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PAX Impressions, Stories, Tales
MelesMeles
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
There doesn't seem to be a thread for the general sharing of people's stories, personal impressions, etc from PAX Prime 2010. If there is, and I missed it, then just shift this post over, please.
I was a PAX Virgin (I was in fact, the PAX virgin walking around in the bright yellow-green homemade t-shirt which said "PAX Virgin, Be gentle, it's my first time")
I'm speechless. I'm stunned. I'm absolutely distraught that it is over.
I'd never been before, although I had wanted to for years. You are amazing people, from the enforcers to the cosplayers and everyone in between. PAX could be a week long, I still wouldn't have had time to do everything I wanted. It could be a month, a year, I still wouldn't be satisfied.
I didn't make new friends. I found old ones. People I had shared webcomics, games, interests and experiences with. We'd been walking on parallel paths, barely inches apart, yet we had never met. To the thousands of friends I didn't connect with: I'm sorry, but I'll be back at East, and then at Prime, and at every PAX from now to the day they pry my three-day pass from my bony and senile fingers.
Edit: Just to clarify, the previous paragraph was meant to mean that I did make lots of friends, but that I had so much in common with them that it was much more like meeting old friends than making new ones. I have had two PMs already that were worried that I hadn't made friends. Thank you for the concern
I hope this edit alleviates your worries
Thank you, everyone.
Well, there's my impression. What's yours?
I was a PAX Virgin (I was in fact, the PAX virgin walking around in the bright yellow-green homemade t-shirt which said "PAX Virgin, Be gentle, it's my first time")
I'm speechless. I'm stunned. I'm absolutely distraught that it is over.
I'd never been before, although I had wanted to for years. You are amazing people, from the enforcers to the cosplayers and everyone in between. PAX could be a week long, I still wouldn't have had time to do everything I wanted. It could be a month, a year, I still wouldn't be satisfied.
I didn't make new friends. I found old ones. People I had shared webcomics, games, interests and experiences with. We'd been walking on parallel paths, barely inches apart, yet we had never met. To the thousands of friends I didn't connect with: I'm sorry, but I'll be back at East, and then at Prime, and at every PAX from now to the day they pry my three-day pass from my bony and senile fingers.
Edit: Just to clarify, the previous paragraph was meant to mean that I did make lots of friends, but that I had so much in common with them that it was much more like meeting old friends than making new ones. I have had two PMs already that were worried that I hadn't made friends. Thank you for the concern
I hope this edit alleviates your worriesThank you, everyone.
Well, there's my impression. What's yours?
MelesMeles on
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Working at a booth was even fun! Saturday morning's press was fun, got to wander a bit on my breaks and see a couple things, but Sunday was AMAZING. Arrived an hour early to check out the exhibits before the crowd rushed in and played a couple games I had missed out on the last 2 days. I met a lot of fantastic people and made new friends.
I
PAX story:
I was walking by the Kincet booth and there were two guys standing in front of the screen that was displaying other people's gameplay that were actually playing the game. They were waving their arms around trying to play the game and were all like "THIS IS A PIECE OF CRAP!" and some media guy came up and started recording and was like "Wow that doesn't seem to track your motion very well". Then the people's pictures who were actually playing popped up on the screen and they couldn't figure out what was happening....
The highlight of my day is hubby and I were wandering through the Alienware booth and Potter said, "You look like someone who should play Counter-Strike with me." We had an awesome match against MissHarvey's team and I won a Killer Gaming Network Card.
Although is it wrong that I want to trade it for a Portal Shirt and Halo Reach poster? [Edit: not really; hubby would so kill me.]
I spent most of my time doing D&D delves and chilling in the Handheld lounge. I had never played D&D before last year and was very excited to see that they were back again, bigger and better. Never made through the second encounter and 2 times we ran out on the first, but loads of fun were had by all.
Story time:
So, a friend and I were trying to find the other convention centre parking garage (not the blue/orange one). We walk around lost for ~10 minutes and eventually get back to the front of the WSCTC. We go in and take an exit. That didn't work. We are in the blue/orange garage and ask at the desk what to do. We go through some doors and start to follow the orange/yellow signs. The gates to the garage are barred and shut.
