Penny Arcade has taken over Boston, and since I’m a stone’s throw away in NH, I got my ticket and I went down to see what it was all about.

I spent an hour on a bus, 25 minutes either walking or on a subway, 3 and a half hours in line, then another hour and 45 minutes in a chair in the theater at the convention center, first waiting for, and then watching/listening to Wil Wheaton’s Keynote. This was the reason for me to be at PAX and it did not disappoint. My $30 one-day ticket was worth it for that one hour of gaming humor, even if it did come after 5 hours of waiting in line.

My plan was to hang out after the Keynote and check out the booths, and then try to meet up with Averna and her group around 5:30ish, but by the time 4:30 rolled around I was pretty much itching to get out of the place. Maybe it’s because I was alone with nobody to talk to. Maybe it’s my general disdain for large crowds. Add to that the fact that I forgot to Add her number to my phone, and couldn’t get gmail working on my phone or iTouch… I pretty much just wandered around for a while, and wandered my way back to the bus depot to head home 2 hours earlier than I had planned.

Maybe next year I’ll recruit a friend or two, and actually go in with a plan other than, “get outside your comfort zone and go to a giant gaming convention alone you big baby.” While yes, I did “get out of my comfort zone,” and I did, “go to a giant gaming convention alone,” and was not “a big baby about it,” I didn’t take as much from the experience as I should have. I should have spent time in the console freeplay room, playing games I was interested in, or games I had never heard of. I should have stuck around and tried to get in touch with Averna somehow. I should have, and I didn’t. Now I know what mistakes not to make next time. Right?

Right. So next time, who wants to go to PAX with me?

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