Wednesday, February 16, 2011

PAX is good for families

So I haven't posted in... way too long. I'm surprised I still have loyal readers who keep coming back to check! I keep changing jobsand throwing my life into disarray, which takes precedence over blogging for me.

Anyways a while back I read Scott Jennings rant on Penny Arcade and PAX.

Scott Jennings:
But the problem is PAX. PAX, or Penny Arcade Expo, has fairly quickly become the primary go-to convention for gamer culture – what everyone who tried to sneak into E3 thought E3 was supposed to be. Lots of lan parties, game demos, 2nd tier science fiction actors, and Jonathan Coulton concerts. Geek nirvana, essentially. And game companies have embraced PAX because of that critical mass of success.


Basically "the problem" is he doesn't think people should support PAX because the people behind PAX are also the people behind Penny Arcade. Like maybe we shouldn't support whatever company he works for because of his opinions on his blog? Penny Arcade is an adult and often offensive webcomic. It is my third favorite webcomic and I can firmly say it is third because as much as it sometimes makes me laugh it can not infrequently gross me out and much more frequently offend me. Not as badly as "Saturday Night Live" has a penchant for grossing me out and offending me (i.e. Ambigously Gay Duo), but still all the same Penny Arcade does. So should I boycott every Dan Akroyd movie because he was one of the creative minds behind SNL?

Maybe Scott Jennings would like to denounce Child's Play too? The charity which raises millions of dollars to help out hospitalized children all around the world on behalf of gamers, typically the youngest generation who are normally less likely to be involved with charity?

Here is my take. You don't want to support evil, but Penny Arcade is in no way evil and it is the free expression of a couple of artists which you don't have to follow if you don't want to. PAX and Child's play are entirely separate entities. There is no good reason not to support them if you feel like it.

So just because I go to PAX every year and take my two daughters, doesn't mean any of us are supporting over endowed wolves or sex offending fruit juicers. It does mean we support gaming and having fun!