For the first time in history, the Penny Arcade Convention has completely sold out. Before 2009, there have been tickets for sale at the door, but this time, many video game enthusiasts and geeks alike will be left out in the cold (and possibly rain) in Downtown Seattle.

Craigslist wanted ads for PAX ‘09 tickets have been popping up almost by the hour to try to snatch up leftover tickets from buyers that are unable to attend, or have extra tickets. One ad was entitled “Will trade first born for PAX ‘09 tickets!” while others are offering to pay any (monetary) price asked by a seller.

With this news, I can say without any argument, that the Penny Arcade Convention’s sellout is a glimpse of the bright future for the video game industry, gamers, and the convention itself. PAX began in ‘04 and oddly enough sold 1337 pre-order tickets, which should have given us some kind of idea of what we’re dealing with here in Seattle. Last year, PAX ‘08 sold over 50,000 tickets, and this year’s number has not yet been released but I would imagine it to be closer to 100,000.

Since the downfall of E3 to the real gamer community when it officially became closed to the public and was turned into a strict media event, PAX has become a diamond in the rough, and immensely valuable to the west coast (and international) gamer.

Good luck to those of you that have tickets, and for those of you that don’t… well, looks like you’re shit out ofluck. But either way, I will be there and will plan on documenting PAX ‘09 and posting about it here. And yes, I will be in full ninja garb once again.

… And that’s all that I have to say.

The previous article that I posted entitled, “Gamers for Obama” prompted a discussion in my mind about the current election that we are facing, and the political debates going on now. Don’t worry, I have not turned into a political nerd on you… The politics that matter most to me are ones dealing with video games!

I really don’t want to put forth that I am for Obama by posting that “Gamers for Obama” button, because both Obama and McCain are on the edge about video games, and thats what I care about. What does matter to me is censorship of my entertainment that I feel should continue to be graphic and adult rated, just the way I like it. As an adult, I can make my own decisions about what I view and do, and it makes me nervous whenever talk of censorship is brought up.

The facts about what Obama and McCain’s views on censorship have not completely been disclosed because honestly there are larger issues that are more important to more people. But both of them have said that they believe it ultimately is the parent’s responsibility to limit and control the video games that their children play.

Common Sense Media, an organization that is not associated to any political party and is self described as “dedicated to improving the media and entertainment lives of kids and families”, sent a questionnaire to political candidates about families and media. One of the questions was about their views on the control of violent video games at the federal level to keep them out of children’s hands. Obama’s reply:

“We need to give parents the tools and information they need to make choices about what programs their children are watching or what video games they are playing… I would call upon the video game industry to give parents better information about programs and video games by improving the voluntary rating system we currently have. Broadcasters and video game producers should take it upon themselves to improve this system to include easier to find and easier to understand descriptions of exactly what kind of content is included. But if the industry fails to act, then my administration would… I supported federal funding to study the impact of video games on children’s cognitive development.”

Finding out about John McCain’s stance on video game censorship in any kind of credible source has proven to be quite difficult. Because of my own personal biases I think that information like that should be easily acquired by both candidates but alas, as I said before it isn’t as important as some other issues that we are facing in our society right now.

Lori Ingham on her blog ConChrist has done the interwebs and many people alike a huge favor to actually ask John McCain in person about his views on video game and media violence. She paraphrases his response and stated that, “He felt that parents should be the ones to decide for their kids on a case by case basis (which I was satisfied with). He then did a weird segueway into the evils of child pornography from there, which kind of had me shaking my head.” I feel as though this response can be said to coincide with Obama’s views on video game censorship, and they both favor leaving the decision in the parents hands. But then again John McCain said in an interview that he cannot use a computer, so I doubt he has any knowledge of video games and will most likely have someone else make decisions about them for him.

When it really comes down to it, I understand that being able to control the video games that your children play is a very important issue for many parents in America because there are many video games that parents think are not suited for their children. I am in support of people being able to monitor and regulate their children’s intake of media, gore, sex or what have you. That is why every console system that is out right now has parental controls on it… and many people work for video game companies and all that they do is program and test these systems.

So what are we so worried about? Oh now I remember… Parents are often too lazy to actually do the research or the reading the instruction booklet that comes with their consoles they buy for their children. Too bad we can’t just censor stupid people. The industry is blamed for giving these children inappropriate games when parents have full control over what kind of games are played on their system. So maybe it isn’t an industry issue after all because they have responded, and I would go so far as to say that it is not in any part an issue that should be addressed in any political agenda in the state or federal level.

If you click on the picture you can seriously buy this button. And then wear it.

