My summer vacation Part 3...lost but found again.

Let's see where do I start? Well, maybe I should start with why I even began to plan my summer vacation in the first place. For that I will have to take it back a bit further to my close friend and cousin, Jason Heine. Jason is part of the online Youtube video game community. Which led him into being a part of a video game podcast which he does with three other well known Youtube video game popcasters (Podcasti? Podcasties? Podcastellites?) . So I guess I should introduce them so you know who I am talking about. First, there is Johnny Millennium, who does a channel on Youtube called “The Happy Console Gamer”. Second is Pete Dorr, who does a channel on Youtube called “Pete’s Gameroom”, then there is John, who’s channel (the first of his many channels) on Youtube is called  “Gamster81”. Last but not least Jason Heine who’s channel on Youtube is called “The Emulator Review”. All powers combined they become the “All Gen Gamers Podcast”, which you can find on iTunes under video game podcasts. (plug plug plug!) =). So how does this all tie in together with my vacation? Well, they have been doing the podcast for over a year now and, way back when, they started talking about meeting up at a video game convention called PAX Prime. Which at the time I had no idea what PAX Prime was. All the guys that are on the podcast, live in all different areas of the world. So they thought this would be an awesome way to meet up with each other. One of the guys actually lives outside of the country in Canada and not only was this an awesome event to go to, it was the first time all four would be together. The location of PAX Prime is in Seattle Washington, only a few hours from where I live. My cousin Jason lives in Arizona, very close to John, but I didn’t get to see Jason as much since he left Oregon a few years ago. So I thought there is no reason I can’t take a few days off and travel up north to be a part of this video game idea. So that is what I did. I bought my tickets for PAX Prime back in March or April for the event that was happening in the end of August. On the podcast, they talked about it about every episode and told everyone to buy tickets before they sold out, they eventually do. Apparently they have a set amount that they sell regardless, I had the tickets and I would figure the rest out later. My arrangements changed a few times over the next couple of months. I actually talked my coworker/friend Austin into going with his girlfriend. The three of us also ended up staying together while we were up in Washington. I also talked my brother into going. Although by the time he had money to go, he ended up getting tickets through a friend of his that was selling them. My brother also arrived separately with his good friend Jason (Not my cousin!). My cousin and the other guys of the podcast went up individually as well. I know all that may sound confusing, but the point is it actually turned into a fantastic event. 

Picture of Downtown Seattle just outside the convention center where PAX Prime is held.

Lets fast forward to the end of part two of my vacation. I spent a good portion of the afternoon having conversations with J’Anne. When Austin called we decided to meet at the Fred Meyers near J’Anne’s house, which by the way, is invisible to any navigation device....EVER! We (Austin, Christine, and myself) showed up at our hotel outside of Seattle in Bellevue Washington. We had decided to stay outside of Seattle because it was about $100 less per day than staying by the convention center where PAX was being held. It was a pretty nice hotel that Austin Picked out and, the best part for me, was that there was a Whole Foods store diagonally across form the hotel we stayed at. We are talking like a 5 minute walk and most of that time was waiting for the light to change to cross the street. LOL. Now why is this so important for me to bring up? Eating while on vacation with my limitations can be a hard thing for me and having a Whole Foods near by was like being right next door to my work. I loved it. We ate there pretty much every day, no joke. It was my first time in a Whole Foods. It’s not just because it’s my companies competition, it’s that there is no need for me to go into a store when I can get all the same things at my work with a 20% discount. LOL. Anyway, kudos to Austin for hooking that up, it worked out really good for me. I will say their customer service is NOTHING compared to ours PERIOD.  

So instead of driving to Seattle and pay for parking we decided to take public transportation. It actually worked really well. Each of us had passes to go all three days of the event.  Looking back now I’m very glad that we did. So early Friday morning we made our way to downtown Seattle. There were a few groups of people at our hotel that were there for PAX also. You can spot some of them from a mile away, even if they weren’t wearing lanyards with their PAX passes attached. LOL. We arrived at the convention center which was a little confusing on where exactly we needed to go. Eventually we made our way into some very long lines. Glad we left early and next time we will leave even earlier. They mashed all of us in this huge room where we got a bag of goodies. Then stood in line till it was 10 o’clock. Then in a somewhat controlled manner we all rushed into the main floor area. Now here is where it gets interesting. There was so much stuff to look at right from the get go and you never have a down moment the whole time I was at PAX. To start things off I made my way to the Battlefield 3 booth. That was the main thing I wanted to experience and was willing to wait in line for. There is so many things to see at PAX, you almost feel overwhelmed and it took some time to locate the Battlefield 3 booth. I first followed Austin and Christine to the OnLive booth before they let us through the doors. They announced that they were handing out free OnLive consoles (that normally retail at around $99) at the OnLive booth. So of course everyone and their mom headed to their booth to get one. I followed them, but decided when I saw how long the line was that I was not interested. I instead played the demo for the new Zelda game coming out in November called Skyward Sword which was right next to the OnLive booth. It was pretty dope and then I resumed my hunt for the Battlefield 3 booth. I eventually found it in a back corner with a big hummer all decked out, military style, parked outside of the booth. I immediately got in line and didn’t look back. After waiting in line for about an hour maybe hour and half, I got my chance to play. My game froze while playing and the guy that I was playing co-op with bailed after just playing a few minutes. Thank god he did because they paired me up with another guy who was a lot more fun to play with. We actually talk to each other and worked together. Awesome. That is exactly how that game is supposed to be played, team work. Here is the best part when waiting in line they asked you for what name you want on the custom dog tags they make you. Of course I put my gamer tag XgS.Dirty Dongles on there and was super stoked about it. What an ingenious idea! I wore those dog tags all three days.  

