PAX East 2010

Phew! What a weekend!
I’m still feeling super energetic from my PAX East high. I wasn’t sure how big & successful PAX East would be, but after attending the first day of PAX East, I can say that PAX East will be bigger and even better next year, and we’ll definitely be there.

PAX East is definitely the most organized, content-rich pleasant convention I’ve ever been to. Before I write this blog post, my boyfriend beat me to it. Check out more cohesive review of PAX at kickinthehead.org HERE.

The convention staff, a.k.a. Enforcers, are everywhere, very easy to spot and extremely helpful and friendly. Also, they set up a phone app for PAX where you can check the events you want to go, and make your own itinerary. I am so very glad that I got a new phone before this convention. I had a regular cellphone before, but decided to get a smartphone so it’d be easier to keep in touch with my friends during the convention.

There were so many different panels and events, so I let my boyfriend pick which panels we were going to. The only panel I really wanted to go was “Girls and Games” to meet Jeff (He was running the panel) to thank him for dealing with me about Noby Noby Boy scarf.

I was going to do daily blog post, but I was so very tired everyday. So I’m going to do a really big post for all three days here.

Day 1!
- Keynote: We got in in the end of keynote. All I know is Wil Wheaton is awesome.

- Penny Arcade Panel: Mainly Q&A with Jerry and Mike. Hilarious as expected. They’re really good with everyone, including annoying people. The only sad news was that there will be no Penny Arcade game episode 3.

- Bringing up the next generation of geeks: Geeky parents talked about how to introduce your geeky hobby to your kids. It was funny that the panelists were saying when their kids said they liked Star Wars, they went “YESSSS!!”

- Girls and Games: Discussion about the growing role of women in the game industry. I wish there would be more interesting questions from the audience. I was there mostly to meet Jeff, but I felt like questions asked should’ve been something different than “Boys talk trash to me when I say I’m a girl on Xbox live, what can we do to change that?” I don’t think they were talking trash because she was a girl, they were talking trash because they’re just jerks, but that’s my opinion.

After the panel, my boyfriend brought up how when Assassin’s Creed came out, all people talked about was how hot the game’s producer Jade Raymond was, and not about what she did for the game. I think the same goes with Mirror’s Edge. They designed the main female character, Faith, to look Asian (maybe a bit too stereotypical to my Asian eyes though) and very ‘athletic’ (meaning that she didn’t have gigantic boobs) since she’s a free runner.  When the game came out, some guy photoshoped her, making her eyes and boobs bigger, and everyone talked about how they preferred the photoshoped version of her. One of the developers of Mirror’s Edge talked about how depressing it was in this article. Anyway, I got to meet Jeff to say thanks to him in person. He was really nice, and happy to see me with… well I’ll have to write another post about it.

- Friday night concert: Featuring The Protomen, Anamanaguchi, Metroid Metal, M.C. Frontalot Overall, we enjoyed it. But the concert was from 8:00PM to 2:00 AM! I usually stay up late, but walking around the convention center, checking out stuff, and attending panels can really tire you out. Also I think M.C. Frontalot’s set was a lot shorter than other bands, which was a bit disappointing. But we entertained ourselves by chatting on PictoChat on our DSs during the concert. Some wild stuff goes on in PictoChat.

- Other stuff we did: Between the panels, we went to the exhibitor’s room and stopped by at the Behemoth booth to say Hi. They had a huuuge booth, and the chicken was bigger than ever. Dan and John were in Japan, attending Tokyo Anime Fair with the Golden Whale! That’s right, I got an email from them in the morning, telling me that Dan and John were taking the Golden Whale plush I made to Japan, and Emil and the other staff were taking the Hatty plush I made to PAX East. You can read their journey on their dev blog.
Hatty’s journey at PAX East Day 1. Golden Whale’s journey at Tokyo Anime Fair Day 1 and Tokyo Anime Fair: Wrap Up.

We got to play BattleBlock Theater there, and it was so much fun!! You get to play 3 different games in the demo. It looked confusing at first, but my boyfriend and I played it through and we really liked it. One game was just about painting the blocks with your team’s color other game was about getting gold that the Golden Whale drops, and deliver them to the safe, the other game was stomping on the enemy and capturing their soul. You can customize characters by their head shape, facial expression, and weapons.

