PAX 08: The Remembering
September 3, 2008 | 1 Comment
This past holiday weekend I traveled to Seattle with my good friend Mike to attend the annual Penny Arcade Expo. Penny Arcade is a trice-weekly web comic about video games and their surrounding universe. Started out of a passion for games, Penny Arcade has risen to a point where it runs a multi-million dollar charity, publishing empire, and the largest publicly accessible gaming convention in the United States. Now that the back story is out of the way, onto my remembering.
Warning: The content that follows will contain significant name dropping, product linking, and plenty of nerds. You have been warned.
Keynote
This year’s keynote speaker was Ken Levine, the guy who created and wrote BioShock. I was throughly looking forward to this because, having played BioShock, I thought it’d be pretty cool to hear about how this incredible game came be. Perhaps even how some of his high-philosophy story-line came about. When it came to it, Levine actually never mentioned BioShock by name and talked about his life to this point. He talked about finding his first group of real friends thanks to Dungeons and Dragons, a brief career in Hollywood, and finally coming to the realization that someone actually creates the video games he plays. The speech was sort of a rally cry for nerds everywhere. It was a good way to start the show.
Mike and Jerry
Mike Holkins and Jerry Krahulik are the brains behind Penny Arcade. Their alter-egos, Jonathan Gabriel and Tycho Brahe, are the main subject matter for the webcomic. They are, if you will, big time. At least until they start talking. They held two question and answer sessions where they answered everything honestly and hilariously. What I really liked about the two of them, other then the fact that they are as funny as their personas are in the comic, is that they are just as awe struck by everything as we are. They love video games and the comic is a result of that. Their “fame” is secondary and to them, fleeting. It could end at any moment as far as they’re concerned. Jerry said it’s a lot like running from lions, trying to hold off the end of the run as long as possible. They really seem down to earth, genuinely humble people. They set up an impromptu autograph session on the second to last day of the expo that Mike and I stumbled into. Instead of ending at 5pm, like the handwritten sign said, they waited until everyone in line got a chance to approach the table, something they clearly did not have to do. Through seeing them on stage, it’s clear to see they enjoy what they do and are grateful (and a little surprised) at the result.
Me and Felicia Day
The Guild
It’s no coincidence that I’m now segueing into talking about The Guild. Prior to attending PAX I was really looking forward to the screening of The Guild on the first night of the show. So excited that Mike and I entered the line almost two hours early to be sure we got a seat, which we did, in the second row. The Guild, which I’ve talked about before, is a web tv show about a guild of WoW players who decide to meet. The show was created by and stars Felicia Day and Sandeep Parikh, who were both at the expo. I got to meet both of them at The Guild booth and, like Mike and Jerry, are very approachable and humble. Felicia Day, who also stared in the very funny and hugely popular Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-Long Blog, even embarrassed herself in the question and answer after the screening due to a slight slip of the tongue. It was pretty funny.
Wil Wheton
Admittedly I’m not geeky enough to know much about Wil Wheaton. I mean, I know that he was on StarTrek: TNG as a kid and he’s pretty funny on Twitter, but other than that I got nothing for you. He was the keynote speaker at PAX last year. This year, he was given his own panel. When asked how one man, even Wil Wheton, could have a “panel” he laughed and then said it’s because he’s awesome. Wil falls into the same category as all the rest I’ve talked about so far: humble, funny, and very happy with where they are in life. After Rickrolling us in dramatic fashion, Wil read some things he’s written and personally enjoys. He’s funny and pointed at the same time which is not an easy thing. I might have upped by nerd-cred by being there, but I am glad I sat in for the Wil Wheton Panel.
Line Up Room - Thousands of Geeks in One Place
People
It seemed that the kindness that seemingly emanated from Mike, Jerry, Felicia, Sandeep, and Wil was not limited to them. In fact, just about everyone was extremely friendly. A good deal of time at PAX is spent waiting in line surrounded by hundreds of other people (thousands in the Line Up Room). Despite being crammed in with other people, there is always someone willing to converse, play a game, or joke around. It definitely made waiting in all those lines much more pleasant.
Games
So PAX is a gaming conference, it’s fitting that I talk about games at some point. So I guess now will do. I’m a casual gammer. I play a few games a year. I read Destructoid and follow upcoming stuff, but I usually don’t go overboard with it. That said, there were a few titles that really excited me at PAX.
