Life

[Dewar]

And... everything except Monday is gone already. Dang that went fast, less than an hour this time. Thank goodness for Twitter notifications.

[Twig]

I got in and was going to buy passes for me and my friend but the stupid website refused to accept my credit card. Afterward I bought a game on Steam to prove my card worked... and it did work. Fuck.

 

So I'm not going this year! I'm not too upset about not going, but I am pretty upset that it's because the website is a piece of shit.

[Dewar]

: (

New credit card so I was a bit nervous that would happen to me as well.

[SecretAsianMan]

I got in and was going to buy passes for me and my friend but the stupid website refused to accept my credit card. Afterward I bought a game on Steam to prove my card worked... and it did work. Fuck.

 

So I'm not going this year! I'm not too upset about not going, but I am pretty upset that it's because the website is a piece of shit.

 

We should have our own PAX.  With blackjack.  And hookers.  In fact, forget PAX.

 

I also don't like that website.  It is indeed shite.  On the bright side, this way I'll stay undefeated in Ticket to Ride.

[Twig]

Dang you got lucky I've been practicing Ticket to Ride DAILY.

[Ucantalas]

Wow.

I've never gone to PAX or anything like it, I seriously had no idea how quickly tickets sold out. It's madness, I'm telling you! MADNESS!

[miffy495]

We should have our own PAX.  With blackjack.  And hookers.  In fact, forget PAX.

 THUMBCON 2015!

[Merus]

PAX Australia is still at the stage where a) tickets sell out in months, not hours and  the culture isn't established so I don't feel quite so sleazy.

[JonCole]

I'm flying to Paris next week with my family and wife. Any suggestions of what to do there? Already plan on doing some of the normal stuff that you'd expect - Louvre, Notre Dame, Versailles, etc. Anything gaming-related worth seeing/doing around there?

[Ucantalas]

So in about 3 weeks I will finally have valid photo id and will no longer need to bring my passport out drinking with me. Yay.

[Roderick]

I'm flying to Paris next week with my family and wife. Any suggestions of what to do there? Already plan on doing some of the normal stuff that you'd expect - Louvre, Notre Dame, Versailles, etc. Anything gaming-related worth seeing/doing around there?

 

If you visit the La Défence district, there's a big underground shopping mall with a nice Lego section. Alternatively, go to LaFayette for another fancy Lego section. You could parkour over the Arc de Triomphe? Or try to outrun shady folks near Montmartre who'll try to rope you into buying a piece of string. Tons of fun gaming activities!

 

I'm sorry, no true gaming things I know of in Paris, but the above things are genuine recommendations. The Rhodin museum is very worthwhile too. I'd skip Versailles unless you have a particular interest in the period. It's a ways out of the city, quite expensive and crowded. It's not bad by any means, just, not Eiffel tower level of awesome must-see.

[JonCole]

Versailles is more because my family wants to do a day trip and I'm throwing my weight behind Versailles rather than Monet's House.

 

Great tips! I would suppose that getting pickpocketed would be a gaming-activity where the pickpocketer is Ezio or something and I'm some poor schmuck that realizes I lost my 26 bucks exactly 120 seconds ago.

[SecretAsianMan]

Don't be like my friends when we were in Paris and insist on eating at McDonalds.  They flew all the way across the ocean just to eat a slightly different version of the thing that's across the street from their house.  I don't often try to intentionally try to pass myself off as a non-American, but I did then.

[Twig]

Wear a Canadian flag around your neck so people know you're from Canada because everyone loves Canadians!!!

[JonCole]

Don't be like my friends when we were in Paris and insist on eating at McDonalds.  They flew all the way across the ocean just to eat a slightly different version of the thing that's across the street from their house.  I don't often try to intentionally try to pass myself off as a non-American, but I did then.

 

Sorry, but McDo is almost certainly in my future. My sister is a picky eater and we'll undoubtedly find ourselves there at least once for the sake of convenience. I had a Canada-only lobster roll at McDonalds while I was in Nova Scotia last year, I'll likely find whatever France-specific menu item exists there and give it a go so I'm at least not buying literally the same exact thing as what exists in the US. I think they have a couple of croute/baguette-style sandwiches that I could try out instead of a Big Mac.

