f13.net

Aug 26 - 28

Badges just went on sales as of today. Got mine early. Last year I didn't notice on time and we ended up having to buy three one day passes.  :uhrr:

prime.paxsite.com (http://prime.paxsite.com)

I'll actually be going to this, this year.

I'll be Enforcing again. Greatest gig for a great bunch of people. I wonder if other people doing con work feel the same.

Cons wouldn't get volunteers if they didn't.

All the Enforcers I've met there the last few years seem to enjoy the hell out of it. I'll have to make a point of figuring out which one you are this year.

I'm going.  Woo!

I just got my confirmation for my media passes.  Sahweet.

Just booked my flights and hotel.

First round of drinks are on me!

I'll be there with some folk from work!

Flights and Hotels booked for me as well.  Can't wait.

What are these flight things you are all speaking of?

It's a two hour drive down the I-5 for me, but we've booked a hotel anyway - no way I'm going to navigate the border every morning. I booked the hotel early just to make sure I could get in to the Marriott - stayed at a small hotel two miles away a couple years ago and the parking fees killed me.

Since apparently Murdoc is buying the drinks, we will certainly have to arrange some sort of awkward meetup.

Hooray, awkward meetup!

I was entertaining the idea of popping into Vancouver and going hiking after PAX. Is there anything I should know about the border? I have my passport.

I hear the guards appreciate gifts as it's a thankless job.  Bring them some weed so they can relax. :why_so_serious:

Have your passport, don't bring any fresh fruit or booze in the car, be polite.

Ton of great hiking up here - wish I was still in shape enough to do it. If you want the touristy choice and are in decent shape, the Grouse Grind would be the most famous option. 40 - 80 minutes of almost straight stair climbing to the top, beatutiful view of the city with a nice restaurant/bar, and then $5 for a gondola ride back down, so as not to ruin your knees.

Schedule is now up. I'm a little annoyed they moved the main SWOR presentation to Sunday afternoon, as we usually leave by then. Bioware appears to be stepping up their presence a bit this year, with a "Future of Dragon Age panel". Also, they have a Bioware Austin panel announced in addition to that, but with no specifics as to what it's about.

JUST THE FIRST ROUND.

I'm totally up for the awkward meetup.

My problem with PAX is waiting in line for panels cuts heavily into my interview time.  Alas and alack.

But hey, I'll get to meet Draegan this year, since I always hit up the Trion shindig.  Down for a meetup otherwise.

Awesome.   Who do you have interviews set up with?

Gearbox, Bioware, NCSoft, couple of indies of the top of my head.

Sooo... PAX this week and I was serious about buying a round of drinks. I don't know Seattle at all, but if anyone wants to pick a place to meet up for a few drinks I'm game. Me and a buddy are showing up Thursday afternoon and I'll be in Seattle until Monday.

Well, I'll be around Friday to Sunday. Best time for me is probably Saturday dinner/evening, because I figure I'll end up crashing early Friday (after getting up at 3:30 AM).

Bioware/Mythic has a panel that ends at 6:30 on Saturday that I want to see, so anytime after that. If a different timeframe works better for other people, please make suggestions.

I only know a few places right in the area. There's a good Brewpub right there, but it's quite noisey and will be packed. There is the bar in our hotel - the Sheraton, right across the street from the convention center. There's an Elephant and Castle at Pike and 5th (two blocks away), for the typical pub setup.

If any locals have better suggestions, please offer em up.

I will be busy non-stop with Enforcer responsibilities from Thursday through Monday. They gave me the Sony booth to manage!  :yahoo: So if you want to drop by during the con that's where I'll likliest be.

Saturday works well and we'll be at the Bioware/Mythic panel too.

Brewhouse is always good, but we're not picky. Whatever has decent food, a few beers to choose from is good enough for us. We couldn't get a room at the Sheraton, but our hotel is pretty close by.

I still haven't figured out yet what I'm actually doing at PAX.   :ye_gods:  I don't know where anything is, so just tell me where I'm meeting y'all.

I wasn't able to get tickets, but I'll see if I can convince wayabvpar to come out for a drink whenever.

Don't try to preplan much, it won't work out. I have four scheduled things I'm aiming for this year and if I succeed at seeing all four it will be a personal record. If you are going to any of the popular panels, anticipate at least an hour lineup.

So for a lack of alternate suggestions, let's go with the Tap House Grill on 6th and Pike at about 7:00 PM. The convention center is 8th and Pike. Leave the front doors, walk down hill two blocks, turn right at Niketown.

From the corner of 6th and Pike:

Everyone try to give an rsvp here if you can make, with a rough count of how many people you are with, so we can get an appropriate table - everything downtown is going to be busy that night.

My buddy and I will be there for sure. We'll be heading straight there from the Bioware panel.

I'll be there, group of 1.

I believe the SWTOR panel is on Sunday?

It is, but there's a 'content to be announced later' Bioware/Mythic panel in the Pegasus theatre on Saturday.

Edit: Oh nevermind - it's for the new Warhammer F2P game. Pass.

Ooh... ok then.

Guess I'll have some free time Saturday afternoon.  :awesome_for_real:

The eagle has landed.  I repeat, the eagle has landed.

Where's the best beer in this joint?

Uhm, just about anywhere really, compared to 90% of the country. But for specifics you'll have to ask someone else.  I have heard good things about Elysian Brewing Company, although I have never been.

