Awesome stuff that totally happened to us...

Shaddz

So I know that PAX 2008 was awesome. Not for me, though, seeing as how my friends ditched me, my at-the-time girlfriend dumped me, and I sprained my ankle on Saturday, preventing me from going on Sunday.

However, PAX 2009... Holy fucking baby Jesus...

I arrived to Seattle on Thursday, so we could get our hotel room set up. Being a new addition to the team of Dynamic Works Productions' Kotakuite Podcast (http://tinyurl.com/m55bb5), I went to the hotel (the name escapes me) where the badges were, on the way making some new awesome friends. Breezy, youre amazing...

But, while getting our badges, I met Andy Pfister from G4, and got flipped off by Shane Bettenhausen cuz of my relation to TimT (http://tinyurl.com/nhu97h, from last year), and my reminding him of such an epic event...

Then, I got totally wasted off Crown Royal (YUM), and wandered the Hilton at 0300, where I met possibly one of the coolest Enforcers ever, Rot-26. On my way back up to my room, I encountered A Wild Snorlax in the form of the largest man Ive ever had to ride an elevator with; He was stinky drunk, and dressed as Harry Potter.

Friday was pretty awesome, as I was handing out cards to as many devs as possible, and I got yanked into the Capcom Resident Evil: Darksider Chronicles (I think thats what the subtitle was...) shooter for the Wii...

Then of course, Metroid Metal was amazing, and my Sensei, MC Frontalot, rocked the house once more, to my supreme enjoyment...

But Sunday.

Oooooh Sunday.

Earlier in the morning, about 30 minutes before the PA Q&A panel, I ran into Mike and Jerry as they were coming out of a Tabletop room. I got my pic with them, where I discovered that Mike really, REALLY likes me cologne... Yeah, Im that guy.

I got the idea to hose one of my biz cards with my cologne and present it to him at the panel... I didnt know itd make me nerd-famous.

To all of you who were present, and who clapped and/or sniffed me, I thank you. I always have low self-esteem, but damn, I was walking on cloud nine.

So, yeah, that was my weekend.

Anyone else have any similar experiences?

ccarroll85

ME and my wife had several things happen. Starting on Friday we got an email from a nice gentleman in seattle who had extra passes and sold them to us for face value (saturday only) At PAX on Saturday we were in line waiting for the shuttles to the Zendikar Party at Trinity Night Club.

While in line, my wife heard a couple people say they were going to walk to the club instead, my wife asked if we could tag along and they obliged. On the way we carried a very jovial conversation, one of the four people gave my wife some pax 08 and 09 buttons which my wife loved. My wife mentioned that we were going to try and find passes for the next day since we were enjoying it so much (we were only planning to attend one day and drive home) , the Gentleman said that his friend had two extra passes for Sunday and that we could have them for free. This was amazingly kind. At the Club was pretty nice, we hung out with the guys and enjoyed the retro and newage jams which ensued. Upon leaving my wife and I headed the the hotel where the guy's friend had the passes for Sunday. We retrieved the passes then realized we needed a hotel for the night. We probably tried 5 or so hotel's and were laughed at inside each one, because they had been sold out for a while. My wife text messaged the VERY nice gentlemen we had hung out with and the guy said he had contacts within the city. He got us a hotel at the Maxx hotel for just $80 dollars, WITH A FREE BOTTLE OF WINE! I just want to say to Allan and Jacob, THANK YOU! You guys are the greatest and provided me and my wife a weekend to remember!

Shaddz

CCarroll, thats awesome. I was half expecting the story to end with "It wasnt until Saturday night when we saw the 2 Gentlemen up on stage, going by the names of Paul and Storm."

Believe it or not, that happened to someone I knew who went in '07. Wil Wheaton helped her find her backpack...

RoyceSraphim

Pax is so big now, we now have scalpers.

Biggest thing for me was passing right by this on my walk home at 2 am and not having a bullet hit any of my swag.

