Pacathon (event)

The Pacathon (パッカソン Pakkason) was a technology showcase held at the Ars Electronica Festival in Austria, in collaboration with Hakuhodo Inc. and Bandai Namco Entertainment. The event lasted from September 7th to 11th, 2017.
A second Pacathon event was reportedly held in 2018, based on user-submitted proposals themed around either human communication or education. However, further information about the 2018 event is largely unknown.
== Overview ==
Ars Electronica described the Pacathon as a reflection of Pac-Man's cultural impact as a franchise. The event was intended to analyze "human social instinct" via communication with other players.
Attractions seen at the Pacathon 2017 event included:
*Pac In Town - a multiplayer AR game following similar rules to the original Pac-Man.
*Pac-Connect - a physical table game involving "meeting" other Pac-Men, and conversing with that Pac-Man (the other player[s]) in real life.
*Funguage - a game where players communicated with each other using an "Emoji-like" language.
*EduCreation Lab - described as an educational tool that "stimulated creative thinking, including spatial cognition"; it involved a physical, child-oriented puzzle toy.
Pac In Town would later be shown at numerous other events, including the Namco Namja Town amusement park. Pac-Connect and the EduCreation Lab would be later exhibited at South by Southwest (in Texas) and Future Innovators Summit Tokyo in 2018.
== External links ==
*Official website (archive.org, Japanese)
*Section on Ars Electronica website
*Original press release (GoNintendo)
Category:Real-World
Category:Real-World locations and events