“Welcome, to SpyParty! Have you read the manual?”
That’s what magician1099 said to me when I entered the lobby. I hadn’t read the manual. I played as spy anyway, twitched, and got shot. I played as spy again, twitched again, and got shot again. I thought to myself “I should probably read the manual.”
May 31st, 2016
I’d joined the beta on January 10th after watching lthummus stream a few sets, and it took me three months to decide that this was a game that I needed to have. I threw myself into it, and shortly after, threw my name into the PAX volunteer hat. I didn’t think there was any chance I’d be chosen.
Fittingly, it was lthummus that told me it had happened: “Hey Steph, it seems like you’re going to be a booth slave.” Apparently he’d seen a forum post about it before I had. I was in shock: me, representing SpyParty at PAX West? I’d had the game for 150 days, and I had 6,000 fewer games than any of the other selected volunteers. I got this crazily exciting news at midnight, and barely slept.
I’d never been to any gaming convention before. But I’d heard and read many stories about what they were like (Shaking the Hand of Someone You’ve Shot, Caley’s PAX Diary). I’ve read about sleeping in cars, in parks, and in a room with seven other people. I’ve learned that there are four things I definitely need to bring with me:
- Water, for thirst.
- Hand sanitizer, so that I don’t get sick.
- Cough drops, so that I don’t lose my voice.
- Deodorant, so that I don’t add to the smell that I’ve heard occurs at PAX.
June 1st, 2016
Three months before the trip, and I’m already planning: am I going alone? If not, who should go with me? I decide it’ll be more fun to have friends along, so I ask a few if they’re interested in coming, and one of them accepts my invitation. We start planning everything together.
July 29th, 2016
I hit 3,000 games of SpyParty! Luckily, I find a day that checker isn’t drowning in work for the new UI, and we get to play some birthday games. Meanwhile, the PAX hype grows.
Aug. 30th, 2016
Packing day! I packed my clothes two weeks in advance, even before an impromptu trip to Banff, but there are a few more things that need to be taken care of:
- I promised everyone cookies, and everyone is getting cookies. Cookies for all! I make M&M and chocolate chip, because that’s all I could find in the cupboard. I bring two tubs; will it be enough? (Editor’s note: no, because I’ll be there)
- Did someone say surprise? Back in June, I started making a poster: if you were around the SpyParty community at all around this time, you probably saw some version of it. It’s a poster of the SpyParty cast with the heads of various players photoshopped onto the player models’ bodies, collected from people all over the world.
- All the lozenges. There are literally hundreds of lozenges in my bag. I carried hundreds of lozenges through airport security. It’s possible I’ve overcompensated for last year’s horror stories.
Sept. 1st, 2016
Just like the night I found out I’d been chosen as a volunteer, it’s tough to sleep. I’m awake until 2:00 AM. This is bad, because I have to get up at 4:30 to catch my BoltBus to Seattle. As is typical of Vancouver, it’s a gloomy, rainy morning, so I dress in warm, comfortable clothing. As I board the bus I start thinking about the people I’m going to meet. I’m a little worried that my cookies and my slightly creepy poster are going to get held up at the border. But at 8:00 AM we cross into the United States without incident. It probably helps that the buss was full of nerds headed for PAX. I swap an American SIM card into my phone and enjoy the freedom of unlimited data.
I grab my headphones and listen to Edgar Meyer’s album of Bach’s Unaccompanied Cello Suites. In a flash, it’s 10:30 and I’m on the streets of Seattle heading to the Airbnb that’ll be my home for the next six days.
One thing I’m unprepared for is how many hills are in Seattle: I have to scale a huge one to get to the place I’m staying. As soon as I arrive, I show the poster to my host, and I’m quickly out the door and meet other players in rapid-fire succession: first, kcmmmmm (he takes the wrong route for a bit before finding the right way). Then, lunch with lthummus and aforgottentune at Il Corvo (the pasta and focaccia are delicious). Then, we all meet up with canadianbacon and my friend, who are arriving at the airport. Then, my friend and I head home for a little rest. And by rest, I mean hopping into the SpyParty lobby.
