PAX East 2011

Way back in March, C and I went to a 3-day gaming convention in Boston called PAX East (PAX = Penny Arcade eXpo). It was AWESOME. I had never been before, and didn't really know what to expect, but wow was it great. Let's see if I can conjure up some words to describe it to the rest of you . . .

Let's start with Wikipedia's description:

"Created in 2004, PAX has been hailed as a weekend-long celebration of gamer culture. Defining characteristics include an insider keynote speech, game-inspired concerts, panels on game industry topics, exhibitor booths from independent and major game developers and publishers, after-hours parties, tournaments, and freeplay areas. Every PAX also features the Omegathon, a weekend long tournament of randomly selected attendees competing for a grand prize."
There were A LOT of people there. I've seen reports that the total attendance was 69,500 people (that's a whole lot of geeks). We watched the keynote from a satellite area (just barely missed getting into the main theater, sadly), went to all but one of the Omegathon rounds (Katamari, Bananagrams, Operation (missed this one), Pyre Jenga, Ikaruga), and went to some of the panels, including Parsely Games (look! see?).

We also spent a lot of time wandering around the expo hall (where a bunch of game companies set up booths and you can demo new games), playing games in the board game area (including Bananagrams and Chrononauts), and waiting in lines for the various big events (which was actually okay, because it was a good chance to make new friends, and everyone had handheld games and card games). And on Saturday night, there was a fantastic concert, featuring the VGO (Video Game Orchestra, who are a rock band AND orchestra), Paul and Storm, and Jonathan Coulton. It was awesome, just completely awesome. Have some youtube:

VGO - Zelda Medley
VGO - Chrono Cross

A bunch from Paul and Storm (these guys were hilarious. I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard)
Paul and Storm - The Captain's Wife's Lament
Or if you prefer, this person posted all of Paul and Storm (I haven't watched this video all the way through, just fyi).

Jonathan Coulton (I might actually recommend watching this one entirely, because there was a lot of between-song silliness that might be worth seeing, although again, I haven't watched this in its entirety yet, so no guarantees, although I did skim it).
Some highlights:
-8:43
-around 20:00 (this song is sad and beautiful)
-38:21
-42:00ish (more water jokes) (here until the end is actually great, but I'll continue posting times)
-44:00ish
-50:22 (till the end. Seriously this time)
-51:47
Plus videos of Still Alive and Jesse's Girl, which were muted in the above video.

Thank you, youtube user's ajanta, BoffoYuxDudes, and pixyl for posting great videos. Thank you thank you thank you.

At this point in the night, it was late (wayyy late). We got in line at 5 for a concert that was supposed to start at 8 (haaa), and then each group went long. I think at the point JoCo came on, it was actually after midnight, and a bunch of people had left because public transportation shuts down around then. We stuck it out until the bitter end, and boy were we glad we did. I'd heard a handful of JoCo's songs before, but I had no idea how COMPLETELY AMAZING he is.

Whew. Okay. By the time we actually got home, it was 2 a.m., which magically turned into 3 a.m. (thank you, Spring Forward). And we still had one day to go!

Sunday (and some pictures!) coming at you in the next post. To be continued . . .