The rest of the day I played a few more games, but the first day was about going around to all the booths and getting what we all called “Gamer Swag”. What do I mean by "Gamer Swag"? Almost all the booths were handing something out from T-shirts, posters, jackets to key chains and all sorts of stuff. So awesome, I think I ended up with 5 shirts for free and one more later on that I paid for. TONS of cool stuff. Really it was a gamers paradise. Anything and everything relating to games was there. We aren’t just talking about video games here, we are talking board games, D & D, and Magic cards on top of all the video game stuff. For the first day we were there from 9-5pm. Austin and Christine were a bit tired and burnt out in the afternoon and when they asked me if I wanted to go back to the hotel with them I actually said, "Yes". Because honestly it was all a bit much, I really didn’t think that I would say that, but it definitely was and this was only the first day. That is a short version of day one. Just so much going on, including the fact that I missed the All Gen Gamers podcast met up outside of the convention center where PAX was being held. I went into some detail for the first day because of just the raw feeling of experience of going to PAX Prime. The next two days was a lot more of the same and more exploring, trying to get things in I didn’t the day before. As a gamer it was just an awesome experience. 

So just a few of the highlights. Over the other two days.

Second day I got to meet up with Jason and my brother and experience more of PAX together. Telling each other what “Gamer Swag” we got and what games we played and tried out. Just some awesome video game talk. 

That gamer swag.

I met two of the other three podcast guys while walking around with Jason. Both of them were really down to earth, nice guys. It was very cool to see them in real life. Pete Dorr was the only one I missed.... and I’m still angry about it. LOL. 

There was a very cool moment we had when we were exploring the upper level of this event. We came across a room where they had pretty much popular video game consoles and they had libraries of games you could play for certain amount of time. I was with my cousin Jason and my brother Justin. We glanced at the list of games, but yet again we were a bit overwhelmed. Lucky for us John Gamester81 was already in there playing a game. So we walked over and joined him. He was playing a newer game that had just came out call Katherine. Very weird Japanese puzzle game, but like with any game my gamer buddies and I play we can make anything fun and funny. So there we were, all four of us lined up in a row, passing the controller to the next person when the other one fails. The on lookers trying to help and joke around when not playing. That is what I love about playing games and that is how it use to be for my generation of gamers. Before the days of the internet you actually had to go to other peoples houses and sit together while playing games. I was passing out the bunny fruit snacks that I love so much, and those make an appearance at all the game nights I have at my place. 

Those were just a few of the many things that happened over the course of the three days. Now I want to talk about just my overall thoughts on PAX Prime, and video games in general. So much went through my head when looking around PAX. Just so overwhelming to experience what this form of media has done and what it is doing to my generation and generations to come. Looking at all the booths and seeing how much money big companies are investing in the gaming industry. One of the big things that I noticed was just how diverse video games have become. How much mainstream video games have become. It isn’t just something that nerds geek out to in their moms basement. Video games are now something that everyone plays. Don’t get me wrong there is still a big group of people there that it may have been their first time out of their moms basement to attend the event, but mass majority of people were people of all walks of life. Awesome. Someone said that they sell like 70,000 tickets for PAX Prime. Well, I am not sure if that is true but what I do know is, Saturday and Sunday were crazy busy compared to Friday. I think often about what I will look back on in my life and think about when I am older. This was definitely one of those experiences. Video games are a huge part of the culture of my generation and definitely our form of art. There is so much that goes into each game. I have already seen the generations below me take it for granted. Back in the day we were lucky to get one game and you played the hell out of it. Because thats all the money your parents may have had for video games back then. Now days kids finish games within days and then move on to something else. Some don’t even explore the whole game. From the music, images, and even down to the coding of these games there are many people out there putting in a lot work to make something to be enjoyed by so many. From someone that actually knows people that work in that industry take sometime to read the credits. Take time to take in the full experience of the game. Explore the whole experience and even if you don’t I will.

Oh and that dark haired girl with the Star Wars shirt & cute skirt on, that I had a moment with in passing between the two main floors at PAX and I will admit I did a double take.... I will never forget you. Thank god beautiful women are on board the video game wagon too. LOL. I love it! 

With love and pure D-lite. =)

Just thought this would be interesting to post. Check out how much different I look in the same shirt in not even a year past....

Oh yeah.... someone is putting in WORK!