HELLO FROM PAX
Oct. 31st, 2014 10:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alias_sqbrTrip: Went as well as could be expected and still HORRIBLY EXHASUSTING
Hotel (Oak on Collins): Pretty nice except for the FIVE STEPS that mean I have to use a slow, out of the way wheelchair lift that is accessed through the bar and behind a curtain and refuses to work at all if the gate at the top isn't closed properly, which is super convenient when you're at the bottom.
Went to visit a friend and her ADORABLE BABY yesterday, made self even more tired and sore and it was worth every minute. Babbbiieesss :D :D (And he is a particualrly cute one)
Today: Realised as I neared the concention centre that I had forgotten my recharger, barely made it back and spent the rest of the day lurching from power point to power point. Note to self: find somewhere better than Rehab Rentals next time.
Cam told me about a Dragon Age playtesting thing and I thought "nah", then as I toodled around the exhibition floor I found myself thinking more and more "YES".
I made a post on tumblr showing off the badass dragon wings I got when I PLAYED DRAGON AGE INQUISITION (for a little bit) I know intellectually that the wings and ID are kind of silly but they make me massively happy anyway. I had a friendly chat with two guys behind me in the line, the first guy actually said "So have you played the games?" but before I even answered said "Wait of course you have" and didn't mansplain TOO much at me once it became clear that I was a much more enthusiastic player who, for example, REMEMBERED LELIANA'S NAME.
Then went to a Bioware Q&A with Mike Laidlaw, Aidan Scanlan and Mark Wilson, which was small (60 people?) and not on the program, the friendly chat vibe was really nice. I was pretty out of it and didn't take notes but it was cute seeing them talk about the game, their favourite romances and how they love the voice actors but still kind of miss hearing the lines in the old text-to-speech voice they used for the first 2 years. I thought about asking a question but was too tired to think of anything worthwhile.
Checked out the Diversity Lounge which...really is WAY out of the way. Literally every other part of the con is on the ground floor. It's on the second floor of the convention centre, where the talks are held, which is A DIFFERENT BUILDING to all the other stalls over in the Exhibition centre. It was also small and kind of sad looking and could totally have fit inside the MASSIVE floorspace of the exhibition centre. The people were really nice and friendly though. As I recall it was mostly sexuality groups and one general gamers-for-charity group.
Attempts to import my notes have failed utterly...ok got it but THAT WAS UNNECCESARILY HARD and then my computer crashed and ugh I am writing these up properly later.
Queering video games:James Dominguez [Games Writer, Fairfax Media], Jeffrey Yohalem [Lead Writer, Ubisoft Montreal], Liam Esler [Writer/Scripter, Beamdog], Luke Miller [Indie Developer, Up Multimedia], Maya Kerr [Lecturer, SAE Institute]
It was cool being in a big like minded audience listening to some Actual Queer Game Developers, they were 4 white gay/bi guys and a white trans woman and it kind of showed (she got lumped with the Questions About Women And Trans People a lot) but they tried to cover L,G, B and T, plus a brief mention of non binary people. Asexual and aromantic people were quite clearly not even on the radar. But at least noone was straight! (I AM LOOKING AT YOU SWANCON)
Pre-gen vs custom characters: Nic Healey [Senior editor, CNET], Jessica McDonell [Video Journalist, Gamespot], Michael Hampden [Lead Game Designer, Ubisoft Singapore], Jeffrey Yohalem [Lead Writer, Ubisoft], Aidan Scanlan [Assistant Director of Design, Bioware], Rich Vogel [President, BattleCry Studios]
This was really interesting! I asked a question about how it affects repayability and ACCIDENTALLY ENDED UP INSULTING MASS EFFECT 3 TO A BIOWARE GUY, had to backpeddle quickly when he got defensive because I really did just want to talk about replayability. Except nobody but me seemed to really care! None of the developers, none of the audience. Aside from agreeing that it was interesting in Dragon Age Origins. Which is interesting given how much replaying with different characters is a thing amongst my dragon age fan friends, and how passionate everyone was about other aspects of customisation.
We got out of that and the Bioware panel following was full :(
So we went to a fancy burger joint right by the convention center which was very nice but had QUITE CLEARLY forgotten I had asked for no cheese then just peeled it off, leaving melted cheese in all the crevices. I was tired and hungry so just picked it out but come on.
