New Orleans to San Antonio: PAX South Adventure Part 4

Part 1: here Part 2: here Part 3: here

Learning is an integral part of a nerd's life, which is why our dynamic duo plus Chung wandered the convention in search for knowledge and creatures from a far off place to learn the secrets under the universe and what's under Claptrap's hood.

During an expo/convention there are panels. These panels can run from a wide range of formats and topics. There were the guys from Penny Arcade doing a Q&A, Rooster Teeth previewing upcoming shows, a panel on Game Mastering, and a panel on the discussion on the developing geeky bars and restaurants. These are also places for fans to ask their favorite developers, personalities, and other people within the gaming industry.

Due to the overwhelming number of games that begged for us to play, we only attended two and a half panels. The half of panel was Obsidian Entertainment holding a Q&A to discuss their upcoming game Pillars of Eternity. Pillars is a RPG (role-playing game) and spiritual successor to games like Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale (old PC dungeon crawl and RPG games) that was funded through Kickstarter with a total funding goal of $4,136,208 (yeah 4.1 million) with 77,667 individual backers in 2012. The game is finally being released this year and Pete was a backer so he was interested in the panel. Sitting for a few minutes Pete decided he was bored and we left, so all of that explanation for nothing learned.

The next panel we went to was the guys of Penny Arcade, Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik holding a Q&A. Penny Arcade started as a web comic that has grown to be so much more. The convention panel is where Mike draws a three panel comic, while Jerry pulls from a hat of questions. Does that sound entertaining? Well, it f%&king was entertaining. Since 2004, these two have honed their ability to keep an audience entertained through casual conversation, banter, and storytelling. It feels as though you are having a conversation with Jerry and Mike and it just so happens that thousands of others are in the room with you, and you are really high up in the thrid floor of the theater where the poor theater nerds fawn over The Complete Works of Shakespeare: Abridged. I do not know if that is true, but we where on the third floor of the theater looking down or at a large screen.

The third panel we visited was the one concerning Game Mastering or GMing. This refers to the storyteller of a pen and paper role playing game, e.g. Dungeons and Dragons. I throughly enjoyed it as I have always wanted to take that role, usually a role nobody wants to do, and craft a story, but I have feared the game mechanics of most role-playing games. I'll be honest hearing the panel from older and younger GMs alike had me feeling a bit excited about starting a new group in New Orleans and running it. It was primarily an Q&A, but was provided with plenty of great advice and thoughts of running my own game (one day).

In between the panels, scavenger hunts, and games, we explored the various costumes that were proudly paraded throughout the convention. There were many characters that I had no idea where they hailed from, but was impressed with the skill dedication, or purchasing power of the many cosplayers. I believe my favorite was a person that was bound in a motorized wheelchair created Claptrap- a robotic character from the video game Borderlands. Feast your eyes below on the various costumes.

Claptrap!

Destiny

Video Game Characters Gangnam Style!

Dragon Age

Mass Effect Hotness

Looks fun, right? This by no means cover all the cosplayers, but a sample of a few that Pete took some fantastics pictures.

Until I ramble on again. . . 

Part 5 here

New Orleans to San Antonio: PAX South Adventures Part 3- Games

Part 1 here. Part 2 here

Finally, our intrepid heroes make it to San Antonio with not a scratch on them; fortified with good sleep they wake to embark on an encounter like neither have every experienced before. This part covers the games, to a certain extant, that were played by Rob and Pete.

This is the part of the story that is the most exciting, well, to me. Our first day of PAX South, which was Saturday. I'm not sure exactly what I expected, but the anticipation was palpable. My nerd cup doth runeth o'er wit feels. With water bottles, hand sanitizers, snacks, and excitement packed in our bags we set forth. There were only a few things that were 'must' on my list, but only needed to be meet at some point over the two days. Pete and I meet up with Chung, Pete's brother, and his ensemble, and into the foray we went. We waited in what I can only describe as a carol of nerd cattle. Bunched together we were entertained and given free items by the volunteers that assist in keeping the peace at these events.

Once the gates were opened people raced to get into the lines to try out, or re-try out, video games that are still being worked on, improved, and will be released at some point in the future. Basically, it is early access to a create some hype or buzz or buildup for a potential new gaming property. The first line I pulled Pete

Others wanting in the azure glow of Gigantic

into was for a game called Gigantic. The game is a team game, also known as Person versus Person (PvP), where two teams made up of five people each fight each to lots of deaths. The cool mechanic of this game is that we fight along side a gigantic (see that there) Guardian that is bolstered (or rendered vulnerable) by the number of kills of each team. The object of the game is to kill the Guardian three times. I jumped in this line because I was instantly pulled in by the art design of the game. A somewhat cartoon-based images with sharp edges that were very appealing. A quick caveat is that Pete and I are both bad at PVP-style games, or so we thought. We don't even do well when we are suppose to be on the same team. When it was our turn got into our little group, developed a strategy, and got into the game. I did not embarrass myself that I'm glad to report. I performed well in the game, and we won. I will say there was a couple of times when I was running the wrong way in the game, but no one noticed.

