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. . .