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PAX05 Writeup
When we arrived on friday it was already packed pretty solid. The hotel parking lot had many cars colorfully decorated with windows proclaiming cryptic messages like "OMFG PAX05". We were definitely in the right place.
We entered the hall in time for for Gabe & Tycho to give their opening panel before their legions of adoring fans. The pair speak charismatically and energetically, giving fun answers to the good questions, and handling the lame questions with expertise that can't be learned. jerry is the loud one, and he especially enjoys the crowd. He's fast, witty and very entertaining, even when they have to answer the question about where the (cw) in their nicknames comes from for what must have been the 103rd time of the weekend. Mike is more quiet, but when he speaks it is always draws a laugh. They clearly were speaking to their home crowd, but it also was very obvious to see the real chemistry that makes their strip so funny.
The Red vs Blue panel was similarly entertaining. They answered questions about some of the more ridiculous aspects of the show, to some more philosophical points about machinema and the relationship between the would-be director, and video game publisher. Most entertaining was the story of shots with the number of actors on screen outnumbering the number of performers, requiring dextrous feet to get the shots right. They screened a fair bit of RvB material for a receptive audience. What most impressed me was the schedule they work under. Writing the show, recording the dialog, and animating it over the course of a single week. It's no small task. I bought the Season 3 DVD.
For me the highlight of the weekend was the 'Make Monday's Strip' panel where the process of actually creating a single Penny Arcade comic was put up on a giant screen for thousands of fans to watch in amazement. Ok, so they cheated a little and pre-sketched the strip, but to actually watch Gabe ink and color all 3 panels in like 45 minutes was really cool to see. I used to do a lot of cartooning back in the day too, and I can only imagine the stress this put him through: drawing is hard, and to do it under the megascope of a couple thousand people, even tho the masses are fans, well he handled it well. To see him hold aloft his "Wacom Pad the Size of an Aircraft Carrier" like some sort of bizarre 2001 monolith was very fun. And somehow Jerry manages to spew forth a vast quantity of words, most of which get laughs. Talented boys, these two.
Of course there was more to the show than just the panels. The exhibition hall was packed elbow to elbow. The line to purchase Penny Arcade merch was like a mighty cobra coiling through the building. I'm sure that countless fruit fucker t-shirts are now spread around the nation like a plague of locust, descending upon electronics stores around the land causing children to shield the eyes of their unaware parents as PAX attendees strut by wearing the arcane symbols of their fellowship.
The big 3 consoles all had representation, but by far the Nintendo booth took the cake. I mean, they had the new Zelda up for all to behold. New Zelda. Do you understand me? New Zelda causes feelings in my pants that I find best to ignore in public. They also had Nintendogs which compelled me to visit the local Best Buy that very day. Tragically they were out of stock, but since I still have not 'caught-them-all' in Pokemon Emerald, maybe I should just say NO to a new portable addiction.
Turbine was demonstrating early builds of both their Lord of the Rings massive, and their Dungeons and Dragons massive. I spent a fair bit of time chatting with them about their plans for each of these games. Competing with the gorilla that is World of Warcraft must be a difficult place to be, but each of these games appear to be addressing different issues with the shadow that looms over their industry. D&D Online for example will only be implementing levels 1-10 at launch. The game will be less about the level grind, and more about compelling story line. Of course, for me, I'm a numbers guy. When I play Warcraft, I often don't even read the whole quest (this has screwed me in the past mind you). I need to kill 10 murlocs? Ok GO! KILL KILL! But the graphics for D&D On-line are very compelling. A definite upgrade from any other massive I've seen. I'm looking forward to the office going on an adventure in that world, if only because it is based on the D&D 3.5 rules, and that sort of thing has a fuzzy warm place in my heart.
