After the tournament, my friends and I were really bummed at what could have been. We walked across the hallway to the Main Theater again just in time to catch the beginning of the Video Game Orchestra (VGO). These musicians are known for playing music from classic video games with a full orchestra. After hearing their awesome renditions of Super Mario Brothers, Chrono Trigger, and Final Fantasy, I felt a lot better. How can you be down after hearing the Chocobo theme song? We stayed as long as we could but we had to duck out about halfway through to catch our friend’s birthday party. It ended up being so much more.
On the drive back home, my friend S.I. whose birthday we were going to, texted me to find out when we were arriving. I replied, “About 45 minutes”. He followed up with another message reminding us to also pick up Tary. I then realized that something big was going down that night. My buddy was going to propose to his longtime girlfriend!
On the ride home, we swung by to pick up Tary. By the time we got to S.I.’s house, it was almost 11:30 PM. There were a ton of people already there which included his parents. I guess he was waiting for us so I feel a little guilty staying as long as we did at PAX. It only felt like a few minutes after we arrived before the festivities got underway.
A cake was brought out and we all sang Happy Birthday. S.I. paused briefly before blowing up the candles. The crowd lobbied for a speech and S.I obliged. He started by thanking everyone for coming. He then shared that the lines between friendship and family are often blurred and he considered many of us as his brothers and sisters. He rhetorically asked that without friends, what would we be celebrating?
Then S.I. pulled out a beautiful diamond encrusted ring from his pocket. After some coaching from the crowd to get on one knee, he then asked for J.W.’s hand in marriage. To his relief she said, “Yes!” I love seeing my friends in their happiest moments. I admit it; I got a little teary-eyed. I can’t believe that it was almost 2 years ago that I was proposing to Tary in front of the same group of friends. Congratulations you two lovebirds!
Showing posts with label PAX. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PAX. Show all posts
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Weekend Recap - Part 2 (PAX East 2010 - Day 2)
I was determined to have a better second day at PAX. My friends and I all got up relatively early considering how late we stayed up the night before. We took our respective turns in the shower. I went 2nd so I could sleep in an additional 15 minutes. After I got out of the shower, I *purposely*left the shower lever on. A.D. went in after me and a few minutes later, we heard a scream through the bathroom walls as the cold water hit his skin. Haha, owned.
We went to “wagamama”, a Japanese restaurant inside the Prudential Center known for their fresh ramen noodles just as they opened their doors at 11 AM. Okay, maybe we didn’t get up that early. We ordered some duck dumplings, wagama glazed ribs, and chili squid for starters. The ribs were fall-off-the-bone delicious. For the meal, I got the “miso beef ramen”. It was pretty good (though it pales in comparison to Pho).
After lunch, we went back to PAX and walked around some of the exhibition booths where various hardware and software companies were showcasing their various products. We didn’t really spend too much time at each booth because the guys had already seen everything the day before and even though it was all really cool stuff, I get bored easily.
One notable booth was the NVIDIA booth where you could see their new 3D cards. I put on the 3D glasses and stepped up to a keyboard and mouse. The other guys put on their glasses as well and watched as I played part of the Battlefield: Bad Company 2 single player campaign. The technology is really cool but the only thing that really looked “3D” was the gun that your character is holding. Everything else looked pretty much the same so I was a little disappointed in that. My friends also complained that the 3D was causing motion sickness.
It was almost 1 PM so we went to the main theater for the “Penny Arcade Make-a-Strip Panel”. It was my first panel at PAX so I was excited though I had no idea what was going to happen. The panel featured Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, the two guys responsible for PAX, as they showed what goes into making a Penny Arcade comic. We sat way back of the balcony section. Several large screens displayed closer views of Jerry and Mike on stage.
