PAX East 2011: 3 Days of Awesome

After a week of meditation and recovery, I finally can regale you with the awesomeness that was Penny Arcade Expo East 2011. Now, if you remember reading my two posts from last year, you'll remember the generalities and the basics of the convention, like who Penny Arcade is, my compatriot Beckett (@beckettnoyes), and the amazingness of it all.

Well, just to get this out of the way early, this year's convention was even better. First of all, Beckett and I committed to going to all three days of the show, instead of just one day. This was so clutch, in that even though we were trying to scurry from place to place on our first day trying to see everything, we knew that we still had two more days to double back. This also allowed us to see the Friday Night Concert as well, which consisted of The Protomen, MC Frontalot and Metroid Metal. The Protomen, a group whose songs are based loosely off the tale of Megaman, had their amps turned all the way up to 11. It was a good thing that the Enforcers, the volunteer security force of PAX, were handing out earplugs because if I didn't have those, I am pretty sure I would have gone deaf. They are essentially a metal band, so there was shredding and general ear exploding done on their part, which I might have liked a little bit better if they weren't so loud. MC Frontalot on the other hand was pretty awesome. Being a nerdcore rapper, as only he can be, he covered topics like Xenobiology, Goth Girls, Diseases, Star Wars, and then song a remix of the Penny Arcade Theme Song, like he does every year, this time to a backing track of Katy Perry's California Gurls. It was Amazing.

After that, we decided to skip out on Metroid Metal, as we weren't really feeling like getting our ears assaulted again, and we made the long trek back home to get 3 and a half hours of sleep, before getting up and making the trek back to Boston. At this point, I should also mention that due to the overwhelming success of last year's inaugural PAX East, this year the convention was moved from the Hynes Convention Center to the much larger Boston Convention & Exhibition Center. With a total attendance of 69,500 people over the three days, the place was packed.

Yours truly at the top of the escalator down to the show floor, and the show floor itself.

Day 2 was a lot of the same, running, gunning. There was this year's Make-A-Strip panel, where Mike and Jerry script and draw the comic strip for that Monday, as well as a lot more exploring and buying merchandise from booths. But we also took some time out to wait in line for the exclusive Portal 2 preview, as well as wait and play a game of Dungeons & Dragons for beginners. Can't even lie to you, it was a great time. And if you're thinking, "Why is Dungeons & Dragons at a video game convention?" Well it is because PAX is more of a nerd convention than a video game convention. While yes, a lot of it focuses on the new hot video games, there's also a huge portion dedicated to tabletop games like Magic The Gathering and D&D. While waiting in line for the Friday Night Concert, the kids behind Beckett and me invited us to play a game called Munchkins. It was actually pretty cool and it was just one of many indie card and dice games represented at PAX. Once again, that night's festivities included the 3rd Round of the Omegathon and the Saturday Night Concert. This year's 3rd Round of the Omegathon was THE MOST EPIC GAME OF JENGA EVER PLAYED. There is absolutely no way a more intense game of Jenga has ever been played. Two sets of Four Two person teams competed against each other with "Omegablocks" instead of the little baby blocks regular people play with. Only allowed to use one hand at a time, the first game was incredible. As was the second game. Words can not describe how the tremors literally shook one girl's arm to the point where it was visible from the back of the theater, and then how much applause she got when she successfully freed and replaced the block from the tower. Simply incredible.

 An Omeganaut in the midst of a pull while other Omeganauts watch with bated breath in the background.

Following that intensity, the Saturday Night Concert of Video Game Orchestra, Paul & Storm, and Jonathan Coulton reprised their roles from last year's concert. Video Game Orchestra and Paul & Storm played a lot of the same stuff, with some new stuff, and overall were just as good if not better than last year. Jonathan Coulton on the other hand, as opposed to last year's acoustic set, this year he came out on an electric guitar with a bassist and a drummer. He played rock versions of a lot of his hits, as well as some new songs from his upcoming CD which sounds like it should be pretty good. 

After Jonathan Coulton finished his set at about 2AM, Beckett and I walked from the Convention Center to Cambridge. It's about a three and a half mile walk. And then with the time change, it ended up being about 4:30 in the morning before we got to my sister's place where we crashed for the evening. Getting about 3 hours of sleep, Beckett and I made our final trek back to the Convention Center the next morning, waiting to see Bill Amend, creator of newspaper comic section favorite, FoxTrot. Then the day just flew by, and after waiting for about an hour for a 20 minute demo of L.A. Noire, we got in line about 2 hours early for the closing ceremony, where the final round of the Omegathon played out in a two on two match up of the crazy game Ikaruga. After that Mike and Jerry said their thank you's and goodbyes, and PAX was concluded.

