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.

Don’t get us wrong: We love the convention as much as the next gaming dork. And, hey, this year in particular we have absolutely nothing to complain about, as our booth was overwhelmed with people the entire weekend. On the other hand, our booth was overwhelmed with people the entire weekend. So we’re tired. And our feet hurt. And our ears hurt from people yelling at us to give them a Wall-nut cap. (If they asked for a “potato cap” they were given a look of abject scorn. Pro Tip: You don’t get free stuff from us if you don’t even know what it is!)

Calm before the storm: On the morning of the first day, we were still able to have the Wall-nut hats out in the open for anyone to grab. This wouldn't last long.

Overall, of course, we were pretty thrilled with our booth. It looked great, it was in a fantastic spot, and we had all sorts of cool stuff going on, besides giving away free goodies. Most exciting for us was the debut of Plants vs. Zombies Pinball, which our friends over at Zen Studios developed, based on our original design. The game was playable in our booth and the response was great, even by those of us working in the booth, who took any spare chance we got to grab one of those chairs to sit down and play.

Our PAX booth included comfy chairs where you could relax, play our games, and even recharge your phones! It's like we thought of everything!

On Friday, the first day of the show, things were still relatively “mellow,” as far as a gaming convention with tens of thousands of people in attendance goes, but by Saturday morning, word of our knit caps must have gotten out. Plus, it was Saturday, so a lot more people were in attendance. And so what we had originally envisioned as a “relaxing lounge” kind of thing for ourselves had a different vibe to it by late morning.

HALP

Demand for the hats became so high, in fact, that the hard-working PAX “enforcers,”  as the show’s volunteers are known, soon set up an organized line for us, and a system by which we’d open up one box an hour, with folks lining up on the half-hour to start waiting.  This line ended up snaking around multiple corners of the convention hall. It was crazy.

This poor fellow is still looking for the end of our shwag line.

If it sounds like we’re either complaining or bragging about all this, we don’t mean to do either. What we’re actually doing is what is known as “processing.” Mostly, we’re overwhelmed by the response, not just to the free stuff, because everyone obviously likes free stuff, but just from the reaction and kind words from fans we received all weekend. Believe us, it’s not been the easiest few weeks around PopCap. So this kind of reception from the fans was an awesome reminder of why we all do this in the first place.

So from all of us at PopCap to everyone at the show: Thank you. Let’s do this again soon. Just not too soon.  We need to sleep for a week or two first!

Anyway, PAX starts tomorrow, and we are going to be there! Unlike past years, it should not be too hard to find us. You will not have to go chasing dancing zombies around.(Though you can if you like, because the dancing zombies will be there too!) This time, we have a big ol’ booth on the 4th floor of the North Lobby. You basically can’t miss it. It says PopCap all over it, is decorated with PopCap artwork, and will be staffed by people yelling “HEY WE’RE POPCAP.” In fact, you’ll have to actively try to avoid us, because we’re going to be all over the place. Because in addition to the booth and the dancing zombies, we’re also presenting an exciting panel Friday night!

At our booth itself, we have a plethora of exciting activities and events for you! You can sit down at one of our 8 Xboxes and play two great new releases from us — Zuma’s Revenge! on XLBA, and the brand spankin’ new SECRET PINBALL GAME done in collaboration with the awesome Zen Studios. You can recharge your smartphone at our stunningly convenient recharge station. And you can get your photo taken with one of a host of beautiful PopCap game backgrounds, perfect for framing or spamming your Facebook friends with!

And, yes, of course, there will be LOTS OF FREE STUFF for you. But we won’t spill what it is now, because that would be no fun at all. You’ll just have to come visit us!

Here is the big problem with PAX: There is too much great stuff going on all the time, and not nearly enough time in which to do it all. There are console, PC, and tabletop freeplay rooms to play games in; awesome panels to attend; upcoming games to check out; people to meet and hang out with; tournaments to watch, and more. Just to check out some of the more popular video games on the showroom floor required waiting in line for over 4 hours.  That’s about 3 hours and 58 minutes longer than we like to wait for anything, which is why our microwaved burritos always end up cold in the middle.

Anyway, we had an awesome time at PAX! Did we say that already? The weather here in Seattle over the weekend was phenomenal, and seeing the streets filled with hordes of costumed gamers and other fellow geeks warmed our hearts immensely. There’s something about seeing a Pikachu, Ewok, and Mario walking down the sidewalk together and not drawing a second glance that just fills us with serious geek pride. We’ve come a long way, baby!

Fans dressed up as PvZ plants!

PopCap did not have a dedicated booth at the show, but what we did have turned out to be popular way beyond our own calculations: PvZ-branded Blinky sunglasses!  We thought we had allotted enough for all three days of the convention, but they were all gone by 1 pm on Saturday, the second day. Whoops! Never underestimate the power of bling. This was the lesson we learned. If you were at PAX and didn’t get a pair, we apologize! But look for them to make a reappearance again down the line. They shall return!

Our other contribution to PAX was the first-ever appearance of our Zombie Disco Dancers, who roamed the convention, both inside and out, and put on a truly spectacular show, including what is probably the best break dancing ever performed by the undead. In addition to their choreographed routine (to undead-inappropriate tunes like “I Will Survive” and “Stayin’ Alive”), the zombies also made special guest appearances on both the Dance Central and Just Dance stages, and even invaded Microsoft’s Halo Fest!

In truth, the zombies, underneath those giant masks and costumes, were a professional, award-winning dance troupe who danced themselves crazy for three days straight under the most arduous conditions (you try dancing with a giant head on in 80 degree weather, surrounded by 70,000 sweaty gamers!), and went the extra mile to entertain the folks around, all without even being able to sip water except for during a few breaks a day. We cannot thank them enough!

Finally, we closed out the show with a super-fun party for PopCap fans at the Hard Rock Cafe on Sunday afternoon, where three lucky fans won iPad 2s for their skills in our Bejeweled Blitz tournament! There may have been more crowded parties at PAX this weekend, but we don’t know any other party that had dancing zombies, free iPads, and the nicest and coolest fans in the world in attendance, so we’re gonna go ahead and say that we won!

Thanks to everyone who came up and said hi, clapped or laughed for the zombies, or just attended PAX at all, even if we didn’t see you. You’re the folks we do this job for. We couldn’t be luckier.