Employer: Microsoft (Volt)
Responsibilities: Photography, Community Management

• Photography
• Original Post : Day 2
• Original Post : Day 3

Original Post : Day 2

It’s late over here in Seattle as I sit here fighting with my laptop to upload the photos I took of those brave souls who took to the stage to sing and play their hearts out in Rock Band 2.

Yesterday was a crazy day and somehow Chris managed to get a post up. I wandered the floor checking out all of the crazy Japanese toys, colorful booths and upcoming games. This felt like the E3 of old. Signage galore lined the aisles and elaborate booths made for enticing eye candy for all of the gamers in attendance. I checked out the Dead Space booth, the new Brothers in Arms (who were shaving people’s heads for a copy of the game – I kid you not…), Guitar Hero: World Tour and Rock Band 2 booths. The Behemoth was in attendance with Castle Crashers lining their area.  I also snapped some shots of other non-gaming booths such as Rooster Teeth, Magic the Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons. The rest of the day was spent at the Xbox booth watching demos for Gears of War, Project Origin and Popfly.

This morning started by my actually remembering to eat followed by participating in a panel on female gaming communities. The panel was moderated by our own TriXie 360 and the ladies sitting with me on the stage were Kari from the Cavegirls, Trina from Gaming Angels and Amber from PMS Clan. We talked about what we all do within our communities and answered some really interesting questions about marketing to females and how we feel about the way females are viewed as a whole by gaming companies. Gamertagradio recorded the session so please check out their site if you’re interested! Pixel Monkey, from the xbox.com team was disappointed that I didn’t pass out during the panel since I was so nervous. Yes, it was sad, indeed.

I then made my way over to the Xbox booth fighting through the hordes of people that had descended on the hall. I was pushed by several individuals who really could have used a little Dial in their lives.

When I finally made it back to the safety of the booth, I watched the Harmonix guys take to the stage and give a demo of Rock Band 2. They showed the new battle of the bands mode where groups of people can get together and see if they can beat each other’s scores on any given song. Three of the developers got up and played Blondie’s Call Me as well as Cheap Trick’s Hello There. They then challenged the audience to come up and try to beat their score. Everyone who came up got a prize, which was very cool.

I’ll be up bright and early tomorrow – wait… today to do morning booth duty.

For photos from yesterday’s floor wandering and today’s Rock Band 2 players (If I can get the uploader to work properly), check out our flickr site!

Original Post : Day 3

PAX has come to a close and the GSB team is home trying to recover from the madness. There were thousands upon thousands of people who filed through the doors and many stopped by the Xbox booth to check out all of the demos we had to offer as well as play some upcoming titles.

I’d like to say a big thanks to all of our community for coming out, saying hi and being incredibly cool. I tried to make sure I saw everyone I knew from Twitter, GSBlog and other communities but I know I probably missed a few along the way. I’d also like to thank those of you who took pity on us while we were working. Whether it was to bring us food or drinks (who was our enforcer, anyway?) or medicine for my sick butt, it was all very much appreciated! I’d list everyone I got to see but I’m sure I would forget a couple  and I don’t want anyone to feel left out.

Nelson and Chris did many interviews and filmed their own videos that we’ll post soon but for now, feel free to check out our shots on flickr.

It was a great weekend and now I’m going to pass out much like this guy: