Recalling PAX East : Day 1/2

Hi Readers! I know it's been awhile since I posted - you'll have to forgive me for that. It is tax season and required overtime has kicked in at work. I have a little less time to devote to fun projects and March has been a month of getting things accomplished. The end consequence: my blog has suffered. While I do have an unfinished blog post I wrote in honor of March 20th (why I'm honoring that particular day will become a little more clear once you read the post), I wanted to set that aside for the moment so I could get in some blog posts from the trip I just went to.

And oh, what a trip it was.

First, the preamble!

The Penny Arcade Expo (PAX, for short) is a gaming convention. Do you like video games? I do! What about board games? Same here! Card games? Those too! Tabletop RPG stuff? Sure thing! If it is a game, chances are PAX features it in some fashion. In an earlier blog post, I identified myself as a gamer and in spite of my Lenten sacrifice, I remain one. It should thus come as no surprise that I wanted to attend.

With the exception of the first year, the convention is primarily held in Seattle, Washington. It came to be because the creators of the webcomic strip Penny Arcade felt gamer culture was under-represented in terms of conventions. The very first PAX came to be in 2004 and held about 3300 people. It was held in Bellevue, Washington in a fairly small convention center.

Oh how times have changed.

As of this year, PAX has grown big enough to support not one, but two conventions a year. PAX Prime is the convention that remains on the West Coast of the US; PAX East is the new version held in Boston. Gamers from all over the US and Canada attend, not to mention many other gaming pilgrims who make the trek from various parts of the world. Attending PAX East along with myself were five gaming cohorts: Curt, Vince, Fox, Sean, and Jeff (not my brother). Alas, some of our circle could not attend. Such is the way of things.

Our plan involved flying up in two groups of three. I spent the day doing laundry, packing, and getting affairs in order before leaving. Vince picked up Curt and myself around 3 PM and we were at the airport and ready to go by our 4 PM flight.

It's worth mentioning here that the only paper I had to print my boarding pass had pre-printed images of unrolled parchments on the front. I printed my pass on the white back of the paper and at the time I saw it as a possible problem (e.g. the paper might not read on airport scanners). However, I wasn't that concerned and had I more time I would have drawn a treasure map of the US East Coast on the front with an X labeled "To Adventure!" at the end of the trail. Maybe next time.

The flight was a smooth cruise and we landed in Boston a little before 6 PM. A short cab ride later and we were at our hotel, the Hilton Back Bay. Vince and I were staying together and we dropped off our stuff in our shared room. Curt checked into his own room and the three of us then went across the street to the mall and got dinner from one of the most posh food courts I've seen. I ate a burger and fries, which wasn't terrible but wasn't that great either. During dinner we connected with Jay, a friend of Curt's who was a Boston local, and his friend Mike. We hit a couple of pubs for drinks and then managed to stumble out into the night in search of fun and adventure.

Little side note: at the first pub we went to (which had Zoiglbier, a beer I decided had been created so that Dr Zoidberg could have beer) I sat at the end of our quintet at the bar. Immediately to our left was a couple who was having a completely tabloid and non-PG conversation. I got a bit of dinner theater that night.

After a bit of drinking, we took a walk around Fenway Park and wound up at the Rockstar Games party. Apparently, Curt was on "the list" to get in; the rest of us just rode his coattails. There was originally supposed to be some playable demos there, but as it turned out all that was available were trailers projected onto walls.

And alcohol. I got a Red Bull and vodka (meh) and a PBR (meh meh). But hey, it was fun.

After the Rockstar party, the six of us (we caught up with Jay's friend Matt at the party) went to grab a quick drink before parting ways. We went to Whiskey's, snagged a couple drinks, someone ordered a terrible pizza which we all had a slice of, then we parted ways for the evening. Thankfully everything ended not too much after midnight, since we had to be up by Way Too Early For Having Been Drinking o'clock (aka 7 AM) to get in line for the opening stuff and guaranteed concert entry bracelets the next day.

Did we manage it? Of course we did - we're awesome like that. However, I'm going to cut the blog entry short here - I'd originally planned to put out day 1/2 and 1 in a single post but this is getting long. You lucky (or unlucky) readers will see a post a day from me over the next four days detailing my adventure from start to finish and giving as much details as I possibly can.

And how does all this tie in to the theme of my blog? Well, you'll see. :)