So, PAX. I know a ton of people are going, as am I. But the real question I'm wondering is what's the main attraction? I personally am hyped about the expo hall (free t-shirts ftw!) and the concerts (Frontalot owns my soul). That aside, there's almost too much, and a lot of things overlap, frustratingly. The Wizard, Tron, and the concert are all at the same time, which I think is a serious mistake.

Also, about that whole Jack Thompson thing- where Jerry and Mike asked JT to come to PAX and do a Q&A session unannounced, and he blew it, that was... Well, predictable, but at least they're giving him a chance to talk to gamers. Honestly the guy doesn't really stand a chance. There are probably enough people at PAX who have a fair amount of legal knowledge (from playing Phoenix Wright) to make him very uncomfortable. Even so, it would have been nice to see him squirm.

Also, sadly, MC Chris won't be there. This frustrates me a lot, as he pretty much made geeksta rap happen. I asked Tycho about it personally, and he said that MC Chris was really hard to book, but I really do think that if he made the effort to contact the guy, he'd come. I wonder if there's any bad blood there, honestly.

Also, I was having a discussion with a friend about gamers in general. We're both casual gamers, we enjoy gaming as a hobby. We get some of the obscure references, we spend about 5-10 hours a week gaming, but we also have significant others, jobs, and other **** we like to do. We're not the hardcore gaming junkies. We were trying to figure out what made a more hardcore gamer, and I sort of came up with several stereotypes that I've picked up on. The casual gamers can be anyone who plays video games as a hobby, but these stereotypes were the people you thought of when you thought gamer.

The first is the creepy gamer person. This is the kid in the cafeteria of some high school with his DS playing pokemon or something, not talking to anyone except his gamer friends, and probably smells a little weird. Long hair, glasses, socially awkward, lanky or fat, whatever. Just... Your typical image of an awkward gamer whose lack of balance in reality is irrelevant, as in the game, they've got legendary pokemon coming out of every pore. A few examples of this come to mind in people I know, as well as individuals like Comic book guy, and practically every other nerd portrayed by the media.

Then I came up with your generic cool gamer geek person. This occured to me when I was watching an anime boxed set with one of my friends, and it had this stupid advertisement for the anime network, and it showed this guy all militaristically and intensely organizing a campaign to get the anime network. This guy looked like he was in his mid 20s to mid 30s, had a baseball hat, short hair, a bit of stubble, black t-shirt with an icon, and cargo pants. This guy looks like he could get laid if he wanted. He looks like he has a job, maybe a bit of education, and while being a pretty hardcore fan, is also awesome- the type of guy you go to his apartment, have a few beers with, and play Halo. I have a few friends like this, and the biggest public example of this would probably be MC Chris.

Then I started thinking of your girl gamers. This is where it gets tricky- gaming is pretty damn gendered towards males, but there are a ton of girl gamers out there. Sadly, they're kind of invisible, as they fade into areas where male gamers really don't look. They're into stuff like Gaia, Phoenix Wright, Pokemon, The Sims, stuff like that. I actually know a lot of these girls, but the odd reality is they're usually more into anime than gaming. I've met a lot of gamer girls at anime cons, but they're only into select games, but really into them. It's just... Sort of a different language, I guess. Plus, gamer culture seems pretty male oriented I'd think- At PAX, the only girls I saw were being drug there by their boyfriends.

Last stereotype would be my dad, one of my ex bosses, and an old co-worker- your adult gamer. Has a life, kids, all that **** but still plays games once his kids are in bed. He's your software engineer who after work gets in a raid on WoW or your store manager who, once he's put his 5 year old to bed, plays a 2 year old game on his PS2 that he's been trying to work through for a while. These are your mid 30-40s types who have discovered gaming, but are balancing it with a life. And honestly, seeing my dad struggle with trying to play these games with his schedule, I've realized what a total **** it can be- finding save points and all that. Plus, it can be pretty alien at times, but it's still fun. There was a time there where my dad, my brother, and myself would have Half Life deathmatch night, which was just amazing.

But the reality of it is... Well, those are gamer stereotypes I've just observed, but at PAX, and the larger world in general, there is no real defining characteristic of gamers, save that they play videogames. In that respect it's a pretty interesting fandom, and I think ever since gaming has really hit the mainstream, it's hard to really define it. I've met body builder types that gripe about Counter Strike, snowboarder dudes who have level 70 characters in WoW, ex marines who think Taurens are boss, and cheerful christian girls who *love* Silent Hill. Gaming has grown to a state where it has something for everybody, and thus, it's hard to pin down.

It's a good thing.