We call security and get a little bit of help, call them again later when we still don't know what we are doing and they decide to get a camera on us and follow direct us to where we need to be. We go through the same doors as the desk guy told us, but this time we see a little tiny entry way in the blue/orange garage. We make it out. That was an adventure I didn't want to have. Turns out if we had walked a little bit past the barred gated entry we would have been there. Ah well.
Thanks for the amazing weekend everyone!
Also, if anyone could make me feel more awesome right now and pledge to bid on my iPod for Child's Play, I'd be greatly appreciative.
Oh, PAX story - after seeing how much fun people could have with D&D (the guys I knew who played in uni were total rules lawyers), I've decided I really need to pick that shit up. We just felt so... at home. Looking to book our room for next year already
Oh yeah, does anyone else have a hard time navigating around and finding people? Yes, the Enforcers were pure, walking awesome and deserve every last little bit of credit, but when you're trying to find a guy you were playing Diddy Kong Racing with in line waiting for the keynote, the Enforcers were completely powerless. I have an idea for a PAX friend locator smartphone app (likely Android) for next year - would there be any interest in such a thing?
BTW, LOL, on Gabe and Tycho about "Bitch PAX"
My friend and I, after the Star Wars panel, went to check out the chiptune music showcase in the Jamspace.
Turns out, the schedule had it wrong and they had already all performed earlier that day. I was disappointed for a little bit, but then I found out that the Protomen were going to perform a small, secret show in the Jamspace. I accidentally stumbled upon a Protomen concert. Are you kidding?
Needless to say, the show kicked ass. It was especially great because this year, for the first time, my friend and I were too late to the lines in the morning to get wrist bands, so we only ended up going to Friday night's concerts and had to sit all the way in the back on the highest balcony and I was pretty disappointed. Now, I won't say I didn't have a good time because even from that far away, The Protomen and Anamanaguchi were awesome and I got over the disappointment pretty quickly.
But yeah. A small, very personal show with a bunch of awesome covers of some of my favorite songs ever (The Power of Love AND Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)? It's like they read my Last.fm page!).
So, thank you, whoever was unable to fix the printed schedule's mistake on what time the chiptune showcase was. That concert was truly awesome.
Everything was great except leaving at 2:30pm Sunday due to traffic so I missed the Tycho/Gabe Signing (Along with my 2 backup panels in case that was full)
Oh, and Logitech ruined my chances of getting a Keyboard. I saved money all weekend for a keyboard, went to get it, turns out you need a credit card (They do it through their site). My friend offers his credit card, but turns out you have to pay in your local currency, so the price was jacked up.
Then, I find out the Keyboard isn't AVAILABLE IN CANADA, so I can't use the 25% coupon they gave to me.
What a bummer. Maybe I can find someone in the states who will accept it for me and ship it to me. (I would buy them something/send them money in return)
Anyways, the concert was great, meeting Dan Paladin and Johnathan Coulton was cool. Loads of free stuff is great, along with the $300 worth of junk (Er I mean, awesome shit) I bought.
Overall: Probaly the best weekend I've ever spent. Only some shit that's largely my fault that kinda bummed the weekend a little.
There's me on the right, with my horrible photo-face.
I was coming down the escalators which took you through the chill-out zones to the main lobby with a couple of people from the forums (puzzlebox and her friend). We were just chatting to each other, when a couple of guys waved at me, and shouted that they loved my t-shirt and wanted a picture with me. So, we headed over there, and puzzlebox took the photos.
At this point, the larger of the two guys says "Hey, would you mind leaping into my arms on video?" Obviously, I had to oblige.
I never saw them again, which was sad. But it was a totally awesome random event
The one thing that was a little depressing was trying to go on pictochat a few times and not seeing anyone on.
Other than that, it was a really fun weekend. Even though we missed out on Saturday night concerts, I played 3v3 SC2 with a local friend and his group.
edit: Oh, also I enjoyed thoroughly talking with Whiskey media folks after the Giant Bomb panel.
Chatting with the devs of the various PAX 10 games was very cool as well (Greg Kasavin remains a stand up dude.)
