Pixel Theories | a gamer getting older...

KIA & Microsoft want to send you to e3!

It's very simple, at midnight tonight download the gamer picture for entry into the contest. The grandprize winner will win a trip for two to L.A. for e3, 3 grand in cash, home theater system, & a Zune. Oh and a KIA Soul-you know the advert with the mice.

Contest will start in about fifty minutes which should give you plenty of time to check you account info. As they will notify the winner with a phone call via the number that is tied to the gamertag.

I'll spiffy this post with links when I get home, as I can't post the URL to Major's blog, thanks to no "cut & paste" functions on my iPhone.

Majornelson.com

Emerald City Comicon Day 2 - Halo Panel & the Wares

Upon arriving at nearly 11:15 on day 2, I decided that I'd get to The Halo Panel early.  I guess i figured that it would be packed -- I was wrong. 

I just happened to be siting in on Sunday Conversation with Ian Sattler; what I was sitting in on was a passionate convo about "trades vs. issues."  The dialog was interesting with industry professionals not only on the panel but also in the audience.  Basically readers were concerned with the content of most issues and confessing that they buy trades instead of individual issues so that they feel that their purchase is justified.  In agreement the insiders divulged that sometimes issues are crossed over, or intersecting stories to give additional background to characters per demand.  Overall the discussion was an eyeopener, I can see both sides of the argument, and really this is the kind of issue that can't be solved in fifty minutes.

The Halo Panel started at about three minutes late,  Frankie, Eric Rabb (Senior Editor for Tor Books), Kevin Grace (Microsoft Games Studio’s Managing Editor), and Greg Bear (Author of Halo novels 7 thru 9) take the stage.  Initially, Frankie talks about H3:OD ST, and future Halo properties, then he introduces Greg Bear.  Then we get into the nitty gritty, Frankie announces that Greg Bear will be the next author of the Halo Series.  The Seventh Halo novel will begin a trilogy of novels about the Forerunners; with the first novel to come out in 2010.  Before  continuing we also are informed of a Halo Encyclopedia that will be a catch all for the Halo Universe to be released in November 2009.

Bear, has a history with sci-fi, he's been writing for at least the last 26 years and has won and been nominated for several awards.  I was impressed with his initial thoughts about writing for Halo especially his thoughts about having a "classic sci-fi opportunity."  Even when he said that "it's gonna be fun..." I never had the feeling that he was either putting on a show or interested in cashing a check.  Bear seems to have a genuine interest in writing for Halo and that puts my mind at ease.  To put the book end, pun very much intended, to the novel discussion Frankie adds that the new trilogy of books won't ruin the mystery of the Forerunners.

Forgive me.  I should've had a notepad, but I only had my iPhone so my notes are...well...shorthanded.  Thus the result of my Q & A note taking is basically a summary of a few questions that were relevant of posting.  The "ZOMG Halo is awesome!!" comments/questions were not taken.

Q: Are there any plans to reintroduce "the Chief, Blue/Katana teams, or Catherine Halsey" in future games or books?

A: We will not discuss any future games today.  But as Halo is an ongoing franchise, we will address what happens to the aforementioned characters in the future.

Q: Are they any more races to be discovered in The Covenant?

A: In short, doubtful.

Q: The Flood consumes intelligent beings and sustainable bio mass, were there any other sentient life forms that may have survived the first firing of the Halos?  (Impressive Q from what must've been an 8 year old).

A: I don't know (wink, wink).

Q: Why did you release Halo MEGA bloks?

A: Demand from the community.

Q: What about the Peter Jackson project?

A: P.J. is a nice guy (Frankie says it almost giggling), but we're not discussing any future video game projects today.

What ensues after the above questions is a long discussion about amateur screenplay writers and Halo.  But Frankie is quick to point out that Halo may be "too big" a project for any movie to encapsulate it.  Additionally, the whole panel gets a little off-topic and more of what is discussed are things left on the cutting room floor during production of H2 (don't worry, there were no details).  And before we knew it the panel was over before anyone could reference or discuss H3:ODST.  And yeah, I am partly to blame for that, as I thought it would be addressed, and I never got in line.

