Seattle, open your rain-soaked, water-logged heart — I’m heading straight for you. And when I get to PAX Prime 2011, I will be in full geek mode (and I will have this year’s buttons to give away). Not only will Activision have a booth on the floor with fun stuff in it, but I’ve also been asked to be a guest on two panels:
Infinite Respawn: How Gaming Can Keep & Save Your Relationship
Serpent Theatre – Saturday 10:30am – 11:30am
Video games have been the scapegoat for many of society’s ills, but not enough is being said about how video games are creating positive, happy, and loving relationships between families, partners, and married couples. Join us as we share not just tips but funny anecdotes and personal stories of gaming sessions that help bring people closer, including the saving of a fractured relationship. Have stories of your own to share, come to the panel and bestow the story on your fellow PAX following.
Panelists include: Chris Brown [Site Owner & Host, The Married Gamers], Christa Charter [Trixie Enterprises], Aubrey Norris [Deep Silver], Dan Amrich [Activision], Elizabeth Parmeter [Editor-In-Chief, GamingAngels], Zachary Snell
The Sorting Workshop
Unicorn Theatre – Sunday 3:00pm – 4:00pm
Writing Workshop: Journalism, PR, Community Managers
Industry vets inflict writing on attendees to determine where in the industry an aspiring writer belongs. A game developer and publicist kick things off with a 10-minute product demo that you get 20 minutes to write up. Then a panel of journalists, community managers, and publicists sort your writing samples into which field it ought to be in based on tone, content, and accuracy. You won’t be graded, but you might be mocked with dramatic readings of your sample. Whatever happens, you’ll have a chance to make industry contacts and learn the difference between writing for journalism, for community management, for marketing, and for PR. Bring pens, pencils, and a surface to write on (we recommend the PAX guide) — we’ll provide the rest.
Panelists include: AJ Glasser [Lead Writer, Inside Social Games, Inside Network], Susan Arendt [Senior Editor, The Escapist], Dan Amrich [Social Media Manager, Activision], Sue Bohle [Founder, The Bohle Company], John “Seg” Seggerson [Content Programmer, Telltale Games]
Kat will be there as well, and we will be spreading our love of The Great Dalmuti to whomever would like to, um, be a carrier. It’s a card game that is easy to pick up in one sitting, easy for everyone to play more or less right away. We’ll explain as we go. Games allow up to eight people, so meet us in the tabletop gaming area Friday night at around 7pm. We’ll squat a table and play with whoever appears.
Also, dammit, this time, I want to do some Rock Band stuff. I’m also down for split-screen Blur if people wanna do that. And I’ll loiter in the Activision booth (we’re near Nintendo’s booth) as much as I can so I can be easily found by anybody who wants to say hi.
