What You Missed at the Penny Arcade Expo 2007

The Washington State Convention Center served as the meeting place for the 2007 Penny Arcade Expo, a great gathering of gamers. It was the third of what is now an annual tradition, this time drawing a crowd of over 30,000 people. The Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) was started by the authors of Penny Arcade, an online comic strip designed for both online and role-playing gamers.

The doors opened at 2:00 P.M. on Friday, August 24, at the Exhibition Hall. From there, participants were able to try out the latest in games, many of them had not hit the market yet. At the entrance were the big three console games of Xbox, Playstation, and Nintendo. Other exhibits included individual software game companies, who had some great games to pitch as well.

For example, Flying Labs had their demo of Pirates of the Burning Sea that looked very cool as the team were decked out in pirate garb and fired T-shirts out into the audience.

Another booth that drew a crowd was the Nvidia booth that gave out T-shirts and buttons with numbers. The five-digit number was supposed to be used to find a match, and finding that match would enter you and the partner into a raffle to win some pretty valuable prizes. As a result, some attendees had their numbers displayed proudly for anyone to see.

Another great attractor was Rock Band by Harmonix, in which people could play in a virtual band. The virtual instruments included a set of drums, a microphone, as well as Guitar Hero-like guitar and bass. The line for Rock Band led around the exhibit itself, and will be quite a seller for sure.

Also a big draw was Hothead Games, who will have a game based on the Penny Arcade comic strip. Not much was seen but the introduction of On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, but occasionally, there was a show of the gameplay.

At 5:00 on Friday, a crowd was gathered at the main theater as the Keynote Speaker, Wil Wheaton delivered his address. Wheaton, best known for his role of Wesley Crusher from Star Trek: The Next Generation, shared all about his love for gaming and how it has impacted his life. He hardly mentioned his acting career at all, and rallied all the gamers with great enthusiasm.

The Omeganauts also got into the action for the annual Omegathon. The Omegathon is a challenge involving twenty players facing off in various games. The first game was, oddly enough, the popular tabletop Jenga.

At night, there were all sorts of concerts with the biggest names in geek bands such as Optimus Rhyme and the Mini-bosses. I was also amazed at the number of after-parties from various companies, some of them went all out.

PAX went on for two more days, and I found PAX to be so fun that I was completely worn out at the end of it. I think that is a good sign of having a good time.