It would take me too long to go through all the different games that we played, my experiences, and thoughts on the various mechanics. There were many fun indie video games as well. The one that stands out is Steamboat Bandits, a point and click adventure game with (I believe) 40 hours of story. Pete and my description is a simple game that you could easily lose five hours without realizing it. The one common element that I will point out is that there seemed to be a majority of PvP-style games through out PAX South. There were exceptions, but with the popularity of games like DOTA and League of Legends it is a hot market that game developers and publishers are trying to capitalize on, especially with the advent of e-sports.

I love board games. Above is a picture of me at the board game rental area. I have a regular Sunday night gaming group that, honestly, I have the best time playing a varied number of games. Also, shout out to the best book store/board game shop in New Orleans- Tubby and Coo's Mid-City Book Shop. A big must for me was to visit Ape Games. At the time of this writing they are in the middle of a Kickstarter for a game called Spirits of the River Paddy, which looks beautiful (I'm currently a backer). They, in my opinion, stupidly did not bring at least a prototype of it at PAX South. However, I had a great time playing a game of Rise to Power distributed by Ape Games, and after playing immediately bought a copy. It touts itself as a city building strategy card game, but I feel it is a power plant building card game. I saw some really fun potential for various strategies. I have now played it three times, and want to play more times because more times is better times. Here is a picture of me having a raucous good time playing Rise to Power.

I would be remiss if I did not mention the Indie Showcase at PAX South. First, it is a dedicated area for small developers to showcase and demo their game that is either on Kickstarter or recently was funded. A noticeable problem with Kickstarting indie developers is that the games seem to cease to exist past the Kickstarter; therefore, the games never getting into shops. Not that this showcase would do anything for that, but would help introduce more potential buyers to the games. There was a panel as well for people to ask questions of the developers. I unfortunately did not attend said panel.

Not only where their new video and board games, but they had areas for PC gaming and renting (for free) older video games systems (with games of course). Here is someone playing Duck Hunt. In the PC gaming area one could wait in line to play hundreds of PC titles, or if you brought your own you could hook it up to a network, and off playing with your new friends around you. Did I mention that there was a game inside the convention? Not to have enough games to choose from, there was a game with the official PAX South app. QR codes were hidden all over the convention that once scanned would provide a piece of a picture. Once you found all the QR codes, you would receive a special prize from the information desk- a mini PAX rubik's cube! 

Do you see how easily I could go on and on about various games writing a large tome that would take me years? I know I'm leaving many things out, but I wanted to write enough to give some sort of indication of how overwhelmed a person is at a PAX convention, even this brand new edition to the PAX series. What does settle in at the end of the day is fatigue, yet that fatigue came much later.

The next part with be about panels and cosplay, and the final one in this saga will be the music of PAX South. 

Until I ramble on again. . . 

New Orleans to San Antonio: PAX South Adventures Part 2

To read Part 1, click here

Sometimes the journey is more than the destination, but that was not the case when two friends journey together for the inaugural PAX South in San Antonio. 

Pete (Ackote from previous post) lives a little over an hour southwest of me, which is in the general direction of New Orleans; therefore, we decided that I would swoop down and pick him up in Houma, LA. It would add negligible time in getting into San Antonio.

Our first major stop was Buc-ee's. What is a Buc-ee's? It is a giant, nay ginormous chain of gas stations that are growing like fungus in the triangle of Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas. It takes the simple idea of a gas station/convenient store and pumps steroids to a ridiculous level. With that said, their gas was $1.59 in Baytown, and I bought some homemade beef jerky for convention days. I might sound like a hypocrite with my seemingly derisive description, but there is a love/hate relationship with Buc-ee's. I like to the think the the apostrophizing of "Buc-ee" is showing ownership of me, since it doesn't clarify what Buc-ee actually owns. They have large bronze beavers at the two side entrances. Here is Pete getting friendly with one of them. This was his first time experiencing Buc-ee's, and it wouldn't be his last.

Fueled up, waste released, stockpiled, and ready to go, I pushed forward to our final destination- San Antonio.

A quick rant: I have driven in Houston a fair amount, and decided that 7pm on Friday might not be a good day to travel through the heart of Houston because of all the elements that create gridlock traffic. Also, with the construction on I-610, I thought our most prudent coarse of action was to take Tollway 8. There are signs that state 'No Cash' above the EZ Tag sign along the road once you get on Tollway 8 from I-10, but I figured those were the EZ Tag lanes only as I have experienced in the northern section of Highway 8. So, if you want to take Tollway 8 North from I-10 East, you CANNOT without an electronic Tag. I realized this as I was passing through an area with cameras going off as each car passed through. What the f@*k, Houston. Trying to circumvent the horrible traffic put me in a violation. Here is what you do Houston, you put a big sign that reads verbatim, "Do not enter on this part of the Tollway unless you have a toll tag. I don't care if Google is telling you to go that direction because it doesn't understand that although you are O.K. with paying a toll to avoid sitting in mind-numbing traffic due to our inefficiency with road construction, you have to have a special toll tag to enter here. Trust us you don't want to enter here because we like to create arbitrary violation fine amounts." See what I did there? It is very clear, concise message, and you could get Google to sponsor the signs in exchange for product placement.

