PAX is Nigh
Adam Goetz on Friday, August 28, 2009 at 5:30AM 
PAX will be upon us in less than a week and I will be there. Yes, I will be there rubbing elbows with fellow gamers who want nothing more than sweet sweet gaming and nerdcore partying ‘til 3am. Myself and three of my friends will be meeting up in Vancouver and making the road trip down to Seattle for the three days of gaming debauchery. This is my first trip to PAX so I truly don't know what to expect, but just to be prepared, I'll be geared up with my Nintendo DS for random line-up multiplayer action, my MacBook Pro to get my blog on, Catan for some late-late night table-top head-to-head and my iPhone to find all of the after parties. I should be all set.
There are almost 100 exhibitors confirmed for this years festival and the pre-register 3-day passes sold out last week, which shows how much this event has grown in popularity. So, I've checked out the panels and since the Internet loves top ten lists, I figured I may as well feed the beast with my "Top 10 Panels that I am going to attempt to attend" list:
10. Sex in Videogames: A comparative Study – I am actually just wondering what they are comparing. And now you are too.
9. Pitch Your Game Idea – I have been ranting about how games could be better to my friends for years, and now I can put my money where my mouth is.
8. Penny Arcade Makes a Strip! – This is why everyone is here (literally). The Penny Arcade guys are Gods for creating this conference that is truly for gamers and I wouldn't pass up an opportunity to watch them do what they do best.
7. Touching a New Generation: How the iPhone has Changed Portable Gaming – The iPhone is shaping up to be a serious gaming device. Even Nintendo is getting scared, so I figured that I would get the full story right from the developers mouth.
6. The Future of Gaming: You Don't Know What You're Going to Get – Who doesn’t want to take a look through the looking glass. And the big question: Is virtual reality ever going to arrive?!
5. Wil Wheaton presents: THE AWESOME HOUR!!1 – Wil Wheaton seems like a good guy on Twitter and who could forget Mr. Nice Guy Lieutenant Wesley Crusher from Star Trek TNG. I'll be there to see if it's all just smoke and mirrors.
4. Prepare to Drop: Halo 3 ODST in-depth – I want to see how this new story line pans out.
3. Assassins Creed®II and Splinter Cell Conviction Live On Stage Demo – Assassins Creed looks absolutely amazing and Splinter Cell doesn't look half bad either.
2. Totally Rad Show Podcast and Q&A – TRS is one of the best video podcasts out there. Jeff Cannata, Alex Albrecht (also of DiggNation fame), and Dan Trachtenberg will be taping their podcast for the following week. Gold.
1. Star Wars: The Old Republic live demonstration – I have yet to dive into the MMORPG realm, but this game is going to put me over the top. It looks absolutely brilliant and with BioWare (Mass Effect) at the helm, the game-play should be top notch. If you haven't watched the game trailer, you simply have to.
Excited, I am.
And if you don’t know, now you know …
About PAX: PAX is a three-day celebration of games and gamer culture. The festival includes an exhibition floor filled with playable builds of upcoming tabletop, console, and computer games; a conference program of game industry speakers; music concerts; freeplay areas; industry parties; game tournaments and more. Since its inception in 2004 the show has doubled in size year-over-year, growing from 4,500 attendees to 58,500 in 2008, making it the largest gaming festival in North America. For more information, visit www.paxsite.com.
About Penny Arcade: Equal parts online comic and commentary, Penny Arcade (www.penny-arcade.com) defines and reflects gamer culture. What started as a hobby in 1998 for Jerry "Tycho" Holkins and Mike "Gabe" Krahulik has grown into an online phenomenon serving 70 million page views a month to millions of readers worldwide. In addition to the comic strip and PAX gaming festival, Penny Arcade has expanded to include books, apparel and other merchandise, a video game and management of Child's Play (www.childsplaycharity.org), the gamer-driven charity for children that spans the globe.
Reader Comments (1)
[...] Panel day for us trying to catch most of the ones that I listed in my last post [...]