Maybe this is of help?

http://beermapping.com/maps/citymaps.php?m=seattle

Also, I'm up for meeting up on Saturday night at 7 downtown. I personaly want to meet Katiri so that I can look him squarely in the eye, then break down and cry over the 4 times he shot me up last night in World of Tanks.

I too have arrived.  Think I'm going to head down to Pike Place and get lost.   :drill:

We have arrived and are currently drinking at the Gordon Biersch brewery.

I always loved that name, Biersch. I think of how you'd pronounce beers after having too many.

Tried to get a reservation at the Taphouse for Saturday night - but they're booked up so we'll just have to take our chances.

My suggestions:

Friday

• 2:30 PM – The Guild Wars Live Game: From Inception to Live Update (Room 2B)
• 5:30 PM – The ArenaNet Community Team (Room 2B)

Saturday

• 10:00 AM – ArenaNet Artists Review Your Portfolio (Room 2B)
• 1:00 PM – Guild Wars 2: Designing a Cooperative Experience (Pegasus Theater, Sheraton Hotel)
• 4:00 PM – Character Art in Guild Wars 2: Creation and Iteration (Room 2B)

Sunday

• 1:00 PM – Breathing Life into a World: The Lore and Writing of Guild Wars 2 (Room 2B)
• 2:30 PM – ArenaNet Artists Review Your Portfolio (Room 2B)
• 4:00 PM – Guild Wars 2: Designing Dynamic Systems and Content (Room 2B)

At   Trion's shindig. Realizing I don't know what Draegan looks like.

Ask Hartsman to point him out.

Found him.  And Hartsman sadly skipped out on us this time around.

Hey folks, if any of you get a chance to visit the NCsoft booth and feels like playing it, be sure to write your impressions about Carbine Studios' Wildstar in the related thread on the MMOG forum :)

At the Taphouse, but they won't seat us unless everyone is here. Not sure who is coming, fire me a PM sometime soon if you are.

I am here with murdoc and buddy.  Where are the rest of you bitches?

Someone score me a LoL code. Word.

We have a table straight in from the bottom of the staiirs.

First round: missed by you fuckers.

My record of never turning down a drink and/or meal with Internet strangers remains unblemished.

I made it to the table. Eventually.

My room mate's girlfriend actually sprinted across the room to grab it from my hand as I pulled it from my swag bag when I got home.

Sorry I missed out...had 3 football drafts over the weekend, and was sick as a dog to boot (ending up missing my Friday night draft). Would have loved to check out the convention and hoist a few with you folks. Can someone give me a month or two heads up for the next convention in Seattle? I don't pay attention to that stuff for the most part and they always sneak past me.

Hey guys, to anyone that was there I'm going to shamelessly ask for a League of Legends Sivir skin if anyone would hook me up I'd owe them forever :)

So my flight back to NJ was supposed to be Sunday night.  I just got home.

Also, I watched AutomaticZen drink 10 redbulls in 4 minutes.

I wasn't able to get any extra Sivir codes this year. Sorry.

I drank one friday night and I thought my heart was going to explode.

I have no LOL codes either. I guess I should have grabbed a few extra as they were just handing them out as we stood in lines.

It was good having a drink with Samwise and Bunk - it was hardly even awkward other than Bunk sat with the Penny Arcade forumers for the first couple hours by accident... :oh_i_see:

It wasn't an accident if they bought him any drinks. ;D

Sorry, my LoL-playing friend ganked that as soon as I got home.


Sugar-free!  They're like little cans of magic. I did occasionally alternate with alcohol, so it wasn't a complete wash.  I do expect that one day I'll cross a threshold, go berzerk, and bash someone's head in while screaming 'SUGAR-FREE!'.

That would have made it better.

Was rather funny actually. Basically, I walked in to the bar and started looking around - wasn't sure how many guys had shown up. No one waiting knew who I was talking about, so I asked the Hostess if anyone had a group under F13? She immediately points me to a table in the corner.

So I walk over to see that there's more than a dozen people at the table. I mention I must have the wrong group, when a guy about Sam's age says no, they had two groups they wouldn't seat so they just decided to sit all together, so I was at the right place.

Intros were made around the table, and I didn't hear many of them clearly, but two guys across the table were Canadian, so that made sense. Plus, the guy in the corner was named Simon(d) and wasn't from the states. All seemed to make sense. Had a good dinner, chatted with several of the people on my end of the table. Finally when it quieted down a bit I asked who exactly at the table was from F13? They all stared at me.

So, it turns out the Hostess thought I said a table of 13, not F13. They were an interesting group of guys though, and I eventually found the right table and got to hang around for another hour with the right group.

As an aside regarding energy drinks - I was very disturbed to find out that NoS actually has a flavour I like. I've relied on the fact that they taste disgusting to stay away from the enrgy drinks. They were handing it out for free all show at the secondary exhibit hall.

Well, you have friends already made if you go over the to PA forums, at least. ;D

Random question: Does anyone have their Youngling Hero card from the swag bag (it's a card for the Penny Arcade: Gamers vs Evil Card game). Most folks probably didn't even notice it. If you have one and don't care about it, I'd love having it sent my way. Thanks!

If I can find my bag and it's in there, it's yours.  I'm not sure where it is, but I don't think I'd have thrown it out.

Look for some LoL codes while you're digging around in there.  :awesome_for_real:

I tossed a lot of swag crap recently when cleaning, so I don't know if it survived the purge. I'll take a look.

As mentioned before, LoL code was claimed before I got my coat off upon arrival home.

Actually found it. Drop me a PM with an address to mail it to.

Oh wow. Awesome! Sending PM.

Just got it, thanks so much Bunk.