As I said last year, PAX isn't for everyone but for three days out of the year, I can let my freak flag fly. I fully intend on going next year, and every year because at PAX you can do no wrong if you follow the cardinal rule: Don't be a dick. Clearly I skimmed over a lot, like the QR code quest, and playing the Nintendo 3DS, but just know that for 72 hours, I had one of the best times of the year. If you think you want to, or can handle the intense nerdism, I encourage you heartily to try it. I'll be back for three days next year, and if you'd like to join me on one or more, do yourself a favor and do it.

If you want to find out more, check out my pictures on Facebook, my Twitter, or my videos on YouTube. If you can't see the pictures from this post check out the full post here.

A list of Excuses for why I can't write my 10 page paper:

• I sprained my typing finger (right, middle) so I can't type it. Or write it.
• I was too busy watching a 7 hour cricket match between Bangladesh and Zimbabwe on ESPN3 on the xBox 360.
• I had to watch the latest Blamimation on PATV.
• I had to watch the one of the movies for the paper, that I should've watched two months ago.
• I had to watch the countless videos of John Mayer that Jake kept finding on YouTube.
• I had to listen to Jake play guitar.
• I had to check, double check, and triple check my See Friendships with random people on Facebook.
• I had to Tweet about how bad this paper was.
• I had to make incoherent babbling sounds.
• I had to write a dozen fake intros to the paper using slang and cuss words to describe the class.
• I had to delete those intros.
• I had to write how much I hated the class.
• I had to delete that too.
• Andy kept talking my ear off every time I wanted to start working.
• Seriously, he'd be all like, "Hey man stop going on Facebook and do your work." 
• What a chatty Cathy right? 
• He's such a jerk.
• I kept staring at our fish, Wendel for inspiration.
• The Christmas lights we use to light our apartment just make it too comfortable to entertain the thought of doing anything other then staring at their dull white glow....
• I had to throw my hat in the corner in disgust of how bad I'm doing at writing this paper.
• I had to moan about how my hat is now over in the corner and I want it back on my head.
• I had to moan about how I'm too lazy to go get it and Andy why won't you go get it for me I don't care if it's farther away from you just go get it I know it's my hat but c'mon please you're such a jerk I hate you why don't you love me fine I'll go get it jerk.
• I had to double check and see if Netflix works on the xBox.
• I'm thirsty and I can't work if I'm thirsty.
• Alright so I'm totally gonna do it, but I just gotta pick out some music to listen to.
• What time're the Pats on again? Oh I could totally just start it after. Okay fine I'll start it!
• Dude this song's really good. 
• Just sit back and listen man.
• Close your eyes and just go for it.
• I had to wonder if Kevin was having fun in class. Or wherever he is.
• I had to ask what was for dinner.
• I had to get yelled at.
• I had to ask Jake how his car ride was first.
• But seriously this is getting ridiculous, I'm gonna go start it.
• I had to write a blog about how I couldn't write it.
• I did write a blog about how I couldn't write it.

PAX East 2010 Part 2: The Concert

When we last left our two heroes, they were triumphantly parading towards the Main Theater of the Hynes Convention Center. If you missed out on what they were doing there, click here.

So as we worked our way up the escalator and into the theater, the energy from the crowd was exuberant. Everyone was as happy to be there, as anyone could be to be anywhere else. Chew on that one for a bit. With people talking about how excited they were, Beckett (@beckettnoyes) and I surveyed the small crowd surrounding the stage. Beckett, being a bigger man than I, truck stick-ed through the small crowd landing us some pretty clutch spots to the right of the main stage's little catwalk. We could literally reach out and touch the performers. Which I did at one point. But so did everyone else so it's cool.

