And Labor Day, and DragonCon, and Bumbershoot, and a number of other local festivals and concerts as well, I’m sure.
However, the one I’m going to, and the one many of you should be thinking about is the Penny Arcade Expo, known as PAX.
Actually, it’s now PAX Prime because they started hosting one in Boston in the spring called PAX East.
What is PAX? It’s a video game convention put on by the brains behind the webcomic Penny Arcade, which takes over the entire Washington State Convention Center for three days, as well as a theater in the hotel next door and Benaroya Hall (this year). Not only video game demos and producers, but tabletop and roleplaying games, card games, board games, “Bring Your Own Computer” tournaments, panels, and Fri/Sat concerts.
This year Friday will have Animanaguchi (they did the theme song for the Scott Pilgrim v. the World video game), the Minibosses, Metroid Metal, and the Protomen, while Saturday’s concert features the slightly more well-known MC Frontalot, Paul and Storm, and Jonathan Coulton.
Three days of hard core geekery, where over 60,000 nerds get together to experience it, and hopefully not walk away with PAX Flu like last year. Further bad news is that it looks like it will be raining this weekend, so while heavier outfits won’t make you as sweaty, carrying a coat will mean you have less room for schwag.
Sound like fun? Too bad, because badges have been sold out for the past five days. Not just the combination 3 day badges, but individual passes for each day are gone. If you don’t already have one, you’re going to have to trust to the secondary market, and pay too much for people who are scalping passes.
And the very bad picture up there is of my badge and lanyard, which I made out of aluminum and rubber rings from The Ring Lord, one of the better stocked purveyors of chain mail supplies online.
I don’t have an iPhone, so I won’t be online most of the time while I’m there, but say hi if you see me and my badge in line somewhere!
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