Denuology_PaxPt1

As famed developer Warren Spector pointed out in his opening keynote at the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX), gamers have won the attention of the mainstream. Gamers were no longer a subsection of society that gathers late at night around a card table or glowing monitor. Instead, gaming is the largest entertainment pillar in the world and gamers, in various forms, are everywhere you look.

The folks that descended on Seattle were a motley crew, indeed made up of tabletop players, teams of pro Halo players, costumed fans of franchises from the Far East, and t-shirt clad console gamers looking to get their hands on the next big things in gaming. Funnily enough, though, despite the diversity, the most evident feeling from the show floor was the stunning sense of normalcy.

Spector’s keynote was a fantastic trip down memory lane for folks raised on gaming. His epic career reads like the evolution of the industry, working in tabletop games before creating classic PC franchises like Deus Ex, then turning to reinvigorating Disney with Epic Mickey. All his history pointed toward an industry that has grown into the mainstream, yet fighting tooth and nail to remain counter-cultural.

Summing up his work and his future, Spector took a turn away from the rabble-rousing around gaming’s past, instead directly challenging gamers to be ambassadors for the new audiences coming to our beloved pastime, especially those in casual and social gaming, who have often found no help from core gamers in the space. Spector, once a former film editor, also called gaming, “the medium for the 21st century,” replacing film’s role in the 20th century. Finally, Spector reminded the crowd that gaming needs the mainstream to grow and survive, opportunities that can allow developers and gamers to put their best foot forward and further the evolution of the industry.

Celebrating the growth of gaming and, with it, the opportunity to have such an amazing convention such as PAX, comes the responsibility of capitalizing on these evolving trends. On a show floor packed with sequels, rebirths, and franchises that play to gamer tastes (all of which were awesome, by the way), there was an equal number of titles that invited new gamers to play, new game mechanics that embraced approachable gaming, and familiar faces retooled for a new generation (like Spector’s Epic Mickey). While some gamers needed the wake-up call that they were now the belle of the ball, most of the developers on hand are fully aware and loving every minute.

Gaming is no longer a singular target, a singular demographic, or a clandestine activity comprised of teenage fantasy enthusiasts. Gaming is everywhere. It’s up to us to figure out how that’s going to play.

 

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