The first was Afro Samurai. This game, based on an anime on Adult Swim, features Samuel L Jackson as the Afro Samurai. It’s a cell-shadded game that looks really cool and plays like a typical button-mashing action game. Yes, I played this one. It was pretty fun. It’s clearly going to get a mature rating because, well, Samuel L Jackson is in it.
I attended the Ubisoft Demo that featured play throughs of both FarCry 2 and Prince of Persia. Both of these games look great. Prince of Persia has an art style that’s very unique and hard to describe. The game looks like a lot of fun, although I’ve not liked Prince of Persia games in the past, but we’ll see. FarCry 2 has a graphics and AI engine that is unrivaled. Fire spreads naturally, water ripples, you can see the heat of exhaust. It’s incredible. The game also looks hellishly difficult. The game developer, playing a production build of the game, kept dying. That game is going to be hard. What makes FarCry 2 stand out from other beautiful FPS games is it’s map editor. Usually a trivial feature, Ubisoft has raised the bar here. It’s really hard to describe. You just have to see it.
The final game I’m looking forward to is Fallout 3, which should be out sometime next month. This game is a mix FPS and third-person (and top-view if you want) that follows a survivor in the post-apocalyptic United States. It’s quest based and open ended. Weapons can be created from virtually anything found in the environment, which will have some very interesting results. This game looks to share a lot of similarities with FarCry 2 and BioShock. That’s a good thing.
Closing
It’s hard to summarize my PAX experience. It seems to trite to say it was great, or a lot of fun, even though it was both of those things. PAX is something that is hard to describe to someone who doesn’t play games but at the same time very easily relatable — as discovered by the people who shared our airport shuttle bus. PAX is the following:
If the Penny Arcade Expo has a star, it’s not Gabe or Tycho. It’s not special guests like MC Frontalot or Wil Wheaton. It’s not even veritable champions of nerdery like PAX ‘08 Omegathon winner Joey Gecko. No, it’s geeky culture itself. And when we gather to celebrate our own, wackiness invariably ensues.
That was GeekDadZ via Wil Wheaton’s recent post attempting to summarize PAX. PAX is about geeks. It’s for geeks. It is geeks. Maybe that’s why it’s hard to summarize. One thing is for sure, Mike and I will be back.
While I wrap up this marathon post, I’m going to add a gallery of pictures that we took at PAX featuring some of the crazy cosplayers. Check it out.
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- Motorcycle Totem Poll
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- Line Up Room - Thousands of Geeks in One Place
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- Fruit "Friend"
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- Me and Umbrella Man
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- Black Mage
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- Harley Quinn
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- Two Dr. Horribles?
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- Box Man
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- Me and Felicia Day
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- Silent Hill Nurse
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- Darth Vader
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- Box Man 2: The Enemy
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- Viva Pinata
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- Pikachu
PAX BABY!!!
August 28, 2008 | 0 Comments
Today is August 28th and that means that I’m somewhere between sunny Orlando and dreary Seattle. That’s right, I’m leaving on a jet plain for a long weekend in the brittle north west. No, I won’t be enjoying the local grunge scene or partaking in a fine cup of joe, I’ll be getting my geek on at this year’s Penny Arcade Expo!
PAX is a three day conference created by the one and only Penny Arcade, an awesome web comic. It’s going to feature bands, video games, speakers, video games, movies, video games, geeks, and video games. I’m excited.
It's Penny Arcade Expo or Bust!
The official schedule is available on the PAX website and it’s almost mind numbing to try and decipher it all. One session I’ve been looking forward to for awhile, however, is the screening of The Guld with creator and star Felicia Day. That should be pretty cool. Other things that caught my eye were sessions on the history of Harmonix, a screening of the movie The Wizard, and the keynote with the creator of BioShock. One thing’s for sure, the deal will be a lot of fun.
While I’m there I hope to explore a bit of Seattle as well. Considering I’ve never been west of Texas this should be an adventure. I’ll be making PAX updates on Twitter, so follow me if you haven’t already. There probably won’t be a PAX specific post here until sometime next week. We’ll see.
