The Tribes and Clans at PAX

When I walked onto PAX, I knew it would be intense. The sheer size of it all is overwhelming. There were multiple floors, and buildings with videogames, boardgames, and even just regular games. The massive wall of people from the ECCC was present. Then I realized something, it wasn’t one big videogame event, it was multiple clans and tribes meeting at once.

This takes a lot to explain, especially since clans and tribes can change uses depending on where you are. Basically, there was the major clans on the main floor. Then we had a small showing of the Arcade clan. The PC gamers were just amazing. There was geekery. The boardgamers had a full floor. The students were on various wings. There were two Indie shows. Finally, there was just games, one of which I am sort of worried about.

Trying to explain the differences between clans and tribes can be very tricky. For example, the Navajo clan system sounds a lot like the Samoan tribal system. It gets even weirder when you realize that Navajos are just a tribe within a larger group called Dinata, which includes Apaches, Navajos and other tribes. Then you have an even larger group called Native American. Saying someone is Native American is about as useful as saying someone is from Eurasia. I have made that mistake. I met a Czeck couple that were having a hard time saying things in English. I tried speaking German to them. Didn’t really help.

Clans tend to be smaller parts of a tribe. This should help out only a little bit. Within Navajo, a clan is represented by an animal or place near the clan. So there is the Bear clan, the Wolf clan, the Sweet Water clan, and others. It is against the rules to marry someone within your clan. They have clan leaders who then help out at the big meetings within the Navajo nation.

Samoan tribes breakdown into clans as well. I tried finding a good explanation for how the clans work, but am sort of lost. There is also a class system in Samoa. A chief of a tribe is called a Matai, and his family is part of the royal class. However, it can be changed around if someone shows enough political, financial, and other strengths. This is also common within Hawaii, and even Tonga. Branching further from that is difficult for me to explain, and sort of not the point of this article. I do feel bad  that I can’t explain it better though.

Because of the way groups like tribes can be changed around, it can get very confusing. One tribe on an island may have peace with another, but be at war with another, which the second clan is totally at peace with. If you ever wonder why Legalese gets confusing on these things, its because they are trying to separate all of the different interactions within groups in a concrete way.

The same could be seen at the show. There were multiple tribes, and clans, but they all worked differently depending on who you were talking about.

The main floor was massive. It actually went into two buildings. There was also side showings of lesser games from the same clans all over the place. I enjoyed Fantasia Kinect in a 4 star hotel. The floors displayed by the clans had two major colors black and white.

When I walked onto the mainfloor, I felt unworthy to  be there. Most of the games on display were not something I was into. There were some cool things there, and lines that wrapped around the floor. One line had only 15 people in it, and it took a 2 hour wait to play. I think that display was changed around because I never found it again.

There were statues twenty or so feet tall.

Far Cry 3 had people fighting each other in furry suits.

The larger tribes and their display were used to promote the idea of a common nationalized image of gaming. The Gamer was this type of person, and loved this type of game. If you didn’t like these games, you were not a true gamer.

It was so large, and over the top that after a while the giant screens, and big displays stopped being amazing. They were just one large mashed together promotion, even though they were separate tribes.

The ceremony of waiting in line was to promote the tribe. I think the Borderlands line had the coolest display for that. They had various things on display to promote how big and amazing the game was. You couldn’t see them unless you were in the line to play the game.

There was also the side shows with the lesser games. They had displays for them all over Seattle. One of them was a bus that drove people to various spots. They handed out very bad tasting soda.

Another was a block away, and handed out meat. You didn’t get to play the game, but they had game videos. This was the display that I feel sort of bad about. They had me hashtag them to get the food. I felt sort of like a sellout doing this.

In an expensive nearby hotel, I got to play the new Fantasia game for Kinect. It is like the various dance games, where you move your arms to arrows. I enjoyed it, and did not score well. The line was about an hour long, and led to other lines. There were four different displays on the game.

I am not kidding when I say that the displays were in black and white. The black theme was supposed to be manly and tough. One booth was so over the top on that subject I had a hard time walking through it. The white displays were things like Nintendo, Twitch, and others. I will try to talk about it in another article.

I was with the arcade show. We only had 20-30 games. It was actually hard to find. We were on the third floor away from the main area. It was a good display, and had a lot of fun games. It also describes Arcade enthusiasts pretty well. We were packed all day, and the Simpsons game got beat about 4 times a day.

The PC gamer area had two sections. One was where people showed off their rigs. The second area had already prepared PC’s everywhere. It was really big.

source And not 2014

The geek shops were mostly on the bridge. I bought an 8bit tie from Geek shop.

Then we have the boardgame areas. They were all over. The second and third floors had a bunch. It was set up just like the other displays. The dealers had large rooms set up for people to play.

There were miniatures, and amazing displays. The folks there were friendly.

Various schools had displays. I tried out the Digipen displays. They had things set up sort of arcade like. I played a game about a jellyfish robot that threw bombs. It was a lot of fun.

The Indie shows were various sizes. The topmost floor of the convention building was entirely for indie shows. The bigger indie companies had displays on the main floor, and wrapped around the edge of the building. It was weird to think that Behemoth was now a big time Indie company. The indie booths had the smallest lines, and some really cool set ups. A lot of the demo stations looked like arcade games.

On the last day of the show, a local Indie group showed off various games. It was sort of hard to find. The entire show there felt like an Indie music show in Seattle. I found a few games I enjoyed there, and will try to talk about them later.

