Is this your first time at PAX East? READ THE MAIN FAQ STICKY FIRST, a lot of valuable information is there!

After that, this is a good place for first timer specific advice that isn't really FAQ material. If you have some first timer advice for others, feel free to post it!
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Thanks to Zerzhul who made a trimmed down version of my first post, because I can't help writing walls of texts.

PAX events are an institution, and more importantly, they have set themselves apart from other events because of their very nature to let people interact more with each other. Compared to most other conventions, this is the only one where you actually get to share and participate in your passions with other attendees. No wonder why the rules of engagement are different. You can definitely attend PAX with little to no preparation or foreknowledge of the event. You WILL have fun and you WILL discover new things. If you feel like pushing things a step further though, you may want to take a look at the following. The hope is that it will help bring out the most from your trip and avoid potential snags that could hinder your experience.

AND most importantly...

heels wrote: »

Be excellent to each other.

Weather: I admit that I've spent too much trying to find a way to explain Bostonian weather... The reality is that it's all over the place. I have pictures from every event and sometimes I'm in a t-shirt, sometimes I have a jacket, sometimes I'm in a winter coat. I would say that on average, it's often "brisk" around PAX East time with some scattered warm periods that would let you walk around with a t-shirt or long sleeved shirt. A good jacket and scarf should be standard issue in anyone's luggage. Bostonians love to remind us that March winter storms are a possibility. It's true that we did see a very light fall in 2013 and on previous years we did spot some leftover piles of snow here and there, but other than that it usually felt more like spring time than winter. As for rain? Who knows, but we've been very lucky up to now since the only rain fall I noticed was in 2014 and it did not last really long.

Travel within Boston to and from PAX: Driving around Boston is definitely a challenge. It's not just the dense traffic, it's also because its streets are built over an old design (think cart roads and such), so there are a lot of surprises waiting for you if you don't know your way around. A GPS is an absolute must if you are from out of town, and have your maps printed out just in case because a good deal of their popular highways are underground, meaning there's a good chance you will loose your signal if and when you use them. Most people that I know will arrive in Boston by car, park it and use other means to get around. Boston boasts a very good public transport system, dubbed the "T", with both a subway and a bus line that stops in front of the BCEC. If you plan on using this often, you may want to consider a multi-day "Charlie" pass that will let you use their system at will, and it's actually quite cheap too (15$ for 7 days? Need to be confirmed). The T, like most other public transportation networks, only run until a certain hour. Taxis however run 24/7 and are usually easy to grab around the city, in fact there will also be a pool of them waiting in front of the event. Bonus points - they usually take credit cards too. Be warned, everyone wants a cab when the event closes, but this is not their first rodeo. Just be patient and get in the queue, they will set you up. Before you engage in all of that, you may want to check if your hotel has a shuttle service to the event, that can save you a lot of transportation money. Back to cars for a quick bit in regards to Parking: There is parking available at the BCEC with 15$ self parking and 25$ for Valet service. Once you leave however you will need to pay again, and it does not cover overnight. The hours you can park depend on the show hours. This is quite cheap compared to other places I've used around the city. For instance, hotels usually have options for you for about 35$ on average per night, but you can come and go as you please.

You are going to do a lot of walking: It will really help if you had a comfortable pair of walking shoes. I wore a Fitbit during my PAX 2014 weekend and the numbers showed that, on average, I would walk 8 to 9 miles a day. In fact, the battery barely made it through the weekend. Remember that the BCEC is the largest convention center in the Northeastern America! You can spend several minutes walking from point A to point B, so take that into considering in your schedule. For those who intend to use walking as their main method of going around the city, remember that Google Maps cannot take into account potential fatigue. Your numbers may end up being off.

Get yourself some form of mobile data access: Bring it, they are a near absolute necessity, but feel free to avoid cellular data if the costs are prohibitive due to your terms of service. Just make sure you can use WiFi for the occasional update session when it's at your disposal. First and foremost, Guidebook is the official event schedule app which is available on all platforms. Any updates or last minute changes will be updated to the schedule which can be setup to send reminders on certain events that you do not want to miss. It also contains a list of vendors, maps and all matters of very practical information about the event. Also consider Twitter which is heavily (and smartly) used to communicate information on line capacity, contests and attendees who are looking for players. Keep an eye out for hashtags like #PAX, #PAXEast, and check out the specific Twitter forum thread which comes up every year. Last but not least, QR codes are a thing now, and you will want to have the ability to scan them for various reasons. Exhibitors often give out codes in this form while attendees favor it more and more to pass along compressed contacted information. As for the question that's on everyone's minds: Yes, there is free WiFi at the event. Yes, it tends to be extremely unreliable, because tends of thousands of proud geeks will suckle the devil's teet beyond it's ability to supply the milk. I never managed to make it work when I'm remotely deep into the BCEC, however most people that I know who have cellular data (not my case) seem to be all right. On that note, a lot of vendors have a hard time making their own cellular network deal with all the concrete of the event floor.

