The Penny Arcade Expo takes place on March 26-28 in Boston, and we are thrilled to announce a whole slew of events that give thanks to our wonderful fans. Irrational Games will be participating in a number of panels, daily prize giveaways and fan meet-ups on each day of the Expo.
Schwag
Irrational Games will be handing out all types of goodies to fans at PAX East. Watch the @IrrationalGames twitter feed for real-time updates on our location in the event center, as well as code words to get good loot!
Fan Meet-ups
Irrational Games will be holding a meet-up each day of PAX East, to give you the chance to meet our staff. Shake some hands, get your photo taken, exchange high fives and score more schwag! Times and locations will be posted on IrrationalGames.com as well as on Facebook and Twitter.
Panels
Irrational Games is happy to be on some great panels at PAX East. Be sure to get to these early as they could fill up quickly!
It’s Got A Good Beat, And I Can Kill Zombies To It
“Since the first kid heard the four-note Space Invaders theme blasting out the arcade doors, music has played a powerful role in the history of digital games. Join panelists Aubrey Hodges (Doom, King’s Quest, Spy Hunter, Madden NFL), Jim Bonney (Mortal Kombat, John Woo’s Stranglehold), Tom Salta (H.A.W.X, GRAW 1 & 2, Red Steel), Gene Rozenberg (Henry Hatsworth, Madden NFL) and Duncan Watt (League Of Legends, Brothers In Arms: Hell’s Highway, Need For Speed: Undercover), for an audiovisual trip celebrating great videogame music – from the past, to the present… and into the future. Audience discussion encouraged. “
When: Friday 3:00pm – 4:00pm
Where: Jamspace
Who: Irrational Games Audio Director Jim Bonney, with Duncan Watt of Fastestmanintheworld, composer Tom Salta, and Gene Rozenberg and Aubrey Hodges of 38 Studios
The Future of PC Gaming (Yes, there is one!)
“Will Moore’s Law run out of steam in 5 years or 15? With advancements in both hardware and software coming out seemingly on a daily basis, it can be tough to keep up with. Wondering what technologies will trickle down into your next computer, what software will power the games of tomorrow or how the gaming marketplace will change in coming years? Catch a glimpse into the computer gaming future with our panel of industry gurus.”
When: Friday 10:00pm – 11:00pm
Where: Wyvern Theater
Who: Irrational Games Lead Programmer John Abercrombie, with Joe Kreiner of Terminal Reality, and Mitchell Shuster of LanSlide Gaming PCs. Moderated by Jeff Kalles of Penny Arcade.
Podcasting (f)or PR
“Podcasting has become the new medium of choice for developers cultivating early relationships with “Alpha” gamers — those who influence the buying decisions of the unwashed masses. In this panel, we’ll talk about how firms like Irrational Games and Insomniac use in-house podcasts to keep their communities engaged, and how the media- and fan-affiliated podcasts rely on developers for a steady stream of content.”
When: Saturday 5:30pm – 6:30pm
Where: Naga Theater
Who: Irrational Games Creative Director Ken Levine and Podcast Producer Shawn Elliot, with Jeff Green from EA.com, Larry Hryb (a.k.a. Major Nelson) from Microsoft, and James Stevenson from Insomniac Games. Moderated by Julian Murdoch from GamersWithJobs.com.
Sequelitis Snake Oil: Quack Medicine for the Video Game Industry
“Why do passionate gamers treat the word “sequel” as a pejorative while often bestowing their highest praise upon those very same sequels? This panel will seek to diagnose the video game industry’s purported “sequelitis” and – by way of discussion from thoughtful panelists, including Irrational Games’ Ken Levine; Harmonix’s Dan Teasdale; Giant Bomb’s Jeff Gerstmann; and moderator Chris Grant, from Joystiq – debunk the quack medicine that’s identified video game sequels to be symptomatic of the industry’s creative bankruptcy.”
