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Perusing the schedule for PAX Prime in Seattle reveals a startling number of panels populated by and dedicated to community managers. We count six (technically five) panels alone on the subject and numerous panels with a community manager on board to explain some aspect of the video games industry.

Look at this picture and decide if the character is a community manager or an angry fan. Kind of like a psych test, isn’t it?

At PAX 2008 in Seattle, there was only one panel that had anything to do with community management. At PAX East in Boston this year, there were about three panels. Now we’re looking at five panels, one of which is broken into two parts with more than a dozen experienced community managers between the six sessions.

One of those community manager, Activision’s Dan Amrich, explained the uptick as a result of gamers’ evolution. “The core requirement of a CM is strong communication skills — forums, Twitter, talking with other gamers,” he said. “A lot of gamers already do those things, so I think they’re naturally curious to know if they can do that as part of a gaming career. Right now it looks very attainable, as so many companies add CMs to their rosters.”

Amrich worries, however, that it’ll be hard for gamers to balance their identity and their identity as a spokesperson in the role of a community manager. It’s very difficult even for experienced professionals, so like Amrich, we’re curious to see how community managers present themselves at these panels — as serious professionals, or as seriously lucky fans with the best job in the world.

Below are the five panels in order of importance to GamePro. The full PAX Prime schedule is posted here.

Saturday, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM, Serpent Theatre — Twittering for the Man: Social Media & Game Publishers
Panelists include: Larry Hryb [Director of Programming for Xbox Live, Microsoft], Dan Amrich [Social Media Manager, Activision], Jeff Rubenstein [Social Media Manager, SCEA], Jeff Green [Editor-in-Chief, ea.com, Electronic Arts], John Davison [Editor-in-Chief, GamePro]

Why it’s important: This one we know was a partial response to our analysis piece on community managers. Our now-ex-VP of Content, John Davison, still holds the moderator role and we look forward to seeing him verbally spar with Jeff Green.

Sunday, 12:30 PM – 1:30 PM, Wolfman Theatre — SO I HAVE THIS WEBSITE…

Panelists include: Matthew Pruitt [FPS Community Manager, Electronic Arts], Jon Goff [Community Manager, 343 Industries], James Stevenson [Senior Community Manager, Insomniac Games], Justin Korthof [Community Manager, Robot Entertainment]

Why it’s important: This one seems shooter-centric, which makes us wonder if there really is a difference between a community manager on a shooter versus a community manager on a massively multiplayer online game.

Friday, 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM, Unicorn Theatre — The Various Roads to Becoming a Community Manager
Panelists include: James Stevenson [Senior Community Manager, Insomniac Games], Jay Frechette [Community Manager, Visceral Games], Allison Thresher [Community Manager, Harmonix], Arne Meyer [Community Strategist, Naughty Dog], Jennifer Kye [Company Blogger, Gameloft], Sam Huston [Independent]

Why it’s important: Time was, the panels at PAX were all about getting jobs as game reviewers or as programmers — this is the first real panel about getting a job as a community manager. Might be a fun experiment to attend both this panel and a games journalism job panel to see how many job skills both professions have in common.

Friday, 2:30 PM – 3:30 PM, Pegasus Theatre — The Community Manager Challenge
Panelists include: Larry Hryb [Major Nelson, Xbox], Stephanie Bayer [Community Mgr, Bioware], Alexis Hebert-Ruiz [Community Mgr, Terminal Reality], Sam Houston [Social Media Mgr, Perfect World], Christa “Trixie360″ Charter [Xbox], Arne Meyer [Naughty Dog], Will Kinsler [EA Sports], Kathleen “cookiecups” Sanders [Xbox Indie Games], Robert “fourzerotwo” Bowling [Infinity Ward], Jeff Rubenstein Rubenstein [Playstation], John Drake [Manager, Communications and Special Projects, Harmonix]

Why it’s important: This panel is actually a trivia game show, as we understand it. Whatever it is, it’s supposed to be so entertaining, they’re doing it in two parts.

Saturday, 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM, Pegasus Theatre — The Community Manager Challenge Part 2
Panelists include: Larry Hryb [Major Nelson, Xbox], Stephanie Bayer [Community Mgr, Bioware], Alexis Hebert-Ruiz [Community Mgr, Terminal Reality], Will Kinsler [Community Mgr, EA Sports], Sam Houston [Social Media Mgr, Perfect World], Christa “Trixie360″ Charter [Xbox], Arne Meyer [Naughty Dog], Will Kinsler [EA Sports], Kathleen “cookiecups” Sanders [Xbox Indie Games], Robert “fourzerotwo” Bowling [Infinity Ward], Jeff Rubenstein Rubenstein [Playstation], John Drake [Manager, Communications and Special Projects, Harmonix]

Why it’s important: See above.

Friday, 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM, Serpent Theatre — What Do Fans Want? Fan Feedback on Community
Panelists include: James Stevenson [Senior Community Manager, Insomniac Games], Allison Thresher [Community Manager, Harmonix Music Systems], Arne Meyer [Community Strategist, Naughty Dog], Ben Swanson [Senior Community Manager, Visceral Games], Stephanie Bayer [Community Manager, Roundhouse Media]

Why it’s important: Community managers aren’t the only one in this industry who drive themselves crazy searching for the answer to the “What do fans want?” question. Their answers, though, are bound to be very different than a developer’s or a journalist’s.

UPDATE: PAX organizers tell us today that the two Community Managers Challenge panels are canceled.

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