PAX

I’m heading to my first PAX next week.  Originally it was intended to be a bonding time with my brother, a “just guys” trip for us to bond over our common love of gaming.  I’ve been impressed with the Penny Arcade’s set up of the event for a while now, but havn’t thought I could manage the cross country trip.  This year was finally my year.  The one obstacle in my way was convincing my wife to let me use our money to pay for the flight/hotel/food.

I can remember it like it was yesterday…carefully planning my moment to strike, lulling her into a false sense of ease, my trap ready.  My day and moment of choice was a gamble–February 14th, while we were out to dinner.  I figured it was my best shot at convincing her, seeing as she had recieved chocolates and flowers and we were in the middle of a nice meal. 

 ”So…” I began, as casually as I could muster.  “I really enjoyed the time that I got to spend with my brother over new years, and..and I was just wondering…”  Sweat was pouring off my brow by this point, and I figured I had better just blurt it out.  “I was wondering if I could go on a road trip, just with him.  You know, a guys’ trip.” 

 ”Sure…where?” was her immediate response.

 My next word was more of a cough into my napkin than an actual statement.

 ”seattle…”

She choked on her pasta.  “WASHINGTON?”

 I just had to laugh.  In the end, it worked out and she was gracious enough to allow me to arrange to spend our hard earned money on a gaming conference.  I just had to endure the occasional jibe about being a total nerd, which I bore with a quiet dignity. ; )

 As I said before, it was supposed to be a normal bonding trip with my brother.  But two months ago, all of that changed.  The phone call was innocuous enough, a restricted phone number.  Fortunately for me, I like to answer those sort of calls–they hold a sort of mystery.  Restricted-it’s like you’re about to recieve priveliged information. 

 The voice on the other end of the line said, “Hey, is this Brian?”

“Yes”

“This is Gabe from Penny Arcade.”

 I thought my brother was playing a joke on me.  After I realized that I really was talking to Gabe, he asked me if I wanted to be an Omeganaut, an offer which I of course accepted. From there it’s been a crazy six weeks of being really excited and “training”. 

 For those of you who don’t know what the Omegathon is, it’s a annual competition held at PAX in which twenty randomly selected gamers compete in a six round elimination tournemant featuring a variety of genres of video games, and even one table top gaming round.  The winner is privy to some ridiculous prizes.  This year the grand prize is a trip to the Tokyo Game Show, and $5000. 

 The kicker is that the only way you can be an Omeganaut is to be randomly selected from amon everyone who pregisters to go to PAX, a number that is somewhere in the range of 10000 people this year.  So needless to say, it’s a pretty big deal. 

With a little over a week until I leave for PAX, I’m busy trying to be as proficient as possible with this year’s games.  I may blog again and let you know how it’s going before I leave, but that’s enough for one day.