A couple of hours later I join the rest of the crew at the Washington State Convention Center. As soon as I walk inside, I’m struck by the size of the place, and I haven’t even entered the expo hall yet. I call around to gain entry, but I’m told checker has my badge but hasn’t arrived. I look to my left and I see someone who matches checker’s description: tall, checkered shirt, white shorts. He’s ordering a sandwich, so I decide to wait upstairs by the hall’s entry point, tub of cookies in hand.
kcmmmmm comes out to wait with me and tell me about all the new things in the PAX build: “First off, there are 5 new characters, a new UI, a New Art Veranda, and a new artist.” I, of course, am excited. I knew the updated UI was coming, but the other three things are all huge surprises. I’d been warned that the day before PAX was a day of updates and debugging, but I had no idea we’d be coming in this hot.
When I finally get in, everyone’s already hard at work trying to break the new build. Some of the bugs are highly amusing. My two favourites: One of the new characters, when bugging with her right hand, has her eyeballs shoot right out of her head. Many laughs were had demonstrating this over and over again. And the same character, when removing the microfilm, would have her skirt grow, and then shrink back down to size when she was done.
Since this is my first time at PAX, lthummus gives me a crash course in how to introduce new players to the game. This year, the demo has swapped Transfer the Microfilm (which is the most complicated to explain) for Seduce Target. The other three missions are Contact Double Agent, Swap Statue, and Bug the Ambassador.
This is harder than expected, because the things I need to teach people are so basic that I haven’t thought about them in eight months. I don’t have any idea what I’m going to say to the first person that comes through. Do I give them tips about pathing? Do I tell them about clanking? Do they need to know about the Orange Dress meta? Thankfully, there are lots of other experienced volunteers who have the spiel down, so I just sit and listen to them for a bit, and immediately feel better.
We spend a couple of hours setting up the displays, finding bugs, and eating the first quarter of my cookie stash. After that we head to the SpyParty Sardine Can (SPSC, for short) and wait for the others to arrive in Seattle. When most of the group has gathered (cleetose, drawnonward, wodar, virifaux, warningtrack and Mrs. warningtrack added to the others), we head over to Superfast Pizza, a place where nothing happens. Before we all head home, Allison and I do a little bit of grocery shopping for the roughly two meals I plan to make and eat during the trip.
I also pick up an extra package of lozenges.
Sept. 2nd, 2016 (Day one of PAX)
checker asked us to arrive at 8:30 AM, so naturally I arrive at 8:00 AM. warningtrack and kcmmmmm arrive shortly after, and all get to work double checking on the bugs from the previous day. We make sure the displays are perfect and get ready for the the press hour, where press get to explore the floor alone before it’s opened to the public.
The new display is beautiful. checker has added a new cutout banner and a bunch of new lights: spotlights on the SpyParty logo above the booth, lights above the huge new art character portraits, and some fancy lights trained on the banner that slowly change colors, which we have to precariously tape to the monitors.
For those that haven’t been to PAX, the booth consists of three stations. Station 1 is for new players and has two dedicated mentors at all times. Station 2 is for people who’ve played before, where they get to play four games instead of just two. Station 3 is an unlimited station where people can play as long as they like, to give people a chance to discover the game’s depth.
Finally, the hall opens to the public. My heart is beating rapidly. I’m so nervous about whether I’ll be able to teach all these new people to play a game that has been such a huge part of my life for the past nine months. Will I forget that we’ve replaced microfilm with flirt? Will I offend someone?
I sit across from the wonderful warningtrack and we both start tutoring people. Quickly, I start to settle into a script. I make sure to list the missions, point out the clock, and I use my hands to mimic which of the controller’s buttons need to be pressed. The trickiest part is timing this so that you finish your tutorial around the same time as the tutor across from you. But when it doesn’t line up, the extra time is used to give helpful hints or answer questions.
Around 1:00 PM, John comes over with his phone and takes down people’s lunch order. We eat Jimmy John’s so often at PAX that they should sponsor the game. I’ve heard it’s tradition to eat while teaching, so that’s what I do. I give the appropriate spiel, scarf down another quarter of the sandwich, and then start teaching the new person. This doesn’t even feel like work, but I’m grateful for the number of people that stop by to help: there are plenty of people willing to fill in when we need a break.
When the booth visitors start playing each other, the volunteers try to play along by trying to find the spy and communicate their guess with hand signals. For instance, touching an ear to indicate Bling Twin’s earring, or saying “Caley” when we mean Papa Danger (because of his cane). Just enough to get the point across.