When: Sunday 4:00pm – 5:00pm
Where: Manticore Theater
Who: Irrational Games Creative Director Ken Levine, with Chris Avellone of Obsidian Entertainment and Dan Teasdale of Harmonix. Moderated by Chris Grant of Joystiq and Jeff Gerstmann of Giant Bomb.
Stay tuned to IrrationalGames.com for the latest information on panels, meet-ups, and schwag!
NomarDll769 | March 18, 2010 4:52 pm
God, this sounds like it’s going to be awesome! I wish I could have made it this year. *sigh*
You guys have fun with it though!
ig.sarah | March 18, 2010 5:00 pm
SQUEEEEEEEEE! PAX EAST!!!! *bounces around the office!* Come on out and say “Oh Hai!” everyone!
…this post is sheer nerd excitement it has nothing to do with the two large coffees I have downed today….
IG.Justin | March 18, 2010 5:23 pm
Little-known fact: Akira is actually Sarah after three large coffees…
( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfpMXS3L0JQ#t=2m40s )
spazmat | March 18, 2010 5:57 pm
O hai! I wish I could be there; just too many constraints with money and kids. Hope it all goes well for you guys!
March 19, 2010 1:06 am
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by irrationalgames: PAX East is almost here!! Learn about our plans! Get some schwag! http://bit.ly/d7Vrti...
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cbrunet | March 19, 2010 7:26 am
ehuntley83 | March 19, 2010 4:04 pm
Dude, I’m so there…
Can’t wait! I’ll be there on Saturday!
I’ll need to bring my upgraded Bag of Holding to handle all the schwag I’m planning on hording.
tcobra | March 19, 2010 7:16 pm
I am going to be at PAX all three days. I can’t wait this is my first convention.
buckybit | March 19, 2010 10:32 pm
All interesting panels – the podcast one will hopefully be recorded: Ol’man Jeff Green & Shawn reunion + Ken, Larry etc … that sounds fun.
My fav would be the PC Future one – Herb Sutter’s ‘Free lunch is over’ article is still relevant and multi-threading, parallelizing still unconquered territory to a large degree. The 2-core XBox and PCs were a handy excuse not to dig into the dirty world of concurrency.
Facing the facts, the hardware guys are 5-10 years ahead of (all) software Duders. Everybody knows this. Not just Intel. Think of 16/32/64 cores PCs – it’s coming. 22nm-fabs are already under way. Moore’s law is irrelevant. Where are the operating systems, where are the programming languages, to deal with this challenges. Why is the industry stuck in C/C++ / OOLs?
What studio will have the time and money to experiment, to invest. Or is everybody waiting that Intel will automate the threading like they did with /Qparallel – how does that work for game-engines (I was being sarcastic, if you couldn’t tell). Maybe waiting that Microsoft will do the work like they promised to. Where is the new leaner CLR? Automated parallelism is not going to safe game developers – not even Mark Reign’s mighty Unreal Engine.
Interesting times.
buckybit | March 19, 2010 10:40 pm
“parallelism”
“… not going to SAVE game devs…”
sorry for the typos, Duders. English was my 4th/10 lingos … still struggling, after 20+ years … AND it’s 3:38am GMT+1
IG.ShawnElliott | March 22, 2010 10:18 am
Good god! How many languages do you speak? I’m envious.
axident | March 21, 2010 7:07 am
Some interesting stuff… Wish I could go… Especially for the one about PC gaming… I’d love to see what Irrational thinks about the whole market.
adesilva | March 21, 2010 2:02 pm
Cant wait for PAX, I am only able to go on sunday because of work and school but it should be a great time! Will love being able to meet some developers and new people should be a good time.
rocklobsta | March 22, 2010 2:01 pm
I will see you mofo’s there. I’ll be the black guy in the ninja mask.
adamthenerd | March 22, 2010 9:21 pm
I’ll be with you in spirit. But only if there’s some tease about Freedom Force. Otherwise… just kidding I’ll be up to date on the coverage!