As we waited the long wait for the rest of the crowd to get situated, we looked around in eagerness, breathing in our successful mission to the front of the crowd. Soon after, the lights dimmed, and our two hosts, Jerry and Mike came out on the stage to present the participants of the Omeganaut's Tournament; a reccuring event at every PAX, where attendees register to participate in a myriad of games that test their dexterity as a gamer. From old school NES games, to cult Game-Cube surprises, to the popular games of the latest generation, these select few test their mettle against their worthy opponents in an attempt to win the grand prize. This PAX, it was a trip to Germany. Pretty sweet. In this, the semi-final round, it was revealed that the two teams of four participants would be competing against each other in Rock Band, both teams playing the song "The Gambler," by Kenny Rogers. A song which might seem an inspired choice for Penny Arcade readers. Gabe's Team, played the song relatively well, and the crowd seemed to have them picked. Tycho's Team, started with a rough patch, failing their first time due to having not picked their own instruments. Even during their second go round, their Singer failed out once, but was saved by a team mate shortly after. Though it looked like Gabe's Team may have won points wise, the unimpeded determination of Tycho's Team had won our hearts. Turns out they beasted the song too. Winning the challenge they moved on to the final round which would happen the next day.

As they cleared the stage, setting up for the first real act, the Video Game Orchestra, time seemed to creep by. One minute became five minutes, became ten minutes, became thirty. The crowd became restless. There was only one solution. The masters of the convention, the Enforcers did the only thing they could. The Wave. This was no ordinary wave. Starting on the upper left balcony, it went around clockwise, before hitting the right balcony, decending into the crowd below, with one massive surge across the theater back to it's origin. Not only did this magical Wave never false-start like many waves tend to do, this wave lasted at least 10 times around. BUT LO AND BEHOLD IT DID NOT STOP THERE! With the beckoning of the massive crowd below, the Wave changed directions, counterclockwise, for what seemed to be at least another five minutes before what was arguably the greatest happening in Wave history. We split the Wave. Starting at the middle of the balcony, the Wave crested out in both directions in unison, meeting in the middle of our massive crowd below, crashing against itself only to find new life once again on the top balcony! This Wave that was created in the Main Theater by the attendees of PAX East lasted but a moment in this grand timeline we call life, but I assure you, it will never be forgotten by those present. If there is a god of The Wave, I am sure that he smiles upon us for the great tribute that was made to him that day. Smiles and waves.

After the applause of the crowd wore itself out from our massive pat on the back, we realized it was about 45 minutes since the Omeganauts left the stage. We began to get antsy, as many crowds do, beginning to fervently chant, "V.G.O! V.G.O!" But soon after our wishes were granted and the Video Game Orchestra took the stage. They played crowd favorites from games such as Chrono Trigger, Silent Hill, Castlevania, Mario, Final Fantasy, but in such a unique blend of classical instruments and rock instruments that the songs were given new life. It was awesome. I fully intend to see them live again if I ever get the chance. When they had finished their set, the crowd cheered hard for an encore, which apparently caught them off guard, forcing them to pick a song they had already played, but I assure you, it was just as good the second time around.

By this point, the crowd has been standing for about 3 hours. So everyone sat where they could, but space was kind of hard to come by, leaving Beckett and I standing in agony. About a half hour later, all of the orchestral equipment was off the stage, leaving a keyboard and a few mikes on stage.

That's when the lights dimmed and Paul and Storm, the next band, came out doing a parody of this video. Then they were joined by the Prince of PAX, Wil Wheaton. The crowd burst into laughter, then applause, then back to laughter every time the trio of "Trololo Guy"s did a new dance move, or fought amongst themselves.

Shortly after they left the stage, Paul and Storm came back onto the stage. I had never heard of them before the Concert, actually only hearing of them after they actually walked out on stage. Beginning with "Opening Song" and going from there, their set involved the audience as much as they could, to the point of their own annoyance. After getting the crowd to give a big "Awwww" after one of their more sad lyrics, and getting the crowd to give a big "ARRRRGGGHHH!!!" during a pirate themed song, "The Captain's Wife's Lament" that is all the crowd would do to everything they said. It was a hilarious set, singing one song about the man who invented Chicken Nuggets, and another about a musical set around the video game "Frogger" going as far as to bring a scared little asian girl up onto the stage for Storm to sing a ballad to during the song. They were witty and hilarious, rolling with whatever the crowd threw at them, in one case pipe cleaner underwear, and left the stage to rancorous applause.

