Penny Arcade Expo 2007, Day Two

Today I had every intention of waking up at 7am in order to secure my place in line around 8am, obtain free swag, play lots of Mario Kart and obtain my bracelet to get into the Saturday concerts...but when I woke up this morning around 10:30am I realized that plan was probably not going to work. So, once again I missed out on the concerts although today did NOT disappoint on the awesome scale.

I started out my day attending the Rooster Teeth panel. If you just read that and thought, "holy crap that's awesome" congratulations, you rock. If you thought, "huh? rooster teeth...what?" Then you need to go watch Red vs Blue right now. Seriously. NOW.

It was a pretty great panel. They showed a lot of the non-internet scenes on the Season Five DVD which included some of the random alternate endings for the Blood Gulch Chronicles. And no worries to you faithful fans who are sad about everyone being blown up/the 100th episode end to the series. While they are ending this saga, they fully plan on continuing with the same characters. They said that they wanted to get back to a place where there wasn't a crap load of back story and it was all about the silly one-liner jokes that we came to love in the first place.

They also played a few really funny commercials they made for MTV2 and NCAA Football but I'm way too lazy to go find and link those at the moment. Just go buy their DVDs!

Next up was the Make a Strip panel with none other than everyone's two favorite people for the weekend. The Penny-Arcade guys did another Q&A while making a strip. It was quite hilarious if I do say so myself. I would link it, but it's not up yet. I'll give you a sneak preview though: it involves fanny packs.

It was really cool to see a strip actually getting drawn. Mike Krahulik (Gabe) is a very talented artist and it was a treat to get to watch him draw on the big screen. After he finished with the comic he then continued to draw Tycho in silly outfits. That was worth going to the panel in itself. Tycho ended up in a clown outfit getting attacked by a monkey, in a frilly pink bra with make-up on and a bird's nest and bird on his head, and with an exploded bloody spurting head. It was highly entertaining and I often found myself not knowing if I was laughing at what was being drawn or what was being said...more often than not it was probably both.

After that panel was over, I found a friend! Yay! I managed to coerce one of my buddies into coming down for the day so we wandered back to brave the exhibition hall. I now own more free stickers and mints than I'll ever know what to do with.

This is where the nvidia "find your match" game got a little crazy. If you go to the nvidia booth you can stand in line and eventually get yourself a button with a number on it. Supposedly there are two buttons out there with the same numbers on them. So, you have to find the one person who has a button with the same number on it as yours. People went insane over this! There were tons of people that crowded in the back of the hall surrounding about eight pieces of paper where people had started to write down their names, nvidia number, and phone numbers. Then some poor guy was also adding them in the computer. Sometime tonight the numbers that got recorded from today are suppose to go online in the forums, but I'm not too worked up about it. If my person finds me, they find me. I guess I can give people a bit of a break for freaking out though, the prizes are pretty sweet (video cards, your choice video games, 50$ gift certificates, etc.).

Personally, I think it's all just a big joke. There are no matches. They just enjoy watching us poor gamers go crazy. Some of the employees at the booth were wearing ten or so buttons on themselves. I mean, come on, they were obviously openly mocking us!

After dinner my companion and I headed towards the World in Conflict release party. Really, the only reason we went was that a cute skinny girl in a very tiny dress handed my friend his "invitation", but I thought it sounded interesting anyway so I was game. The party was a total bust. They had a few stations set up to play the game, some cute props like military vehicles and both men and women dressed up with guns, but overall it was kinda dumb. I didn't get a chance to play the game, but from what I saw from watching other people play I wasn't impressed. Not to mention the beer was SEVEN dollars a bottle! Are you kidding me?!

After that we made our way back to catch the PC Hardware panel which was yet another disappointment based on my own apparently incorrect assumptions. I thought that we would be hearing about sweet new hardware and maybe see some demos, but no. It was just a Q&A that turned into "let's complain about how expensive video games are to these guys whom have nothing to do what so ever with the corporate end of things." It was ridiculous and we didn't stay very long. The only thing I learned while I was there was that maybe they'll come out with better equipment in the future and it'll probably cost a lot of money. Uh...yeah.

We decided our time was better wasted over in the PC Freeplay area. This is where the magic was. I ending up randomly selecting Half-Life 2: Deathmatch and holy crap was that one of the funnest games I've ever played! The game looks amazing right down to the blood splatters on the floor and the levels are very well put together for multiplayer beat downs. The game play is also very simple and even though I never did get the hang of the Gravity Gun, beating people to death with the Stun Stick never got old. I will definitely be picking up this game as soon as my budget allows it. I'll report on it more fully then, but for now just know that it is an incredibly fun game. I haven't enjoyed miltiplayer free for all killing this much since Conker's Bad Fur Day.

From there on out the majority of our night was spent getting kicked out of the PC Freeplay area after the meager 20 or so minutes they give you to play each turn only to run back around and get in line again. It was so worth it.

Our night ended with a little bit of Guitar Hero-ing in the Console Freeplay area. There we heard rumors of a cheat code that unlocks all the songs and spent most of our givin 20 minutes surfing around the internet to see if it was real out of curiosity. I think I can safely tell you that it's not. Don't bother with all the blue, orange, red in the menu or the name your band byoyob crap. Just play the game and be happy.

And so ends day two. I am not ready for this weekend to come to an end! Tomorrow is the last day of PAX and I will be leaving the convention center with a tear in my eye and immense joy in my heart.


PS: I now own a Rooster Teeth hat signed by the RvB guys! Score!

PSS: Just as a side note, I know that I was destined for PAX because literally, no lie, every time I stepped outside the convention center today it rained and every time I went back in it stopped. Even now, I can hear the rain outside the windows in my apartment. Seattle is basically telling me that I should never leave PAX. I am definitely OK with that!