The Lord of the Rings game was much earlier in development. By far the most interesting aspect of their system was their concept of difficulty-over-time instead of difficulty-over-location. If you go to The Hinterlands in WoW, you know you're going to be fighting 40-something monsters. And it will always be the same. When you kill the named char, he will re-spawn 5 minutes later for the next guy to gack. LotR is causing the world to change following significant events. A town that you visit at level 5 might burn to the ground following crucial story events. When you later visit that town, the inn will be ashes, and the NPC who gave you quests is a corpse. In other words, it's a sense of state that doesn't exist in WoW. They also had the interesting idea of allowing 9 player parties, but getting together parties that large is a lot more challenging. I love the concept in theory, but in practice, I think it would drive me mad.
Both games seem more tightly focused on compelling story and team play. Less about the level grind. Also they had some interesting puzzle type action unlike what I'm used to seeing in a massive. I definitely look forward to trying them out as they become available. WoW now has 4 million subscribers around the world. Since these games won't be available for many moons, I imagine the market will be ripe for a shift.
WidowPC was sponsoring a gaming room. It was neat to see rows of PCs with gamers slumped over them focused upon killing aliens, friends, or monsters with hope to earn points, repution, or most honorable of all, that glorious thing known as "XP".
The Bring-Your-Own-Computer space was also a sight to behold. The real surprise to me was the general quiet in these spaces. Almost tranquil at times. Everyone seemed very focused on the games they were playing. Personally I like a little more cussing when I play, but the whole weekend was a pretty clean affair. I wish I had lugged my box- Speakeasy was providing bandwidth and my arcanite transmute was cooled down!
And let me not forget Bawlz. The caffeinated drink of choice was available and sold for a buck a bottle. The beverage was everpresent: from people dropping the glass bottles in the audiences listening to panels, to watching literally dozens of people lugging cases of the stuff from the conference, to the hotel a half dozen blocks away, struggling under the weight, taking pause to lean against whatever flat surface would support the weight, hearts racing from the caffeinated equivalent of almost 3 cans of coke consumed in minutes. It reminded me of the time at ALS in like 1998 that we first discovered Penguin Mints. We didn't really know how much caffeine they put in those things so we were popping them like Pez all morning. By the end of the afternoon the concept of "Blinking" was foreign.
The saturday night finale was a concert by the Minibosses, MC Chris, and MC Frontalot. For Kathleen, the highlight was listening to MC Chris rant in front of thousands of attendees. I don't know how much was his voice and how much was the sound system, but it was often difficult to make him out when he was rapping, but when he was complaining, it was quite audible and crowd ate it right up.
Anyway, PAX was a fun experience. Next year they plan to move to a larger space in Seattle proper. They really need it: this place was packed. The sardines cliche doesn't do it justice. Every bit of wall had consoles and TVs on it with gamers glued to the screens playing Katamari Damacy, Super Smash Bros. Melee, and whatever other games they could get their hands on. Movement was difficult, especially in the exhibition hall.
I imagine that next year they larger space will open doors to more exhibitors, larger displays, more room for games, and attendees. Does PAX spell the end of E3 or CES? Obviously not. But would I choose PAX over COMDEX? Definitely. Any vendor would be crazy not to want to show their stuff here: this was a very hardcore crowd. Real gamers here to play, and talk about the games they love and hate. It's not about marketing or dollars, just about passion, and that makes for a far more fun weekend.
AMD-supplied gameboxen!!!.... (huff, puff).... Donated arcade games!!!.... (groan).... 400 MAN LAN!!!.... AAAAGGGGHHHHH!!!
(unnnghh!!!)
Does anyone have a towel?
"Rocky Rococo, at your cervix!"
but we're happy to announce that NO MORE CHANGES WILL BE MADE.
Wow! Anyone who makes a statement like that really hasn't had a lot of experience organising this sort of thing.
Come to think of it, it sounds like they didn't even have experience attending this sort of thing.
Why is it that Penny Arcade gets all the attention around here? There are tons of good comics out there with a geeky slant - I'm a big fan of Sluggy Freelance, for example, which just in recent months has had plots/subplots about X-com, the I-Pod, PSP, cloning, and (perhaps more "dorky" than "geeky") Harry Potter.
