Holy cow. Still reeling from the amazing conference I attended last week. The Penny Arcade Expo, also known as PAX, is a game conference for game players as well as industry folk. Taking place in Seattle, over 40,000 people from all over the world converged on the city for three days to indulge in their total geekery. It was the BEST conference I have attended in the past 3 years, bar none! Here's why:

Saturday morning I was walking from the hotel to the center with this huge grin on my face. To see people from all corners of society, every shape, color, etc. all here for a LOVE of games made me really happy. I did not encounter a single rude person, people were playing together, cheering each other on, etc.
While I loved E3, even up to the end, it could not really compare to what PAX has become. PAX is a celebration of games and the game community.

Anyway, I was tapped to sit on two panels: "Piracy in Videogames" and "The Future of PC Hardware". They were really fun panels and there was even a Solaris/SPARC fan who got to the mic and stated that he would purchase a SPARC based game console! Yea! I am still trying to dig up any pics from the PC panel to include in the photo stream at the bottom of this post.

Doing my panels was great, but my biggest surprise was being asked to moderate a third panel while at the show. That would be the "Code Monkeys" panel. For those of you who don't know what "Code Monkeys" is, it is a TV show on the G4TV network that details the life of a video game company called Gameavision and is set in the 1980's and done entirely in pixelart. And, it is a show that can make South Park blush.

I have gotten to know one of the show's creators, Matt Mariska, and I had him on my BlogTalkRadio show a few weeks ago. Anyway, we were going to hook up at the show to grab a drink when I get a call from him on Saturday explaining that they were in need of a moderator for their panel, and if I was interested......HELLZ YEAH!

The panel was amazing, the panelists were so nice and they surprised the audience by playing the un-aired pilot, never before seen outside of G4TV. VERY VERY COOL DUDE!

Every panel we did was standing room only and there were huge lines to get in. Amazing!

So much fun and what a great way to reach out to the audience we make this technology, ultimately, for. I am looking forward to PAX 09! Now for Pics and video!

Click To Play

The Piracy In games panel video. 1 Hour long. Lots 'O Fun!

Crowd pictures!

Me and Shane Bettenhausen from the AWESOME 1UP.com network!

Nerd girl to EAT YOUR SOUL!

Me and the Code Monkeys panel! (Left to Right: Tony Strickland, Andy Sipes, Me, Matt Mariska)

Line of questions for the Code Monkeys panel.

Full house!

The panelists!

Michael Johns (EA) & Scott Foe (Nokia)

My Battlestar Galactica board game team!

Met this cat, "JoeyGecko", in the Dulles Airport terminal. He was one of the competitors in the Omegathon this year.....and WON! WAHOO! Congrats Joey!

Me and MC Frontalot! What a great guy!

Picked this up at the Pink Godzilla booth. Could have dropped a TON of money there. Glad I got out with just $55.

Got my copy of Nerdcore Rising, signed by MC Frontalot.

My Penny Arcade books I carried to Seattle.....

And had them signed by Tycho. Now need to get Gabe and get them both to sign the newest book.