PAX East 2013 People being awesome

GhostDan

I posted a similar thread last year after PAX East 2012 and we got a lot of responses, so I figured I'd post again this year:

What awesomeness did you run into this year? Who really amazed you? Bring out those touching moments.

I personally was even more amazed by people in general. My 2nd year at PAX resulted in finding even more friends, going to even more events, and feeling even more like I was part of giant family. The amount of people who reached out to a guy attending PAX by himself was just awesome.

So what did you run into?

AlpineAntic

I met up with 3 reddit users and became fast friends. Exchanged numbers and were all Boston locals so we will def do the post PAX jj foleys meet up

gerafin

This was my first year going by myself. I'm generally your typical introvert, completely unable to start conversations, etc. and at previous PAXs I would rely on my companions to do the talking. I'm glad that this year I was forced to do it myself, I met a lot of people and had amazing times with complete strangers. So I'll just echo your sentiment, GhostDan: it was a much more intimate and social experience than you would expect from attending a convention solo.

miker525

Well GhostDan besides actually hanging out with you quite a bit, I spent most of my time with people from our group all of whom I'd met for the first time at East. It was my first East attending alone and I was super excited by the awesome friends I made and traded contact info with. Definitely hope to see most of the group again and stay in touch!

Ana Ng

We had a girls brunch meet up, and although I didn't get a chance to talk to every lady who showed up, it was still a lot of fun. I'm especially grateful for how smooth it went and how nice everyone was since I get quite nervous around new people!

Also the developers for Color Sheep and the developers for Ridiculous Fishing were really nice to chat with Octodad booth people were great too, you could tell they were just really tickled and pleased by the people enjoying their game.

s0vereignT

AlpineAntic wrote: »

I met up with 3 reddit users and became fast friends. Exchanged numbers and were all Boston locals so we will def do the post PAX jj foleys meet up

I kept trying to find people doing reddit meetups but they kept not happening. There was a meetup that was supposed to happen Saturday morning, but I guess something got mixed up and I never got a text. Oh well.

Trag

I met some cool people whilst painting minis. Gave some kid some aleve for his headache and enjoyed conversing with the table about video games and life. It was certainly a good PAX and a good way to spend a birthday.

pureval

My wife had our 10 month old strapped to her most of the weekend. She was amazed at how nice people were being. They would ask if they could interact with her and even offered to carry things for her when we were separated.
Gabe and Tycho were especially cool at the end of the signing. They took the time to make sure all of us got a quick signature, even though most of us were expecting not to at that point.

GrimRupert

I didn't see any amazing acts of human kindness, but simply interacting with folks was awesome.

Saturday morning in the Expo Hall queue line there were a pair of guys that talked about Halo and stuff with me that were pretty bad ass. Then in line to get Luigi's Mansion there was a guy who informed me he was 19 after we talked about how much we loved EarthBound and we'd love to see Mother 3 in America somehow. I've interacted with younger gamers that are essentially jocks but with video games and it often gives me a negative assumption about the younger generation, but when he said he played Smash at age 6 and it eventually led to his discovery of EarthBound, it just made me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

And if you high-fived me at the Curse party or indulged me in my drunken white-boy dancing, you were one of the best people, period.

The_MadHatter_

Met a lot of awesome people over the weekend. Really sucks that a lot of them I lost contact with after we went our separate ways, but lesson learned for next PAX. But pretty much anyone who engaged in any drinking or gaming were great. The "People Being Awesome" moment of the weekend for me go to the couple of Enforcers I met at City Bar who kept me company on my walk back to the Hilton Sunday night.

the_fuzzy_penguin

Aside from general awesomeness of attendees, it still amazes me how niche/smaller companies treat their fans. Each of the aforementioned I talked to were all enthusiastic to explain things to me and more than happy to sign my PA poster I got at PAX (a new tradition I started this year), whereas a developer from a AAA title that I asked to sign a poster I bought from their booth and waited in line over 2.5 hours met me with snide, sarcastic comments and refused to. While I can understand not wanting/being able to, his attitude reminded me and made me more appreciative of the 'little guys' and how awesome they are and how they are here for 'us'.

