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PAX East 2010 Official Thread

RymRym
edited March 2010 in Conventions
Here is your thread for PAX East 2010 in all of its ongoing glory.

Be sure to follow @geeknights, @schezar, and @apreche on twitter! Our streaming and uploaded coverage may be a moving target, but we'll always keep you posted with tweets. #PAX is the PAX East hashtag. We probably won't bother with the #geeknights one, since all of our official tweets will come from @geeknights


Some Key Items:

Coverage:
Youtube Channel

Official GeekNights Meetup:

The scheduling of this is still TBA. We will update here and tweet as soon as we decide on a time/place. Note that this is independent of the forum meetup and anything else you all may have already planned.


Official Forum Meetups:

I'll aggregate any "sanctioned" forum meetups here for all of your convenience. Of course, feel free to organize your own whenever.
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Comments

  • Can't we just merge the two?
  • Attention!

    Talked to Jerry in the hotel lobby. Word is that there is a bad case of norovirus going around the greater Boston area. It is imperative that you wash your hands on a regular basis if you are attending.
  • Wooo! PAX plus possibly of instant weight loss nice!
  • Oh god...look...if there is going to be a potentiality of norovirus, I'm a gigantic risk to you all. Norovirus more often that not affect people who carry O-Type blood...I'm O-Negative.
  • Excellent! An excuse to avoid you!
  • Excellent! An excuse to avoid you!
    Tee hee, very funny. In all seriousness, I'll be washing my hands about ever 3 hours or so. Because I don't want to almost die like Rym almost did and go to a hospital (he had gastroenteritis if I remember correctly).
  • edited March 2010
    Tee hee, very funny. In all seriousness, I'll be washing my hands about ever 3 hours or so. Because I don't want to almost die like Rym almost did and go to a hospital (he had gastroenteritis if I remember correctly).
    Slow your roll. Just be sure to wash your hands on a regular basis, try not to have fluid contact(or, needless to say, fecal contact) with any FRC or FRCF members, and it'll all be fine. Needless to say, cover your mouth when you sneeze or cough, preferably by coughing into your shoulder, rather than with your hand - you use those for things, remember.
    Also, be sure to do as your mother always taught you, and wash up before you eat, and while sharing is caring, when eating finger food, unless you've washed your hands first, don't. Though, do note that Alcohol based products, like Purell and so on, are not very effective in killing it, you gotta get friendly with some good old soap and water. If you want to get really careful, I suppose liquid disinfectant soap is easy enough to get and carry with you.

    Sure, it seems a little Hanners-level OCD, but it should work, and keep other people safe enough from you in particular.

    P.s - I'm O+, does that mean if we mix our blood, it will Annihilate both and release an enormous amount of energy?
    Post edited by Churba on
  • Tee hee, very funny. In all seriousness, I'll be washing my hands about ever 3 hours or so. Because I don't want to almost die like Rym almost did and go to a hospital (he had gastroenteritis if I remember correctly).
    P.s - I'm O+, does that mean if we mix our blood, it will Annihilate both and release an enormous amount of energy?
    OΩ?
  • edited March 2010
    Another live Ustream channel. Something to watch while waiting for the GeekNight Ustream to go on.

    EDIT - scratch that... stream just died.
    Post edited by Tasel on
  • Action Castle was epic!
  • Well, I went home early today since I didn't know if I'd have a ride and the MBTA stops running the bus to my town sometime after 7. I had fun, though I managed to miss both the keynote and the first PA questions session, in particular I was late for the keynote and they said there was no more room when I went to get in line for the questions. The exhibition hall, which is the dealer's rooms when Anime Boston runs, was mind blowing as I'd never been to a PAX or any other kind of gaming con before. It was STUPID crowded though. I managed to get a Dreamcast for $40 at the ex Game Universe now Game Underground store's table. They run a tiny little hole in the wall store in Framingham, MA, which is made of win, particularly since I can walk there from school given enough time. I'm hoping to hit something Geeknights related tomorrow, and generally do a little more exploring. There is no way Anime Boston can follow this up, but I'm still looking forward to it.
  • I'm at the airport now, waiting for my plane.

    PAX East was awesome. I had an extremely fun time hanging out and meeting all the east coasters. I wish I could stay a day extra to hang out with everyone and attending closing ceremonies.

    The only problem was the fact that the Hynes was too small for the attendees, but that will be resolved next year.

    It was so fun teaching so many FRC and other PAX people Dominion. Lyddi and Andrew were so cute. I loved hanging out with them. Lyddi is adorable. She took to Dominion so well. I was so happy I got to spend time knitting with Nuri and hanging out with Pete, George, Wyatt (for the short time), and Katsu. I also saw and hung out a bit with Neito, Lackofcheese, YoshoKatana, and Geoffino. Also, working Table Top with ScoJo was cool too.

    I really didn't hang out with ScRym, but that's ok. Been there. Done that.