The panel started with Jerry typing some dialogue between the characters of the comic. The audience cracked up but I had no clue what was going on since I don’t follow the comic. Mike then pulled up Photoshop and started sketching out the comic while Jerry answered questions from the audience. I was incredibly impressed with Mike’s drawing ability. I’ve always loved art and drawing. Maybe I should start my own webcomic one day. ;)
There were multiple microphones spread throughout the theatre and people got in line to say whatever was on their minds. One guy came up and thanked the two guys for hosting PAX where nerds can get together and be comfortable. Several people later, another person offered similar sentiments. At that moment, it finally hit me. PAX was so much more than just another “nerd” conference. People who may be a little socially awkward, a little obsessed with geeky things, are somewhat allergic tosunlight razor blades bath water, and are often ridiculed in other circles of life actually felt welcome and “normal” here. To quote the keynote speaker, Wil Wheaton, they were at “home”. At that moment, I felt proud to be alongside 60,000 of my fellow nerd brethren. I don’t really remember anything else that either Jerry or Mike said. It didn’t matter. I was just happy to be there.
After the panel, it was about 3 PM so we headed to the PC free play area where the tournament was being held. The organizers told us that our bracket wouldn’t start until 5:30 PM so we had some time to kill. Since we were already there, we stayed there to play some random games on their computers. We stopped playing a little early to check-in but they still weren’t ready for us.
We walked around and checked out a few other areas but nothing really interested us. We eventually settled down in a room with some random people playing music. It’s kind of cool that people who have never met before could still make music together.
We went back to the PC free play area and continued waiting for our bracket to start. The previous brackets were still going on and we noticed that no one had 3D glasses on. It turned out that the 3D cards were having problems so the tournament organizers decided to just hold it in regular 2D. That was such welcome news to our ears…and our stomachs.
It finally was time for our turn in the tourney. The format was “Squad Deathmatch” with single elimination. That just means that each match was between four squads with four players in each squad fighting to reach 50 kills. Our squad was comprised of S.Y., his brother G.Y., L.D. who had never played the game before for the PC, and me. We were the last team to be seated and they sat us down together on a row of computers. We had to quickly configure our buttons and join the designated server. I tried out my settings and I hurried to fix a few buttons that were still messed up.
This was my first gaming tournament so I wasn’t sure how the competition would be. I consider myself to be one of the best players in my circle of friends so I was hoping that we would at least advance past one round. Our strategy was relatively simple; since L.D. had never played this game on the PC before, we had him play a support role and try to stick together with our squad. Since it was a race to 50 kills, we decided to ignore any tanks that the other teams would use and just focus on killing enemy infantry. It ended up being a very sound strategy.
The first round finally got started. I accidentally picked the Recon class to begin the round so I was pretty worried that it might cost us the match. I had trouble getting used to the mouse sensitivity and I missed the first few enemies I saw. Fortunately, the rest of my teammates finished them off. It was a jungle map and there was a tank somewhere on the map. One of the other squads hopped inside of it and started causing havoc. Knowing that tanks are slow and that we could use the foliage for cover, I sprinted up to the tank and dropped a pair of C4 on its side. I pulled the trigger and BOOM! I blew up the tank and everyone inside. I didn’t care that I blew myself up in the process because I knew that my teammates would be safer with that thing gone.
At that moment, I finally settled down and realized that, “Hey, we can win this!” I changed back to my normal Medic class with the M60 (aka “The Gun of Rambo”) and I was back in my comfort zone. G.Y. helped direct the squad from one area to the next and we mowed down everyone along the way. Before I knew it, the round was over. We were amazed at the final score. We had 50 and the 2nd place team had only about 18! Ownage! I finished with about 18 kills and 6 deaths. That felt so good! The adrenaline was freely flowing now. I am so glad we entered this tourney!
The organizers had us stay at our computers and the second round started shortly after. This time, we were playing on a desert map. The competition was much harder this time around. We got off to a bit of a slow start. The score was really close between all four squads. One squad hopped into a tank and started to kill everyone. They started to pull away from us score-wise! They had about 38 points and we were just over 30.
