Well due to some upcoming trips and our love for tropical places, we were not able to attend Dragon*Con this year. While I definitely missed Dragon*Con, we were able to attend a new convention conveniently held at the same time up in Seattle. The Penny Arcade Expo or PAX, is one of the largest game expos on the west coast. Unlike Origins that focused mostly on games that do not require electricity, PAX is almost exclusively about video games of all shapes and sizes.
Almost immediately up on arrival we attended a short panel on freelance artists for comics, graphic novels, and games held by Wizards of the Coast. From my vantage point the panel offered some good advice, but I was confident that Natalie absorbed far more. After the panel, we headed down to the exhibit halls to see what games were being presented. Upon entered you were first introduced to the independent games being offered for a greatly reduced price.
Now like many of you I am growing increasingly tired of the same search/replace names on screenplays for movies, and studios milking sequels and “reboots” to death. Unfortunately, PAX was no exception. There were very few new games being offered, most of the games that are due around Christmas time are. . .yes. . .sequels. Definitely not bad sequels, in fact I very much looking forward to Halo 3 ODST, Left 4 Dead 2, and especially Bioshock 2. Getting to play and watch a few of them was very exciting, and is making the wait that much harder to bear.
But really, are studios and designers really out of ideas? Seriously, grab a book or two, and I think you may find some new inspiration. Many of the indie games are not focusing on cutting-edge graphics or Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound, instead they are offering the user an opportunity to try something new. Most of the games focus on different forms of puzzle-solving, that at first glance you offer a “that’s nice” and then walk away. It’s not until you start playing that you find the game-play intoxicating and yourself writing down the URL for the game.
The highlight of PAX was no doubt the Saturday night concert. The concert started with a lame Rock Band live duel, but eventually gave way to folks who know how to create their own music. The word during the convention was that first band FreezePop had great music, but was poor on-stage. I found this to be quite the opposite: I thought their performance was amazing, but their CD music a bit flat. After being entertained by FreezePop for close to 90 minutes, the next “opening” band of Paul and Storm kept the energy going for another hour. We have heard them a couple of times, so their performance was nothing new, but entertaining nonetheless. Finally Paul and Storm were relieved Jonathan Coulton who delivered a stellar performance. The climax of the show was no doubt with Jonathan changed the lyrics of his song My Monkey to “Wil Wheaton”. Wil who happen to be in the crowd, found it so amusing that if he had not been laying down already probably would have collapsed. After the song, Wil came up on a stage for a big group hug. Awwww. . .
