So the very first PAX East is over.1 I guess I’m a little late reporting about my experience, but I haven’t forgotten all the good parts. I couldn’t believe that it actually sold out. I hadn’t realized how popular PAX was, having never attended the convention held in Seattle, WA. 2 For the few nerds out there that haven’t heard of PAX: Shame On You! No, I’m just kidding since I didn’t really know who or what they were until relatively recently. Anyway, PAX East is a three-day game festival for tabletop, videogame, and PC gamers that includes tournaments, freeplay areas, panel discussions,3 nerdcore concerts, and an exhibitor hall crammed with booths flaunting the latest from top game publishers and developers. Yeah, it was pretty awesome.
But this convention was also an exercise in patience, or the “hurry up and wait” dogma. There were an estimated 60,000 attendees4 which made getting into the popular panels a tricky business. You really had to pick and choose which ones you wanted to go to. If there were two back-to-back you had to determine which one had priority in your little nerdy mind because the enforcers5 would not let you stay in the room. You were forced out between panels. It actually ended up being a good thing due to the sheer volume of people milling around, but most good panels had a minimum of a one hour wait time. As in, if you wanted a good seat you better line up for the panel at least an hour before it was to start. And I kid you not, there was one panel6 that I literally waited in line an hour to get in line for another hour!
Friday Panels I attended:
PAX East 2010 Keynote, 3 pm – 4 pm
Will Wheaton was the speaker. Nuf’ said! It was phenomenal and I encourage everyone to see it in its entirety. Here’s Part 1 as found on YouTube:
He talked about many topics including: how some mock those that like to play Rock Band instead of learning to play a real instrument;7 how he was first introduced to gaming through D&D; loves his dice enough to get upset when his kid picks them up. My favorite was when he said that conventions are the original social network, existing way before MySpace and FaceBook. His last words of advice included: Take a shower every day, wash your hands frequently, and don’t be a dick. Really people, go watch it. It’s worth your time, I promise!
The First Penney Arcade, 4 pm – 5 pm
This panel came directly after the keynote speech with just enough time to let people leave or enter when there was room before they started. I really didn’t know much about this panel when I stayed for it, but with as much time as I spent waiting in line I was going to stay as long as possible. Well, that and the next thing I wanted to go to didn’t start until 9:30 pm! Anyway, it was Gabe and Tycho from Penny Arcade answering questions from the audience. Two mics had been set up on the floor and two in the balcony to give plenty of opportunities for the fans to ask away. Not a bad panel and there were plenty of funny moments, but I don’t know if I would find it necessary to go again unless I had something I wanted to ask.
Mega64: Panel for the Soul, 9:30 pm – 10:30 pm
Totally fun and worth missing the first part of the Nerdcore concert series. The cast and crew of Mega64.com8 were in attendance as they showed some new videos and answered questions from the audience. I didn’t really know much about them other than they did live action video game parodies on the unsuspecting public. They were all so fabulously funny when answering questions that I found myself just sitting back waiting to see where the conversation would go next. The Q&A session felt more like a conversation rather than the dry ask-a-question/get-an-answer format that panels can usually degrade to.
Saturday:
A Sophisticated Evening with Rooster Teeth Productions, 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm
This was the one panel I definitely wanted to go to. I’m completely obsessed with the Red vs. Blue series that Rooster Teeth produces and was ecstatic to see that they are starting a new season. What was even better was the surprise announcement of a new member to the staff, Monty Oum. Monty’s early work includes Haloid, featuring the highly improbable scenario of Master Chief from Halo fighting Samus Aran from Metroid, and the crazy-insane Dead Fantasy series which has millions of views all across the internet. I recommend you check it out if you haven’t heard of it already.
Not only were we subject to this awesome announcement, but they also premiered 4 episodes of the new season of Red vs Blue, stuff that won’t be released to the general public for a while. Totally worth the two hour wait!
Hal Halpin & Adam Sessler Talking Games, 7 pm – 8 pm
ECA (Entertainment Consumers Association) president and founder, Hal Halpin, and Adam Sessler, G4tv.com, discussed hot topics affecting the video game industry today and took a look at trends that could impact the future of gaming. I found it rather informative since I had no idea something like the ECA even existed. I was just there to see Adam Sessler! When I visited their web site to learn more I found out that the ECA “is the non-profit membership organization that represents consumers of interactive entertainment in the US and Canada. The association was founded to give gamers a collective voice with which to communicate their concerns, address their issues and focus their advocacy efforts.” What’s really interesting is that they offer their members “benefits including discounts on games-related purchases and rentals, as well as community and educational initiatives.” Hmmm…
The LoadingReadyRunPanel! 10 pm – 11 pm
This panel was also one that I have never really heard of until going to PAX. It’s a hilarious sketch comedy group with all kinds of nerdyness to tickle your funny bone. It included the crew of LoadingReadyRun.com, the Desert Bus for Hope Charity Drive, and The Escapist’s Unskippable where they showed videos and took questions. They also filmed the audience looking bored to be included in one of their sketches, although I don’t know which one we were supposed to be in!
Sunday:
X-Play LIVE: A Show on Television, 1 pm – 2 pm
The PAX on-site book informed us that:
“Through 12 years, 3 name changes, and over 1000 episodes X-Play has persevered as the most watched videogame show on television.”
Well that’s certainly true in my case! I love this show, even when I don’t love the games they’re reviewing. This panel started off by showing some clips of the sketches they will sometimes do on the show, very funny abuse of their interns, and even a communiqué from their special guest star Ratty.9 After a while of answering our questions, the panelists thought it should be our turn to prove our knowledge of the show and gave out t-shirts to those that had correct answers. All of this was taped and used in one of their episodes on the inside look of PAX East 2010. And yes, I made sure to sit in the second row and was on TV a few times laughing and clapping like the colossal awe-struck gaming nerd that I am.
In between the awesome panels, and waiting in line for said panels, I could be found trolling the Expo Hall looking to play any game that was available. And there were plenty! Some of my favorites include:
- Joe Danger: a game where you are a stunt motorcyclist, lots of unintentional crashing on my part here
- Comic Jumper, The Adventures of Captain Smiley: too long of a line for me to actually play this one, but it looked fun and will be coming to Xbox Live arcade
- GraviTroniX: An action/battle game for 1-8 players. Simple but totally fun and is available now on the WiiShop Channel for 500Wii points
- Calling: No, it’s not THAT kind of game. It’s actually a pretty nerve racking, intense, spooky, ghostly game on the Wii, I know, a game that isn’t just for the kids on the Wii, imagine that
All in all I had a nerdtastic time and will try to go again next year. Although they had to move the venue from the Hynes Convention Center to the much larger Boston Convention & Exhibition Center for 2011 and 2012 due to the sheer volume of people that went this year.
- Actually, it’s been over for a few of months, now! [↩]
- By the way, PAX Prime is in downtown Seattle, WA, September 3-5 this year. [↩]
- Some of which featured the Penny Arcade boys [↩]
- Twice the number originally planned for. [↩]
- aka: the PAX staff [↩]
- X-Play LIVE [↩]
- he gave many reasons why they should stop talking and let us enjoy the game [↩]
- Rocco Botte, Derrick Acosta, Shawn Chatfield, Garret Hunter, and Eric Badour [↩]
- A “ratty” and insulting groundhog hand puppet [↩]
