Convention

PAX Unplugged, Weekend of Table Top Gaming

From December 6th to 8th, I was fortunate enough to attend PAX Unplugged. It’s a convention that is all about table top gaming, no video games what so ever. Anything dealing with trading card game, role play adventures including Dungeon’s and Dragons, table top board games and minatures, the possibilities are endless. This is definitely a different beast that what I’m used to with PAX East, but PAX Unplugged definitely is a huge convention with tons of things to do. At the end of it though, I oddly felt like I was home too.

The one thing I never realized is how big PAX Unplugged is. Essentially it uses up almost the whole Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia. The Expo Hall itself is huge, almost similar size to PAX East. One side of the Expo Hall has tons of booths including from major publishers including Game’s Workshop. There also tons of booths selling different games, tables, dice, and more. When you start moving to the other side you see more games to play and take part in, free to play areas, first looks. Honestly its alot of ground to cover which use the 1st day if you there all weekend to do recon. There were also other kinds of booths sprinkled in between including the awesome Cookie Brigade. There was even a dedicated station to painting a minature figure.

Other areas's of the Convention Center offered rooms dedicated for table top gaming. There was a huge room for Dungeons and Dragons, but also other rooms for other table top adventures. The DMs manning the stations were awesome, friendly, and ready to help you out if you had any questions. I do recommend per-registering games on the PAX Nav app to get a spot in because they go quickly.

There really isn’t any major food courts because Reading Market which is connected to the Convention Center I have to say is one of the main highlights. Multiple different food stalls from fresh bakery, Chinese, Japanese, Cajun, Caribbean, and more is offered there. While there were some food options within the Convention Center, Reading Market is such a life savor providing excellent food at a good price.

While at the Convention Center most of my time was managing the Press Room as an Enforcer. Honestly went by great, we had tons of awesome and friendly content creators that have so much passion and energy. You Think the Press Room everyone would be working hard on their content (which they do), but we all also hangout, relax, and just geek out together.

Honestly walking around the convention center seeing all the energy, passion, and geekdom flow. It really made me feel like I was a young teenager again with my Dad at a convention again. My only regret is I didn’t play enough games at the convention. There were so many different types of games there that it could take a week to get through everything. So its safe to say if your a table top gamer, there is literally something there for you. Of course I made a mistake by going to the Game’s Workshop booth thinking I could only spend $100 there. Yeh it was a nice thought but I walked away with a Space Marine Army Set (no regrets).

Overall this is my first PAX Unplugged and honestly, this is one of the best Table Top convention’s I’ve attended. It left such a great impression on me with so much variety available there. This was the first time I used FEDEX to ship stuff back home because it would of been difficult carrying all these games through the train I bought. The memories I made here were great and honestly next year I want to do more. Overall if your looking for a Table Top convention to attend, definitely checkout PAX Unplugged.

Planned Conventions for 2022

Heyo everyone,

Hoping everyone out there is having a good week, if not I hope this weekend gets better and we can all relax and have some fun. As such I have been going through my Convention Plans for 2022, they’ve been planned, revised, re-planned, etc. But overall I think I have a solid list.

Now due to a new job I just started this year I am only planning 2 major conventions while attending some smaller ones throughout. With that, here are my planned conventions.

  • PAX East | April 21st - 24th

  • RetroWorld Expo | August 27th - 28th

  • TwitchCon (San Diego) | October 7th - 9th

Now originally I was planning on attending both Anime Boston and Otakon, but due to new job I started working since last October, and the fact PAX East is a month before it I will not be attending it. I do however plan on attending it in 2023. Otakon was also another convention I heavily considered but ultimately I figured there is always next year. Overall I want to save some money and pay off my bills and debt, so I figured this year only going to 2 major conventions and smaller ones are the best course.

Now I will plan on recording ALOT of content during my convention trips moving forward to post on my YouTube Channel. I am also looking into upgrading my Camera Gear and setup. Which includes new Lens, attachments, a GoPro Hero 10, and more. I also plan on continuing my Cosplay Photography/Videography as well so there will be Cosplay Music Videos for both PAX East and TwitchCon. There will be other content included as well which I will talk about later on.

I have started to plan out my Convention Trips for next year, of course PAX East and Anime Boston I will be there. But I am also planning on attending Ohayocon again (which has been almost 7 years now since I last attended). Ohayocon has always been a home convention I enjoyed in the Winter when I lived in Ohio so I am excited to be back again. I also am considering going to Katsucon as well. We will see what happens out there.

Official Convention List of 2020

I hope the New Year is going well for everyone, as the year kicks off here is my Official List of planned Conventions I will be attending for the year.

I am keeping the list simple and small for a specific reason. One main reason is financial, it costs money to go to these conventions, it cost more to have tables there. I am happy to say I am making a return to PAX EAST and Anime Boston this year since I had to skip it last year. And of course making my return to the other conventions as well. While I cannot announce anything more of any other conventions this is about it for now. But who knows what the future holds!

