Woo!  So, it's been a week since PAX East, but it feels like I'm still recovering.  The event was incredibly awesome, but when you attend the largest general gaming convention in North America, it's hard not to get a little fatigued.

Also keep in mind I'm not the most elegant or entertaining writer.  You've been warned.    

For the uninitiated, Penny-Arcade Expo is a semi-annual event held on the East and West coasts of the US (Boston and Seattle, respectively).  It hosts around 70,000 people per event, and focuses on all types of gaming: console, PC, board games, wargames, RPGs, CCGs...you name it, it's there.  It's a great way to get your gaming fill because there are so many different types of events going on.  Want to play Rockband?  Play it onstage with friends in one of the halls.  Need some hardcore PC or console gaming?  Play in one of the tournaments.  Or, play some freeplay with friends or other people.  Tired of screens?  Tabletop gaming has miniatures gaming, CCG tournaments, God knows how many board games, as well as D&D Encounters and the indie RPGs booth going with demos all weekend.

Unfortunately we arrived quite a few hours after the event started, so we missed the keynote and Friday morning Penny-Arcade Q&A.  The first panel we attended was 'Game Design is Mind Control' hosted by Jared Sorensen and Luke Crane.  I figured it would be easy to get in, since no one at PAX would have any idea who these guys are (including my friends), so we showed up only a few minutes before the start.  

Bad idea.

At PAX they count the lines so you'll know whether you'll be able to get into a panel sooner rather than later, and we just barely got in.  Luke and Jared had a full room of about 400 attendees in front of them, with plenty of people behind us who wanted to get in.  

Pic from burningwheel.org:


The panel itself was pretty basic game design stuff, but assuming that most people haven't actually taken game design courses, it was pretty informative and presented in a really quirky/entertaining fashion.  The premise is thus:

QuoteGames are an art form that induces people to irrational behavior that they would not otherwise undertake. Come and watch Luke and Jared make fools of themselves as they try to prove this point.

They start off with classic games like Wolfenstein 3d and Starcraft and how bits of those designs influence player behavior, eventually working their way towards the difference between wargames and RPGs (demonstrated with Memoir 44 on one end, GURPS WWII in the center, and Grey Ranks on the other side), and how the emphasis of a game on either tactical or dramatic/moral decisions can change player behavior drastically.

To make their final point, at the end of the panel they had an auction for a $1 bill.  You could bid in ten-cent increments.  Ok, simple enough.  I figured people would stop at 90 cents.  Wrong.  People kept going.  And going.  Until eventually Luke received 3.70 for his one dollar.  When asked why one particular audience member kept pushing the bid, he could only answer "Well...I wanted to win the dollar." Point made, with plenty of "WTF is going on?" laughing during the whole thing.

Overall, really enjoyable and worth my time.

More to come (with more video games!) when I'm less busy with other things, but here's a pic of the tabletop area.  Sorry for the quality, but all I had was my phone:

Rock on, one of these days I'd love to make it out to a PAX. It's like Gen-Con but it smells better