By the end of the day, people’s voices are starting to grow scratchy, but no one sounds too bad and everyone’s still in high spirits.
Throughout the first day, I approach each of the players at PAX to sign the poster I’ve brought along. I have to sneak around so checker doesn’t suspect anything, but by the end of the day I’ve collected tons of signatures: slappydavis, kcmmmmm, cleetose, warningtrack, elvisnake, evilsnake, lthummus, canadianbacon, wodar, drawnonward, pwndnoob, virifaux, and John and Alice, too. They all sign this magnificent piece of art. At 6:00 PM, at the end of the first day, I hand it over to Chris. He hugs me before looking at it, then says “wait, am I going to regret this hug?” He’s probably thinking I’ve just given him a “CheckerParty” poster with nothing but his own face on the characters’ bodies. But he opens it and we both see it completed for the first time.
He says he’s going to hang it next to Shigeru Miyamoto’s autograph on his wall. I’m pretty sure he still hasn’t opened the card I wrote.
After leaving the expo hall on the first day, I head home to make one of the two meals I’ll be making during this trip. I have a bowl of pasta with white sauce, and then head right back out to cheer aforgottentune on in the Omegathon. There were already several other SpyParty players in line, so I snuck in and joined them. tune survived the first round, and we all headed to Olive 8 to play Two Rooms and a Boom. After a few games, I head out to find some place called The Crescent, which is a karaoke bar (a wonderful idea in the middle of a trip where you’ll be speaking for days on end). The name of the place was all I knew; kcmmmmm tells me it’s located on Olive and Howell. I think: “great! That’s right by where I am.” But when I get there, there’s no bar in sight. A quick call and I realize I’m not in the right spot, and what’s worse, I forgot to charge my phone before heading out. With a dead phone, and in a strange city, I trek a block to find a physical map and figure out where I need to be.
Finally, I arrive and am greeted by an exhausted kcmmmmm, who tells me he ran back to where I was, realized I’d taken a different route, and then ran back. After listening to several dramatic, belted ballads, we head home via the sketchiest Lyft I’ve ever seen. The car has no license plate and was driven by a man with a thick accent who tells us he’s lived in Seattle his whole life. This ends up being one of my favorite memories of the trip.
When I get home I hop into the SpyParty lobby again to see if anyone who discovered the game that day is on. Sure enough, there are.
Sept. 3rd, 2016 (Day two of PAX)
Even though it’s day two, the butterflies in my stomach are fluttering just as much as they did on day one. I’m thankful that the place I’m staying at is close to the convention center, because it makes for a calm, quiet morning walk. After my nutritious breakfast of two hard boiled eggs and a glass of chocolate milk, I feel like I have enough energy to take on the entire world. I wonder to myself: what will happen today?
I enter the convention center proudly displaying my exhibitors badge, get to the SpyParty booth, take a seat, put on some classic music, and just sit there watching as the other booths slowly set up. The Behemoth has a shipment of bags and lanyards every morning; the bags are all individually wrapped, the lanyards bundled, and their booth helpers separate everything for easy distribution. Soon, checker shows up. We put out the chairs and turn on the lights. It’s only the second day, but I’m already starting to feel like a veteran.
After teaching dozens of people on the first day, I’ve boiled down what I want to say into a quick speech, even leaving time for questions before the tutor across from me is done. My favorite question is “do you guys all work for SpyParty?” With great pride, I tell them that all but three of the people working the booth are just people who love the game and want to teach others.
A guy I ran into in the SpyParty lobby the night before comes by again, and I’m immensely proud that someone I taught decided to return, given all the other games on display.
John starts taking lunch orders again, and already I’ve got the Art of the Sandwich down: I take the whole thing out and swaddle it so the lettuce stays inside. This lets me safely put the sandwich down so I can use both hands to gesture while teaching people.
Around 2:00 PM, canadianbacon convinces kcmmmmm to play a money match on one of the Street Fighter V machines. Naturally, wodar and I tag along. The match is close, but in the end, bacon takes the win. Next, it’s my turn to play wodar. We both get a crash course in how to play (I’ve never used an arcade stick before in my life). I take the first set, win the first game of the second set, and lose the second game by a sliver of health because I didn’t see something called the “magic pixel.” wodar takes the third game of that set and the third set and the overall win. We both have fun.
As I head back to the SpyParty booth, I realize I’ve just learned how to play a very deep game in five minutes, and realize this is how the people I’ve been teaching must feel.
