Best moments of 2015

2015 marked the year where I turned back to Seattle after more than 2 years in Yokohama. I REALLY liked my workplace and co-workers, but there just wasn't any sense of progression in having large groups of students practice English for 50 measly minutes a week. Now that I've had most of a year to reflect, I am still glad I came back. I surely miss my Japanese life for having a salary where I could eat good quality food, the ability to take a train just about everywhere, and the relationships I'd started with friends there. The letdowns can come in another post: this is supposed to be highlights!

One of the coolest experiences was my parents visiting me in Japan. It was so cool to show off my familiarity with the language and culture, and guide them around. Boy did I harrow those two around in order to avoid waiting for the next train. Also, I never realized how many stairs there are in the country!

Spring: Reconnecting with Korea was pretty awesome. I had a half-day layover in Seoul, and met a friend for a couple hours, while enjoying how clean and modern of a city it is. A week after I got back, I went back to work for Kaplan, the school I had taught ESL at for almost 4 years. I've been very fortunate to work pretty much when I want to, and having adult students with life experiences I could talk to was such a contrasted difference to teaching teens in Japan.

Over the summer, I headed east. On that trip, my good friend Wil in Connecticut took me to see a navy base, and in Baltimore, My mom and pop treated me to a top-notch Brazilian buffet. For the second half of the trip, I went to the casino with my mom, and saw my grandfather for the last time. 

Booth babes are like if this girl were selling hotdogs.

The summer also came to a thrilling conclusion with PAX - the Penny Arcade eXpo. I'd been to two Tokyo Gameshows, and even a hands-on Japanese gaming convention called Tokaigi earlier this year. But PAX is just way cooler. Japanese people don't socialize the same way, strangers don't talk. You can have 10,000 people in the Makuhari Messe, and it will still be quiet enough to talk slightly above your normal speaking voice. PAX is also more spread out, and has discussions, lots of tournaments, and is 4 days long. Tokyo Game Show has better booth babes - some politically-correct American decided that you had to be somewhat knowledgable about your product to promote it, essentially ending booth babehood. I liked the distraction, but I also see how using a sexy babe to promote Tetris is kind of silly. 

Somewhere in the summer was news that Final Fantasy VII is getting a remake. A few weeks later,  there was a breathtaking demo of this most beloved games of all time getting a 20-year facelift. I am not sure when it's coming out, and have shelled out $15 to get the PC-cum-PS4 version of the 1997 masterpiece. I am aiming to process the story as a whole on this 6th-or-7th journey through the game.

Halloween this year was probably the most fun I've had on the holiday since I was a kid, when I used to trick-or-treat with my friends. I went out dancing two nights around that holiday, and my girlfriend and I made some new memories. Both nights, I saw live funk and shook my ass, and never even thought about trick-or-treating! I'd been in Japan for the last 3 Halloweens, and it just isn't the same if you don't know anyone.












As the event coordinator at Kaplan, I had some victories in planning and leading an academic activity called the Vocabulary Olympics. It's a series of vocabulary games where classes get mixed up and put into teams to do rounds of challenges like spelling, define-the-word, and put-this-word-in-that-sentence. I also had a fantastic Halloween and Thanksgiving party, which is a feat to coordinate 250 people.

The Star Wars premiere at IMAX was quite awesome. I cheated, and snuck into line to stand with Chad, who'd been waiting for 6 hours at that point. When we were let into the auditorium, our dozen-member group took seats close to some reserved seats. 10 minutes before the show, the manager of the theater thanked us and had the usual under-your-seat prize giveaway. The guest turned out to be Seahawks defense man Michael Bennett, who shook hands on his way to his seat, after grabbing the mic for a minute and getting us riled up about both the Seahawks and The Force Awakens. I really liked the movie, and was thrilled to be such a part of a great moment of nerd history.

Debt and my degree

Whipping up a bowl of debt-free delicacy

I have braved the waves in my journey as a 31 year old. I can now behold the majestic view that is a life officially debt-free, as I have just paid off the remainder of my $15,000 loan. This was only half of what I borrowed to go to 2 years of university. In 2003, when I entered Western Washington University, my mom's salary of $55k disqualified me for any grants. She ended up being forced to take out a "parent plus" loan for the other $15k, which is a crock of shit, but she wasn't about to let her son get priced out of a future.