And then… I will high five you if I see you walking the streets of Seattle…

Will Wright, a man after my own heart, (in reference to the Sims games that I believe are only primitively paving the way for future games) has created a fantastic game… that no one will ever get to play.

What? A game from EA that we will never play!? Yeah and that game is called Spore.

In 2005 Will Wright demonstrated Spore to an audience of media personnel at the video game convention called E3. He went through the stages of Spore that were in place at the time, and showed the world what they had been waiting for in regards to an industry revolutionizing game. For the first time we had the opportunity to see the world of spore, the options, the actions, and the choices that we were soon to have when the game was released. But over time this game has changed, and in an opinion that myself and many other have – Spore devolved since the unveiling.

How do you ask? This is how:

For the rest of this article I reference the actual video footage taken at E3 that can be found here. It is an hour long demonstration and speech by Will Wright in 2005 about Spore at the time.

Will Wright begins the Spore demonstration at the beginning. The cell phase was quite similiar to that of the current Spore game found at your local game store. When we enter the creature creator through, we an idea of what the gaming experience was supposed to be like.

This here is what the original creature creator looked like in general. The pieces were less organized and there were not as many as we have now. But then again, take a good look at the internal structure of this organism. There is a serious emphasis on the creature’s bone structure that is very interesting. This exists in the current version of Spore, but at a cartoon level. Ah, cartoony graphics. You’ve only got me started.

Here you can see that our creature, previously a cell, has evolved into a sea creature. The underwater phase was completely left out of the entire game. Watching this part of the video was fascinating though, in the way that the creature moved and what kinds of other creatures lived in the water. Still I want you to take note of the type of graphics that you see here to reference later.

When the underwater stage is over, the user places legs on the creature and then it walks up on land. Something really interesting that Will Wright demos in this part of the game is attacking and eating another creature. Yes, this can be done in the current Spore, but have you ever seen a puddle of blood from a creature that you just ripped apart? Wright also continued to drag this dead creature around the area trying to keep it away from another very large creature.

Will Wright continues to go through the demonstration’s stages, which were highly less developed at the time. There wasn’t anything that really stood out from the tribal and civilization stages except for creature personality. When he bought a campfire for his tribe of creatures, or built a building for them in civilization they danced and cheered because apparently they have personality. Maybe I just have had deadbeat creatures, but I don’t recall them interacting or caring more so than other creatures I have created. Personality-wise, my creatures all did the same things behaviorally as any others regardless of their culture, their diets, and their traits.

Another more sadistic aspect to the game that was left out was death of a creature on a planet that could not support it due to the terraforming score being too low. This here is a picture of what happens when you drop off a creature on a desolate plane with no atmosphere – it explodes. Those are its actual body parts that you see there.

Graphics wise, I think that EA made a wrong turn over all. The photos above look like they are from a serious game that was intended for teenagers and adults to play and create some wicked creatures and cities. What I see now when I boot up Spore is something more like a children’s games. Everything is bright and curvy like they are actually balloons inflated and then painted tie-dye. Just take a look at my Spore review article, and you can see all the bright curvy lines everywhere. I bought this game to wreck havoc on other civilizations, to create and mold things, and essentially to play the game that Will Wright showed me in 2005. What I got is a mystery to all gamerkind.

You can love it or you can hate it. It disappointed me. Even more so because everything that is missing from our 2008 version that was in the 3 years older version will most likely be coming out in expansion packs just like Will Wright did with the Sims. And thats fine… I have no problem with that because I understand it makes money. It just isn’t the same because I know that there is this version of spore that exists somewhere.

But… I will ask one more time. Where can I buy THAT version of Spore, and return the one I bought a couple weeks ago?

<Attn: Possible Spoilers Within>

So after playing through Spore, I have decided it is finally time to write something about it. I am reluctant to review Spore because I am still unsure if I like the game. I believe it is a matter of waiting for every video and detail of information on Spore, preordering the Galactic edition, and then twiddling my thumbs in bed the night before the release… and then the downfall of actually playing it.

Hold on! Hear me out here… Here’s my unbiased version of my Spore review:

Gameplay

Spore goes through five stages of evolution – cell stage, creature stage, tribal stage, civilization stage and finally space stage. The beginning of Spore proves to be gloriously simple within the cell stage and creature stage. In these two stages, you are the creator of your own little organism and get to swim/run around to find different parts to create even more interesting beings. You try to eat food, run away from powerful enemies, and fight or make friends with other creatures to gain DNA that acts almost as a monetary system. The more DNA the more complex your creature can become, and the better parts you can equip to your creature to benefit them in the wild. The two first stages of Spore give sense of what this game has to offer… but the next stages just let you down.

