Ok, I'll get this out of the way immediately. The Inaugural PAX East was phenomenal, and when I say "very little ugly," I mean very little. The only two unpleasant things I witnessed were both before the show officially started while waiting in line at the merch booth. One was a girl yelling at the enforcers because they cut the line off to keep from blocking a hallway, and the other was another enforcer losing his shit on the guy running that same line. That was really it, and it seemed that everyone followed Wil Wheaton's rules for PAX. The most important one, of course, being "Don't be a dick." The rest of the convention was a great experience, but there is room for improvement.
The Queue Room
I hate waiting in lines. There are theme parks I am never allowed to go to again because of this 
hatred. Here is a tiny fraction of the line on Friday to get into PAX East.
I did not hate this line.
It was actually a pleasant experience for a couple of reasons. First, there were a few big screens projecting videos, LOLcats pics, and games played via text or sms message. Second, our swag bags included packs of Magic: The Gathering promotional starter decks. Third, we were already comrades before Wil Wheaton's keynote (I will get to that, I promise), so there was a good vibe in the room. You could just see others playing the same games you like, laughing at the same weird stuff you find funny, and just feel completely safe. It was like the best parts of an internet forum without flamewars or trolls.
I should probably also mention The Cult of The Ball. At some point, two beach balls started bouncing around the crowd and people had fun batting them at the lights or trying to get them stuck on the tubes. Some folks started chanting, "All hail the ball," and it caught on a little. It became a big deal when someone finally did get a ball stuck on the tubes. Then, it became HUGE when a guy carrying a Fruit Fucker flag used said flag to rescue the ball.
I would also credit the line for the hilarious Jason meme at PAX East. Often while moving through a large crowd, someone would yell out, "Jasooon!" a couple of times. If you don't get why that's funny, play or watch the first twenty minutes of Heavy Rain.
The Queue Room was not only for entry to the show in the morning, but also for the concerts, and it was before the second night's concert that my wife caught this lovely moment on an SD card.
[embed:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTG13oF5RfY]
Sadly, right after this, we started singing "Bohemian Rhapsody," from the line, through the halls, and into the Main Theatre and we didn't get THAT on the camera. A tragedy indeed.
The Keynote
This was my first PAX, so I don't know how it compares to his other address, but Wil Wheaton's keynote was one of my high points for the entire convention. He really touched me with his anecdote about how he got into Dungeons & Dragons and his experience with the game, because it was so much like my adolescence. I also personally related to his dilemma at the end of Dragon Age. Without going into spoiler territory, I'll just say that I also agonized over a choice near the end of the game and had an emotional reaction. He was funny and extremely entertaining, but he also reminded us of our shared bond despite many differences, and insisted that we not "act like dicks." It seemed to me that everyone listened to him.
The People
We were a fraternity of gamers, and I think most of us appreciated that. The weekend was full of inside jokes and antisocial people being sociable. There were also cosplayers, and almost every single one I saw did an awesome job. I asked this Gear to let me get a picture with him while he was resting on a bench with his family, and he was very happy to oblige. That's how people were, you could just start a conversation with anyone and it wasn't like just talking to a stranger on the street. It's a very different beast than something like the San Diego Comic-Con, where way too many people are there just to buy exclusive action figures to flip on ebay. We were a community, and it made you feel proud to be associated with this subculture.
As I said before, I the only nastiness I saw from people was BEFORE the convention technically began. However, with that many of us nerds together in one place I'm sure there had to be some unpleasantness, but I was fortunate to not have to witness it.
The Location
Seemingly, the Hynes Convention Center is a great location for a game fan convention. It's basically located inside a mall, so there are plenty of reasonable food options and there's even a Gamestop in the complex. There are hotels physically connected to the center, and many others that are very inexpensive within walking distance. The facilities are very nice and the building has a good layout. The only problem is that it was just too small. The crowds moving around weren't too bad, but the panel rooms were very small for the number of people there, and the Exhibition Hall was significantly smaller than I was expecting. Still, even though Mike and Jerry said at the closing ceremonies that PAX East would be at a different facility next year, I will kind of miss it if only for how conveniently it was located.
The Exhibition Hall
The very first people I saw when I entered the Exhibition Hall were Eat-Sleep-Game's Anthony Gallegos and Arthur Gies. I told them how much I liked RebelFM and they were very nice, and then we went our separate ways. It was not at all like that time I think I scared Bungie's Joe Staten at the SDCC show floor. So, me not making a fool out of myself, that was cool.
Unfortunately, that was the only cool thing I experienced on my first walkthrough of the Exhibition Hall. Without really taking in and appreciating what was there, I immediately noticed two things. One was that it was significantly smaller than I expected, and the second was that there were almost no vendors.
This is about half of the show floor as seen from the Crackdown 2 multiplayer demo area. When I went through here the first time, I was myopic about how small it was and how many things were there that were completely uninteresting to me. I don't care about two huge booths pimping gaming headsets, and I'm no longer a PC gamer and it felt very PC-centric to me. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but the nVidia 3D display was the only neat thing for me, and the console side of things was kind of lame. A Dante's Inferno booth when the game came out over a month ago? Bioshock 2 multiplayer DLC? A Wii Sports clone? It seemed like there weren't that many companies there or many games being shown. I was just massively underwhelmed, and coupled with the lack of sleep I had that day, it really bummed me out.
