Convention season

Ah, the convention. That wonderful and terrifying social gathering of like-minded or similarly employed individuals where everyone gets together under the guise of taking part in workshops or hearing creators of their favorite comic book speak, but really most people just use it as an excuse to go drink in a hotel for a long weekend.

With Comic-Con wrapping up last week I thought it would be a good time to share my experiences from two of the best fan conventions in America today: Quakecon and the Penny Arcade Expo.

Quakecon

Held every August in Dallas, Quakecon grew out of a gathering of fans of the PC game Quake. Back in 1996 a group of Dallas area fans held a LAN party, an event where gamers bring their PCs together to play games. It may seem strange now, but it was a necessity before high speed Internet was available.

Some of the guys at id Software, the creators of Quake, stopped by to chat with the gamers. The get together became an annual tradition, with id picking up the hosting duties themselves. The convention has grown from a few dozen locals to thousands of attendees from around the world.
Described as a week of "peace, love and rockets," the event is still free to attend, but organizers have added contests, live entertainment and sponsored tournaments with prizes totaling in the tens of thousands of dollars annually. And of course the bring your own computer LAN party, or BYOC as it's called, is still the focus for most of the event's fans.

There really is nothing quite like sitting down in a room with 2,000 of your closest friends to play the Quake games for 72 hours straight with nothing to eat but pizza, smuggled in beer and Bawls, a Quakecon staple and favorite energy drink of many gamers.

PC games may not get as much attention as console releases these days, but at Quakecon they're all that really matters.

Penny Arcade Expo

Dubbed by web comic Penny Arcade creators Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins as the gaming convention that should have existed, but didn't, PAX brings fans of console, PC and more traditional tabletop games together in Seattle for PAX Prime, and for the first time earlier this year,
PAX East in Boston.

The event has grown rapidly, from about 3,300 attendees in 2004 to last year's PAX Prime boasting more than 60,000 in attendance.

Fans flock to the event for the chance to see and play games that haven't come out yet, panels led by video game developers and writers, concerts from artists like MC Frontalot, Freezepop, and Jonathan Coulton, and of course the Omegathon.

The Omegathon is a contest where 20 gamers, most selected at random, plus the previous year's runner up, play through a multi-game, multi-round elimination tournament for a grand prize. Past prizes have ranged from a video game collection worth tens of thousands of dollars to an all expenses paid trip to Japan to see the Tokyo Game Show.

Games in the contest have ranged from Pong to Halo to Jenga.
Last fall I had the great fortune of being one of the few, the proud, the Omeganauts. Sadly, my dreams of glory and fabulous prizes ended early, as I was one of the first two eliminated. Mario Kart is a cruel mistress.

I still had an absolutely amazing time. Getting a sneak peak at Star Wars: The Old Republic, running into actor and blogger Wil Wheaton in the elevator, having a few too many at a press party and rooting on the remaining Omeganauts.

After spending a weekend at PAX, it really amazes you that an event like that didn't' exist until a few short years ago. If you can make it to either the Seattle show or the Boston one I highly recommend it.