It took 10 years after graduation to start attacking that debt, though. There were 2 years where I made more than $2000 a month. The rest of that decade, I was teaching part-time, or getting a low salary in one of the many economic traps for teachers. Then I got a sweet full-time job in a Japanese school, and everything changed. My friend Zack had turned me onto the idea of financial independence, and taking money more seriously. I used to take so much pride in never paying full price for things, and opting for old fashions, but in the end I just used the money to buy more games and collect bullshit. I've always been frugal, thanks to my grandfather, but 2013 was the turning point where I started investing my savings rather than buying more shit.

With my first full year in Japan in 2013, on a good salary, I defeated $10k in debt that had crept up over the years, and invested another $5k. The tax rate of the still-big loan was 3.75%. Basically, the half of my salary that I sent home in 2013 was better used to destroy high-interest credit card debt (~12%) and invest in aggressive stock market returns (~15%) than that wimpy loan tax rate.

I learned from this 10-year loan that college debt is pretty forgiving when pit against other middle-class expenses. I didn't' have to start paying until a year after graduation, plus there were further deferment options, and a really low minimum payment, like $50. There was no car note for me, and I didn't have a family to support, either.


College is supposed to be your shot for a boost in economic mobility. But, I found that to apply so generally that it was disappointing. I chose to be an ESL teacher overseas, where you can get hired with ANY baccalaureate, and only minuscule does your employer understand that your major might be relevant to teaching the language. This realization hit me first after I saw a Spanish language major get paid more than me, who majored in Linguistics, with a TESL certification. While there are other factors at stake, like experience (though it was the first year teaching for both of us) and negotiating power, that was the first ego deflation that my diploma didn't mean as much as I had thought. It turns out that I didn't get to use any of my training and knowledge of language until a few years later, when I got to teach grammar to some higher-level students. This helped me re-define a university diploma as a badge of discipline; proof that you were able to get things done, more or less on time, for 4 years. 

For years, I devalued my diploma because I thought my honed language skills weren't recognized. It made me quite bitter to teach in a school alongside science, literature and loads of international business majors. However, if you take the above definition, you can add on that while you're shaping yourself to be a responsible worker bee who finishes projects on time, you at least get to choose something you're interested in. Well, assuming your parents don't take that away from you and force you to become a major THEY want. However, chances are that if you're in that position, you won't get control of your life any time soon. The flip side is that your parents are probably paying for your education, so bonus!


I am very happy for the connections I made at university, and it was nice to satisfy some curiosities I had, while walking away with some certification that put me into a 10-year-strong career. Teaching is all coming to an end, as I'm changing paths to retail customer service, but I've left a bunch of doors open in dat old career.

Cheapass wins...flawless victory. Frugality!

Hey, y'all! I wanted to give an update on how I'm living cheaply. My 2 games in, 1 game out strategy has gone well. I paid $48.99+tx (NOT full retail price) for StarWars Battlefront, and have completed Titan Attack, and I am almost finished with Crimson Dragon, a free title via Xbox Live Gold.

Sistema is made in NZ, and durable as hell.

Since March, I've lived with a family I'm very close to, which is cheating, frankly. Lots of you who are looking to save money don't have this option, but as more 1-bedroom apartment rents soar north of $1000, you might start to make nice with old neighbors and relatives. The family gives me access to their car, but I still walk 20 minutes to the transit center, and bus in to work, like a good boy. Another cheating point is that the family cooks for me and hates leftovers, meaning I get to bring my lunch to work everyday. If you decide to go that route, forget traditional tupperware. Sistema microwave/freezeware is the real deal. I've used mine for a year and a half, and there's no peeling or melted plastic scarring. The seal comes out, and all the plastic parts are easily washable.