Then following a short break, the man we had all been waiting for, JOCO himself, Jonathan Coulton came on stage. The crowd went wild. His equipment consisting of a microphone, a guitar, a laptop and some strange machine, he came out graciously thanking everyone for coming, and for waiting the 5 hours to see him. He then played "Still Alive" and "SkullCrusher Mountain" acoustically, making the crowd go insane. Then he put down his guitar, and picked up the strange device. Slinging it around his neck and over his shoulder much like a guitar strap, the trapezoidial device was covered in black circular pads of varying size. He told us that the machine was called the "Distract-o-tron" and that we should pay attention to it, and not the next song he would be playing as he didn't like the song he was about to play as much as his others. Then he launched into this awesome rendition of his song "Mr. Fancy Pants." Each button either had a beat, a drum, a snare, or vocal clips from the song loaded onto it, and he played this incredible mash-up of a song on this machine, tapping away at all these similar looking buttons, making this unbelievable rhythm that could barely be followed. Then he hit one button and all the other beats and clips stopped, while a clip from "Single Ladies" came on. The crowd roared with laughter and burst into applause, but in no time he was back into "Mr. Fancy Pants." He finished the song to the loudest applause all night. After putting the "Distract-o-tron" down behind him, he walked back up to the microphone only to have one of the samples go off behind him. Looking behind him, he stepped closer; another sample. Then he made a little song of walking and jumping by the machine, seeing what played, until "Single Ladies" came back on, and that was enough of that.

Shortly after Paul and Storm joined him on stage, singing back up and playing a tambourine, then Metroid Metal, another band who had played Friday, came up behind him with electric guitar and bass, while their third man hopped onto the drum set behind them. They played a few more songs, making the crowd go insane with every next piece with crowd favorites such as "Re Your Brains" and "Future Soon". After explaining that after the next song they would be "done" and "leaving" the stage, they finished playing their "last song" and exited the stage. After about 45 seconds, they came back on much to our "surprise." They played one last jam and told us that even though yes, we could probably overpower the security guards and all stay night, it was time to leave, it being almost 2 AM by this point.

After the applause died down, the shuffle to the exit began. And after another brief wait outside, Beckett and I both got our PAX Badges signed by Paul and Storm, which was the cherry on the top of the gigantic chocolate ice cream sundae that was PAX East. PAX was phenominal. I could rant and rave about how great of a time it was, or how great of a community it is, but at the same time I realize, PAX isn't for everyone. If you don't have an extensive knowledge of nerd-culture, like "Rolling for Initiative" and "All Your Base Are Belong To Us" for basics, you might not like PAX. But that's okay! PAX does not discriminate. All are welcome. All Our PAX Are Belong To Everyone. Even with my leet nerd skills, I was put to shame by a vast quantity of PAX goers when it came to knowledge and obsession with all things geeky and nerdy.

If you're open to new things, and a casual to moderate video gamer, a one day pass, just to see what PAX is like might be for you. I was in a similar situation this year. But next year, I intend on skipping my Friday classes, and getting back to UMASS late Sunday night. Three days of glorious PAX East await me next year, and I fully intend to enjoy every second of it. If you have any questions, feel free to ask, because I could rattle on about a dozen other stories that were not included in my two posts, even though I think these might be two of my longest posts ever.

Thanks again Jerry and Mike, for being awesome, and making something like PAX for everyone to enjoy.

PAX East 2010 Part 1: The Convention

PAX East. One word to describe it: Epic. Another: Awesome.

A Brief overview. Penny Arcade Expo is a gathering of the many fans of the webcomic Penny Arcade. Created by Jerry Holkins a.k.a. Tycho, and Mike Krahulik a.k.a. Gabe, the writing and drawing half of Penny Arcade respectively, the comic has grown to have one of the largest, if not the largest internet community in the world. The original, PAX Prime, takes place in Seattle, and the first PAX East happened for the first time this previous weekend in Boston. This show in Boston had 60,000 people in attendance, and broke the previous record of 58,000 of the latest PAX Prime (or so I heard from some random guy.) The inaugural PAX East sold out of passes before the show even began, and next year they will be moving to a larger convention center as to be able to hold more people.

Glossing the boring details, Beckett (@beckettnoyes) and I arrived at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston around 9, 9:15 AM, and got ourselves some nice blue wristbands guaranteeing us admission to the Saturday Night Concert. Not long after lining up in the Queue Room, the room where they put all the outrageously long lines so as not to block space where people needed to actually move, we were moved upstairs to the 3rd floor, where we were crammed into line like a can of sardines for the Bill Amend Panel.

