PAX Prime 2015 in pictures: Cosplay, cartridge art, and classic gaming

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In the years since about 3,000 people gathered in a Bellevue, Washington banquet hall in 2004, the Penny Arcade Expo has grown into something that's hard to sum up in a single idea. Partly it's an E3-style showcase of upcoming games, timed just before the holiday rush crushes retailers and gamers alike. Unlike E3, though, it's open to the public, which means gamers will gladly wait six hours in line just to play a title like Ubisoft's For Glory or get a taste of the HTC Vive virtual reality headset. It's also a place where people will ignore those lines and spend all day playing Smash Bros. Melee in the console freeplay room or chilling out on a hallway beanbag chair for some pick-up Mario Kart on the 3DS.

It's also a mecca for tabletop and card gamers, with Magic: The Gathering taking up the majority of a four-floor building, a new indie board game area recognizing the form's Kickstarter renaissance, and a theater filled with thousands of people watching a single D&D campaign. It's an economic powerhouse, too, with gamers each spending hundreds of dollars annually on T-shirts, CDs, props, and hundreds upon hundreds of tradable pins.

It's a showcase of creativity, where cosplayers linger in the halls and welcome requests for pictures. It's a place for fans to recognize their favorite fan-creators, as well, from famous YouTubers to eSports eCelebs to webcomic makers to nerdcore rappers to journalists and developers who host panels from the ridiculous (The PAX Royal Rumble) to the serious ("Queering Up Misconceptions: LGBT Game Industry Life").