Voices

I'm sure most everyone here has heard about it by now because of Penny Arcade, if nothing else, but still... a Firefly MMO? It's another one of those situations where the realistic part of me shudders, while one tiny part of my brain jumps up and down, screaming with glee and throwing something around. I'm not sure what. Maybe bananas?

So, I'm back from PAX.

As with every year, the essence of PAX defies description. I spend 5 days working like a dog, only to remember it afterwords as spending 5 days hanging out with some of the coolest people ever. If it weren't for the searing pain that still radiates up from my legs and feet, I might already be in complete denial of how hard the event is to pull off.

( My job )

( Day 1: Thursday, 8/24 - Preparations Begin )

( Day 2: Friday, 8/25 - Awaiting the Hoards )

I had intended to do up the whole con report in one post, but doing this much in between things I need to take care of at work has already taken 6 hours, so I think I'll do another post or two to wrap everything up.

I just got back from Emerald City Comicon a few minutes ago. The convention was a blast this year, despite me being by myself for the majority of the time. Among the many people I got to meet, have things signed by, and (in most cases) talk with for at least a few minutes were...

Camilla d'Errico is an artist from Vancouver whose work I fell in love with last year at ECC. I bought another print (which I will, once again, be forced to pay out the wazoo to have framed in order to do it justice), some stickers, and a sketch book. Her book Burn! is finally supposed to be released this August. I'm very excited.

Steve Niles writes such fabulous horror comic works as 30 Days of Night and The Lurkers. He was incredibly nice, very sincere in his appreciation of his fans, and just seemed very excited to be there in general.

Dan Brereton is a member of what I think of as the "full package" club of comics, in that he both writes and draws fantastic books like Nocturnals and Giant Killer. Again, he was a very nice guy who took the time to talk for several minutes with everyone who stopped by his booth, including me.

Corey Sutherland Lewis publishes through Oni Press, my all-time favorite comic company, and has released two great books so far: Sharknife and Peng. Also, he's a very nice guy.

And of course, I spent some time kicking it with my friends over at Penny Arcade.

There was a lot more... a whole lot more. I may write additional stuff later. But for now, I've got a massive stack of graphic novels and a 2nd Edition Exalted book to read. Ta ta.

Hi everyone,
I'm sure most of you are aware of Child's Play, the annual charity started by Mike & Jerry of Penny Arcade to benefit children's hospitals. If not though, I just wanted to point it out, as it's a great cause that has the added side-benefit of showing that gamers are also active, positive contributors to our communities. The dinner auction coming up on Dec 13 is also a lot of fun (and a great meal to boot), so I'd encourage those of you in the area with the time and money to attend to check it out.

Cheers.

So, PAX was a rousing success for the second year in a row. I survived on three hours of sleep a night and copious amounts of Bawls, Bawls mints, and the occasional cup of coffee. A big part of any Penny Arcade event is always seeing all the cool people you've gotten to know at previous PA events, and this year certainly held that up. There was lots of hanging out with Jacob, Mike F., Robert, Mike O., Richard, Kristen, Bill, and (of course) Mike & Jerry themselves, plus lots of new people, like David and the awesome jedifreeman, who was nice enough to let me sleep on his floor in Redmond so that I didn't have to try to bus back and forth from Seattle every day.

Thursday I spent most of the morning setting up console space in the freeplay area and the tournament area, much like I did last year. Just so you know, if you ever need tvs unpacked and 3 consoles hooked up to them and secured from theft, I'm your man. There was also some general lugging about of various crates and boxes in the exhibition hall. During the three days of the con itself, I never got above the 2nd floor, as I was constantly working in either the Exhibition hall (Bobby D. at the AA booth, you're awesome!) or as security in the theater. Friday night I was one of four enforcers who worked the Turbine party in a bar at the Doubletree. Turbine is a game company that (from what I hear) used to be a division of Microsoft in some way, but is now its own entity. They're best known for Asheron's Call 1 & 2, but they are also the current developers for two upcoming MMORPGs -- Dungeons & Dragons Online and Lord of the Rings Online. The party was to showcase DDO and included free alcohol for attendees over the age of 21. The Turbine people are really cool, and they all seem to be really in this business for the love of games, which is always gratifying to see in a developer. Plus, I got free t-shirts and dice from them.

I got to see preciousjade and grandmoffdavid while I was there. I'm afraid I wasn't too entertaining for them, as they arrived during one my lulls, where I was exhaustedly sitting in a chair guarding two doors from unauthorized entry. I think I may have seen covenantscave from across the room in the exhibition hall, but at the time I was unable to leave what I was doing, and by the time I got to where I thought I had seen him, he was no longer anywhere to be found.

Strike on Sunday night and Monday, and it was pretty low-key, as everyone was already completely exhausted. Tearing things apart after the con is always a little sad, but it's also a great deal easier than setting them up. You also get to see who the really hardcore people are, who will continue to desert work and push their bodies past the breaking point in order to finish things up. There was a great after-party at Mike F.'s apartment building Monday night, which included beer, pizza, a lot of Mario Kart Double Dash, and general fun and hijinks with a great crew of people.

I will definitely be putting in a 3rd appearance next year if at all possible. Much love to my Dark Lord Felauher, my wingman Richard, PRD, the whole PA Inc. crew, and all the Enforcers who made this such a great event. I'll see you all at Child's Play.