So on Sunday I attended my second ever convention, PAX East 2018 - my first was Montreal Comic Con 2017. I'm not really sure what I was expecting, but I think that it might have been that the two would be similar. And honestly I guess they could have been, but they weren't. With my first con I spent most of my time in lines or in panels, while with PAX East I spent more of my time on the floor interacting with the various gaming booths. I had a blast walking around and seeing all the different games. I must admit that I now have a bit of a list on Steam, and just jotted down in my memory. There's also a tabletop game, The Grimm Forest, that grabbed my attention. It was a tad pricey so I'm going to keep an eye on it and hope that it goes on sale because it looks like a ton of fun. Well, my kind of fun anyway (fairy tales, yay!).
The first thing I really noticed when we walked in.
Anyway. The day started off really early. We left B.'s place at 6:30am to catch the 7am bus from Providence to Boston. We got to the bus station around eight, and made it to the convention center within half an hour. The hall didn't open until ten, so we spent a really long time in line tossing balloons, beach balls, an orca floatie, a shark floatie, and a Mario mushroom floatie around... or randomly getting hit in the head by them if we weren't paying attention. At some point people started leaving silly messages on them, and then Discord channels, and then links to other things. I briefly considered writing my blog addy on a balloon, but decided against it. I'd rather have a general idea of who's liking my page.
In any case, as soon as they opened we headed straight for the FFXIV area. B. really wanted to do the Byakko challenge, where if you completed the trial you got a free T-shirt. The wait was long, about two hours, but we made some friends and had our own group established by the time it was our turn. I was, of course, healing. What else would I do? I'd never done the trial before, so I was a tad nervous, but we kicked ass and completed it. Woohoo! Free T-shirts. We also got a lovely group picture:
We all exchanged Discord info, and set up a chat group, so we made friends in the process too. All-in-all it was a great experience and I'm really glad that B. wanted to do it. There she goes again, with all the good ideas. Oh! And it turns out that someone else in our group also plays on Faerie, and that he knows B., and that he recognized her voice. It really is a strange and small world.
We also got some free stuff just for stopping by, so that's always nice:
Foam Samurai sword and poster. :)
After that, we decided to break for lunch as we'd skipped breakfast - but not before visiting the Behemoth booth that caught our eye on the way to the escalators. B. tried her luck with some Japanese coin machines, trying to get little Castle Crasher figures - she ended up with two blue and an orange. Luckily, the two blue were different poses and weapons so it wasn't a complete bust. I stopped at the sales table and bought myself a Cat Guard T-shirt and a tissue box cover - Oh Hatty, how I love you. I just had to get myself some Battleblock Theatre merch. And, it came with a free bag. Score.
We finally did break for lunch after that. Trying to find somewhere to eat involved a lot of walking around. There were stands everywhere, but nothing sounded super appetizing. We eventually made our way to the food court, where B. and L. had chicken fingers with fries and I chose to try the clam chowder. It was gross, and I couldn't finish it. Super thin broth, barely any... anything in it, and super super salty. I've had good clam chowder, and this one disappointed. I was sad. I ate some Peanut M&Ms to feel better about it. Our FFXIV friends from earlier chatted in with images of their lunches, which looked so much more filling and tasty. Apparently food trucks outside the convention center are a way better option for good food (and prices). Things to file away as "now I know for next time."
After lunch we headed to the Blizzard booth. I picked up a WoW T-shirt and an Overwatch comic from the merch table, and then we got in line to try some new content from the upcoming World of Warcraft expansion. Doing so got us a pin (our choice of horde or alliance), and beta access. I already have alpha and L. will get beta with his expansion pre-order, so it wasn't useful for us, but B. got to sign up for it. This was her first taste of WoW, and she chose to try druid. Solid choice. I think she had fun.
My beautiful shirt. Anduin and Sylvanas. <3
After that we met up with some of L.'s work friends for a few moments, then mostly walked around and peeked at various booths for a bit before heading to a panel that B. wanted to see, titled "Why Stardew Valley Picks Up Where Harvest Moon Left Off." Not going to lie, now I want to play Stardew Valley. This con is going to cost me in the coming months as I slowly collect all the games on my list.
Once the panel was over, we went back down to the main hall and spent the last half hour of the con just randomly exploring and oogling before heading back to the bus station for a supper of McDonalds and a long bus ride home... followed by ice cream. It was a great day. :)
The best friend (L!) and end of day Kim.
And now... photo spam of the convention - I don't know what time any of these photos were taken but they should give a general idea of how packed this con was, and what there was to see. Enjoy!