The rest of the day was spent looking at more art on floor of the Con.  More or less I spent my time looking for any copies of American Flagg and I only found 1, Issue #33 (flickr will come later) & finding trades at the 50% off booths.  I did manage to score trades of 1602, Secret Invasion, & The House of M.  All of this will be update later on flickr.  If you have any Q's about the Con, or feel I missed something, please reply.  I am more than willing to talk about the Con, or any aspect of what I've left out.  There was a bunch of free "S" that I got, that will also be on the flickr later tonight.

Emerald City Comicon Day 1 - the preview.

I'm not the comic book nerd I use to be.  But not for the lack of love, mostly it has been a cost effective decision.  I really couldn't afford the price tag after a certain point.  Sure I still loved comics, but that was part of the problem.  I liked too many characters, all with their own books, thus being a collector, or even an avid fan became expensive fairly quickly.  At that same time, video games started to fill that void.

Now, I shop at Half Price Books, looking for "trades" or graphic novels of the story arcs of my favorite heroes. And though it's hard to wrap my head around what has happened to these familiar friends, being nearly a decade and a half removed, I find that I am just as interested as I was all those years ago.

So upon arriving at my first ever ECCC, I was...overwhelmed.    This really was an unexpected trip, as I had my two sisters visiting for the weekend.  I wasn't sure that they'd have fun at the Con, but after a short description of the Con piqued their interest, I figured "what the hell."

Before we made it to ticket registration we were greeted by a young couple and their son.  They noticed that we had not paid and upon confirmation, they gave us their Saturday passes.  Stunned and sixty dollars richer, I perused the booths of ECCC, admiring the old comic panels, cosplayers, and artists, while my siblings gathered a plethora of free buttons.

The WSCC is perfectly suited to host this event.  As the seventh annual ECCC doesn't feel that crowded or insane as PAX does.  I love my PAX, but I must admit it that it might be too big.  This Con is smaller, more intimate and at the same time as informative and fun as some of the other conventions I've attended.  Though this day would mean no panels (the discussion kind), I deduced that today would be a good day to see what I'd want to purchase tomorrow.

I spent the majority of the day taking pics with the phone (I really need a DSLR).  I managed to get pictures of a mini Hellboy/Abe Sapien duo, the Ghostbutsers, and various Star Wars characters (the flickr will be updated tomorrow).

I did manage to find an old X-Men panel from the early 90's with Colossus, Wolvie, and Gambit.  I can't remember what issue the panel was from, but it was definitely "Uncanny" material.  I didn't pull the trigger as I thought that this panel would be here on Sunday and I really didn't have anything for keeping the panel intact during transit. 

We only spent two hours on Saturday, we got there at 2pm and I had to work late the night before.  Really though it was all my fault for waking up late.  With an understanding of the layout of ECCC and an idea of what I might want to purchase, we packed  up and headed home.

Coming tomorrow:
- flickr update.
- Halo panel details.
- My wares.
- More ECCC

The ECC is Right Around the Corner

Some of you locals might like this.  It's a 12 x 18 panel print by Daniel m. Davis.  There will only be 33 of these prints available at ECCC.  Taken directly from the Monster Commute graphic novel the print is a view of a steampunk Seattle, featuring the most iconic monument in the city.  It's only fifteen simoleons and after missing out on the Hulk exclusive last year, this will be first up on my itinerary!

e3 '08 - Ninty and Sony keynotes...

Yesterday I was going to post two seperate responses to Nintendo and Sony respectively.  But after some internal deliberation, I found both addresses to be lacking.  So much so that they don't deserve individual posts.  As I said previously I don't pay much attention to the figures that are stated, they've never really impressed or surprised me.

What did surprise me was the lack of innovation from both companies.  As Nintendo and Sony are both veterans that have, in the past, proved themselves by releasing/showing various new hardware and software which have had serious impacts on the industry.  Instead what was delivered was statistic after statistic.  As both companies had to have realized the at the end of the day previous, that they just brought their knife to a gun fight.

So in light of their lack of commitment to e3; I feel competent that I can summarize both Sony and Nintendo's keynotes each in a first-person perspective:

Sony: "Okay we f*^&ed up. We know we f*^&ed up.  But we're going to make it better by cutting prices; mainly because we can't compete.  So please, come back.  We've got a new SOCOM game, God of War III, and.....well....please, come back."

