My pic of the day. Although I did see Darth Vader with a couple of stormtroopers earlier on, it would have been better if Vader was sporting the plushie but oh well. My proof that these plushies are for everyone.

　　Today was an incredibly busy day since I went and checked out everything but the big 3. The PAX 10 booth has a really cool lineup of indie games that were picked for this competition that they're having. People who go to PAX have a card where they can vote for their favorite game. If you haven't checked it out yet, The Maw is definitely one of the most interesting games I've seen in awhile. It's very cute but just because it's cute, doesn't mean it's childish or just for girls. Cool gameplay and great design makes a fun game for everyone. I am really enjoying PAX, even though I'm working the entire time and probably won't get a chance to really soak it in. I am happy to see all these nerds get together and do what they love to do in an environment where it's totally cool to geek out and get really excited about tabletop gaming. It seems like people are mingling, making friends and just having a great time and you really feel that vibe here at PAX. It's not just press and media walking around like drones trying to cover everything, this is a huge group of consumers who are entering what seems like a giant amusement park. It's fantastic. I wish I got a picture, but I saw some guy going up the escalators with a sign saying, "LFG Risk." It made me laugh because I thought it was great. Why? Because a) I knew what it meant, lol b) This was the place to do it c) He probably did find a group.

　　I wanted to check out more panels but I didn't get a chance to today, but yesterday's panel about the growing number of women in the industry was interesting. I think many female gamers can agree that the environment is changing slowly, but it is still difficult for a girl to be a gamer and be accepted without the annoying comments and constant request for nude photos. Annie Carlson had some great comments which weren't exactly appropriate for the news article but everything she said was true and I'm sure if you're a female and have played online, you can relate. I eventually stopped playing female characters and switched to males and now I've pretty much stopped playing online entirely with the exception of playing with people I know. There are a ton of great male gamers out there however, that do respect female gamers and love the idea that the other gender is gaming (or realized that there have always been girl gamers, just no one else really noticed). Speak up please!

　　I could continue and make this a really long blog entry but I think I'll end it here, go to bed before I pass out and pick it up some other day in my own blog.