PAX East Recap Day 1

*Technically this was Day 2 of PAX but it was the first day I was there*

They day started with waking up around 2:30am to get ready for the 6 hour drive up to Boston. It wasn't too bad. Surprisingly we didn't listen to music or podcasts the entire drive and just talked. I took over the final leg of driving to our hotel, which was the Doubletree Bayside. It wasn't too bad because we didn't have to drive through downtown but it also meant that we would have to constantly pay taxis $12 for a one-way trip to the convention center.

The hotel was super nice (and they gave us cookies!) since they let us check in well before 3pm. After getting settled we got a taxi and went to the convention center. I don;t know what I was expecting, but I was incredibly overwhelmed not just by the horde of people but also with all of the things to do. Everything (even the indie booths) were super packed so we only managed to really check out one booth. The people were really nice and showed us their cool game called Supreme Ruler 1936. It's sort of a combination between Civilization and Sim City as you can control or automate economies and other things that it takes to rule a country (check them out here).

Most of the day was spent walking around large groups of people and seeing all of the cool stuff that PAX had to offer, from Oculus Rift to tabletop games. There was even a room full of old consoles were you could play older games (definitely going there next year). I also geeked out over seeing Monika Lee and Jessica Nigri from Heroes of Cosplay at the Wildstar booth (which also had an awesome monster looking thing). I guess WIldstar is this new MMO they are hyping up but I had never heardof it before but it seems like something I would definitely check out. Around 12 we went to a panel about getting a job in the gaming industry (more for Brian than me) and it was pretty informative despite the industry being notoriously difficult to get into.



At the Wildstar booth

After this, we walked around some more, ate some ridiculously expensive burgers and then decided to go back to the hotel. We were completely exhausted (and hungry still) and we planned to go to an afterparty so we figured it would be a good time to nap. Since I was dying of thirst (another one of the rules of convention-going: bring water)  we first went to the cafe that the Doubletree had and although everything was expensive, it all tasted good and there was a nice selection so I was able to eat something before napping. After a long nap, we got dressed to go to the PCGamer/ASUS party at this place called the Estate. I dressed up really nice but it turned out it was unnecessary as they didn't turn anyone away. We got to the club super early and still were in a line that went down 3 blocks. Somehow we made it in this club and I was a bit overwhelmed. It had hardly any decorations to denote the party and only mysterious VIPs could go upstairs where there was breathing room and an open bar. No idea how one could get VIP but I wish I could have known. Anyway, the music was good but there wasn't really anything to do. There were two screens on the wall where people were playing games but that was it. Between that and the $10 drinks, I was ready to call it a day. We had tickets to go to a comedy show but that didn't start until 12 and we wanted to be awake for the full last day so we just headed back to the hotel (after a hilarious detour of trying to meet up with the Indies Need Booze barcrawl, which ended up at a strip club so that was a no.haha)

Overall Saturday was kind of overwhelming and I definitely saw the need to go all three days as I didn't get to do much. Sunday ended up being a much better PAX day overall (despite the horrible aftermath of driving home). But more on my Day 2 tomorrow.