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Loading... Sardu's PAX Journal (Part 1 of 2)
Posted September 8th, 2009 by Ethec
A close-in look at the industry's premier fan event last weekend.
Welcome to the 1,159th edition of Loading...
Loading... is the premier daily MMORPG news, coverage, and commentary newsletter, only from Ten Ton Hammer.
Our coverage from this past weekend's PAX 2009 continues to
roll out, and Ten Ton Hammer's Reuben "Sardu" Waters somehow found time
the whole crazy experience that has become the industry's feature fan
event in North America. Part one of two follows in today's Loading...
Sardu's PAX 2009 Journal (Part 1 of 2).
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Ten Ton Hammer's Reuben "Sardu" Waters, especially valued by us not only for his knowledable nice-guyness, love of MMOs, and his complete inability to turn off his gamer side (as you'll see), made several withdrawals on the old sleep account to journal his experience at PAX 2009. Unprompted and unscripted, they turned out far too cool not to share. We'll air his artfully constructed running commentary in two parts, today and tomorrow. Enjoy!===
Thursday (pre-PAX)
The flight into Seattle was mostly uneventful apart from some of the more rowdy passengers a few seats ahead of me that somehow managed to drain the flight of both vodka and whiskey in record time. Apparently they were on their way to a bachelorette party in Vegas and figured they might as well get the party started early. If I didn’t have a couple of quests to turn in as soon as the flight landed I’d have no doubt joined them for that leg of the journey, but that’s beside the point.
Speaking of quests, the flight reminded me of the one in Wintergrasp that would send you back and forth between Everlook and Gadgetzan 3 times in a row. The first time I decided to run through that quest I remember thinking that I could have easily painted my garage in the time it took to fly from one end of Kalimdor to the other. This flight somewhat reminded me of that. Since I wasn’t really able to go AFP (away from plane) to get some painting done, I did the next best thing; I read through one of Jim Butcher’s Dresden novels (Fool Moon).
The only other thing that really stood out for me on this flight was that the overall graphics didn’t seem quite as polished as I’d have expected. I think a part of it had to do with the overuse of bump-mapping to give the environments a minor semblance of topography or depth when viewed from so far above. The weather effects were particularly well done but unfortunately also served to obfuscate many of the other environmental effects further off in the distance such as the ambient lighting from some of the towns and outposts we passed over. On a plus side, I really didn’t see any obviously perceptible zone lines, or the telltale seams that typically accompany the transition between larger areas.
Once Jeff and I arrived and got checked into the hotel we took the opportunity to see a bit of downtown Seattle after scampering over to get our show badges at another nearby hotel. That process was almost laughably easy considering all the hoops the media have to jump through to register for the show – typical anticlimactic quest completion to be sure. After roughly 15 seconds of searching, the people at the check-in counter decided they didn’t have TTH badges for us so ended up giving generic media badges instead. Generic quest rewards FTL.
Friday (PAX Day One)
PAX has built up quite the reputation for being a huge show over the past few years, so I was somewhat surprised to discover that “huge” in this case is more indicative of the caliber of games on display much more so than overall floor space. I’m sure that once you factor in all the event rooms and lecture halls there’s a ton of show to be seen, but as far as the main exhibit hall itself goes, it was a bit smaller than I expected. Mind you after 8 hours of scampering back and forth between booths for our jam packed interview schedule I was thankful of that fact.
Graphically, the developers of PAX were obviously going for a more photorealistic approach than my preferred airline for this trip. That being said, the level designers fell into the trap of having a ton of assets to work with so they tried to stuff every single one of them into a relatively small zone which caused things to be perhaps too busy for your eyes to properly fix on any singular element for too long. In an era that’s all about inserting points of interest to draw players towards cool things off in the distance, this aspect of PAX was more like a throwback to Victorian times when horror vacui was still in vogue.
The audio engineers could also learn a thing or two about ambient sound placement. A perfect example would be the braniac decision to place the private meeting rooms right next to the massive Rock Band stage. Our first interview for the day was with Funcom to talk about… secret things (check back on Thursday to find out exactly what I’m talking about here, but you can get a teaser here). Even in the tiny meeting room Funcom had to use a full PA system turned up to maximum volume just to be heard by people sitting less than 5 feet away. Meanwhile the Beatles greatest hits were setting the tone for an interview that had nothing to do with bright, poppy sunshine by any far stretch of the imagination.
It was a great day overall though. Star Trek Online is looking pretty awesome so far, and it was nice to finally meet Craig Zinkievich face to face. One of the best things about these events is seeing how much developers like Craig truly enjoy what they’re doing and the games they’re creating. While certain well known developers (who shall respectfully remain unnamed) are clearly serving as little more than PR robots, meeting people like Mr. Zinkievich reminds you that most of the developers out there are gamers too, and are just as excited as you are about new MMOGs.
Friday Night
The Aion launch party was pretty cool, and definitely just as packed as the exhibit hall. Not only did it give people an opportunity to switch into their epic armor sets after a long day of game show grinding, but everyone walked away with a pretty cool bag-o-swag which included special shirts and statues from the event among other things. NCsoft are clearly behind the western localization of Aion in a big way, and hopefully it will all pay off for them come launch day.
Graphically the launch party was a mix of photorealism and quirky zone design. The skyline view from the Space Needle was particularly well done even if the art team went a little bit overboard on adding lighting to distant structures. This kind of overkill on light sources may look pretty, but it also tends to flatten things when viewed from a great enough distance. As with the rest of PAX, the Aion launch party was played in first person; this helped make certain quests like retrieving potions from the bar easier if not somewhat routine, though thanks to the wonky zone design of the interiors it was hard to really get a solid group formed.
