As reported earlier, GamerDad is one of the VIP Guest Speakers at the massive 40,000+ video game show PAX (Seattle, Labor Day – GD will speak Sunday at 2:30pm) See PAX and GamerDad have an illustrious history. Come see why GamerDad will be at PAX 2008 and how he got there the first two times. Oh, and also what happened last year that made PAX into what might become a yearly pilgrimmage for him. . . .

In 2006 GamerDad was attending E3 to negotiate further with Best Buy, Inc. and IDG and GamePro magazine. (THAT didn’t go well.) But what did go well was a chance meeting with Jerry Holkins (Penny-Arcade’s Tycho Brahe). I’ve been a fan of PA from the beginning, after all.  He claimed he’d been told about GamerDad and, since he was a new dad at the time he’d spent some time checking it out. He liked what he saw. He asked me if I was going to PAX. I said no. He told me I should.

He told me the “future of gaming is there and it’s got children.”

Simple words, hastily crafted, but definitely wise. I got in touch with their biz guy Robert Khoo and soon I was helping out by moderating the Women in Gaming panel (which was sensational) and participated on a panel about gaming north of the age of 30. I handled all the parenting questions.

He was right. I saw definite signs of a gamerparent thing happening at PAX.

In 2007 I came back, armed and ready. Robert had granted me a 300 seat theater for my Gaming with Children Speech, Hal Halpin of the ECA had backed out of the political panel so I prepared my own political speech and filled in (this was an open theater, there were probably over 1000 people milling around, it went well).

Last year I brought Lunda along and we had a great time. I wrote about it in my Open Letter to PAX ’07 Attendees, I was ready for the next step, energized and pumped for the future.

COLLEEN HANNON, Enforcer at PAX and MomGamer Wrote in 9/07: Gabe from Penny Arcade was kind enough to not only read our coverage, but to quote Andrew’s comments on the Penny Arcade homepage.

Gabe wrote:

Andrew Bub – GAMERDAD – Then a week later … I almost dropped dead.  I had a quadruple bypass to fix the problem.

With me in the hospital, I looked at my family. I was okay, but not out of the woods and I realized how close I came to leaving. GamerDad is extremely successful but I haven’t quite turned it into a money maker and proximity to death made me think about a future without my investments and payoffs. So I asked Linda to ask my readers for money. Not for medical bills but because I’d never asked before, and my readers tell me all the time that what I do is important.

Gabe, from Penny Arcade picked up that message and wrote the following:

Many of you are probably already familiar with Gamer Dad. He’s become
a fixture at PAX and we’ve linked to him on a number of occasions. If
you don’t know about him you should check out his blog. He’s out there
fighting the jack Thompsons of the world and trying to prove that
being a gamer doesn’t mean you’re a psychopath. He has also been
tirelessly preaching the importance of gaming with your children.
basically he’s one of the good guys and right now he needs some help.

Andrew suffered a heart attack recently and has since undergone
quadruple bypass surgery. He’s not done yet either. Andrew is
scheduled for even more surgeries and his wife is asking for help. As
you can imagine they are racking up quite a bill and being a
professional advocate for our hobby just doesn’t pay what it used to.

So I’d like to focus the power of the PA community on Andrew and his
family right now. If you’re in a position to help them out I’m asking
that you please follow this link and do whatever you can.

A wonderful thought. Just the link TO the blog is worth actual real money but what he did was so much more. What Penny-Arcade readers did was so important. I won’t tell you the final tally but it was original definition of awesome. Humbling and scary. Like getting a big giant hug from one thousand gamers. The money helped, I bought equipment, it made a few struggles easier.

But the real gift, the lasting gift, the one that really counts after something like a heart attack is the commitment amd the sentiment. Each email saying how much was donated  came with a note usually saying:

“Don’t Quit”

“Your work is important”

“I love what you’re doing.”

How can I possibly quit after that?  I couldn’t, so despite the heart attack and recovery, GamerDad continues:

* In November of 2007 GamerDad appeared on the Channel 12 News in Milwaukee.

* In December of 2007 GamerDad joined CrispyGamer.com, contributed 35 game reviews, two features, and both a GamerParenting and Games and Politics columns.

* In January 2008 GamerDad joined WhatTheyPlay.com as a reviewer and he launched the world’s first parenting/videogame advice column with Ask GamerDad.

* In April 2008 GamerDad teamed with the National PTA and the ESRB to produce a booklet on video game safety. He also helped them make a webinar on the topic of safety.

* In April of 2008 GamerDad appeared on the Technology Tailor radio program

* In April of 2008 GamerDad sold 1000 video game reviews to WhatTheyPlay.com for a “good” price.

(FUTURE: * Keynote Speech at the ALA National Library Association Technology Conference in Chicago (Nov) * Pamplet on game safety from Sony. Worked with Family Circle Magazine and WhatTheyPlay.com)

So, I’m proud to take a 1500 seat victory lap at PAX 2008.  The connection continues, thanks for all your help PA staff, Enforcers and readers.  Thanks to my GamerDad readers too. Wish me luck, the anniversary of my heart attack is September 2nd. The day after I return from PAX.  I’m planning on playing some video games that day. No joke.

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