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
End of the Journey
August 31, 2008 | 0 Comments
Well, here we are, the end of the journey. It’s been 31 days since I started the Blog-O-Rama Challenge and it’s finally come to an end. As crazy as it sounds, there was something posted every single day in the month of August. Sure, everything (and I do mean everything) was written at least a day before it was posted, but the fact remains that it was written and it was posted.
Going into this I thought it would be a pretty tall order and that, should creativity run out, I could always post a link to an interesting find on the internet with a snarky comment, sort of what Gruber does. Of course he posts a half dozen a day, intermixed with his content, but he makes money off the deal. Either way, I didn’t end up doing that. Sure, I posted some links and some snarky comments, but everything was — in my mind — solid content. This was a big surprise.
Will I do this again? Yeah, maybe. We’ll see what happens and if the mood to delve fully into mindlessness and creativity strikes. What I think will happen, almost immediately, is the frequency of posting will increase. It’ll be pretty hard to go from sometimes writing four posts a day (which I did) back to zero. But who knows. I am lazy so there’s always that.
What was your favorite post during the Blog-O-Rama Challenge? Let me know in the comments below.
Seattle is a Strange Land
August 30, 2008 | 3 Comments
So I’m here, at PAX, and after spending about 24 hours in Seattle I’ve noticed a few things. Namely, this is a strange place.
The strangest thing, and the hardest to get over, is the fact that it’s three hours behind the East Coast. It feels like living in the past actually. When I turned on ESPN last night, at 630p, college football games were half over. I felt like I had missed something. It might have been the jet lag, but it just felt odd. Today I decided not to turn on the TV.
Another thing that I found rather strange are the drivers over here. Evidently no one that lives in Seattle can drive. Even stranger, there are stop lights that tell you when you can leave the on ramp and enter the highway. Odd yes, but their erratic pattern is even odder. I’ll add the YouTube video of this strange light system later on, when I’m not waiting in a 3000 person line to enter PAX.
Other then these two things, Seattle is your typical “big city.” The downtown area is pretty cool, especially the Pike Street Market — the place with the famous fish throwers and all the flower vendors. One thing that is pretty unique, especially after being in Florida for so long, is that the second language used (in the airport mainly) is not Spanish but rather Japanese. That’s pretty cool.
I’m sure my weekend here will result in many more observations, especially as it relates to geeks and nerd culture, but for now that’s all I got. Look for those fun realizations sometime next week.
Here’s the YouTube video of the retarded traffic light. Behold the stupidity that is Seattle’s highway system:
I mean, Seattle isn’t all bad. I guess. At least PAX is pretty much awesome.
An Award and an Answer
August 22, 2008 | 3 Comments
The other day I noticed that fellow blogger and Twitterer Oh My Seven decided that I deserved this sweet little token of appreciation:
Yeah, it’s pretty cool. Now, after reading her blog post a second time — it was all about me the first time — I realized that Seven had given it to three bloggers (myself included) and her brother had given it to four (Seven included). Here comes the problem. I don’t really know who to pass it on to. You see, because of this award I realized why I’m such a bad blogger: I don’t read other blogs.
I mean, sure, I read a ton of topical blogs — things like Destructiod, MacUser, and TV Squad — but I don’t really read people’s personal blogs. It’s not really that I’m too self absorbed to be concerned with other peoples lives (maybe it is, what do I know?), it’s really that I find it odd reading about other peoples daily lives. It seems a bit invasion of privacyish — which is why I don’t really talk at all about my own life here. It’s all observations and topical things, because that’s what I read and find interesting.
It’s funny. You see, back in April I asked what blogging is all about. Who would have thought that my August Blog-O-Rama challenge would bring that answer. Warning: introspective content ahead.
For me, blogging is all about topical issues and not about life events. Life events are private things that don’t really need to be shared with the whole world. I call this site Mindless Chatter because it’s my incoherent ramblings about topics that interest me. It’s why you’ll find plenty of posts about Apple and not many about what I did yesterday. It all makes sense now.
But this touchy feelly crap doesn’t get me out of passing this award along. No, that’d be too easy. Instead, I’m going to pass it onto two topical blogs that I do read and enjoy that aren’t owned by a giant media conglomerate (since Seven’s brother went with four and Seven went with three, I figure I’m supposed to give it to two):
Two Slashes
Two Slashes is written by Nick Tabick and is basically his views on tech related issues. They are always interesting and I find myself commenting more there then anywhere else on the interwebs.
Hummer Guy
Hummer Guy is written by Brian Dooley, my college roommate. It’s about, you guessed it, Hummers: industry trends, new products, racing, everything. I don’t know how Brian gets all his information and it’s possible I don’t want to know, but it’s well written and deserving of a read — if you’re into Hummers of course.
So there you go. It was a long road to get to the point where I could share the award with others, but I learned something along the way. Did you? What defines a good blog to you? Topics, personal stories, jokes? Let me know in the comments.
All Screened Out
August 21, 2008 | 3 Comments
Technology seems to be everywhere these days and definitely permeates my life. In fact, it is so intertwined with my life that I spend almost every waking moment staring at a screen of some sort. I mean, in the morning I check email and RSS feeds while eating breakfast, then it’s off to work where I spend most of the day in front of a computer, then it’s home where time is split between the TV and MacBook — and don’t forget all the looks at the iPhone and iPod throughout the day as well. I do nothing but stare at screens. So, for fun, here’s a breakdown of my favorite screens:
iMac
This screen is a whopping 24″ and might possibly have a hand in causing me to go blind. Even at it’s lowest brightness setting it’s too bright. The good news is I can code and design like a fiend on there.
MacBook
This screen, compared to the iMac, is a tiny 13″. Unfortunately those 13″ are what I spend almost all day looking at as the MacBook is what I use in the office — and everywhere else. This one will probably cause me to go blind but not because of the brightness.
iPhone
This screen is an even smaller 3.5″. Since OS 2.0 came out I find myself staring at this screen more and more. The Twitterriffic and Facebook apps don’t really help. Oddly I don’t think this one will cause me any future blindness.
TV
This screen is a very nice 32″. If you spend any time reading this blog then you know I spend way to much time watching TV. It’s really hard not to watch it when it’s on a beautiful Aquos HDTV. Let me tell you, there is nothing like the Olympics in HD. But that’s the story for another day (probably not because that’s really all I have to say on that subject).
There you have it. The collection of my typical daily screens. It seems like the bottom line is I spend too much time in a stationary position and will more than likely drive myself blind.
Do you stare at too many screens? Let me know about them in the comments section below.