Traveling long distances to go to PAX? Call your bank first: Take it from @TechGamingNews. "One major thing everyone should do is contact their bank, If you have never been to PAX or even if you have It is a great idea to contact your bank and let them know you will be heading to Boston MA. Why? because almost all banks have security features on their account bank cards that will automatically freeze your credit card if it sees spending limits different then what it has seen, it is always a good idea to let them know so you won't be embarrassed or stuck waiting to get it figured out or getting upset because the clerk keeps telling you its declined when you know there is money in the account." I could not agree more, since I had such troubles on my first two trips to PAX East.

The schedule only shows the tip of the iceberg: The schedule mostly mentions tournaments, concerts and panels. As for the official floor plan, it does not come with a complete explanation of every exhibitor. This being said, both items only give a small sense of what you can expect to see at the event. This is not due to lack of proper effort on the organizer's part, the problem lies with the fact that Conventions are somewhat "living" events. For instance, you can't accurately tell what you will see on the show floor, nor is it possible to convey the mood of any free play area... Some places, such as, JamSpace, classic console room or the Hand Held Lounge, have verry loose schedules. They just runs all the time, and so it may not show up as nothing more but a blip on the floor plan.

But wait, there's more: There are many community and company sponsored events/parties that happen in and outside of PAX during the entire weekend. Some start well before the event kicks off, sometimes they go beyond it. These are not official events and so they do not appear on the PAX Schedule, and they range from the simple to the most organized. You can learn about most community created events on the forums. For company sponsored events, many will eventually make their way to the forums as well, but the often enough that information will be shared on their own web site. If you are a fan of a specific company, keep an eye out for what they have to say online when PAX will be around the corner. You never know. You don't need to attend any of these parties to make your PAX experience worth while, this is just (cool) optional stuff.

Making Friends: A great way to stay in touch with the new friends you will make is to get some cheap business cards. Stick your email address, gamertag, forum name, whatever on them. Hand them out to all the awesome people you will most certainly meet.

Carrying Your Stuff: Come Friday night, your one shoulder will be KILLING you. Trust me, you want to evenly distribute the weight. Go for something that you know will be comfortable over the course of a long day. I personally prefer a backpack, not a messenger bag. LABEL YOUR STUFF. either get a label maker, or some sharpies - I highly recommend putting your phone number on them. You never know when you may accidentally leave something behind.

Recharging your devices: Plan ahead. Recharge everything overnight, and perhaps find a compact charging solution to carry with you. Be considerate of outlet use and try not to use more than one at a time (bringing a small power strip can make you a lot of friends).

Food: With every new PAX comes a new Food thread by @Arsonisfun (it's not up at this time however) where you will hear people discuss their favorite places to eat, and sometimes places to avoid. I would suggest anyone to take some time and get out there for a nice meal in the city at least once. If you are constantly on the go however, you may want to take special note of Foodler.com and Grubhub.com. These two services will show you which restaurants can deliver to your location. Yes, that may include your hotel room (I had no issues using this at the Westin). We loved these in the past because they had everything for everyone, including some nice healthy food options. Note however that there are more and more services like these and I don't know much about them. I do know that they all love to use their mobile app versions if you are (most likely) using a phone or tablet when ordering, and if you are outside the country, do yourself a service and download this stuff ahead of time because some app stores tend to not let you acquire anything if your IP does not show your country or origin. This is important because last year Grubhub would not even let us use their desktop website over our mobile devices and we were stuck going for other options. As for Foodler, their "best bet" rating is to be taken with a grain of salt, since most of their suggestions turned out to be real duds. Another thing you could do ahead of time is to check out what other people liked last year (or if you have a friend who is local, as for his opinion). Bonus point if you create your own account now instead of later, it will save you a great deal of time on your first order. I myself will be practicing a bit to see what my options will be once I'm in the city.

Beware of time sinks: There are many unique things to see and do at PAX, but some take more time than others. Some, maybe too much. What is worth your time is entirely up to you, but if I may, please read Rorus Raz's words of wisdom on the subject.

Reposting The @CatBoy List from the FAQ. One should not underestimate its importance

The next section is taken from @sary from last year, with some modifications
Bonus content: You may want to check a blog I wrote last year on my personal notes from last year's PAX East event. They also includes details on my budget and spending habbits.