The tribal stage really wasn’t all that bad. Your creature has now become a race, and you have a small tribe to take care of. You can clothe your creatures, and build some simple buildings to allow them to use tools to again, befriend or fight the enemy. This stage of Spore is the beginning of a culture, and the first time that you are involuntarily responsible for all of your creatures. Creatures must gather food that acts like money and energy in this phase. You must have enough food to build the right buildings, have more creatures, and keep creatures fed.

In Spore’s civilization stage it is an upgrade of the tribal stage. The best part about this stage is that you can create buildings and vehicles to exercise that creativity muscle. You gain the ability to interact on a deeper level with other civilizations, and have more tools available – cars, airplanes etc. Your race of creatures attempts to take control over the world by military, economic, or religious means. Spice is a natural that is mined and used as the monetary system to buy more buildings and more vehicles. Overall the civilization stage is the least memorable stage for me. It is possibly because I actually like Sid Meyer’s Civilization IV, and this seems like an extremely watered down version of it. I am honestly having a hard time remembering anything about it, and it is still my least favorite part of the entire game. Enough said.

Oh and space. Spore’s space stage is definitely daunting at first. It was frustrating to go from a small wolrd to a galaxy and not really know what was going on. Basically at the end of the civilization stage you build a space ship that becomes your mode of transportation and central unit for this entire stage. You maneuver this one space ship around your little planet to gather spice and sell it to other planets, fight other space ships, take over other planets, terraform planets, and to prevent eco-disasters. You make many more alliances/enemies in this part because there is an infinite area of occupation by other civilizations. To advance in this part you obtain medals or badges to commemorate different things that you have accomplished. From finding hidden artifacts on planets to starting the most wars… you honestly can play (and win) any way that you want to.

<Attn: End Game Spoiler> So here’s the final deal – You get a badge for winning. And nothing happens. No unlockables. No upgrades. Not even a short clip that only the few and brave get to see… The ending is lame. I am a little biased though, because I played to the end before anyone else I knew to achieve whatever it was that was to be achieved… and then was the one who got left out of Mercenaries 2, and got nothing for it. Two days of my life… And in the end I got Spored.

Spore came out yesterday to the waiting hands of well… everyone.

Because I am a ninja I installed it just fine on my computer, but my boyfriend had a problem with his. As soon as it was finished downloading he attempted to play it. The computer crashed. Again and again we tried this… and eventually after some research and skill he realized that if he turned off his gpu he could play the game. What!? Apparently even one of the most hyped up and waited for games in the past ten years, was released without being thoroughly examined.

I attribute all of the problems that people are experiencing with Spore are a result of EA’s old habits. Repeatedly EA has released AAA titles and then came up short. Take the Sims 2 for example. It is interesting now to look back those forums when The Sims 2 was first released. The exact same type of problems were happening with the Sims 2 as Spore.

So my fellow Spore players, worry not. In a short while EA will release a patch to fix many problems, and hopefully all of the main problems will be fixed. EA just wanted us to beta test Spore for them.

The end has come to the most glorious time of the year for any gamer in the northwest, and possibly soon to be the United States – Penny Arcade Expo. This annual event, for those of you who are unfamiliar with it, is a convention and gathering of games and gamers alike to see new games, make connections with other gamers, and have a damn good time. Penny Arcade is an online comic strip that has become influential enough to create PAX. From console games, PC games, tabletop games, and handhelds… there is nothing leaving any gamer wanting more.

PAX 2008 had 60,000 attendees, which almost doubles last year’s visitors. It was felt as well. There is nothing like walking through the hallways at PAX in the Seattle Convention Center packed in with a bunch of smelly nerds. But then again, I will brave any horrid fumes for the sake of seeing and playing new video games… and not to mention the free shwag. In line to get in I talked to quite a few guys that were literally from all over the country – Maine, Utah, California, and a few from New York City. People are coming from far and wide to experience PAX, especially since the downfall of E3.

Along with the new game demos and previews, there are many panels to go to during the PAX. They range from instructionals for the average Joe who wants to make video games, female gamer panels, comic strip advice, and there was even one titled, “How to Get Your Girlfriend Into Gaming”. There is also a competition of gamer wit and skill called the Omegathon, in which the contestants (Omeganauts) compete in randomly selected games to win awesome prizes.

Oh and here’s pictures of me at Pax…

I am on the left, my pirate accomplice Megan is on the right.