If you’re a serious gamer, you already know that this Friday through Sunday is the third annual Penny Arcade Expo (PAX)a three-day festival of table top, video and PC games featuring dedicated tournaments, freeplay areas, concerts, panel discussions, the “Omegathon” and an exhibitor hall. Heck, if you’re a hardcore gamer, you’re probably already pre-registered and are right now counting down the minutes until the doors open (3 pm to the walk up traffic, an hour early for pre-registrants) on Friday.

image c. Penny Arcade

Dedicated gamers might spend the entire trio of days on site but dabblers and the merely curious are welcome, too, onsite daily registration gets you in the expo with access to almost all of the events except for entry in the Omegathon. This is a huge event that attracts thousands of gamers of all levels of ability and interest as well as some of the biggest names in the gaming industry. While it’s not really an industry event–PAX is heavily attended by industry reps but the focus of the fesitval is the actual playing of games–it has become one of the largest and most notable events in gaming.