My mission at PAX Prime 2010 and Seattle

Sure it happened months ago (well, half a year really) but I thought I would share my experience.  As it was one of those "first ever" moments, multiple times.  While PAX happened from Friday to Sunday (Sept 3rd to the 5th) I arrived in Seattle with my buddy on Tuesday.  First plane ride in over 8 years mind you, I was definitely feeling like the little boy I once was again...well, more was then feel.  I admit it, I got giddy on the take offs, landings and just staring out the window while in the sky.  Could you really blame me if I wanted to shout "G-force!" as we took off?

First we landed in Vancouver to transfer over to the Seattle flight.  And it was during our time at the Vancouver airport that I realized...my PAX badge was gone!  Of course Terry started the look, followed by the sigh, then the told you so etc...  Felt like I dropped into a hole.  Airport staff didn't find it on the previous flight but no worries!  Shane and Chu shot off an email making sure that as long as I had the other piece of information for the convention, I could go pick up another pass.  Phew.

We arrive in Seattle after a quick flight.  My second USA city I've ever stepped foot on.  Chicago was my first when I was like ten, but it was for about 20min layover, so that doesn't really count!  So here was Seattle.  Was a dreary day, but I guess it isn't known as the Rain City for nothing.  After a short wait outside, here came Shane and Chu.  Great to see Chu again and finally meet the fabled Shane in person.

Where we would eventually be picked up.

After swinging by a restaurant (the name eludes me...but I definitely remember the salmon with BBQ sauce and hot chocolate as the drink @_@) we headed back to Shane and Chu's home and just rested up.  After dropping by a liquor store of course.  Which reminds me...I do believe the bottle of sake I purchased is still sitting in their fridge...!  And then....the beast.  Oh yes, a legendary one whose origins come from the land of the rising sun.

The Kyuubi

    

After surviving the beast, the next day, Terry, Chu and I just spent the day roaming the greater Seattle area (Shane was at work).  I literally was the country bumpkin.  I'm sure you know the typical stereotyping of Asians tourists flashing around cameras and taking a snap of anything that moved or seemed just remotely interesting?  Well, I definitely reinforced that notion!  I have no shame when I say I was taking shots like these:

 

Exciting and amazing shots, isn't it?  I think it was some of my finest work...believe me, there was plenty more *cough*  Moving on!

We visited a few shops, went to a gigantic mall, grabbed some food etc...  Then, after many years of hearing about it, we arrived at Fry's.  What can I say?  There's nothing like it back home in Winnipeg.  If I could live in there (which is perfectly possible, as there was a food court of some sort and a bathroom!) I would.

Lots of driving by the way.  Here I am in Winnipeg thinking it's a long drive to just get to school or work and here we were, driving at ridiculous speeds for long periods of time.  I can start to understand why so many people in the USA complain about oil prices and want fast cars now...even if they have to drive something like this:

 

After roaming about a bit more, we went to pick up Shane.  But before that, we stopped by a cute shop (yes I said cute, as it really was a small, cute place) that was about Japanese media.  Anime and Manga specifically.  There was some interesting things there, but the only item we came away with was a Roronoa Zoro car freshener.  We're all One Piece fans and we just wanted to see how long it would take Shane to realize it was there.  I forget, but I don't think it took him too long to realize it =)

It was still Wednesday and I do believe this was the night we went to see The Expendables.  Good movie by the way, definitely should watch it.  Before that though we visited a shop that was all about board and card games.  You know, Dungeons and Dragons, Magic:  The Gathering, stuff like that.  Had a little chit chat and look see and realized that the shop was also headed to PAX for some showcasing and tournaments.  Remember PAX isn't just about video gaming, but all gaming.  An entire floor was pretty much about the era of gaming before Pong. 

Thursday rolls around and Shane finally has the rest of the week off to join us in our epic quest to...do....stuff.  Rather then bore you even more with words, lets just toss up some pretty pictures of that fateful day where nothing of too significance really happened but I just needed an excuse to have at least one run on sentence in this monstrosity of a blog on the Google network or it would not be considered a blog in my books and standards so without fuuuuuuuuuuuurther adieu...

....

Proceed.

But we didn't just waste the day away...oh no no no....we were to attend PAX the next day.  Reconnaissance was in order!  Be aware, I probably am humanities worst camera man.  You have be warned.

