PAX

I recently returned from the Penny Arcade Expo!

This is not an extended report, but I can link you instead to some photographs – here – PAX on my Flickr.

I’m particularly fond of the Bioshock booth photo, and I have several more I need to upload.

One anecdote relates to the photo that you might see of my Gameboy DS, which might be difficult to understand. The game I’m playing is “The World Ends With You,” a great one-off JRPG with some interesting mechanics. The game allows you to level up your special powers (called pins) three different ways. 1) through use, which is a standard mechanic 2) through turning off the Gameboy and resting it for a period of time, and 3) by “mingle,” which allows you to get points on your pins for every other person who happens to be using a Gameboy DS in the same area that you are. The idea behind Mingle is that you leave Mingle on and go to someplace where another Gameboy is potentially likely. I would get a few hits, for example, just walking around campus at MSU.

So I attempted to fire up Mingle when there were approximately 3,000 people in the same room as me with a DS, attempting to set the world record for Most DSes played in the same place.

I am pleased and amused to report that, while it was working at first, the Mingle Mode eventually just started crashing me back to the play screen without registering hits. It was definitely overwhelmed. Not before I racked up a few thousand points though.

During the actual record attempt I was playing Final Fantasy 4.