That night, I play my very first VR game. Afterwards, we walk to a huge 14-person “escape room” that canadianbacon has booked. That may sound like a lot, but the room in question is designed for big groups. This is a smart group: we have software engineers, network system builders, and even burritomancers. It seems like there’s no way the room will best us.
But then it does. The room’s organizers tell us we were just a couple of minutes from finishing. We leave slightly disappointed that we didn’t succeed, but I was glad to have had the experience. We name our team “Toby’s Angels” and collectively blame krazycaley for not coming to PAX.
We finish early enough that there’s still time afterwards for most of us to head over to the Annex (a building across from the Convention Center), where lthummus is running a game of Johann Sebastian Joust. This game has been called “the most violent video game ever.” Every player holds a motion-sensitive controller that eliminates them if they move too quickly, so most of the game consists of shoving people. The members of our community take turns joining the game until the whole thing shuts down at 10:00 PM. Once lthummus is packed up, we all head to Pagliacci’s, where we’re greeted by the smell of gigantic pizzas. I share an extra large sausage, pepperoni, and olive pizza with someone and I bring leftovers home. Then we head back to the SPSC to play Secret Hitler. I finally head home at 1:00 AM.
Sept. 4th, 2016 (Day three of PAX)
I wake up knowing I have three delicious slices of pizza waiting for me in the fridge. We’ve gotten through the first tub of cookies, so I bring the second along with me, leaving before 8:00 AM so I can arrive early and hone my Street Fighter skills. kcmmmmm arrives promptly at 9:00 and starts teaching me. At 9:30 it’s time to find more bugs; today we’re focusing on things like load screen countdowns.
When the day starts, a new bunch of people walk into the hall for the first time, giving us another opportunity to teach this game. By now, I’m pretty used to the crowds, but the size of the one that gathers still surprises me. The line wraps around a few times, to the point where anyone not teaching is helping to manage it.
The tutoring has become routine. The most interesting part comes at the end, when I make sure the players tell each other why they shot or who they were suspicious of. I enjoy listening to their thought processes. Though these people have only played a couple of games, they still shoot for many of the same things, like hard tells. But sometimes they shoot for things even I haven’t shot for. I guess there’s always something new to learn.
After tutoring the whole morning, kcmmmmm and I decide to have lunch away from the booth, and we use it to catch up with some people. At home in Vancouver, I spend a few hours every day online, just talk to other SpyParty players. Sometimes it’s about the game, but most of the time it’s just hanging out and talking about our lives. Being at PAX marked the first time in months where I wasn’t on Discord or TeamSpeak talking to these people. During our break we catch pires and catnip online, and I get to talk to them for the first time since we arrived.
Before long, we’re back at the booth. It’s satisfying to see people play in ways that show they read the manual and took it seriously. For example, some would point their lasers at the ground, so their opponent didn’t know what they were looking at. Others would lowlight the cast at the start of the game.
After a while wodar, canadianbacon, kcmmmmm and I leave the booth in the able hands of warningtrack, the snakes (evil and elvis), and a few others to get a quick Street Fighter rematch in. I lose again. But this just means I need to practice harder for next year. I cannot let Team BaconMelon defeat team Stephmmmmm.
When we head back to the booth I ask checker “do you think that you would be able to play my 4K birthday game on my 22nd birthday?” He says yes. Now I have a goal to work towards when I get home.
As the day winds down we head back over to the Annex where lthummus is running another JS Joust game. Some of us play, while the rest of us help playtest drawnonward’s prototype card game. Afterwards, we decide to get some burgers. Most of us didn’t know where the burger place was, but warningtrack and Mrs. Track seemed certain about where this place was located. So we walked, and walked…and walked. We may have lost a couple of people along the way.
Eventually, warningtrack realizes we passed the place five blocks ago (Editor’s note: my bad!). The burgers were pretty good, but our visit makes me realize what a toll PAX must take on the staff of local businesses: the place had run out of eggs, bacon, and even onion rings!
When we finished drinking our milkshakes and eating our fries, we headed back to the Olive 8 (a hotel) to play Captain Sonar, a game where two competing submarine crews try to find and destroy each other. One word: DIVE.
