Having already gone to PAX East once before, I sort of knew what to expect and how to prepare for a full weekend of pure video game convention. The Conventionist app for iPhone/iPod Touch was pretty helpful for finding out where and when panels were being held and for a portable mini-map of the convention center. Looking at the schedule ahead of time and planning before the convention really helped us figure out what we really wanted to do and when we would be doing them.
Day 1: 03/11/11
The first day of PAX East started really early. We got up at around 6:30AM and got into Boston around 7:00AM. By the time we got to the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center there was already a mega line out front. We waiting briefly outside in the dense fog until the doors opened at 8:00AM, at which point we funneled into the convention center and got in line for the 10:30AM keynote.
The keynote itself didn't actually start until around 11:00AM, but we enjoyed playing Pokémon during the time waiting in line. This year's speaker was Jane McGonigal, who's presentation was "a death-defying, life-changing, epic monster keynote." The main message of the keynote was that playing video games helps us achieve real-world goals, changes how we think (for the better), and makes us affect the people around us positively. Jane's point of view is that if more people played video games for an
hour or day we could change the world for the better. The keynote was very interesting and uplifting, especially since games are being more widely accepted into popular culture.
After the keynote we walked down to the main expo hall to see what there was to see. We did a preliminary walk around to the Pokémon and Nintendo booths to see what was being offered, but didn't check out much else then. At the Pokémon booth, the new Pokémon TCG Online game was the only thing being displayed, and there was no free swag to our dismay. At the Nintendo booth, there were several Nintendo 3DS systems with various games being demoed and free Pokémon Black & White pins being given out on the side. We waited in line and demoed a few games (I tried out Dead or Alive) and then left. I didn't find out until Sunday that we had the ability to wander inside the booth a little bit, demo a few games, and then leave. We made up for it later in the weekend, though.
At this point, around 2:00PM, we were pretty hungry and we headed to the food court. Of course, all of the food was really expensive, but it was good enough to almost be worth it. We spent $17 and got nachos, a burger, a hotdog, and a bag of chips. I've had better burgers but the nachos were tasty. We learned to never buy $3 bags of chips again and brought our own from home on Saturday.
After hanging out in the handheld lounge for a bit, we got in line for our next panel. This panel was Scott Macmillan's "Death of an Indie Studio" in the Wyvern Theatre. Scott talked a little about the history of his late indie company, Macguffin Games, and also gave advice about dos and don'ts when starting and leading an indie studio. The most important lesson I took away from it was that art and business are two separate poles on the spectrum of making games, and that I would like to focus on the art side of the spectrum in my career (I am not a business-oriented person). It was very informative and gave me more insight into what it takes to start an indie game company.
Leaving the Wyvern Theatre we headed back to the expo hall to spend some time before the final panel of the day. We revisited the Nintendo and Pokémon booths but spent more time at the Pokémon booth this time. I played the Pokémon TCG Online game for a while, but ultimately lost against the computer player. It had been years since I tried playing the card game and the automated online version encouraged me to get back into it. Once the beta opens online, I'm going to be all over it! In the expo hall we also walked by the Boston Indie Showcase booth, to check out Snapshot, Smuggle Truck, and Blinding Silence, two of which are by current and former WPI IMGD majors. All of the games looked great and you should definitely pick up Smuggle Truck to see the level I created for their level design contest. :)
The last panel of the day was called "Game Design is Mind Control." I was anticipating it being about game design elements that tap into the mind of players in order to elicit some sort of play style or reaction but it was more general and very informal. It was an entertaining panel, especially at the end when the two panelists auctioned off a dollar with two rules: 1) The winner pays his bid and gets the dollar; 2) the second place bidder pays his bid but gets nothing. In the end, the dollar sold for about $4; the second place bidder admitted that he kept bidding because he "didn't want to spend money." It was an interesting experiment to see what illogical things people will do in a game space given a certain set of rules.
Our day ended with a trip to the handheld lounge again where we went to wait for our ride home. We found some beanbags near a set of outlets to charge our electronics and used surrounding beanbags to make a mini fort. Right before we left we met up with a friend from school and he seized control of our construction.
The first day of PAX East was great. We were able to scout out the expo hall a little bit and get familiar with the convention center as a whole. The map was a little confusing and we were pretty disoriented at first, but by the end of the first day we knew our way around pretty well. Even though we planned what we wanted to see we still had to cut some panels out of our schedule due to long lines. We learned our lesson on Friday which helped us decide our schedule for Saturday and Sunday. Friday, just like all of PAX, went by pretty fast but there were still two days left!
(Next up, Day 2!)
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