I realize this post is coming in kind of late, but please keep in mind it’s meant to be a recounting of our experience and not necessarily reporting or coverage of PAX itself.
So many of you may know that we had a close call with us making it to PAX this year. First thing we want to do is thank everyone who helped us make it this year! But a special Thanks goes to Kete from The Running Riot and Safia from LipStick MixTapes for being our top contributors!
Even More thanks (More thanks than we can express!) goes to Christi and John for their hospitality! They showed us there’s much more to Seattle than coffee, PAX and Pho.
Yes, I said Pho… before PAX started we met up with Scott Bradford and Rukari Austin just cuz we could…. and to have some Pho. Many laughs and funs were had by all. This event would mark the first time Sick and I have ever had Pho. It would also be one of those times I learned NOT to eat a raw Jalapeno from a Vietnamese restaurant… to THEN add that “special” red sauce to my Pho. I enjoyed that meal twice…
So. The first day of our PAX experience was dampened by Sick having to finish up some crunch work for a client, but that didn’t stop me from wandering… I scoured the event to do a little recon so that when Sick and I did come back together, I knew where to go for certain things. That recon mission was short lived, though. I went up stairs, gave it a single pass, then went to find out where “HaloFest” was going down.
I realized that I’d rather find people than booths. PAX, for me, is more about the community than the games. Don’t get me wrong, the games ruled… But you guys rule more.
Sick and Christi caught up with Venom and myself at the Dragonfish, epic food was had. This was late afternoon so the PAX festivities were shutting down for the day. We made a last trip to the Convention Center lobby to collect a few more people. This is when We ran into NSSteph and Trixie360. After chatting with them and getting a LARGE GEM from Steph, We hit up HaloFest until they shut it down for the VIP shindig that evening.
This is where the REAL shit happened. 343i and Microsoft set up a party commemorating Halo’s 10th Birthday with Drinks, Memorabilia, stations to play the incoming new maps and title update for Reach, a MASSIVE cake, and a Commissary to pick up Halo essentials. The HaloFest VIP party was kicked off with a small introduction and Stepto telling everyone there what he thought of Halo before it had come to Fruition. After the intro they let everyone disperse to mingle and play.
Halo VIP pass
CAKE!
It was here at the VIP party that we had a chance to meet MANY people including Marty O’Donnell, Steve Downes, and with a personal request from Pete Stacker to be in a picture with him. We got a chance to speak with each of them, but it was especially exciting to get the opportunity to tell Marty in person that we had a 4-String Quartet playing HIS music at our wedding! We couldn’t believe nobody told him that… and Neither did he! But the excitement we all felt at that moment when Sick told him… was awesome! It could have been a MasterCard commercial…
Incredible Halo Themed Wedding : $**,***
Four-String Quartet playing The Halo 3 OST: $*,***
Telling Marty O’Donnell this in person : Pricless!
For Everything else…
Us With Christi and Marty
Us With Steve Downes
Us With Pete Stacker
The highlight of the first day was meeting all the folks in the community we haven’t had the pleasure of meeting before.
And again, this, I think, is the greatest part about PAX…
Oh yeah, and the Pictures!
More on PAX ’11 tomorrow!
