Con Report: PAX East 2013
This past weekend PAX East 2013 concluded, and what a show it was! I always wanted to attend PAX East, ever since I saw it covered by IGN, Machinima, and G4TV. Not only was I excited to be attending this convention for the first time, but I was happy to be attending as press. My first day PAX East, and I was surprised to see just how many booths and set ups were in this convention show floor. The convention center was big, but inside it looked much bigger. I loved seeing rooms devoted to just standard console gaming. Where attendees were able to just play games with others, and have fun, when they wanted some down time.
Another nice touch was the classic arcade room, which was really popular. It was great seeing these games from years past, and able to play some of the classics of yester-year. Also the amount of computers set up for Lan Parties was incredible! I never seen so many computer gamers in one area, I even got my hands on computer gaming for the first time at the con and I feel I did pretty good for my first time. A lot of big names in the gaming community were present and game demos galore. I got to meet a lot of these people such as the Cross Counter Team, The Frag Dolls, LT3, Mega64, and even Ken Levine (Sad I could get a picture however).
I was really pleased on the organization of the con, it didn’t feel cluttered and it was very neat. The staff for the con had to have been possibly the best con staff I have come across at a convention in a very long time. They were respectful, very helpful, and cautious for cosplayers, as they made room for cosplayers to get through the crowd of attendees. And what I loved the most is that they didn’t abuse their authority. A lot of staff at other conventions tend to do that, and it cause problems to both cosplayers and photographers. The staff for PAX East did their jobs to the tee, and nothing more.
One thing I was really happy was to finally see the cosplay that would be at the con. To be expected there was a lot of League of Legends cosplays, so I didn’t recognize them. However I was able to meet some really awesome cosplayers, such as Amie Lynn, Kat Gunn, Kristen Hughey Cosplay, Spencer Doe, and Nicole Marie Jean. Sadly I was not able to get an interview with all of them; however I am very happy with myself that I was able to interview, and get features with Nicole Marie Jean, and Spencer Doe. We got a lot of pictures, coverage, and interviews from this con. We cannot wait to share them with everyone, and we look forward to doing this all over again, but 10 times bigger, and better for PAX East 2014.
Featured Image by Jibrii Ransom. Other images by E. Ortiz.
