The Unexplainable PAX Phenomenon

PAX is a bit of a spirit walk for me. My first encounter with it (and, coincidentially, the first time it existed) came about two years ago, when the event took place at the Hynes Convention Center. I was taking the Green Line, waiting for my stop while also feeling an overwhelming sense of shame.

A video game convention. I'm going to a goddamn video game convention. Why am I doing this to myself?

I was intent on leaving after just a few hours. Even I, an out of the closet nerd, cannot possibly fall this far down the section of the geek hole they reserve for "convention goers." While hating myself, and attractive girl with multi-colored hair clips and Skullcandy headphones sat next to me. She looked at my lanyard.

"What are you heading to?"

Great. That's just great. Now I need to tell someone attractive that I'm going to hang out with sweaty people that play Dungeons and Dragons so I can wait in lines to play video games that I'm probably already going to buy. Let's see how quickly she takes off after this.

"It's this terrible nerd thing," I say, shaking my head at myself. "It started out on the West Coast, but it got so popular they're trying it out here. Video game companies come out here and set up booths with demos of their new games to play. I honestly have no idea how long I'm going to stay, but I had to see what it's like. I'm probably going to hate it."

She spoke before I could tack on another self-deprecating remark. "That sounds like a lot of fun! Is it the whole weekend?"

"Uh, yeah...but I only got a one day pass."

"It sounds pretty interesting, I wish I had the time to go to it."

"Wait, really?"

"Yeah!"

A pause. She's screwing with me, right? Maybe not. She's talking to me about her job and, in an oddly casual manner, mentions she plans to quit today. Maybe this is the type of person who really would go to PAX.

My stop came up. I wished her luck. She did the same to me, the look on my face still showing panic over the upcoming show floor.

My silent-until-now friend looks at me. "That girl was hitting on you," he says.

"Fuck," I retort. What the hell is going on?

There's a point to this, and I'm not just bragging about a girl being nice to me, though I won't say I'm above that. PAX is so silly, so stupid, so out of its non-existent mind that it wraps around itself and becomes brilliant again, like some sort of zen parable or something Burroughs would write. You get a bunch of people who like the same things together, let them run wild in a building full of those things, set very basic rules, and let them do their thing.  The best part? Anyone with even a passing interest in nerdy things can come on in and have the same experience.

That's a lot of people, including pretty girls with cutesy headphones.

Sadly, the show has become a bit more focused on larger companies over the year, shedding itself of that hometown, "let's throw some video games on a wooden table and see if anyone plays them" vibe of the original in favor of bigger, more extravagant booths and triple-A titles. But the people stay the same, and as long as there's one really confused yet extremely excited person running around the show floor, tiring themselves out and having the strangest conversations with people around them, I'll always be happy with PAX coming to my city.