 Hey, I'm Scott I'm rim and we are the host of geek nice the late-night podcast for geeks and coming up in just a few weeks We're gonna be making an appearance at PAX East 2012 now We've been going to conventions for a long time about a decade and you know six packs is or whatever So I think we've kind of figured out all the hints tricks and secret ways to survive a convention And PAX is kind of an extraordinary convention. So hopefully we can boil this down to something very simple All right, so for all those of you who maybe have never been to PAX before or maybe never went to a convention before Where here is our PAX East 2012 survival guide All right, the first thing you absolutely cannot mess up at PAX is the three three must-see events These are pretty much the cornerstones of the convention like these are the reasons to be here These kick everything off these knock it down These are the overwhelming things that made us come back from our first packs and go holy shit Right now the first must-see event is at the very beginning of the convention There is a keynote address this year's keynote speaker for PAX East 2012 is Jane McGonigal The author of reality is broken I'm sure she's gonna have a lot of interesting stuff to say about how games can change the world for the better Every PAX keynote has been amazing. I've seen people driven to tears by them They're just they kick off the whole event the energy level the whole con should be there do whatever it takes To get in line for this so what my my specific advice is about three hours before the event on Friday Go check out the line just walk by see what's going on see if there's a big crowd or not If there's not much of a crowd go get some breakfast come back If there's a huge line and people are filling it up just getting that line and don't worry about waiting in the line It's not so bad the line is indoors and everyone's playing games all over the floor or doing other things to occupy themselves Unlike waiting in line for concerts most other conventions you might have been to there are not so many smelly people No, not that many Now immediately follow him in the keynote keep your butt in the seat because in that same room We be hustling it's time for Q&A number one the second must-see event of every pack The keynote kind of kicks it off everything gets started and then there's a pause and immediately afterward They play the hustling song Gabe and Tyco walk out and they're rock stars legit Legit at least at packs. Yes, right? And this is our moment as geeks and nerds and gamers and basically you might think oh it's a Q&A Maybe I'm not that much of a penny arcade fan. The Q&A is not like Q&A's you're used to basically Everyone they have microphones all over the place and people just walk up they get a microphone They say whatever they want and Gabe and Tyco say whatever they want back People pull crazy crap. I believe one year. We pulled an action castle stuff We try to do something funny each time. It's getting a hard run out of ideas. I think yeah Anyway, Q&A one is absolutely do not miss it now The third must-see event is actually at the very end of the convention the closing ceremonies Which is the final round of the Omega thought because remember they don't announce what the Omega thought is until the very end Everyone finds out Simultaneously, it is like the best kept secret in all of packs and the real reason you want to go to this is that you've all seen the wizard Remember that tournament how crazy that was how you wanted nothing more than to be at an event like that Open the curtain and holy shit. It's Mario 3. Well, that's exactly what you get at the very end of the packs They open the curtain and holy shit. It's the secret game that they didn't reveal Okay, Nintendo family computer Tm Okay, oh Until just that pretty much the keynote opens and the closing ceremonies close And you have to go to these events no matter how long it takes just line up on Sunday Just hang out with people. We're usually just playing games in line. Just straight up board games. Yep Now when you look at that pack schedule There's got a lot of panels on there a lot of panels and you do not have time to go to all of them Especially since a lot of the ones you might want to go to overlap so I would personally suggest you go to our panels But no seriously what you want to do is look at that schedule and pick out just a few maybe less than five Five or fewer panels that you really want to go to they are your top priority and make sure you see them get in line And far enough in advance if there is a line necessary They did say they're gonna be much bigger panel rooms this time they may not fill up There's also one additional panel room. Yeah, so who knows what to make of that But it is possible that incredibly popular panels with famous people or hot new games are going to Fill up. So make sure if you really want to see it you get in line early enough Go check out the room see what's going on and after you see those few panels you really care about that's it You know, otherwise you're gonna spend your whole convention waiting in line and going to panels wait line You're gonna go crazy. Of course at the same time. If at any point you're bored. There's nothing going on I don't know how that could happen. Just look at the schedule right then There's probably a panel going on that you might enjoy Also, if you're in a panel and it's not great like you expected it to be awesome And just a guy mumbling walk out. Don't even feel bad about it Don't waste your packs minutes. Packs is only three days You have limited time of gaming awesome this do not sacrifice even a second of your awesome packs Right to sit in a panel that you are not having fun If you come to our panel and you figure out that it's just a scam and we're totally lame walk out Walk the hell out So you might not realize this but if you want packs merch not penny arcade merch But packs merch you need to get that shit on Friday immediately after the Q&A This stupid scarf sold out so fast at the last Paxies you wouldn't even believe it people were buying the rejects Yeah, I mean, you know penny arcade merch you can buy from the penny arcade store anytime they sell that to you gladly But if you want the packs with a number shirt, it's gonna be sold out maybe by Friday night Yeah, if anything has a packs logo on it It is sold exclusively at that packs and it sells out at that packs never to be sold again And you might regret later not buying it when you had the chance So be sure to go and get one if you want one before they sell out So now the most obvious thing on the pack schedule that you probably don't want to miss are the Friday night concerts and the Saturday night These are some crazy concerts if you've never been to a packs or never been to a convention like this They are not what you'd expect from a convention These are full-on real deal concerts and you want to go to both of them without exception Right now Maybe you've been to packs before and you've been to the concerts already in that case You know what to expect because they're mostly the same thing every time Paul and storm are gonna sing the same semen song They always sing. Yeah, I mean, you know So if you already know what it is and it's not your