    I am happy that east coast geeks are just as awesome as west coast geeks. I never encountered any rude people, but I adored the Boston accents. However, East Coast, you fuckers smoke way too much. Good god, the atrium was diffuse with cigarette smoke. It was worse than a chimney. I will gladly go back to my trees and clean air.

    Being an Enforcer was so much fun as it was the last time I was one. I had the best time in Table Top gaming hanging out with other Enforcers and recommending games to PAX attendees. I talked so much, I pretty much lost my voice for the later half of Saturday and can barely talk right now.

    There we are few new games I played and one I bought. I'll post more about them later.

    PAX East was great. I look forward to being an Enforcer at PAX Prime and making sure I go to the next PAX East.

    I hope more FRC forummites will go to these conventions because it is such a treat finally meeting all you awesome people.
  • PAXeast was simply amazing. Everyone obviously knows about its flaws with the building, lines, etc. etc. It will be solved next year.

    My panel on Saturday was all-seats-taken, with people sitting on the floor and along the side and back walls. My girlfriend and I cosplayed as Ash and Pikachu, which was fun (though we expected more cosplay, so we had to pose for an excessive number of pictures). She also won an Intel Core i7 processor at one of the after-parties. And speaking of parties, the Kotaku one on Friday was wicked fun, with an open bar and free food.

    The finals to the Omegathon were also double awesome! If you missed them, you NEED to watch them on YouTube.

    I have so much to say, but I'll probably blog about it. Panel audio w/ slides will hopefully be up on my blog soon.
  • edited March 2010
    Yeah this was pretty much the best con that I have been to, granted my only other con experience has been Conneticon and a little bit of Anime Boston. However the crowd here was much better than either of those. There were so many awesome people that I got to chill with, and while the lines kind of sucked, without them I wouldn't have met half of the cool people that I did. I can not wait for next year where I can do this again

    Edit: Also I just noticed that I'm totally in the Agricola video
    Post edited by Jordan O. on
  • I may end up in X-Play's coverage of PAX in my debut role as "Enforcer holding 'Line is Full' sign". I'll be holding my first autograph session at Anime Boston. :3

    But yeah, I'm glad I went to PAX, and Enforcing rocked. I'm definatly going next year, and I'm probably going to do more enforcering.
  • PAX, though it was crazy and overwhelming at times, it did not hit anywhere near the level of awesome I had hoped for until Sunday. I went to Rym and Scott's Beyond Candyland panel, which had I had to rush from Shaw's(the supermarket outside the mall) with my food to make it, I was actually eating it in line, which was a bit awkward, but hey. The panel was good, it had some great lines like the one about War(not sure if I should spoil it). I was hoping to hang out with the Crew then, but I lost them as they walked down the escalator and that's generally not something I like to do, so I lost them there and ended up wandering a bit more. While in the Expo Hall I met Jeff Green, which was awesome, and thanked him for his years of work and awesome podcasts. I'm glad I got to do that in person. I also picked up a couple of games for my new Dreamcast, Sega Rally Championship 2 and Sega Tennis 2K2, which must have been one of the very last official Dreamcast games. Then, after getting another bit of food from Shaws to be sure I would be set, I went to go wait in line, and I happened to see WaterIsPoison heading in to the line waiting area too, and I said hi to him(it helped that his Enforcer badge holder said WaterIsPoison :p). It turns out he was with a bunch of FRC/Forum people, and we ended up playing Fluxx(I think that is how it was spelled?) and even some Burning Wheel while waiting in line. Scott came first of the two hosts, then later Rym. PAX does the best job of making waiting around fun ever. The highlight had to be getting Katsu drafted in to dance, the entire group was chanting for him and the poor man wanted nothing to do with it, but he went up and Carameldansened(I have no idea how else to say that) with a girl cosplaying as Harley Quin from the Arkham Asylum video game and then winning the competition dancing to that "What Is Love?" song. He really got into it too, and definitely deserved the win. Even going upstairs was fun because they had us going up while playing Bohemian Rhapsody, and everyone was singing along. The Closing Ceremonies were a bit disappointing to me because it was really mostly the Omegathon finals, which suffered from technical issues and people who don't know how to play games right.
    I know I am not a frequent poster on here, I go long periods where I don't come and visit the board, or even listen to Geeknights sometimes, but I want to thank everyone who was there at the con with me in the line(unfortunately I'm horrible with names) because you made waiting in that line SO much more fun than I could have ever asked for. You guys are awesome and I hope to hang out at Anime Boston too.
  • Oh mans. I am going to PAX again.

    Friday was a little hectic, and lackofcheese informed me later on in the day that he was "feeling ill," which kind of set the tone for the weekend. I'm really glad he's feeling better now, though.

    Anyway, Friday! I was enforcing at Registration, which was pretty uneventful, since PAX is super awesome with their registration process. The job consisted of 90% handing out badges to speakers, press, and VIPs (which is pretty cool. I chatted with Freezepop and Shawn Elliott ["Those were the glory days" and such]). The rest of the time I got roped into doing line management, building RED WALLS, and helping out console freeplay.

