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For the past 10 years, Mike Krahulik and Jerry Hokins have been producing a Web comic called “Penny Arcade.” In it, their alter egos, Tycho and Gabe, talk about everything from the latest games to the latest news in pop culture with plenty of in-jokes that you’d probably have to be a gamer to understand. It can be violent and graphic with a hefty dose of foul language, but it’s almost always funny. Beyond the humor, however, there has always been an honesty and sincerity that can rarely be found elsewhere. Oftentimes, Gabe or Tycho will come right out and say the kind of thing that needs to be said, especially because no one else — no real person — could ever get away with it. Because of this, and myriad other reasons, it’s easy to see why the comic has taken off so well and has been a part of so many gamers’ weekly ritual. Like clockwork, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, a new comic goes up.
The comic’s incredible popularity and its creators’ own dissatisfaction with shows such as E3, which tend to snub the general populace, led to the creation of the Penny Arcade Expo, a 3-day gaming festival for fans of tabletop gaming, console gaming and PC gaming. Anyone can attend this show. From all over the world, gamers have descended on Seattle to take place in the event which includes hands-on demos with games that won’t be out for months, live concerts and plenty of after-parties with fellow gamers. In its sixth year, PAX 2009 promises to be the biggest PAX ever. It’s estimated that as many as 65,000-75,000 people could be in attendance this year, as all of the tickets have been sold out online. That’s well more than twice the number of people there when I attended my first PAX in 2007.
The panels you can attend there include a variety of topics that cover almost everything from “How to break into the games industry” to Q&A sessions with game developers, journalists and other well-known industry folk. It’s a great chance to meet celebrities like Wil Wheaton who played “Wesley” on “Star Trek: The Next Generation” or Felicia Day from “Buffy: The Vampire Slayer” and “The Guild.” Then, included with the price of admission, you get to see concerts by such artists as MC Frontalot, Jonathan Coulton and Freezepop. Finally, the cherry on the top of expo is The Omegathon, a huge gaming tournament between 26 randomly polled expo attendees who battle across six games in competition for the grand prize: an all-expenses-paid trip to the Tokyo Game Show, plus $5,000 in spending money. As the final two Omeganauts face off, the entire expo is invited to the main show room where giant screens display the action. It’s as close to the movie “The Wizard” as you could ever hope to get.
If you’ve heard about PAX before and ever even thought about making the trip, I implore you: it’s well worth it. Get friends to go with you, if you can. Or, better yet, go by yourself and make friends with the thousands of people you will find there — you already have much more in common than you might think. If you just can’t get there, however, have I got some news for you: coming in March 2010, the entire Penny Arcade Expo is packing up and flying East to Boston. Although it’s far too late to attend PAX in Seattle this year, you’ve still plenty of time to get to Boston. Just visit www.paxsite.com for all the information you’ll need from buying tickets to booking hotels. Hopefully, I’ll see you there!
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