My Experience at PAX East 2022

It has now been just over a week since PAX East 2022 wrapped up. This trip for me was a first in many ways. It was the first time I had been to the city of Boston. It was the first time that I had traveled to a place since the start of the COVID-19 Pandemic, and it was the first time that I was ever at a PAX event.

All of these things combined made the entire trip for me quite overwhelming! Of course, every time that I think about this event, I still replay in my head the first time I gawked at the entire main hall from the stairwell going down. Never in my life had I personally been able to experience such a grand collection of gamers and gaming culture in one place.

The first day was a bit slow and there weren’t too many people, which was good because it allowed me to get my bearings. After traversing the main hall for about an hour, it was eventually time for the Gearbox Showcase event, which was the first thing that I was scheduled to do. The event, in general, was very good and is something that I would’ve watched from home in previous years. However, there was one thing that stuck out to me that one of the developers said. At one point, Randy Pitchford told the crowd that they needed to rally the rest of the industry to return to PAX events next year.

“Holy crap, we’re at PAX! It was, uh, I was in the lobby on the last day of PAX in 2020 when we decided that we had to pull out of GDC and that we wouldn’t be going to E3 because of the pandemic, and like it’s just so great to see you guys. It’s so awesome to be here and you guys are on the vanguard, you know like you can tell there’s like we’re here, there are some people here, but not everybody’s here on the show floor. Uh, your being here and your support will bring all the developers back and all the companies back, and together we’ll like bring this back, baby!”

This comment initially made me both curious and proud. I was curious because I wanted to already know what a full PAX experience might be, like the one that Randy was describing to the crowd. I was also proud to be there because even though I was just one person in a sea of others, there wouldn’t have been that sea without all of us.

The next two days (Friday and Saturday) were my busiest due to the amount of appointments that were scheduled, which were a mix of interviews and demos. Over time I will put out the interviews and my thoughts on the various demos. However, for now, I am going to just highlight the overall vibe of the event. There was a big push by the people running PAX to keep all social interactions at a distance, but this seemed to be rarely followed on the main hall floor. Masks and vaccinations were also required to enter the event, which seemingly everyone followed to the letter.

There were two big mistakes that I made while at the convention that I would highly suggest any media people avoid the next time they go to PAX East. The first thing is to not buy too many business cards. At first, I thought that 150 would be a perfectly fine number, but then I watched a more experienced PAX attendee say in a video that you should bring about 500. So, I ended up getting that many, but I barely made it through 50 business cards.

Now, this could be because that experienced PAX person is an extrovert while I am more of an introvert, but I am not entirely sure. The second mistake that I made was not hearing what room was the Media room. When I arrived, a PAX enforcer had told me where it was, but his voice was so muffled by his mask that I just nodded my head. This quickly bit me in the butt because the Media room had no significant markings, so I never ended up stepping inside of it. Why didn’t I just ask an enforcer again? I’m an Introvert.

Overall, my experience was absolutely amazing! Meeting all of the amazing developers from the various studios that were there, seeing the outstanding cosplay and seeing the amusing shenanigans that happened in The Waiting Room kept things interesting. I don’t think that there is any real reason to be there for all four days as a Media person, but with some of the lines that existed, I can see it being a necessity for other attendees. I can’t wait to share with you some of the great conversations and demos that I experienced!