Nintendo: "We'd like to show you forty-two other things we can do with wiimotes.  None of which relate anything to Mario, Zelda, Kid Icarus or the many other licenses that we've got locked away in a vault and aren't going to do a damn thing with.  Sure we've got new games in the pipeline, I don't know what they are, but if I find Shigeru; he can go through them in great detail.  Shiggy?  Shiggy?  Has anyone seen a creative little Japanese guy around here somewhere?  Seriously, this isn't funny anymore!?!"

Two companies who have both at one time or another dominated the games industry; have now become the underdogs.  And only time will tell if MS can learn a thing or two from history.  Mainly, that this is one market where you can never rest on your laurels.

e3 '08 - Microsoft keynote address...

I used to think that e3 was a great expo.  I used to take the week off, read as much as I could, play with other individuals that I could talk to about the event and I even had my own mecca to LA back in 04'.  But now the lack of intimacy of the event has made the 3-day extravaganza a little bit of a bore.  Used to be that e3 was the an all-in moment at the poker game for first party developers.  Now, it's just a jockeying point for 1st party execs to recite arbitrary stats, that couldn't be verified by the best financial analysts.  Fact is that these guys cook their virtual books before they take the stage in July.  And I've seen so much of in the last 14 years that I've grown tired of it.

That being said Microsoft has made an interesting move at this year's e3.  Their interesting list of features for the new and improved 360 dashboard has me a little excited for the fall update.  And there's the rub.   When exactly is their fall update going to be?  With a lackluster spring update, and the lack of games from June to late-October, and a plethora of mediocre XBLA games, the house of M has been one of respite.

Hopefully, this latest addition to the dashboard will quash statements from those within the community who bitch and complain about paying for XBL.  Say what you want about the free services from Sony and Nintendo, it is becoming more and more apparent that those services can't hold a candle to the innovations and adjustments that are made to XBL via dashboard updates.  And it should also be noted that these adjustments are tailored specifically from community members that use the product most.  When you think about it it's really quite impressive.

Never made it to Emerald City Comicon

I never made it to the Emerald City Comicon.  You really have to wonder about the timing of this expo though, it's during Mother's Day weekend.  Horrible timing in my opinion.  Anyway, I've been looking at Flickr pages and reading up on the con, It doesn't look like I missed a whole lot.  But still would've liked to attend; I was on the fence about buying the limited edition Hulk piece.  So perhaps someone can change the date of 09's ECC.  Cause this year's scheduling was crap. 

Jet City Retro a NWCGE experience.

Jet City Retro was a NWCGE (Northwest Classic Gaming Enthusiasts) expo held this last weekend in Seattle's U District at the Hotel Deca.  This is the first time I've seen the Deca since it's remodel, but like many boutique hotels in the area, Hotel Max, etc., the Deca blends its old world architecture with modern design and lighting.  And while it was a perfect place to hold a small expo, the expo itself was...well...underwhelming.

The problem was a lack of information, while I was interested in the vendors, I had a hard time adjusting to the lack of people who had shown up for the event.  There were three rooms: vendors, free play, and Rock Band.  Had I, or the rest of the individuals showing up known there would be a Rock Band tourney, and NES competitions etc. I imagine the turnout would have been better.  That being said, I did have fun in the freeplay room, the highlight was some quality time on a Mame cabinet playing Rolling Thunder.  In the vendor room I almost bought a Electronic Quarterback game that I remember playing as a child, but it's condition/price was beyond what I was going to pay for it.  The other noteworthy item from the vendor showing was a Classic Game Watch handheld that was overpriced.

Thankfully I live close to the city so this really wasn't a disappointment, but for those who drove from Portland, or parts of E. Washington, Idaho, Montana, Canada, I feel that it may have been not worth their while.  If I go to another NWCGE it'll be larger with more to offer in terms of entertainment and interaction.  Besides this was a two hour stop, I had other plans which included a trip to Pagliacci's, a visit to my old elementary school, now a U District community center, and the Husky Spring Game.