgery the next day.
Coming home, I have been in recovery ever since. Cauda Equina Syndrome has a 18-month recovery time and I’m currently in month 4. The result of getting the disc removed from my spine is that all those damaged nerves are going to recover at a rate of 1 millimeter per day, which is a slow and painful process.
I’ve had to make a lot of adjustments to my life since coming home. I’ve had to retrain my body to use the bathroom, how to walk again, and move in ways that will not put too much strain on my back. When I go out, I can walk short distances with walking sticks (I was using a walking frame for 2 months after leaving the hospital), and for longer distances I need a mobility scooter to ride around in.
Riding around in a mobility scooter has given me a lot more respect for the disabled community, especially those who need a scooter or wheelchair to get around. The world is not that friendly to people who need wheels to get around. Ramps are not available at a lot of buildings, and stairs without railings are a thing too. It’s amazing how people can get around and take walking for granted.
So for PAX Australia, I’m attending with a mobility scooter for the first time and I’m interested to see how they accommodate people who need a chair on wheels or scooter to get around.
Pre-PAX Accessibility Requests and Requirements
Research became one of the big things for me when I had to make changes to my ability to move during PAX Australia. I needed to know the policy of the venue and the convention in regards to mobility scooters in the expo hall and if there is anything I need to do to be compliant with anything they require. It’s not them who have to adjust, it’s me.
Luckily, PAX Australia has a somewhat clear Safety and Accessibility policy outlined on their website. They allow wheelchairs and other mobility aids inside the expo hall throughout the weekend, which helps me a lot. They also have a “Medical Badge” which lets the staff know that you might need assistance, allows access through another door, and skip the main queue hall (skipping the game lines… who knows, that might be up to the individual booths). I was able to email PAX Australia and obtain a Medical Badge to use throughout the weekend.
While getting around inside the hall is going to be a pain because let’s face it, people are assholes and won’t bother to get out of the way of people in scooters or wheelchairs, staring them down like they are a problem instead of a human being; at least I’m allowed to use a scooter inside the venue.
Getting that mobility scooter was another problem. I had no idea where to hire a scooter without needing to get it dropped off at my home and then take public transport to get it into Melbourne where PAX Australia is being held. Not only that, but I had no idea if my hotel, which I booked months before my surgery, would accommodate the scooter (They don’t, despite saying on their site that they do. They wanted to charge me $500 extra to change rooms to something closer to the ground floor to use the scooter in their location… No thanks). Thankfully my Mother-in-Law found and suggested Travellers Aid, a transport hire location in Southern Cross Train Station that hires out scooters and other aids for use in Melbourne.
Booking a mobility scooter was a very simple process via an online form, complete with costing. So I made a booking, then called them to ask about leaving the scooter with them each night to avoid the hotel charging me extra to keep it there. They agreed to allow me to bring it back, charge it overnight, and pick it up each morning.
With everything researched and booked, I’m ready to go to PAX Australia with a mobility scooter.
Pre-PAX Australia interview Surprise
PAX Australia is a part of Melbourne International Games Week, which is a full week-long event. A lot of what goes on during this week starts with Developers and Publishers having talks with students who are looking into or are studying to, get into the world of game development. This part of the week rarely does things that the general public would be allowed to attend or access, but this year, ACMI (Australian Centre for the Moving Image) brought out a guest speaker that almost required them to do something that everyone could see or access. As you can see from the photo above, the guest speaker was the Director of Final Fantasy XIV Online: Naoki Yoshida.
Tuesday night saw ACMI host a special “An Evening with Naoki Yoshida: Pushing Boundaries in MMORPGs”. This was a “Fireside Chat” that was hosted by Yoshida-san, who went over how he handled the redesign and continued improvement of Final Fantasy XIV Online. You can view the whole event here.
The following day, I returned to the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre with instructions to meet a Square-Enix contact at a specific door. I knew what this was about and I was excited. Square-Enix was kind enough to get me 45 minutes to sit down with Yoshida-san and talk about anything I wanted… With exceptions of course.