I watch the others play two invigorating games full of mistaken directional orders, and then journey through downtown Seattle in hopes of finding a place that’s open past midnight. I’d heard there was a “Walk-Thru” McDonald’s somewhere downtown, so we head there. It’s closed. We pull out our phones and search for another: our phones say the nearest one closes at 1:00, so we hurry over and when we get there…it’s closed. Best. Adventure. Ever.
There was a lot of walking today. When I finally get home, I tell my friend about all the things that have transpired. She tells me that the Twitch booth was giving out deodorant. I’m slightly jealous I didn’t find any.
Sept. 5th, 2016 (Day four of PAX)
Today is the last day of PAX, and I’m a little sad. This’ll be the last time I watch the expo hall slowly fill and liven up. It’ll be the last time I have a Jimmy John’s sandwich. The last time I ask people if they’ve read the manual (in person, at least). As the final day begins, I take a deep breath.
Two people I’d taught on the first day of PAX come back again, and this time they take the unlimited play station, staying for about an hour. When they’re done they march right over to where Alice, Reika, and John are standing and buy two copies of the game. Later, another guy comes by and says he already has SpyParty. I’ve even seen him in the lobby. He tells me “I just bought five copies, one for every new character added to the game.”
Time passes, but the crowd never seems to dissipate: the line is as long as ever. Late in the morning, I spot someone I follow on Twitch, and she’s in line to play the game! I get the privilege of teaching her to play, and she comes back later to say goodbye and talk to some of the others at the booth about how crazy I am.
In the afternoon, warningtrack and Mrs. warningtrack leave for the airport, and a little later, so do John and Alice. We all keep tutoring with gusto, cramming everything we know about SpyParty into our five minute pitch, trying to provide enough enthusiasm and information that they want to play more, but not so much that they’re scared away.
When 6:00 PM hits, we hear the announcement: “The expo hall is now closed!” I finally exhale. We all let out a cheer of relief and accomplishment. PAX is over. There are no more people to teach the game to. There are about a half dozen of us left, and we begin taking the booth apart: wrapping cords, removing signs, putting monitors in boxes, and folding up tables. Our busy little corner comes down quickly. It’s only at this point that I realize how big the event was: thousands of people came through every day, and they explored hundreds of booths and thousands of games. I’m humbled by how many of them wanted to play this one, buy it, and learn from our community.
When everything’s packed up, checker gives us a free copy of SpyParty. We all hug, and after our final meal together and one more round of board games, I head home, utterly exhausted.
Sept. 6th, 2016 (Heading Home)
I don’t need to wake up early today, but I still do. It’s been a week since I slept in, so I guess I’m getting used to it. For a while, I just lay there, thinking about everything that’s happened.
I took public transit around Seattle, survived their train system, and got to where I need to be. I took an Uber that saved my groceries from the rain, and rode in the sketchiest Lyft of my life, and I’m alive to tell the tale.
This is the first time I’ve met people from the internet in person, and it was a much more pleasant experience than what others have described. Several of these people will likely be my friends for life. Already, I can’t imagine what it would be like without them.
My voice lasted the entire four days (plus a night of karaoke), with a little assistance from new best friend, Ricola. Some others weren’t so lucky: I brought 124 lozenges with me and picked up another 50 or so along the way, and by 2:00 PM on the final day, they’d all disappeared.
I eat my last meal in Seattle: all the leftover groceries I hadn’t eaten. A giant bowl of pasta, a frozen pizza, and iced tea. My friend Allison and I reminisce on our trip. We do our dishes, welcome the next occupants into the building, and pack away our belongings. I leave a message in my Airbnb’s guest book:
“This has been the best trip I have ever taken in my life. Though it’s not that far away from home, I have learned a lot about being a part of a gaming community. Thanks for having a convenient space. Go to Spyparty.com to find out more about this great community!”
kcmmmmm stops by to drop off the watch that I left at the SPSC before heading back to Il Corvo and I head to the bus stop. We walk down the huge hill we had to climb when we arrived and the Boltbus back to Vancouver.
When I get back to Vancouver I head to work for another four hours. As warningtrack says, I have enough energy to fuel a small turbine. When I get home, I do a quick podcast with elvisnake for sharper’s AfterParty.
I log onto the SpyParty lobby and wait. After an hour or so, an unfamiliar name joins Headquarters and I say exactly what I’ve been saying for the past six days:
“Welcome to SpyParty! Have you read the manual?”