I also joked with a (fe)male working for ArenaNet about kidnapping Wil Ferrel for his shirt and she laughed and actually gave me his shirt at the end of the day.

Sumi

I HAVE TO SMELL THAT. Mail me your business card with cologne... or at least tell me what you wear. :P

Shaddz

Haha.

PM me your address, Ill totally send you one.

Im thinking of starting a real blog, and calling it "The Fragrant Gamer"...

But, my scent is a secret. No names for you!

arnonaut

Shaddz, I saw you in the media room on Sunday, you were very pleased with yourself indeed, as well you should be. Kudos to you, sir.

This was my first PAX, and that in itself meant that everything was already +100 WIN, but there were many things that contributed to this impression:

- Meeting Tycho first thing on Friday morning at the first Omegathon round. Even though I was hoping against hope that this would happen, I still didn't think it would, and not for any rational reason. (He's even smirking a little in the photo, must have not gotten himself into photo-face mode yet)

- Meeting Wil Wheaton and discovering I'm taller than he! For some reason I always assumed he was a big tall dude, and again I have no basis for this assumption.

- The general feeling of kinship with all the other attendees. This might sound like a wank, but it was so amazing to be in a place where EVERYONE around you is as interested in geeky culture stuff. No wonder people love PAX, it is like a massive group hug from friends you didn't even know you had.

tunafish

Saturday night I was sitting in the BYOC room slightly bored, so I decided to host a COD4 Tourney. I had a friend host it on his i7 beast and I set up and admin console on my machine. I found a few pieces of swag that I was willing to part with and decided they would make good prizes. So I went up to one of the enforcers/admins and told them what I was planning and asked if they would announce it for me. At first they were hesitant but they allowed it when I told them I was putting up my own swag as prizes. All said and done, the mini tourney went without a hitch and I distributed prizes. 10 minutes after the tourney was over the enforcer and or admin that announced things for me came up and gave me an Intel prize card with very specific instructions not to give it away (lol). It ended up being a card for an i7 Extreme.

I'd really like to get in touch with the guy who gave that to me.

IF ANYONE KNOWS THE NAME OF THE ADMIN/ENFORCER WHO WAS ANNOUNCING THINGS IN BYOC I WOULD REALLY LIKE TO KNOW WHO IT IS

Thanks and thank you mystery admin

tr0tsky

tunafish wrote: »

IF ANYONE KNOWS THE NAME OF THE ADMIN/ENFORCER WHO WAS ANNOUNCING THINGS IN BYOC I WOULD REALLY LIKE TO KNOW WHO IT IS

It was probably BigRed. If it was a monster of a man with a cape on, that's him :P

tunafish

wasn't big red, i know him. would of remembered him. He might of been with the Intel guys, I'm not overwhelmingly sure, i was rather, well, i hadn't slept in 48 hours. Went looking for him on sunday but he was in the expo hall most of the day and I had to leave at 4 so ya...

Shaddz

Arnonaut, I notice there's a Caldari logo as your profile pic, do you play EVE?

You should add my character to your buddy list: Daionnis

millislim

I managed to get into the all excess only area while talking to Gabe's aunt and uncle...I hadn't realized that I was in a restricted area until after they went into one of the rooms and I didn't know where I was...I was trying to get to the free pc area and thought I was on the 6th floor...I was on the 5th

Zionad

The Eve Party and the model Tempest.

on a side note, sunday morning turned out to be something NOT awesome that happened to me lol

Akialyn

Let's see, nothing much on Thursday just chilled

Friday-
Met Micah in line and started the Texas-Indiana-Alliance, and then proceeded to run into him every day at PAX including once at a hotel that NEITHER of us were staying at.
Stood in line for Wil Wheaton and bought his chap book and exchanged pins. Went to the keynote (buckets of awesome) and stayed for the Q&A where I heard Tycho sing about Crocolisk skins. Wandered around downtown Seattle and found cool shops. Went to the Guild Screening which was hilarious.

