Jer and I and a couple of like-minded friends spent all day Friday in the Expo area. This is a huge section of the Washington State Convention Center in downtown Seattle dedicated to game booths and includes game demos, free t-shirts, posters, merchandise for sale, game art, and fun gimmicks to get you to pay attention. One game company had what was basically a mechanical bull dressed up like a dark horse and geeks got in line to sign a waiver and get bounced around on it, until finally they were hurled into a large air-filled plastic tub. Probably injured for life.
It was awesome.
I came away with many many free t-shirts, but unfortunately all but one were sized for boys, meaning they will be work out shirts. My favorite free stuff came from Rockstar Games. They had the best shirt, I thought (it was woman sized and looked nice), and really cool Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars stickers. But the booth itself was really boring. I got to hear "Teddy Bear" on repeat on the beaterator as they tried to prove that anyone can lay down a beat. (I disagree) There was a line to watch a demo for a game called something like Red Heat Redemption, but you had to wait in line for 45 minutes, which I did. Wild West style game, huge environment, realistic body responses to getting shot. Yay? It looked cool though.
Bioshock had the best trailer, I thought. The graphics were just amazing. Jer loved the free poster but I didn't care much for it.
Brink, a game about a future colony cut off from earth on the brink of civil war between opposing factions, had the coolest overall presence -- demo, t-shirts, posters, and booth. The presenter was the CEO and played the game for us. He was very personable and the LED lights around all of the booth were awesome. The graphics in the game were incredible. Yet I still probably won't play it. I don't see much point in games where the primary objective is to create cool avatars and spend the rest of your time killing other avatars. I may have missed the point. It happens.
Female gamers were not well represented. We were in attendance, not in force but we were there and our group is clearly growing. Unfortunately the panels I attended didn't really reflect that we existed. So let me tell you PAX organizers what I want. I would like Adventure Games, and you can go ahead and capitalize that. I want to talk about WoW, or hell, any MMORPGs if you promise they are not a straight up copy of Wow (I'm looking at you Aion.) I do not want to talk about Hello Kitty Online. I don't really need to hear about female terms for teabagging over and over as the extent of my gender's involvement. (Cumsquat? Clam slam? Really?) You know what I did most of Saturday? I played Professor Layton and the Curious Village on my DS Lite sprawled on a bean bag chair, while I waited for my husband to wait in line an hour to play Diablo III for 5 minutes. Whee!
By the way, I have money to spend. Give me a reason.
I did buy two things: a Galaga mousepad (awesome!) and a Miskatonic University t-shirt from The Dreaming store. Yeah, I got a million shirts for free and I still BOUGHT one because I wanted it. (Left 4 Dead? I do not want to wait in line for 3 hours to play your stupid demo to get a t-shirt. I will give you ten bucks and free advertising to avoid that. But whatever, you do what you want. Your strategy seems to be working for you.)
I don't really want to get into the panels much, except to say two words: TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES. Dude. DUDE. I do not want to be critical here. I know how hard it is to get up in front of people and do a panel, but maybe you could test that shit out ahead of time? I waited an hour and a half to see the Windows desktop and a screen resolution drop down menu? Fuck me.
Also? My female video gamer friends? When you have an opportunity to ask a question during Q&A, could you please not be a psycho stalker or talk like a fucking six year old? You are making us all look bad. Seriously. One stupid woman got up and said, "Hi. I'm your stalker. I tried to follow you home last year but my Dad wouldn't let me." And she said it all creepy and low. And she looked to be about 35.
She is probably reading this right now and planning her revenge. Super.
If it's not clear, I hate the Q&A portion.
So in summation, the Expo hall was pretty cool. Very creative, lots to see, I enjoyed it. The panels, eh. Not worth waiting an hour for. Too many problems. I never did find the LucasArts Cantina that was on my map, so I can't comment on that. And the crowd control needed some work. I point you to the moment after, what, a few thousand people left the "Make a Strip" panel and no one could move because they had two little doors for us to exit through. Someone tried to open an emergency exit, an enforcer blocked the door, and then an organizer finally made the enforcer stand aside. If there had been a fire at that moment, we would all be dead. It's a fact.
Oh right. I was summating. PAX is good. Friday was the best day to go. I am not there now because I hate crowds and needed a break. I wish the panels were not so sociologically centered. I just want to see cool stuff and talk to the writers and think about story and art and find out what computer programs they use.
More of that, please.
2 comments:
This is a good summation, but could you tell us what you think? Hehe. I think Q&A in most instances sucks; it really brings about the lowest common denominator.
I hope you didn't contract H1N1.
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