PAX 2007

Every year, the popular web comic strip Penny Arcade hosts the Penny Arcade Expo, a 3 day convention, celebrating video game culture. This year, with two long time gaming friends turned professionals J and Stephan and their patient wives Chris and Shawna, I attended day two. Now, I'm an avid gamer, but I feel at odds with may facets of the stereotyped game culture. And every stereotype of gamers was on display in full force this weekend. Men in kilts. (Far) Less than model-esque Women dressed as their favorite video game characters. Bad hair cuts painted just about every color. Random rants on the console war between Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft. Legions of teens to twenty-somethings lounging out in hallways entranced by their Nintendo DSs. Rows of tables of Magic the Gathering. And enough body odor qualify the Washington State Convention Center as a weapon of bio terrorism. But ... I had a great time! As much as I cringe in embarrassment at what this crowd must look like to the rest of the world, or what must be thought of me for being one of them (note: NO, I did not wear a kilt), this is my industry. This is what I do for work and for play.

The show floor had booths filled with yet to be released games, presentations on issues in the gaming community, plenty of bean bags for comfortable portable gaming, and a room dedicated to LAN gaming. Everything you need to geek out. Also worth noting, I entered a contest to win my body weight in Ramen noodles (supposedly, a little over 1000 packets. Wish me luck). Probably most exciting for me was a live recording of my favorite podcast, 1up Yours. Afterwards, I met the show's cast. Awesome!

Pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/MrSharps/PAX2007