Then all of a sudden, someone blew me up with a Carlos Gustav, an anti-infantry rocket launcher. I have to point out that that the Gustav is the cheapest weapon in the entire game. You don’t need any skill to use it; it has incredible damage, a large blast radius, and results in instant death. I knew it was only a matter of time before some no-skill n00b jerk face would try to use that cheapness on us. Well, getting blown up by the Gustav set off some kind of switch with me. I went into a blinding uber berserker nerd rage and promptly killed the first guy I saw. I then took out his teammate who spawned on him. I ran toward a building and killed everyone along the way and knifed the last guy for good measure. I saw my teammates had died so I killed the guys nearby and res’d my squadmates with the defibrillator. I lost count of how many guys I killed but the game awards you a virtual pin when you get a kill streak of at least 8. I finally died after completely running out of bullets on my primary gun. I glanced at the scoreboard and we took over the lead and were pulling away. We got to 49 kills and it felt like forever to get that last kill. When we finally took out that last guy, we all let out a collective yell. I ended up finishing with another score similar to the first round.
We had to get up from our computers while the other brackets played out their rounds. We all stood around reflecting how awesome this whole experience has been. Whew, the second round was so intense. All of that adrenaline had me flying sky high. I can’t believe we won another round. Boo yeah! We pwned so much face! I can’t believe we made it to the finals of a 64-team tourney that we only joined on a whim with a bunch of weeknight warriors featuring someone who has never played it before. I started to feel like we could actually win it all.
For the finals, there were two other pro teams who won their respective brackets. The last squad was another amateur team like our own. The round started off as badly as it could possibly go. Boom, I died. Boom, my squadmates died. One of the pro teams got on the roof of some building (which I didn’t know you could even do) and everyone was using Gustavs! Every time we died, the game kept causing us to respawn near the other teams where they could keep raining death upon us. We tried to run for the hills (literally) to get away from the cheapness but to no avail. They had no honor. Even if we played as cheaply as they did, I knew we weren’t going to come back and win.
At this point, it felt like we were now only fighting for 3rd place. Someone n00b tubed me and the round was over. We took a moment to congratulate the other teams. We finished last of the four teams. To add insult to injury, we found out that they only handed out prizes for the top three teams. Fail.
I am so proud of our squad for getting as far as we did. We finished 4th out of 64 teams! What an experience. I am so happy that we did so well but I am incredibly disappointed in the way the other teams won in the finals. I know that cheap tactics are part of the game and you can’t fault another team for using what’s available. But in the final round, I don’t think any of us died from even a single bullet. All they used were those cheap Gustavs. @#$%!!! Had the round taken place on a different map with different terrain, I can’t help but think that we would have placed higher. I can’t wait for next year! Team Rambo will rise again!
We went to “wagamama”, a Japanese restaurant inside the Prudential Center known for their fresh ramen noodles just as they opened their doors at 11 AM. Okay, maybe we didn’t get up that early. We ordered some duck dumplings, wagama glazed ribs, and chili squid for starters. The ribs were fall-off-the-bone delicious. For the meal, I got the “miso beef ramen”. It was pretty good (though it pales in comparison to Pho).
After lunch, we went back to PAX and walked around some of the exhibition booths where various hardware and software companies were showcasing their various products. We didn’t really spend too much time at each booth because the guys had already seen everything the day before and even though it was all really cool stuff, I get bored easily.
One notable booth was the NVIDIA booth where you could see their new 3D cards. I put on the 3D glasses and stepped up to a keyboard and mouse. The other guys put on their glasses as well and watched as I played part of the Battlefield: Bad Company 2 single player campaign. The technology is really cool but the only thing that really looked “3D” was the gun that your character is holding. Everything else looked pretty much the same so I was a little disappointed in that. My friends also complained that the 3D was causing motion sickness.
