Monday, September 7, 2009

PAX Redux the First: I Am a Gamer!

Yesterday I got back from Seattle, Washington, where I spent the weekend at the gaming convention to end all gaming cons, the Penny Arcade Expo. I'll get to some of the real meet of PAX in a couple days, but for now I just wanted to throw out some random thoughts about the whole trip.

Seattle has forever ruined me for any and all farmer's markets in Texas. Oh, I'll still head out to my local markets for some fresh veggies and the occasional plant, but after seeing row after row of the most delicious looking fruits and vegetables... and all the fresh fish... and the utterly ginormous bouquets of fresh cut flowers stretching for blocks on end..... Excuse me, I think there's something in my eye.

I miss hills. And bike friendly (or at least tolerant) streets.

If you are going to throw a pre con dinner and charge people $30+ a head to go to it, don't charge extra for drinks. That's just not cool. I'm not even talking about anything alcoholic. There was only one drink option available at all, for $3 more. I didn't even see any water fountains around.

Awesomeness is when you're hanging out with an old college buddy and it just so happens that you're wearing a shirt with a vulva on it and he's wearing a shirt that says simply, "balls."

I'm pretty sure that PAX is the only place I can go to wearing a shirt with a vulva on it, and no one even notices.

HEY EVERYBODY! IGOTMYFIRSTCHICKTRACT! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

Paul and Storm, you guys are unbelievably talented. No really, it's true. Your fake jingle for Kleenex is made of 31 flavors of win. Now can you please cut it out with the slut shaming and hipster racism? That would be great.

Somehow, accidentally, making it to the front row of the Jonathon Coulton concert? Fucking Awesome.

And as for the title of this post, um, yeah. It turns out I'm a gamer after all. Yeah I know it sounds stupid and obvious, but seriously I have the hardest time referring to myself as a gamer. There's a couple console games I really enjoy. I'm not hesitant to jump in on most board and card games. And I used to kick major ass at Centipede and Rampage and Soul Caliber, among other titles. But I don't play any first person shooters. I never pay attention to new releases. I don't own a console of my own. I don't tabletop. Because of that I disqualified myself from "gaming". No, I'm not A Gamer (TM), but I am still a gamer, even if it is just a casual one. And a shout out thanks to Ash for pointing out what should have been obvious to me. Do any of you do the same thing? Tell your self that you're not a gamer even though you play X, Y, and Z, or something similar? What's the deal with that?

Join me next time for another edition of PAX Redux wherein I analyze the panels I went to: Gay Gamers; Women in Gaming; Sex in Gaming.

1 comment:

  1. Sounds like you had a lot of fun. I want to get out to PAX one of these years, but I barely get out to do the San Diego Comic Con.

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