I figure I should write down my thoughts about PAXEast, it’s just been a little busy as of late to get around to doing it. I guess that’s the big problem as of late is that I just need to make the time to do these things. (And I should stop making posts that complain about not having the time to make posts). But I digress. Just over a week ago Andrew and I got to attend the Penny Arcade Expo East in lovely Boston MA. I have been yearning to attend a PAX event ever since they started. Last year was the first east coast event and I wasn’t able to go, but forced myself to take the time this year. for those who don’t know, PAX is a gaming convention. Kind of like E3 meets Gencon. Something that draws a lot of the big names and companies get to show off their wares, but it’s run by fans and gamers for other fans and gamers. This year, PAXEAST was the largest PAX event ever with upwards around 70,000 attendees. The downside to this was lines everywhere, but I’ll get to that.
We started the trip a little early, the convention started on Friday but I wanted to get the chance to explore Boston, so we arrived on Thursday. Our hotel was the Midtown Hotel on Harrington, which is not really Mid-Town at all. It was a nice enough hotel, but I would have rather had something closer. We new Thursday was going to be a walking day so we started off early and headed to our first stop, Cheers. It wasn’t until a friend reminded me about Cheers being there that I added it to the list. (and he got a shot glass out of it.) After lunch we went on the Freedom trail and hit almost everything. I have a great gallery of the Boston side of the trip on my site here. I’ll save you the step by step, but some highlights were the Northend of Boston, which I found to be amazing. That area of the city has such history. I could spend a week there just touring things and taking pictures. That night we decided to eat in the Northend. We wanted to try a good Italian place but instead, I think we found the worst one there. I normally wouldn’t out a place but La Famiglia Spagnuolo had to be one of the worst places I have ever eaten. The sauce on the dish I had tasted like it was straight from a can, and not a good can. Seriously, avoid it. Sadly we didn’t get a chance the rest of the trip to go back for a decent Northend dinner. All totalled we walked about 15 miles on Thursday. And this was all before the Con!!
Friday through Sunday was all PAXEast. Some highlights were:
- Meeting the infamous Major Nelson, Stepto, E, and Lollipop. We are huge fans of the Podcast and everyone knows how much of an Xbox fan-boy I am, so this was a big one for me. I even got Lollipop to do the Robot at the live Podcast panel. (Thanks again Laura!)
- Seeing all the amazing demo’s on the expo floor, including Star Wars Old Republic, Duke Nukem, Portal 2, L.A. Noir, etc. etc. etc.
- Spending time with Andrew in the table top game room playing just about anything we could get our hands on. We bought Munchkin Zombies and just popped down a sign that said “come play with us!” and within Minutes we had a full table. I loved that about PAX, just random people saying “I would love to play that!”
- Andrew got to meet Steve Jackson (of Steve Jackson Games) while playing Ninja Burger!
- I got to meet many of the Developers and Writers for Portal 2 and have them sign my iPad which will be making it’s way to a new good home soon.
- The PAXEast concert was, of course, epic. We saw Johnathan Coulton, VGO, and Paul and Storm. This led into the DST switch where we were robbed of an hour of PAX. Went to bed that night at 4am! (worth it!)
- Playing in an Arcade room with 80s music blasting took me back to when I was 12 years old and my sister took me to the free play night she won access to from the local radio station.
- We tried to learn at least 1 to 2 new games per day of the convention. We got Zombie Dice, Ninja Burger, Munchkin Zombies, MTG cards, and a few other smallish games. We even saw a couple playing rock paper scissors. (in trek costumes!!)
Over all I was just constantly amazed with how friendly everyone was and how awesome it was to be there and surrounded by others who enjoyed games the way I do. If you love games, I highly suggest PAX! Either one! You can view my PAX pictures in my gallery here.
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