Photos ~ PAX 2008

So that was a heck of a three days. Earlier tonight I got back after a weekend taking in PAX 2008 in Seattle. Starting on Friday I drove up and back with various friends to take in the yearly, Penny Arcade inspired and organized gaming fest. Hard to know where to start... Instead of lots 'n lots of writey and such I'll list my thoughts for each day in bullet form. Nevertheless, thanks to all the event organizers for a great weekend of enjoying a passion and pastime with some many other positive and like-minded folks!

Day 1

• started out by standing in line to get to the expo hall -- mistake! could've just gone to some panels and hit the expo area later
• enjoyed a round of Iron Chef America with Stowe at the Destineer booth where I summarily kicked his ass (and, yes, one point is enough to claim an ass kicking)
• saw that pirate game again that's been touted somewhat impotently at PAX for the last three years
  
• briefly met and had a photo with Felicia Day though, at the time, didn't know her name but only recognized her from her recent Dr. Horrible fame
• repeatedly watched as Stowe put every PAX goer with Pictochat to shame
• saw a live taping of 1-Up Yours and was pretty impressed with the hosts having never heard them before
• genuinely laughed and enjoyed seeing some of the work of some friends from PLU in Gamers 2: Dorkness Rising
  
• learned how very cool Jonathan Coulton really is with his amazing nerd folks lyrics and style
• didn't get home and to bed until 3am -- w00t!
  

Day 2

• lagged a bit getting started
• first up was the draw a strip Penny Arcade panel -- no real great integrations from the crowd to the strip itself but still really enjoyed watching Gabe in action
• caught sight of a fantastic TF2 spy and scout
• back in the expo hall we enjoyed seeing Little Big World and it's stunning style and seemingly engrossing game play (still won't make me get a PSP)
• also browsed the PAX 10 and was pretty wowed with the indy projects and also at the fact that many revolved (so to speak) around some simple principles of physics
• left the gaming fray for some dinner over at Red Fin -- everything was tasty but sitting outside was a bit chilly and carried with it the annoyance of a high pitched hum that alternated on and off for most of the meal slowly melting my brain
• totally saw a dude playing a real cowbell in a round of Rock Band a la Will Farrel in that Blue Oyster Cult SNL skit
• checked out and played Boom Blox in a freeplay room as a group and totally enjoyed ourselves tossing virtual balls to knock over one another's block castles (and met Sam -- hey Sam!)
  
• found out during the evening's concerts that it's gotta be rare for three people to all land at a point where their all tied at 56 points while playing Mario Kart
• heard Anamanaguchi (rocked!) and Darkest of the Hillside Thickets (lamesauce!) before succombing to sleepiness and missing MC Frontalot (eh) and the Minibosses (shame there)
  

Day 3

• learned over and over how to get my or anyone's girlfriend into gaming via the repetitive questions asked of this talks panel
• heard one panelist refer to Tetris-like puzzlers as "the shit keeps falling" games :D
• took in yet more of the expo floor (practically took all 3 days to do so) and came back after lunch to see a demo of the new Xbox 360 dashboard and interface (I made a suggestion to the 360 guy that they let folks put their gamer avatars on the t-shirts of the new 3D avatar characters coming with this update)
• played another Destineer game called Stoked that's an ambitious, freeform snowboarding title with and amazingly complex weather model and some impressive physics based on that weather and the snow conditions -- even includes "copy my trick" and "boarder and photographer" multiplayer modes
• stood in a lengthy line to get into the Omegathon and PAX '08 finale to watch the omeganauts and Gabe and Tycho duke it out in a never released in the US copy of Vs. Excitebike
  

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