These days life rarely affords me the time to play video games, much less write about them. However, one gaming event I always make time for is PAX East—especially this year, when the hot, sweaty, crowded expo floor of was a welcome tropical vacation from the comically extreme weather we’ve endured in New England this…
10:00 AM – Back to the convention center for Round 2. Saturday at PAX traditionally draws the most die-hard fans, the ones who are willing to wait for hours to play the newest entry in their favorite franchise for just a few minutes, or spend months painstakingly crafting highly accurate foam replicas of fantasy weapons…
8:30 AM – This year will be my third PAX East, making me a fully-fledged PAX veteran. And like a veteran, I’m eschewing the complimentary PAX swag bag (and the 2-hour wait that comes with it) and shooting to be on the expo floor a half-hour after it opens. 10:30 AM – After an hour…
8:09 AM – Day three. Last year the third day fell on Easter, while this year we have the Game Developers Conference (GDC) starting tomorrow. We’ll see which one is better at thinning the crowd; I’m guessing the latter. Either way, I hope it doesn’t have a negative impact on getting to see the games…
8:23 AM – Thanks to help from my wife and my mom, I’m less encumbered by child care responsibilities this morning. However, I am encumbered by getting only four hours of sleep, so I still get a later start than I intended. Still, it looks like I’m going to make it to the 10:00 panel…
8:42 AM – This time last PAX, I was standing in the bowels of the Boston Convention Center waiting in a gigantic line full of bizarre people for no discernible reason. This time around, parental duties required that I drop my two beautiful, screaming children off at day care before I could embark on the…
I can’t believe that nearly a year has passed since I abandoned my family for the Easter holiday to attend my first gaming expo, PAX East 2012. This time the good folks at Penny Arcade have taken the less blasphemous approach of not attempting to be “bigger than Jesus”, which means that although I’ll have…
9:00 AM – Latest start yet. I think I must have been feeling pretty good last night, because when I got home I was self-assured enough to eat blue cheese dressing out of the jar with a fork. I do feel the tiniest bit guilty walking across Boston Common hung over and on my way…
8:00 AM – Got a (much) later start this morning. The last panel I want to hit is at 9:00 PM, so I thought a bit of extra sleep would be nice. It’s also tough not to take the opportunity to sleep in when your toddler and newborn happen to be in another state. 10:36…
6:00 AM – Got up way earlier than I ever manage to do for work, at least when there’s not a screaming child involved. Not sure how long it will take to drive, subway, hitchhike, and/or walk down to the area of Southie where the Expo is, but I wanted to give myself time. 8:44…