VegaObscura

It was really great getting to do more forum and forum community stuff and I want to thank the Gabrielists (and fine--the Tychonians too) for a great weekend. You guys definitely helped me get into the PAX-spirit more than anything. Wish I had traded contact info better, but I guess the forums are here for a reason. Bonus points to Zerzhul, Moe, the choking/gargling zombie pre-Q&A 2--never got your name sorry, Cara(?) who I almost played Space Team with, the other Mike (whose hair was much more festive than mine), Krubski, and LordOwen. I'm thinking Utilikilt in the future, guys.

Pureval - glad I got to meet you and thanks for knowing how to 3DS better than me--I had no idea you could swap friend codes locally. (My plan to have a bunch of codes to hand out never quite panned out along with a lot of other pre-pax preparations due to some last-minute travel and school stuff).

-The Mike without blue hair.

mr_eff

A couple of people at the Marriott on Thursday saw me by myself and looking pretty pathetic, and invited me to play a game. That hit me in the feels.

Additionally, every single person I talked to in the indie RPG area was amazingly nice, patient, and super enthusiastic. Vincent and Meg Baker, in particular, are so awesome, I don't have the words.

AnarCHris

Props to pretty much everyone I interacted with. The developers,PR& Social Media peeps,fellow attendees,enoforcers....y'all rad folks and kept the best con being the best. Keep on keeping on.

PayneTrayne

At the Pokecrawl on Thursday night there were two awesome moments:

One, my friend forget his wallet on the bar and someone returned it to him. It honestly surprised him and he thought it was the greatest thing ever.

Two, I sang "Kiss me I'm shitfaced" while drunk. I thought I'd be booed off the stage for being horrendous, instead most of the bar helped me with the song. It made me feel like an absolute rockstar.

61Ranchero

Tin Man Games; awesome people, great games, available on damn near every platform. If you're not patronizing them you should be.

I already posted how awesome every single person was after my wife's injury elsewhere. So, yeah, that.

Pop-cap. Despite the fact that most of their games aren't really my cup of tea they ran a super awesome booth this year that was totally different from everything else.

trinnara

I stood up from an area I was sitting/resting near and occasionally took a step or two in a random direction. I was still in the same room, but had eventually migrated a good distance away from where I started. A few minutes later, someone showed me a phone and asked if was mine. I unlocked it and saw my dog's face in the background. Yep, it was my phone! I was so grateful. I thought of the chances of experiencing that level of honesty anywhere else but PAX.

Scopique

My friends and I made friends with a young woman in the line OUTSIDE the center on Friday morning, in the freezing cold, and we all hung out as long as we could, but she was there with her boss (her company prints the Cards Against Humanity, and I guess they were there for that or something, and to drum up business). She said that we probably wouldn't be able to hang out during the weekend again "and that was pretty depressing".

Chorazin

Scopique wrote: »

My friends and I made friends with a young woman in the line OUTSIDE the center on Friday morning, in the freezing cold, and we all hung out as long as we could, but she was there with her boss (her company prints the Cards Against Humanity, and I guess they were there for that or something, and to drum up business). She said that we probably wouldn't be able to hang out during the weekend again "and that was pretty depressing".

I really hope you got her number man, or at least an email/facebook/twitter something.

This is why I make information cards to give to cool people I meet.

Scopique

Chorazin wrote: »

Scopique wrote: »

My friends and I made friends with a young woman in the line OUTSIDE the center on Friday morning, in the freezing cold, and we all hung out as long as we could, but she was there with her boss (her company prints the Cards Against Humanity, and I guess they were there for that or something, and to drum up business). She said that we probably wouldn't be able to hang out during the weekend again "and that was pretty depressing".

I really hope you got her number man, or at least an email/facebook/twitter something.

This is why I make information cards to give to cool people I meet.