I've got a whole lot of tabletop games on my radar now that weren't before, so I'm pretty excited about picking some up at my local tabletop store when I get home. There's a few other video games I'm interested in too, besides the ones I was already looking forward to coming out in the next few months.
There was so much awesome, as there always is, and it will take some time for the memories to unwind and let themselves surface. In the meantime though, I'm just resting up and since I'm in Seattle an extra day today, I'll be seeing some more of the city and playing some games with those still in town.
(You just say the letters)
I hear that man. I've never done a ton of tabletop. I just started playing a little DnD just lately. Seeing all the amazing games at PAX and playing with random people online led to a large amount ending up being purchased by the end of the weekend. I can't wait to go home and teach all mah friends.
I've been playing for a few years, since longer than I've been attending PAX, although lately I haven't had much chance to play. Until this weekend, I've played under a grand total of four DMs, and I've DMed as well. Everyone has a different style at it, but this PAX let me play with 10-12 different DMs, including some really awesome WotC employees. I have a shopping list of accessories now, some really cool ideas, and overall a greater appreciation for the game.
I also have a tradition, I like to get a new set of dice from the Chessex booth each PAX Prime I go to. That new set plus the t-shirt and the adventure book I was able to get from the delve tokens is overall some pretty nice loot to take home. Also, the two friends I came to PAX with who are D&D players as well but don't live near each other are planning on figuring out a way to get an online group going somehow.
There's still a lot of tabletop I want to do at future PAXii. This satisfied my immediate D&D craving, and I was able to play some other card/dice games this weekend, but I have much to look forward to in six months and next year. I always try to do some different things each PAX I go to, so who knows what I'll end up doing.
(You just say the letters)
ha! i did this too. it so happened that i got near the monitor just as the people behind the kiosk started playing the one with the raft - and then they made the choices i would have made. so i thought it was working about as well as a Wii did the first time i tried it. i had NO IDEA until their pictures came up and i moved past the kiosk to see where the play really was.:oops:
1) Sunday in the parking garage it filled up around 10 and so at the very end cars were trying to turn around but couldn't because nobody left any room nor did they stay on their side of the lane, so eventually this guy in a white truck is really trying to squeeze back around, and because some people just keep shouting at him he ends up scraping and denting the side of his truck against the walls, so i get out and offer to help him out so we get him off the wall and backed up a bit, and i run up a few floors letting all the cars that have backed up they need to scoot over because it is full, most people were accepting enough but there was one guy, In a red Honda Fit who just had to jump my throat for asking him to move and tell me how much of a ass the guy in the truck was who couldn't get out because "This ass is trying to leave when its time for us to come in" despite being the one blocking the truck.
2) My girlfriend went to the BYOC room and some one offered to let her play L4D, and apparently 3 guys jumped her case shouting at her saying girls cant play L4D or something and when she went to the bathroom to cool off there were about 3-4 cosplayers in there crying about how someone was going around hazing them calling them fat and ugly and such.
But on a positive note, at the DR2 demo they said I needed to kill 250 zombies and ended up doubling it.
I can't speak to the other two comments, but #2 is totally unacceptable. Violations of Wheaton's Law are not to be tolerated. Thankfully I didn't experience anything like this, but I'm very sorry to your friend (and the cosplayers) who did. It's sad that anyone would bring such negativity to PAX, and I hope that at some point an enforcer caught up with them.
That is absolutely ridiculous. I hope they got what was coming to them in the end, that's really unfortunate to hear.
I never witnessed this sort of treatment before, it's upsetting to know it happens at what I thought was the most accepting place/time of year.
Friday:
I woke up around 5 or so as I was still running on east coast time. I was far too excited to get back to sleep so I played some Tetris before heading out to the queue around 7. The guy whose place I was crashing at was an Omeganaut so he was busy doing Omegathon stuff and my other Seattle friend had to go to work so I braved the line alone. I was afraid I would be sitting in silence playing on my laptop until the line games started but, much to my surprise, I struck up a good number of conversations with the people around me. I was thoroughly surprised by the ease I was able to talk to others. Usually, my headphones (the same headphones Metroid Metal use!) provide a good barrier against small talk but a youngish asian boy in a Pikachu suit and a library science grad student got the best of me.
