![]() Complimentary lockers (first-come, first-served) are all in use – rows of padlocked black wire cages stacked three-high. ![]() I have four hours until hotel check-in so I plop down in the media room. I receive cryptic Twin Peaks-esque instructions from a local: “find the huge paint brush.”Ĭlaes Oldenberg’s “Paint Torch”sculpture (2011) outside the entrance to the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Art on North Broad Street. Lost, I overshoot by that exact half-mile difference before finally asking for help. The bad news: PAX has radically changed its layout since 2021 – including its main entrance on Broad Street and not Market Street – a half-mile difference. The good news: it’s my second PAX in a row so I know to use City Hall as North Star navigation. I walk 20 minutes from the train station to the convention center. The train ride south buzzed with enthusiastic, non-Quiet Car chatter: someone lamenting their forgotten lucky D20 a hot take argument about octopus familiars a long soliloquy titled “The Three Perfect Story Arcs of Andor.” The Walgreens was full of thickly backpacked PAXers making last-minute snack and energy drink decisions, taking care not to spin too fast and knock merch (or friends) to the floor.ĭue to contractual obligations I visited the Warhammer booth at PAX Unplugged 2022 each day. These backpacks are blocky, wide, and tall – roughly the size of a dorm room fridge (and maybe just as heavy). I saw dozens of people with the same premium board game duffle backpacks double-shouldered on their backs as they idled in the cavernous atrium and hostile architecture ( no seating ) of Moynihan Train Hall. It was easy to spot who else was Amtrak-ing it to the Philadelphia Convention Center for an all-things-games weekend. Jerry notes that, “For many of the usage cases in children's hospitals, electronic games tick a lot of boxes.I was in Penn Station waiting for the Amtrak’s Keystone Service train to take me ninety miles to PAX Unplugged, a three-day board game and tabletop gaming convention which takes place each December. ![]() This is also evident when examining the types of games that Child’s Play donates to children’s hospitals around the world. It just feels good.”Īs tabletop gaming continues to move towards a mainstream audience, we see a younger generation dive into the various types of board game options. I'm not especially competitive in any of these contexts! Maybe there's no way to discuss it without being annoying: I feel like I'm sharpening my mind on these games. For Jerry, it’s a mix of being highly enjoyable, but also something more, “Without getting too philosophical about it, I've been trying to figure out what I find so appealing about painting my minis or choosing where to put a meeple. Some players love the social aspect of getting together locally to play a game, while others may prefer the strategy that comes with a new game and can be madly competitive. While video games can be an enjoyable solo or multiplayer activity, so too can tabletop gaming, but in a completely different way. I'd be sad if I couldn't get a roast pork, broccoli rabe, and sharp provolone sandwich from the Market after the show.” When asked if they would be looking at other venues in the future, Jerry says, “We don't currently have anything like that in the works. PAX Unplugged has been held in Philadelphia for its entire run, and this looks to remain the case in the future as well. The tabletop sections have grown so big and so focused that they feel like conventions already!” The concept really came from the overwhelming demand for more tabletop space at PAX East and West, as Jerry describes, “PAX Unplugged is very much the runaway vigor of the Tabletop Sections of the other shows, given a chance to express itself. The first and second year for PAX Unplugged could certainly be considered as testing grounds for the concept of a tabletop-centric event, though there was little doubt that it would succeed because there are already several other massive shows devoted to the board game industry.
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