Sadly, no. And Internet stalking is just creepy XD

xenard

I met so many great people each day and remembered to hand out contact cards this time. From the people I met playing pokemon to the Canadians staying across from me, everyone was just so amazing. I wanted to talk to more people this year and I did.

sirmrej

@xenard like you printed cards with your info, and gave them out to people you met?

ransim

Whoever found my tablet and sunglasses at the Birch Bar Thursday and turned it in to security is my hero.

Also every single person who donated to the Cookie Brigade, seriously, all of you are awesome.

xenard

Yup! Came in handy this year.

sirmrej

Interesting. I may have to do that in the future. Good idea!

lunkhead

sirmrej wrote: »

Interesting. I may have to do that in the future. Good idea!

xenard wrote: »

Yup! Came in handy this year.

My friend and I did that too. I recommend just putting a link to a site like about.me on the card. That way you can keep the card from being obsolete when you change something like your PSN name or email.

Liz S

Randompeople were cool, but my best moments came from people I know. I got to see friends I hadn't seen in awhile, and I've worked for some indies in Boston who were stoked I came by their booths. Knowing I helped them get there and seeing their happiness brings a tear to the eye.

Nujj

I was nervous about taking my 3 year old to PAX especially since my husband wasn't going to be there... but everyone was SO nice and helpful! Even in the biggest crowds, everyone was careful to give us space and not bump into her. The Sub-Zero at the Machinima photo booth was really friendly with her, but she wasn't so sure about him, haha!

fullofgrace

I want to give huge thanks to @punzie and @fathervenom for making sure I was comfortable on the Magical Mystery Tour (I use a cane), for taking the same T trains with Hubs & I when we all had to scoot out early to make sure we were able to get back to the hotel easily, and for punzie offering to head to the forumer dinner with us if we weren't quite oriented yet (turns out we were). You two kicked off what became an awesome anniversary-celebrating weekend.

ollee

I really don't spend a whole lot of time on the PA forums, though I should. I meet up with a group that is roughly 20 people up there every year and it is literally the highlight of my year. All the great conversations I had with all the random people I didn't know until the convention was amazing. Should have gotten more contact information. Especially loved the meeting people in the elevator and playing CAH with them for hours and hours.

Thanks anyone and everyone for making that so awesome.

Kiashien

I'll be short: Everyone I met. At all. That is PAX- be polite, game, and have fun. This year, everyone followed that that I met- and therefore were awesome.

LexiconGrrl

I want to give a big shoutout to the Cookie Brigade folks being extra, extra awesome. These gals and guys buy their own tickets, pay their own travel and lodging, and don't get any perks from Child's Play or PA, yet they give up their entire convention to work by bringing you cookies, and collect for the children. As a past coordinator for PAX Prime, I can tell you that it's an ASSLOAD of work before, during and after PAX.

Bakers, I salute you.
Distributors, I salute you.
Helpers, I salute you.

@Ransim, @AerynKelly, @Robertrence, @Punzie - Thank you for making this year the most awesome Cookie Brigade year ever and setting a new record (read: high bar for Prime to beat)!

cocowoushi

Whoever left this Stunfisk/Maggyo card for me: I love you.

I'm super sorry I wasn't around to accept it in person. I hope I get to meet/thank you personally sometime!

kintyre

Usually the highlights of our PAX is chatting with people in line. The hotel lobby was great fun. PAX dragged on 2 extra days! Fun experience to pass on to the greater community:

On Monday night I went to get dessert from MJ O'Connors. While waiting the host was talking about this huge arcade convention the previous weekend and how busy they were, but how awesome everyone was. He said most of the convention crowds can be tough but this group was great. Made me proud of my tribe.

gonexall

There was the group that invited me to play this board game, Shadow Hunter, in the expo line. Super fun group of people who brought in 2 or three of us to play with them. The game was awesome. To top it off, they were cool about me getting out of line to pee and then getting back in. Awesome.

I must also do a shout out to Raugn. Good times, man.

Raughn

gonexall wrote: »

I must also do a shout out to Raugn. Good times, man.

Ditto. It was fun to hang out, even when we struggled to get some games off the ground (Sanitarium, Spaceteam). PAX: Where even the most bitter collegiate rivalries are transcended.