favorite thing in the world You might have your time better spent playing games or seeing some panel, right? Yeah, last text prime We skip both concerts to hang out in tabletop all night But if you've never seen these concerts before or if they are your favorite bands and favorite groups in the world And you live and die for them do not miss the Friday night and Saturday night concerts They are to behold and we cannot stress this enough if you have never been to a packs before These concerts are pretty much your guaranteed a hundred percent programming So every con you go to has like a dealer's rumor and ours earlier an expo haul But the penny arcade one is kind of the successor to e3. It is a spectacle It is freaking enormous and posh Yeah, and the thing is a lot of people try to go in there and they spend most of their packs time in the expo I mean you could wait three hours to play Duke Nukem forever or you can game for three hours Yeah, you know, I think the thing to do at the expo haul is to find a time see everything walk down every aisle Look at every booth, right? And if there's an indie game or something else interesting you want to play then play it But I don't really think it's worthwhile to wait in line for multiple hours to play a game that is not yet released Right the main reason for that is you look out there are packs as we've been at where people waited in the line to Like fall out three, but now you can just get fall out three and play your brains Yeah, the line for that Siv 5 demo was like three hours, but now we have Siv 5, right? It's not that much later. So you have very few precious packs minutes Don't waste them waiting to play a game just because it's not out yet Also, don't be tricked by swag most of the swag they're giving out is actually not that cool And you really won't care about it a year from now Yeah, it's just gonna be useless junk that you think is cool right then and there and then you're gonna bring it home and throw it out And it's all just advertising except that fallout puppet Yeah The worst part is that you have to carry the swag around with you and that's really not fun when you're gonna be walking all Especially at the new venue where most of your hotels are nowhere near the convention. Yeah So we told you the absolute must-see events at packs But there are a few maybe see events at pack like if the other ones are the tens these are the nines Right, so, you know, there was Q&A number one now Of course that means there's at least gonna be Q&A number two, right Q&A number two is pretty much You didn't get enough Mike and Jerry a Q&A number one or maybe you showed up into town so late on Friday You missed Q&A number one if either of those is true make sure you see Q&A number two Yep Also, there is the make-a-strip panel which is literally Gabe sitting there drawing penny arcade on demand Right, that's really good if you're a huge fan of penny arcade or if you really want some laughs Or if you really didn't get enough of Mike and Jerry or you want to see a man Who has the superpower of being able to draw perfect lines without it just bang bang bang Yeah, always lots of crazy hijinks happen at the make-a-strip hot dog fairies hot dog fairies dick wolves You know how it goes So packs is actually, you know, there's a lot of stuff going on a gaming calm yet many people forget to play games I don't know how you could forget to play games the most majority of the square footage space of packs is open gaming And especially this packs East in the new venue has bigger tabletop than any packs has ever had So this tabletop gaming this console gaming and this PC gaming, right? But I would personally suggest that you go to the tabletop gaming whenever you have a fair minute right now You might think oh you're just tabletop nerds But really, you know console and PC gaming you can sort of get on the internet and around You know, it's a lot harder and a lot more rare to be able to get some strange tabletop games and enough nerds Actually willing to play it and play it seriously at the same place at the same time Do not miss that opportunity at packs tabletop is also where a lot of the weird stuff happens the indie RPGs The crazy where dune board game, right? So if at any moment it packs you don't know what to do and none of the panels look interesting tabletop you go Now this is sort of obvious to anyone who's been to any convention But you don't want to lose your badge your badge is extremely important if you lose it you will be booted out, right? Especially packs sells out like guaranteed packs sells out crazily. You don't want to lose your badge You don't have to go to a scalper. Yeah, don't rely on the convention to give you a new badge Yeah, if you had your badge mailed to you as most of you did don't forget to bring it with you to packs a lot Of people leave their badges at home and go, oh no, oh no, right? The second thing about the badge is very important is the back of the badge on the back of the badge You're gonna see the show hours, but in addition to that you're also gonna see the rules of packs Now you might go to other conventions and like anime cons you see the million rules They've got no punching no kicking no eating no drinking no running no yelling Packs is a very different culture and the rules of packs very much explain almost every reason that I love it So much so above all else follow these seven rules of packs Drugs are bad Don't steal don't punch or kick people Don't cheat. Well, no cheating. Don't harass anyone Don't spray paint or put stickers on stuff and Don't mess with things that aren't yours that pretty much covers everything you need to run a functioning society Yeah, if you follow those seven rules, I guarantee your packs East experience will be the wins Well, I guess that about wraps it up for our packs ease 2012 survival guide Yep I mean we're pretty much veterans of conventions a decade worth of doing lectures and panels at everything from Ohio con to Otacon anime Boston many many packs is and straightaway packs is between you and me my favorite convention in the world I look forward to it every year. It is pretty much the best months. Yeah Now if you're you know if you're interested in checking out more of our stuff, right? You can obviously go check out our podcast at front recruit calm Yeah, you want to see us at packs East in a few weeks What you're gonna want to do is go to our three panels on Friday. We're going to be doing a panel called the triple threat It's actually three panels in one short subject in gaming. We're doing three 20 minute panels Just bam bam bam in the room right on Sunday We're doing two more panels game mechanics and mechanism design a favorite from packs prime that packed the room That's probably our best panel to date and a brand new panel how to win at games. You play To win the game. We literally teach you how to win a games Which is anyway and on Saturday, you know, we don't have any panels What are you gonna be doing hanging out in tabletop pretty much all day? Yeah our advice, you know We are doing what we say it is not a situation of do as I say don't do as I do You're gonna be seeing us follow all of our tips and if you follow them, too, you're gonna have an awesome time So hopefully we'll see you there