I was immediately distracted by NBA Jam upon entering the expo hall. That game was on my "must play" list and I certainly wasn't disappointed. Sadly, I wasn't able to extract any secret characters from the rep but it wasn't for lack of trying. I meandered my way around the Expo hall before heading off to see the first round of Omegathon.
Up on the 6th floor, I ran into three awesome people whose names escape me now (
I knew ever since I saw the lineup for Friday night that the concert would be the crowning moment of PAX for me. Sure enough, I know I'm going to be remembering Friday even after the rest of the convention fades into the miasma of my mind. I know I confused a few enforcers when I showed up at 5 to line up but the wait was totally worth it. First and foremost, I kinda smirked on the inside when Khoo asked me and the one other guy waiting in line with me if we were waiting for the Protomen. I know they have a notoriously devoted fan base and showing up 3 hours before doors certainly fit their M.O. On another note, meeting Dan from Gamefocus.ca was pretty badass too. He hooked me up with a free Torchlight 2 shirt and rocked out with me in the front row.
After the balls-long wait, we finally made it into the theater where I ended up front row and center right in front of the TV. There was a lot more room to move about than the initial pictures of Benaroya showed and I took advantage of every single square inch of it. As mentioned before, I'm not too much of a fan of The Protomen so I felt kinda bad taking up a prime spot during their set. However, any feelings of guilt were quickly washed away afterwards.
Inbetween The Protomen and Anamanaguchi, I was lured into a conversation about the similarities and differences between the terms "nerd" and "geek" and where nerd/geek culture fits into mainstream culture. One of the guys had a video camera and recorded it and, with any luck, it'll turn up on the interwebs somewhere. This debate was certainly a shining example of just how awesome the PAX crowd can be.
As I sit here in Denver International Airport in a terribly uncomfortable chair, I can feel my muscles revolting in protest and my throat feels as if it's lined with steel wool. Anamanaguchi was the pinnacle of the night and my body certainly agreed. Thankfully, the two guys on either side of me didn't mind my seizure-like antics (and, if they did, they certainly did a great job of hiding it). Even though I had the screen right in front of me, I didn't notice I was on camera until it was pointed out to me. I really hope there is a video of their set so I can see.
Now, I really hate getting fanboyish but Anamanguchi is one chink in my social armor. When I got a setlist, I just about passed out. Granted, I don't know if that was from the excitement or the fact that I was certainly dehydrated after the set but I knew it was time to take a brief break. After seeing the house empty out after Anamanaguchi, I called my friend to invite him down for rest of the show and went out to the lobby to meet him. I had worried that we wouldn't be able to get close seats again but, sure enough, there were two seats right in the third row.
As I often do at concerts, I warned the guy next to me that I turn into a spasmodic devil and if I were to get too aggravating, I gave him permission to slap me upside the head. "I'm enjoying the show and you're enjoying the show. There's really nothing else that matters" was his reply and I flashed him the horns before continuing to headbang.
Metroid Metal may have given me whiplash but, like everything else that night, it was worth it. I had a woman two seats down from me tell me that she was actually watching me to know what she was doing. This came as a HUGE surprise as *I'm* usually the one awkwardly checking the crowd. I tried to give her a high five but it turned into a sort of awkward holding hand type deal as my body shut down. If you're reading this, my apologies...
Then there were the two guys behind me ranting about how much I rocked afterwards. One even gave me his Silent Uproar T-shirt he caught telling me that I "deserved it." Whoever you are, you are seriously one badass mofo and while I was too exhausted to thank you properly at the time, I thank you now. With those words, you changed my night from fanfuckingtastic to perfect.
There was nothing in the world that could explain my ability to remain standing during The Minibosses but goddamnit I did. I don't remember much about their set sadly; I think my fight or flight response kicked in around their second song. I do, however, remember the hilarity of shouting RHPS call lines at them and at the audience. I stumbled home with my friend to his place and, after a hot shower, I collapsed on his futon in a heap only made possible by such an amazing concert.