Once we got on the other side of Houston, it was soothe sailing. It was so soothing that Pete was snoring in no time. That man can fall asleep at the drop of a head, and he doesn't need to be reclined. No worries, I had Dan Carlin's Hardcore History cued up to learn about Genghis Khan. At the time of this writing, I have finished parts 1-3 of the Wrath of Khan series. Dan's ability to weave a narrative is confounding, bewildering, but mostly entertaining. He is a gifted story teller, and pulls from many sources to construct a vivid story that feels compelling. He offers information and a doorway into my academic prose on the subject matter. I have not listen to anything else, but the three (so far) of Wrath of Khans, and can't speak to quality of the other ones. Keep in mind he is an entertainer doing history not the other way around.

We arrived to our destination in San Antonio around 10:00 PM. As this is my first experience with an AirBnB, I was really delighted. The owners of the home, which was a large home, had several rooms for guest. We had two rooms with a total of three beds. The house is older with lots of character. Harvey and Sylvia were very kind and generous host. We did not interact with them much as they kept to their side of the house, and we were just there to relax. I don't think these pictures do justice of the rooms, but you get the idea. With a quick bite to eat and a couple of celebratory beers, we soon found ourselves in a deep sleep hoping that tomorrow would come sooner.




































Part 3

Until I ramble on again. . .

New Orleans to San Antonio: PAX South Adventures Part 1

The preparation for any trip has its difficulties. From hotels, routes, driving vs. flying, what to bring, wear, and a whole host of other details that go into having fun. In the summer of 2014, three friends decided to attend the inaugural PAX South, and this is my story- part 1- the preparation gibberish.

PAX is the Penny Arcade eXpo, which started in 2004 located at Bellevue, Washington. This convention is simply a gaming convention with publishers, studios, developers, and fans congregating together to share in the love of all types of games. It became so popular that in 2010, PAX East was created, thus we have PAX Prime in Washington and PAX East in Boston. Not satisfied with providing two of the largest gaming expos in the United States with over 70,000 attendees* each, PAX Aus was created in 2013 for thousands of Aussies to have their own PAX down under. When it was announced that there would be a PAX closer to home in the form of PAX South, my friends Ackote and Madlaugher (names withheld for legal reasons[not really]) became enthused, nay, enthralled with the idea of traveling to San Antonio for a weekend of nerd-gaming fun.  The three of us have bonded over playing video games. You can see a short video of us playing Dead Island (2) together here. I quickly jumped on board especially with there being a fair amount of board gaming action, which do not display my pitiful eye-hand coordination like video games, and tickets were purchased. We agreed on Saturday and Sunday, since three day passes sold out quickly.

Finding a room can be difficult around a large convention, plus prices are increased because capitalism, free market, blah, blah, blah. So the market has responded to this ability for people to take advantage of situation. Ackote handled the room arrangement, and he is an avid user of AirBnB, the online website for people to turn a room or rooms in their home into a Bed and Breakfast, of sorts. Basically, it is a cheap way to find a room in lieu of a hotel or actually Bed and Breakfast establishment. This was my first experience with a room obtained through Air BnB. Analysis to come later. So, tickets purchased-check, room reserved- check, and now how to actually get to San Antonio.

The only problem with traveling in a group is that I can't ride on my motorcycle- the best way to travel. I, oddly, have the only car that could handle this trip, a 2001 Honda Accord with over 190,000 miles, a slight gasket leak, and transmission situation. I say a transmission situation because I have no idea what the actual problem is, but it works well enough that I do not feel an overwhelming desire to get it checked out. It also does not have A/C either- so a real gem of a car. When the weather is warm and raining is the worst because the only way to keep the windows from fogging up is keeping the door windows down, and then you get wet from the rain. Remember, this is the best of the three of our cars.

The only problem in the preparation phase came within three to four weeks of the trip and Madlaugher for personal reasons had to drop out the trip. Ackote and I searched for weeks for a replacement, but in the end we could not find a worthy enough person (that is what I'm telling myself not that people didn't want to take a road trip with me), and the tickets were given to a young man. The time came, arraignments, routes, and all where concretized, thus the adventure began and fun was calling like a Siren's Song. Oh, I will willing and warmly step into your gentle embrace PAX.

Part 2

Until I ramble again on again. . .


*It seems that PAX has cease to give out the number of attendees since 2011, or getting a final count with vendors, exhibitors, and fans, so this is the last officialish count since that year. The limited 3 Day Passes appear to usually sell out within 24 hours.