What: Pax Prime Seattle
Where: Grand Hyatt and Convention Center
When: August 28-31
The Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) is a series of gaming festivals held in Seattle, Boston,Melbourne and San Antonio. PAX was created by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, the authors of the Penny Arcade webcomic, because they wanted to attend a show exclusively for gaming. Created in 2004, PAX has been hailed as a celebration of gamer culture. Defining characteristics of the festival include an opening keynote speech from an industry insider, game-culture inspired concerts, panels on game topics, exhibitor booths from independent and major game developers and publishers, a LAN party, tabletop game tournaments, and video game freeplay areas. Every PAX also features the Omegathon, a festival long tournament consisting of a group of randomly selected attendees competing for a grand prize. The final round of the Omegathon makes up the closing ceremony of PAX.