The First Day of PAXEast Kicked Ass!

PAXEast is here and the first day was amazing! I met Major Nelson, Wil Wheaton and so many other cool folks over the course of the day today.

First stop was the Hynes Convention Center to pick up my Press and Speaker Passes (That's right, I have TWO PAXEast Lanyards folks). Check them out.

As we headed into the main exhibit hall to get our passes, we saw this.

That is a wall of PAXEast Merch just waiting to be bought.

Next I headed over to Lir with the SFX-360 crew to check out the venue and prep for the delivery of the SF II cab that we will be giving away at our Gamers Gone Wild Party on Saturday. After a little recon, we headed back to my place to pick up the cab. Chris, Brandon and Ross from SFX-360 checked out my basement arcade and then helped me put the SFII arcade cab into the bed of my baja (doing the work of a single comforter between the three of them - long story). We headed back to Lir to drop off the cab. When we got there, I realized that I had left my invitation to the Microsoft NERD event at my house. After trying to figure out a way to reprint my invite remotely, I soon became resigned to the idea that I would have to run home to snag the invite or miss out on the MS fun later. So I left the SFX-360 crew and made plans to meet up with them at the Sony pre-event event.

I made it there in back in a record 45 minutes and even beat the SFX-360 crew to the Sony party. When I got there at ten till 5:00 (the event was scheduled to begin at 5:00 pm) there was already a line down the hall and around the corner. Not being much of a Sony fanboy, I told everyone that I was going to bolt and head over to the Microsoft event a little early. Ross, aka SFX-Pallidian, had other notions though. He got on his cell and within a few moments, we swept passed the line of people waiting to get in (much to thier ire by the way) and move on in as "press". It's good to be a member of the "legitimate press" sometimes.

Once inside, we took a quick tour around the crowded and monstrously warm room where Sony was showing off the Sony Move (aka the Glowing Dildo of Gaming).

There was some cool stuff, the standout being a DOA "kart racing" game where the DOA lovelies were riding down the street in an office chair. As the heat began to melt my backpack, I ran in Isstassi (aka Stacey) from my clan AOW. I chatted with my boy for a few and then got ready to head out. Shout Out to the Hip Hop Gamer, who I met at the Sony event, and who will be joining us on Saturday for Gamers Gone Wild.

After downing a grilled tuna slider, a Kobe beef slider and a pulled pork BBQ slider at the Sony event, I hopped in my car and raced across the river to Cambridge just in time to be one of the first to register for the MS "Made In Mass" event at NERD. One thing about Microsoft, they know how to throw a party! Three levels in one of the coolest work spaces I have ever seen to set the stage. They had numerous indie game developers showing their wares, a huge 20' screen with Rock Band playing, 3 bars and food on each level. Event cupcakes!

DSmooth tried his hand at the game AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! by Dejobaan Games. After his first attempt the message "Derek has broken both of his legs" appeared on the screen.

Needless to say, DSmooth was not amused.

Then we ran into James Silva from Ska Games, the Makers of Dishwasher Samurai and I Made a Game With Zombies in It.

The Ska crew were laid back and cool as s#*t. After chewing the fat for a few moments, we ran into Mr. XBL himself, Major Nelson.

Check out the spilt beer on DSmooth's T-shirt. Very Classy Sir!

After picking up a few small pieces of SWAG, we got ready to head out for the night.

As we were leaving, DSmooth notice a stack of what looked like business cards sitting on a bench. Upon closer inspection, this is what we found.

XBox Live Codes for a PAXEast Avatar Hoodie, just like mine.

Wonder who might want those, Hmmm.

Anyway, like I said, the First Day of PAXEast was Amazing . . . .  What? . . . . . . PAXEast doesn't officially begin until tomorrow? Holy Crap! This was just a warm-up!

Stay tuned to see what the real first day of PAXEast really looks like. Until then, I think I had better get some sleep.