It was almost 1 PM so we went to the main theater for the “Penny Arcade Make-a-Strip Panel”. It was my first panel at PAX so I was excited though I had no idea what was going to happen. The panel featured Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, the two guys responsible for PAX, as they showed what goes into making a Penny Arcade comic. We sat way back of the balcony section. Several large screens displayed closer views of Jerry and Mike on stage.
The panel started with Jerry typing some dialogue between the characters of the comic. The audience cracked up but I had no clue what was going on since I don’t follow the comic. Mike then pulled up Photoshop and started sketching out the comic while Jerry answered questions from the audience. I was incredibly impressed with Mike’s drawing ability. I’ve always loved art and drawing. Maybe I should start my own webcomic one day. ;)
There were multiple microphones spread throughout the theatre and people got in line to say whatever was on their minds. One guy came up and thanked the two guys for hosting PAX where nerds can get together and be comfortable. Several people later, another person offered similar sentiments. At that moment, it finally hit me. PAX was so much more than just another “nerd” conference. People who may be a little socially awkward, a little obsessed with geeky things, are somewhat allergic to
After the panel, it was about 3 PM so we headed to the PC free play area where the tournament was being held. The organizers told us that our bracket wouldn’t start until 5:30 PM so we had some time to kill. Since we were already there, we stayed there to play some random games on their computers. We stopped playing a little early to check-in but they still weren’t ready for us.
We walked around and checked out a few other areas but nothing really interested us. We eventually settled down in a room with some random people playing music. It’s kind of cool that people who have never met before could still make music together.
We went back to the PC free play area and continued waiting for our bracket to start. The previous brackets were still going on and we noticed that no one had 3D glasses on. It turned out that the 3D cards were having problems so the tournament organizers decided to just hold it in regular 2D. That was such welcome news to our ears…and our stomachs.
It finally was time for our turn in the tourney. The format was “Squad Deathmatch” with single elimination. That just means that each match was between four squads with four players in each squad fighting to reach 50 kills. Our squad was comprised of S.Y., his brother G.Y., L.D. who had never played the game before for the PC, and me. We were the last team to be seated and they sat us down together on a row of computers. We had to quickly configure our buttons and join the designated server. I tried out my settings and I hurried to fix a few buttons that were still messed up.
This was my first gaming tournament so I wasn’t sure how the competition would be. I consider myself to be one of the best players in my circle of friends so I was hoping that we would at least advance past one round. Our strategy was relatively simple; since L.D. had never played this game on the PC before, we had him play a support role and try to stick together with our squad. Since it was a race to 50 kills, we decided to ignore any tanks that the other teams would use and just focus on killing enemy infantry. It ended up being a very sound strategy.
The first round finally got started. I accidentally picked the Recon class to begin the round so I was pretty worried that it might cost us the match. I had trouble getting used to the mouse sensitivity and I missed the first few enemies I saw. Fortunately, the rest of my teammates finished them off. It was a jungle map and there was a tank somewhere on the map. One of the other squads hopped inside of it and started causing havoc. Knowing that tanks are slow and that we could use the foliage for cover, I sprinted up to the tank and dropped a pair of C4 on its side. I pulled the trigger and BOOM! I blew up the tank and everyone inside. I didn’t care that I blew myself up in the process because I knew that my teammates would be safer with that thing gone.
At that moment, I finally settled down and realized that, “Hey, we can win this!” I changed back to my normal Medic class with the M60 (aka “The Gun of Rambo”) and I was back in my comfort zone. G.Y. helped direct the squad from one area to the next and we mowed down everyone along the way. Before I knew it, the round was over. We were amazed at the final score. We had 50 and the 2nd place team had only about 18! Ownage! I finished with about 18 kills and 6 deaths. That felt so good! The adrenaline was freely flowing now. I am so glad we entered this tourney!
The organizers had us stay at our computers and the second round started shortly after. This time, we were playing on a desert map. The competition was much harder this time around. We got off to a bit of a slow start. The score was really close between all four squads. One squad hopped into a tank and started to kill everyone. They started to pull away from us score-wise! They had about 38 points and we were just over 30.