Just need to plastic wrap them suckers

Breakfast, however, is where I can contribute. Barring some unfortunate allergy, I would suggest peanut butter (or another kind of--don't laugh--nut butter) balls. Take a buncha oats, mix in a pinch of cinnamon, an even tinier bit of salt, some chocolate chips. I currently use about a tablespoon of maple syrup or honey for a sweetener for every 1 cup of unsweetened PB. Boom! Then I wrap a heaping tablespoon with plastic wrap in my palm and make into a ball. These balls are the calories you need, and beat pastries (my weakness!) in the health department by a longshot. I make 1cup into 4 balls, and that's 3 breakfasts and a pick-me-up on the days with long shifts.

$5 per kit. I still want to add another type of candy.

Speaking of shifts, I'm taking advantage of the holiday season and working two jobs for the month of December. I wouldn't recommend this for anyone who isn't relatively strong, but have found that I can do just about anything for a month. At work, I've resisted the Keurig, and clung to sharing the pot with co-workers or using the single-cup aeropress.

These cute paper/cardboard boxes are $1.50 each at Daiso.

Tadaa! I may add some filler, like tissue paper or paper confetti.

I'm hearing a lot of creative Christmas gift ideas for keeping it cheap. My favorites include homemade fudge, hollowed-out false books, and a toilet-paper roll with cash stuffed inside. I've also gone some shopping at Daiso (Japanese dollar store - everything is $1.50+tx, but the selection is a cut above your typical dollar store) for my younger gift recipients. As a person who has moved and traveled a lot, I'm a huge fan of giving consumable gifts, which won't take up more room while someone feels obligated to keep something they may or may not actually like. I like gift cards, but I'm sure a lot of you who give those wonder how big a gift card is good enough?

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII

Each garb comes with different abilities and stats, and are rendered realtime in cutscenes!

It's too bad that Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII isn't really a Final Fantasy game, because it's got so many things that I like about it. Graphically, it's a masterpiece with amazing realtime cutscenes, costume design for your main character, and environment design. Musically, this is the best non-Uematsu soundtrack out there, with a LOT of battle themes, and probably the best chocobo theme to date. In terms of voice acting, the 100 or so NPCs almost all have their own voice actor, accent and mannerisms. This game also has the most mature characters I've seen in a Final Fantasy.

"Gah!...damnit, Lumina! Go chase a tree!"

Lightning is a really developed character; the tough savior of mankind who doesn't sugar coat anything. Other than 2 or 3 of the 50+ costumes, your main character isn't depicted as sexy, bimboish, or overly feminine. Instead, you play a warrior who is hella cynical, a bit gruff, and doesn't take bullshit either. There's a really girly character that appears throughout the game and pesters you with the "I know something you don't know" attitude, and Lightning clearly wants to kick her teeth in.

You solve people's problems to save their souls, in the final 14 days of humanity's existence. Whether you're helping a drunk who lost his wife forgive himself or slaying 20 monsters to prove your worth, this game hasn't gotten old in the 55 hours I've put into it. There's even a quest where 3 moogles - flying, cute, magical cat-fairies - are lost just outside their village. Lightning suggests that they look for their village from the air, because in the 10 days that they've been lost, it's never occured to them to simply fly higher off the ground. There are other parts in the story where the savior calls people out on their ignorance. She's got a very tough-love attitude toward her big dumb brother-in-law and ends up beating the piss out of him. I just don't feel like I've heard an FF game be so mature in its approach to dialogue and character thinking.

Since Final Fantasy games have had spoken dialogue (as of the 10th title) there have been lots of barriers to prevent me from liking characters. FFX is filled with all kinds of awkward pauses between dialogue lines, awful lip synching, and suffers from bad localization. FFX-2 has much better dialogue-synching and each character moves differently when they speak, but their banter is so painfully childish. Better localization would mean adults aren't teasing other adults about having boyfriends. It just doesn't work that well in this culture.

Earlier, I said this game wasn't a proper Final Fantasy game because the franchise staples, such as the espers/gods/aeons are almost completely missing in favor of a two-god religious setting. There is no airship, you control one character. The battle system is close to ATB, but you don't gain stats by doing battle: you get stats from completing quests. The game is also non-linear: there are 4 distinct areas that you do quests in. Each area has it's own unique setting and feel, with some great music pieces that vary during different times of day. Ironically, it's also not a Final Fantasy because it's actually a sequel! The nice part of it is that this game's story is a nice place to wrap up the Nova Chrystallis universe, and possibly move to Ivalice (FF Tactics, FF XII) or somewhere else.

