It Looks To Be Another Update Of Sorts

I'm only kind of at a loss as to what to talk about today.  I wasn't able to post this last Friday (8/9/2013) as Conklederp and I had some friends (Vorlynx and Mills Co.) visiting from Nor*Cal all last week.  There was a robotics conference up here in Portland and there was some river floating and blackberry picking that had to be done as well.  We also started the process of making blackberry wine (adapted recipe to follow) and now our kitchen smells like fermenting fruit, which in turn brings me back to my time working for R.H. Phillips Winery during the 2006 harvest season.  It's the kind of smell that would make you think some fruit somewhere has done something it shouldn't have, if you didn't already know where it was coming from.  Goodtimes.

I've (still) been playing a lot of Infinite Space, (still) and have acquired some more "abilities" such as having a docking bay for individual fighters (a la Battlestar Galactica's Colonial Vipers) which cause minimal damage to the opposing fleets flagship while slowing down the rest of their fleet; realizing that icons above each of the ships in your fleet correspond to weapons and each have their own max and min range; melee battles are a pain-in-the-ass and play like a constant game of  roshambo; ship modules of a certain type (such as bridge/red modules) can fit in other areas of the ship as long as they don't say they have to be in a specific location in the description; "Grus" is a word used in the game that is substituted interchangeably for both "shit" and "fuck" and any other variation thereof; the game is pretty mature, considering it's Teen rating, such as the main character cutting off a bad guys arms to get information and a main character shooting a bad guy at point-blank range in the face out of frustration/fear/anger.  There's a lot going on in the game and a lot of space to do it in, sometimes almost too much space.

I also played a bit of Portal 2 co-op with Vorlynx, but only so much before I had to leave for work (which was also before he had finished the single player campaign).  I've also put roughly six more hours into Torchlight, 2 hours into Half-Life and maybe an hour into Penumbra: Black Plague.  Torchlight is more-or-less just dungeon crawling fun that I continue with after Half-Life becomes too frustrating with having/needing to save after every encounter with enemies and then reloading every time I feel I've wasted too much ammunition or taken too much damage.  I want to play more of Penumbra: Black Plague (partly so that I can write up my First Impressions, but also) because I really liked the first game in the series, I like the company (Frictional Games) and I want to see how the story will end.  And semi-most importantly, I want to play it in the dark for maximum un-nervingnous.

I also went through a couple of the demos that I have on my 3DS, most successfully were the two demos for Style Savvy which will make their way to Demo Time in the coming weeks.  Yes, stop laughing.

I haven't kept up with video games in the news and what's been going on in that world.  I haven't played enough "older" games to warrant another Emulator Hour.  I kind of feel like a bad person, except that I don't.  Boo hoo me, I know.

With all the PAX timbits floating around, I'm very sad that I will not be able to attend PAX Prime this year (as I haven't been able to since PAX2010) due to work scheduling problems.  It doesn't help either that I live 600 miles closer than I did when I was able to attend, but things are in the works (loosely) so that I will be able to attend in the future, although I vaguely recall making a similar statement last year around this same time.

Oh hey look, The Bridge is on sale.  Time to go and take care of that.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Wonders Need Time

My Brief History With PAX

I have Chreekat to thank for my indoctrination into the Penny-Arcade world as well as PAX and also becoming an [Enforcer].  In late summer 2007, Chreekat drove off to Seattle, WA during Labor Day weekend to be an [Enforcer] at the Penny-Arcade Expo, all of which was foreign to me.  Except Labor Day, I knew what that was when I wasn't getting it confused with Memorial Day.  Which I still do, all the time.

Jump forward to early/mid 2008 and I was given the opportunity to become an [Enforcer], and if you didn't click on the above link, an [Enforcer] is a volunteer who helps out the people running PAX.  You are assigned to a specific department such as PC Gaming, Tabletop Gaming, Handheld Gaming, Current Console Gaming, Registration, Information Desk, et cetera.  For my first year, I request to be put into Handheld Gaming as that was where my current video gaming knowledge was firmly based.  Thankfully I was placed in Handheld Gaming and worked the 9pm - 3am shift, which was perfectly fine with me.  The remainder of the day was spent walking around the expo halls and Spare Boarding (which is like working in any department that needs extra hands at a particular time).

PAX08 was a blast, in short.  I was able to meet Jerry Holkins, one of the creators of Penny-Arcade (Jerry, some other [Enforcers] and myself were looking for a steam punk themed Penny-Arcade cake that was thought to have been stolen, but was found a few minutes later); I saw Felicia Day and Sandeep Parikh just walking around (when they weren't at their booth or during panels) and along with a hundred or so other people was at a bar (after the setting up for the convention the day before it opened) saw Wil Wheaton.  I was also able to meet up with one of my friends SneakyTiki [I was in charge of letting the first groups of people through a set of doors which lead to the Expo Hall (a hell of a first job mind you)].

To say that PAX09 was a lot of the same as PAX08 is selling it short, even though it kind of was.  Does that diminish how awesome the expo itself was? Hell. No.  The differences were that the convention itself was bigger, more of the Seattle Convention Center was able to be used, all new games were demoed/exposed/played; I saw The Legend of Neil at a panel with Sandeep Parikh and Tony Janning.  I worked again in Handheld  and I didn't feel like a complete n00b.  This was also the year that Rabies came up with ConSARS, a quickly developed contagion-type game on the third day of the convention.  Coincidentally enough, that was the year that 50+ people at the convention came down with H1N1 (swine flu).

PAX Prime 2010 (2010 was the first year of PAX East in Boston) I was moved to Classic Console, which plays games from older systems such as the NES, SNES, Sega Master System, Atari 2600.  You know, "classic" console video games.  I was initially sad leaving the people in Handheld that I'd been working with for two conventions, but I still had a blast in CC.  PAX10 I probably spent the most time out-and-about and less time hanging out in the department I was working when I wasn't working.  I was also able to meet up for sushi with my friend Taylor (she doesn't have a handle as far as I know) who lived in Seattle.  PAX10 definitely felt lower key than the previous two conventions, but not any less fun.

PAX Prime 2011 I wasn't able to attend for a number of reasons.  The first being that I was low on money after having recently moved from Woodland, CA to Portland, OR and I couldn't afford to drive/fly/train up to Seattle.  I had also started a job at an assisted living facility and didn't think that I would be able to request and receive four days off from work.

PAX Prime 2012 begins today and goes through Sunday September 2nd.  I am sadly unable to attend this year for slightly different reasons.  Mainly money issues, which always suck, but whatever.  My girlfriend Conklederp told me yesterday that I'm going to go to PAX next year (assuming that the world doesn't end in less than four months) and I'm afraid that I have to agree with her.  I'll be putting in my time off request once PAX Prime 2013 is announced.  I'll be looking forward to finding out what department I'll be working in and it really is a tough choice between Handheld and Classic Console (although I could double up and request to work both departments and do a double shift).

To everyone at PAX right now, have fun and with luck, I'll be joining you again in 2013.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Insert Line From Schwarzenegger's Best Film