PAX East Roundup
PAX East is literally 15 minutes away from my house outside Boston. I can't always justify heading out to Seattle for PAX Prime, although this year I am tempted by the prospect of doing panels there, but PAX East is always a no-brainer.
This year I wrote three pieces for G4, about Fallout: New Vegas and the process of designing its downloadable content, the balance between story and mechanics in video games, and the challenge of popularizing eSports in the United States.
I only did one other article from the show, for PocketGamer.biz, just a quick interview with James Schultz, the Community Coordinator for mobile developer Halfbrick Studios. If I ever get to Australia, I'd love to visit these guys. Incidentally, this roundup post is up so late after the event because I was waiting for this interview piece to be published!
There's one other thing I have to show you from PAX East, and that's some video of the "Stuff Your Criticism! I Want a Review!" panel I moderated, which was a real thrill.
Video Games vs. Tabletop Wargames
This post exists mostly to create a space for some pictures of a recent game of Flames of War, a tabletop wargame set during World War II. I have a few friends who might be interested in seeing what the game looks like while it's being played, and I don't really have anywhere else to post them!
But I also realized, through the course of playing this game, why it is that I love video games so much better than card, tabletop, or board games: predictability of systems. Video games are a truer test of skill, in my mind, than these other kinds of games, and so they play into my competitive spirit much more closely.
Read on for neat pictures of World War II miniatures, and/or some of my thoughts along these lines.