Good run in your FF trilogy, guys. NOW MOVE OVER!

As a tangent to this game's obsession with religion, I noticed that Japanese writers really really want to talk about "God," which just doesn't have the same cultural context. Through my experience with Japan and its cultures, I've gotten the impression that some Japanese are worried about being seen as godless. I'll say that Japanese religion is in their routine. Bathing is done in two stages; shower to clean, and then soak in the tub to relax. Food presentation is especially important, and when you eat with others, you usually say itadakimasu. Giving and receiving gifts is just about required for trips, and many holidays in the year. This gets very expensive, but everyone gets everyone everything. You could call it cultural habits, but the conviction behind these practices is at the level of deeply religious behaviors. Do they go into a building, play music and talk about His Omnipotence? No. But I think that the Japanese tenacity to procedures and rules is quite religious.

Dem graphics!

Anyway, Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII - 3 is so far one of my top Squaresoft games, without the benefit of nostalgia. I recommend you play it for its impressively-done characters, music and graphics. You only need a vague recollection of the first FF XIII, and even then the story is decently contained into the one title.

"Luxerion, is it? This is the city of light? Problem is, the brightest lights cast the darkest shadows." --Lightning's reacting quote to starting in the middle of a murder mystery.

Games in 2015: Fall

My favorite season is here at last! I remember the difficulty getting used to waking up early again. Plus, there was that crabbiness towards my cheerful older brother who woke me up for school; he had usually worked through summer and didn't really sleep in. Fall brings those crisp cold mornings where it's sunny, and the plants are all coated in dew, and your sense of smell is heightened...and there's always the awesome apples and hot drinks. Fall rules! When the rain ramps up, it'll only add to it being prime game season. Halo 5, Starwars Battlefront, Rainbow Six are a few games that are coming just around the corner! Attacking my backlog is going rather well:

September

This month's first game was Bastion. I saw the dev's booth (SuperGiant Games) at PAX, and several people told me I needed to play it. Boy, was this one of the best gaming experiences of 2015. This is a brawler game with a level-up system that is quite addictive. The game is pretty, gameplay is simple, and it is narrated up to the moment of everything you do. Problem is, you'll start talkin like the narrator after a spell. Bastion is a short commitment, cheap, and an awesome treat. 5/5 for enjoyment.

Dumbly-named Billy Yoder about to get chomp'd.

I finished off the Telltale Jurassic Park games, beating Episode 4. The biggest pain in the ass is one of the last fights, which has a 2 minute unskippable dialogue scene that I went through 20 times, just to fail the poorly-timed button sequences. Other than that crappy sequence, this game had some neat puzzles - there's a part where you're trapped underground and have to compare your teammates' screens with a map, combing over details as you decide how to escape these creepy creatures. If I had to have a point system, I'd say this game had an overall enjoyment of 2/5.

Yeah...I don't really...got anything.

Doki-Doki Universe is a totally random hand drawn game where you, a robot, visit different planets to learn how to be 'human.' The thing is that you learn emotions and behaviors through animals and aliens, in addition to homo sapiens. The game is bizarre, and pretty much talk to x, get item y, bring it back to x. It was a quick 7-hour 100% trophy hunt. I can't say it was boring, but it was far from the best thing I've ever played, and the art style reminded me of Katamari Damacy, which is one of my favorite games ever made. I actually read most of the dialogue of this game, and would give it a 4/5 because it's short.

On Xbox One, some free-to-play puzzle game called Frozen Free Fall has taken up my mornings. This game feels like a franchise cash-in, but still has solid gameplay. You have to reach a target score or eliminate certain blocks with either a time limit or move limit. You get a certain amount of times to fail, and if you fail 5 times, you have to either wait a few hours or purchase them. The achievements are still obtainable, but it's very much designed to be frustrating. Levels are 50/50 for randomly generated tiles and fixed ones. If you play a level decently and lose, you'll have a strong chance of repeating that loss because of this. I was too caught up in the game to try exiting to the main menu to reset the tiles. Enjoyment is a 2/5 for being pay-to-win. I love gem-matching puzzle games, and their arbitrary limits to gameplay keep this from being an easy 5/5.

