Mark B. – Studio Artist, Plants vs. Zombies

I had a total blast but oh my gosh did it wipe me out. Between what seemed like hundreds of boxes of swag to get out, running the “Test Your Strength” machine, keeping the booth tidy, and trying to contain Wall-nut hat mania, it was hard to find time just to get a bite to eat. Saturday afternoon, in the chaos, my lunch order didn’t come through. It was 2 or 2:30, and I was STARVING! Jeff saw the situation and came over, “Hey man, you can have half my sandwich.” Then, Philip came in and shared his lunch as well. I had a lot of fun being on panels, seeing all the amazing cos-players, and mingling with people who love PopCap games. But a small act of kindness when you need it the most, it stays with you. Thanks for having my back guys. It was awesome to have the opportunity to be at PAX East with ya.

Dana S. – Customer Service Content Manager

First of all, I sustained some major hits on this trip. I came back with a touch of con crud, and I got so dehydrated throughout the weekend that my hands cracked and bled, and then my nose started bleeding as well. On the way back to Seattle, I broke a tooth on airport food, and when I picked up my suitcase at baggage claim, it looked like this:

American Airlines customer support is awesome though, so I got a new bag. However, my Batman belt was lost along the way. Circle of life.

So, all that said, it really says something that I am so completely happy with my PAX East experience! I loved every minute of it (in retrospect, I guess — I mean, in the moment, I do remember never wanting to hear that hammer strike/bell ding sound combination again). I made some awesome new friends, saw a couple of cool panels, brought home a pile of card games to start playing, and best of all, hung out with the coolest group of friends I could have hoped for.

I also especially dug getting to talk to Peggle fans, as ever. Between the Peggle Master plushies we were giving out and the free Peggle download offer, that game was on everyone’s mind, and I love that. Extreme Fever forever!

Tara T. – Community Manager, Core Franchise

Couldn’t agree more with Mark. You were all so fun, amazing, and wonderful to work with. Even in the frustrating, starving, tired moments.

My favorite memories of the booth were the kiddos for sure. Each lil’ smile just from a simple plushy was worth every effort! The magic show was a highlight for me too. He brought a nice crowd and was super engaging. The strong man never-ending line was the biggest surprise for me. The popularity of that activity was crazy cool! The worst part of the whole event were the greedy folks who took 10 of everything without thinking twice. Seeing the inflation on ebay today is just slightly annoying. I’m still exhausted and sore, but all in all I can’t wait for the next event and can only hope we have a group as great as this one was! Thanks so much, everyone!

The gang's mostly all here!

Philip S. (hey, that’s me!) – Copywriter

Quick impressions: super noisy and I can’t believe how popular our decidedly analog High Striker hammer game was. Beyond that, I didn’t get out of our own booth too much (except to escort our zombie to and from his Kissing Booth) so I missed most of what I’m sure was a lot of great stuff on the floor. But what I took away from the whole event was that there are tons of great people in this business. From the groovy cats on my own team who worked hard and stayed loose the whole weekend, to the thousands of fans who stopped by to grab some swag or just to say ‘hey’ and ‘thanks,’ plus the two indie developers I ran into repeatedly in the break room (what up Ackk Studios and ClutchPlay Games?), and the dynamite crew of Enforcers including our most-awesome “XA” (Exhibitor Assistant) Laura, who was traffic cop, civil engineer, valet and den mother, and who we all agreed should come home with us. I spend a lot of time online where some days it seems like endless negativity. It was great to be face-to-face with so many fans and colleagues and to see how much passion and enthusiasm still exists in our industry. Oh, and the back-room swag deals with other developers was fun and sort of hilarious.

We killed it good.

Stephanie B. – Community Manager, Plants vs. Zombies

This was sent to me via the PvZ page yesterday:

Dear PopCap,

I just wanted to thank you for being the coolest booth at PAX East. I visited your booth often over the weekend but I had the best experience on Friday. I noticed people lining up to ring a bell with a mallet; I’m not sure if that game has an actual name. I’ve personally never tried those types of games before due to not having a lot of upper body strength. I normally wouldn’t attempt hitting anything with a mallet but I saw you were giving out Disco Zombie Figures and I knew I had to have one. I saw many girls fail to push their upper body strength to hit the bell and they were walking away with an energy drink. I really didn’t want an energy drink so I knew I had to give it my all for the figure! After waiting in line I got up to the green mat… and failed miserably. After three attempts I handed in my mallet. It was sad; I was sad. The guy said “Nice try” and I sighed. I was almost angry because I felt this game was really unfair for the average girl unless she had the extra muscle or had a hulky boyfriend. I didn’t have either of those things. However, after I walked away one of the the PopCap guys ran after me to give me a figure. I thanked him and I was really happy, even though I was still sad on the outside. So please thank whoever was giving out the prizes that Friday afternoon for running after the girl who was incredibly unhappy she failed at ringing the bell.     –Jennifer

Everyone did such a fantastic job. Seriously. Awesome. I heart all of you for the hard work at the event and PAX always reminds me of why I love my job and our fans. You all should feel super proud you pulled off a fantastic show! Everyone loved our booth and my favorite part was all of us working together and becoming better friends because of it.