(Crap, my laptop is running out of battery now and I can't find a plug close to me. I'm going to post what I have thus far and finish up the remaining two days at a later time. I really didn't think I would be this long winded. Eesh. Saturday and Sunday coming soon! Also, I'm too freaking tired to go through and make this a proper written piece. The prose is terrible so deal with it! :P )
You are not the only one. This would be my third year and by far the worst.
I have posted some positive stuff in other threads about some things I thought were awesome but my overall impression is that if you're not willing to push people around, cheat the system or be aggressive you miss out on a bunch of the swag, a lot of the exhibitors were completely unprofessional and rude to people like me that are new to their franchises or games, there's no hope of getting a seat at a panel, and the parties were reserved for media people or 2 hour waits in line. What's the point? Maybe its just not for me anymore, either way it will be my last visit so I guess it doesn't matter.
Yeah, I agree, overall not the best experience from the Exhibitors. There's way more to PAX than that though. I just got off the main floor and went and did/saw stuff elsewhere and it was pretty cool.
(You just say the letters)
This was my first PAX, so for me the experience isn't jaded that respect. But at the end of the day, for me, the show wasn't about the exhibition floor. I walked around a little, sure, and I even demo'd a few games. However, it was the times I spent at the eight or so panels and even the lines I waited in for them that made this convention for me. It wasn't about the newest and latest video games. I don't care if I play em now, I can play em in a few months when they come out. For me this con was about the community and all of us being able to get together and just enjoy ourselves, whether it's playing zombie dice or a random other game in a line or cheering on Acquisitions Inc. as they go to rescue Aeofel from the pits of hell. So, I got the experience I was looking for in spades. I'm sorry, it didn't work out for you guys.
http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showpost.php?p=16461835&postcount=44
I think this is a poor choice of action considering
#1 The number of guys willing to white knight it
#2 The number of guys (like me) willing to white knight it just so they can say they were the white knight
#3 The number of people who have been playing games about white knights and are willing to give that shit a try.
I ended up getting in to watch Portal co-op but they were out of shirts!
So bummed I didn't get a Portal shirt or Halo poster!!
The enforcers were also an outstanding bunch of people how they kept their energy up the entire weekend was beyond me and the wealth of information was great to have on hand the few times we found ourselves utterly lost. Even the staff of the WSCC were friendly and did their jobs well without really having to be rude or forceful.
The few panel's we managed to get into were all witty and funny, but also contained an incredible amount of useful information from "The raising Geek generation 2.0", to "The art of dungeon mastering" each hour flew by and were well worth another wait in line to get into. It was great getting my hands on Star wars the old republic, Dragon Age 2, Hunted, MoH, and many other games, but all that seems small compared to the great conversations I had with the people standing next to me while we stood in yet another line, or demoing Castle Ravenloft at the Wizards of the coast truck on Sunday morning with 3 other people we had never met and still having a laugh filled and incredibly fun hour.
So thank you to Penny-Arcade for this expo, thank you to the enforcers for a job well done and thank you fellow PAX goer's for making it an astonishing and memorable weekend. Also thanks for telling me where and what I'll be doing August 26th-28th of next year, PAX 2011 let the countdown begin
http://www.logicalcreativity.com/jon/plush/01.html
First, I was walking my friend who had given me a ride back to his car. On our way out of the Sheraton, I see Jerry and Mike walking past me. Now, these guys are personal heroes of mine, so I had a quick ZOMG! moment. But then I just Iron Guarded with a nod to them, and they nodded and smiled at me. All in about three seconds. I ran into Jerry every day of the con after that, and finally got him to sign my badge on Sunday.
Second, the Triwizard Drinking Tourney. Dude, Atlus and the rest of the crew responsible for getting that going every year thanks so much guys. I met a lot of really cool people on the crawl and had some good times. From the dude from Slytherin who stepped up to the Kanazy challenge (that's a shot of Crown Royal over a shot of Goldschlager for those of you who care, tastes like Big Red and kicks like a mule), to the Gryffindor banner girls, everyone kicked ass.
That whole panel blew me away with the scope of the generosity people have, and I'm not just talking about the $150K check from the Carmine thing.