That said, I went back later and had a lot of fun. I was really interested in playing Red Dead Redemption and Crackdown 2, but the thing I had a nerdgasm over was PuzzleQuest 2. They were handing out buttons colored like the gems in the game, and if you found two other people wearing your same button, you could go back to the D3 booth and get a purple button. It was actually a kind of neat thing, and the game looks so great. I talked with one of the people manning the booth and asked about the tedious random battles that made the end of the game drag on, and he said there would now be some sort of quick travel system, so that wouldn't be a problem.
The other problem that I had with the Exhibition Hall, I unfortunately did not get over. I wanted to buy a bunch of cool shit relating to games. I wanted to find some mind-blowing crap that you cannot find in stores. I also wanted AD&D 2nd Edition rulebooks. However, with the exception of The Behemoth's Castle Crashers figures and Fangamer's stuff, there was almost nothing being sold in the Exhibition Hall. There were a lot of board games and RPG stuff in some of the hallways, but next to nothing relating to video games. If there was only one change I would demand to see at the next PAX East, it would be that there need to be more vendors. This didn't ruin the experience or anything, but it was disappointing.
The Concerts
I missed out on two meet-ups that I was interested in going to to ensure that I could go to the concerts, and I'm mostly happy I decided to go. By the way, one of those meet-ups was our own Bitmob gathering. I had a difficult time at the Friday concert, but I loved every minute of the Saturday show. I don't know if I'll go to every concert in the future, or see every act, but I'm glad I went this time.
On Friday, the concerts didn't begin until about an hour after they were supposed to, and did I mention that I had been awake since 2AM Friday morning? So, the concerts started some time after 9PM, and the two acts I really wanted to see were the last two. We also didn't get there early enough to get the wristbands to ensure we'd get in, so we waited forever to get in and were going to just sit through the first two acts anyway. The Protomen I'm just not a huge fan of, and it didn't help that I couldn't hear their vocals over the guitars, but Anamanaguchi was stellar. I hadn't heard of them before, but I loved their set even though it was painfully loud at times. Metroid Metal had a great performance, and they helped out that Cult of Ball meme a little with some beach ball Metroids bouncing around.
[embed:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZrWBsbsPm4]I also wanted to see MC Frontalot, but after 30 minutes of waiting for him to set up after Metroid Metal, I decided it was time to go. It was after 1AM, I was practically falling asleep, my wife was asleep, and it was getting ridiculous that it was taking that long to get him set up. What kind of insanely complicated machinery was he going to use? It sounds like I made the right decision, because my wife overheard someone in the Queue Line say that it took so long to get him out there that they played part of a Firefly episode and then when he did come out, it was only for about a half hour and the show ended at 2:30.
The Saturday concert was awesome, and I'm going to let the videos do talking here. I do wish I had a video from Paul and Storm, because they are an epic force with an audience of nerds. If you can see them live, you need to take advantage of that sweet, sweet opportunity.
[embed:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnBkGosRH_g] [embed:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KcGV15cQLQ] [embed:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKliJtUdvCY]I really hope the concerts can run smoother next year. It took a really long time between acts to get the stage ready, and they started late both nights. Also, it needs to be easier to get booze during the concerts.
Dungeons & Dragons
I loved AD&D as a teen. Except for DOOM and TIE Fighter, the only PC games I played were SSI's old D&D games. I started reading Dragon Magazine and buying some rulebooks long before I even had a gaming group, then I ran a game late in high school and during my first two years of college. I was able to convince my wife to sign up with me for a "New to D&D" adventure that Wizards of the Coast was running. We spent about four hours on Sunday playing D&D and she was into it. It was a huge amount of fun, and I think I might be able to get her to help me start a group. It was really cool to see such a big focus not only on D&D, but Magic, and an insane amount of awesome board games.
The Omegathon
I'm not going to lie. After I saw that I wasn't picked for the Omegathon, I had no interest in attending the first two rounds, but I did see the Rock Band round and the finale. I was…well, I felt like a dick afterwards for being so mad at the contestants. The Rock Band round featured singers that couldn't read the lyrics on their screens, so they mumbled their way through "The Gambler," and it was just painful.
The final round had the two teams doing a relay race completing goals in four NES games. They had to get 50 coins in Super Mario Bros., 1500 points in Rad Racer, 10 lines in Tetris, and then beat the final boss in Contra. Due to technical difficulties, they had to restart Super Mario Bros., then restart the whole thing by the time a team got to Contra, and then I guess they changed the rules for the Contra part. The sign said they had to beat the final boss, but they changed it to the first boss because the Konami code timed out. The controversy at the time was that the team that got to Contra first was very far ahead when the whole relay had to restart, and the other team ended up winning. I actually booed them when they were declared the winner, so Wil Wheaton would be ashamed of me. However, the kid that was playing Super Mario Bros. was so bad at it. Super Mario Bros. – who doesn't know how to play that game? I did regret booing afterwards, but it had angered up my blood.
Now that I've spent a really long time recounting my experiences, I hope it was interesting enough for you to read and that it gave you a feel about what PAX East was like. I'm a teacher, and my school system only gives us ONE personal leave day a year, and I can tell you right now that my wife and I are already planning on using ours next year for PAX East.
One last thought, did anyone who went try the experimental cookies by the cookie brigade? I had one that was potatochip instead of chocolate chip and it was actually really freaking awesome. I have got to find that recipe.
