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PAX East 2010

Wow, I’m sure I cannot do PAX East justice. This was the first PAX East (as opposed to the original PAX from Seattle, now called PAX Prime) and it was pretty much the greatest thing in the history of gaming and conventions and geekery (and fun).

Since I can barely remember the whole blur of a weekend, I’ll rely on photographs to tell most of the story, with some highlights thrown in along the way. If you’re on a mobile device, take heed; this will be bandwidth intensive.

When we were looking for the Hynes convention center we knew when we were close. There was a long line of people coming from the MTA stop all going in the same direction, and the cosplayers were a pretty good giveaway. We decided to park in the garage next-door, and by the time we got there the line was moving swiftly.

By the time we got in the keynote was full, but I’ve watched the video and Wil knocked it out of the park. Watch it below:

We decided to go to the NVIDIA event which required waiting in line, but not for too long. While we waited we busted out the DSs and loaded pictochat. We got our chatroom to fill up with the people around us who also had DSs and, of course, it quickly evolved into an epic wang drawing contest; Lulz were definitely had. The staff passed 3D glasses out a little before we went into the theater, and jesse’s had a patch of green on the inside of the bridge. I didn’t think much of it at the time.

At the event they debuted the new GeForce GTX 480 for the first time ever! I have to say I was impressed. Besides the somewhat novelty 3D capabilities (which do look pretty awesome with the flicker glasses we got to use at the expo hall booth) it does realtime ray-tracing! If that doesn’t impress you, suffice it to say that that’s amazing. The real treat came when they announced two people in the audience (out of about 3000 there) would be getting a free GTX 480. They told everyone to look on the bridge of their glasses for a green mark, and wouldn’t you know it, Jesse was one of the winners! We were really happy for him, because he of any of us will get the most use out of it.

There were plenty of places to play games around the convention center. The expo hall was full of videogame companies demoing their latest offerings, there was a classic console (NES, Super NES, ATARI 2600, Sega Genesis, etc) room, a current console room, an arcade, a PC gaming room, a handheld lounge for playing DS and PSP, and tabletop rooms everywhere. It was basically gamer heaven.

I have to say, Sumo rocks for plastering the hand-held lounge with giant beanbag chairs. They offered a much needed respite between gaming, concerts, talks, and the constant onslaught of awesomeness. We played The Downfall of Pompeii, magic, and of course Mario Kart DS on them throughout the weekend.

Much Magic the Gathering was played:

The first night we decided to go to a screening of a D&D GM documentary. After sitting around a while we were told they were trying to locate the DVD. Shortly thereafter Mike (aka Gabe), the artist of Penny Arcade, came in and went to the front of the room. He told us the documentary people did show up, but wanted to know if we’d like to have an imprompteau GM Q&A with him! Mike (as well as Jerry) is an amazing GM, so what had promised to be an interesting evening turned into an enthralling one. The Q&A was very educational and funny as well. The best part about it is that until recently, Mike wasn’t into D&D at all.

The next day we got to the convention extra early so we could go to the Penny Arcade Create-a-strip panel, where we get to watch Jerry and Mike script out and draw a strip. To our surprise they made the comic about the events of the previous night!

There were, of course, some hijinks…

The finished product:

Someone asked Jerry to sing the song he wrote, My Belruel, and it was both lilting and haunting. The dude has a great voice. You can hear him singing it from back in 2007 (it’s kind of a tradition now) here.

There were some really cool booths in the expo hall:

While Jesse and Jeremy played PC games, Trevor and I decided to take a short break to exchange some geocoins in a local geocache.

We went to “An Evening with Scott Kurtz” on a whim, and it turned out to be one of my favorite moments at PAX East. Scott told the most hilarious and touching stories, and the whole atmosphere was very close and intimate. He certainly gained a reader for life in me.

Sunday morning, the final day, we went to the Blamimation panel by Scott Kurtz and Kris Straub. We had a hell of a good time and played a small part in scripting/recording the next Blamimation.

We didn’t make it into the first PA Q&A, but we did make it into the second one. Someone asked Jerry and Mike to arm wrestle. I forget who won.

The autograph line was pretty epic, so we played magic while we waited.

I got my Nintendo DS signed by Jerry and Mike, and my badge signed by Jerry, Mike, Robert Khoo, Scott Kurtz and Kris Straub, and musicians Paul & Storm. The autograph line filled up before we could get a place on both of the days that Wil Wheaton was there, so that sucked, but that was the only bad part of the whole weekend.

That’s all I can remember! I have quite a few videos I’ve yet to convert and upload, but I’ll link em’ when they’re done. For all the PAX East photos you could ever want, including some sweet cosplay outfits, check out flickr and this forum thread. When the unofficial community DVD comes out, there will be information at this site. Finally, search youtube for some great performances by Jonathan Coulton, Paul & Storm, VGO, and many more.

Tags: comics, convention, games, pax, pax east, videogames, webcomics