Tag Archives: PAX

An open letter to my friends about DragonCon

Posted by on October 9, 2013 No comments

DragonCon 2011 SundayI am going to say some things about DragonCon that a lot of my friends may disagree with, but they are things that I think and feel.

You remember the first time you went to DragonCon?  The size of the convention outweighed anything you had ever seen.  The costumes were amazing, the friends you made there lasted forever.  The wonder and awe of it all was so much to take in that you ended up talking about it for months on end after it was done.  You came home and told all your friends about this magical place where you had so much fun.

The next time you went, it was still a blast, but you started to see a bit more of the tarnish.  The room rates were a bit more than the year before.  You got to hang out with friends, but a few of them were stuck in a line for a panel. You really wanted to pick up something at this booth in the dealers room, but it was a bit crowded each time you tried, and by the time you got in, it was sold out.  But you still had a blast, and maybe the next few weeks after the con, you talked about it and went over your pictures.

Then, a few years of going down the road, more and more tarnish appears.  Rooms sell out instantly. errors plague the system.  Hotels handle the convention badly because it doesn’t matter, they still get their money.  DudeBros invade the system because it’s an endless fountain of cheap rooms and entertainment for them.

I love DragonCon, but only as a memory.  That first, second, even the third versions in my head are what I love.

Our Boat! - (P365-42)Now. I have been to other big events.  PAXEast and JoCoCruiseCrazy.  Both are amazing events.  I met amazing people at them, and I had experiences that rank up there with what I felt at that first DragonCon.  When I got back from them, I wanted to do the same thing that I (and many others) had done after DragonCon which was spread the word.  What I was met with was statements like “It’s not DragonCon” or “We are already spending our vacation at DragonCon”

No, they aren’t DragonCon.  I won’t say they are better or worse than DragonCon.  They are just something else.  It’s something new.  A chance to feel that magic and wonder again.  To try something different.

I am not going to say that I won’t go back to DragonCon again.  I would like to again.  I had fun, despite the issues that surround it.  But I am also going to try out other things.  I would love to visit San Diego Comic Con, even though I have heard bad stories about them as well.  There is Baltimore comic Con, NY comic con, Megacon, PAX Prime, etc.

Please don’t take this as a rant to get everyone to stop going to DragonCon, or even as an advertisement for any other convention.  I realize that the cruise may be to expensive, or Video games aren’t your thing, or you don’t like comics.  What I am saying is that there are LOTS of great events that offer up much the same experience that DragonCon does.

I know that we all have lots of friends that we like to meet up with at DragonCon, but remember how you met those friends.  Think of the new friends that are waiting at a new event.  All your DragonCon friends won’t desert you just for trying something new.

I would encourage everyone to try something new.  You never know, you may like it!

PAXEast 2012

Posted by on April 12, 2012 1 comment

I am back from PAXEast 2012 and I have a few days of recoup before I have to head out on another business trip! (oh the life of a jetsetter #notreally).  I wanted to throw out some thoughts on PAXEast before I had to run off again, and I am finally awake enough to do so!

First of all, PAXEast has gotten HUGE!!!!!!! (Seriously, it could use some more exclamation marks, it’s that huge.)  They expanded this year to include more of the convention center.  So much so that I didn’t even find some of the show floor until Sunday, because it was hidden behind some of the crazy big displays.  I followed my basic rule of “No standing in a line for 2 hours to see a demo/trailer that I can just watch on Monday”. Which means, or course, I hardly got to see any of the good demos on the show floor.  Seriously, if I can’t see the demo from outside your booth, I am not going to waste 2 hours of my con to watch 5 min of footage!

Aside from all of that, there were some great things to see there!  Borderlands 2 looks amazing as usual.  Assassin’s Creed 3 was there, but the only thing they had on the outside of the booth was the same trailers we have already seen.  Those were my two big finds.  Lots of small booths and little games to see, but I think it was a bit overwhelming due to the glut of booths and the overpowering of some of the big names.  Farcry actually has a bus!  A FULL BUS!

I attended the show with a friend and Podcast Co-Host, RetroNick, so there was lots of visits to the Retro Gaming rooms.  After all these years I learned that if you have a second controller hooked up while playing Duck Hunt, you can control the duck!  Also, I apparently can identify the sound of the atari 2600 game Surround from across the room.  You guys remember how hard Space Ace was?

The Table Top area was also kind of screwed up.  Last year there were tables everywhere and you could pop down and play whatever you liked.  This year the Magic folks and the D&D folks had ½ the room reserved for their games.  So you would go in and see tons of tables open, but couldn’t sit unless you were playing an “Authorized” game.  The open gaming area was very small and always packed.

