I Can Still Taste It
We went into this thing with eyes wide open. We had a notion of the density and intensity of the nerdiness we were preparing to immerse ourselves in. We thought we were prepared.
We thought wrong.
The dark and awesome power of Penny Arcade has stirred the breadth and depth of geekdom and drawn the entirety of the diaspora back for some kind of Beltanian orgy of gaming and drinking Bawls.
I actually don’t think it would be so bad if they secured a more appropriate venue than Bellevue’s Meydenbauer Center. The vertically oriented architecture of the place compresses anyone not directly involved in an some event or activity into a crowded, teeming, pungent throng of spectacularly varied characters that bear extreme testament to the staggering diversity of the human gene pool.
Suffice it to say that, if you are really, really, REALLY into gaming and the entire subculture of gaming, you’ll probably love PAX so much that you feel physically ill when not at the venue. However, if you’re a “casual” gamer, or even an “average” gamer, the event will probably overwhelm you with it’s intensity and underwhelm you with it’s accessibility.
We’re going to try to get a bit more of a taste for a couple of the actual activities tomorrow, so maybe our impressions will change a bit. Also, we promise to report on the LoTR MMORPG (PSDKQC7MF,WTF?!?!) and the new Nintendo Micro tomorrow.