Rock Us, Dukakis.
Yeah, easy enough to go to the main page and go to "current comic", but a direct link is always nice...
8-29-2005's comicWhat was the final battle?
HOW DID IT FEEL?
This flies in the face of science.
Did you skip out before the Omegathon or something?! Jesus, how can you write up PAX05 without even MENTIONING it?
:(
dilettante
"How like you to drag your keyboard to a gun fight." - Aaron Bedard (BANE)
There's a great forum thread going on at the Penny-Arcade site about what lameasses the concert crowd was. Apparently every time anyone tried to rock out, they were given a big ol' social beatdown by the crowd, who just wanted to play their game boys and nod in time.
What blows my mind is that the guy who calls them on it is getting chewed out, by and large, by the other members of the forum. I mean, far be it from me to tell you how to enjoy a concert, but wow. It's like these people have never been to a concert or something.
I was contemplating a PAX trip next year, but if this is the kind of crowd PAX is attracting, I can't say I'm particularly enthused about attending. I mean, I know it's nerdcore, but it just strikes me as impolite to sit there and play Nintendogs while someone's performing on stage for you.
Even Jesus hates listening to Creed.
Here I was hoping to read about the latest and greatest info on PAX. They don't even talk about "Diagnosis Murder" or "Touched by an Angel"! What kind of review is this?
Everything Taco said was largely true, but there were one or two negative things about PAX as well. The most glaring, and probably unavoidable, was the stench of hundreds of tightly packed nerds. Maydenbauer's AC system simply couldn't circulate air fast enough to clear out the freeplay rooms. It was overwhelming.
The exibition hall had some nifty things, Nintendo showing off yet-to-be-released games and the micro, but I was surprised that after all of the Penny-Arcade comics about World of Warcraft that Bilzzard wasn't there, and the Microsoft booth was nothing more than a neon XBOX sign and a projector connected to an xbox, no 360, nothing.
Was PAX nifty? Yep. Was it an event that compelled me to camp out at the conference center all weekend? Nope. But from the excitement on the faces of many attendees, I was in the minority.
My roomate and I wrote a bit more about it, and the exciting world of Seattle's WiFi enabled ferries, over at edgefactor.
Mod my comments down. It'll be fun.
Now have two of them, two nights in a row. Rawk.
Couple amusing highlights:
Still, I cannot get over the concerts. Before the Saturday night show began, it was unveiled that there'd be a special act...see, there was this huge gaming competition called the Omegathon, and a mystery game had been decided upon...Karaoke Revolution...with 1700 geeks assembled to watch.
Bet Konami never planned for this.
For those not familiar with Karaoke Revolution, it's basically a game where you're scored on how well your pitch matches what the game tells you you're supposed to be singing. Now, gamers generally do not sing, but it's 2005 and it's time to expand the market (and the eyeballs of these poor geeks that just want to win every NES game ever released). With 1700 people cheering on, we watched...
Two possible reactions:
1) Complete withdrawl
2) Complete insanity
The second was entertaining in its own right, but the first was best represented by...Leroy. Now, these are gaming geeks. Gamers + Leroy = LeeeeROYYYYYYYY!. To say he was cheered on would be an understatement...and to say he didn't take it so well...so the guy's about three fourth through the round, and hasn't managed to sing a single note right. Finally, after much struggling, he gets...one note right. He's on the board! Applause thunders through the audience!
LEEEEEEEEEEROY!
OK. Maybe you had to be there. But it was a truly magical moment.
But about the actual concerts.
Both the Video Game Pianist and Connie Lin were incredible, and MC Chris was more insane than I had any right to expect...but the real surprise, for me anyway, was MC Frontalot. I'd say all sorts of stuff about him, but just grab the single. His CD is great, try not to get it off Bittorrent. Cool guy, too.
