My weekend at PAX with Ubisoft.

First off I want to thank David and Ashley from Ubisoft for allowing me to go to Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) this weekend. It was such a great and invigorating time for me, I personally don’t think it could have gone any smoother then it did.

I left Spokane Friday morning around 5:30 in the morning to head over to Bellevue for the Penny Arcade Expo. I got to Bellevue and found my hotel right away. I almost died when I had to fill up my tank however. For future reference pickup trucks cost a lot. The hotel was nice; I had a pretty awesome view of Mt. Rainer.

I decided to go and check out the expo on Friday night. None of the exhibitors were showing anything so it was mostly just checking out industry panels. I sat in and listened to the panel on online gaming and MMO’S, it was very thought provoking. I feel like most of the panelist thought, there will be a time when a community of people can play a game and it will be enough money to support a small development house. However we all agreed that time is not now.

I got my pass to into the conference from David that night and met him quite briefly.

Friday night Turbine was hosting a small after-hours party so I and a friend from Spokane visiting his aunt in Seattle went to that. They had free food, free drinks and chances to get in to the Dungeon and Dragons online beta. It looks like a pretty good game. Its hard for me to play MMO’s for longer then a 1 month stretch. I get bored, or think I should try to do something productive. That was my Friday evening, by this time however my feet were sore from walking all around downtown Bellevue.

Saturday morning I walked over to PAX, first of course stopping at Starbucks for a Chai tea. I was one of the first exhibitors at PAX and Robert Khoo from Penny arcade let me in the exhibition hall. I thanked him for helping set up such an event and told him how important I really thought PAX was. I found the Ubisoft booth and the PC that would be my home for the next 2 days. The only thing I didn’t find was an extension cord to be able to turn my machine on. So I asked some of the PAX volunteers if I could get one, they were very happy to oblige. So after I got the PC running I installed a full version of the game. “This PC is awesome” I thought to myself as I started the game. I cranked all the setting to the highest and there was no hit in performance. The only downer was it would be hard to hear the sound in a convention hall like this. Other wise the PC was great. I knew the sound would only be drowned out anyways so it didn’t faze me to much. David showed up and we got out printed copies of the first page of the Myst V Comic Penny Arcade is working on. They looked fantastic and are a collector’s item of Myst fans and PA fans alike. David was also able to hook me up with some Myst V t-shirts. What more could I ask for from Ubisoft, I had an awesome Pc to show the game, and some awesome swag to give away. I was set and I was very happy to be at this expo. As I was setting up some of the game areas, more and more Ubisoft people showed up. I got to meet Natasha; she was a very kind person and always asked me if I need anything. In fact all of the Ubisoft people were very kind, always making sure if I needed anything I would get it. I was setup next to the King Kong game which was awesome to watch and fun to play. King Kong has a very cinematic feel, which at some parts of the game make it feel like you’re not even playing it, but watching a movie onscreen. Melanie was in charge of promotions for the King Kong game and it was fun working and chatting with her. The more she saw of Myst 5 the more she complemented me on the graphics. I of course said thanks on behalf of Cyan Team. I visited with R-chan and Eleri (Hardcore Myst fans) the first day and R-chan was nice enough to bring over Tycho and I chatted with him very briefly. Over the day a few press people from college papers and other press outlets came and visited with me. Asking me many questions in which I was very happy to answer them there and if they had more questions they could e-mail me. After the first day I was so tired. I got to the expiation hall at 8 and stayed there till 6 showing of the game the entire time. Not because I wasn’t given a break, but because I wanted to give every person the chance to try the game.

The second day I got there early again, made sure the game was working fine and finished some more of the puzzles so people could see more of the ages. The day started off great. Tycho came by and talked to me a bit about Myst V, asking me all kinds of questions about the game. I always knew he was a myst fan, but he’s hardcore too. He asked me a little about Uru and he mentioned he loved the idea of meeting Sharper. It was interesting hearing what I would consider a hardcore gamer interested in Myst and Uru so much. I let him in on a secret on which characters I played in Uru-live. To this day he is only one of a few who know, in the end I explained that even though it was sad Uru didn’t pan out. I think something like the idea it sparked could eventually come out someday by some other developer. He told me the other gamers he plays Myst games with... he mentioned Porkfry and I believe some other people of the PVP crew. These are hardcore gamers. These are guys that I would never believe would be interested in a Myst game, but they are and that makes me very happy. I also got to talk to Jinx of the Fragdolls. She loves the Myst games and is sad that Myst 5 will be the last one of the series. It’s kind of funny; I got a lot of that this weekend. Hardcore gamers saying they were happy to see an adventure game taking the leap to real-time graphics and how they wished more adventure games were around using real-time technology. Could it be that the reason adventure games aren’t doing that well in the industry is because they... well... don’t capture the essence of what makes a game fun. It was great to reminisce on the old SCUMM engine games and others. Many of the people coming to my booth said they haven’t played a myst game since Riven, because Riven was too hard. I explain how I couldn’t agree more and how I would say Myst 5 has very Myst difficulty level types of puzzles. It wasn’t long till they were playing the game in FPS mode enjoying the worlds. I also had a guy who hated FPS but loved the Classic click mode. I believe with Myst 5 we made a game that totally works for both crowds. FPS’ers and Classic Myst gamers. I left on Sunday a little early because I the PC vendor who bowwored the PC to us needed to pack up his things. This gave me a chance to check out some other game. Including some from Ubisoft, which by the way I think totally went the right way with the Multiplayer version of Lock-out. A good friend from Spokane would agree.

Over the 2 days I met with all kinds of different gamers. People who were hardcore myst fans like R-chan and Eleri to people who never played a Myst game before but were impressed by the graphics and the character animations. I of course gave anyone that came up to the booth the great swag provided my Ubisoft. I also suggested to everyone to download the demo and email me their thoughts. Some of which I am already receiving today. I find it quite interesting that a myst fan can be anyone. Coming from the community you would think I wouldn’t be so surprised. Some of the best myst conversations of the weekend came from people who call themselves hardcore gamers. At one time I believed that Myst didn’t draw itself to hardcore gamers, but after a convention like PAX I have to change my opinion. I don’t know when my idea of the myst fan changed to only being non-violent adventure hardcore fans. But, after an expo like PAX I see the Myst gamer can be anyone. From the guy who plays Halo non-stop and plays Myst games for the art. To the WoW player who likes the great story the Myst timeline has to offer. Myst gamers are all around us. Millions of people bought Myst. It’s not hard to find someone who played Myst. Now, younger gamers don’t even know what Myst was. However, I see with Myst 5, with the change to Real-time 3D, and with the story Myst 5 has to offer that we could see a whole new breed of what the “Typical Myst Fan” is.

Thank you Ubisoft for allowing me this awesome experience and to show Myst V: End of Ages at PAX.

And to anyone who thinks Ubisoft doesn’t care about Myst product line. At one time I felt the same way. But, I was proven quite wrong this weekend. Myst V : End of Ages will come out soon and I can’t wait to hear what people think.

Other wise.. you can just have a Kick in the head.

Peace