Jeff G. – Nobody Really Knows What He Does Around Here

Other than our own booth, which we are contractually obliged to say was the best thing ever, I had a few other favorite moments at PAX East, including: Learning how to play Cards Against Humanity, being relieved that my daughter wasn’t with me while playing, attending the always hilarious Giant Bomb panel, and not breathing one molecule of clean air for three days. No, wait. That last one was awful. But overall the show was awesome, as it always is! By far my favorite gaming show, every time. And hanging out with PopCap friends outside of the office? Priceless.

“Phew!”

Okay maybe I should say a few more words, or this will be a very short blog post. The next thing we should say, most assuredly, is “thank you” to all those who attended and stopped by our booth. PopCap has been going to the PAX conventions in Seattle and Boston for the past few years, and we always have an amazing time. But this past weekend in Boston was probably the best of them all so far, as we were crushed by enthusiastic fans all weekend long, to the point where the only thing greater than our utter exhaustion was the immense feeling of gratitude we had for the response we received. So, again: Thank you!

This year was particularly stressful as far as working at a game company goes – because the booth that we had planned, around a certain unreleased game, completely fell through in the last few weeks leading up to the show. So the booth that those in Boston saw this weekend is what we might refer to as a  Hail Mary, or final act of desperation. Basically, a few of us sat in a conference room,  with flies swirling around our heads,  as we attempted to come up with a booth concept at the last minute. Someone – I don’t remember who – said, “Hey, how about a carnival?” And with lack of a better second idea, that’s what we went with.

But, hey — who doesn’t love a carnival?  With a Kiss the Zombie booth, a magician, a High Striker game, a Not-A-Lemonade Stand (loaded with free PopCap swag), and the Incredible Swag Machine itself, which dispensed our ever-popular Wall-nut caps every couple hours, we inadvertently created a three-day mob scene. Give people free entertainment and free gifts, and they’ll be happy! Who knew?

Honestly, as much fun as it is working at a game company most of the time, it really is just another office job, with all the stress, workloads, politics, compromises, and boring meetings as every other office job. So it’s easy for us to lose sight of the bigger picture. What shows like PAX East do is remind us of that bigger picture. Which is you. Spending three days with tens of thousands of happy, enthusiastic gamers, fans, and nerds of all ages, nationalities, body types, and planetary affiliations brings it back home to us just how much fun all of this is supposed to be, and how making people happy is really all we’re in it for.

We may have given you free stuff, for which you are more than welcome, but, in our eyes, you gave us the bigger gift: You showed us just how awesome it is to for us to do what we get to do. Some of you also reminded us of the importance of practicing proper hygiene, but that’s a blog post for another day.

And if you somehow didn’t make it to PAX East, you still have a chance to get the virtual goodies we were handing out at the show, including a free copy of Peggle, right here:  http://www.popcap.com/promos/pax-east-2013

Enjoy, and we’ll see you at PAX Prime in the fall! Yay!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

And this in fact would accurately describe my state of mind, as we get close to being a mere seven days away from PAX East in Boston. This is because, as is always the case with conventions, there are a million loose ends still, and, at this point, it doesn’t seem like any of them are actually going to get done. You know that feeling you get when you have a paper due, and you haven’t done the reading yet, and it’s due tomorrow, and there’s no way you could possibly finish it, and you think you’re going to flunk out and have to get a job at Arby’s? Yeah, that’s kind of my day today. I’ll give you a real world example:  Yesterday, we found out that the contractor building our booth had fallen sick and would not be able to complete the booth in time. So, with nine days to go, we still didn’t have a booth built and had no one to construct it. Oh yeah, and our swag was missing.

Granted that in the grand scheme of the universe, these are not big problems. I am aware of where this falls on the scale of things to complain about, compared to say, a famine.  Still, somebody has to be responsible for the PopCap booth at PAX East, and that someone is me. So I’m complaining. Wheeee!

Oh yeah, so we have a booth at PAX East. If’n you don’t know what that is, it’s the Penny Arcade Expo, a humongous gaming convention being held in Boston March 22-24. If that sounds cool to you, you’re right, because it is. But if you don’t have tickets already, forget it, because it sold out long ago. PopCap will be there, in what is actually our first-ever appearance on the main show floor. (Previously we have relegated ourselves to the lobby or hallways or sidewalks outside.) Which accounts for the extra panic.

