PAX to the MAX

Howdy!

Shiny.

I was lucky enough to attend PAX East this weekend!   Friday, Saturday and full weekend passes were sold out by the time I got my act together, so I purchased a Sunday pass instead.   I'm just happy to finally have had the chance to go, knowing how hard it can be to get tickets when they sell out instantly.  For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, PAX is a gamer convention dedicated to all things gaming by the lovely folks at Penny Arcade.  Now you get it? Penny Arcade Expo? Yup. NERDS.

All the peoples!

I totally admit I'm not much of a gamer nowadays, but back in college I had a rather lame addiction to Diablo II.  I would spend hours on that particular 'click-fest-3000' hack-n-slasher, but I enjoyed my time, so who cares? I got the chance to stop by Blizzard at the con, and saw what they had a huge setup for Blizzard (the game maker) including a section for Diablo 3.  The artwork was great, but the lines sucked so I bailed and kept circling for other indie games to play.  I also had the great opportunity to meet an online friend in person.  We walked around, caught up, reminisced, played some games and all in all had a great time.  I love being able to put a person with the online persona.  It makes such a difference!

"Bill and Ted's Excellent
Board Game"

Before I met up with my friend, I had arguably found my favorite part of the exhibit hall when I wandered over to the table top area.   It was there that I sat down to learn to play two games.  The first was based off the comic strip, Simon's Cat.   If you haven't read that comic strip, do it now!  The cards had very basic mechanics, but the artwork was adorable. 

The second game I learned was based on Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.   It was quick to learn and the goal was basically to collect all the historical figures in your telephone booth.  At the end, whoever has the most hopefully passes their History report and wins! Even Rufus was there: totally rad!  Be excellent to each other!

I bought the game, brought it home and even played it with my neighbor the next day.  I'm a horrible person for buying games and then they just sit on my shelf, so it was a proud moment in which I got to actually use the game almost immediately.  Thanks, Sheila!