How the PAX Wiki Can Help You Plan a Trip to PAX

Updated

The PAX Wiki at pax.wikidot.com is a community-written resource for the Penny Arcade Expo, organized around the questions attendees actually ask: what PAX is, where it is, how to get there, who else is going, what there is to do, and what hotels, food, and other services are nearby. It is most useful in the early planning stage, when you are deciding what to attend and how to structure your days. Because the content is contributed by attendees rather than published by PAX itself, treat it as a starting point and confirm anything time-sensitive against official PAX channels before you commit money or travel plans.

What the wiki covers

The site is built as a set of topic pages rather than one long article. Its main navigation splits into event information, community events, and travel.

Event and activity pages

These describe what happens at PAX and help you decide where to spend your time:

  • PC Freeplay
  • Console Freeplay
  • Tabletop Gaming
  • BYOC LAN Party
  • Tournaments
  • Panels
  • Concerts

Travel and logistics pages

These are the pages you will use most while planning:

  • Attendee Map
  • Area Guide, with sub-pages for Transportation, Food, Hotels, Entertainment, and Parking
  • Advice
  • Group trip pages such as Canadian Supertrip, Cross Country Supertrip, and West Coast Train Trip

Community and orientation pages

The homepage frames the wiki around a short list of questions: What is PAX? Where is it? How do I get there? Who else is going? What is there to do? What hotels, food, etc. are in the area? What else should I know? What companies will be there? What panels will be at PAX? What special guests will be at PAX? How do I contribute to this site? Each of these points to a page or section, which makes the homepage a reasonable first stop.

How to navigate it

  1. Start on the Main Page and read the orientation questions. They tell you which section answers your question.
  2. Use the left-hand navigation to jump to a category — Event Info, Community Events, or Travel.
  3. For logistics, open the Area Guide and then the sub-page you need (Transportation, Food, Hotels, Entertainment, Parking).
  4. For group travel, check the trip pages (Canadian Supertrip, Cross Country Supertrip, West Coast Train Trip) to see how other attendees have organized shared routes.
  5. Use the Page Tags index to find pages by theme. Tags in the evidence include food-related terms (beer, breakfast, burger, burrito, coffee, crepes, dinner, lunch, mexican, microbrew, pasta, pastries), travel terms (canada, coast, desert, drive, exchange), and event terms (pinball, pins, happy-hour). Tag browsing is often faster than guessing page names.
  6. If you want to add or correct something, the site offers Create account / Sign in and an Add a new page option.

Expected result: within a few clicks you should land on a page that answers a specific planning question, such as where to park or what food is near the venue.

What it is good for, and what it is not

Planning need Does the wiki help? Notes
Understanding what PAX is and what activities exist Yes Event and activity pages list freeplay, tabletop, LAN, tournaments, panels, concerts
Choosing transport, parking, food, hotels Yes Area Guide sub-pages cover these
Finding other attendees to travel with Yes Group trip pages exist for several regions
Current dates, prices, badges, schedules Not reliably Community content can lag; check official PAX sources
Official exhibitor, panel, and guest lists Not reliably The wiki asks these questions but official channels are authoritative

Common pitfalls

  • Stale details. A community wiki reflects whoever last edited it. Hours, menus, and routes change. Verify before relying on them.
  • Assuming coverage is complete. The tag list shows a food-and-drink focus alongside travel topics, which suggests uneven depth across subjects. A missing page does not mean an option does not exist.
  • Treating it as official. The footer notes content is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 unless otherwise stated, and the site is powered by Wikidot — it is a fan resource, not a PAX publication.
  • Skipping the homepage questions. They are effectively the site's table of contents; jumping straight into tags can bury you in loosely related pages.

Practical use

Use the wiki to build a shortlist — a hotel area, two or three food options, a parking plan, and the activities you care about — then confirm each item against the official Penny Arcade Expo site and forums, which the wiki itself links to under Useful Links (alongside PAX IRC and PAX Twitter). That combination gives you community-level detail for planning and official-level accuracy for anything you are about to book.