Our plans of what we were going to do at PAX, and what we were going to show, have varied from week to week, if not day to day. And I’m not sure I’m entirely clear on it, still. However, what I can tell you is that — because we found it on a loading dock — we are indeed going to have fantabulous free swag to hand out, as usual. So if you are lucky enough to be going, stop by Booth 974,  say hi, and grab a cool, entirely free, one-of-a-kind PopCap goodie, and rejoice! And don’t go putting it on Craigslist or eBay afterwards, because that just makes us sad.

PAX East is one week away!  Yay! (?)

Hope to see you there!
–Jeff

We recently heard from a fan who wanted to share his doggy’s animated reaction to the Zombie head plushy. I don’t know about you, but I’m putting this doggy on my shortlist for companions to have along in the Zombie Apocalypse.

This little Zombie head plushy is limited edition, but check out the beautiful plushies available on PvZstore.com!

P.S. to Joseph: We tried replying to you and it bounced… thanks for the video, and stop by our table again next year to say hi!

Enjoy this super-sharp capture of the game itself, being enjoyed in the comfort of a swanky lounge chair in the PopCap booth. Then go find the game on

But beyond the booth, well away from the Wall-nuts, PopCap people engaged in other pursuits, namely panels! (I’m really going to stop this any moment now, I swear.) I attended any panel featuring any PopCapper, in the interest of bringing this part of PAX to you, dear BlogRiders.

On the first day, Jeff Green and Stephanie Bayer represented PopCap on a panel called “Community vs. PR: The Squabbling Siblings.”  And here I must deeply apologize for my lack of preparation. I failed to check the battery in my camera that morning so I can’t show you the image I wanted to show you for this panel — the title slide of the PowerPoint presentation that called the panel, “Community vs. PR: The Squatting Siblings.”

The panel was pretty entertaining. Jeff is someone you just hand a microphone or a keyboard (typing, not ivories… although to be fair, I don’t know he couldn’t do both!), then sit back and enjoy. Stephanie has been the Community Manager for Bejeweled Blitz for a while now, so she’s got plenty of funny stories to share as well. Right now, I’m kicking myself for one of the notes I took, because obviously I found it so hilarious or memorable that I couldn’t imagine it would require context later: pet velociraptor.

So, um, Jeff, if you remember the bit about the pet velociraptor, I’d love to hear that again; it seems the full PAX experience wiped it from my brain, leaving only that mysterious and enticing fragment of a quote on a page.

The panelists talked at length about how not to be a bad member of a community. Don’t use all caps; don’t use 47 exclamation points in a row; treat people online the same way you’d treat them if they were standing right in front of you. Which leads neatly into the Sunday morning panel that also featured Stephanie Bayer, “Snark, Cynicism, and Anonymity: How Community Managers Deal With Trolls.”

After charging my camera, I was able to capture this far kinder definition than I would ever have come up with.

The panel on trolling was early Sunday morning and competed with the need to stand in line for the Wil Wheaton Awesome Hour, so the savvy panelists advertised free doughnuts for attendees. (On Twitter, the hashtag for the panel was #FreeDoughnuts.) I sat in the audience and watched people rush toward the front of the room to claim their delicious treats, and I was a little bit envious. I could not bring myself to have a doughnut, though, because I was at PAX. Anyone remember the Swine Flu epidemic? There are still folks wandering around PAX with stickers that read “Infected” on their badges. I’m not about to pick something up at PAX and put it in my mouth, no matter how gooey and doughy it may be. Perhaps this lack of sugary goodness led to a brief lapse in goodwill toward men…

When the panelists announced that it was time for the Q&A, they said, “But we have to make it quick, so we’re going straight to the Lightning Round! That means you ask your questions as quickly as possible, and we will answer them the same way.” They also put a helpful graphic up on the screen with the words “Lightning Round” and a bright bolt of lightning.

Then the first person who went to the mic started off with a speech about how happy she was to be there, and why, and the panel’s relevance to her own life, and the reason she was glad to be able to ask the question… and I thought, man, some people have no idea what Lightning Round means.

It occurred to me that this was a troll thought, so I should be ashamed of myself. Then I thought, but no, a troll would have shouted it out loud, so I could relax in the comfort of knowing I was not a troll.

Then I tweeted it. Happy medium?

Friday night’s panel was on PvZ Pinball, and that topic will be covered for you in depth later this week. For now, though, I will leave you with an image from that panel, because I’ve learned a few things over three years of PAX:

1. Don’t put things in your mouth.
2. Never underestimate the desire for free stuff.
3. There is nothing cooler than dancing zombies.

Here we neatly combine two of the above points.