It wasn't all hype and noise. Actually just sitting down with a random geek and playing Soul Caliber 2 for the first time in ages was just pure fun. And seeing the faces of all these kids see
...in case any other n00bs like myself were wondering.
This post from their interview a while back points to their Clan's site.
I'm trying to get everyone to use the PAX05 tag on flickr. There are around 450 pictures so far.
:).
I've personally uploaded around 150 of the 1700 I took, and threw together a quick page hosting a few panoramas (wait a few days to download the large versions where possible, I don't know if they really meant unlimited bandwidth.
You quitting proves that the karma kap worked. The most annoying of the whores shut up. --CmdrTaco
I posted this elsewhere, but I think it's fitting here too. I just got home from PAX 05, which I have to say was incredible. First, let me give you a run down on what all happened there. (SPOILER: Nintendo stole the fuck out of the show).
1) Exhibitions. Same sort of shit you see at E3, but on a smaller scale. Nintendo was present with just about all of their games that I have been wanting to play for a while (including the new Zelda). Microsoft was present with a chance to enter into a beta testing program, and a free copy of their new MS Office product. (I passed on both of those, as I have no desire for either). Sony was present in a small fashion with playable demos for about 5 or 6 of their new games. (Exact games elude me... I didn't play them, but I did pick up the discs that they were giving out). Ubisoft also had most of their lineup present. That included a bunch of Xbox games I could give a rat's ass about (but they had an airplane game that looked fun), and a trailer for Prince of Persia 3. The Army was present with a table full of shuttle PCs LANed together playing AA, and a hummer and a full set of soldier gear (including kevlar) that people could try on (I tried on the armor, and picked up a pressed AA CD, and a lanyard). There was also a sort of cool VR thing where you were walking around in a sphere (It proved to me once and for all that VR is an absolutely horrible idea.) Other things present included FEAR, Torque, Tabletop RPG things, and the usual assortment of merchandise for sale at such things (I picked up a T-shirt or two, a PAX 04 DVD (good memories), and the Penny Arcade book.)
2) Panels. One of the really great things about PAX is the panels that are going on pretty much all the time. Basically, they get members of the industry to get up in front of a few thousand people and answer questions. There were also other things, such as a chance to beat the pros at their own games (I beat a Soul Calibur II Pro and won a $50 gift certificate at EB) and of course... the classic screening of "The Wizard".
3) Music. The closest thing to a hippie music festival for gamers. Well, maybe not. They had a couple of people play way too much Final Fantasy on the piano, and a few very very horrible rappers. But NESkimos and the Minibosses simply kicked ass.
4) Community. PAX 05 might have been pretty boring if you were a PSP owner (and you probably would have had a hard time getting multiplayer going... there were a good 10 DSs for every PSP). But believe me when I tell you that PictoChat was DESIGNED for events like that. For 3 days, there was a continuously running pictochat conversation. This was especially handy during things such as panels or the music concerts, as it was our way of providing running commentary on things. (and drawing penii). You also meet many interesting people such as Eyes5, who can make PictoChat do absolutely insane things. I wish I could have saved some of her drawings. She was also quite the gamer... I was simply shocked to see 4:30 spent on Nintendogs when it was only out a few days beforehand... The dog knew about 20 tricks, and had won like every competition.
If any of you were at PAX, and owned a DS, you might remember me as PAX_Dave, who was serving E3 demos from his laptop at odd times during the convention. Late on the first day, I had grown very very proud of all the DS owners around (PSP owners were a VERY small minority), and I wanted to do something special, so I began hosting demos such as Jump Superstars, Submarine Tech Demo, Zelda trailer, and Trauma Center, as well as some homebrew. It became a common event for me to set up my laptop during a panel, or in the speakeasy booth and let my fellow DS fans have at her.
5) Nintendo. Let me list a few items. Zelda: Twilight Princess, Metroid: Hunters, Mario Kart DS, Viewtiful Joe DS, Castlevania DS, Met