And then came PAX.  It was absolute mayhem.  The only thing I can relate PAX to was the time I traversed a crazy Asian flea market that spanned 5 city blocks.  Bright lights, cosplaying, free stuff, awesome stuff to buy, contests to take apart in, playing mini games for more free stuff and of course, checking out future yet to be released titles.  It was glorious. 

Hey!  Where's Green and Orange?!

This one was done real well.

This man was gigantic.  Sure he was wearing some big boots, but me being 5'5, the tip of my head met the middle of his chest.

Don't be fooled!  The look in their eyes give them away as being spies!

These one aren't....probably...

Don't look at his eyes..don't look at his eyes...don't look at hi----aggghhh!

He told me his underwear was also cardboard and duct tape....I kid...or do I? O.o

Yeaaaaaaaah....I probably stared at them longer then I should have....

Run guys!  They're onto us!

Terry, why so serious?!

 These next few are of me attending the SE presentation solo at the off site theater.  Was for XIV and Deus Ex....great presentation, but of course SE would suffer greatly in the next few months.

Can we say awesome?

You know, I honestly didn't know who this was until Terry told me at that moment.  As a gamer, I am ashamed....

Who doesn't know Travis Baldree?

Artist worked on this for almost the entire duration of PAX.  That's right, artist.  Singular.

Hail to the King baby!

Oh yes, second day of PAX, September 4th, was my birthday.  First birthday away from the family but it is one birthday I'll never forget.  Those Buchannon siblings are wily ones, using my weakness of arcade games to distract me while they plotted away.  Seriously though, I was touched.  Of course the cake was pretty much sugar on steroids where none of us finished even a slice =)

After the last day of PAX, which we left pretty early as we did pretty much what we've come to do, we went ahead with the other activities planned for the remainder of our time there.  Shopped around a bit more (bought new shoes!), had food at Five Guys, Pancake House and some "fine cuisine" restaurant that turned out to be average (not necessarily in that order).  I don't think any of us really liked that last one.

Of course, when in the greater Seattle area, how could you not visit the resting place of one of the greatest martial artists, and his son, in the history of the world?  /Respect

We then traveled to the Tacoma area to check out the acclaimed Korean population and their various shops.  We got lost for a bit, even with a GPS.  Stopped at a gas station as nature called for a few of us, and I took the time to ask a fellow Korean lady working at a coffee stand where we could find the fabled area.  We were good to go!

Bought my mother a couple of things from here, nice little shop she would've loved to seen herself.

Nooooo!  Another beast!  RUN FOR IT!

If only we had a big one like this in Winnipeg...we have a couple of small ones, but this was just better because!....

They had a bakery!  Chu is locked onto her target and is moving in...oh those poor bread.

After getting some goods and stocking up on a few goodies, and realizing the Korean community stretched along for many more miles of road as we drove away, we visited another man you just can't pass up when you have the chance.  All the greats seem to go young =(

Alas, the journey was coming to an end.  We headed back and started the return to Winnipeg.  It was a great experience, great time.  I can see why so many people want to travel all the time.  Perhaps one day I will return.  Perhaps this would become a tradition.  No one knows what the future holds, but I will never forget those seven days.  Then, now and for here on in.

It ended with what I like to call the "We're-watching-you-like-ghosts-goodbyes".

A special thank you to Shane and Chu for letting me into their home.  I hope the golden cat is doing its job =)

My ride down the MMO boulevard.

Lets begin where it all started for me. 

XI is where it all started for me.  I remember the day I first ventured into Vana'diel.  It was officially my first MMO (technically, PSO isn't considered a MMO, but a dungeon crawler).  Initially, I was just so damn excited because it was a Final Fantasy title and I was absolutely hooked with online gaming at the time due to PSO.

Initially it started on the DreamCast of course.  Those were the days.  Hogging up the phone line on a 56k connection and being constantly screamed at by the parents to get off the line.  Staying up in well into the night for uninterrupted online play.  Then the glorious Xbox and broadbrand graced my household and the screaming for the phone line were no more...but the all nighters marched on!  I got near to level 160 on my character on PSO, and if you know anything about that game, that was no small feat.

