Curse

Billiard · Sep 02, 2008, 06:33 PM // 18:33

I originally just posted this over at my blog, but Inde thought folks would be interested in reading it here as well:

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PAX 2008: 58,499 + Billiard

I just got back last night from the 5th annual <a href="http://www.pennyarcadeexpo.com/">Penny Arcade Expo (PAX)</a> held just up the road in Seattle and I am beat! <a href="http://news.bigdownload.com/2008/09/01/penny-arcade-expo-2008-58-500-attendees/">58,500</a> people attended, meaning it now rivals the old <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E3">E3</a>, and the lines and crowds really showed it.

This was my first time at PAX. I had meant to go last year, but spent most of the summer teaching and traveling in Europe, so when PAX time rolled around I was too worn out to make the trip up - big mistake!

While I decided to go to PAX sort of at the last minute, I was still able to score a <a href="http://www.pennyarcadeexpo.com/registration.php">media pass</a> since I am a regular writer for both <a href="http://www.guildwars.com">ArenaNet</a> and <a href="http://www.guildwarsguru.com/arenanet-community-day-2007-id297.php">Guild Wars Guru</a>. Besides getting into PAX free, it also gave me access to cool media and interview rooms. Since I was now a card carrying member of the media, I decided I ought to act the part and set up some interviews and went to some panels. Before the conference I arranged an interview with <a href="http://http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/User:Regina_Buenaobra">Regina Buenaobra</a>, the Guild Wars Community manager. While at the conference I attended a panel on Advertising and PR where ArenaNet's Marketing Director, <a href="http://chrislye.spaces.live.com/">Chris Lye</a>, was a panelist. After the panel I chatted with Chris and arranged for an interview with him as well. Chris and I ended up going together to the MMO & Virtual World Business Models panel before our interview, which provided a nice lead in for a lot of our chat. I'll be drafting both of these interviews up this week and posting them over at Guild Wars Guru.

So one of the coolest things about going to PAX was being able to meet in game friends in real life. Since I regularly get up to Seattle I have met a few, but PAX brought a bunch of folks together to one central location, thus making it immensely easier.

<dl id="attachment_17" class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 310px;"> <dt class="wp-caption-dt"><a href="http://teamlove.us/guildtracks/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/270.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-17 alignright" title="270" src="http://teamlove.us/guildtracks/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/270-300x225.jpg" alt="Proudfoot and Billiard" width="300" height="225" /></a></dt> </dl>Proudfoot, a really old in game friend now at <a href="http://loadingreadyrun.com/">Loading Ready Run</a> dropped by while I was hanging out at the ArenaNet booth. I had played Guild Wars with Proudfoot for a couple years and we had talked several times about trying to meet up, but our schedules never really coincided until PAX this year.

<a href="http://teamlove.us/guildtracks/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/272.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-18" title="272" src="http://teamlove.us/guildtracks/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/272-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" /></a>

At the ArenaNet booth I was hanging out with Eighty, who now works for them as a writer, and Damus. The three of us already knew each other pretty well as we had gotten together several times over the past two years. It was Proudfoot's first chance though to meet them though.

<a href="http://teamlove.us/guildtracks/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/275.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-19 alignright" title="275" src="http://teamlove.us/guildtracks/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/275-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" /></a>

At the booth they were hosting a 2v2 PvP tournament and I was able to meet a bunch of other folks, including Jan and Feng. I must say that the two of them were some of the nicest people I have ever met, and that must have resulted in some good karma for Feng! Not only did he and Norad win their 2v2 tournament and the video card prize, but he also won a keyboard and mouse at the <a href="http://guildwars.com/events/tradeshows/pax2008/">ArenaNet VIP party</a> at <a href="http://www.gameworks.com/locations/seattle.php">Gameworks</a> on Saturday night!