Saturday-
Bill Amend panel was very good. Stood in line for JoCo and bought shirts and then he absolutely did not slip me wristbands for his concert. Nope. Rooster teeth panel was awesome. Concert that night was AMAZiNG. Freezepop was interesting. Wil Wheaton presented the D20 to Jonathan Coulton (So say we all!). Paul and Storm were the most unexpectedly wicked cool thing of the weekend. Jonathan Coulton was of course amazing and hilarious.

Sunday-
Soooooo sore by this day from all the walking and standing. Got breakfast and went to check on the line for Wil Wheaton's Awesome Hour 2 1/4 hours before it started and found 50 people ahead of us in line already! Spent the next 2 1/4 hours playing DS in said line and being annoyed with line jumpers. The Awesome Hour was in fact awesome- I sincerely hope they move Wil to the big room next year so more people can see. Also it should be the Awesome 2 hours as one wasn't really enough. Buttoneered frantically outside the convention center. Went to the Post Pax Dinner Party which was tons of fun (Yay for 100 people belowing out the portal song in unison!).

Monday-
Woke up sad that it's all done....when is PAX East again?

Shaddz

I omitted a lot of cool shit, cuz I was afraid of sounding like an attention whore.

Zionad

Akialyn wrote: »

Let's see, nothing much on Thursday just chilled


Monday-
Woke up sad that it's all done....when is PAX East again?

Agreed

hugemarginoferr

best thing that happened at PAX.......
had to let Wil Wheaton into the sheraton friday night. i geuss he forgot he needed a key after 10pm, but he kept pulling.

PikaPuff

PAX. PAX happened.

Shaddz

PikaPuff wrote: »

PAX. PAX happened.

THERE WE GO.

Thats the only post that needs to be here. Fuck my post about being snorted by Gabe, this takes it all.

Zionad

Shaddz wrote: »

PikaPuff wrote: »

PAX. PAX happened.

THERE WE GO.

Thats the only post that needs to be here. Fuck my post about being snorted by Gabe, this takes it all.

and how

Arminas

While standing in the line to see Bill Amend, friends I just shouted out, "HEY, Mario Kart. DS. Now. Download Play, who's in?" And then a bunch of people shouted out they were in. While it wasn't out of the ordinary @ PAX, I just loved being able to do that with my DS. I mean, I can't do that on public transit, it was just so easy to get a game going while at PAX. I'm going to miss that.

Azio

Jeff Green spilled beer all over my shoes at the Taphouse and drunkenly sputtered, "I was bumped, it wasn't my fault, she bumped me"

Optimal

I got to meet Wil Wheaton when I really shouldn't have. I was way to late for the line and it was just getting down to the last few people, so I asked if/when He'd be back the next day.The enforcers didn't know so went to ask him, and he was gracious enough to let me come speak with him and get something signed!

Jediknightkarl

saturday afternoon in the expo hall i went to the mega 64 booth. they had some wheel to spin so i thought i would try. when i spun it it landed on "free style" so rocko said "that means you have to free style" i was kinda taken aback. they wouldnt let me leave untill i free styled lol. (note i do not rap. and i kinda freaked out in my head) they then proceeded to call people over to watch. finally i made up some stuff about docter seusse(sp?) so that i could make up words lol.

best emotional scarring of my life lol.

also (sat morning) i ran into adam sessler and what i assume was his body guard. when they walked in i said "hey, i know you. your adam sesslers body guard" to which they both laughed

this was my first PAX. defiantly coming back next year.

BeastGraphix

Friday: Won stupid controller mod at a booth tourney.
Saturday: Got praise and business card from the XBOX Live enforcement team after presenting said mod to them at there panel.