Cam has just arrived with Rice Milk after 2 days of me surviving on almond milk full of vegetable gums which make me nauseous. BEST HUSBAND.
Hotel (Oak on Collins): Pretty nice except for the FIVE STEPS that mean I have to use a slow, out of the way wheelchair lift that is accessed through the bar and behind a curtain and refuses to work at all if the gate at the top isn't closed properly, which is super convenient when you're at the bottom.
Went to visit a friend and her ADORABLE BABY yesterday, made self even more tired and sore and it was worth every minute. Babbbiieesss :D :D (And he is a particualrly cute one)
Today: Realised as I neared the concention centre that I had forgotten my recharger, barely made it back and spent the rest of the day lurching from power point to power point. Note to self: find somewhere better than Rehab Rentals next time.
Cam told me about a Dragon Age playtesting thing and I thought "nah", then as I toodled around the exhibition floor I found myself thinking more and more "YES".
I made a post on tumblr showing off the badass dragon wings I got when I PLAYED DRAGON AGE INQUISITION (for a little bit) I know intellectually that the wings and ID are kind of silly but they make me massively happy anyway. I had a friendly chat with two guys behind me in the line, the first guy actually said "So have you played the games?" but before I even answered said "Wait of course you have" and didn't mansplain TOO much at me once it became clear that I was a much more enthusiastic player who, for example, REMEMBERED LELIANA'S NAME.
Then went to a Bioware Q&A with Mike Laidlaw, Aidan Scanlan and Mark Wilson, which was small (60 people?) and not on the program, the friendly chat vibe was really nice. I was pretty out of it and didn't take notes but it was cute seeing them talk about the game, their favourite romances and how they love the voice actors but still kind of miss hearing the lines in the old text-to-speech voice they used for the first 2 years. I thought about asking a question but was too tired to think of anything worthwhile.
Checked out the Diversity Lounge which...really is WAY out of the way. Literally every other part of the con is on the ground floor. It's on the second floor of the convention centre, where the talks are held, which is A DIFFERENT BUILDING to all the other stalls over in the Exhibition centre. It was also small and kind of sad looking and could totally have fit inside the MASSIVE floorspace of the exhibition centre. The people were really nice and friendly though. As I recall it was mostly sexuality groups and one general gamers-for-charity group.
Attempts to import my notes have failed utterly...ok got it but THAT WAS UNNECCESARILY HARD and then my computer crashed and ugh I am writing these up properly later.
Queering video games:James Dominguez [Games Writer, Fairfax Media], Jeffrey Yohalem [Lead Writer, Ubisoft Montreal], Liam Esler [Writer/Scripter, Beamdog], Luke Miller [Indie Developer, Up Multimedia], Maya Kerr [Lecturer, SAE Institute]
It was cool being in a big like minded audience listening to some Actual Queer Game Developers, they were 4 white gay/bi guys and a white trans woman and it kind of showed (she got lumped with the Questions About Women And Trans People a lot) but they tried to cover L,G, B and T, plus a brief mention of non binary people. Asexual and aromantic people were quite clearly not even on the radar. But at least noone was straight! (I AM LOOKING AT YOU SWANCON)
Pre-gen vs custom characters: Nic Healey [Senior editor, CNET], Jessica McDonell [Video Journalist, Gamespot], Michael Hampden [Lead Game Designer, Ubisoft Singapore], Jeffrey Yohalem [Lead Writer, Ubisoft], Aidan Scanlan [Assistant Director of Design, Bioware], Rich Vogel [President, BattleCry Studios]
This was really interesting! I asked a question about how it affects repayability and ACCIDENTALLY ENDED UP INSULTING MASS EFFECT 3 TO A BIOWARE GUY, had to backpeddle quickly when he got defensive because I really did just want to talk about replayability. Except nobody but me seemed to really care! None of the developers, none of the audience. Aside from agreeing that it was interesting in Dragon Age Origins. Which is interesting given how much replaying with different characters is a thing amongst my dragon age fan friends, and how passionate everyone was about other aspects of customisation.
We got out of that and the Bioware panel following was full :(
So we went to a fancy burger joint right by the convention center which was very nice but had QUITE CLEARLY forgotten I had asked for no cheese then just peeled it off, leaving melted cheese in all the crevices. I was tired and hungry so just picked it out but come on.
Cam has just arrived with Rice Milk after 2 days of me surviving on almond milk full of vegetable gums which make me nauseous. BEST HUSBAND.