Then came news of XI from the land of the rising sun.  I was a Final Fantasy nut back then.  Maxing out and doing every single content to do in VI to X.  So I was absolutely infatuated about XI the moment I heard it would be online.  After having tasted online gameplay with PSO, I couldn't wait to play together with friends and other people internationally.  Scouring age old XI sites like KillingIfirt, FFXIAH, various Japanese sites...it was destined to become my next time commitment game that would earn me the nickname "Cave dweller" from various friends.

I enjoyed my time in XI immensely.  My first step into Vana'diel I can still clearly remember to this day.  The sense of adventure and world to explore inside me was exploding like a super nova.  It was fun, plain and simple as that.  And not only that, I made life long friends.  In fact, I still keep in touch with a few of them and two of them went as far as to invite me to their weddings a couple of years ago.  That was the golden aspect of XI to me, the social and group aspect of the game. 

And then most of us made the transition into WoW together.  Not because we came to dislike XI, but it was time for a change.  And WoW made enough of an impression with most of the LS members that it warranted me into purchasing WoW.  Believe it or not, I absolutely hated it when the LS members talked about WoW beta when we were busy doing activities in XI.  I didn't want change, I liked everything as it was.

Initially, WoW didn't impress me all too much.  I didn't like the art styling at first.  I didn't like how there weren't any real story line driven missions like XI, but I was impressed with the quest system.  I didn't like that fact that one character was locked to one class.  I didn't like how the music was sporadic and uninspiring.  I didn't like how there weren't any cut scenes.  Overall, I could not fathom what all my friends were going so crazy about.  I mean, we enjoyed XI together for years, how were they talking about WoW like it was a piece of heaven after all that?

But I gave it that chance, even if it was mostly due to friends.  And you know what?  It did grow on me.  Oh, I did take a hiatus from the game.  Reached level 40 mage, then took a break until just around when the Honor (PvP) patch was implemented.  I log back in after months of being gone and instantly I'm getting screamed at by friends/LS/guild members to haul my ass to X area after a "Cel!  You're back!" "Is that really Cel?!" "OMG!  I spot a Cel!" etc... greeting.

After my return, rekindling my interest in the game and spending years together adventuring with old friends online again, I was having some of my best moments ever in my life.  Chatting away, laughing off my chair from jokes and jibber jabber on Ventrilo, and being a part of those moments you will always remember and then laugh about over a beer with those friends.

One particular moment I remember when the entire guild met to head towards the fabled Molten Core.  As we were running down the spiral structure in Blackrock mountain towards the window into the first raid of the game, something...unusual happened.  We were like lemmings, following one of our fearless guild leaders towards an epic adventure when he ran off the ledge right into the lava....and like in a true lemming fashion, half of us followed suit (some even jumping dramatically, twirling, spinning and casting off spells), assuming it was the shortcut we heard and read about before hand.  Only to realize after a few moments we just leaped to our poor characters death.  The leader has disconnected.  Still in the midst of more then half the raid members reviving, he returned.  And then hilarity and friendships and bonds were formed with chuckles and laughter emitting from Ventrilo.

And then like everything in human history, things started changing over the years.  Father time is relentless and when he starts knocking, you can't do anything but answer.  Members started focusing on their careers or studies (I was one), a few getting into serious relationships, family issues, a couple getting married and a couple starting to have children.  It was life moving forward, people moving on.

This is eventually how my time in WoW started coming to an end.  I switched servers to join some real life buddies, but even then, it wasn't the same.  Playing with people your know purely online is different.  Call me crazy if you want, but I found it was more meaningful.  Sure, playing with friends I see and talk to everyday and enjoy the occasional night out with is great, but it just wasn't the same.  And to be completely honest, the changes and development process of WoW was something I could not agree with anymore.  Most of it anyways, some were brilliant honestly speaking.  And even more honestly speaking, I just grew bored of it overall.  I officially stopped playing WoW and canceled the subscription a couple of months after the Wrath of the Lich King expansion.

Of course there were various other titles I tried a hand at during my WoW days, but none of those really ever came into a part of my MMO life.  WAR, AoC, Aion,  EVE, LoTRO and a number of F2P Asian titles.  But those were all just fillers to fill the void, and some even in hopes of replacing WoW.  However, I played none longer then the free 30day trial they all came with.

