April 2, 2010: PAX East Wrap-Up

As previously mentioned, a couple of us were lucky enough to be at PAX East last weekend. As I'm sorting through my notes, here's a couple of high points.

• Not getting the con crud. Thanks to an aggressive "no handshake" meme, as well as some disinfectant wipes for the demo games, none of our crew got sick. This is the first time in recent memory some virus didn't take down at least one voice or sinus cavity. And given that there were reports of an outbreak of the norovirus in Boston at the time, that's a significant win for our side! (Note that "con crud" is different from "PAX Pox," which was a sticker-based game people were playing. I got "infected" with a red sticker, but must have missed the "cure.")
• The awesome Enforcers. These volunteers were consistently energetic and knowledgeable, which was especially helpful when we were exhausted and clueless.
• Geek Chic. In addition to being just generally cool folks, they let us borrow a bar-height Emissary for our dice game demos. The recessed surface was very helpful when Zombie Dice were thrown with . . . enthusiasm, shall we say. We need one (or more) of those!

While the show didn't go perfectly -- we were all rather chained to the demo area, and no one got to see all the panels/concerts/exhibits they wanted to -- it was still a blast. We will return next year, without a doubt, but since we can't wait a full year, we'll also be hitting the Seattle PAX in September.

-- Paul Chapman