Off the top it must be said that the now biannual festival continues to be far and away the best executed nerdcore convention in these United States, which is a testament to the dozen or so full-time employees that comprise the burgeoning Penny Arcade multimedia empire and an indictment of the other corporate entities (who shall go nameless as they seemingly go soulless) that appear determined to run competing enterprises right into the goddamn ground.  To this latter group I humbly suggest that there may in fact be a correlation between your lackluster efforts and your inability to generate revenue; do what you will with that information.

By way of contrast, PAX Prime (as I understand it’s now being called) has become so successful that they’ve once again expanded the venue and as an immediate consequence it is now in fact possible to play most of the games being exhibited.  I hear tell that at the end of one four hour queue one could experience firsthand the mythical Duke Nukem Forever, but I can neither confirm nor deny these rumors as there ain’t no way in hell I’m waiting four hours in line for much of anything.  Again, this particular scenario was the exception rather than the norm, so I can endorse a number of other forthcoming electronic entertainments.  Getting to play the 21st century re-imaginings of Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam was like catching up with a pair of fondly remembered old flames; let me assure you that despite the passage of time, these ladies still got it.  Indeed, throwback was very much the theme of the weekend as I had a blast playing demos for a pair of awesome side-scrollers, the Mega Man-like Super Meat Boy and Shank, a 2D tour de farce that defies my best attempts at description.  However, a less welcome side-effect of getting to play more games was the inescapable revelation that I lack the ability to play many of the console games that capture my attention.  Upon reflection, I believe the problem is that in the late 90’s when game developers began to design games that required the use of trigger buttons in earnest, I kind of fell out of console games in lieu of other pursuits.  As such, my “all thumbs” proclivities have become a serious handicap in a world where one must use your other eight fingers in order to apply.

The panel line-up was also strong, so strong that I’m struggling to identify a single expo-defining highlight from them, although the ridiculously eloquent thirteen year old (imagine Tiny Tim with a fedora and you’ll get a serviceable mental image) who summed up the community that PAX rallies stands out.  To be sure, my cohorts once again rocked the “Pitch a Game” seminar (with such gems as Mexican Gear Solid, Underground Railroad Tycoon and Al Roker’s Rock You Like a Hurricane 2011) so hard that we toyed with the idea of assembling under the self-applied banner of Fort Awesome Games Studio, a label that was almost immediately discarded due to the very unfortunate acronym that comes with it.  We did laugh our asses off at “An Evening with Scott and Kris,” but it was also a joy to finally make it into the “Art of a DM” panel and bear witness to the assembled genius of some of the world’s greatest interactive storytellers.  Sadly, we failed to make it into the unconscionably tiny Pegasus Theater for the live Acquisitions Inc. game, but I have it on authority that a taped version of this show will be forthcoming from Wizards of the Coast.

Regarding WotC … <sigh>.  For certain, their two chief products, D&D and Magic: The Gathering, benefited greatly from the extra space that this larger PAX afforded them.  However, My New Best Friend, Big Time, Tabletop and I had an absolutely hellacious D&D experience Friday that I’d sooner forget (I was still pissed when I awoke the following morning) but bears relating .  Much of the pain of that session was self-inflicted,  as our entire group rolled remarkably poorly for much of the night and reaped the corresponding harvest of suck that comes with such die rolls.   On the other hand, I cannot deny that the difficulty of the scenarios presented (which is welcome, as tougher challenges make for better gameplay in my book at least) coupled with the absolutely horrid pre-generated characters that WotC deems fit to saddle their potential customer base with results in some beyond frustrating game sessions.  WotC either needs to put some effort into at least average pre-gens or make these things BYOC or I suspect they’ll soon be presented with large swaths of blank tables.

Anyway, sorry to go out on a low note on an otherwise epic weekend of epicness.  As always, I plan on attending the next one in Boston come March 2011.  Do yourself a favor and join me if you can.

And remember: if it’s in the storm, it’s in the game.

What I’m Playing: Shank
What I’m Watching: Machete
What I’m Listening to: “Kids” (MGMT)

It’s still a tiny show and, as I told my tablemate Samax Amen, it’s going to be a few years yet before it becomes a financially solvent event, but I had a really good time talking comics and such with the attendees and a very productive time talking business stuff with Samax.

If you’re new to the strip vis stuff I sold/handed out at DWEX, please feel free to introduce yourself via the Comments section.  In the meantime, I must return to the drawing table.

What I’m Reading: The Record of a Fallen Vampire Volume 2 by: Kyo Shirodaira and Yuri Kimura
What I’m Watching: Gucci Guilty commercial
What I’m Listening to: “Never” (Heart)