The interview went very well. We walked about the development of Final Fantasy XIV, general development lessons and experiences, and a few other things as well. All of the topics and the answers will be released soon on The Outerhaven YouTube channel, so keep an eye out there for when the video of this interview is available.
PAX Australia: Day 1… Let’s Get Down to Business
The day started with a little miscommunication between Travellers Aid and me. I was quoted $220 ($120 for hire, $100 security deposit) for a 3-day hire of their larger mobility scooters, which I had no issue with, but when the guy at the counter brought the total to $180, we got into a bit of a debate by what is meant by the hiring terms. Turns out it’s an overnight hire (Friday to Saturday is one day, Saturday to Sunday is two days, etc), not a per-day hire as I believed. With that sorted out, I was on my way… very slowly as this scooter had a maximum speed of 6km/h (3.73m/h)… to the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.
Arriving at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre wasn’t too bad. There is one ramp through the main entrance that is easy to access and the building has automatic doors for disabled persons to access for entry and exit. Lucky for me, the Media Desk/Room was just off to the left from that entrance, making getting my Media Pass easy. (After explaining my condition as the Media people remember me from past years) I went to the Info Desk where I got my Medical Badge, which informed the Enforcers and booth holders about my needing help to access things… Not that the big mobility scooter wasn’t a giveaway. So I jumped into the line for media and was the first in the door on the Friday of PAX Australia.
Day 1 of PAX Australia is “Business Day” for me. As a member of the gaming journalism community, I have to go around and give a speech to every business I can find to secure review codes for the upcoming year of gaming. Despite what others might tell you, as an independent website, we must constantly prove and sell ourselves to the big (and small) game developers and publishers to get the games we bring to you on this website.
Final Fantasy XIV Online: Dawntrail
Believe it or not, Final Fantasy XIV Online’s booth wasn’t my first point of call on the day, as it just happened to be the first booth I drove past after getting one of the Enforcers to take a photo of the queue room. My FFXIV contact just happened to be standing near the entrance as I was getting close to the booth and he brought me inside to show off what was happening this weekend.
During PAX Australia, there were a few different things that people interested in, or playing Final Fantasy XIV, could do. There was a Challenge mode there where players would face off against a raid boss, or new players could experience some of the general content, or sign up for a free trial of the critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV, which includes the entirety of A Realm Reborn AND the award-winning Heavensward and Stormblood expansions up to level 70 with no restrictions on playtime? Sign up, and enjoy Eorzea today!… Yep, the meme is real! There was also a small photo area where you could do poses with some standees of Final Fantasy XIV characters too.
People who did specific things through the booth could qualify for a few goodies from Final Fantasy XIV. The main draw was a blue bucket hat with “I’m here for Tacos” on it, and either a Sprout or Master Moogle pin. I’m not sure what you had to do to get these goodies as they were just put into my hands as a part of being a part of the Final Fantasy XIV media crew.
SEGA: Two Point Museum and Nothing Else
One of the more interesting companies to appear at PAX Australia, at least when they were announced, was SEGA. The draw of the blue Hedgehog is still strong in the gaming community and surely SEGA would have something based around their upcoming Sonic x Shadow Generations game… right?
Well, as you can see from the image above, all you got was a chance to take a photo with Sonic at the booth. Pretty disappointing to be honest.
However, SEGA did bring a game with them: Two Point Museum, the next entry in the Two Point series of games. Unfortunately, due to the time restraints of the media hour almost being up by the time I was able to get to the booth and finish talking with the PR manager, it was time for the horde to descend on the convention and I had no chance to get to play this title. But given it’s the same as the previous Two Point Hospital game, I don’t think there is much reason to spend time playing that when I could be doing other things.
