Convention Report: PAX East 2016

Who would have thought that a webcomic would be behind one of the most popular conventions over the last several years. Penny Arcade Expo (known mainly as PAX) has grown large enough to warrant three separate events in different locations. There's PAX Prime which is held in Seattle, PAX South is over in Texas, PAX East in Boston, MA and PAX Aus held in Australia (weird jump right?). Through April 22nd-24th, I attended PAX East for the fifth time. For me personally, this con will always have a special place in my heart as it's the con that kicked off my love of going to conventions and cosplay. I also met Jessica Nigri there when I first went so those are some pretty good reasons right? I was honestly surprised that there were many cosplayers I knew that attended, almost getting up there to the amount of people I see at NYCC!

In addition to wandering about the convention floor, I managed to see quite the collection of cosplays there. Whether they were worn by cosplayers I knew working at booths, or just attendees, I was pretty amazed at the variety of characters portrayed. Though I will say, that it wasn't completely swarmed by cosplay, when comparing it to comic conventions (NYCC is what I used), cosplay was very limited. I imagine the reason being is that PAX East is mainly for the games being shown. Some of which have very long lines to try out the demos. Would you want to stay in line while in cosplay and possibly get hot/sweaty in the process? I know I wouldn't! Some cosplayers you've seen me featured on here are ones I managed to meet for the first time and it was pretty great!

Cosplay Credit: DARI Cosplay

Cosplayers like Lindsay Elyse and It's Raining Neon were there in outfits centered around the company they were working for. Lindsay over at the GungHo booth promoting Puzzles & Dragons, and DeAnna over at the Ninja Division booth. Monika Lee made a return working for her buddies at the Intel booth and even took part in their RealSense 3D scanning technology. Pretty rad to watch as the tech got her facial features accurately through scanning. Abby Dark Star attended for the first time not in cosplay but working over at the Logitech booth. It was pretty cool getting to finally meet Abby after following her work for 3 years now!

VampyBitMe also made a surprise appearance with working over at the Overwatch booth portraying a D'Va cosplay posing near some rad cars. Overwatch and League of Legends had a big presence this year with separate areas having tournaments with actual college eSports teams. LoL had an atmospheric experience known as the Riftwalk as well as a Cospitality room for cosplayers to come and relax. The line was always crazy long for the Riftwalk so I wasn't able to check it out. Missyeru was there each day as various League characters! Stella Chuu worked at different booths but was with DeAnna for a time at the Ninja Division booth. Lyz Brickley also made an appearance for her PAX East working for the developers behind The Banner Saga 2. Meeting her was tons of fun. It honestly shocks me when cosplayers who I haven't met know me through our online interactions on Twitter and whatnot.

So what about the many cosplayers roaming around? I met Danielle Beaulieu who you've all seen here plenty of times and that was pretty amazing. She debuted her highly anticipated Sindragosa cosplay from World of Warcraft, and man was that worth the wait. We had a lovely chat for a few minutes and I was just in complete awe of the detailing and the wing harness she had on her back. Kristen Hughey was also there with a good portion of her family as it's become a tradition for them to attend. Talking with them is always a treat, sadly I wasn't able to find her when she wore Kitty Cat Katarina but the outfit looks so adorable! Kaybear Cosplay wore her Space Dragon Aurien Sol and that was drop dead gorgeous to see, the colors of the armor instantly gravitated to me as did her stellar (oh look puns!), make up! Byndo Gehk was a sneaky girl and I happened to run into her while she was in casual clothing. Friday she roamed about as Judy Hopps from Zootopia and I have to wonder if she managed to also wear Cidney from Final Fantasy XV! I ran into my awesome friend Midge Scully who was Super Sonico one day, then Kazooie alongside her younger brother as Banjo. The 2 of them also did a Fox and Falco pair from Star Fox! Destiny Nickelsen also attended in her Pinup Fallout Vault Girl cosplay and was Max from a Goofy Movie on Friday.

Danielle looked SO RAD!!

PAX East has also become a spot for YouTubers and Twitch streamers to visit/make appearances. I know SuperMaryFace attended with CinnamonToastKen but unfortunately I wasn't able to find them in the sea of people. Rooster Teeth was there with several people from Achievement Hunters, and my brother along with a friend attended a panel ran by them. One of my favorite Hearthstone streamers Amaz was there but I couldn't spot him either. Other things to note were companies like Nintendo and Square Enix had a presence with booths as well. Nintendo showed off Star Fox Zero, Kirby: Planet Robobot, Monster Hunters Generations, Bravely Second and several other titles.

Speaking of Bravely Second, I managed to attend a Meet & Greet with Co-Producer Masashi Takahashi and he signed a pretty rad poster plus my game case! We chatted briefly about the game and how much I was enjoying it so far. Square Enix showed off Final Fantasy XIV with a specific Boss Challenge you could try (alongside one of the developers judging you, no pressure), the Final Fantasy XV Platinum Demo, Kingdom Hearts Unchained X (which me and Lindsay talked about A LOT), Hitman, Star Ocean, and I Am Setsuna which I played for a little bit. That game had a gorgeous art style and definitely piqued my interest in wanting to at least learn more about!

Lyz Brickley and Jackie Crafts

Pokemon had their own little booth to further promote the 20th Anniversary Celebration going on this year. Cosplayer LeeAnna Vamp made an appearance at the Downward Viral booth for their upcoming Zombie themed trading card game. Logitech's booth had a pretty rad wall showing a pixel art style sequence over dozens of their keyboards. Other companies that had booths include LootCrate, Xbox with Gears of War 4 and Overwatch play areas, Battleborn with an impressive statue set up, and various vendors that I've seen at cons before. Indie gaming had a strong presence here as it always does and I was stopped by 2 of them to learn a little bit about their games. They definitely caught my attention! One such Publisher was Games Starter who explained several of their games they had. One had a gorgeous art style and premise but it was another that caught my surprise. I can't remember the name but it had this idea/concept where if you stream if through Twitch, NPC's attitude towards you is dictated by the attitude of your actual audience. How rad is that?

Monika Lee is just so sweet you guys

Sadly the panel I was planning on attending was seemingly cancelled which was disappointing. It was all about the Art that was going into the upcoming Final Fantasy XV which would have been stellar to learn about. Another vendor I had to visit was Filthy Casual. You've seen me talk about them lots, hell I was repping their clothing throughout the weekend. Totally snagged a hoodie and one of their Limited shirts they had at this con specifically. That's pretty much the extent of what I got in terms of con swag, though Abby did hook me up with a really cool shirt too! 

PAX East is a con where I saw everything on Friday as I was trying to find both friends and cosplayers to take pics of. Tabletop games had a presence in the back though I actually didn't stop by that area throughout the weekend. Majority of the panels varied from learning about various developers, how to break into certain industries, some geared towards kids, even one around developers based in Australia! Plus, the upcoming Warcraft movie had a panel with one of the cast members!

There were various after parties hosted by cosplayers and companies. Me not being a party guy, I didn't attend them. Plus I'm somewhat bad at staying up really late XD. Overall though, my first con of the year was pretty awesome. I had a stellar time and I really can't thank everyone who I saw enough for making me feel so loved. I'm always reminded of why I love the cosplay and convention communities. You often hear of "drama" and silly things like that, I can happily say that I don't experience that at all. Honored to call some of these people good friends and their constant support means a lot to me <3. As of this moment, my next convention is NYCC in October unless I attend one prior! I'll let you guys know!