GearPop Blog

It’s edging close to the end of day two here at PAX, and boy, has it been nuts. Let me start by saying that this year is the 10th anniversary of PAX, so that’s cool, and the fourth PAX East, which is also really cool. With this being only the fourth PAX East, the attendance is obscene for a convention that young. This year, the number of attendees is inches away from 100,000. That’s a lot of geek in one building. With that said, the crowds are pretty rough, and with the BCEC (Boston Convention and Expo Center) cracking down on security since the Boston Marathon bombing last year just a few blocks away, lines to get in are even longer. While that admittedly stinks, it doesn’t detract from the experience at all; honestly, I can’t believe they didn’t check bags last year!

Moving on to what I’ve seen so far. By far, my favorite thing to do at PAX, is compete in a good, organized competition. The Next Level, in conjunction with Ubisoft, is hosting an amazing gaming competition. In this competition specifically, anyone is able to join by playing a qualifying game on an Nvidia shield. Only the top sixteen players gain access to the real competition, and I did that yesterday. It was pretty amazing. After the qualifier, the top sixteen are put in one area of the booth, and four celebrity coaches choose people to join their team. One of those judges is Source Fed’s own, Meg Turney. I was picked by her to join her team. That was amazing. After the draft, the four teams compete in four unreleased Ubisoft titles. My favorite of those being “The Club”. That game happens to be the game that screwed me over in the competition. I finished in third place in my race, which put me in second on my team. Only the top player of each of the four teams, compete in the finals on a mystery game. The winner of this competition not only wins an Xbox One, PS4, Wii U, Nvidia Shield, GTX GT Video Card, and Astro A50’s, but also $5000 to the charity of the coaches choice. Over the past two days, both winners have been from Meg’s team, which means $10,000 has gone to Child’s Play.

My second favorite thing, is to meet up with Developers and Companies, and chat with them about their game or business. I will have overviews of some of those interviews written up in post form here on GearPop.

Lastly, another awesome thing about PAX, is the community behind it. Like I said earlier, this is the biggest year of PAX East history, and with that, comes a lot of great people. You see random famous people roaming the street of Boston, like Amazons newest hire: Kim Swift, and Microsoft’s Larry Hryb. In fact, Microsoft put everyone up in the same hotel I’m staying in, which is pretty sweet. My friend and I have run into many of Microsoft’s best. Not only do you have the famous people, but you have the friends. I am staying with five others in my room, and I know about 20 other people attending the convention. People that go to PAX are typically pretty awesome.

Something that was announced today at Penny Arcade’s MainStage event, which is huge for my friend from Arkansas, is the creation of another PAX event in the US. PAX South will be held in San Antonio, Texas, on January 23-25. This has been rumored for a long time, but finally came to fruition this morning.

Like I said earlier, I will be posting some more articles about PAX East, including my wrap up article, in the next week or so. Follow me on Twitter for up to the minute updates on everything PAX East tomorrow, the last day.

About the Author Sam Farrar

Sam Farrar is a technology enthusiast, Apple Fan, and all around geek. Sam has been writing for a few tech and gaming websites for 2 years. While only 18, Sam knows quite a bit about the tech industry. His first Gaming console was the Nintendo 64, with a Gameboy Advance to follow after that. His current main gaming machine is the XBOX 360, with a PS3 as a close second. As of now his eyes are on the XBOX One, but the Steam Machine looks really cool. His first computer was an old E Machines desktop, handed down from his parents. (It only ran Windows 95 with 256 mb of RAM) Sam was first introduced to the Apple Brand when his cousins bought one of those translucent, teardrop shaped iMacs in the early 2000's. (He played lots of Nascar: 2000 on that thing) Apple would weave in and out of his life with iPods and Macs here and there, but his real passion didn't begin until his neighbor bought an iMac in 2009. His thought it was a stupid $1500 computer until he used it. There were many early YouTube collabs made on that computer. Ever since then, he has been a total Apple fan, finally able to convince his family to buy their first Mac at Christmas 2010. The family is slowly turning into a true Apple family, with 3 iPads, 4 iPhones, 2 Macs, an Airport, and many iPods. One of Sam's many role models is Steve Jobs for his intensity and attention to detail. Sam is currently a student at Quinsigamond Community College in Worcester, MA, in their Applied Arts program. His goal right now is to go on from Community college and move on to an art school to get a bachelors degree in Digital Film or Graphic Design. Sam is now an Apple Employee at their Natick Retail Store as a Specialist.

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