Shaddz

Jediknightkarl wrote: »

also (sat morning) i ran into adam sessler and what i assume was his body guard. when they walked in i said "hey, i know you. your adam sesslers body guard" to which they both laughed

LMAO

I was very surprised at how much of a nice guy Adam Sessler was. I always thought he was a pretentious douchebag like Kevin Perierra.

Jediknightkarl

i havnt met the former ( i say the former because from the time i read it to now i cant remember how to spell it lol) but i like him on attack of the show. it seems to work.

Dehumanized

I think I was sitting next to Jeremy Parish during the old republic panel on Saturday... it was definitely a 1up editor, and looking back I'm pretty sure it was him.

Kinda awesome, I've been reading his work since back when he was with the GIA (for a very short period of time). My seat was missing one of the registration cards for the Steam KotOR keys and he was nice enough to give his to me. Thanks!

Fo0dNippl3

• Found Adam Sessler wandering the Exhibition Hall on Friday, got pictures with him.
• My best friend got the Mega64 guys (and everyone at their panel) to sing him Happy Birthday, as well as getting a hug from Tycho at the Friday night concerts.
• Won a poster from the Get In Line guys!
• We caught the TF2 cosplayer gathering behind the lobby and I got some photos.
• Some guys invited us to play Saturn Bomberman with them at Console Freeplay on Saturday night.
• Front held the mic right up to my face during his performance!
• Playing Brawl with lots of people throughout the weekend.

GPIA7R

In order, for the most part:

When I got off of the shuttle bus at the Grand Hyatt, I lugged by baggage up the steps and was greeted at the door by Jerry. He swung it open and gave me a firm "Oh let me help you with that!" This was an awesome start to what would be an amazing weekend.

Shortly after, a Tweetup began that resulted in a lunch at the Cheesecake Factory with a few people, such as CWKnight, Jules, and Luneowl. This was a good way to get to know a few people.

Next, after a major billing error on the hotel's part, I was told that not only would my internet charges be comped, but also any room service or minibar use. I politely told them it wouldn't be necessary, but they insisted, saying that this is the part of the call where I ask for more than that, and they oblige XD

Friday morning, I went into PAX about an hour or two early (I was an Omeganaut +1). Got to meet and greet some people there, took a stroll around the expo floor before anyone else, otherwise awesome time. On leaving the Round 1 room, I ran into Jerry and gave him one of my buttons ("The Dude"), which he wore for the entirety of PAX on his lanyard. Got a picture with Jerry.

On the way down to the 4th floor on the escalator, I turned around and saw Mike behind me. At the bottom, I asked for a picture, which he kindly obliged.

From here on, everything was amazing... because I essentially was let into every concert/panel/line first, due to being a +1 (this being my first PAX made it a great one.)

The next few rounds of the Omegathon were awesome, as well. Front-row spot, right there with Mike/Jerry and the cameras. Some casual conversation with them as they watched, pretty awesome time.

Next, the greatest part of PAX (the reason I went, for the most part), I met Jonathan Coulton. I nervously made my way through his line, he signed my PAX pass as well as his DVD, and gave me a picture. I could go on about how exciting that was... but my mancrush on Coulton will remain my own

Shortly after, I was able to catch Wil Wheaton as he was leaving his signing area. He gave me a picture, which turned out really good. During the picture, he spotted an Automata button I was wearing, and asked where I got it. I told him it was made by "Luneowl", a PAX twitter-shitter, and I offered it to him. He said he couldn't, but I told him I could get another. He said "Really?!", and kindly accepted it. Wil Wheaton took one of my buttons, which I very narrowly replaced on the last day of PAX :P

Next, I got a quick picture with Frontalot.

I also found out that my buttons were very popular during PAX. When I found a group of people trading, I would approach and offer mine, which on MANY occasions, was told they were seeking me for my buttons

Back at the hotel, I realized my camera wasn't set up for the highest quality (was on 3mp instead of 10mp), which greatly bothered me because of the number of pictures I took (especially with people like Jerry, Mike, Coulton, Wheaton, etc). I made it my goal to find Coulton again and get another picture, of which he was more than happy to do (waited outside the Rock Band panel, went in when everyone left). He was awesome about it. Very casual and fun to talk to.