GET HIS AyuSS!

I also started a second quest on Murdered: Soul Suspect. I wanted to get all collectibles, see more stories, and show my girlfriend this game that's as much fun to observe as it is to play. The cutscenes are well-done, and there are certain collectibles which lead to great voice-over stories. The patchwork of collectible guides has me with no less than 8 tabs open in Chrome, which is obnoxious. This game is a solid 5/5 for enjoyability. Even better if you're not looking for all of the collectibles.

October

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII is pret-ty different! The game has a very nonlinear progression, as well as a time limit, and improving your character is done through completing missions. This doesn't cut out grinding, though, as some missions require collecting a certain amount of items from killing monsters. I REALLY like the game so far (check out my separate review), but the FFs have gotten pretty pretentious, always talking about God and divinity...what happened to espers and emperors? They're pretty, and the art direction is probably the best 3d rendering of rich 2d anime come to 'life' I've ever seen, but I miss the 4- and 5-party FF teams that you'd take into battle - SquareEnix has shrunk the party for 8 games now.

November

There 'e is!

Turkey, stuffing, Martinelli's, overeating, forced smiles and Black Friday. That about sum it up? NO! Because November 2015 saw some pretty fucking huge news: Xbox One brought backwards compatibility to the mix, and my library grew by a whopping 10 games! One of these that I dove right into was Plants vs Zombies. I love tower defense games, and this game makes me laugh. The grand zombie with glasses in his boxers who gets pissed if you rip his newspaper? Yeah, that shit's funny as hell. 5/5 for enjoyment, price, and short time investment.

I also spent a lot of time with Crimson Dragon...I'm at the last handful of achievements for that one. This game is a spiritual successor to the 90's Panzer Dragoon games; your character is on top of a dragon, shooting at various enemies as they fly at or by you. Crimson Dragon is a lot less about the rider and his mount, and more that you are a nameless soldier in a larger war.

The story is really superfluous, and an example that studios should really quit the shit on shoehorning story into games that don't need it. Maddox has a lot to say about that. What I understood about the story is that there's a virus that makes animals crazy, and you're fighting it by killing the crazy animals. The gameplay: use one stick to move the dragon up, down, left and right, and the other to move your reticle. You have two weapons, and your dragons have different elements that do more and less damage to certain enemies. The game is very pretty, and I played for 1-2 hours each setting, despite some levels only being 3 minutes long. As you beat levels, your dragons level up, so that's a nice mechanic. I like Crimson Dragon a lot, for it's great graphics, scope of achievements, and focus on accurate shooting. 5/5 for price, graphics, and really fun gameplay.

The three characters whom you won't give a shit about, cause the dragons are way cooler!

November 17th and onwards was mostly about one game, though. Star Wars Battlefront is authentic. At first, this game's graphics are merely nice, and definitely not the sharpest or most detailed you've seen on the newest generation. That is, however, until you consider the size of the maps. A map, which loads in about 15 seconds, might take 2 minutes of sprinting to cross. Also, the terrain, characters and vehicles don't really have degrees of detail: I'm pretty sure they're always in full detail. So, considering that you play these GIANT maps with 40 players, it's easy to understand how this game is utilizing dat processor. The sound effects are top notch, and the music is taken directly from the original trilogy. Gameplay is so incredibly addicting, with standard FPS modes like capture this and deliver that, but then there's Heroes vs Villains. In this mode, you are a team of 6, and 3 of you are the lead characters from Star Wars: Han, Leia and Luke vs Vader, Palpatine, and Boba Fett. Every other round, you spawn as one of these heroes, so everyone gets a chance. The round is over when all 3 from one team are killed. When you're not a hero, you're the generic rebel or imperial force that you play in the main FPS game.