For those of you outside the loop, Bill Amend is the creator of Foxtrot which I used to read all the time in the newspaper as a youngling. After the panel started, he greeted all of us, and told us how immensely grateful he was to be welcomed to PAX, referring back to nerd superstar Wil Wheaton's opening speech the day before where he greeted everyone by saying "Welcome home." During the panel he mainly showed us a selection of his strips featuring video game jokes, and educated us on how hard it is to deal with newspaper syndication as sometimes he'll want to use a vulgar word such as "sucks" which apparently they're very against. Also he told us how sometimes he'll have good ideas for a comic but he won't be able to use it because it would only appeal to the small percentage of his readers because it's video game related. A pretty solid panel, but we peaced out a little ways into the Q & A portion cause we were pretty eager to check out the show floor.

The place was PACKED. Featuring fan favorite booths such as Microsoft, Behemoth, Ubisoft, Nvidia, Nintendo and plenty of other booths of varying importance to nerdkind. Beckett and I browsed, photographed, and got as much swag (free stuff) as we could in a brief period, before we headed downstairs to get some sweet merch (official PAX stuff) before we headed back into the Queue Room to wait for the Make a Strip panel.

Every PAX, be it PAX Prime or PAX East, Jerry lays down a script and Mike draws the comic for the following Monday live all while taking Questions from the Audience. This was the first time Beckett or I had seen the duo in person, live, and the few hours we spent being entertained by them were some of the best of the convention. They took whatever questions, stories, or donations the audience had graciously and with a smile. They had funny quips at each other and at the audience, and it was an experience that just left me feeling like "no wonder these guys have amassed such a huge following." Example: One twenty-something got up on the mike and said the following, albeit with more quips from Jerry and Mike and stumbling to get out what he wanted to say: "Hey, a friend of mine graduated school, is working in technology but feels really lost and wants to try and do something internet based, but is having a really hard time getting things off the ground. Any advice for me- I mean my friend?"

Jerry responded, "After this is over, come over to this curtain on the side of the stage, and I'll talk with you at length."

I love those guys.

After the panel concluded, we got some lunch at the Prudential Center Food Court (Flamers FTW) and returned to the show floor. We jumped around some more, got some more swag, played a few demos, and next thing we knew it was 6 and the floor was closing. We dropped our bags off at the car, and wasted what was left of the next hour lounging and watching people dominate on Rock Band in the aptly named Rock Band Lounge. When 7PM rolled around, we returned to the Queue Room for the 3rd and final time to wait for the night's concert.

Waiting in line, or rather, sitting in line we were gifted with some free donuts from a fellow PAX-goer, as well as some pipe cleaners to pass the next hour with from the PAX Staff, the Enforcers, a fan volunteer security group who helps run the show. Shortly after however, the two large screens that were set up on the sides of the line started being filled with typed messages of how huge nerds we were for making pipe-cleaner crowns (I made a lizard, much cooler.) It soon proceeded to lead us in a series of text-to-vote games, which were certainly time killers, before handing our drawn attention over to the Frag Dolls, a group of women gamers sponsored by Ubisoft. We were then instructed, nay, mandated or whatever its female equivalent is, to follow the visual cues of a dancing MC Hammer outline on the huge screen, in order to break some sort of Line Dancing record. Though humiliating, the shame was lessened by the fact that almost everyone was doing it, and those who weren't were either morbidly obese or too busy playing card games that I've never heard of before.

Shortly after, at the apex of our line waiting experience, after everyone was on their feet ready to roll, our captors played "Still Alive" by Jonathan Coulton, better known as the theme song to Portal, and everybody, everybody, sang it. This phenomenon cemented the fact that I was among fellow nerds. I can remember this moment of clarity and a single remark left my lips, "I love my life."

As the song ended, we paraded out towards the Main Theater to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. Proudly, everyone sang until the time whence they entered the Theater, eager for the night to continue, by enjoying the semi-final round of the Omeganauts Tournament, and listening to the musical stylings of the Video Game Orchestra, Paul and Storm, and Jonathan Coulton himself.

To Be Continued...

But if you can not wait, feel free to peruse my pictures of the festivities via either Facebook or Picasa; read my tweets of the night's events; or watch the video blogs (vlogs) I made with Beckett of our day over at my brand-spankin' new Youtube site.