UBISoft: A Few Ok Games
Right across from the SEGA booth was UbiSoft. They had 4 games on offer, The Crew MotorFest, Star Wars Outlaws, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, and something else that I can’t remember. It did seem that UbiSoft didn’t want to show off anything new, as most of these titles were already out or due to come out soon. There was a big push for Star Wars Outlaws, having the biggest of the 4 titles in terms of the display area, with a photo op backdrop also being available.
GamePass for Charity
Microsoft promoted their GamePass service in a very interesting way. Their booth, called zaPCat, was made up like an old-school games store. You had shelves on the side that promoted all the games that are available via PC GamePass, an old original Xbox promotional display stand, and a retro PC that was so old that I was afraid to touch it as it might turn to dust… But man, those old-school keyboards sound so bad. We’ve come a long way in keyboard design.
In the back of the store, after you go through the DOOM portal, you enter a room where there are a bunch of modern PCs available to play some of the PC GamePass games that are currently available on the service.
But that was not all. If you went to the counter, you could get a zaPCat membership card that was done in the style of the old membership cards you used to get through video stores. You could also get a keycap for your keyboard for a small donation of $1, the proceeds of which go to Cancer research (You could also donate if you had coins into the spinny bin in the middle of the room). I donated $10 and got 10 keycaps, which feature games like Quake, DOOM, the Xbox branding, and other games. A worthy cause that I had no issue donating to.
Visiting the Indies
Independent games are a HUGE part of PAX Australia, giving new and upcoming developers a chance to be seen by the community and garner interest in their game getting a full release… eventually. For those interested in the lineup of this section, there is a Stream page that you can find here.
For me, I got to spend very limited time with two games specifically: Whisper Mountain Outbreak by Toge Productions, and Which Way Up: Galaxy Games by Turtle Flip Studios.
Which Way Up: Galaxy Games was a really popular game, with people lined up to get their hands on this game. For those who don’t know about this game, it is a party game where you and three other people battle it out in various games like “Grab the alien”, “Drop the bomb” and others. The twist here is that Which Way Up: Galaxy Games uses a gravity system that feels like Mario Galaxy, where your jumps will send you flying outwards to another surface… or into space if you miss. This gives Which Way Up: Galaxy Games a very challenging nature as not only are you playing against others, but you are playing against the game itself. The Outerhaven will be keeping an eye on this game and will bring you gameplay on our YouTube channel very soon.
Whisper Mountain Outbreak is an isometric survival-horror game that is done in the same vein as Resident Evil. You play a nameless character who gets dropped into the area of Whisper Mountain and must survive while uncovering the mystery behind the outbreak of the undead. While this sounds like a straight-up Resident Evil game, there are a few twists involved. The biggest twist is that every 5 or so minutes, a horde of zombies will chase you down no matter where you are, and if you don’t have enough ammo to take them down, you’ll be eaten alive. The other difference is that while the game is isometric in nature, you can turn the perspective around to see things from another direction, giving you more to see and find other items. Whisper Mountain Outbreak has a demo available on Steam that you can find here.
Hands-On with the Steam Deck
I went to have lunch with my wife in the Media Room, during which time I had a message from Keith asking me to go and get some hands-on photos with the Steam Deck… Wait a minute… THE STEAM DECK IS IN AUSTRALIA!?
It turns out that during the countdown in the queue room, Gaben himself appeared on screen and announced that the Steam Deck is going to be available for purchase in Australia starting in November. Well, since this was an order from the boss himself, I went to the Valve booth and waited “in line” (aka parked near the entrance and waited to be let in) for my chance to get my hands on the Steam Deck for the first time.
Impressions of the Steam Deck are quite favorable. While the device is a bit larger than a Nintendo Switch, and has a lot more inside it, the Steam Deck was surprisingly light to hold, with the grips working very well in my hands. As someone in my pod of three mentioned, having the vents on the top of the unit was a good thing, as your hands won’t get hot and it doesn’t blow out too far that it annoys people around you.