Then all of a sudden, someone blew me up with a Carlos Gustav, an anti-infantry rocket launcher. I have to point out that that the Gustav is the cheapest weapon in the entire game. You don’t need any skill to use it; it has incredible damage, a large blast radius, and results in instant death. I knew it was only a matter of time before some no-skill n00b jerk face would try to use that cheapness on us. Well, getting blown up by the Gustav set off some kind of switch with me. I went into a blinding uber berserker nerd rage and promptly killed the first guy I saw. I then took out his teammate who spawned on him. I ran toward a building and killed everyone along the way and knifed the last guy for good measure. I saw my teammates had died so I killed the guys nearby and res’d my squadmates with the defibrillator. I lost count of how many guys I killed but the game awards you a virtual pin when you get a kill streak of at least 8. I finally died after completely running out of bullets on my primary gun. I glanced at the scoreboard and we took over the lead and were pulling away. We got to 49 kills and it felt like forever to get that last kill. When we finally took out that last guy, we all let out a collective yell. I ended up finishing with another score similar to the first round.
We had to get up from our computers while the other brackets played out their rounds. We all stood around reflecting how awesome this whole experience has been. Whew, the second round was so intense. All of that adrenaline had me flying sky high. I can’t believe we won another round. Boo yeah! We pwned so much face! I can’t believe we made it to the finals of a 64-team tourney that we only joined on a whim with a bunch of weeknight warriors featuring someone who has never played it before. I started to feel like we could actually win it all.
For the finals, there were two other pro teams who won their respective brackets. The last squad was another amateur team like our own. The round started off as badly as it could possibly go. Boom, I died. Boom, my squadmates died. One of the pro teams got on the roof of some building (which I didn’t know you could even do) and everyone was using Gustavs! Every time we died, the game kept causing us to respawn near the other teams where they could keep raining death upon us. We tried to run for the hills (literally) to get away from the cheapness but to no avail. They had no honor. Even if we played as cheaply as they did, I knew we weren’t going to come back and win.
At this point, it felt like we were now only fighting for 3rd place. Someone n00b tubed me and the round was over. We took a moment to congratulate the other teams. We finished last of the four teams. To add insult to injury, we found out that they only handed out prizes for the top three teams. Fail.
I am so proud of our squad for getting as far as we did. We finished 4th out of 64 teams! What an experience. I am so happy that we did so well but I am incredibly disappointed in the way the other teams won in the finals. I know that cheap tactics are part of the game and you can’t fault another team for using what’s available. But in the final round, I don’t think any of us died from even a single bullet. All they used were those cheap Gustavs. @#$%!!! Had the round taken place on a different map with different terrain, I can’t help but think that we would have placed higher. I can’t wait for next year! Team Rambo will rise again!
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Weekend Recap - Part 1 (PAX East 2010 - Day 1)
Time had finally come for the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX), a semi-annual gaming festival. PAX started in 2004 and was previously held in the state of Washington. It was the first time being held in Boston, MA. The show catered toward gamers and tried to give equal attention to console gamers, computer gamers, and tabletop gamers. In other words, it was like nerd heaven.
I had pre-registered several months ago for the 3-day event. It was the first time attending any kind of conference so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I knew there would be a ton of nerds there. I know I’m a nerd but these people are NERDS! And where there are nerds, there was bound to be nerd “sweat”. Gross.
I talked a few friends into entering a 3D tournament for the new PC game, Battlefield: Bad Company 2. I was a little excited for that but I wasn’t sure how we would do against the competition. One of our guys had never even played the game before. Not the ideal situation but it was the best squad we could roll out.
I was excited to see some new technology and to try out some new video games. I wasn’t exactly thrilled though with all of the noise and the long lines for various panels. And then there was the tourney to look forward to. And then there was the nerd sweat. I felt so conflicted. To be honest, I wasn’t really looking forward to PAX because it also was the first time spending a night away from my wife since getting married.
