For the past several years, I’ve been lucky enough to attend PAX South in San Antonio. Being a native of the city, it’s always fun to go back to the old stomping grounds, so to speak. But more importantly, this particular show is a fantastic meeting place for gamers and enthusiasts of all sorts in a region of the country that doesn’t see many shows of this type and size. For computer gamers, cosplay fans, and board/card gamers, PAX South has become the big destination and meetup of the year in Texas — and beyond.

PAX South is constantly evolving as a show, and we certainly saw that this year, with the strong presence of Microsoft’s new streaming platform, Mixer, which is developing some super-interesting functionalities that will allow streaming audiences to affect how the game they’re watching is played. Also of interest was Frostkeep Studios’ sneak peek at their upcoming game, Rend, which puts a new spin on the currently popular “Battle Royale” games.

I always like to try to contribute to the PAX shows by presenting panels on what, I hope, are topics of interest to the convention attendees. This year was no different, as I was honored to have some fantastic industry luminaries on two panels. The first panel focused on how to get started on a game industry career; the other was cleverly titled “Pay No Attention to That Mod Behind the Curtain!” and dealt with moderation methodologies in games.

Watch PAX SOUTH 2018 – Falcon Theatre – Choose Wisely: Entry Paths for Working in the Game Industry from PAX2 on www.twitch.tv

The game career panel (shown above) is always so much fun to do, primarily because the audience is always so passionate and curious. For this panel, PAX South assembled a great group of industry veterans, who offered advice based on their many collective decades in the games business. The panel was well-received by an appreciative audience, and many of the on-stage participants have told me that they think it’s a way of giving back to the fans.

The game industry moderation panel was a great, free-wheeling conversation about how different game companies apply moderation tactics, the pros and cons of various models, and what kind of experiences members of the audience have had with moderators. In all, it was a stimulating discussion, and proved once again to me that when it comes to video game moderation and support, ModSquad is truly at the head of the pack.

As usual, PAX South was an amazingly successful show with a great turnout. Thanks to the event organizers and all of the great attendees with whom I had the good fortune to spend time. I’m looking forward to PAX South 2019!

Rich Weil
SVP, Global Operations

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