PAX East: Day 1
The day has finally arrived! This morning, I initially planned to walk the way to the convention center, but after standing outside in the cold for 2 seconds I decided against it and waited for the shuttle bus. I arrived at the convention center around 9:30 and claimed my couple of free rewards for Marvel Snap and League of Legends, then followed the signs down to the waiting area to enter the expo hall. Once 10:00, hit I wandered the expo hall for a little bit, getting a feel for where everything was, before making my way upstairs to get in line for the main stage, to see MatPat’s storytime talk.
At the panel, while waiting for the talk to start, I made my first connection with a pair of guys who came in a little later than I did. They handed me a card for a tabletop roleplaying game they designed called BIOJACKED, and I in turn handed them my own cards. We talked a little bit before the talk started and found we’d be attending another panel at the same time tomorrow so I’ll likely see them again.
MatPat’s talk was excellent. He talked about how video games influenced him greatly in his early life and how that evolved into his wildly successful career on YouTube. Then, he talked about some of the crazier moments of his career, such as getting to meet both Shigeru Miyamoto and Pope Francis, and how incredible (and awkward) those experiences were for him. Finally, he talked about a particular game called Illusion of Gaia, which he identified as the catalyst that sparked his love for education through games and pop culture. Overall, the talk was both funny and heartwarming, and was a great way to truly send off the career of this man who was such a massive influence on my life for years. If there’s a VOD of the stream somewhere online, I highly recommend giving it a watch. I’m not sure if he’ll be at the convention beyond today, but if he is, I hope I manage to meet him before the convention is over so I can thank him personally for all the years of theories and entertainment he’s brought not just me but millions of people.
After the talk (and after I stuffed my face with overpriced pizza), I headed back down to the expo floor to do some proper wandering. My biggest fear going into this was that I’d get all the way here to Boston only to be too shy to actually walk up and talk to anyone. This was, however, before I realized that everyone here is a massive nerd like me and want to talk about games with each other. After I came to this realization, I had several delightful 1 on 1 conversations with developers and exhibitors around the expo floor, talking about their game, my goals, and just the games industry in general. Each one I talked to was more than happy to take my business card and even gave me their own or provided other suggestions for places to find like-minded people who wanna make games. If we talked today and you’re reading this, hi there!
Overall, I’m very pleased with how day 1 went and I’m excited to get back to the convention center tomorrow!