Are you going to PAX? Have you been to Seattle? Leave some “must see and do” things in the comments below.
Watch The Guild
August 3, 2008 | 3 Comments
This one’s going to take a bit of getting to the point, so bear with me.
During the last mission trip of the summer big waves were made in the internet TV world. Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-Long Blog, Joss Whedon’s latest creation, debuted for free for a limited time. Needless-to-say I missed that limited time. Instead I forked over the $3.99 to purchase the show from iTunes. I figured, based on my love for Joss’ Firefly, that I’d probably enjoy the three act show.
Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-Long Blog
I was right. The show is just about hilarious as it is downright unique — it’s a musical about a super-villian wannabe who has a blog. Anyway, the show is pretty funny so I looked it up on Twitter. The show has a Twitter account (I’m not sure who actually does the tweeting) but I followed it. I noticed the @drhorrible follows two people: @feliciaday, Penny from the show, and @theguild, The Guild (see, I’m getting there). Felicia Day seems to be an avid Twitterer so I started following her. The Guild, on the other hand, has rarely been updated so I ignored it.
Felicia Day is the creator, writer and star of The Guild
A few days later I see that Felicia Day is featured in Penny Arcade’s Comic Con Sketchbook. Turns out that she is also the creator, writer, producer, star, webmaster, ect of a YouTube show called The Guild. Since Felicia Day and The Guild would be appearing at PAX, I figured I’d give it a watch. After all, if I have the opportunity to run into them at PAX (oh yes, I’m going) then I want to check it out.
The Guild is pure hilarity. It’s about a World of Warcraft guild who decide to actually meet. Felicia Day starts each episode talking into her webcam blog (a lot like Dr. Horrible himself). The first season centers around the guild meeting for the first time — and all that entails. You can watch the entire season on YouTube, as well as a few bonus videos (Felicia’s DDR video is pure internet gold). According to the website, which is currently being “owned by Dr. Horrible and Penny Arcade”, the second season will be going into production very, very soon which is pretty exciting.
Have you seen The Guild? What do you think? Let me know in the comments below.
I Bought an iPhone
July 2, 2007 | 0 Comments
After trying to convince myself that I wouldn’t, I decided to buy an iPhone after playing with it for an hour or so yesterday at an Apple Store. I placed my order at Apple.com and decided to wait out the 2-4 weeks before it shipped.
Some of you noticed that I updated my Facebook status this morning to “sitting outside an Apple store.” Thanks to Apple’s little iPhone Avaliablility feature, I saw that the Florida Mall had iPhone’s to sell for today. Since I couldn’t sleep at all last night due to the dog whining all night, I decided to ‘get up’ at 730 and head over there to see if I could get lucky and get an iPhone without waiting 2-4 weeks. I arrived at around 815 to be third in a line of four. Thanks to the Apple Store’s free wi-fi I was playing around with my laptop in the vacant hallway while I waited. The Apple Store opened for iPhone sales at 9 but lo, they had no 8GB models. I left empty handed.
On a whim I drove over to a corporate AT&T store, got there around 930, and asked if they had any iPhones. The answer, of course, was no but the clerk told me I could order one and have it shipped directly to my house. He said that they should ship by the end of the week and if I paid for “priority” shipping ($14) I’d get it a few days after that; “early next week at the latest” were his exact words. He sold me. I had now made my second iPhone purchase in less then 12 hours.
This afternoon I received an email from Apple thanking me for my iPhone purchase and announcing that it would ship “no later than” July 13th with a delivery date of “no later than” July 17th, which put it right in the 2-4 week time frame, but at least it was a sure fire date. Shortly there after I received an email from AT&T thanking me for my iPhone purchase and announcing I could now track the order status online. Doing so showed the “handset” to be “back-ordered” which made sense considering I couldn’t seem to find one anywhere. Of course, I kept refreshing the status like the little geek I am and sometime around 5pm it was no longer listed as “back-ordered.” Curious. I checked it about 45 minutes ago and AT&T shipped the iPhone from Texas this evening with an estimated delivery of “no later than 3:00 PM” TOMORROW! That “priority” shipping sure paid off. I quickly canceled my Apple order and will patiently await the arrival of my sweet new miniature computer.
After I get some time to put it through the ringer I’ll post a full review. Look for it within a week.
