This past weekend, SideQuesting attended the first ever PAX East expo in Boston. The event, an offshoot of PAX in Seattle, was created to help bring the latest hands-on gaming, demos, and news to fans of all ages and levels of gaming experience. For many, it was their first time playing Red Dead Redemption or Monday Night Combat. For others, table top gaming and speaker panels were the draw.
The event bridged the gaps between developers, journalists, and fans by allowing them to intermingle on many occasions. It was a common experience to meet your favorite writer in line at the food court, buy someone a drink at a party, or to accidentally bump into Ken Levine in the public bathroom — I swear, Ken, I didn’t mean to!
Gaming communities, such as Facebook groups, social networks and forums, came together in force. Tournaments on PC and consoles lasted into the early hours of the morning. Impromptu Magic matches took place on mountains of bean bags in the halls.
It was the kind of experience that made ourselves proud to be gamers. There was love, baby, and we were all a part of it.
The SideQuesting team met our fair share of incredible people as well. Some we have known for years, some we’ve met for the first time, and some we never thought we’d have the opportunity to. This post is a big, giant “THANK YOU” to all of those people who made our time together wonderful. Please stay in touch. We can’t wait until next year when we are able to do this all over again.
Thank you from the SideQuesting Staff in attendance, Ryan Gan & Dali Dimovski
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Do yourselves a favor and follow these terrific individuals across Twitter and Facebook
(If we’ve forgotten anyone, please let us know!)
Randall Smith – JPAG Show host
Matt Wetzel – Snappy dresser
Holly Attesi – Nicer than kittens
Matt Attesi – Truly a great guy!
Patrick Young – Puts Rainbow Brite to shame, but terrific nonetheless!
Klee Baker – Awesome hat
Nick Coffman – Rocked the retro JPAG shirt!
Zachary Tuttle – A true trooper!
Jeffrey Abt – We envy your mohawk
Alex Raymond – It was great to meet you in person!
Justin Russo – Represented the JPAG proudly
Michael Parikh – Our ring-leader
Jeff LeClerc – Terrific roommate, and even better drinker
Ben Gilbert – Genuinely good guy, also very tired by the end of PAX
Christopher Grant – Helped Joystiq own PAX this year
Justin McElroy – Spread love and joy like we’ve never seen before
Griffin McElroy – Our Pokemon pusher
Dave Hinkle – Terrific guy, with a gamerscore to envy
Andrew Yoon – Always smiling, even without sleep
James Ransom-Wiley – Joystiq’s Managing Editor
Xav De Matos – Host of the Freelancers podcast
Alexander Sliwinski – Keeping Boston upright
Kevin Kelly – TV’s Kevin Kelly
Ludwig Kietzmann – Extremely friendly and courteous, Joystiq
Kyle Orland – One of the best video game journalists in the industry
Sam Houston – Social media maven for Perfect World
Jeff Grubb – 1Up & Bitmob legend
Shane Bettenhausen – Ignition’s superstar Business Developer
Rob Fleischer – Sandbox Strategies
Derek Lavigne – Co-Host of Bitmob’s Pixel Revolt community podcast
Wombat – The CAG’s very own superstar
isantos – An all-around swell dude
Eric Majkut – Great guy to hang with, and great writer
Gus Mastrapa – Fantastic job at the Game Journalism panel!
Tina Sanchez – Still rocking 1Up!
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