Now that it’s been a full week since we got back from PAX and we’re fully recovered, we thought it’s time to wrap up our experience at PAX and share some of the good times and good stories. If you don’t remember, gamerDNA invaded Seattle for the 2008 PAX that took place on August 29th through August 31st. Little did we know what gaming bliss awaited us.
Incase you don’t know what PAX is, Wikipedia has your back:
The Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) is an annual gamer festival held in Washington state, USA. PAX was created by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, the authors of the Penny Arcade webcomic, because they wanted to attend a show that gave equal attention to console gamers, computer gamers, and tabletop gamers.
Every year PAX has grown in numbers by an order of magnitude and this year was no exception. The gamerDNA crew had the pleasure of spending the weekend with over 58,000 other gamers that arguably took over downtown Seattle. The Seattle Convention Center was filled to the brim with gamers of all types checking out the booth floor, attending the many great panels and concerts, and of course…playing games. If you’re a gamer of any sort, PAX is the place to be if you pick any gaming convention to visit.
Friday afternoon kicked off with the official start of PAX and the initial rush to get your badge and swag bag for the event. After picking up our gear and badges and taking a stroll around the show floor, we decided to hit up lunch at the Microsoft Xbox "Meet ‘n’ Eat" at Red Mill Burgers. There we had the pleasure of meeting all the folks behind the Xbox Live community team, including Trixie360 and Major Nelson. Not only that, but the food was fantastic. If you ever need a burger in the Seattle, Red Mill is definitely the way to go.
They also had the best wall of bacon we’ve ever seen. So much so, we had to take a picture of it:
The highlight for all of us was the gamerDNA PAX Party which turned out to be a smashing success. Gamers of all types showed up, ranging from industry folks, TV celebrities, journalists, podcasters and bloggers. I think it’s safe to say everyone there had a good time playing Rock Band and hanging out, talking about games. The party ended up rockin’ for several hours and by the end of it we were all very happy with how it went, but very tired.
Saturday and Sunday were our chances to finally spend more time on the show floor, demo some games, and check out some of the panels that we wanted to go to. Jon also had the opportunity to interview with various press at the event (which by the way you can check out Jon’s interview with Massively here).
On Sunday we made a point of checking out the "Giant Bomb Reunion Panel" which was a great time and very entertaining. Turns out Jeff Gerstmann is a big fan of 360Voice so it was neat to get a chance to talk to all the guys behind Giant Bomb about PAX, games, and what they are doing at their company. If you haven’t already, make sure you check out Giant Bomb for a great wiki all about games.
After Sunday it was time to make our way back home and catch the 6 hour flight to Boston. All in all PAX was an awesome time for all of us and we can’t wait to go back again next year in 2009. We would like to thank everyone who came out to our first gamerDNA PAX Party, it was great to meet you all and spend a weekend of gaming nirvana with you all. Next time around, expect a much bigger presence at PAX from the team at gamerDNA. We’ll be seeing you at the 2010 PAX in our home town of Boston too 
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