Jan took a ton of pictures at PAX and was nice enough to send this group photo that was taken while I was out interviewing Chris Lye:
<a href="http://teamlove.us/guildtracks/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/group3.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-23 aligncenter" title="group3" src="http://teamlove.us/guildtracks/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/group3.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="375" /></a>
This year at PAX ArenaNet created a special format for the tournament - Sealed Deck 2v2.
<a href="http://teamlove.us/guildtracks/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/290.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-24" title="290" src="http://teamlove.us/guildtracks/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/290-225x300.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="300" /></a>
Basically, it was a <a href="http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Hero_Battles">Hero Battle </a>with two players and two heroes, instead of the normal 1 player and three heroes. In addition, ArenaNet created an in game <a href="http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Sealed_Deck">sealed deck</a> generator just for the event. The generator and format look very promising and I personally hope this means it might be coming down the road for implementation into Guild Wars, but of course they were pretty mum on that.
Unfortunately only four teams could participate in each of the two, 2v2 tournaments. This meant if you didn't get signed up early Friday, then probably you were not going to be able to participate unless some teams didn't show - which ended up being the case. Also, some technical difficulties caused the Saturday 2v2 tournament to be pushed back to Sunday. The early Sunday tournament was won by Axiom and Jatt, with Wellz and Crimson coming in 2nd. In the late Sunday tournament Feng and Norad soundly defeated everyone for first place.
Probably one of the coolest things about PAX was the the ArenaNet party at Gameworks. ArenaNet reserved the whole place for the night, and gave out VIP passes to select people for access between 6PM and 9PM before opening things up to the general public. The VIP passes included a buffet, 2 drink tickets, 100 game credits, and a swag bag with a T-shirt, signed orginal art poster, and an <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Art-of-Guild-Wars/dp/B000FH5ZXA">Art of Guild Wars</a> book. More importantly, it also enabled you to participate in a scavenger hunt of sorts that earned you a ticket in a raffle for really <a href="http://www.guildwars.com/events/tradeshows/pax2008/prizes.php">cool prizes</a>, including a top prize of an <a href="http://www.alienware.com/products/area-51-m15x-notebook.aspx">Alienware Area-51® m15x</a> gaming laptop!
<a href="http://teamlove.us/guildtracks/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/282.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-25 alignright" title="282" src="http://teamlove.us/guildtracks/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/282-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" /></a>
To get into the raffle you had to find various devs and have them sign a special card. Once you got three or more signature you showed it to <a href="http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/User:Linsey_Murdock">Linsey</a> and she gave you a raffle ticket. At 8PM everyone all crowded around Regina and the prize table for the drawing. Regina started out with mousepads and worked her way up through what seemed like dozens of increasingly more valuable prizes. These ranged from mice and keyboards, to surround sound speaker systems, to video cards, to finally the grand prize of the laptop. Regina did a really good job playing things up and building anticipation with how she read off the numbers.
<a href="http://teamlove.us/guildtracks/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/2861.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-27" title="2861" src="http://teamlove.us/guildtracks/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/2861-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" /></a>
When it finally came time for the laptop to be raffled, everyone was very, very excited. She read the numbers slowly and I can still remember them: "5" . . . "5" . . ."6" and then everyone would groan. I was especially bummed because I had 552, so after she said the second 5 I was just saying to myself "please, please, please be a 2." But then something really ironic happened - the person who had the winning ticket was not around to claim it! Regina called for the winner to come forward on the PA system, but when that didn't happen the crowd urged her to draw again so she did, and this lucky fellow here won. I still don't know who had the first winning ticket, but they must have been just behind me in the line to get in and I am sure they are kicking themselves for leaving early or being in the bathroom or whatever.
Anyway I just wanted to put up this quick write-up from PAX before I turned my attention to the interviews. If I think of other things or I get sent more pictures I'll be sure to add them as well. All in all PAX was a great time and I will do my best to attend every year now. Just being to meet up with in game friends alone makes it worth the time and effort to travel to it, and the parties, concerts, and gaming on top of that just makes it a bargain.

Lycan Nibbler · Sep 02, 2008, 06:46 PM // 18:46

Thanks for posting this here. Makes me even more jealous as I coudln't go! :'( hehe
Glad you had a great time and look forward to reading the interviews.

Sealed deck idea going to be saved for GW2 maybe??

NoXiFy · Sep 02, 2008, 06:50 PM // 18:50

nice summary! cool being able to talk to Regina and some of the other dev's, wish i could've gone.