I played a Portal game that had you testing the product line that goes from toilets to the classic turrets that we know in the proper game. Since this was a Valve game that was designed to give you the best impression of the design of the Steam Deck, I found the experience very enjoyable. The buttons on the Steam Deck were comfortable and responsive, and the trackpad was fun to use. I hope that Valve will allow me to get my hands on the Steam Deck again leading up to its release next month.
Day 1 was pretty full on for me, and I didn’t even mention things like stopping by the Bushiroad booth to see friends there, the Magic: The Gathering booth to see my WOTC contacts, or catching up with my friend Chani, who we gave a custom Pop Vinyl with her name on it, and an Asuka keychain. Even with all of this happening, I went back to the hotel at around 3:30 pm since my body was hurting a lot by this time. I spent over 6 hours at PAX Australia on Day 1 and had a great time… Little did I know what Day 2 was going to be like.
PAX Australia: Day 2… Never Again
Day 2 of PAX Australia, held on a Saturday, was nothing sort of hell.
I left the hotel around 10 am, hoping to avoid the crowd that would gather, and thanks to the medical badge, I did just that. But once inside the main Expo Hall, I was met with a wall of people that either would not move, limiting my ability to get around; or walk in front of me, hitting myself or the scooter. I would get stares of “Why are you here with that?” everywhere I tried to go. The experience was very depressing as PAX Australia prides itself on its inclusion of people from all walks of life, so having the community treat me with such disdain and repulsion made me feel like crap.
Safe to say that I went from one side of the convention to the other, and then went back to the hotel. Disappointed and questioned myself as to why I bother to try and do anything while in my condition. Hell, this experience was so bad that I went into a depression cycle that almost forced me to give up on the whole weekend and go back home, leaving my wife alone to ride out the rest of the event and the hotel stay on her own. Thankfully, she was able to calm me down and get me to stick around for the remainder of the hotel stay.
I can understand “Magpie Syndrome” as there is a lot to see and do at PAX Australia, but people need to be aware of their surroundings and the other people around them. While I thought I was more noticeable in the mobility scooter, I felt worse for people in wheelchairs or on walking sticks who would be suffering the same looks of disgust and the bumps that come along with people not paying attention.
For a community that is meant to be all about inclusion these days, this community was so selfish and self-absorbed that it ruined the experience for myself and others like myself. This needs to change.
PAX Australia: Day 3… Shopping!
Day 3 of PAX Australia is what I like to call “Shopping Day”. Traditionally, as it is the end of the weekend, most places that are selling goods will discount their items to save money on sending things back to their stores or warehouses. During this time my wife and I would go around and get some of the bigger ticket items at a reduced price, getting full value for the things we purchased. However, this year was different. 90% of the vendors didn’t bother reducing prices at all, saying that they needed to keep things at full price to recoup costs. But that didn’t stop us from doing some shopping and finding the few bargains we could… But before that, we spent some time watching the Party Troopers dance out the front of PAX Australia with a bass playing Darth Vader.
I Finally Understand How to Play Disney’s Lorcana
While shopping was on the menu for me on this day, I did notice that the Disney Lorcana booth had a very small line for the first time that weekend, so I took up the chance to go and learn the game. While I have been covering Lorcana since it launched in Australia, I didn’t know how to play, so the product that I have at home was just sitting there as a collector’s piece instead of the game that it was intended to be.
The people at the Lorcana booth were very helpful, making room for me to get around inside the booth with my scooter, before setting me up with a few other people in order to go through the basics of the game. If you have played Magic: The Gathering before, then you already know 90% of the basic mechanics of Lorcana, though the terms have been rephrased to avoid a lawsuit from Wizards of the Coast. Overall the game was enjoyable, with only one small issue appearing during my time with the game. The issue is the action cards, which are only allowed to be used on your own turn instead of being instant cast spells like in Magic. If they changed this so that when challenging between cards you can use action cards in a defensive sense, then the game would be really good and advanced to play.
The Outerhaven will bring you more Lorcana coverage in the months and years to come.
