PAX Online and 2020 the year of no Con's

So this seemed an inevitable thing Pax west has canceled the show in september with the way things are going with the current covid 19 nonsense and the general unrest since seattle where Pax West is held has a load of protests and an area where protesters have taken over police station things are currently peaceful but could always turn bad.

I managed to go to PAX East which I got back from early march about 2 weeks before lockdown kicked off and looking back it seems weird and strange at the time I was of two minds whether it was safe to go various groups had pulled out last minute (sony, cd projekt red, couple others) and an event like that where social distancing is basically impossible the boston convention center is huge but with 100k people in it you are still often shoulder to shoulder especially on the show floor. It feels now like it was a time of innocence before we really realized how bad things were going to turn.

So with September on the horizon and this being when they typically start selling badges they've cancelled PAX West. This was something that seemed likely I know they committed to trying to run it but I suspect that was largely just due to the cancellation issues with these huge events if the people running cancel they lose a lot of money if the event cancels they don't.

Anyway in its place they are going to run an online only PAX Online (https://online.paxsite.com/) now they have been streaming parts of PAX for years usually at least 3 streams on Twitch across 3 different theatres and sometime some of the competitive events. So I suspect it will end up being an expanded version of some of these with panels streamed (via twitch or zoom or one of the many options). they also plan to do some sort of version of the show floor not sure what they plan for that. Thye will also be selling the merch just in the store so you can just buy the normally exclusive pax merch online. Pax hoodies make up 90% of my hoodie collection (10% being that one astroneer hoodie and that's way too many hoodies for someone living in a place where winter is not really a thing :S)

All in all a good thing and not wholely unexpected but I wonder with the way things are going how long it will be before a con is safe and viable in the realworld while they are opening up a little it's still small groups few people and distanced (although again some would say even that is premature) theres no way to run a con or large event and not have it basically spread the virus like wildfire.