And I wish I hadn't spent all of friday aimlessly looking for Riot
Saturday was pretty cool. Went to both the Halo Reach Panelsand met up with the other 405th Infantry and wen hung out and took some photos. Unfortunately Bungie didn't show us any love
Then Sunday I finally found the Riot guys and spent all day in the Alienware booth for the LoL Costume gathering/tourny.
Wish I'd had more free time to play the Marvel Superhero Squad Game and get the cards that weren't at the booth. It looked really cool.
Other than that I just wish I'd been better prepared with Food and Hydration, XD You'd think with it being my 3rd year I'd have it down by now... -.-
Kinda beating myself up that I didn't spend more time with my friends at the con but it's ok, we all wanted to do different stuff and we did talk and colab afterwards, just a bit bothered by all the failed attempts at meeting up is all.
And It would have been cool to meet more people that I'd actually continue to talk to. But hey, there's still the possibility of making friends through the PAX forums right?
Oh and last note. When wearing Costumes, Thank god for friends that will walk around with you carrying your bag.
I was totally blown away by EVERYTHING! I met and made so many new friends, and totally enjoyed myself. I did two panels, and did the expo, and caught with family, and learned how to play new tabletop games. In fact, I came back home, went to my local toy shop, and bought a shit ton of games.
Many thanks to the awesome enforcers, and the panelists. I really enjoyed myself and had such a fab time. I even got cookies from the cookie brigade which was yummy.
I feel like I got a good balance of everything-a little of the expo, a little of pc gaming, a little of xbox gaming, a little of retro gaming (which was my highlight) and I learned how to play Settlers of Cattan. I also learned how to play Family business which was fun as well.
I made some new friends at the girls brunch-totally loved it!
I asked them to *not* point me out (since I am a geek afraid of confrontation) but when security was talking to the guys and they denied throwing it, they pointed right at me. o_O
Highlights: I enjoyed the con a lot (and I managed to grab the Portal 2 and Fallout shirts, which seemed to run out quickly) but one of my favorite things was playing Kinect boxing at the MS booth. I knocked my friend out so quick that the booth guy actually made fun of him. :P
I had planned on this being my first and last PAX, but we are already making plans for next year.
I think for the most part we were just trying to ignore him. We smiled as he walked past but that's about it.
My favorite con moment was in the line. You have to understand that was the only line I stood in (Spent the whole con on the hidden level getting my gamma on) and it was totally worth it. A completely bad ass enforcer was entertaining us and giving out prizes. At one point he's like "I have a d20 in my pocket, I am going to roll it and point to random people, if I point to you call out the number and if you're right get a prize!"
Amazingly pretty much everyone waited to be called on, except one guy who screamed "SEVEN!" the enforcer called out "Who said seven!?" guy got called up and we were commenting how terrible this would end for the enforcer because now everyone would just scream out numbers. But when the guy got up there the enforcer infected him with a sticker and said "That's for speaking out of turn!"
It was hilarious and the newly infected guy took it with grace and humor. Awesome.
This is what I LOVE about geek cons. There are women who aren't necessarily perfect, but they become 300% more attractive when they have a passion about something and go all out for it.
Those guys were just jealous that their hangups wouldn't let them get with that.
I think someone else already hinted at this, but... How on earth did this happen without everyone around the offenders ripping them to shreds? At least verbally?
Apparently those guys forgot one of the playable characters is a girl! I wish I would have known there was another girl looking to play L4D in BYOC, my companions were all engrossed in SC2 and WoW until I could beg them to do a campaign with me. I'm @trickycoolj on steam and live if she wants to play sometime! I'm still learning the PC controls so I'm still too hesitant to join in public games.
She later confided that she's actually not that big a fan of Mr. Wheaton, but the sheer power of his presence was enough to make her throw free stuff at him.
Also, my arm is still wrenched from when I arm wrestled Commander. By all accounts he should have won no problem, but I was tenacious and locked my wrist to prevent full defeat. He eventually gave up, so I'll call it a stalemate. I totally beat Panther and Nightwalker, though~
Probably because no one noticed, at least I hope this is the case. If I had been there, those guys would've been put in their place and I probably would've brought it up with Enforcers. It's too bad the PAX guys stopped printing what should always be the first rule of this convention, "Don't be a dick."