ConnectiCon 2019: Return of the Panda

It has been a long time since I attended ConnectiCon. Back in 2015 I had the time of my life with ConnectiCon being a great Omni Convention. Whether you are a fan of Video Games, Anime, Comics, and more. ConnectiCon throughout the years has been a growing Convention within the state of Connecticut. Though the last few years that I decided not to attend, and have not been too well on ConnectiCon. But here in 2019 I see if the Convention is worth giving it another chance.

                The Convention itself has had its issues in the past, when there were no late-night offerings, removal of features at the Convention including on-site Dance, having off-site Gaming Area, stagnating attendee numbers, and more. Now with 2019 it seems the Convention is slowly fixing itself to be back on its feet as a viable convention to attend. The Convention seems to definitely be striving to fight back and retain its former glory.

                First off let’s go over what they did right. The Game Room itself is fantastic. Offering both Free-to-Play Gaming Stations, Tournament Area, but also variety of Japanese Arcade Machines. I was seriously impressed with their gaming options they offered. The Dealers Room and Artist Alley has been located in one area while the Guest Signings have been combined into the Gaming Area to help with crowds and flow. I help made the Dealers Room/Artist Alley less crowded and more manageable to go through while the Gaming Space’s Open areas definitely had a lot of breathing room. The Convention also had later offerings into the night, not as late like how it was before hand but it was something. The Panels are now going on until 11PM, while not the norm like other Conventions out there. It’s definitely an added effort. When the Convention goes into the night it means more content to checkout. The Cosplay Deathmatch is a key part of the Convention as it attracts many attendees to see who will win. The Table-Top Area is actually surprisingly not bad, I feel the size of the area it has is just right and trying to make it any bigger I would not recommend since this is an Omni Convention and not a Table-Top Convention. So, if they keep the size like that then I see no issues with the Table-Top/TGC area. There also was a healthy number of Photoshoots all throughout the Convention during all 3 days. I would also like to personally thank the Press Division for ConnectiCon, the staff there have been fantastic to work with and answered all my questions. They seriously deserve a medal, I had great views of them back in 2015 and in 2019 its still the same great view.

                Second let’s go over what I thought was weird, off, and bad. I felt the Connecticut Festival of Indie Games was tacked on as an afterthought. While there were booths available with variety of different Indie Devs from Video Games, Table-Top, and more. It felt really under-strengthen. There was a huge open area beside it of empty space. I do would love to see this portion fleshed out more with more Devs. Another thing was Panels, there were a variety of Panels to attend but some of the Panels didn’t feel like a good fit to the Convention. Also, the Panel Streams felt lack-luster too. Personally, I would just stream the Main Events on their YouTube Page. One thing that really stuck out this whole weekend was how empty the Convention felt. For 2019 there was about 11K that attended the Weekend, and compared to past years the attendance went down. Food Options for the Convention inside is also lack-luster. I highly recommend going to either the nearby Food Truck Festival or outside food options for cheaper and better-quality food. Another thing I need to point out is the cost of the badges. While cost of the badges for every convention has been getting higher but its usually matched by how much content the Convention has going for it. ConnectiCon price of the badge vs content is offers is not balanced enough to warrant price. If there is more content next year to warrant the price, then it will be a good fit.

ConnectiCon is slowly starting to retain its former glory. It’s doing things right in certain areas while in other areas it can still improve and grow. ConnectiCon still has other events similar to other Conventions like a Cosplay Masquerade, Cosplay Chess/Deathmatch, Panels, and more. One key issue that ConnectiCon faces is its competition. Within not only the State of Connecticut but also the whole New England area Conventions have been popping up, refining their craft, and growing in size. ConnectiCon needs to utilize and maximize its core identify as an Omni Convention. It doesn’t pertain to one area like Video Games or Anime, but with many areas in the Geek Fandom. One thing that I feel will hamper ConnectiCon’s efforts is its badge prices. Usually a badge’s price will reflect on Content available at a Convention. ConnectiCon like other conventions have been slowly raising their prices. But a recent announcement for 2020 is increase in price. A Weekend Pass will now be $91.99 w/t Service Charge. This makes it more expensive than Anime Boston, this makes it more expensive than PAX Unplugged, this makes almost as expensive as Otakon. The difference though is the size and attendees. All those other Conventions have a huge attendee install base and a lot of content to do at the conventions. Plus with 11K attendance for 2019, it clearly shows unbalance and lower attendance record from previous years.

                This year ConnectiCon definitely had an interesting impact on me. I can see this Convention is trying to fight back and retain its glory. With areas that have definitely been expanding for the better but still more areas they can fine-tune. It gives me more optimism to think maybe ConnectiCon can do it. But with how things are going in the Convention scene with other Conventions being competition and attendees starting to pick and choose more carefully now of what conventions to attend. ConnectiCon’s fight to stay in the scene is now being seen by all. Some rooting for its success, others rooting for its doom. I however plan on checking out ConnectiCon in 2020 again to give my final opinions and hope to return back as Press again.