just got autographs from the PA guys. mike (gabe) was quiet, didn’t say much; jerry (tycho) was introspective when i asked him about how it felt being a celebrity now. he paused, thinking about it, and looked a little sad. ‘it makes me feel bad’, he said. ‘i hate that now people have to wait to talk to me.’ he said he had always thought of himself as incomplete, not totally able to connect to people. he initially believed that the newfound fame and popularity would help complete him in some way, “make me into a real boy”, as he put it. instead, he feels that in some way the problem has been compounded. he’s a big guy, bald by choice, but in that moment he seemed so fragile. i tried to reassure him in some way, suggesting that such insecurity might help keep him humble, which is not a bad thing in itself. hopefully i didn’t come across as condescending, an issue i struggle with myself. he seemed like a genuine, likeable person, and i hope things stay ‘real’ for him and mike as all things PAX continue to evolve.

exhibit hall was open today; in line for a VR thingy called inside a huge rotating sphere, met jenna – we discussed spirituality, the war, and how the location of one’s center of gravity is gender based. she has an intriguing job, as an ‘eraser’ – she collects and then destroys the medical files of the deceased.

jenna did fantastically in the sphere; she destroyed her enemies (wandering bots) and looked cool doing it. i fell down a lot, cursing said sphere. the experience was interesting; a fuzzy rendering of the olympic park in munich (which i visited in the 80s, oddly enough) via two tiny TVs, while a fiberglass sphere does its best to roll out from under you. jenna did her best to cheer me on, bless her. i exited dizzy and humble – apparently, the smaller you are, the better.

still, it was fun, and the russian guys running it were cool. i asked them to give me the ‘non-combatant’ version, since i knew it would challenging enough just figuring out how to walk around; one of them said that he prefers that version, and they only added the ‘shooter’ one because they figured ‘that’s what the kids would want at PAX.’ and they’d be absolutely right – only old guys like me would want to wuss out.

they’ve been working on various prototypes for awhile now; their next one will forgo the vr goggles. instead, the image environment will be projected onto the sphere from outside, surrounding the occupant inside via their own eyes. not sure how the directionals would work, but it sounds promising.

the US army has a booth here, in a not-so-subtle fashion; among the other game booths hawking product, they’re pushing ‘america’s army‘ – it’s like unreal or halo, except it takes place in the real world, in real countries, depicting actual battles. they easily had the most number of computers available for sampling game play; several soldiers in uniform were working the booth, which was decorated with a full-size military humvee and other various equipment. something about the army selling a first-person shooter starring themselves, ostensibly as a recruiting tool, seems a little troublesome. i know it’s been out for awhile, but we’re talking zero degrees of separation here, so let’s call it what it is – modern, current warfare as entertainment. according to the ad banner at the booth, ‘america’s army’ is rated T for Teens. n-n-n-n-nineteen, that is.

watched a screening of ‘the gamers‘ – dreadfully silly, but consitently full of fun moments and ‘inside jokes’ that RPGers will dig.

off to a party. more PAX later.

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