===
Part 2 tomorrow! In the meantime, check out all the new coverage from PAX 2009 and take your thoughts and comments to our Loading... forum.
Shayalyn's Epic Thread of the Day
From our WoW: General Discussion forum
Do you ever not help?
Let's say you're playing World of Warcraft. You come across a night elf struggling and dying repeatedly to the same six mobs who keep ganging up on her. You know you could probably help, but that if you do she's likely to cause your death, too. Do you help, do you walk away, or do you stand back, point and laugh? Weigh in on today's epic thread.
==============================
Awesome Quotes from the Epic Thread
"I usually don't help. They don't learn anything from me swooping in and saving them with heals, or tanking the mobs, or AoEing them. Not to mention the vast majority of the time they're in the mess on their own accord."
- LiquidAppo
==============================
Have you spotted an Epic Thread on our forums? Tell us!
6 new MMOG home-grown articles today! 10 in September! 952 in 2009!
MMO Coverage from PAX 2009
- The
Future of Tyria: An Exclusive Guild Wars 2 Interview
A lot can change in 250 years. In that span of time entire civilizations can rise up or fall, people’s belief systems can be shattered and devastating events can alter the course of history on a massive scale. At PAX 2009, Ten Ton Hammer had the opportunity to sit down with ArenaNet’s Jeff Grubb, Mike O’Brien and Daniel Dociu to discuss how 250 years has changed Tyria as we know it today, as well as some of the interesting shifts in how competitive play will be handled in Guild Wars 2. - LotRO
Siege of Mirkwood Sneak Peak Interview Video with Jeffrey Steefel
One big announcement at this year's PAX came from Turbine. Nine months after the Mines of Moria expansion, the studio has released the exciting news of a new expansion, Siege of Mirkwood. Ten Ton Hammer was able to get a few minutes with Jeffrey Steefel, Executive Producer, to talk to us a bit about the expansion. Jeffrey wasn't shy, and was more than happy to share some of the things players can look forward to with Siege of Mirkwood in this 46 minute video. - The
Secret World - New CG Trailer & Image Gallery
Funcom changed the way we'll look at a milkshake forever more with their first CG trailer for The Secret World, and the second trailer released at PAX 2009 is just as unsettling. Never thought the birds at your local playground could be scary? Think again. Or just watch the newest The Secret World trailer and check out the pre-PAX assets! More to follow this Thursday. - New
Pirates of the Burning Sea Expansion Announced
Details are sketchy and we don't have visuals or even a name for the new expansion, but Flying Lab Software's Rusty Williams revealed to us that another expansion for Pirates of the Burning Sea is in the works. For more info, check out our quick report from PAX 2009, with more to follow this week! - Images
and Impressions of Global Agenda at PAX 2009
Global Agenda was dressed to impress and certainly turned quite a few heads at this year’s PAX. Eager gamers got the chance to jump into the game for some intense 8v8 matches which included 3 different objective-based match types developer Hi-Rez had set up at each of the event's demo stations. - Hands-On
with Star Trek Online at PAX 2009
Now that Cryptic Studios has the first major MMOG launch of 2009 tucked neatly under its belt with the release of Champions Online, the developer has been ramping up the presence of Star Trek Online in a big way. Ever since Cryptic first revealed that it would be picking up the development reigns on the online incarnation of the Trek universe, it’s been one of the major MMOG’s looming over the launch horizon that sci-fi fans have been itching to get some hands-on time with. This weekend at PAX 2009, many of those fans finally got their wish, and Ten Ton Hammer wasted no time diving into this hotly anticipated MMOG to get a feel for how ship to ship and away team combat is shaping up.
More Ten Ton Hammer Features:
- Independent
States: The Future of Indie MMOGs
Ask any 10 gamers what constitutes an "indie MMO" and you'll probably get 10 different answers. But one definition that most can agree on is that an indie game lacks the financial support of a well-funded publisher. But do smaller budgets mean greater freedom? Ten Ton Hammer asked Nathan Richardsson, Executive Producer for CCP, developers of EVE Online, and Todd Harris, Executive Producer of Global Agenda, to share their thoughts on the bright future of independent MMOG development. - Aion
- Explaining Westernization - Bringing East to West
As MMO gaming grows throughout the world, gaming companies are utilizing the tools available to them and setting out to create games globally. No more "All your base are belong to us" translations and half attempts at localization, NCsoft is going above and beyond with a neat and tidy westernization of Aion. Find out what it takes to take a game across seas in this editorial! - World
of Warcraft and Relationships
Without a doubt World of Warcraft is a game that can consume a large portion of a player's time.While this gaming takes place in a virtual world the time spent glued to the computer can affect your real life relationships.It also quite easy when spending a large majority of your time gaming to form romantic relationships with your fellow gamers.This week Mem takes a look into these relationships and also gives some pointers on how to keep your real life relationships thriving. - Fifty Dragon Age Screenshots - Ogres, Magic, Origins, and Dragons
- Dragon Age Videos - The Origin Stories
Giveaways:
Hottest Content:
- The Future of Tyria: An Exclusive Guild Wars 2 Interview
- LotRO Siege of Mirkwood Sneak Peak Interview Video with Jeffrey Steefel
- Hands-On with Star Trek Online at PAX 2009
- Images and Impressions of Global Agenda at PAX 2009
- New Pirates of the Burning Sea Expansion Announced
- Independent States: The Future of Indie MMOGs
- Aion Images Detail Westernized Character Options
- Champions Online: Queer Eye for the Superhero Guy #2
- Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer Interview with Craig Morrison
- EverQuest Wedding Package Images from the Station Marketplace
- Reuben "Sardu" Waters and the Ten Ton Hammer team