Sunday, September 6, 2009

PAX 2009

For the last few years, my son, who is an avid gamer, and I have attended the Penny Arcade Expo (aka PAX), which has been held in the Seattle area the last few years. It's grown so much that it is one of the largest events held in the Seattle Convention Center. It's an annual 3 day event from Friday through Sunday, and is a showcase for all of the video and computer gaming companies, plus numerous board games which either were precursor to, or successor to, a particular computer game. There are seminars on various aspects of gaming, tackling such topics on the legal aspects of gaming, and how soccer moms actually make up one of the largest gaming demographics. This is the gathering place for geeks of all ages.

I'm not much of a gamer - we have a Wii, which is pretty fun, and I have had a Nintendo DS, but they don't really hold my interest. However, I am in the minority in this group, as many pay tribute to the games they play by coming to PAX dressed up as their favorite gaming characters; this is called Cosplay - here's a few examples:







Lots of interesting displays for the various games:








One of the most anticipated games coming out is the Rock Band version of the Beatles - for those who don't know about Rock Band, it's a game that can be played anywhere, from your living room to online. The game comes with various instruments, such as a guitar, drum, bass, or you can take the mike and sing vocals, and the game rates you on how well you play/sing. You don't need to play the "real" instruments to do well in Rock Band - there are various keys and buttons you press or hit and the game senses how accurate you are. In the Beatles version, the instruments even look like the Beatles instruments, down to Paul's violin style bass. The company that sells this had a stage set up where you could become one of the Fab Four.



You might think there is no similarity between a computer gaming show and a motorcycle show, but there is one similarity - models representing the various companies:




And, whether it's a motorcycle or a video game, a pretty model seems to help:




I didn't see any scooters at the convention, so this will have to do.


5 comments:

Baron's Life said...

Hey Lance I agree...the marketing is all done the same way whether it's a motorcycle or game or consumer show....this is why America is stagnating... we need to think beyond the box and what they taught us at school...it no longer applies. We somehow have to become creative again

Stephen said...

I am terrible at video games! I've given it a shot over the years but have learned the hard way that I do not have what it takes to do well at those things.

As a Pilot and a fingerstyle guitarist who studied Jazz back in college, I continuously get my butt kicked by my friends in Ace Combat and Rock Band. They have no experience in either (Flying/Music). I'll just stick with the real thing.

E.T.

montieandme said...

Afraid I am the same as Earl, I always get my butt kicked, now give me online jig saw puzzles I'm a real whizz lol...

Dave said...

Hi Lance,

The only video games I remember was Space Invaders and Pac Man, things have probably moved on a little since the 1980s, though I do remember my daughter and I trying our luck at Tomb Raider, but we were both terrible.

When I visited my daughter a few months ago they were playing something called WE, we were terrible at that also lol..

Cheers,

Dave...

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