The little blue rock has successfully navigated its way around the bright yellow star once again, bringing us once again to our yearly pilgrimage to Boston for the fifth installment of PAX East.
We’ve had the pleasure of attending this event since it’s inception and have managed to come away with a handful of helpful tips, apps and websites that will help you all maximize your Beantown adventure.
Preparation
Let’s start with pre-trip preparation. Don’t let the weather predictions throw you. While the meteorological soothsayers are predicting mid 40s and 50s next week, that doesn’t mean that you should focus solely on winter weather clothing. The Boston Convention and Exhibition Center tends to heat up once 60,000 plus people hit the show floor. Dress in layers and check your coat at the convention center once you arrive at the show. Also, be sure to pack extra socks and t-shirts for the trip. You’d be surprised how refreshing a quick sock/undershirt pitstop at your hotel can be on the second or third day of the con. If you plan on attending panels, pack some of your favorite portable card and dice games to pass the time while you’re waiting in line to listen to some of your favorite Internet personalities speak. Your time in the panel queues will pass much faster with a social game like Zombie Dice as opposed to hunched over your 3DS or attempting to remote play on PlayStation Vita, plus you might even make a few new friends and isn’t that what these giant gathering are really about? Finally, pack some hand sanitizer and use it liberally. I don’t care if you just shook the hand of Notch, Tim Schafer or our very own Dali Dimovski, as soon as you’re done rub that antiseptic salve on your mitts. There’s nothing worse then coming back from an awesome experience and finding yourself bedridden because you manage to interact with patient zero.
Boots on the Ground
Once you arrive in Boston the fun can really begin. If you’re arriving via plane and your hometown doesn’t have mass transit, have no fear. The Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA) is dead simple to use and very cost effective. The real key is allotting yourself the extra time to travel by rail instead of taxi. The $2 flatrate train ride is far friendly to $25 (and up) cab ride to the budget minded among us. Seriously, wouldn’t that ever $20 be better spent buying a round of drinks or the latest Cards Against Humanity expansion pack?
Now that you’ve conquered your fear of riding with the masses, next up is getting away from the convention center. The are plenty of restaurants and bars within a block or two of the convention center that will be more than happy to serve you, but enlist the help of Yelp or Urbanspoon and venture further out into the city. Not only will you save yourself a ton of cash by avoiding the “tourist tax,” but you may actually stumble across a real gem. Our mainstay every year is a quaint little pub dive bar called Biddy Early’s (Tell ‘em SideQuesting sent you). Biddy’s, as we’ve come to call it, is a short trip from convention center island and is the classic example of a local bar with affordable food and drinks. A little Internet ingenuity and a few extra blocks can save you a bundle.
The biggest challenge you will face at any convention, especially if this is your first big con, is realistic planning. By now I’m sure you have combed through the panel listing, highlighting all of the panels you plan on attending. The thing they don’t tell you is that you will need to line up anywhere between 30 minutes to 3 hours early if you want to attend a panel, let alone get a seat in the front half of the room. The key is making sure you have enough time between panels to actually get in line for the next thing you want to see. Don’t be afraid to just wander through the Indie Megabooth on the show floor and discover the hidden gem of the show or head over the board game area and make some new friends.
As much as we tell ourselves that PAX is about the games, the truth is, the real magic of PAX is the people attending and their passion and love for video games.
Tools of the Trade
PAX East 2014 Guidebook – Guidebook is the quintessential app for your smartphone or tablet. It has a map of the show floors, shuttle schedules, panel listings, a handy scheduling feature that allows you to setup reminders for events and panels that you want to attend, general show information and an exhibitors list. The best part about this app is that it’s available for pretty much every smart device on the market, yes even the Blackberry Playbook.
Link – http://guidebook.com/getit/
MBTA Apps – The transit authority has a great collection of apps to make city traversal as simple as possible. Our favorites are MATransit and MBTA mTicket. MATransit is your complete guide to the subway system and it’s arrival/departure schedule. The MBTA mTicket app lets you skip messing with the ticketing kiosks and allows you to purchase passes and fares directly from your mobile device.
Link – http://www.mbta.com/rider_tools/apps/
myBCEC – The Boston Convention & Exhibition Center’s myBCEC app is a great companion for the PAX East 2014 Guidebook. myBCEC show you the nearest restroom, shipping center (yeah this is a real need, try taking that 1:1 scale Game of Thrones King Slayer sword on the plane ride home with you.), coffee bar, actual bar, and first aid centers.
Link – http://massconvention.com/attendees/mobile-apps
Twitter – Twitter is a great resource for keeping up-to-date leading up to and during PAX East 2014. The team at Penny Arcade does a great job relaying important information throughout the show. Want to know what the lines are like for a particular panel? Head over to @PAX_Lines.Want to see how the show is going or if there have been major changes? Check out @Official_PAX. Want to stay current with who’s dominating the tournament scene? Follow @PAX_Tourney and @PAXOmegathon. Finally, for the latest entertainment updates, keep an eye on @PAX_Entertainer.
Links
http://twitter.com/pax_lines
http://twitter.com/Official_PAX
http://twitter.com/PAX_Tourney
http://twitter.com/PAXOmegathon
http://twitter.com/Pax_Entertainer
Penny Arcade Forums – Still crave more information? Head over the official Penny Arcade forums and learn from the some of the most devout Penny Arcade Expo fans. Learn about the Cookie Brigade, the Pokemon Bar Crawl, Trading Cards and so, so much more.
As always, we’ll be there in full force this year. Look for frequent updates on our Twitter and Facebook page and in-depth reviews and previews on the website. If you see one us roaming the show floor, fist bumps are always accepted; but bring your own hand sanitizer, we aren’t sharing ours. If you have any tips you’d like to share, please leave them in the comments in below and will incorporate them in to this Guide.
Links
www.twitter.com/sidequesting
https://www.facebook.com/sidequesting
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