I won’t lie- my Sunday morning at PAX was a religious experience (and no, not because of the booth babes).

I got to meet Metblogs Employee #3 (*cough* Wil Wheaton), and discovered an enduring love for Battlefield: Heroes, a new game from the folks who created Battlefield 1942.

Since the vast majority of my day was spent in front of a computer trying to learn how to drive tanks and shoot bazookas, I neglected to attend the Omegathon Final Round, which was VS Excitebike for the Famicon. Having seen the Jenga-fueled intensity that was the previous round of the Omegathon, I wasn’t sure I could handle the excitement of ExciteBike. But I can tell you that Joey Geko won an epic competition on a game that was only released in Japan.

Before getting sucked in to PC Freeplay, I slid into the Wil Wheaton panel by the skin of my teeth (lesson learned: take early bus, and don’t leave your program at home). I was just in time to hear him recite a lyrical bit of spoken word poetry. He followed up by reading an excerpt from his book, The Happiest Days of Our Lives, and answer the burning question: How can a panel consist of a single man?

Wil’s answer: “Like this, baby.”

I intended to ask all the geek superstars the same question, but, as I mentioned before, Battlefield: Heroes ate up my day, and so I was only able to ask Wheaton what his weirdest moment at PAX 2008 was. His answer?

_{Wil Wheaton’s Weirdest PAX Experience}

Lessons Learned at PAX 2008:

1. The lines are long. Really long. (Unless you’re trying to use the women’s restroom). Know what you want to do ahead of time, and don’t try to get into Gabe and Tycho’s Make-A-Strip Panel 10 minutes before it’s scheduled to start.
2. The Console Freeplay rooms aren’t nearly as cool as the PC Freeplay rooms (pictured above) and take about twice as long to get into.
3. Don’t skip the Omeganaut competition, because you might get to see Gabe, Tycho, Khoo and Kara from Penny Arcade playing Journey songs on Rock Band.
4. Make sure to get bacon salt, among all the other swag.
5. I really suck at video games, unlike certain other bloggers.
6. If you’re riding the bus home, get on at 3rd and Virginia, before all the Bumbershoot people flood in!
7. The sumo beanbag mats are the best idea anyone’s ever come up with for PAX.

My first night at PAX was full of surprises, not the least of which was getting to meet the brilliant Jonathan Coulton while having dinner at Six Arms. I made an idiot of myself, of course, but that didn’t negate the fact that I actually got to shake hands with the man responsible for the Portal theme song that never fails to get stuck in my head. Of course, his brilliant “Code Monkey” song is great, too (#).

Beyond that, and the shock at finding a 30,000 person convention where there was no line at the women’s restroom, I was also surprised by Ken Levine’s keynote speech. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but Levine started by describing his descent into comics (a “geeky gateway drug”) during his childhood, and subsequent involvement in D&D.

“Originally, games were a reason to get together,” Levine said. “After a year, they became an excuse. At 14 years old, I had finally found my tribe.”

As he grew up and moved to L.A., he lost touch with his geeky roots, but when he went to work for Looking Glass Studios, he says he found his tribe once again, and then related that to the audience at PAX- a tribe of another sort.

“What brings us all together at PAX,” Levine said, “is that we’re a giant bunch of fucking nerds.”

As soon as he finished, Gabe and Tycho (a.k.a. Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins) of Penny Arcade took the stage for a Q&A session that turned into a parade of laying gifts at the feet of these nerdy demigods. One thoughtful question came from a 16-year-old gamer who asked the pair if they really thought children were negatively affected by violent video games.

“I think every parent knows their child, and those parents should decide,” Krahulik said. “If the parent thinks their kids are old enough and mature enough to handle it, like I said, it’s something for the parents to decide.”

_{Gabe and Tycho answer questions at PAX 2008}

After heading off to dinner at the Six Arms, where I stumbled onto Jonathan Coulton, I returned for the concerts. The One-Ups were playing musical arrangements of songs from various video games accompanied by videos of gameplay, which was pretty entertaining. They were followed by Freezepop, who were responsible for some of the music in video games like Amplitude and Guitar Hero. While the use of entirely electronic instruments (synthesizers, a Yamaha QY-70) was fairly novel, I found the lead singer’s performance to be a bit lacking in enthusiasm. Fortunately, Jonathan Coulton (and then Felicia Day, from Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog) came to the rescue with “Still Alive,” and the rest is history, at least until tomorrow.

So, PAX 2008 is already upon us. I’m getting texts from friends in line, who are writing haikus and getting early concert wristbands down at the Convention Center.

I’ve never been to PAX before, but I like Penny Arcade and enjoy a good video game, and scads of my friends are going, so I thought I’d join them this year, particularly after finding out Wil Wheaton was coming again. I loved Stand By Me, what can I say?

Anyway, because I’ve never been before, and I’m a little freaked out by the thought of doing PAX for the whole geekend, I was hoping you Metblogs readers could help a girl out with some tips and tricks of your own for enjoying myself. I’ll be sure to report back on how things go!