Tuesday, Sep. 02, 2008

Video Game Convention Recap

By Bethany Lee, Herald staff writer

BethZilla is your go-to woman for music and entertainment in the Tri-Cities. A writer, photographer, videographer and blogger extraordinaire, she speaks her mind on anything and everything.

If you love video games, you should have been at PAX. The fifth annual video game convention is the largest in the Northwest, bringing in ticket sales of more than 58,000. That's some crazy stuff.

It was my first PAX and it definitely won't be my last. I got to see awesome demos of Far Cry 2, Fallout 3 and Prince of Persia 2...well, with the exception of Prince of Persia, I got to see awesome demos.

Standing shoulder-to-shoulder in the Exhibition Hall, I couldn't help but breathe in the bad smells coming from nerdy gamers. Now I understand why online webcomic artists plead for their fellow brethren to shower before they go to these things...or at least wear deodorant.

Not surprisingly, the majority of the people there wouldn't really talk to you or branch out of their own little groups. Sure, they'll challenge other groups to video games or whatnot, but if you try to approach them, they oftentimes look at you like you're the nerdy. I don't get it.

When I went to Sakura-Con, everyone came together and were constantly mingling. At PAX, I had to keep reminding myself that it was a different type of nerd.

The thing that shocked me the most were these sectioned-off areas where people could fall asleep on giant bean bag chairs. You're in the middle of everything, there's tons of noise, and yet people can take a quick cat nap without fearing someone is going to poke them or steal their free swag.

I didn't get to see the creators of PAX like I had wanted. I heard them through a wall while waiting in line...but that was it. Sad, huh?

I did however get to see this awesome cake of the Fruit F----- 2000, made by some talented cake maker. It was so cute that I wanted to take it home. They should make postcards out of it.

Randomly I bumped into people I knew from high school. Lost from my other friends, I hear a "Beth?" and I turn around to see two former classmates. Don't you hate it when you see someone you haven't talked to in forever, but you have to rush off to somewhere else? Yeah, that happened.

More randomly, people always tend to ask why I go to these kinds of things. "Why would you want to go to that?" they ask. Um, because I love video games? Always have?

Granted I'm not very good at most of them and I haven't even heard of half of the ones available, but what's not to like about video games? They provoke your imagination, inspire you to try harder and are good for drunken entertainment.

Going back to the beginning, I followed Beefy up to Seattle on Thursday. He was supposed to swing by around 2 p.m. so we could roll out. Then I got this phone call: "Yeah, you know this happens. We're late." We ended up leaving around 5 p.m., hoping to make his show at the High Dive bar in Fremont.

It was about 9 p.m. and my stomach was empty, making me a very angry BethZilla. Downing a large drink, I started feeling good and went on stage with Beefy to sing the ever popular Play With Me. As I stumbled up the stage steps, I lifted my glass and declared "I'm drunk!" to the audience, who proudly cheered back.

After our song, I headed over to my friends apartment, where I proceeded to eat, play Guitar Hero and sleep.

As always, I ended my Seattle trip with dim sum at House of Hong in downtown Seattle. I was in heaven. And of course we hit up Gossip for my favorite bubble tea. It was the best of times.

Despite people's bad BO, dealing with stupid women and being drunk for the first time in a long time, I had a pretty good long weekend.