So I attended PAX this year for the first time, this is my first gaming convention of any real size and I am amazed by it. It is a controlled kind of chaos that would shock and awe the media and can only disprove many of the stereotypes that I hear about people who enjoy the same things I do.

First let me give some background on myself so that my stereotypes and ranting will make sense. I have been a PC gamer since '97. I cut my teeth on Mechwarrior 2 Mercenaries and Command and Conquer. My first shooter was Unreal Tournament the demo, which was also my first experience with a LAN. Which after playing to death I quickly progressed to Half-Life, then to Team Fortress Classic and finally Counter-Strike. I work for a insurance company as a Java developer which thankfully allows me the money to play a lot of games.

For my hardware I use a custom-made ATI/AMD machine, which is normally a step behind the current generation of hardware, I also own a Wii (who doesn't) and a XBox360, which admittedly get used more as a vehicle for NetFlix than anything else.

So back to PAX. I attended two panels yesterday, Friday, at PAX. The first was the Hey Ash Whacha filmin' panel, which was awesome. The cast is funny and the fans that were there were great to be around. I wish more people could see this side of video games, the side where a whole bunch of people come together to have fun and not the side that everyone think exists with kids plotting to kill each other and overweight 35 year olds in their parents basement.