PAX Pix

I’ll have more later (I know I promised this awhile back), but I wanted to post the link to the excellent pictures Megan took at PAX.  Here you go.

PAX Impressions Part 1

Yes, it’s been a bit over a week since PAX, but since I was still on vacation and still gathering my thoughts, I figured I’d wait until this week to post on it. I’m going to do this post in multiple parts. The first few parts I’m going to basically give my general impressions of the PAX, what I liked and didn’t like overall, and what I would maybe do differently if I went again. In the last part I’ll discuss the games I played and saw there in as much detail as I can remember. I think this will probably be 3 parts total, but we’ll see how it goes. So, without further ado…

Convention Organization

The convention has a somewhat overwhelming amount of stuff to do, which is certainly a good thing considering the number of people who decided to attend this year. But, it is a bit daunting and can lead to some confusion. PAX is basically divided into 4 different parts:

1. The Expo Floor -Basically where all the new, mostly unreleased games are being demoed, as well as other companies booths like mega64 or Razer.
2. Panels/Demos/Presentations - Includes playthroughs by the developers and forums like the Penny Arcade Q&As, the Gamer Dad panel, the Wil Wheaton panel, and even a gaming-themed Family Feud contest
3. Playing/watching games - Includes PC, handheld, and console freeplay, as well as various tournaments and of course the Omegathon, for which all rounds can be watched. Tabletop games also have tournaments and freeplay.
4. Concerts/Movies - Jonathan Coulton, Freezepop and others played, and/or you can watch various movies (or continue with gaming freeplay until 3 AM).

If I’m missing something specifically, it probably fits into one of these categories. In any case, within these categories there’s quite a bit to do, and I think perhaps this is where my confusion came in. I think I went to the convention mostly just to try out a bunch of new, unreleased games. In retrospect, however, I’m just not sure if this was the best use of my time.

Read the rest of this entry »

A Digital Convention

Penny Arcade’s Tycho (aka Jerry Holkins) recent comment regarding PAX struck me as a little strange:

“Things went well, but we’ll never be satisfied until the year that every con-goer fuses into a single, omnipotent digital entity. The convention’s biggest hurdle is that it happens to be held within the confines of the physical universe, with its intractable laws and finite space.  I wonder who we can talk to about that.”

Well, how about Microsoft?  Or Blizzard?  Or maybe Mythic, NCSoft, Cryptic Studios, or Linden Labs? I understand what Tycho is referencing here, but in a sense, don’t we already have several different ways for gamers to digitally meet and play together?  We even have several digital ways of gathering information about new, unreleased games that may be shown at these conventions.

The fact that the convention takes place “within the confines of the physical universe” isn’t a “hurdle”, it’s a feature.  Yeah, I get that he’s making a somewhat common geek joke, but I thought it would be helpful to remind people that if PAX were what he claims to want, it wouldn’t be nearly as special to people as it is now.

PAX-bound

I’m on my way to PAX this weekend, which will be my first time attending.  I will try to update about it as I can, though I’m not sure exactly how much time I’ll have and what my connection status will be like when I’m there. Drop me a line if any of you are going as well.  Hope to see you there!