PAX Prime 2011: Day 1

I woke up at 7:00 AM, a little sleepy but already super excited. So he could take photos of the plush, Derek made an awesome set-up by the window using only a pillow case, toilet paper and band aids. I’m very proud of him for pulling this off and I loved how the photos came out! Thank you, Derek!

We had bought peanut butter and bread the day before, so we ate peanut butter sandwiches for the breakfast. (It was a great time & money saver while attending a convention.) The keynote was from 10:30 AM, so we left the room around 9AM to get in line early. When the hotel elevator doors opened at the first floor, Dan Paladin of the Behemoth was standing in front of us! He was also attending PAX Dev (two-day event for game developers before PAX) this year as a panelist, so we talked about that for a while. PAX Dev sounded very interesting, but unfortunately it’s only open for actual developers and students studying to become developers.

When we got to the main hall theater (it was at the Paramount theater this year), we saw Robert Khoo, looking sharp in his suit as usual with a tablet in one hand and a blackberry in the other. I didn’t want to bug him too much so I ran to him and gave him the very first Hot Dog Fairy plush. He gave me a very friendly “Hey Anna!” We chatted very briefly, and I wished him the best of luck on PAX. There are no words to describe how amazing Robert is.

The Keynote by David Jaffe
You may know David Jaffe for his glorious success from the Twisted Metal series and God of War. Or perhaps his VERY out-spoken and don’t-take-any-crap -from-anyone attitude. I have never heard so many profanities used in a speech in such a public setting. It was almost like watching stand-up (in a good way). No slides, just him talking. He talked about the video game industry, success with the Twisted Metal series and God of War, Sony, lawsuits, his family, etc… He didn’t sugar-coat anything. Everything he said, though it was loaded with profanity, showed how honest and passionate he was about his work.

I particularly like the story about the time they made a Twisted Metal themed ice truck for E3 one year. He said that the truck reeked of gasoline and he was really scared that it’d explode and he’d be on fire. And that because he was known for saying/doing extreme things, people would think it was all an act.

Also he explained why he curses so much. When he was still in elementary school, he jumped off a swing and broke both of his wrists. This happened on April Fool’s Day… His teacher didn’t believe him for about 20 minutes, and he started cursing at her like a sailor because he was in so much pain.

You can see the video of his keynote speech HERE. (the whole hour and a half)
*WARNING: Very mature language*

Penny Arcade Q&A with Mike and Jerry
Right after the keynote was the Penny Arcade Q&A. We always go to their Q&A. There are always lots of “I love what you do!”, “What should I do with my life?”, “Thank you for Child’s Play (the charity to provide video games to kids in hospitals)” Even though I can predict most of the Q’s Jerry and Mike’s A’s are always very entertaining.

Unfortunately the most memorable moment came about 40 minutes in to the Q&A. One guy gave a super long backstory as a precursor to his question. For three and ah alf minutes he talked about being a conservative Star Trek fan,  and then asked them if they could introduce him to Wil Wheaton so Wil Wheaton could introduce him to Felicia Day. And he closed his speech with “Please consider Ron Paul for the president for 2012.” Mike and Jerry were actually amazed by it. Jerry described it as “watching a Youtube video live” which was probably the most accurate description.

You can also watch the Q&A HERE.
*WARNING: Also some mature language.

After the Q&A, we headed to the convention center to get in the line for GTTV panel.

GTTV: Bonus Round with David Jaffe (Twisted Metal, God of War), Ken Levine (BioShock) and Todd Howard (Executive Producer for Bethesda Game Studios). Hosted by Geoff Keighley
We went to this panel to see Ken Levine but unfortunately I can’t remember much about this panel that much except how Todd and Geoff were constantly picking on David. It was kind of funny in the beginning but it got annoying and made me uncomfortable to watch. I thought I’d see more professional discussion.

Also with the whole lawsuit of Bethesda against Notch (the creator of Minecraft) going on, it just made me think of Bethesda as a big jerk. If you’re interested in what the lawsuit is about, check out Notch’s blog.

After the panel, we headed to the exhibit hall. It felt like each booth was a lot taller than last year. Skyrim (the Elder Scrolls V) had a gigantic life-size (?) dragon statue. And also a game called Firefall had a large carpeted area with walls of monitors, smoke machines and lasers shooting around.

First thing first, we went straight to the Behemoth to drop off some of plushes and we walked around the Exhibit Halls to check out other booths. Here are bunch of photos Derek and I snapped while heading out the Exhibit hall.

We headed back to the Behemoth, and we were checking out the mini games they released in the Mac App Store. That’s when someone called my name. It was Meggan and her boyfriend, my blog readers! She wrote on my Facebook page that she’d be at PAX but I had no idea what she looked like. They’re also big fans of the Behemoth, and we happened to be the Behemoth booth at the same time. What a coincidence! We chatted for a bit, and they told me that they only could get the passes for Friday. We had VIP passes and two extra regular three-day passes, so we gave them our three-day passes. You need all three days to absorb the awesomeness of PAX! Everything worked out perfectly!

Then we headed to our next panel!

Blamimations Panel with Scott Kurtz and Kris Straub
Any panels with either Scott Kurtz or Kris Straub are guaranteed to be funny. And when they’re together, they’re unstoppable. They the new Blamimation episode (we had already seen it but still enjoyed it.) And some audio from the future Blam.  I don’t know how to explain them and their work with my poor vocabulary. So you should just check it out for yourself. You can watch all Blamimations episodes HERE.

By the time their panel was over, the exhibit hall was closed and the exhibitors’ mixer was going on in the exhibit hall. They have a buffet and drinks so the exhibitors can mingle together. We were going to eat out, but ended up eating there and hanging out at the Behemoth booth. Too bad we didn’t take any photos because we had so much fun! After the dinner, we headed to the concert.

Friday night concert, Video Game Orchestra, McFrontalot, Metroid Metal
We’ve been huge fans of VGO since we saw them for the first time at PAX East 2009. Unlike VGL (Video Games Live) where they play pretty much exactly like the original music, VGO makes unique arrangements. They played songs from Chrono Cross, FFVII, Metal Gear Solid, and many more! McFrontalot also collaborated with VGO which was awesome. We stayed for Metroid Metal but I fell asleep towards the end. No offence to the band, but with only three hours of sleep, the loud guitar became like white noise and the room was dark.

I think the concert ended around 1 or 1:30 AM and we went back to the hotel. After the power nap at the concert, I was ready to sew again! I sewed the rest of the eyes onto Pyth and worked on the plushes for the Behemoth. I think it was around 5:00AM when I finally went to bed. I don’t remember exactly because I passed out.

Derek took a lot of photos with his fancy camera during PAX Prime, so some photos belong to him.
Check out Derek’s PAX Prime 2011 set and My PAX Prime 2011 set for all PAX photos I used for my post!

Tagged as: dan paladin, david jaffe, jerry holkins, mike krahulik, pax, penny arcade, plush, robert khoo, the behemoth