There's also the vehicle combat. Currently, you can only be a tie fighter or interceptor, x-wing or a-wing, but I can only guess that other canon ships will be available in further DLC. Every time you play, you get credits and xp to unlock weapons, upgrades and costumes, which adds to the crack batch that this game is. I've injured my back and neck simply from playing this game too much; that's how good it is! (Or maybe, how dumb I am.) 5/5.

Now it's December. Here comes winter!!!

Reflection on Gotham's Dark Knight

Over the last 2 months, my previously-Batman-less girlfriend and I have watched all 7 Batman films.

Batman: This original Batman has the same weakness that all of the live action movies have: not enough Batman roaming the shadows and laying down his own justice with various gadgets. That said, it DOES have my favorite Bruce Wayne. Micheal Keaton's Bruce Wayne is as quirky-looking as you'd expect for a rich person who lives in a creepy mansion, puts on a suit and stalks a scary city at night. This movie also has the most maturity to it, in that Wayne's romantic pursuit takes a while to develop, and there aren't a whole lot of neat effects to subdue the kids. This movie also has my favorite ending (top of the city hero shot + great score track).

Yes.

Batman Returns has an awesome opening sequence that gives you more to look at than credits. You also get to hear the Danny Elfman theme with more oomph. Batman Returns doesn't waste any time cutting to shit you want to see. Batman's backstory is established, so a little chaos in the streets brings one of the series'  great shots: Wayne stands with the Bat Signal on him to a music cue. This movie brings an interesting mood to it. It's still as dark as the first movie, but with a little comical twist. The part where Batman does a 180 in the Batmobile just to boost his flaming jet on the fire-spitting juggler comes to mind. Secretary Selina Kyle's relationship to shady CEO Max Shreck is also comical at times, and gets really jarring when he pushes her to her death. I still jump every time, even though I know it's coming. But good lord, this Catwoman is sexy, and it's pretty awesome that she considers getting even with her CEO once in for all worth sparing half of her nine lives. There's a scene when she talks to Penguin about working together and who's got the upper hand, and it's got innuendo, physical comedy, and two really good actors making a great moment.

Batman Forever is a favorite because a change in director brought such a goofy movie that only takes a nugget of itself seriously. This movie starts off with 30 minutes of one-liners and really stupid exposition. Then we get to see a return to darkness with brooding Bruce Wayne and Two-Face's killing of Dick Grayson's parents. This movie has a lot of style and color compared to its predecessors, and the Riddler is infinitely quotable and as Jim Carey as possible. Wayne's love interest in this is Dr Chase Meridian, which is probably the most gorgeous Nicole Kidman has ever looked. They throw more one-liners at each other, and some really light, obvious psychology, and then we get treated to one of the best shots in the Batman series. At some point, Batman jumps off a roof to chase the villains, and the camera pans up and down his figure, cape-a-flying as the theme gets  going. I feel like the director wasted this shot because our hero falls right through a tube to his own burial. Ahh well, the Bat vehicles are the best in the series. The final note is that I am a huge fan of the corny running towards the screen in slow motion at the end of the movie.

Batman and Robin doesn't have much going for it, as you can tell the film's agenda is in merchandise and partnerships with fast food. Poison Ivy is really sexy, but Bane sucks. Mr Freeze's jokes are hilarious, and George Clooney doesn't make a good Batman or Bruce Wayne. The vehicles are really impractical and look ugly. On the other hand, this movie has my favorite Batsuits with heavy leather capes and silver accents. The movie also boasts my favorite-looking Gotham. Both the Schumacher Batmans have Greek/Roman statues embedded in the city and buildings, and add great atmosphere to all of the chase scenes.

Sorry Nolan, didn't like your tumbler as much as the others.

10 years later, we get Christopher Nolan to direct 3 more-realistic, dark and serious but consistent movies. Batman Begins has really good suspense, and boy do they make you wait to see Batman...in all 3 movies. In almost 8 hours of the movie, you see Batman for a quarter of it. Christian Bale is neither my favorite Batman nor Wayne, but he certainly couldn't be accused of not trying. With the Nolan trilogy, we get consistently great acting, great lines, a great score, and some great combat. The first movie has some really great scenery, and Alfred is fantastic in the whole trilogy.

