PAX08 Is Over

CKL and I just got back from PAX. Like last year, I've come away with an overwhelming desire to play lots and Lots and LOTS of games.

Also like last year, PAX was too short. Over the course of three days, I played a board game* demo, watched two PC game demos, stopped at three booths** in the vast and very crowded exhibit hall, saw four panels***, and stood in countless lines****.

I didn't actually plan to see either of the PC game demos, but CKL and K+B wanted to see the Spore demo. After our experience with the countless lines, however, we decided that prudence dictated that we get in line for Spore immediately after the previous panel began. So we were in line ten minutes after the scheduled start time for the Dragon Age: Origins demo.

The previously scheduled Penny Arcade Q&A second session ran long. Lucky us. We got to see the Dragon Age demo as well as the Spore demo.

Let me just tell you this: you can show me videos of puppet people fighting until the sun goes out and I still won't be interested. I'm even less excited to see how I can create my own scenarios for puppet people to fight in. When the game is eventually released.

So I feel asleep. What can I say? I'm a bad person. Besides, the room was very dark and I was well-fed, warm and happy.

But I was wide awake for the Spore demo. That's really too bad, because now I desperately want to play Spore. Unfortunately, the vintage 2004 laptop I bought for Sims2***** doesn't come anywhere close to meeting the system requirements for Spore.

Ah, well. I have a week before the game comes out to think about whether I really want to take CKL's computer****** away from him.



* Yes, I know. Most people come to PAX for electronic gaming. But then I'm not exactly the target demographic: fighting games bore me, and I'm old enough to have given birth to most of the attendees. That said, Last Night on Earth rocks. I'm very excited about playing the zombies. I'll be sure to have them all report back to their colleagues who have been chewing on the doors.

** Animal Crossing is coming to the Wii. Karin was very excited. The PAX booth was very crowded. CKL was not excited. And did I mention that Last Night on Earth rocks? I'm very excited.

*** Keynote (Ken Levine has found his tribe), Penny Arcade Q&A Panel #1 (It's good to give exotic Canadian chocolate to Gabe, Tycho, the wives and pregnant women), Penny Arcade "Make a Strip" (The exotic Canadian chocolate was poisoned?!? Oh Noes! But Gabe says, "I didn't eat any. F*ck him!"... and presumably the wives and pregnant women) , and Female Gamer Communities (Unsurprisingly, women don't always feel safe.)

**** Lines for panels, demos, bathrooms and food were to be expected. But lines for the escalator, exit doors, and access to the line-up room? This was perhaps a bit excessive.

**** Yes, I bought the computer specifically to play Sims2. Aside from a few weekend play marathons, however, I have rarely used it to play games. Shortly after procuring said computer, I learned from painful experience that if I spent a few hours with a game, I'd spend a corresponding number of weeks suffering agonizing withdrawal pains. I also learned that if I'd just play long enough to overdose, I'd be so sick of my computer that I could go days without wanting to check email, weeks without reading a blog, and months before I was compelled to play a game.

****** It may actually be bad to throw another addiction on the fire. Especially when I've been itching to find the time to actually play the Sims2 expansion packs I bought last summer. Or to play a little Civ4. Each time we visit a monument, I whine because I want to build my own version of that monument. And it takes me an entire weekend (no sleep, just game) before I overdose. There just aren't that many entirely free weekends in a year.