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Looking Back on a Decade of PAX East

(I don't know how it's already been a decade...)

A few weeks before writing this I attended PAX East 2026, an annual gaming and pop culture convention held each spring in Boston, Massachusetts. This particular PAX East was especially notable for me, as it marked the 10th anniversary of when I first attended PAX East, and was also the 10th PAX East I have attended overall.

PAX was my first introduction to the convention scene, and to date is still the only convention I routinely attend, so after 10 years of attending I figured it might be fun to look back at the last decade and think on some of the highlights of my experience.

PAX East Highlights:

  • PAX East 2016: As my first PAX, and my first real experience at a convention in general, PAX East 2016 as a whole was definitely a highlight in and of itself. The sights, sounds and general atmosphere were like nothing I had ever experienced before. The entire experience was both electrifying and exhausting in ways I'd never experienced before, and I knew from then on that this was something I wanted to keep doing.
  • Ark: Survival Evolved @ PAX East 2016: While the entire convention was a highlight of my life, one of the things that still sticks out to me in particular about that year was the booth for Ark: Survival Evolved. Ark was still in Early Access at the time, and I considered myself a pretty big fan of the game back around the time it was still in development. While my opinion of the game itself has definitely soured over the years, I can't deny that they had one of the best booths of any game to this day. I'm not sure anything will ever top seeing a life-sized, rideable T. rex in the middle of the showfloor, and this will always be a pleasant memory for me.
  • The Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind @ PAX East 2017: The Elder Scrolls Online is another game I loved a decade ago but have somewhat fallen off of in the years since, though admittedly not to nearly the same extent as Ark. The Morrowind expansion for ESO was also particularly notable for me, as it was the first big expansion to come out after I started playing the game. I also do have quite a bit of nostalgia for The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, so being able to get a semi-exclusive first look at this grand new expansion and view their new HD reimagining of Vvardenfell was an awesome experience, even if I didn't have the patience to wait the hour in line to play their demo.
  • Homestar Runner & Trogdor: The Board Game @ PAX East 2018: Growing up watching Homestar Runner was probably one of the most formative elements of my childhood, and to this day it's still one of my favorite series. PAX East 2019 was the first, and so far only time the Brothers Chaps, the creators of Homestar Runner, have attended the convention. Being able to get up close and personal with the creators of one of the most influential elements of my life, watching them show off their upcoming Trogdor board game and talk about their history, was by far my single favorite memory from all my years at PAX.
  • PAX East 2020: Yeah, this one's not exactly a highlight for positive reasons. Some people might be surprised to learn that PAX East was even held in 2020, considering the whole COVID-19 situation, but it happened to be held just early enough in the year that it avoided the lockdowns by only a couple of weeks. News of this mysterious epidemic rapidly spreading across the world was a hot topic in the weeks and days building up to the convention, and some scheduled attendeed even canceled at the last minute. My friends and I did debate if we should risk going or not, but we ultimately decided to take the risk and attend. Even at the time as we were walking around the showfloor we were debating if we had made a poor decision, something I think we now all agree we absolutely did, but fortunately no one got sick and we still had a good time.
  • Black Mesa @ PAX East 2020: OWhile the fact that we attended the convention at all in 2020 was definitely a mistake, I can't deny that PAX East had some pretty big highlights. I love the Half-Life series, and had been following the development of Black Mesa, the fan remake of Half-Life 1, for over a decade by this point, so finally having a release date for its 1.0 release and getting the opportunity to chat with the devs and thank them for their hard work was very cool.
  • Boundary Break Live @ PAX East 2020: Bit odd that 2020 is the year I have the most specific memories of, but whatever. Boundary Break is a YouTube show that I've always had a passing interest in, it's not a channel I'm subscribed to or actively follow, but I still enjoy seeing their content. The panel itself was fun, nothing super unique outside of what they already do for their YouTube videos, but it definitely stands out in my mind moreso because panel host Shesez closed the show by proposing to his girlfriend. It was just a pleasant, somewhat touching moment that I'll remember fondly.
  • Mega64 20th Anniversary Panel @ PAX East 2024: Mega64 is one of those monoliths of internet culture where even if you don't actively follow them or even know their name, you've probably seen some of their videos or skits at some point over the years. Attending their 20th anniversary panel and looking back at their years of content was both nostalgic and entertaining, and the panel was also as much of a fever dream in all the ways anything Mega64 related should be. They even filmed the audience cheering at nothing for a video and never even used the footage for the video, which honestly is really funny to me.
  • Giant Bomb @ PAX East 2025: Giant Bomb is another internet series I don't really follow but still appreciate their existence. At PAX East 2025 they were originally scheduled to do a live recording of their podcast, but a wrench got thrown in those plans after most of their staff had a public disagreement with their parent company Fandom and many of their senior leadership quit. We were honestly surprised the panel itself wasn't canceled, and had no idea what to expect going into it. Everyone attending was equal parts shocked and excited when it turned out the planned podcast had been sidelined in favor of the Giant Bomb members in attendence using the opportunity to announce that they had bought out the Giant Bomb brand from Fandom and gone independent. While I wouldn't consider myself a Giant Bomb fan, even I found something emotional about a long standing element of internet gaming culture finally breaking free from an evil company like Fandom.

While this was only a sample of everything I've experienced over the last 10 years, every PAX East I've been to has been an incredible experience, and something I'd recommend to anyone in the northeast who is into gaming or pop culture. Here's to another 10 years!