PAX East 2024 Brings Boston Gamers Together

BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — At the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in Seaport, video game lovers, cosplayers, and other gaming community members gathered for PAX East 2024.

The organization behind the gaming convention, PAX, was started in 2004 to “celebrate gaming and game culture” exclusively, instead of being combined with other hobbies like comics or anime.  

Over the past 20 years, PAX has expanded beyond its first convention in Washington State to cities around the country and the world, including Boston.

This year’s convention in Boston was from March 21 to 24, and gamers from around New England descended upon the Convention Center to share their love of gaming culture.

Compared to other gaming conventions, Pax East “has a better vibe to it,” said one woman. “People are a lot more friendly.”

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PAX also has conventions in Seattle for PAX West, as well as in Philadelphia and Melbourne, Australia.

And causal gamers weren’t the only ones at the event. Some of the attendees have developed their own games.

“I’m actually showing off one of my games,” said one person. “I’m a college student at Quinnipiac [University] in Connecticut. And I’m really excited for people to play our game. I’m really passionate about it.”

His game is called "Dead On Arrival."

“It’s like a horror game, [and] it’s kind of a mix between 'Alien: Isolation' and 'Phasmophobia,'” which are two other video games.

Some people at PAX East were dressed up in their favorite cosplay.

One person was dressed as Carmen Sandiego, the titular character in a video game, and another was in a classic Mario costume. Another cosplayer was dressed as Finn from the show "Adventure Time."

But there were fewer cosplayers on Thursday compared to previous years, explained some attendees.

“I thought there would be a lot more here. I was walking around a couple of minutes ago, and I was expecting to see so many more people cosplaying. But there weren’t nearly as many as I was expecting.”

For this convention attendee, the cosplayers "are wild. I respect them, but [it’s] not for me, not in this weather.”

And like that person said, Thursday’s weather might have contributed to the minimal cosplayer turnout, since it was windy and below 40 degrees.

Despite the cold, the first day of PAX East still drew crowds of people celebrating gaming culture.

WBZ NewsRadio's James Rojas (@JamesRojasMMJ) reports.

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