After work on Friday, I drove home to drop off my car. It was long overdue for its routine maintenance. I had an appointment at the dealership the next morning and Tary volunteered to take care of that while I was away. After some hugs and kisses, Tary dropped me off at the commuter rail train station in Lowell. The train departed for Boston at around 6:50 PM. I missed Tary already.
Upon arriving in Boston, I took a quick peek at the subway maps to get my bearings and I hopped on the Green Line. I got off at the Hynes Convention Center stop and made my way up to the street level. I had no clue where I was going so I started walking (in the wrong direction). I asked a valet where the Hynes Convention Center was and he pointed me back to where I needed to go. In the distance, I could see my hotel so I was getting a little excited.
I checked into the hotel and dropped off my stuff. A few friends shared the room with me and since they came much earlier in the day, they already had dropped off their stuff. I headed toward the convention and gave my friends a call to see where to meet them. Unfortunately, everyone was at a Kotaku party at the Rattlesnake Bar. I really hate bars and the whole bar scene so I just walked around the hall by myself.
There were tons of people everywhere. I briskly walked through the 3 floors and took mental notes of where everything was. On the 3rd floor, there was the PC free play area where you could walk in and play on any of the 400+ computers. There was a sign-up area at one of the desks to get into the tourney. The other guys had already signed up so I waited in line to sign up. When I got to the computer, I started entering in my information when it prompted me for a team name and password. WHAT?! No one told me about this. I tried searching for “Team Rambo” and its derivative forms. Nothing…
I had to step out of line. I sent a text message to get the team name and password. I got an ambiguous reply so I waited in line again. When I got the computer again, I tried entering what I could make out from the text message. Fail. ARGH! The guy behind the desk suggested that I just manually search for the team name. That did the trick and I was able to finally find our team listed under the letter “T”.
It was almost 9 PM now and I feeling very grumpy…which always happens when I go this long without eating. I was tired. I was hungry. I was annoyed at the lack of communication which resulted in wasting more of my time. My friends were nowhere in sight. I refused to hop in a cab and join them at the bar. I didn’t care how much free food was there. At this point I just wanted food. Good thing the Hynes Convention Center is connected to the Prudential Mall. I left the hall and got some Chinese food at the food court. It’s kind of depressing that at a “nerd” conference, I’m the one who was eating alone. So far, the first hour and a half of PAX has been pretty crappy.
Thankfully, my friend A.D. called me to let me know he left the bar and was coming to meet up with me at the food court. He arrived with another friend Luis who was feeling pretty tipsy. We walked Luis back to his hotel room while A.D. and I returned to the expo. We spent some time in both the console and PC free play areas. I watched on as A.D. played some fighting games. We played a few shooting games together but I was a little disappointed that they didn’t have Battlefield: Bad Company 2 installed on the machines that we were on. I guess I was feeling a little bored because this is all the same kind of stuff that I can easily do at home.
The night started to get better when another friend (who also happened to share the hotel room with me), S.Y. came and met up with us. The three of us were pretty tired so we decided to go back to my hotel room. A.D. had his own hotel room but his “friends” abused his kindness and invited more friends to stay in their already crowded hotel room. By our count, there were 13 guys staying in his hotel room! He was obviously upset about that so I let him stay the night with us.
After we got back to the hotel room, our other roommates (G.Y. and L.D.) came back from the bar. We all just hung out and shared a bunch of laughs. The first night of PAX didn’t start off that well but with my friends around, it couldn’t have ended any better (unless of course Tary could magically appear and join us).
I had pre-registered several months ago for the 3-day event. It was the first time attending any kind of conference so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I knew there would be a ton of nerds there. I know I’m a nerd but these people are NERDS! And where there are nerds, there was bound to be nerd “sweat”. Gross.
I talked a few friends into entering a 3D tournament for the new PC game, Battlefield: Bad Company 2. I was a little excited for that but I wasn’t sure how we would do against the competition. One of our guys had never even played the game before. Not the ideal situation but it was the best squad we could roll out.
