Welcome! Also, PAX!

Hello everyone!

Well, you.  Hello you.  Thanks for stopping by.  As noted in the description, I'm going to write about all kinds of stuff dealing with games and the gaming industry.  Also, i'm going to post my designs and ideas as they get worked out.  Hope you enjoy!

Lasers, 8 o'clock, day one!  Let's get started!  PAX.  Holy crap, i love PAX.  A group of us from Cincy have been Every-Other-Year-ing it since the beginning, with a switch last year to PAX East.  We broke our schedule (and budget) to make it this year, however.  Because it's great.  The community, the music, the expo, the panels, the music, it's all always top notch.  Before PAX Prime, however, I got my PAX Dev education on with @papstio.

We learned a TON and really got fired up for our business.  I tended to stick to the kind of panels looking at gaming theory and the psychology of gaming.  Papstio, however was more on the technical side.  I also was able to get some technical knowledge and just general advice, and he got some time with the fluffy side as well.  We got some handy information from some reps from Unity3d and GameSpy.  John Harper spent some time talking with us after the RPG panel Thursday evening.  He had a lot of solid advice on getting started on RPGs (and provided the inspiration to really get this blog started).  We walked away with some solid ideas on a project that's <cough> 7 years in the making.  We also spoke a bit with Sage LaTorra, but he and Harper were being pulled all about by eager friends and strangers.  So now I have a list of games to try, and some solid ideas on how to proceed with what was once called Olithans (more on that at a later date).

Next, PAX happened.  After filling our brains at PAX Dev, we definitely were less interested in the PAX Panels.  We spent most of our time at the Expo Hall.  No small amount of that was spent in and around the Hi-Rez play area.  There's a new Tribes, if you haven't heard.  It's ... it's just good fun.

As someone who doesn't know anything about Lanes, Pulling, or... any other DotA/LoL terms, Smite looks neat.  I know I would prefer to aim my stuff than just click on a target, but i'm not in that community, so I don't know the implications.

I threw my voice out Friday at the Asura's Wrath scream booth.  Between that and the Friday concerts, i still sound as the dead.  I think I threw my knee out, too.  I've got this odd limp, and I'm craving brains...

Saturday!  I don't remember much of Saturday.  Played some more Tribes Ascend.  Got some fusion mortar kills, blew up some gens, returned a few flags.  Good times.  I thought it'd be fun to enter a bunch of raffles, but it wasn't (read: no wins).  Talked with devs and reps.  I beat a developer at his own game (he was showing me the ropes) and won a t-shirt.  We saw some inspired Indie games.  My favorite part of the PAX Indie scene is the sounds of "Dude, you gotta check this out" coming from spectators and not PR.

The big deal Sunday, for me, was Borderlands 2.  I have enough thoughts on that for another post, so I'll save it for another post!

There was more at PAX than I can possibly post (i didn't mention Pathfinder, or any of the board and card games!), so i won't try.  It was great, I acquired knowledge, and now it's time to walk the walk.  Onwards!

-lostinthesauce

a final thought: Do you prefer sifting through dropped items to find the good stuff or collecting materials to make precisely what you want?  Frame the question in terms of any game that you enjoy.