PAX East Blog: PAX Eve

PAX East attendee blog.  Check out my four -day experience and the aftermath in this week series of articles.  This article covers PAX Eve (Thursday night)

While at PAX I decided to blog about the days I was there, what it was like, what I did, etc.  Unfortunately, I took notes about what I wanted to write for each day, but didn't have time to get these written while I was there and posted, nor did I have time to write them the week I got back (work can be quite demanding at times, you know).  Factor in transcribing audio, uploading pictures and trying to post articles and you get these a week later.

For those of you that have never been to an event like PAX, this might give you an idea of what it's like to attend large gaming conventions.  For those of you that have attended PAX East or PAX Prime, it might relate to some of your experiences or detail new experiences as well.  Each article will be sprinkled with pictures I took that day as well. 

This year, PAX East was a totally new experience for me on a couple of levels.  This was the first time I attended not only as a member of the media, but as a speaker as well (I was the press agent for two movies showing at PAX East on Friday and Saturday night).  It was also my first trip to the East Cost and Boston.

Thursday started out bright and early – and I do mean early.  Up at 3:30 a.m. to drive an hour to the airport where my 6 a.m. flight was departing from was not a highlight of the trip.  I am not a morning person.  If I could have avoided it, I would have but…cheap flights equal early morning flights.

At least the blizzard they had predicted to hit us on Tuesday and Wednesday fizzled out and gave us no precipitation.

The flight out to Milwaukee was short and uneventful.  Ran to the next terminal to catch my next flight to Boston and took a nap till just before we landed at Logan International Airport.  I got to my hotel, checked in, grabbed some lunch then decided since I only got 3 hours of sleep the night before that I'd take a nap since it was kinda windy, cool and a bit sprinkle.  That and I had to figure out how to use their bus/subway system and I was seeing everything blurry so a few hours of sleep would definitely help out.

A few hours later I wake up to a phone call from Judd Saul, executive producer of FRAG, asking me if I can pick up their passes for the event because it looked like they wouldn't get in till late.  Since I hadn't picked up my passes yet, I said yea, shouldn't be a problem.  I responded to e-mails regarding appointments for interviews and demonstrations before looking into the Massachusetts civic transportation situation, which was as awesome as the public transportation set up in Seattle when I went in 2009.

After doing some research online, I made my way back to the airport to catch the bus down to the World Trade Center/Boston Convention and Event  Center stop.  From there, climbed up the three flights of stairs to take the bridge over to the Boston Convention and Event Center.

I have to say, despite the cool temperatures and the overcast skies, it made for a very scenic view, including the skylines.

Either way, I made my way through traffic to the center, picked up my media badge, then picked up my speaker badge, explained the situation and the fact I was the press agent, provided my business card and state ID as well as an e-mail with the names of the folks I needed to pick up passes for and received those then looked around the almost empty center (empty except for Enforcers, security guards and a few others picking up passes).   I did peek down into the exhibit hall, got a dirty look from a security guard and decided not to push my luck with taking pictures through the glass walls, but did take a few pictures of stuff in the lobby (including the Bioshock 2 display).

All of that done, I headed back outside to take some scenic pictures before heading back to the station where I ran into some other gamers who were staying at the same hotel that I was at.  We talked about what they were looking forward to at PAX (got the admission from one of them they were totally new to this gaming experience), what developer parties were happening this year after hours, what panels they were planning to attend and other fun stuff.

We got back to the hotel, I grabbed supper at the Japanese restaurant Bitsueki, which turned out to be an experience in itself.  One of the women at the table I was at was celebrating her 25th birthday and was jealous to hear I was attending PAX.  Apparently she is also a Gears of War 3 fan and loves to play video games.

That being done, I headed back upstairs, set up a breakfast meeting with Judd before PAX started and headed to sleep.  A full day with plenty of excitement planned for the rest of the weekend.

Check out a couple of the scenic pictures below.  More images from Thursday, March 10 can be found on Facebook here.

PAX East: Day 1 to follow tomorrow.