Finally, there was old school tribe. On the top floor, there was rooms open to play all sorts of old school consoles. It was set up just like SRGE, but with way more systems. There was a modern playing area as well. You requested a game, and left a shoe or something with them. They gave you the game, and told you where your designated console was. I didn’t play a lot there, simply because it was loud, and I was trying to find some quiet on breaks.

There were also other spots that can’t be described as clans but had importance. The handheld gaming area really wasn’t about a specific group, and more about relaxation. I stupidly didn’t think to bring my DS because they had a bunch of games to try out in that area. You could play the various systems, and just relax. This is actually in my mind something that could be designated as a sacred spot among the tribes and clans. They come here to be one with games, and not battle about who was what.

I found a lot of people asleep here later in the day.

There were spots within the building that were eating, and relaxation areas. People of all tribes would gather at them, and talk. This was where the most conversations happened.

In fact, there was one spot called the AFK room specifically for letting the quiet in. I used that room every day because of how loud and busy the arcade would get. A presenter actually loses a bit of his mind while trying to deal with all of that. The AFK people also handed out donuts, and were really friendly.

It took a lot to see, and I really didn’t feel like I saw it all. I did my best, but I didn’t really get to see the Wisemen often. The wisemen are the ones respected enough to be given a room to speak on things. Alexey Pajitnov was there, and I didn't see him. That was a really big disappointment.

There was also the inter tribal games. This wasn’t so much a competition, as a way of trying to get along and have fun. These were in places that were mutally acceptable by all clans and tribes. This means things like random hallways, and escalators. We were all on the same trail, and thus didn’t worry. A game was introduced, and I played the crap out of it.

The game is this, try to get as many high fives as you can while on an escalator. To really score, you have to speak to the folks going the opposite direction with your hand in the air. I think my top score was 60. My lowest score was two. I averaged about 15-20 on the busy days.

You don’t specifically play the game all the time, just whenever you are on the escalator. I watched some folks wait for a bigger group to be on the escalator for a high score.

The last day, I actually stood next to the escalator, and high fived as many folks as I could. The only reason why I stopped was because someone informed me it is against the rules. This was an hour and a half high five session. It was probably the highlight of the entire convention for me. Later that night I realized I had done a census check on who went to the show. A really good memory comes in handy at times.

Before you ask, I got sick after returning from PAX. I am really worried about how much of the germs I spread to others. On the other hand, I also loved that moment, and would do it again. We just need some hand sanitizer to be handed out right before the escalator.

The tribes and clans could be broken down a little bit. The large tribes like Microsoft, Nintendo, and Capcom had various clans. The major clans would be on the show floor, while the lesser clans would be elsewhere. I have to be careful how I say that, because some of the lines for the lesser games were just as long as the big ones. The line for Super Smash Bros had the same wait as Hyrule Warriors. Yet, Hyrule Warriors was off the main floor.

At the Indie show, one person could represent an entire game. At larger tribes, most of the people were part of a single clan (PR department) of the tribe. You could ask them questions, but they could only give you answers based on their clan. Then you had to realize that each game had an inner clan, and then other clans within that clan. It got really confusing really fast figuring out who was what in which tribe, clan, and so on.

The matter gets even weirder when your realize that you can belong to several tribes at once. I speak Navajo, a little bit of Hawaiian, some yiddish, and several forms of English. This comes from moving around a lot in my life. Each language had an importance where I lived, and I had to know them. There are people who grew up with Spanish parents, went to a French school, and grew up around German kids. So, what is that person? Is he French, German, or Spanish?

The answer is all of them. Because of how cultures mix, there is no one dominant culture. We say there is, but that has more to do with nationalized ideals than reality. In the same way, you see the dominant tribes in gaming like Nintendo, or Ubisoft, and they proclaim that gaming is a specific thing. Then you realize that there are all sorts of tribes, clans, and even clans within clans.

Within Hawaii, there is no pure Native Hawaiian. Everyone tries to celebrate their many cultural heritages. Within the Navajo nation, you have several clans, and probably more purity. However, within Navajo thinking, there is no such thing. You are Navajo because you do Navajo things. In the same way, you are part of Hawaii because you do local kine stuff. You can be German, Hawaiian, Japanese, and Phillipino and be part of each of those groups.

You can be a big tribe gamer, and love some arcade games as well. The dominant tribes may have no sway on you, but those indie guys and boardgames are awesome. Yet you are a gamer. The term itself is as large as the idea that Native Americans are the people that are native of the Americas.

The Big tribes were on the main floor, and had clans within clans, and shows spreading across the city. The arcade clan was hard to find, but busy. Indie games were on several floors, but never really getting the attention others did. The boardgames were open and fun. PC games had one floor in another building, and it was very impressive. Then there were places where the tribes met, and even talked. My favorite memory is from a game where the tribes met.

Trying to figure out what was a tribe, and what was a clan in the convention was really hard. I could see that there were differences, but they there was a lot of complexity to it. The show tried to separate them a bit, just to keep things organized. They still gelled and swirled together.

One of the reasons why I found all of this fascinating is that the Northwest Pinball and Arcade Show will have a boardgame section next year. I will be trying to bring in some classic console folks as well. The balance question of how to set things up is difficult to work with for that convention since it is for the Arcade tribe. The clans within it are pinball, and then video arcade folks, and how they interact. Would classic consoles or boardgames work with it? How do you keep the centre as Arcade tribe, but allow others? It’s a lot of good questions to ask, and worth checking out.