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PAX 2008: Touring the Pink Godzilla booth
click to enter the store ... vicariously Despite what you may think from the picture, it wasn't the tower of pink plushies that attracted us to the Pink Godzilla store booth. More so, it was that they have mint condition classic games (including the Earthbound and Chrono Trigger) and consoles like the 2nd Anniversary Xbox One from Japan. We're willing to bet that entire wall of games will be sold out by Sunday.%Gallery-30810%%Gallery-30788%
BigCast PAX special goes crazy with Warhammer Online devs
While discussion on Warhammer Online is conspicuously lacking, Mythic Entertainment designer Paul Barnett and producers Jeff Hickman and Josh Drescher managed to to venture into some strange, hilarious and very NSFW territory on BigDownload's BigCast PAX special. Listen to the podcast (again, it's NSFW) here.
PAX 2008: Lost in Dwarven Translation
Outside the North entrance to the PAX08 showfloor, we found two Lord of the Rings Online advertisements written in ... some code. "It must be French," we thought, admittedly forgetting our origins. Can someone translate this for us? Update: Original headline claimed this was Elvish when, in fact, it is Dwarven. Oops.%Gallery-30778%
Seen@PAX08 LAN room: Waldo and a lonely MacBook
Call it dumb luck, but we caught that ever-elusive striped shirt aficionado taking a break from the PAX 2008 showfloor to play some Team Fortress 2 (we'd love to say he was playing as the appropriately-elusive spy, but we think it was actually Heavy class). Also spotted amongst the masses of giant modded PCs, a lone MacBook Pro. Check out some more crazy sightings from the BYOC (that's "Bring Your Own Computer") room.%Gallery-30811%%Gallery-30788%
Rock Band Weekly: PAX pack with Jonathan Coulton, MC Frontalot and Darkest of the Hillside Thickets
Rock Band is going charitable, with a special PAX Pack for next week's DLC. All three bands are performing at this weekend's Penny Arcade Expo, and all money for the tracks go towards Child's Play charity. PAX Pack 1 (240 / $3) "Skullcrusher Mountain" - Jonathan Coulton "Livin' on the Corner of Dude and Catastrophe" - MC Frontalot "Shhh??." - Darkest of the Hillside Thickets All songs are master recordings and "Shhh" is a previously unreleased track. The songs will be available for download next Tuesday and Thursday for Xbox 360 and PS3, respectively. [Note: Image a Jonathan Coulton lyrical word cloud.]
PAX 2008: Ken Levine keyote talks sex, comics and growing up
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gaming_news/PAX_2008_Ken_Levine_keyote_talks_sex_comics_and_growing_up'; Let's destroy your dreams now: Our friend KennyL did not talk about BioShock 2. Instead, Ken Levine kicked off Penny Arcade Expo by talking about his journey from from sex-intrigued comic nerd to Hollywood scribe and back to geekdom (which may in fact be the future plot of BioShock 2, but that is as of now unconfirmed). Regardless, Levine's keynote was a hysterical, vulgar and self-deprecating tribute to puberty and gaming.Levine broke up into three acts, each different parts of his life. In part one, Levine described how he discoverd the adult with science fiction, from his dream to sleep with The Scarlet Witch to his dream to sleep with Jessica-5 from Logan's Run (both the comic book character and the film version's actress). "I wanted to smoke cigarettes and listen to Deep Purple," he said. "I didn't want to go to bed [thinking about Battlestar Galactica], but I did."Act 2 was on the discovery of tribes, and how how his Dungeons & Dragons group moved onto girls. "The truth is, my tribal brothers were simply ahead of me in the game." In Act 3, in which our friend is a failed movie scribe, Levine ends up at Looking Glass Studios (System Shock). The rest, as you know, is history.In his near-final last words, Levine offers a thanks to Tycho and Gabe, "We are united by a common element. Its not the color of our skin or our ideology or where we come from. No it's that we're a giant bunch of fucking nerds," he said to a roaring applause. Listen to it yourself:
Wanted: a PAX attendee really good at video game trivia
If you're at Penny Arcade Expo this weekend and are really good and video game trivia, ChatterBox Video Game Radio is looking for you for a Family Feud gameshow they are hosting. We want to prove that our readership has the most expansive knowledge of video games, so leave a comment below if you fit that criteria and want to do us proud.
The Daily Grind: What are you most excited about seeing at PAX?
Today kicks off the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle, Washington, and we here at Massively are just as excited as you are about the events, booths, panels and concerts involved with this monumental convention. In fact, we'll be at the event all weekend covering the latest and greatest in MMO news, so you can certainly be sure to look for more coverage throughout the weekend and into next week.So we want to know what you, as players, are most excited about. We want to know what it is that brings you out to this event, or what you want to see covered the most. Is it the unveiling of Lord of the Rings Online's Mines of Moria? Is it any information about Lich King? Is it continued coverage of Warhammer Online? Perhaps it's an Indie title, or the after-parties you're most interested in. Let us know!
