This was my first day at my first PAX and not my first time being a bit jetlagged. I moseyed over to the convention center when the show was about to officially start and found a few thousand people there.
Level up? Not really
The event is totally sold out — to the point where I’d almost call it overbooked, because you literally have to get in line for some events 90 minutes before the start to get into that event. Some panels have featured lines that snake through hallways and down stairwells; several filled to capacity and turned people away. I think this is one reason Blizzcon is so exclusive; they really only cater to the number of people they know they can serve. I don’t know if this overbooking thing is common with PAX or if this is the first year. A local friend in Boston tells me that they’re already trying to get a larger convention space for next year, so that’s good news.
I am giving away these buttons, which I had made up (thanks to Kat) special for the show. They say PAX East 2010 on them and everything. I have a bag full of them, and when they are gone, they’re gone. I gave some away but not a ton. I will be more aggressive tomorrow, possibly pinning them on people and then running away. I do not want to take them home.
The OpenChord controller system
I tried out a strange music control scheme from OpenChord (still very much in beta) that lets you play guitar games on a real guitar with wired frets and a cabled guitar pick. I did not enjoy this. And this was from a different outfit than the PowerGig people making small-scale guitars that double as controllers. They had people playing the guitars for real but I didn’t see any gameplay. I liked the look, but is this a problem that needs solving?
You will never see more people wearing glasses with unusual hairstyles than you will at PAX. From Amish beards to purple hair, PAX has everything beat. And the funny thing is, you look around, and you really see is “he/she/it looks like a gamer.” I have spent most of today with AJ Glasser (recently of GamesRadar and Kotaku and currently of the reinvigorated GamePro) as she stalks cosplayers and snaps small slices of their souls into her iPhone. So I figured it was worth documenting her documenting that.
Think of a game, there's someone honoring it in costume at PAX
Then we had lunch.
AJ goes NOM NOM NOM
We hit a few panels, starting with one about building friendships online that turn into so-called “real-world” relationships. The panel…went nowhere, really. The focus for the first half hour was “A friend you make online is just as legitimate as one you make in meatspace. But be careful so you don’t get knifed.” I admit to ducking out after a half hour. It was nice to sit down but I was sad to have missed other stuff as a result.
The Traversing the Twitterverse panel was better. XboxSupport‘s Machete Betty (who sang to us with her own parody of Still Alive), Major Nelson and FourZeroTwo held court in a simple question and answer session about how they use Twitter to get their messages out to the community. It was useful and a good discussion, but unfortunately, if you put Robert Bowling in front of a crowd of people, they will immediately ask off-topic questions about MW2 and IW — and sure e-damn-nough, the first guy up asked the ultra-mature “Why is MW2 such a poorly designed, shoddy piece of programming?” Amazingly, even after the room booed, several other people got up and asked similarly off-topic questions or made similarly bitter comments.
Live from the Manticore Theater, it's...a panel.
Now, look, I know a community manager’s job is to respond to criticism — but what do you hope to achieve by a) asking such an intentionally rudely phrased question like that at b) a panel discussion that has nothing to do with the quality of MW2? People came here legitimately interested in the topic of Twitter and using it to reach other gamers. Not that you aren’t entitled to ask your “do you think you suck less now than you did three minutes ago” kind of trapping, bullshit questions, but this isn’t the place, and that certainly wasn’t the right way to state your legitimate concerns. If you’re a douchebag about it, it actually weakens your case. Ask yourself: Would someone shout “Objection!” to your question in a courtroom? If so, rephrase it so that you can get your point across more clearly. And also make sure you’re in the right courtroom to begin with.
We also headed over to the preview screening of GET LAMP, a documentary about one of my first enlightening gaming experiences, the text adventure. We saw an hour rough cut that was full of interesting stories and anecdotes; I’m eager to see the full film and I can’t pretend I didn’t get a little emotional seeing some of my gaming heroes (Steve Meretsky, Dave Liebling, Brian Moriarty, Scott Adams) talk about their creations. And best of all, the final film will be interactive — at a point in the narrative, you choose where the story goes! Brilliant.
I am happy to see hand-sanitizer dispensers everywhere. I am happier still to see people using it on a regular basis. And I am keeping my coughing to myself. My voice was absolutely shot today and it hurts to talk, so I’m inhaling tea and vitamins and cough drops like they were rare commodities. Tomorrow I am supposed to appear on the Married Gamers podcast but I may sound like Christopher Lambert.
Saturday is also the Death of Print panel, which I will definitely be attending. Last year, facing lots of “print is dead” criticism, I took on the role of Editor-in-Chief and helped launch a new print magazine with a very new business model, a very specific focus, and a very deluxe presentation. I really do believe it is a template that can show the way to the future for print gaming magazines and was rather hoping to share some of my insights on that, but I was not invited to be on this panel. But I’ll be watching from the audience all the same.
Anyway, until next time.
