PAX Prime 2013 Panels – Where You’ll Find Me

Hold on to your swag, dear readers, today is the first day of PAX Prime 2013! By the time you’re reading this, I’m likely standing in a very long line to get in the door, to get in the Expo Hall, to get into a panel or to get some food because I’ve nearly starved waiting in other lines. But it’s PAX, so the line I’m waiting in for snacks might be The Elder Scrolls Online food truck! With PAX Prime having expanded to four days for the first time this year, there’s an absolute avalanche of things to do. As we talked about on our PrePax Podcast, there are at least two or three panels each hour of every day, starting at about 10 AM and usually not wrapping until after midnight. Using the Guidebook app, I’ve waded through this massive amount of content to pick out some of the panels I’m bound to be willing to wait three hours in line for. This is just a tiny slice of all that there is at PAX Prime – don’t forget to check out the legendary Expo Hall (now larger than ever!), tabletop gaming, diverse tournaments, after-parties, and more!

Friday

All Your Words Are Belong to Us: How Localization Works (And Why It Sometimes Doesn’t) – Friday, 4:30 pm, Raven

Localization (which is a little different than directly translating) is really interesting to me. The history of localization is a long one, reaching back to some of the most classic gaming dialog we have, stuff like “All your base are belong to use!” and “You spoony bard!” I’m looking forward to a talk about the ins and outs of localization with this panel of people who ought to know about it, including folks from The Pokemon Company and Bungie.

Friday Night Concerts – Bit Brigade, MegaRan, The Protomen –  Friday, 8:30 pm, Main (The Paramount )

Anybody who’s spoken for me for more than 5 minutes at PAX or in any other nerdy situation is well aware of my love of The Protomen. My streak of seeing them at every PAX Prime will continue this year, for sure. Last year’s show gave us a new track off of Act III, maaaaybe we’ll get some more this year? Personal bonus, MegaRan plays the main stage this year as well. He’s one of my favorite nerdcore rappers and I’m looking forward to hearing some tracks from his recently dropped Castlevania album.

Saturday

Everything We Know Is Sexist. Now What? – Saturday, 10:30 am, Wolfman

This is one of many panels about diversity in gaming at PAX this year. This panel caught my attention as it tackles the issue of sexism in gaming from the standpoint of industry professionals who are attempting to better diversify their games. We’ve got panelists from multiple studios and publishers, including Naughty Dog (The Last of Us) and ArenaNet talking about their experiences in attempting to create good female characters in games – both the successes and the failures.

Wildstar: Journey to Nexus – Saturday, 12:00 pm, Kraken

I’m super excited for this MMO, which is saying something, since as of Neverwinter I was pretty sure I was never going to be interested in another MMO ever ever ever ever. Carbine Studios has been releasing some pretty hilarious dev videos showing off features and gameplay from WildStar, so I’m excited to see how they handle our frothing expectations in person. Also swag?!

Keiji Inafune: From 8-Bit to Next-Gen and Beyond – Saturday, 4:30 pm, Kraken

The creator of MegaMan talks on this solo panel about his iconic career in the gaming industry, including his departure from Capcom and what we can expect from his personal studio. Dudes, this guy created freaking MegaMan. I can barely wrap by brain around how cool that is.

Chainsawsuit With Friends! – Saturday, 6:30 pm, Pegasus

I haven’t listened to the Chainsawsuit podcast, but I’ve heard a lot of great things about how funny these dudes are. The biggest draw here for me is Bobak Ferdowsi, aka NASA Mohawk Guy.

Sunday

Magic: The Gathering World Building Panel – Sunday, 1:30 pm, Kraken

I’m a huge dork for the lore of Magic the Gathering, for all the good and bad. This panel was a ton of fun last year and I expect it’ll be pretty awesome this year as we learn more about Theros, the next new plane we’ll be seeing in Fall. Theros is flavored Greco-Roman, filled with monsters, gods and epic adventures, so it’s a big of a departure from recent styles of flavor we’ve seen in MtG. Also, swaaaaaag.

Nintendo Panel – Sunday, 5:00 pm, Pegasus

I like Nintendo. Who doesn’t like Nintendo? Disliking Nintendo is like not liking fun. There’s not a lot of info about this panel out yet, but I’m hoping to see some info about Pokemon X/Y, aka Pokemon the MMO without the Massively Multiplayer part.

Late Night Dub Fight – Sunday, 10:00 pm, Serpent

This sounds like a ton of fun and very similar to the amazing voice actor panels of Emerald City Comic Con. I love funny panels that stretch into the late night at cons, they’re almost always a blast.

Monday

Gender Diversity in Games: Where Are All the Believable Female Characters? – Monday, 2:00 pm, Pegasus

Another panel about diversify video games, this one caught my attention due to the more serious bent of a examination and discussion of why and how the gaming industry needs to catch up with itself. This panel asks: gaming has gotten so advanced with graphics, systems, gameplay and more, but why hasn’t character diversity kept up? I’m looking forward to seeing how the panelists discuss the problem and solutions to it (hint: more women in the gaming industry plus an industry and fanbase that doesn’t treat them like crap would be a good start).

The Art of the Table: GMing Beyond the Basics – Monday, 2:30 pm, Raven

As I’ve talked about before, I am a very new GM when it comes to tabletop. I’m really interested in a discussion from experienced GMs – I’m always looking for new ideas, from giant zombie whales to NPC tokens.

These are just a handful of the panels I’ll be doing my best to attend this year at PAX (and I’m already wishing I could clone myself). I’ll also be sure to check out the tabletop gaming area (13th Age demos!), some of the video tournaments (Kirby mini-games!) and the Magic the Gathering play area (sealed M14 events!). Keep an eye out for Dorkadia at PAX Prime and be sure to say hi!

What are you excited to see at PAX Prime? Let us know in the comments!