Pre-PAX Update! 2 days in one update!

So, as some may know, I got to Seattle on Wednesday morning to go on and help coordinate the Magical Mystery Tour. I was given housing thanks to the gracious s7arbuck of the Penny Arcade forums (thanks! =) =) ) on Wednesday night... which meant I wasn't homeless, but did sadly mean that I was unable to post that night.

Therefore, today's post covers both Wednesday and Thursday's Pre-PAX events!

A Pre-PAX Event Primer

This is a brief primer for those who haven't been following the subculture around the Penny Arcade expo. The PAX Community is, by and large, an extremely motivated and active group. In addition to the expo itself, the active participants in the community often plan and attend a multitude of Community-driven events leading up to PAX itself.

I have had the privilege of founding the Magical Mystery Tour this year: a tourist group for fellow nerds who want to see the sites of Seattle. The Tour, however, is by no means the only Pre-PAX event. There are likely many that I don't even know the existence of, but I personally just finished attending a string of events: the Pre-PAX Dinner, the Triwizard Drinking Contest, and the Dick's midnight gathering.

The Supertrips are probably the most well-known of the PAX Community-driven events. The Cross Country Supertrip, which is headed by the Penny Arcade forums' Moe_Fwacky, is the most famous of these trips, which help to shuttle fellow gamers, by car, across the country in one massive caravan. There is also a Canadian Supertrip, the West Coast Train Trip (which was once done by car, and then switched to the train for its pure awesomeness... if you haven't heard about the train trip and live on the West Coast, look it up for next year! They basically commandeer the Amtrak train heading north to Seattle, and turn it into a 20 hour Pre-PAX Gaming marathon.), and many others. The "Transportation" events are part of what allows the PAX Community to get together so readily each and every year.

The Pre-PAX Dinner is one of the oldest traditions in the world of PAX Community-driven events (aside from the Supertrips themselves). Run by the Penny Arcade forumers "ElectricTurtle" and his wife "Astayonix", theirs has been a cornerstone of Pre-PAX Social gathering that has grown in size and spawned the very notion of the Pre-PAX event. This year marks the first year that the Dinner has been a more formal gathering, complete with a reserved hall (notably, the Naval Shipyard building). A great majority of my coverage tonight comes from this event, which is both a cornerstone of the PAX Community and the first event I could attend with video camera in hand... (and also the only event I could attend with it before the batteries ran out =) )

The Triwizard Drinking contest is a relatively new activity, run by the Penny Arcade forumer "Atlus Parker". It consisted of attending a series of bars around the Convention Center area, and (optionally) taking part in several challenges. I'll leave it up to your imagination to guess the challenges. Dressing AS a wizard was optional, but preferred for the event. =)

Lastly, Dick's Midnight Gathering was an event put on by Penny Arcade forumer "Kazuo", who wanted to create an event specifically for those who frequent the PAX IRC chat room. Dick's is a drive-in style burger joint, and though I didn't actually have a burger tonight I hear they are delicious. =)

Anyways, so given all of that, onward!


Pre-PAX Events - Day 1 (Wednesday, August 27th)

After landing in Seattle and taking a short detour to a store to buy some items I forgot to bring with me (as you will no doubt see by the end of this blog, I'm in the running for the most absent-minded person in the world =) ) I caught up with the Magical Mystery Tour as they were entering the Experience Music Project and Sci-Fi Museum.

Even if I had my video camera at this time, they wouldn't have allowed it in... but it was a sight. The building itself is a piece of art: scuplted and colorful on the outside, and lines with contoured girders supporting the main structure of the building on the inside... at least at the main lower entrance.

It was there that I found out how the first stop went, to the Boeing Factory. Apparently the tour-goers got to see a unique site: they just happened to arrive in time to witness a strike commencing inside of the massive structure. Though they were not allowed to take photography, I was told that it consisted of potentially thousands of people, marching far below the tour walkways. It apparently was interesting to see, though the delays due to it caused the tour to take some shortcuts on the rest of the schedule.

Due to this, we were attempting to catch up in time to get to the Aquarium, so we only looked in detail through the Sci-Fi Museum portion of the building. The props on display (such as the only full 3D model of the Death star created for Episode IV) were exciting to see!

From the Sci-Fi Museum, we proceeded to the Aquarium... and found out along the way that we only had minutes left to buy tickets! The first car that arrived was kind enough to buy the tickets for the rest of us in time, so that we could enter into the building. Many fish were seen, and a certain (possibly soon to be infamous) parody picture of the E For All Shark advertisement was taken by one of the participants... if it gets linked somewhere, I'll try to edit this post to link to it so that you can see it. =)

After this we went to Gameworks... played a bit of House of the Dead 2, only to have it remind me that re-using all of the prior bosses in the game in sequence at the end of the game is a complete and utter cop-out for actual content.

