PAX 2008 was my very first PAX.  I’ve been on the road for a while, E3, ComicCon, Leipzig, and now PAX so I was ready for another round of industry demos and press interviews.  But that’s not PAX, not at all.

First of all, it’s in Seattle.  And I love Seattle.  The Convention Center is downtown, a short walk from the hotel and right near Pike Place, fabled location of the first Starbucks (BTW, I stood in line with Felicia Day at Starbucks!)

But PAX.  PAX is special because it’s the people who go to the event that made my PAX experience totally unique.  It was filled with gamers, people anxious to see and touch the games they were passionate about, get a sneak peek into the upcoming releases, and show their passion for their favorite pastime.

I had two morning demos to do at 10am for Halo Wars, the doors coincidently opened up at that time, and as 10am approached on the first day I could see the crowd outside the exhibition hall gathering, it was noisy, they were counting down, it was a lot of people.  When the doors opened the fans RAN into the show, off to see all sorts of games and quite a few of them headed for the Microsoft stand and the small demo area we had setup.  Very quickly the area filled up, all the seats were gone, and people were standing three deep behind the seats to see the demo.

Jim Ying and I ran through the demo, he was driving the game as I talked so I could actually see the crowd.  And here’s where PAX got REALLY special for me.  Those fans were EXCITED.  They cheered when the Spartans jacked the Wraiths.  They clapped when the shortsword carpet bombed the troops, and many of them came up afterwards telling me how awesome the game looked and how much they were looking forward to Halo Wars coming out.

Seeing the fans respond to the game was better than any other demo I’ve given, worth the trip to Seattle just to feel that excitement for the game from the fans, and made me extremely proud to be part of this product.

Graeme