Feeding the Broly Addiction
I’m an old-school anime fan, and one of my all-time favorites is Dragon Ball; specifically the character of Broly. So it was understandable that I would have to find something at the Dragon Ball Heroes card booth to add to my ever-growing Broly collection. I visited the booth twice during PAX Australia, each time buying some Broly cards from the Dragon Ball Heroes sets. Both times I went there, the staff were very helpful in finding and getting cards out for me to look over, and then doing me a great deal each time. You can see some of the purchases in the photo above.
If you’re in Australia and want to buy some of these cards for yourself or want to fill the holes in your Dragon Ball Heroes collection, you can visit Dragon Ball Heroes Australia here and get yourself some great bargains.
Dice for a Cause
I always try to help out a good cause when I can, and Random Encounter Dice comes along to PAX Australia every year and does a very simple thing: A random disc roll where the result of which will give you a set of their well-made dice, and part of your purchase goes to charity. Additionally, there was a new thing added to this random dice roll event where if you rolled a natural 1 on the dice, Random Encounter Dice would donate $5 to the Starlight Children’s charity. The total at the end of the weekend was $845, a worthy additional donation to a great charity… Even if the Dungeon Master who did the random rolls got his horn out more than once in front of women and children.
My wife and I both rolled for charity and got dice sets as a result and were more than happy to do so to support this charity. We look forward to doing it again next year.
Gaming the Retro Way
While PAX Australia does a lot to highlight the future of video games, it also loves to look to the past and remind all of us how old we really are. The retro games experience has a lot of older video games, going back to the origins of gaming with consoles like the NES, Calicovision, Commodore 64, and even my first gaming machine: the SEGA SC-3000. Seeing all these consoles being played by the old gamers alongside their children is always a sight to see as it shows that gaming is truly one of those hobbies that transcend age and are enjoyed by all.
Other sections here were the Arcade section, where people were lined up to play games like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Street Fighter 2, Popeye, Pac-Man, and many others. This area gave the old vibes of the Arcade days, complete with the lines… Just no one dropping coins on the cabinets to say who was next. It gave my heart some joy to see this happen again.
The other section, as seen in the background of the photo above, was the pinball section. This area showed pinball machines across the ages, with some modern LCD display models mixed in with the traditional mechanical models, and even some of the original wooden pinball machines. If you ever get a chance to see this area yourself, then this is a must-see area that you have to spend a lot of time at.
There Was a Furry Wedding Hosted by a Lamb
You might have heard of the surprise hit indie game Cult of the Lamb, the Rogue-Lite Life Sim that has taken the world by storm decided to do something very unique and different to promote the game. For most of PAX Australia, you would be able to get a special pin by going to the Alter of the Lamb and confessing your sins… Within reason. Of course, you couldn’t admit to things like murder or actual crime, or use curse words (they auto-censored) to confess your sins; but if you wanted to confess that you have a Steam backlog of over 100 games, that you think Resident Evil 4 is overrated, or other such things, then you could do so… But beware, your sins will be displayed for all to see and judge.
On Sunday though, Cult of the Lamb conducted two weddings on site, which are legally binding according to Australian Law, complete with a real Celebrant that would read a somewhat modified version of all the legal terms that are included in Australian weddings. While I didn’t attend these weddings personally, I managed to find my way onto one of the upper walkways where most of the media gathered to take photos of the event, which also has some videos out there on the internet.
The first wedding featured two people in Furry suits tying the knot together in the eyes of the Lamb. This was one of the more interesting and different weddings to see as not only was it between two people in Fursuits, but it was done almost as a tongue-in-cheek with modified vows given by the Celebrant in attendance, and the people themselves. The second wedding wasn’t as much of a weird-looking one, as a couple of normal people got married in traditional wedding garb.
Wife Score Amazing Deal at Good Games
As it was beginning to get to the final hours of PAX Australia, the wife and I decided to go on one last hunt for bargains before heading back to our hotel room and relaxing, as we did daily, in the spa that the hotel provided.
