PAX East, Part 1

So arriving in Boston, I was immediately surrounded by a throng of folk obviously there for the same reason, and who took the same train. In fact, on the train itself it was fairly obvious that there was a large contingent of nerds on their way to PAX East.

From the very beginning, I noticed how loud and annoying and obnoxious they were. Not to say that every person heading to PAX on the train was engaging in such behavior, but I do think that a general lack of awareness / concern for social norms is the rule rather than the exception throughout the "geek" subculture. I find this interesting, and ponder why it is so.

Don't get me wrong. I'm the last person to try and subject societal norms on people arbitrarily, just to "fit in". But there are certain behaviors that I would consider "anti-social"; things that you don't do in public because it is rude and disruptive to everyone around you. And based on my experience at the convention, I suppose that just isn't commonly understood amongst geeks.

In all seriousness, this convention really opened up my eyes to why there exists so many negative stereotypes about the geek subculture. I hadn't realized, I guess because I am a hybrid geek / normal person who drinks alcohol, attends parties, etc... It was disappointing to realize, because I love geek culture!

That said, there were plenty of normal folks with normal social skills at PAX East so please don't mistake my meaning.

The convention wasn't too crowded outside of events, but a lot of the time panels and such that I wanted to attend were quickly at full capacity. I missed out on a few that way (quite disappointing!) and hope that in the future they'll work on having bigger spaces available.

I never had to look hard for an enforcer (the helpful go-to folks) so that was nice. They had food within the convention area, but I tended to end up with a chunk of free time every day so I always left the convention itself and bought something in the mall. The con food smelled nice, though!

All in all the area was quite nice, and I feel like they chose the venue well.

Next time, I'll talk about some specific panels.