PAX was a strange experience for me. I’ve never been to any sort of convention before, much less as Media/Press. It was great getting to meet and hang out with a lot of my internet friends, playing some games, and talking to some developers/PR people at the various booths on the show floor. But there were a couple of things that I thought would have made my experience a bit better ‘” this is Negative Gamer, after all.

I’m not sure what it was ‘” probably a combination of being dehydrated, walking way more than I’m used to, not eating good food, and being nervous ‘” but I felt pretty sick the whole time. Not to the point where I wanted to sleep all day, but I think it took a toll on how I interacted with a lot of the people I met. Eating terrible fast food and not drinking water nearly enough as I should for the amount of walking around I did was most likely not the best decision.

I also felt like I couldn’t think of anything to say. I’m not sure if this is just a personal problem that I need to overcome, or if it was the sick thing (likely the first, as I’m usually the quiet one at parties). I felt really unprepared most of the time that I had an appointment where I talked with the developers at the booth. Which was silly, because I was usually just playing the game for the first time and asking things as they came to mind. I think before the next event that I go to I need to read/watch more interviews. If anyone can recommend any books on the subject, I’d greatly appreciate it.

Other than my physical and mental health, there was one other thing that bothered me that I saw at PAX. If you’re unfamiliar, PAX is not your typical industry show. Sure, there are booths with games that anyone at the show can play. Press are not supposed to be able to cut lines, yet I still heard from several people that I talked to that they were asked to get up from their console or keyboard for media. I would understand this if it was a trade show, but it’s PAX. PAX is supposed to be about the community, and giving the consumers a chance to play the games that were announced/shown at E3 and GDC. Some of the bigger developers had a private room-like thing for press to make appointments and have a private demo with whatever they were showcasing.

One of the problems with this though, is that not all of the developers can afford this type of booth. I know most of the independent games that I played only had 1-2 stations with their game running. Which was fine too,  but the expo hall is only open to the press for an hour, ‘” on one day, mind you ‘”  and with a sold out show it’s hard for people to make time for the press to get a good amount of hands-on time on the floor, along with allowing the public to play the game too.

The other problem, as discussed on the podcast, was that it was apparently difficult for the larger developers to schedule time for the press to come into their private rooms. Dan and I had an appointment for a private demo with APB. We got there at the scheduled time and started talking to the guy working at the booth (I don’t recall what his title/name were). As soon as we walked up they opened the door and I saw a couple of people in there, playing the game, and the guy working the booth told us we had to reschedule our appointment. I looked at Dan with a look of discontent in my eye, and we told him “Sure, what time is available?”, to which he replied ” 6pm”. That’s another two hours of meandering around the expo hall, I can deal with that, I thought to myself.

Six pm rolls around and I head back over to the booth. I let the guy know I’m there, and he replies “Oh, the guys that were doing the private demos were tired, so they left. We’re all booked tomorrow, but you can come by on Sunday, nothing is scheduled then.” Blown off twice in the same day, that’s pretty cool, right?

Health, personality, and PR scheduling follies aside, I had an enjoyable experience at PAX East. Boston is a great cityand I hope that in the future I get to go to many more events for this industry and see even more different, exciting places. The people I’ve met through this and other online communities are great, and I hope that I have the opportunity to do it again as soon as possible.