PAX 2008: We've arrived!
Our plane has just landed in sunny beautiful Seattle and we are now sitting on the floor of the lovely Seattle-Tacoma airport (note: compared to other airport floors, it's not exactly the bee's knees). We're getting ourselves in gear for tomorrow's grand opening of the 2008 Penny Arcade Expo, so stay tuned for all of our coverage over the weekend!
Guide to the PAX 08 MMO afterparties
This Friday marks the kickoff of the Penny Arcade Expo 2008 in Seattle, Washington. If you're going, you may already have your schedule planned out with which panels you'll attend, which booths you're stopping by and which contests you're going to enter. However, you may be overlooking the most important part of this entire weekend: the parties! That's right, a few of your favorite developers are throwing their own afterparties where players can mingle with the game developers, community teams and other fans of the game. Leave it to us to compile a comprehensive list of these parties for you all to enjoy. Check after the cut for a detailed list of these top MMO developer parties.
Weekly Webcomic Wrapup asks, 'What would you ask Tycho and Gabe?'
Next week at the Penny Arcade Expo, we've been given a chance to sit down for an interview with PA creators Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik (i.e. Tycho and Gabe). While we'd love to brainstorm hard-hitting questions for the two, we suddenly realize we're very lazy people. So please tell us what you would ask the Dynamic Duo and we'll pick out the best quesitons and use them in our interview.Here are our (admittedly too numerous) picks for the week's best game-related webcomic. Polling after the break; be sure to vote for your favorite!Level Up! (2P Start)The Latest Score (Castle Vidcons)two great tastes (Robot Martini)A Life of Service (Penny Arcade)For Aiur (MNC)That Famous Equation (Digital Unrest)The Force Unleashed (Extra Life)Karting Sickness (Horribleville)Cool Webcomics for Attractive People (Dueling Analogs)Force Powers (CAD)Do-Over (Burn the Internet)Scared Straight (Hijinks Ensue)
The Daily Grind: PAX or Dragon*Con?
On one side, we have the Penny Arcade crew. Gabe and Tycho are much loved, and for good reason. Penny Arcade continues to be one of the most kick-ass comics out there for gamer culture, and their commentary runs the gamut from deep to hilarious. On the other hand, we have Dragon*Con, with 21 years of everything from pen & paper RPGs to cosplay to stars of the big and little screens. As we've heard it described -- "if a geek ever looked at something and said 'cool', it's probably represented at Dragon*Con." The folks in charge of running Dragon*Con put on approximately 850 hours of panel programming over four days on everything from anime to MMOGs to writing for over 40,000 attendees annually. The only problem is that both PAX and Dragon*Con have unfortunately landed on the same weekend this year, and it looks like this may be a continuing tradition. So for this morning, we thought we'd ask what your travel plans are for next week. Will you be attending PAX in Seattle, soaking up the gamer culture with Gabe and Tycho? Or will you be heading for Dragon*Con in Hotlanta, the East coast spot for all things geeky pop culture? (For those of you not going to either, have no fear; Massively will be on the ground at both conventions, bringing you all the news!)
Guild Wars announces PAX tournament prizes
With gaming expo season also comes live tournament season to most of these events. During the Penny Arcade Expo's event later this month, ArenaNet plans on continuing their trend of hosting competitive Guild Wars tournaments with some great contests held at the ArenaNet/NCsoft booth, and also at their VIP after-party. As we previously reported, this party will be held at the Gameworks across the street from the Washington State Convention & Trade Center in Seattle.These contests include a 2v2 tournament and a Rollerbeetle racing tournament. The prizes range from ATI graphics cards, laser mice, gaming keyboards, character slots, bonus unlock packs and more! Head on over to the main GW website for more info on each of these prizes.
News from the Wider MMO World: August 19, 2008
The MMO genre is more than World of Warcraft, Age of Conan, and Warhammer Online. Here's what's going on in the rest of the world.Battleground Europe launches new websitePlaynet Inc.'s Amy-Lynn Engelbrecht informs us that the destination site for Cornered Rat Software's World War 2 MMO, Battleground Europe, has gotten a significant makeover. With a focus on providing information that's more helpful to members of its strong and active community, the new updated site also features an RSS feed for news, or the option to receive regular updates by Feedburner email. Join up and fight with a 14-day free trial!Ankama Games announces new Wakfu featuresThe spiritual and temporal successor to Ankama's previous title Dofus, Wakfu is an up-and-coming 2D MMO with a currently unreleased launch date. However, bits and pieces of news trickle out from time to time, such as the following: There will be an Enchantment profession, in which items are dismantled for their runes, then grafted onto new items for special powers. Taking a page from World of Warcraft?Secondly, Wakfu will have no NPCs to offer quests. Instead, the game will have "Dynamic Challenges" -- quests that arise when environmental conditions are right, such as time, area, etc. The types of Challenges include Kill, Ecosystem, Social, and Discovery. Each will be available in both solo and team play.