Next up the plate was XIV.  I was eagerly anticipating this title for years now, after SEs Rapture tech demo back in 2005.  And with my past life in XI, it was easily my most anticipated title of the decade.  I got back in touch with some old XI buddies.  Some were still playing WoW, some went back to XI, much to my surprise, and some just weren't playing anything at all.  Most didn't seem interested in it at all, not surprising.  I knew the ones playing WoW were still having a blast and the ones who weren't were facing the realities of life.

After the official announcement of XIV, there was the expected boom of fan sites and forum boards.  I browsed a number of them on a daily basis until I found a home with Eorzeapedia.  Great community, great administrators and a clean simple layout that I look for in any website.  My enthusiasm for the game exponentially grew as the community speculated, broke down everything SE had to offer, toss around ideas freely, goof off in the general sections...

I was hooked again.  I realized what I was missing in my dying days in WoW.  A community to share equal levels of excitement for a title with a tinge of reminiscing of our past days in the prequel to XIV, XI.  Up all hours of the night, eating away at bits of information about the game from halfway across the globe...it was like being a freshmen in highschool all over again.

Then alpha happened.  Then beta.  Then launch.  And then we all know what happened from there.  The die hards of the franchise and the fanboys of SE defending the game tooth and nail against the onslaught that was being delivered onto the game.  I first got into XIV in beta stage 2.  Initially, I was...disappointed.  Then as the launch date loomed and seeing how SE showcased XIV at PAX Prime 2010...I was worried.  Very worried.  Unless a very big update happened from the open beta to launch two week period, I knew things were about to go from disappointing to complete disbelief.

And it did.  After the beating that not only XIV but SE took as a whole, and after months of me admittedly "raging" out onto the game and company I had so much faith in, I felt betrayed.  Angry.  Even though a good friend of mine warned me, told me it was going to tank, I still had my eyes covered with rose tinted glasses.  Some say I had too high expectations, but I completely disagree.  If anything, the games current status in the genre speaks for itself.  Something went wrong (basically, most of just the sound fundamentals that every good game absolutely needs), it became the MMO game to hold a standard on what not to do.  Not a very flattering title, eh?

Even now, with a new team leader in place and shifted personal and promise from SE that things will change for the better.  That XIV will be getting their full attention (not likely, as of course they have numerous titles slated for the next year) I just cannot bear myself to linger on this title any longer.  In my opinion, XIV has achieved the status of a saturated, past its prime, and in its decay life cycle in half a years time MMO title.  There is optimism with the new team, the expected PS3 version...but much like trigger happy investors, those are and will be just a blip on the line in the long run...if XIV will ever have one.

XIV has dug such a deep hole onto itself, I cannot foresee it having any kind of successful future of life cycle like its predecessor enjoyed.  While it is a video game, it is still very much a business.  And a business not making money will go down.  Forget the initial investment made into the title, the game is nearly at half a years upkeep with absolutely no revenue at this point in time except for the box sales.  Which, from what I gathered, were not too impressive and were on the sale racks and bins within a couple of months.

Unless SE is willing to do a dramatic and game altering change right down to the core fundamentals, and I mean even to the point of reworking their supposedly next generation Crystal Tools engine, I will never, ever try my hand at XIV again.  The game would have done well if this was 5 years ago, but with titles like RIFT, GW2, TERA, TOR...to contend with in the next year or two, the climb to glory is going to be virtually impossible.  Not to mention they still have to deal with the monster known as WoW.  And although it's still at least 3-4 years off, Blizzard does have another MMO in the works they will eventually compete with...if XIV stays around long enough.

At the current moment, I am not subscribed to any MMOs.  My last title played was DCUO, which is fun mind you, but I will have to give it at least another couple months to smooth out to warrant my money.  I've experienced a couple of RIFT betas and while it is a greatly well polished game for a beta status MMO, it's honestly very bland.  Everything it has, it's been done.  It's unique Rifts feature is really just a one trick pony.  However, if you're just looking for a new title, a new world with a very familiar play style to WoW and WAR, RIFT is for you.

Now, I'm not exactly sure why I went on with this litt...err, long ramble...but I guess I needed to let something out.  Thank God for blogs and if anyone here actually sat through that, well, cheers.

P.S.
Critiques are welcome.