When we got back to the hotel, we played Rayman Raving Rabbids 2, and went back to our room around 3:00 AM. I started organizing the photos when I went back to our room and went to bed around 4:30 AM.

Day 2!
- Bill Amend panel: He went through his comics on the projector screen. It was fun, but I wanted to hear more stories rather than looking at comic strips!

- Penny Arcade makes a strip live: Jerry and Mike went through the process of making a webcomic in the course of one hour. It was truly fascinating. We also got a sneak preview of a new art for “Lookouts.” (their original series about boyscouts)  It was a beautiful Owl/Elk creature. Hmmm, I wonder what it’ll look like in a plushy toy form…

There are more pictures from this panel, but some of them are for, er, grownups… Check out my flickr for more pictures!

- Naughty Dog panel: The studio of the Uncharted series, Naughty Dog, demonstrated how they created the game, while following the story and considering character’s personality and the environment. I wish the panel were longer!!!

- Saturday night concert: Featuring Video Game Orchestra, Paul and Storm, and Jonathan Coulton. VGO was awesome. I think I actually like them better than Video Games Live now. VGL plays the music almost exactly like the original, which makes you feel like you’re listening to a CD. But VGO uses instruments that are different from the original music, so you feel like you’re really listening to an orchestra.

Other stuff we did: My boyfriend and I dressed up as Splicers from BioShock, and my friend, Lupos, dressed up as Seaman this day. I made his Seaman costume/hat. (Seaman is a character from a very bizarre game for the Dreamcast.) We weren’t sure anyone would recognize it since it’s an old game, originally released in 1999. But actually some people knew what it was! I thought there would be more Splicers though. We got a lot of pictures taken, and the Irrational Games (the studio that made BioShock) staff gave us free shirts for dressing up as Splicers. We also went to 2K booth to play BioShock 2 multi-player in our costumes. When my boyfriend played he won first place! w00t!

Day 3!
- Pitch your game idea: In this panel, you have to pitch your idea for a game in 45 seconds. I originally attended this panel because I heard that Jeff would be there, but it was a lot more entertaining than I expected. I laughed my butt off. Actually most game ideas were far from funny, but the panelist, Jeff Kalles, Scott Kurtz, and Tim Train were so good at critiquing the stupidest games people came up with. I regret that I hadn’t gone to the panel with Jeff and Scott on Friday night after this panel.

- Sequelitis Snake Oil: Talk about sequels in games. It felt like they were just discussing something they’ve planned to discuss. It was interesting but it sounded too constructed. The Lead designer of BioShock, Ken Levine, was really funny though. I’d definitely go to see him talk again. But no question about BioShock 3 was allowed which they are so working on, and I didn’t win the limited Andrew Ryan statue. Poop.

- Closing ceremony: At the ceremony, they had the final round of the Omegathon. The Omegathon is a game tournament with many different kinds of games. The final round was game relay with four old school games, Super Mario Brothers, Rad Racer, Tetris and Contra, It was very exciting and nerve-wracking. (Both teams were so horrible at Tetris!!)

Other stuff we did: We re-visited the Behemoth booth again, and said hi to Tom Fulp. He’s laid back and cool as usual. I got to meet Hatty too!

Each panel was about 1-1:30 long, and you usually had to get in the line for it 30 minutes ~ 1 hour before the panel starts. It may sound ridiculous that you have to wait in a line for an hour, but each panel was so worth lining up. Almost all the panels I went to were full too.

After the closing ceremony, we went straight to the bus station, and took a bus back home. We were glad to be home, but we were still feeling very upbeat with all the positive energy we absorbed at PAX East. We were so proud to be at the very first PAX East. It was such a great experience, we’re probably going to attend PAX Prime in Seattle this year. I’d like to thank Jerry and Mike (Creators of Penny Arcade) for everything they’ve done for the gaming community!

I have more pictures on my flickr, so check out PAX East 2010 set for more pictures!

Tagged as: PAX East, penny arcade