Around four years ago, my husband Jimmy, our friend James and I decided we wanted to go to our first game convention. After months of dreaming about it, we finally decided we were actually going to go to PAX East. We got our passes (which was easy back then; getting passes for PAX East nowadays is next to impossible), booked our hotel, and started saving so we could have spending money at the con.
Before we knew it, it was time to rent a car and leave for Boston. Fast forward to today, and I sometimes I can’t even believe we were lucky enough to have gone to PAX.
A photo popped up in my Timehop, and I started thinking about PAX East and how much fun we all had at PAX over the years.
Back in April 2012, when we arrived at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center for the first time, we were so ecstatic to finally be at a game convention. We went to so many awesome panels and got to meet so many amazing people, including legendary game developer Hidetaka Suehiro (aka Swery), Arne Meyer from Naughty Dog, Greg Miller and Tim Gettys from Kinda Funny, and Greg Edmonson, the composer of the music for Uncharted 1-3. I think that was always my favorite thing about PAX: Having the opportunity to meet really amazing people involved with the gaming industry. And some of these people have since become our really good friends (shout-out to Rob Martino!).
We ended up attending PAX East for four years in a row, and had an absolute blast year after year.
Since all of us are now learning how to be adults (it’s a slow process), we’ve found that it is not within our budget to attend PAX East anymore. Instead, we go to MAGFest, which takes place just an hour and a half away.
We love PAX East, and hope to attend again someday. We will always have the memories.
Have you ever been to PAX East? Tell me about your experiences on Twitter: @gottosaurus.
-
Cassie Gotto-White is a gamer, a planner babe, and a boba tea fanatic. She discovered her passion for video games at age six when she was given an NES Top Loader by her aunt. Her current main consoles are the PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch. Some of her favorite games include The Last of Us, the Uncharted series, the Yakuza series, Persona 5, and Night in the Woods. Follow her on Instagram at @planningwithcass and YouTube at YouTube.com/PlanningwithCass.