Moving on... I, of course, went to the Saturday night concerts. I had what could honestly be said was the best spot. I was opposite Kiko (where he was in the VIP area, I was on the right-side, standing at the stage and the gate, that little corner). This was amazing because the Coulton concert was my purpose for PAX. I was able to get some great pictures and videos, all in all really enjoyed it to the fullest. Was absolutely amazing.

Also got front-row special seating at the Penny-Arcade Q&A's. Pretty cool.

Got 2nd row center seating for the Wil Wheaton Awesome Hour. Where most people waited in line for hours (I feel for you, really.), I showed up to a special "awesome people" line hidden in the back and was let in early. Sat up front with some Omeganauts, performers (Paul and Storm, Frontalot, etc). Was a very good panel. At the end, Wil mentioned "The Dude", which I was GOING to toss one of my buttons or something at that point... but I waited for the panel to end. I showed him mine, he claimed it was "AWESOME". I decided against tossing it because I remembered how 'effing irritating/annoying it was for all the shit to be tossed up on stage during concerts on Saturday. Underwear, fine it's a gimmick, go for it... but the beachballs and food was just stupid.

After the Omegathon ended Sunday, I went back to the hotel and made a quick call in the lobby. Mike walked by doing something on his phone, and stood around the middle of the lobby. I ended my call, went over and thanked him for a great PAX. Cool guy.

Anyway - As my first PAX, this was more than I could have hoped for. I got a lot out of it.

PunkJr

Man, there was SO much awesome this year...

Tri-Wizard Pub-Crawl - I got to meet a ton of great folks AND do shots with them!

Assassins - I may not have "won", but I'm still alive & I racked up a few good kills.

Dressing up as a Big Science scientist with Splosion Man - Did anyone get pictures of us? We went over and raided the Twisted Pixel booth. We had an awesome time hanging out with them and running around the sky bridge.

The Rock Band tournament - Our band, "The 'Splosions", got knocked out by the Brock Samsons, but they were awesome to get to play against. They had fun with the competition, rather than picking impossible songs.

Rock Band: Beatles & Lego. - SO rad.

Splinter Cell: Conviction & Assassin's Creed 2 panel - Awesome looking gameplay

The Forum Peeps!! - It was so cool getting to meet all of you.

jonxp

Randomly ran in to the publisher of the OOTS game.
Ended up meeting and chatting with a bunch of WotC folks headed fro coffee, purely by chance. Had the opportunity to exchange my frank views on why I stopped playing MtG. They changed the way the cards looked. (Well, not really)
Had a very lengthy conversation with Tycho about Automata and the origins of the music in the comic.

Yuritau

Saturday afternoon, in the middle of a crowd thick enough that I probably could have taken my feet off the ground and not fallen down, at the Antec booth. They said "That's it! Thanks for coming to our raffle!" And then quickly followed it up with "wait! one more!". Having not won anything yet, i mumbled to myself, "you will pick 407." and did the jedi mind trick wave surreptitiously.

She picked 407, and I now get to build a machine inside a mini-skeleton case.

Shaddz

Here you go, guys. I thought youd enjoy reading this.

Not to wear out the joke, but I hope you like text

http://shaddz.squarespace.com

Cyberpumpkin

I happened to catch Jerry and Mike as they were setting up with the camera guys Friday morning.

Not only did i get to quickly shake hands with each of them, I did Jerry a service by making him remember to go pick up his laniard by offering both of them my buttoneering buttons.

He must have immediately put my button on, because I saw it on the big screen! It was, like, right next to his face!

Yeah, they both seemed slightly alarmed about how crazy excited I was to see them both, and I apologized later at the Q&A for that.

I regret not getting my picture taken with the the guy who smells good, though.