One of the things that my wife wanted to get her hands on was the Dungeons and Dragons: Wrath of Ashardalon board game kit, something that was going for $150 at the official shop that was on site, but she was able to find a copy for $85 at Good Games, which she was able to haggle down to $65 on Sunday. I would have settled for the Cookbook, but that is just me.
With our shopping done, and my scooter starting to drain its power, we returned to Southern Cross Station where I returned the scooter, and found out that due to a scratch along the back rear bumper, I would be losing my $100 security deposit. Saddened, we made our way up Bourke Street to our hotel to retire from a long and exhausting weekend to relax before heading home.
All of what you have read above is just what I got to see and experience at PAX Australia this year, but I didn’t cover over half of it. The board game and card game sections are just as big as the video game side of things, with vendors and creators all over the place selling and displaying games of all levels. There are also events going on in the hallways, a chill-out room upstairs, and other sections of the venue, not to mention a lot of panels that you can see yourself via the PAX, PAX 2, and PAX 3 Twitch channels. There are also side-gigs going on during the weekend too, hosted by communities and companies all over the Melbourne CBD. PAX Australia is a large weekend where doing everything is an almost impossible task, but a task worth trying none the less.
Post-PAX Activities and Review
Before heading back to Mooroolbark, our home suburb, and getting back into the swing of the everyday grind, my wife and I decided to do something that we have been wanting to do for a long time and visit the local Melbourne SeaLife Aquarium.
Some of you might have heard of the Melbourne SeaLife Aquarium due to one of its more recent arrivals, a large brown fluffy penguin called Pesto. As it was now a Monday with the school holidays over, we decided that this would be the perfect time to see not only Pesto but all the creatures of the sea at this well-made venue.
You wouldn’t think of it by the small building under the train line leading to Flinders Street Station, but SeaLife is a HUGE venue, taking up three layers that you have to navigate around. Unlike the previous three days, I did not have a mobility scooter to help get me around this building, but I was using my walking sticks, which made the whole experience very exhausting but well worth the effort. We saw fish from all over the world, sharks too, and some of my favorite animals: Turtles. To say that I would spend all day looking at the Turtles at SeaLife is an understatement.
We continued around SeaLife for what felt like forever, but was only around an hour and a half, ending with the Penguin exhibit, where the loveable Penguin Pesto was having a standing nap in one of the enclosures. Even sleeping, Pesto was a poser, looking like he didn’t give shit about the people wanting his attention, but giving them a show at the same time. As it was the Penguin’s nesting season, we got to see many Penguins laying on beds of stones, warming their eggs as they waited for the time when new life would emerge into the world.
Thus ends our work/holiday known as PAX Australia 2024.
Positives: The Enforcers and Event Organisers
One of the big positives this year was the Enforcers. The Enforcers are people who are meant to help get people around the venue, find the right locations for panels, and help those with Medical Badges gain access to booths. In previous years, these people had an ego the size of a planet, and would pretty much do nothing helpful, but instead act like Nightclub Bouncers, telling people to move all the time and physically shoving them out of their path when people won’t pay attention. As Media, we feared the Enforcers as they would go out of their way to make Media’s lives as much of a living hell as possible, as Keith mentioned on a Spectator Mode podcast episode we recorded before I attended PAX Australia.
I’m not sure who complained, or if people complained enough that this year the Enforcers were given a one-hour speech about how they need to act towards the Media, Medical Badge holders, and the general public. One Enforcer I spoke to about this mentioned that if they were caught being disrespectful or forceful to anyone, they would be told to surrender their shirt and leave the building. I cannot confirm or deny whether the rumor of three Enforcers being marched out of the venue is true or not, but if it was, then this is a huge turnaround in the way the Enforcers will behave in the future.
As a Medical Badge holder, there was never a time when if an Enforcer was around, I wouldn’t have them stopping traffic to let me through, help me get into a booth, or have me skip the line (With booth holder permission), or just ask if I was doing ok and if there was any way that they could help make my PAX Australia experience better. For all of that, I am thankful.