Penny Arcade Expo 2007, Day One

I had the distinct pleasure of gracing the Penny Arcade Expo with my presence this year! I bought a three day pass as soon as I could and have been obsessing over going for months. Now that it's finally here I'm having a little bit of trouble containing myself...my hands are literally shaking as I type this! That is how awesome PAX is!

I started out my day at 12:30pm. The doors opened at 2pm, but I thought I would catch some Mario Kart time with whoever else happened to show up early. I walked into the Convention and Trade Center and made my way up to the fourth floor looking for groups of DSers. What I found was...an enormous line. I was slightly confused; this is my first year going and it really didn't click in my head that people would be waiting to get in, when they were already in. So I go up to one of the "Enforcers" and ask what the hell the big line was for. He simply said "that is THE line."

I found shortly after that half the fun of being at PAX involves waiting in various long lines. Do NOT show up at PAX without your Nintendo DS. If you don't have one, well, I feel really really sorry for you. Your life can not be good without this system.

They handed out bags full of goodies such as Magic: the Gathering cards (use to play but not so much anymore) and a life token for the largest role playing game ever played (rock, paper, scissors was never this intense!). In addition to the goodies, everyone got balls. Yes, I was having fun saying that all day.

After some random cheering and multiple butt cramps from sitting on the hard floor for a couple hours we were all herded to an unknown destination. It was a little frightening being led blindly through the convention center and I couldn't help thinking they were going to have a major gamer slaughter so the idiot politicians could have their way with the gaming world.

In the end, I was led to the land where dreams are made of...well, gamer dreams anyway.

Imagine, if you will, a GIANT room. Got that? Now, fill that room with every video game company you can possibly think of. Good? Now continue to fill that room with game demos, free swag, swag for sale, and the most video games you can possibly picture. Now multiply that by ten. THAT'S where I was. Oh em gee, was it beautiful. I think I may have teared up a little.

After ravaging the exhibition hall for a couple hours I made my way toward my second enormous line of the evening: the key note speaker. It was Wil Wheaton! Seriously though, SHUT UP ALREADY about how much you hate next generation. I can't tell you how many complete strangers I've had this conversation with today. I don't care how much you hated the series, Wil Wheaton was AMAZING. His speech was possibly the greatest one I've ever heard. He talked about growing up as a gamer, all the classics, how politics need to back off of our world, and how happy we all are to be gamers and to be amongst each other. Whatever I write here can never do him justice. I was inspired and happy and laughing and I'm not sure I've ever felt words that strongly before. It was just pure awesome.

After his standing ovation we all settled back down only to be interrupted by booming base and seizure inducing lights. That's when I saw them for the first time. The creators of it all. They. Were. Glorious.

Tycho and Gabe put on one hell of a Q&A! I am 100% sure that I have never laughed so hard or so long in my entire life. They're genius! Everything that came out of there mouths was funny. If I had never read the comic before, I would know why they were so popular just from hearing them speak for that hour.

Insert the greatest moment of the convention so far: a girl in the audience asks Tycho to sing "My Belruel". He steps out to the front of the stage and starts to serenade us. Then, one by one, everyone flips open their DS's and wave them in the air to produce the concert lighter effect. As I started to wave my own lit up DS I thought about how it would be one of those moments I would remember for the rest of my life. I swear, my heart almost exploded with joy. That's how happy I was at that moment to be surrounded by people who hold the same love I do for gaming.

After making my way out of the main theater with a smile that still hasn't left my face, I meandered over to sign up for the Handheld Distributed Tournament System so that I could grab my pins and start p'owning some newbs at Mario Kart DS as I had been doing all afternoon during my long line time. Unfortunately for me, I seem to lose my Mario Kart magic when there are no CPU's involved and it's just one vs one. Meh. So, I lost one of my little pins. I was especially disappointed because the guy that issued my pins told me that I was only the third girl that day to register and that he was rooting for me. I'm sorry! I will be up all night tonight perfecting my Mario Kart so I can win some pins! I refuse to give up!

Speaking of female gamers, there were quite a bit more than I expected. We were still GREATLY outnumbered, but we had a presence and that's awesome. We definitely out numbered the PSP players (seriously, go buy a DS before a convention full of video game nerds beats you up).

That brings me to the next panel I attended: Women in Gaming. It was a pretty neat panel but I was both impressed and disappointed. The panel ladies brought up some very good points about female gamers and how we should also be focusing on race discrimination in video games and developers rather than getting stuck on just gender. It was a very interesting discussion and all their points made sense; but that wasn't why I had attended the panel. I wanted to hear about what it was like to be female in the gaming industry, and instead I heard about how we need to stop focusing on that and just move on. A valid point, but not what I was looking for. Oh well. The panel ladies were obviously very intelligent and it made for an interesting conversation.

After the panel I wandered around a bit and found yet another giant line. My last of the night. It ended with Wil Wheaton. Yes! I got to meet him, had him sign a book, and got my picture with him. I don't care what any of you think of him in Star Trek terms...I thought he was a pretty rad guy and I was more than excited to shake his hand.

It was at this point that I decided to go home. I did have a bracelet to get into the concert, but I was just exhausted. 8am-5pm job during the week is killing me. Oh well. I fully plan on attending Saturday's concert as well as staying out as late as possible without missing the last bus home.

I had only two disappointments today: (1) I lost all my life tokens for Terra Drive and (2) not one video game geek hit on me! Yes...that's right. I went to PAX on the prowl! I wanted to score some hot video game lovin' but had no such luck today. Aw well...I've got two days surrounded by nerdy boys left! There's still hope!


Needless to say, I just had the day of my life. I can't even imagine how awesome tomorrow will be.



PS: If you happen to be attending PAX and have a nvidia number of "56674" EMAIL ME!