PAX 2008 event schedule released
Gaming convention season is upon us and perhaps one of the largest of these is the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle, Washington. This being the fifth annual PAX, the turnout promises to already crush the numbers from the previous years combined. In anticipation of the event, every bit of news concerning the attendees and panel information is welcomed with open arms... and giddy screaming.Yesterday, the PAX folks released their tentative schedule of events in pdf format on their forums. This includes the usual general gaming panels, but also a few interesting ones for MMOs. There's a panel with ArenaNet on three years of Guild Wars, one on NCsoft, one on the MMO and Virtual World business, and many more. Check out the forum announcement containing the pdf link and good luck with the planning!
Turbine announces player gathering at PAX
Now that the Penny Arcade Expo is right around the corner, we're hearing more and more about these after parties held by game developers. First there was the news of ArenaNet's party at Gameworks Seattle, right across the street from the Washington Convention Center, and now we get news of Turbine holding a party at the same location, the night before.The Turbine party will be from 7pm - 9pm local time on Friday, August 29th, 2008. Those in attendance will include Asheron's Call Producer Crowley, LotRO Executive Producer Nigellian, LotRO: Mines of Moria Producer Eldrad, the enigmatic Marketroid, Community Team members Patience and Frelorn, and more! %Gallery-18340%
Omegathon 2008 lineup includes Peggle, Boom Blox, Rock Band, Jenga
The 2008 Penny Arcade Expo Omegathon V lineup has been revealed and it feels surprisingly casual. There's no Doom or Quake title like we've seen in every previous Omegathon. Also new: starting the first round with a non-board game (Jenga has been pushed to round 5). Here's the list: Round 1: Peggle Round 2: Boom Blox Round 3: Pictionary Round 4: Rock Band (Our guess is Rock Band 2) Round 5: Jenga Final Round: *** TOP SECRET *** The 20 Omeganauts have already been chosen (congratulations to any Joystiq readers who made the cut!); first prize this year is a trip for two to the Tokyo Game Show with all expenses paid and $5,000 in "walking around money."While last year's Omegathon skipped the previous tradition of using a classic retro title (Pong, Combat, Tengen Tetris), every year has featured an id Software shooter. With Rage, Doom 4 and the new Wolfenstein looking unlikely, we're trying to think of another potential, unreleased FPS that could top last year's surprise Halo 3 inclusion. If Tycho and Gabe are looking to make our heads explode, maybe they can get Duke Nukem Forever. We won't find out until minutes before the final round on Sunday, August 31 at 4:30 PM PT. In the meantime, check out the list of past Omegathon lineups, and feel free to make your own and play along at home.
ArenaNet will not show Guild Wars 2 at PAX
It's no secret that Guild Wars 2 is a hot topic among Guild Wars players, so every time the smallest leak of information surfaces, excitement ensues. Yet lately we've heard more and more about how this anticipated sequel is not quite ready for prime time. One example is the announcement earlier this month that there will be no GW2 beta in 2008, as was first estimated. Now we hear that GW2 will not even be shown at PAX in late August.This bit of news was leaked last week by ArenaNet's new Community Manager Regina Buenaobra. She said it first on the main forums, and then again on her user talk page of the official GW wiki. Despite many of the inevitable negative comments that have erupted in the forums since this was announced, creating an MMO from scratch still takes several years. With recent news of other games opting to release "on time" with minimal content, we can't help but scratch our heads at this type of situation. It's been asked a million times before, but we'll ask it again: would you rather have a partial game released now, or a complete game released later?
Meet the Champions Online community manager
If you've got a few minutes to spare, we recommend taking a look at the Champions Online official website. They just posted up their newest Meet the Team article all about their online community relations manager Victor Wachter. This is the guy to find to if you're going to PAX next month, as he'll be there with a playable build of Champions Online and answers to your questions. Well, as many answers has he can reasonably give without punting you down the exhibition hall.Strangely enough, if you want to get on Victor's good side you could probably bring Japanese pop-music paraphernalia and lots of Diet Pepsi. We know that we'll be doing just that, because a person can never have enough community manager friends. They have access to those mythical, magical beta keys that everyone wants sooner or later.
Bungie working on 'three distinct projects'
Bungie is busy getting ready for next month's Penny Arcade Expo, but it isn't going to be revealing any new games at the event. Especially that one Microsoft doesn't want it talking about. This shouldn't be taken to mean that the company has nothing going on. Au contraire. According to its latest news update, the dev has not one but three new games in the works."Rest assured that when the time is right, we will be making announcements and talking about the stuff we're currently working on," the post reads, continuing, "At the moment we do have three distinct projects underway within Bungie - some familiar, some not. Some on a closer horizon, some quite far off."Let's see – one of the games is a new Halo project, but the other two? We'll let you get creative in the comments section. Bonus points if the idea doesn't include pirates, pimps, or flaming ninjas.
