Who was there: Alex Leavitt, a Ph.D. student at the Annenberg School of Communication.

What he talked about: Minecraft has spread across the Internet like wildfire. Not as quick as this fire, but it was fast nonetheless. Because of the game's unique situation, Leavitt is using Minecraft as a focal point for his research on game culture. While the popularity of Mojang's game can be credited to platforms like YouTube, the panel wasn't about why Minecraft was popular, but rather was about how a game that has players...

Who was there: Various members of ArenaNet, including Eric Flannum and Colin Johanson.

What they talked about: This full-to-capacity panel revolved around ArenaNet's long-awaited massively multiplayer online role-playing game sequel, acting as a primer to give fans and newcomers and an idea of what to expect when Guild Wars 2 launches. The panelists discussed a number of different ways in which they are building a game that is meant to be played with others and how...

Who was there: This Penny Arcade Expo 2011 panel included writer John Gonzales from Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment; writer Travis Stout from Obsidian Entertainment; content designer Annie VanderMeer Mitsoda from ArenaNet; and creative director Brian Mitsoda from DoubleBear Productions.

What they talked about: Just like saving the galaxy or uniting a fractured kingdom, writing for a role-playing game is a massive undertaking. OK, maybe it isn't that massive, but keeping track of all the heroes,...

Who was there: With PAX Prime playing home to Halo's 10th anniversary party, 343 Industries trotted out some of its franchise leads to part the curtain on Halo 4, calling it the first game in The Reclaimer Trilogy. Moderated by content producer David Ellis, the panel featured franchise director Frank O'Connor, marketing director Kenneh Scott, executive producer Kiki Wolfkill, creative director Josh Holmes, and audio director Sotaro Tojima.

What they talked about: Ellis started the panel off by asking O'Connor about the history of 343 Industries, with the franchise head responding that the studio technically launched three years ago. 343 was tasked with publishing Halo 3: ODST initially, but they knew they needed a team to continue the Halo franchise.

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Who was there: Members of Harmonix, including community managers Annette Gonzalez and Eric Pope; director of brand management, John Drake; and community development manager Aaron Trites. Rather than having a standard question-and-answer session where fans asked the questions, the team at Harmonix used this period to ask the audience the questions. On top of that, they had a live demo of their upcoming iOS title, VidRhythm.

What they showed and talked about: For the first quarter of their hour-long panel, they had the audience participate in a live demo of VidRhythm, their soon-to-be-released iOS game. The...

Who was there: Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes development head Carrie Gouskos took to the PAX Prime 2011 stage alongside creative director Paul Barnett, producer James Casey, and Web developer Ken Holley, as well as senior designers Nate Levy and Amber Turner.

What they talked about: This fall, BioWare Mythic will launch Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes, a free-to-play variant of the scenario combat found in the studio's massively multiplayer online role-playing game. The Wrath of Heroes team was on hand at this year's PAX Prime to deliver more information on the upcoming game.

The panel began with a trailer for Wrath of Heroes (embedded below), which primarily showed off the game's illustrated art style and...

Who was there: The panelists consisted of Chris Brown and his wife Kelly from the Married Gamers website, Elizabeth Parmeter from GamingAngels, Dan Amrich from Activision, Christa Charter of Trixie Enterprises, and guest Zachary Snell.

What they talked about: Video games have been a source of contention in the media, but it becomes even more of a headache when the debate is brought into the home. Couples who are both gamers may have an understanding for one another's habits, but like any hobby that eats away at free time, there comes a point when boundaries must be laid.

Brown kicked off the panel...

Who was there: Geeknights' Brandon DeCoster and Scott Rubin held forth at PAX Prime 2011 to talk about what designers can learn from games lost to time.

What they talked about: DeCoster and Rubin began their panel by referencing Dan Simmons' novel Hyperion, and a speech made therein. The far-future tale includes a speech by a character who is essentially the president of the galaxy. Afterward, the president is approached and praised on the speech, but the character says that it was actually stolen from long-forgotten leaders like Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln.

DeCoster and Rubin feel the game...