Geek vs Life

So I was trying to come up with a witty excuse for why this is too late. The best of them being something along the lines of “I fell into a time warp, so really I will have been putting this up as soon as PAX was over, but the time machine only works on forward, and I misread the decimal, so this unfortunately will not have been the case.” Morally, and well, grammatically, reprehensible overall. Life’s just been crazy. But our friends at Obscura Labs have put together yet another wonderful piece regarding our time at PAX. Check it out!

Some PAX moments hit the cutting room floor. They could find a home anywhere else but are worth the watch.

Astonish! Joe climbs the wall like the monkey he truly is!

Shock! Jon gives away all the spoilers to find the mystery symbol!

Suspense! Who will build the gun faster to shoot his opponent in the head! Joe or Jon? (Heh, Jon of course!!)

Whimsical! Ryan hits on mannequins!

Gush! Wil*Fucking*Wheaton gives us massive props for our self made t-shirts! (We later sent him one by the mail. We love Wil <3)

Shiver! Scary monsters come after us!

Kamikaze! Call him crazy, but Joe falls nearly 30ft backwards to the crowds approval!

See you next year at PAX 2008.

Each week I will post a question, a problem or a puzzle for you to figure out.

There will be a prize at the end. Send me your answers by email, not as a comment.

WK 1

From left to right, get out of the maze. (Yes, you can click to enlarge)

And yes, part of the puzzle is actually finding a way to answer this.

Good Luck

Who was the Keynote speaker at PAX 2006?

If you answered Alex St John, of Wild Tangent, and part of the creative team behind DirectX at Microsoft, you would be correct. You would also be in the minority to know that..

He spoke of developer parties and such, but ultimately didn’t connect with the audience. My friend has a sticker that says: “Corporate music sucks”, I agree. Why have a corporate person talk to an assembly of geeks and gamers? They needed someone more on their level, less “you”, more “we”. Someone more like them, they needed a gamer.

Gabe and Tycho of Penny Arcade fame made the right choice for their PAX 2007 keynote speaker: Wil Wheaton. Wheaton of TV’s Star Trek: TNG and movies like Stand By Me and Python fame is more than just an actor. He the author of Dancing Barefoot and Just A Geek, an online blogger called wilwheaton.net and a avid gamer.

PAX is poised to become the biggest gamer convention in North America with E3 becoming a corporate affair. It is an event for the fans, by the fans. People like Wheaton who delivered a keynote address that spoke to the audience.

(Ed. Note: The other four parts are in the comments section -J.)

I love the smell of conventions in the morning. It has the fresh new car smell. The rooms feel so drab when the media are allowed access half an hour before the rest of the crowds, I understand the “why’s” of it. As a media outlet, we have to have a certain amount of uninterrupted access to the stands and booths, so we can actually do our jobs of reporting. After all, we have to write about what the gamers are going to be waiting in line for, whether it’s to try out Rock Band or the newly released Bioshock.

Gamers got to try out the much anticipated Penny Arcade video game.

Personally, I like it though when the convention goers are present. The crowd abuzz with anticipation of playing new games. The screams of excitement and watching where the people are actually walking to, seeing what they want to play and what they avoid like the plague. Ultimately, when we putting things into perspective, the media as well as the retailers, developers and publishers are there for one sole purpose: cater to the gamers, feel their pulse.

Giving away free t-shirts, games, demos, posters, wall art and collectibles isn’t a bad idea either. For example, no one was heading to the Nvidia booth to find out when their new video card was being released, they headed there in droves to get the limited edition t-shirt, but more importantly, to get a button.

See Nvidia had the brilliant plan to assign a number to everyone who visited their booth and have it printed on a button. Not an individual number mind you. That would made the whole ordeal look more akin to a prison/holocaust/Orwellian scenario. The idea was to give out matching numbers at random to some 30,000+ attendees. Find your matching number and win a prize, simple right? Not so much.

A gloved gamer looks for his match on the wall of numbers.

The convention center became a literal cluster-fuck of “who’s my match”. People set up online forums, created massive databases, erected a wall of names, number and contact info which was being updated daily, if not hourly. People began to walk around with numbers written on boards in hopes of finding their matching partner and winning a chance to spin the Nvidia wheel of prizes. Some people did in fact find their “number mate” and walked away with a video card, but alas most people didn’t fare so well.

So Nvidia, in a stroke of mass marketing genius got more buzz from their match game throughout the convention than most of the other events combined… well apart from Rock Band and keynote speaker Wil Wheaton, but still, that’s debatable, and a story for another post.