Most of the tour-goers went home at this point, but a few of us went to the historic Neptune Theater to see Hamlet 2. It was... well, it was pretty damn funny. I don't know what more to say about it... at least right now, at 3:13 am. =) Maybe I'll think of more to say later. =)

Pre-PAX Events, Day 2 (Thursday, August 28th)

I woke up early to get to the rendevous point for the final day of the Magical Mystery Tour. We walked down to Pike Place Market, and saw the sights... and along the way, I found a fantastic anniversary present for my wife (which I can't mention on the blog now... she may be reading it! =) ). We also ate some delicioius donuts from... what was the place called? Hmm. At this late hour, I can't seem to remember. They were tasty though. Right next to the famous fish-tossing guys. Them is good donuts.

From there, we went to the Seattle library. Beautiful architecture to be seen, which I would like to show to you... but I was without camera at the time. I know some people took pictures and put them on Flickr, I'll try to link them here when I can find them.

After this, we went to the area around Pioneer Square, for an unofficial Seattle Underground Tour from MetaverseNomad of the Penny Arcade forum. Though unfortunately the entrances to the underground (the remnants of the old city of Seattle before the great fire more than a century ago) were locked and inaccessible to us unofficial tour-goers, she did a great job taking us to some of the interesting above ground sites and giving us information on the founding fathers of Seattle.

From here, we went to the Convention Center to meet up with the Cross Country Supertrip, but I had to break off to (finally! =) ) check into my hotel room and meet the BioWare staff in person!

I met them in the lobby, where I was presented with the video camera (yay! =) Video for the blog! =) ) and other assorted neat stuff, including the swag that will be obtained by the lucky person who gets me in Assassins! The swag consists of a Mass Effect faceplate, as well as Mass Effect on both the PC and XBox 360! (Just in case whoever it is has one and not the other, or not a good enough computer to run it on the PC... etc... =) )

I barely got time to throw most of my stuff on the bed before I joined the group to go to the Pre-PAX Dinner, where the video footage begins! =)

On our way toward the dinner, we picked up BrokenAngel (my personal favorite to win the Omeganaut competition... go BA! =) ) so she could swing along with us to the Dinner!

Here's some video of us in the car, on our way to the Dinner!

Some more video - us approaching the dinner... sadly brief, yet likely to be prophetic. =)

Us in the Parking Lot, reflecting on a Green Lantern car and on BioWare-paid (indirectly ;) ) parking!

One more - Greeting a car full of hungry PAX-goers (and good friends).

At the Pre-PAX Dinner

The dinner was a tremendous success! ElectricTurtle and Astayonix had everything planned out, and it went perfectly. We arrived early enough to help set up the roomful of tables and chairs for the dinner, and a few of us volunteered to help run the registration tables for the dinner. Admittedly, I exploited the opportunity in order to gain buttons for the PAX Button Exchange... but who could resist the opportunity? =)

Anyways, the following is some awkward footage from when I first tried to start using the video camera. My BioWare entry was done using a Webcam, which is (not surprisingly) much more still than carrying it in your hand... especially when, like me, you're used to making hand gestures when you talk. It definitely comes through in the videos... but I'd like to believe it gets better as it goes on. (Just let me believe it, okay? =) )

I interviewed s7arbuck (Travis), who was nice enough to let me crash at his place so that I could come into town early for the Magical Mystery Tour! Karma came back to help him later, as he scored the BioWare-provided loot for the PAX Assassins game when he killed me! =) He got a Mass Effect faceplate for his 360, as well as Mass Effect for the PC and 360 (BioWare was trying to cover their bases to make sure that whoever killed me could actually *use* the loot, so just in case the killer didn't have a 360 they could play the PC version, and vice versa).

Interview with s7arbuck!

Immediately afterwords, they turned the tables on me!

The guys interviewing me!

When I went to volunteer at the registration desk, Penny Arcade forumer Queen Brewer volunteered to take the camera in my stead... his work is awesome, and much appreciated! =) (He was also the driver of the car I was in during the Magical Mystery Tour... so henceforth, I will likely refer to Queen Brewer as Fearless Leader. =) )

Anyways, here's clips of the (fantastic!) footage he shot of the dinner as it was unfolding, and coverage of the event itself. With everything going on, the event wouldn't have been covered in this blog without him: I greatly appreciate the help he provided! =)

QB Filming some button exchange and other assorted fun

The Dessert Table! Om nom nom nom!

Peoples Registering!

Shots of the food!

Mentok1982 reviewing the Magical Mystery Tour!

helping out with Registration!

At some point, QB and s7arbuck cruised the dinner, looking for people to say hi to BioWare! There were some great responses, and some... well, not so great. =) You can't please all the people all the time it seems... but most people seem happy to be there and happy to see BioWare!

Part 1 of Hello's

Part 2 of Hello's

Part 3!

After this, I accompanied three of my BioWare associates to the Triwizard Drinking Contest. A good time was had, and we didn't get lost (bonus!) =)

I swung by Dick's to meet the IRC group, but could only stay until 1:30am before I had to head back so I could write this blog, actually get a bit comfortable and situated in the room, and then go to bed... and it's now 3:39 and I haven't yet done the "going to bed" part yet. =) I'll get to it eventually. =)

So, I'll wrap this up for now... I'm going to upload video in the morning if possible, or whenever I get the chance. Tonight I'll post about Day 1 of PAX itself!