PAX Australia was at the Melbourne Convention Centre and it’s so easy to get to from the airport.
Basically I took a Skybus to the city and from there you could either take a city hotel shuttle or pretty much just walk.
Anyway this was my first ever PAX! So yay.
It ran for three days and it’s purely a gaming convention with panels, competitions and well, gaming.
It’s very exciting if you like games, really. Also, the cosplay scene is much more ‘chill’ compared to Singapore but the gaming scene is more intense because this is like THE gaming convention event of the year.
From digital to analogue, it was pretty much play time or get gear for your gaming.
Ok, I spent time taking pictures at the standees like Mario, Far Cry and the other ‘backgrounds’ too.
Retro gamiiing, yes you can play or even join a tournament.
This is so cool, Detroit: Being Human had actual humans as the random characters there. Yes, they were paid to stand and model, Ubisoft is on the other side, yes you can totally see it in the background too.
I like dance games though and it’s fun to watch people having fun with Just Dance, dancers who will dance in the background with you.
Oh, not pictured but I did go around the indie showcase too that’s a very good set up that took a lot of space too? Nothing too crowded and you could walk around and even buy their merch?
Apparently pins are a thing there. I learned there was official pins and well, not official pins for PAX.
Which is interesting because on the Singapore convention side, pins are on an increase but these are not ‘official’ just artist merch pins.
Twitch was there and I got to see their set up and pretty much how their streaming works. Plus the chemistry of the Twitchers talking to each other. Also I learned there was just 1 twitch rep for Australia?
How does one be a rep for Singapore then… Do we have representatives?
Plus there were freebies like fidget spinners, posters, pins, stress balls in the random giveaways besides the mini contests that could win you a gaming rig, graphic cards etc etc.
This was frankly fun because the emcees knew how to rile up the audience.
There was also a multiplayer PUBG tournament (duh, PUBG is always multiplayer) going on and everyone was excited when one team finished and won without dying.
4 out of 100.
And of course the crowd went wild and all. The people in the crowd are also nicer? There are freebies tossed about but for ‘heavy’ dangerous things they’d pass it carefully to people since there’s no kiasuism involved.
I went to some panels too and AHHHH I MANAGED TO MEET DAVID GAIDER and that was lovely.
I want to say that convention food is awesome here?! Like the heck.
This is a $10 set but the vege pizza is like so good? I tried a salmon bagel for one of the other days and really, what. Like whattt why are they at not exorbitant prices yet super good and filling?
Cosplayers galore but I had to take pics of Carmen Sandiego.
She’s everywhere in the world…
Ok, what I bought from the Aetherworks booth was these two games in the Tabletop section of PAX.
It’s Cafe Romantica and Senpai Notice Me.
Yes, both are trashy romance animuuu type games.
Cafe Romantica is when you are trying to build the best host club in school while Senpai Notice Me is a game where you need to get uh, your senpai to notice you.
 
Australia also seems to have blatantly gamer wear shops. I got this cap from Filthy Casual because alas, I’m still a pretty casual game player on Overwatch.
How did I find my first PAX? It was fun and the people are more chill but more intense in gaming?
Well, it’s cause Australia’s pretty big and this was the ultimate place to buy all your gaming stuff especially when there’s convention sales. There were metal DICE and they look so good but I don’t D&D with people here.
They have more people who can provide monies to bring in guests and really good sponsors and activities happening for those 3 days.
I don’t think Singapore has the ‘size’ enough to provide enough money for our own organizers here to have anything at that scale but I’m glad I can see we are also improving at our own gaming conventions. We’re still “young” anyway in those terms but ahhh. PAX Australia really is an experience. Maybe I might see how their other conventions are like, like Supernova one day.
