This was my first Con

daninspiredmedia

I was definitely "Home"

I was skeptical about attending this event. I had no idea what to expect. I came to the convention center with a group of my friends and the first thing i did was stand in the swag line to score some 3X shirts and hoodies before they were all gone.

When i joined them in the Queue room on Friday it was a 3 hour wait to the keynote speech. I put on my PAX East 2010 shirt and my PA hoodie and waited.

When we got seated for the keynote speech I was skeptical about Will Wheaton. I really had no idea who this guy was other than the kid from star trek, and that one episode of Big Bang Theory where he was kind of a douchebag.

He blew my mind with his speech

52 minutes later i felt like i was among 4,000 friends. My people, our people. No matter what race, creed, or religion we all belonged too we are gamers. a culture. we were family.

I was ear to ear grins the entire weekend. I soaked it all in.

This was my first convention and I didn't know where to start. I didn't play a SINGLE game while i was there. Well i did play 3D bioshock 2 and 3D Battlefield bad company 2. But i didn't wait in line for any of the newer titles.

I went to every booth. I stopped by every college booth and talked to their admissions reps. i talked to the MIT guys and gals demoing their games. I went to all the game vendors and demo tables. I stopped by all the rockband stations and mingled with people in the sumo chairs. I met all the musicians that were there. I got my book signed by Gabe & Tycho, Coulton, Wheaton, Paul&Storm, half the members of VGO. I met my internet funny guys Red vs Blue and Mega64. I also got to meet Tom fulp the creator of Newgrounds.com (fellow web developers are AWERSOME).

I just soaked it all in. It was a life changing experience. People like me exist and are not ashamed to admit it and embrace the awesome culture that is us gamers.



I can't wait till next year. It will be even better.


p.s. i had no idea Pokemon was such a big thing among adults.

Soyduck

I could not agree with you more, in every regard. This was probably the happiest weekend of my life. Never have I felt so accepted as I did among my nerd brethren. As someone who doesn't have a lot of friends to hang out with that have similar interests, PAX kind of made me realize the lack of real life social interaction that I'm missing, and how fulfilling it is. It felt so good to be that comfortable among people I had never met. No one was going to think I was immature for loving video games, Pokemon, you name it.

crimsong19

This was my first con, too.
While I didn't make the keynote, I still felt REALLY at home.
I walked through the Expo Hall, but didn't check out much.
I did get to meet Wil, Bill Amend, JoCo, Paul and Storm, MC Frontalot, and Pete, Dave, and Luke from Anamanaguchi. That includes autographs, photos, video ... etc.
I will do my best to be back next year.

Asha'man

I've been to a couple of Anime Conventions but there's definitely something special about PAX. I crossed Jerry in a hallway and he signed my badge and I took a picture with him, such a cool guy. Robert is so nice too. I just felt so welcomed!

kevbayer

My first con, too (and I'm 36!)
Didn't really "meet" many people, but anyone I did happen to chat with, it was like we were old friends. Geekdom really does cross all boundaries.

The keynote really made me want to embrace my geekdom more! And the Red Vs. Blue panel was just hilarious!

ikabod00

My gf and me both felt the same way. During the speech, which was great, we understood what he meant but we didn't really UNDERSTAND until that night, on our way home. It was so awesome there on Friday. Everyone with their pokewalkers. We were all huge nerds and were finally in a place where pre-tense and being fake didn't have to happen. You didn't have to casually work up a conversation with someone and get to the video game part, and even then, you only play Guitar Hero or Call of Duty (more socially acceptable games) until you can admit you have a pokewalker and play pokemon, or pull out your DS, or admit you play WoW. These are things many of us nerds do and/or accept, and out among everyone else they are just not things you really talk about. But I was among others like me. And like I said, I hadn't realized HOW much it was "home" until on my way home. My gf and me walked to the T station. And upon sitting down, a group of about 5 very drunk guys came down the stairs and started acting like, well, I don't want to use stereotypes here, but i have seen them enough to have the stereotype fit in many cases. And they were it. (Not that I have anything against getting drunk and having fun. But there is a certain type of drunk guy, and they were it). And I turned to my gf, and made a comment about how I now just realized what Wil Wheaton meant in his speech. And she agreed. We will be back next year with 3 day passes to get as much of it as we can. In what other place in this world, is an adult, walking around holding up their pokewalker asking for other pokewalkers acceptable?

Sinkuu

to those of you who have made your first steps into "geek culture", wil's speech was for you. welcome home, indeed.

as you heard Wil say, there are thousands of geek culture (anime, gaming, sci-fi, fantasy) events and conventions out there.

while I cannot say that most local events will hold a candle to PAX and PAX East, I encourage you to seek out and find your local geek culture. you will come to cherish it as much as you do when you are at PAX.

ikabod00

Sinkuu wrote: »

to those of you who have made your first steps into "geek culture", wil's speech was for you. welcome home, indeed.

as you heard Wil say, there are thousands of geek culture (anime, gaming, sci-fi, fantasy) events and conventions out there.

while I cannot say that most local events will hold a candle to PAX and PAX East, I encourage you to seek out and find your local geek culture. you will come to cherish it as much as you do when you are at PAX.

Oh. I know. My gf and me have been geeks, well, for a long time. It was just always something we did and enjoyed but didn't really share much. But after attending Pax East (the first Con for both of us), its almost like we are addicted. We are now looking for more cons to go to.