Stuart444 · Sep 02, 2008, 06:56 PM // 18:56

I read this at your blog after you posted it in that other thread

makes me jealous =( I would have loved to have done lucky >_>

Thierry2 · Sep 02, 2008, 07:04 PM // 19:04

Thanx for the post

Would like to read the interviews as well

Jenn · Sep 02, 2008, 07:09 PM // 19:09

AWWWWWWWWE luckyfeets was there?! and dyemoose?

cry... and billiard, of course.

glad you had fun, old man (teehee). I'd like to go, but in good conscience I can't spend money that I could be putting on my student line of credit

Innocent · Sep 02, 2008, 08:33 PM // 20:33

Rockin' the shirt I see Billiard.

/thumbsup

hooded player · Sep 02, 2008, 09:01 PM // 21:01

GJ Billiard!

Nude Nira · Sep 02, 2008, 09:43 PM // 21:43

What the hell is Regina wearing?!

DarkNecrid · Sep 02, 2008, 10:15 PM // 22:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nude Nira

What the hell is Regina wearing?!

Sweet looking clothes, IMHO.

aaje vhanli · Sep 03, 2008, 04:10 AM // 04:10

Thanks for sharing. This was a great read and I look forward to reading your interviews! Cheers.

Diablo™ · Sep 03, 2008, 05:49 PM // 17:49

Good times! Post more pictures!!

FengShuiDove · Sep 03, 2008, 09:43 PM // 21:43

Looks like a lot of fun. The Sealed Deck idea is something that seems like it would be very awesome... non-meta tactics on the fly... yes please.

Anyway congrats on getting to go and thanks for the write-up!

BenjZee · Sep 03, 2008, 10:51 PM // 22:51

lol at large picture of big bunch of geeks then realising half of them are devs

Lyynyyrd · Sep 03, 2008, 11:02 PM // 23:02

Omg There's An Orb In The Group Picture

aurorascion · Sep 04, 2008, 01:15 AM // 01:15

Pax was awesome! This was my first year to go too. I flew in from Texas with my sis and we were able to meet guildies and friends that we had been playing with for years and finally got to put faces to voices/chat.

We did the roller beetle racing and hung out at the anet vip after party.

Good times and a lot fun. You blog is way more detailed than mine. I just put up a picture album on my myspace. I still need to get around to taking pics of the swag to post on our guild forum for bragging rights

I have some pics with Regina giving out some free drink coupons and then guildies winning raffle prizes. Met up with the Guild Cast Host Shawn and his cohert Sinaea. If that means anything to you, go on over and check out the pics from my blog link.
Rory's PAX 2008

Oh and my ticket raffle number was one away from the dude in the pic who got the laptop, I guess you never forget the number that was almost called. I'm not jealous at all /cross_fingers.

You can remove this if yall want, I just thought I'd add my bit of peanuts to the bag.

Lady Raenef · Sep 04, 2008, 02:13 AM // 02:13

You suck, Billiard. I live about 8-9 hours away and my work schedule wouldn't let me attend PAX. I'm so jealous, I could beat you with soap in a sock.

h4mx0r · Sep 04, 2008, 04:49 AM // 04:49

I was there! PAX08 was my first pax, but second convention. I flew up to Seattle because its my hometown and I was visiting around, possibly to catch a few friends before we all departed to college.

PAX08 was up around the time, so I attended and I managed to score VIP tickets during the 3 Years of Guild Wars panel.

The coolest thing for me was being able to talk to one of their level designers - Stephen Hwang, mostly because I'm a level designer myself. He's pretty cool, as is all the other arenanet dev team that I talked to.

I should write a list of things I wanna know the next time I go to one of these kinds of conventions. Speaking to dev teams was pretty educational since I want to enter the game industry!

Evil_Necro · Sep 04, 2008, 05:17 AM // 05:17

I want to go there!! huaaahhhhh T_T

Dylananimus · Sep 04, 2008, 03:17 PM // 15:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nude Nira

What the hell is Regina wearing?!

Seriously...wtf? That's all you have to say? What are you....Marie friggen Claire? It's a games convention not a fashion show.

Thanks for posting all the info and pics, Billiard