luminaire

Update #3 from PAX:

Yesterday was the awesome. I got here early, and stood in line to get my concert band. Definately got one.

Hung out up here in the BYOC lab, only to find something doucherrific. This, being a big LAN party, there's a lot of people playing games right? Well, me and some people sitting next to me wanted to play some WoW together. Simple enough, right? They even happened to be on my server. It was truly fortuitous. But, we logged on to find that the gays that were running the LAN, quite an unrelated organization to Penny Arcade, had blocked the port that WoW uses on the wired network! Fuckbags! When I asked why, they responded: "That game doesn't promote a LAN spirit. You should really play some multiplayer games with the other people here."

I tried to reason with him, even explain that there literally were other people here I planned on playing with, but to no avail. I told him to shove his CS bias up is ass.

Sometime in the morning, the Exhibition room opened up. I got to preveiw some really kick ass stuff. The Incredible Hulk looks sweet, and so does the new Zelda. Mario Soccer and Baseball look like so much fun, I can't even tell you. Nintendo definately had the best booth. There was also D&D Online, America's Army, Farcry: Insticts, and a crap ton more. I hit on a booth babe that I knew. I play a bunch of video games. Life was good.

Next up: Frag Dolls. For those of you that don't know, the Frag Dolls are a group of hot gamer chicks that can totally kick your ass at just about anything. It seems like a giant lie at first, but then you get owned by them, and fall into line. They seriously pwnd some unsuspecting ass in the Ghost Recon tourney. Ubisoft also happened to be sponsoring them, but I tried to ignore that.

I located a sweet wireless bubble that Speakeasy had set up, free of charge, and also free of port-blocking trickery. I jumped in for some instance runs, and life was good. Sat in on a few panels in the theatre, and gernally enjoyed the crowd. Fought back a few rivals with Nerf guns, and made a few allies along the way.

Finally, the time came. The announcement went over the intercom that it was time to line up for tonights concert. I was stoked. I ran out, and the line was already 4 blocks long, I shit you not. We eventually got in, a bit early I might add. It turned out that the Omeganaughts were having one of their final events prior to the concert: Karaoke Revolution. That shit was so funny. Not one to force anyone to do something that he wouldn't, Tycho bravely led the hordes, and sung some Evanescance song with his wife. He almost won too!

After the few Karaoke contestants, we got to the first band of the night. It happened to be another pianist with game tunes; but I was really less than impressed. She wasn't nearly as good as the Video Game Pianist from the night before.

Next up, MC Frontalot! These guys are fucking hilarious, and they're amazingly talented as well. They're like the perfect picture of Nerdcore. Man, that guy can rhyme.

Following Frontalot was the famed MC Chris, who had the whole theatre rolling from beginning to end. If you have never seen this man live, fucking go find a show, and see him. It's like a mix of video game jokes, horrible, offensive rap, and stand up comedy. He's sure to offend you, and leave you laughing so hard your gut hurts.

Final event of the night: The Minibosses. Metal for gamers, something hardcore. This was probably one of the best shows I've honestly ever seen, and I've been to quite a few. It wasn't just the music, but it was the showmanship, and the participation from the crowd. They started with Megaman 2, and ended with Metroid, with some Contra, and Castlevania inbetween. By the end of it we had the whole crowd waving thier backlit cellphones/gameboys/pda's/ect in the air like so many lighters at a proper rock concert. It was a fitting end to an amazing night. I will definately see them again in future.

All in all, I've realized something. More than anything else, this place is me. This is my culture. More than being punk, or a poser-skater, or a metal head, or anything else, I'm a nerd at my roots. And so is every other person of the 8000~ plus crowd that's walked the halls of Meydenbaurer this weekend. I am in my element, and I love it.

Edit: Holy Hell, I completely forgot. After the concert, we had a little nerf-army following of sorts. We drug about a dozen people back to the Double Tree in Bellevue, and picked up some more gunners at the hotel itself. We proceeded to have an all out nerf capture the flag game that sprawled out over several floors. We shot each other with foam darts until like 5am.