    Saturday was pretty awesome. I came in at 8am to help with the main queue (for the opening stuff), and met some cool enforcers / post-graduate law students from Chicago. I was able to swing by Luke Crane's area and see some burning wheels (and meet Nuri!). Unfortunately, I still haven't been able to play one of his demos with him. Scojo said that the crew should invite him over, since apparently he lives in NYC(?). Oh, had lunch with Karl, George, Neito, and a bunch of crew members at the good japanese place. Something-mama? Even though I ordered the strangest things.

    Oh, and saturday's concert line management was AWESOME. I had to make an executive decision and change one of the queues, but it really showed me how PAX is different than other cons. When an enforcer said "hey we need to do something this line is overflowing," we organized a solution, got some spareboard enforcers to help, and fixed the problem in about ten minutes. At any other con this would involve 3 important people being bothered, a half hour of deliberation, and grief to the congoers. PAX is awesome.

    Sunday was my sleep in and miss Scrym's panels day, unfortunately. Are you guys doing Action Castle again? From what everyone said, it seemed pretty fun. I got to talk with Jerry (Tycho) a bit about this game called Thunderstone (apparently, Dominion + adventure game), and chilled with Wyatt and Scojo for a bit. Also, went to the second PA Q and A, which was all kinds of ChildsPlay awesome. PAX is really really great.

    Anyway, I think if there's the slightest possibility of going to PAX Prime this year, I'm going to. From what I've seen, it's worth it.

    Also, Robert Khoo is a dapper motherfucker.
  • I survived. (passes out since it's 2 am and I have to work tomorrow).
  • How many people actually came out of PAX East sick?
  • edited March 2010
    Me! ; _ ;

    My sore throat that began on Thursday night evolved into full out can't talk on Sunday. I sound like goose if I do. Runny nose, beyond sore throat, sneezing, phlegm, and all that jazz. To the doctor tomorrow.

    At least it's not the Norovirus.
    Post edited by Rochelle on
  • edited March 2010
    How many people actually came out of PAX East sick?
    Haha not me. :3 Let's see if I can survive PAX East followed by Anime Boston, though.

    (It didn't hurt that hand sanitizer was literally everywhere at that con)

    Also, YoshoKatana, what was your real name? Cus I totally didn't know you were in that crowd. D:
    Post edited by Neito on
  • Also, YoshoKatana, what was your real name? Cus I totally didn't know you were in that crowd. D:
    He was the one with the commie hat staying with lackofcheese.
  • I've managed to avoid getting a PEast infection of my own. Hopefully it stays this way.
  • Most hilarious/terrifying moment of the con: "Oh my god, George is here!"
  • I just slept for 12 hours. Ahhhhhh. Ro, I hope you feel better soon!

    People have already talked about most of the awesome parts, so I will be brief. Meeting forum people (and Andrew from Scotland) was definitely the best part. I learned how to play a bunch of games I didn't know before, including Power Grid, Dominion, and a brief introduction to Burning Wheel. Instead of going to the Saturday concert, Pete and I went to a reading of a play called Of Dice and Men. It made me cry. A lot. More info on this forthcoming.

    As far as the con mechanics went, I think the thing that stood out the most from other cons was that they had a Queue ROOM for the main lines, and there was interactive entertainment for the people waiting in line. That is one thing I have never seen at any other convention, and it turned an extra 45 minute delay into something we barely even noticed.
  • edited March 2010
    Back from the doc. Looks like just a really bad case of seasonal allergies and laryngitis. Time to drink some hot apple cider, eat vegetable soup, and catch up on snuggle time with teh kitties on the couch.
    Most hilarious/terrifying moment of the con: "Oh my god, George is here!"
    If this is what I think it is, I find that to be highly amusing.
    Post edited by Rochelle on
  • ... and there was interactive entertainment for the people waiting in line. That is one thing I have never seen at any other convention, and it turned an extra 45 minute delay into something we barely even noticed.
    I heard that it was kind of lame from someone waiting 3 hours in the concert queue on Friday. He also said it was enforced that nobody leave the line because they were not allowed to reenter it. And apparently, they didn't even have to wait at all, because people were just let in throughout the night.
  • And apparently, they didn't even have to wait at all, because people were just let in throughout the night.
    That is a lesson you learn after one PAX experience. You have to wait in line if you want to get close to the stage, but once they start, you can walk in at any time and still get pretty close.
  • edited March 2010
    I heard that it was kind of lame from someone waiting 3 hours in the concert queue on Friday. He also said it was enforced that nobody leave the line because they were not allowed to reenter it. And apparently, they didn't even have to wait at all, because people were just let in throughout the night.
    If you mean lame by everyone singing Bohemian Rhapsody from Queen, then yes it would be EXTREMELY lame. I was in tabletop and I heard them just yelling/singing and it was awesome.

    Anyone can get in after everyone else was seated was stated in past PAX podcasts. I made sure to tell that to anyone who asked about the wrist bands.
    Post edited by Rochelle on
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