The Media Room guys, as always, were a pleasure to deal with. Not only did one of them remember me from past years, giving me my badge without needing to show ID, but both of them helped out with opening the door to the media room when I approached, allowed me to store my walking sticks, and just have some good old fashioned chats. Again, some great people to work with at PAX Australia who make the whole experience a joy to attend.
Negatives: The Community and Other Things
As I said before during Day 2, the community of PAX Australia, meaning the actual people attending, are some of the most selfish and self-absorbed people I have encountered during my time in my condition. It was so bad that I ended up losing my $100 deposit on the scooter because someone brushed up against the scooter, putting a huge scratch along the back side bumper. Frankly, this is something that could have easily been avoided if people paid attention to their surroundings of people rather than charging through the crowd to go where they want as fast as possible.
The looks were another thing. I felt so excluded during the whole weekend when it came to the community. Getting around isn’t easy for me, but to see people looking down at you like you shouldn’t be there is something that no one should go through. Then there are the comments. Don’t think I didn’t hear people saying things like “Ugh, stop taking up spare” and the complaints when I entered the booth before you because I didn’t line up in the actual line. Even recalling all of this for this recap article is making me depressed. But I need to point out that there needs to be more consultation with the community about dealing with people with disabilities, maybe even saying that the disrespect and problems would result in their ticket being revoked or something. People with disabilities are people too and deserve the time to do things in the convention just as much as they do.
Outside of the personal issues I encountered at PAX Australia, there needs to be a few small changes made too.
- Limit the amount of technology sales booths. PAX Australia is about games, not hardware. Over half the venue was hardware booths
- Get more game booths. I know not all years will have Nintendo, Microsoft, or Sony, but try to get more games to appear
- No more photo booths, they are lazy and boring
- Stop booths from holding gatherings in front of the booth to throw out swag, this clutters up the walkways and makes it hard for anyone to get around
- Add Media Door access for the whole weekend. Some media have early interview slots on Saturday and Sunday, so we need access to the hall ASAP, not after the 10,000+ people have entered
- Talk to retro game sellers or stores and get them to trade at the event
- Kings Comics has to go. I know they are Sydney’s largest comic shop, but how about giving All-Star Comics a chance, they are a Melbourne institution and are more well-known by the locals.
- The event is in Melbourne, stop having so many Sydney companies at the event selling goods.
- Companies like Aussie Broadband, Crunchyroll, Samsung, and LG took up way too much floor space and drew no crowd. Don’t bring them back.
While some of these complaints sound like they are coming mostly from me, a lot of the complaints listed are from the everyday normal PAX Australia attendees who spend big money on tickets, hotels, travel, and other things to attend this three-day celebration of gaming.
Look, I understand that Australia isn’t a billion-dollar spending nation like the USA, Japan, or the whole of Europe are, only contributing a meager few hundred million each year to the bottom line of Publishers and Developers, but we would like to feel like those companies give a shit about us. This year many people walked away from PAX Australia dejected by the fact that most of the big companies didn’t want to attend, or did token gestures like photo booths instead of showing off their games.
A final word of advice to people looking to attend PAX Australia in the future from a disability needs perspective: Go either on Friday or Sunday as the crowds are lower. Saturday is too crowded for you to attend and enjoy the event as people are going to be bumping into you and treating you like you are the problem, which you are not. I know Saturday is the time when people have the time to go, but trust me, take the day off work for a Friday, or attend on Sunday.
PAX Australia is like rolling a D20, sometimes you get a natural 20 with everything feeling huge and exciting, and other times, you roll a natural 1 and everything feels lackluster and low effort. PAX Australia, from both a normal attendee and medical needs attendee standpoint, felt like rolling low on the dice, around a 5 to 7. Maybe next year the Dungeon Master will be a bit more forgiving and stack the adventure with more exciting fairs.
