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.

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.

PAX has come and gone and it was great. More to the point, we witnessed the birth of what will become the biggest Game fan-fest in North America.

Unfortunate server issues and major computer glitches have made it practically impossible for us to post what we would have liked to write, but fear not, problems are being solved.

In the following days the following stories will emerge:

-Religion Vs Gaming, is there really a difference?
-EAC or why Thompson didn’t show
-Wil Wheaton: Geek Blogger God
-The nVidia’s number revolution
-Game reviews
-Tourney reviews
-and much, much more

Keep your eyes on the screen and click refresh a few times. It’s coming.

Like a modern day Xmas for geeks, sadly PAX comes but once a year… for three days.

The Seattle based staff of GVL have big plans for the event this year. PAX has become a sort of Mecca for us, a day where we can all get out and be who we are with like minded people: Geeks. We have been talking and waiting for the event all year, planing concocting and preparing. Whether we were mentioning game changes in Omegathon, Omegathon participants announcements, or even going as far back as January 07, when we announced that the Pre-Registration tickets were on sale. It’s been a long year, and we all could do was wait in anticipation.

It’s funny what can be turned into a play. The Paramount Theater in Seattle is currently running a production of Young Frankenstein before it makes it’s way to Broadway. Same as Wedding Singer did last year.

So is it really a surprise that there is currently plans to set a production for Top 8:The MySpace Musical? Check out their profile on MySpace (where else?). It’s a musical comedy with such songs as “Dear Tom”, “New pics” and “Add me”. The instrumentation and songs are still in the works, with more added every once in a while. The show will star 8 characters (The Top 8, get it), which is actually represented on the MySpace profile page with them being… the top 8.

More information is to be released soon, as they promise to keep people posted on new information.

Not sure if this is serious or not, but I just read this on todays Penny Arcade blog:

This is a heads up for all our Omeganauts. I had originally told you all that the first round of the Omegathon would be Pac-Man. That game has actually been replaced with Jenga. Not the new Wii version of Jenga but actual wood blocks on a table Jenga. Sorry for the mix up.

-Gabe out

Wait Jenga? Really? Why not a nice game Twister while they are at it? Maybe even a game of Global Thermonuclear War?

PS: Congrats to those who get the last reference.

Every year the creative geniuses at Penny Arcade throw a three day festival of gaming goodness in the Seattle Washington area from August 24-26 2007. Whether it be console gaming, PC gaming or tabletop gaming, PAX (Penny Arcade Expo), has got something for you. If you’re a gamer and live in the Pacific NW, you definitely should be there. People from all over the country and beyond will be making the trek to the Emerald City for this years event which promises to be even bigger because E3 decided to shut its doors to the fans and made it an insider party. For shame.

There will be tournaments, free-play areas, panel discussions (Wil Wheaton from Star Trek TNG!), nerdcore concerts (Minibosses!)& an exhibition hall filled with booths from all the major gaming companies (Microsoft, Playstation, Nintendo, Ubisoft, Wizards of the Coast, NCSoft, Rockstar Games, etc…). Fans from past years have accumulated swag that rival the riches of Ali Baba’s cave (see GVL’s party bags from last year’s event).

A guiding email from the Grand Poobah led me to what seemed like quite the obscure tabletop gaming fanatic site, with a giant green glowing brain that wanted “pixels” of its users with… random things (nutcracker shaped like an animal, in front of a sign with a spelling error, with a bowl of nuts, with a book printed in the 18th century, with a person showing at least 3 tattoos, etc.)

But a deeper look and a little snooping revealed a forum and an about page, cluing me into what this site could really turn out to be. Wizards of the Coast decided to make something close to the ultimate hobby store online, in the communal sense. Essentially a gamer’s Myspace, only better because you won’t get random porno bots (hopefully) and it isn’t so much about being social, as it is about helping you get what you need. It would be a great source for D&Ders to find more members in their area, or find local Magic the Gathering tournaments. There’s also the factor for the socially shy that find it easier to search and locate on the internet, rather than asking around and approaching strangers in the hobby store.

Nintendo recently announced a contest that would allow fans worldwide to show their video making skills in the “Nintendo Short-cuts Showcase”.

The contest seems simple enough, make a 3 to 5 minute video about anything Nintendo related (Character, systems, gameplay etc…) and submit it before June 6. Winners will have their video shown short film showcase at the Top of the Rock™ Observation Deck at Rockefeller Center during a short films fest.

For more informaion please go to nintendoshortcuts.com.

http://www.flixxy.com/minority-report-interface.htm

This is one of the most awesome development’s in user interface technology I’ve ever seen. It’s just so, so smooth!

As said to a friend of mine that introduced me to this: “Can you imagine what you could do if you could play MMORPG’s with that?!?!”, he responded with “uh huh!!! That’s exactly what I was thinking!” and I came back with “Plus, with a set of goggles and location-sensing gloves, you could do the same thing as in Johnny Mnemonic!”

So, who’s going to help me buy one? *grin*

Xfire’s put up a new service. See how the top players across the world, and across the PC platform are doing! It’s an interesting new toy. Seeing just how much is going on. You get into a rut with your own games so easily, it’s good to get out of your own computer and have a looksie around.

“The beauty about these statistics is three-fold,” said Frederic Descamps, senior director of marketing for Xfire. “First, these stats cover nearly the entire universe of PC online games being played. Second, the stats are highly accurate because the sample size of 6.5 million gamers is so large. Third, they show how vibrant and active the Xfire gaming community is!”

Xfire’s Xstatics

Now if Sony can just get it running on the PS3, or have I totally missed out on this one, and it’s already on there?