I was excited to see some new technology and to try out some new video games. I wasn’t exactly thrilled though with all of the noise and the long lines for various panels. And then there was the tourney to look forward to. And then there was the nerd sweat. I felt so conflicted. To be honest, I wasn’t really looking forward to PAX because it also was the first time spending a night away from my wife since getting married.
After work on Friday, I drove home to drop off my car. It was long overdue for its routine maintenance. I had an appointment at the dealership the next morning and Tary volunteered to take care of that while I was away. After some hugs and kisses, Tary dropped me off at the commuter rail train station in Lowell. The train departed for Boston at around 6:50 PM. I missed Tary already.
Upon arriving in Boston, I took a quick peek at the subway maps to get my bearings and I hopped on the Green Line. I got off at the Hynes Convention Center stop and made my way up to the street level. I had no clue where I was going so I started walking (in the wrong direction). I asked a valet where the Hynes Convention Center was and he pointed me back to where I needed to go. In the distance, I could see my hotel so I was getting a little excited.
I checked into the hotel and dropped off my stuff. A few friends shared the room with me and since they came much earlier in the day, they already had dropped off their stuff. I headed toward the convention and gave my friends a call to see where to meet them. Unfortunately, everyone was at a Kotaku party at the Rattlesnake Bar. I really hate bars and the whole bar scene so I just walked around the hall by myself.
There were tons of people everywhere. I briskly walked through the 3 floors and took mental notes of where everything was. On the 3rd floor, there was the PC free play area where you could walk in and play on any of the 400+ computers. There was a sign-up area at one of the desks to get into the tourney. The other guys had already signed up so I waited in line to sign up. When I got to the computer, I started entering in my information when it prompted me for a team name and password. WHAT?! No one told me about this. I tried searching for “Team Rambo” and its derivative forms. Nothing…
I had to step out of line. I sent a text message to get the team name and password. I got an ambiguous reply so I waited in line again. When I got the computer again, I tried entering what I could make out from the text message. Fail. ARGH! The guy behind the desk suggested that I just manually search for the team name. That did the trick and I was able to finally find our team listed under the letter “T”.
It was almost 9 PM now and I feeling very grumpy…which always happens when I go this long without eating. I was tired. I was hungry. I was annoyed at the lack of communication which resulted in wasting more of my time. My friends were nowhere in sight. I refused to hop in a cab and join them at the bar. I didn’t care how much free food was there. At this point I just wanted food. Good thing the Hynes Convention Center is connected to the Prudential Mall. I left the hall and got some Chinese food at the food court. It’s kind of depressing that at a “nerd” conference, I’m the one who was eating alone. So far, the first hour and a half of PAX has been pretty crappy.
Thankfully, my friend A.D. called me to let me know he left the bar and was coming to meet up with me at the food court. He arrived with another friend Luis who was feeling pretty tipsy. We walked Luis back to his hotel room while A.D. and I returned to the expo. We spent some time in both the console and PC free play areas. I watched on as A.D. played some fighting games. We played a few shooting games together but I was a little disappointed that they didn’t have Battlefield: Bad Company 2 installed on the machines that we were on. I guess I was feeling a little bored because this is all the same kind of stuff that I can easily do at home.
The night started to get better when another friend (who also happened to share the hotel room with me), S.Y. came and met up with us. The three of us were pretty tired so we decided to go back to my hotel room. A.D. had his own hotel room but his “friends” abused his kindness and invited more friends to stay in their already crowded hotel room. By our count, there were 13 guys staying in his hotel room! He was obviously upset about that so I let him stay the night with us.
After we got back to the hotel room, our other roommates (G.Y. and L.D.) came back from the bar. We all just hung out and shared a bunch of laughs. The first night of PAX didn’t start off that well but with my friends around, it couldn’t have ended any better (unless of course Tary could magically appear and join us).
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