The Dark Knight is simply as perfect a movie as I could ever hope for. There's nothing else to add.

The Dark Knight Rises is severely lacking in Batman, and the Bat could possibly my least favorite vehicle in the franchise. I thought Bane was interesting, but to have some brains - intelligent villains with a plan are so much better to watch! They didn't spend enough time on Catwoman, and the story's crazy timeline was hard to ignore. The movie does, however, have my favorite music of the trilogy, which is Bane's menacing theme. I am very very interested in seeing Nolan direct a Batman team, whether he works together with Robin, Nightwing, Batgirl, or all of them.

I may have botched a reference here or there, but it was really nice going through such an exciting and eccentric part of American culture with my girlfriend. She liked all of them, and ended up liking the last movie more than anyone else I know.

PAX 2015: A first of many to come!

 

Rocket League tournament@SONY

For those of you who don't know, the Penny Arcade eXpo is a 4-day weekend of tabletop games, videogames, anime, cosplay, gaming culture presentations, and there is a ton of winning winning winning! At TGS, Tokaigi, and other conventions, you stand in line to play a game demo for 15 minutes or watch a trailer on a huge screen, all while on the lookout for hot booth babes or cosplay. You can find this at PAX, but there are a lot more ways to walk away with stuff: gaming tournaments on every system, scavenger hunts based on finding qr codes throughout the 8-building grounds (holy shit, right?), games played while waiting in line, and tons of even-if-you-lose concessions. 

(B)Link

Tickets to this event were sold out within hours of going on sale, and that was 3 months before the event. Luckily, applying to work at PAX opened after that, and lil ol me was accepted to join the ranks. The Enforcer[E] crowd are good people. Nerds of every caliber who were there to help other nerds be nerdy. My favorite part about the event was talking to people: PAX is so very social, which I cannot claim is true for other expos of its type. My Japanese is conversational, so it's not all lack of skill and effort on my part. But, the host culture means that TGS and Tokaigi attendees talk to their own groups, and leave the noisemaking to the presentations. To contrast, I had a dozen attendees during PAX come up and talk and hang out (well, I WAS at a lounge with beanbags) and struggle with eye contact and stumble through sentences about Pokemon, Final Fantasy and Legend of Zelda. I'm not poking fun at these people, I'm saying they overcame their uncomfortableness to talk about cool shit. There were lots of tips when and where to wait in line for limited pins and giveaways. With the exception of my family and friends, it was the most genuine group of strangers I've ever rolled with before. 

I've never been more aware of the getting-to-know-someone process than here because there were no professional guidelines or barriers to limit the context of conversation.

This poor bastard was bleeding for 96 hours.

Some of you reading this might be like my co-workers who ironically live in Seattle and look down on gaming culture. I hope you open up and welcome gaming into your life, because pretty soon you're gonna be the weirdos who don't game out! Also, there are major economic opportunities: I met two people from Tulsa who said there weren’t any PC cafes there, and the only arcade had games that were 30 years old. Not to mention the fact that there probably aren’t any connections to Japan or anime. $10k, open an arcade for all the IT people who need a place to spend it!

The biggest sour point was that I wish I had had friends to attend PAX with on my off-hours, though. However, there were almost 1000 [E]s, so it was pretty easy to chat up one of them when I was feeling like doing something other than gawking excitedly. I’ve also heard that going with a group means you’ll inevitably spend time doing things you don’t want to do.

NintIndies...I see what you did there!

Highlights of the event: NintIndies had a room in the Sheraton Hotel with a dozen titles: Typoman, a sidescroller with live word puzzles; Runbow, an 8-player frantic platform racer; and a game called Shantae, a sidescrolling adventure game with leveling up. Also, there was an [E]-only Magic: the Gathering draft tournament where I won the first of three rounds, but ultimately had to concede because the second round took place a little too late for my tastes. Had a blast, though.

WRONG ARIES, dude...you're looking for Ares!

One thing that didn’t rule about that weekend was how much non-PAX time I wasted not being there. Friday and Monday were work days, and Saturday’s power outage meant an extra 2 hours burned in traffic/waiting for the bus. 

All in all, the event was A++++ 10/10 would buy from again!