 

If I'm lucky my wife and I can run off a couple times and possibly skip dumb meals like that.

[Twig]

I don't think there's anything wrong with visiting a McDonald's in a foreign country. It's always interesting to see how familiar things change in different environments. I hate McDonald's, though, so what do I know.

[Bjorn]

I'll likely find whatever France-specific menu item exists there and give it a go...

 

Royale with cheese.

 

 

I don't think there's anything wrong with visiting a McDonald's in a foreign country. It's always interesting to see how familiar things change in different environments. I hate McDonald's, though, so what do I know.

 

I liked getting rice and beans with meals at KFC and Burger King when I was in Costa Rica for study abroad.

[Ucantalas]

I think its fine if you do it like, once in the trip, and don't eat there constantly during your visit. It's a pretty convenient way to see a major difference while having a comparable baseline to measure against your own cultural assumptions.

[Erkki]

How do "picky eater" and "McDonalds" go together?

[JonCole]

How do "picky eater" and "McDonalds" go together?

 

Picky eater in the sense that she doesn't like to try new things and McDonald's is a familiar taste.

[ariskany_evan]

Picky eater in the sense that she doesn't like to try new things and McDonald's is a familiar taste.

 

Whoa.  She'd be kicked out of my family*!  Our vacations tend to have spreadsheets of breakfast, lunch, dinner and drinks for each day.  Helps us to learn each city we visit.  I've found good food tends to be situated in interesting/non-touristy sections of town.

 

* - my family being my wife and I, so I'd probably first kick her out because the whole multiple wives thing doesn't vibe with my feminism (though I'm sure my wife would protest as she'd probably love to have a wife), but then if I was like, sure, fine, we've all worked out a way for this to make sense as a family, we'd plan this whole trip and my wife and I would should in unison, you're outta here!! (because of the picky-eater thing)

[JonCole]

My family* is paying for the trip so I have no kicking-out privileges!

 

*parents

[undermind9]

Our vacations tend to have spreadsheets of breakfast, lunch, dinner and drinks for each day.  Helps us to learn each city we visit.  I've found good food tends to be situated in interesting/non-touristy sections of town.

 

whew, im glad we arent the only ones.  My wife and i have a paris trip on the docket for spring 2015, so i have no suggestions now, but perhaps can necro this topic in a year

 

there is a shared google doc we are filling in with places to see/eat/whatever with ranking codes.  eventually it'll get filtered by districts and ranking...then plugged into a loose itinerary to work from with accompanying custom google map

[Justin Leego]

I'm flying to Paris next week with my family and wife. Any suggestions of what to do there? Already plan on doing some of the normal stuff that you'd expect - Louvre, Notre Dame, Versailles, etc. Anything gaming-related worth seeing/doing around there?

The Cite des Sciences et de l'Industrie at Parc de la Villette has a video games exhibit on at the moment, called Jeu Vidéo l'Expo. You can get there by taking metro lines 7 or 5.

Bonus: there is a McDo on site (and several other worthwhile restaurants nearby (and a branch of French steak chain Hippopotamus)).

If you are going to Versailles, there's a leisurely bicycle tour run by a small company called Bike About Tours that you might like to look into. They're a friendly bunch and are accustomed to taking both inexperienced and confident cyclists.

Oh! Depending on when you get there, the Paris Game Dev bar meetup is usually on the first Thursday if the month. As the title suggests, it's primarily for game devs, but it's generally a good ol' chit-chat, the organizers have been known to widen the net to include 'those enthusiastic about the game industry..'. You'd meet folk from the city's indie studios like Amplitude, Eugen, Spiders, and a bunch of mobile studios.

Finally, check out the video game space at the Gate Lyrique museum / cultural center. It's the best. The best. If you can talk to the curator, even better!

[dibs]

We did the McDonald's to my mum once. She got real mad and we realised what tits we were being so she got to choose after that.