The main theme of the con, at least from our point of view would have to be Mass Effect.  Tons of great Cosplayers from ME there. The panel was great with awesome information, and the chance to sit and talk with some of the writers was outstanding.  I swung by one of the rooms and just asked about the time of their signing and the person I asked was the lead writer for Mordin.  We talked about the script and choices.  Big highlight to my trip.

Overall, great trip.  Looking forward to next year!

If you want to see some of the various media I took at PAX, check out these links!
Walkthrough of the PAX East floor

Mass Effect Photo Set
PAX East Photo set

The PAX Post (Finally)

Posted by on March 25, 2011 No comments

I figure I should write down my thoughts about PAXEast, it’s just been a little busy as of late to get around to doing it. I guess that’s the big problem as of late is that I just need to make the time to do these things. (And I should stop making posts that complain about not having the time to make posts). But I digress. Just over a week ago Andrew and I got to attend the Penny Arcade Expo East in lovely Boston MA. I have been yearning to attend a PAX event ever since they started. Last year was the first east coast event and I wasn’t able to go, but forced myself to take the time this year. for those who don’t know, PAX is a gaming convention. Kind of like E3 meets Gencon. Something that draws a lot of the big names and companies get to show off their wares, but it’s run by fans and gamers for other fans and gamers. This year, PAXEAST was the largest PAX event ever with upwards around 70,000 attendees. The downside to this was lines everywhere, but I’ll get to that.

We started the trip a little early, the convention started on Friday but I wanted to get the chance to explore Boston, so we arrived on Thursday. Our hotel was the Midtown Hotel on Harrington, which is not really Mid-Town at all. It was a nice enough hotel, but I would have rather had something closer. We new Thursday was going to be a walking day so we started off early and headed to our first stop, Cheers. It wasn’t until a friend reminded me about Cheers being there that I added it to the list. (and he got a shot glass out of it.) After lunch we went on the Freedom trail and hit almost everything. I have a great gallery of the Boston side of the trip on my site here. I’ll save you the step by step, but some highlights were the Northend of Boston, which I found to be amazing. That area of the city has such history. I could spend a week there just touring things and taking pictures. That night we decided to eat in the Northend. We wanted to try a good Italian place but instead, I think we found the worst one there. I normally wouldn’t out a place but La Famiglia Spagnuolo had to be one of the worst places I have ever eaten. The sauce on the dish I had tasted like it was straight from a can, and not a good can. Seriously, avoid it. Sadly we didn’t get a chance the rest of the trip to go back for a decent Northend dinner. All totalled we walked about 15 miles on Thursday. And this was all before the Con!!

Friday through Sunday was all PAXEast. Some highlights were:

  • Meeting the infamous Major Nelson, Stepto, E, and Lollipop. We are huge fans of the Podcast and everyone knows how much of an Xbox fan-boy I am, so this was a big one for me. I even got Lollipop to do the Robot at the live Podcast panel. (Thanks again Laura!) 
  • Seeing all the amazing demo’s on the expo floor, including Star Wars Old Republic, Duke Nukem, Portal 2, L.A. Noir, etc. etc. etc. 
  • Spending time with Andrew in the table top game room playing just about anything we could get our hands on. We bought Munchkin Zombies and just popped down a sign that said “come play with us!” and within Minutes we had a full table. I loved that about PAX, just random people saying “I would love to play that!” 
  • Andrew got to meet Steve Jackson (of Steve Jackson Games) while playing Ninja Burger! 
  • I got to meet many of the Developers and Writers for Portal 2 and have them sign my iPad which will be making it’s way to a new good home soon. 
  • The PAXEast concert was, of course, epic. We saw Johnathan Coulton, VGO, and Paul and Storm. This led into the DST switch where we were robbed of an hour of PAX. Went to bed that night at 4am! (worth it!) 
  • Playing in an Arcade room with 80s music blasting took me back to when I was 12 years old and my sister took me to the free play night she won access to from the local radio station. 
  • We tried to learn at least 1 to 2 new games per day of the convention. We got Zombie Dice, Ninja Burger, Munchkin Zombies, MTG cards, and a few other smallish games. We even saw a couple playing rock paper scissors. (in trek costumes!!)

Over all I was just constantly amazed with how friendly everyone was and how awesome it was to be there and surrounded by others who enjoyed games the way I do. If you love games, I highly suggest PAX! Either one! You can view my PAX pictures in my gallery here.

Clearing away the cobwebs.

Posted by on January 26, 2011 No comments

So I never realized that getting a new job would end up meaning I had so much less time. The new job is a better position and as we all know, with great power… yeah yeah. So needless to say I have been keeping busy and it hasn’t given me the time to write much. So lets run through some quick updates.

So to close out here are some photos I have taken since the last post:

The ThinkGeek runner Up:

IBM PC 5150 Classic:

National Cathedral:

Geln Echo Park:

ChinaTown Gate: