Reuben and I began our foray into PAX East with a lot of waiting. We spent a little more than two hours sitting around before the convention doors opened.

We weren’t at the front of the line by any means, but there were plenty of people who eventually filed in behind us. In total, there are about 50,000 to 60,000 here actually.

They did a nice job of keeping us entertained with a number of screens showing a GLADOS-type computer talking to the crowd and presenting a variety of entertainment. And eventually someone broke out the beach balls, which kept hundreds of people pretty much entranced for almost half an hour.

After getting in the doors, we headed to the main hall to hear the keynote speech by geek icon, Star Trek: TNG alum and gamer Wil Wheaton, though he had his eyes open far more than this picture illustrates.

His speech was a funny exposition on gaming and gaming culture, particularly how it brings people together and keeps them together — a particularly true statement for this Gig Matrix crew.

After that, we heard PAX creators Gabe and Tycho answer questions from the audience, which often elicited humorous responses — and some serious news: There will be no third part of their episodic game. And in case you’ve ever wondered what they think would happen if the Juggernaut ran into The Blob … they have no effin’ clue.

The expo floor offered a lot of wares and demos from various companies, though the lines were too long to check out many of them today. Hopefully tomorrow, though. We’re looking forward to getting our hands on racing game Split Second.

I took an extended dinner break to hang out with a friend while Reuben attended some other panels and then we ended the night with a session on “Why Losing Should be Fun.” It was an interesting discussion about how games have become geared only toward winning and ignore the possibility of enjoyable gameplay outside of that goal. Not many solutions were offered, but the point is one worth considering. As games like Mass Effect and Heavy Rain broaden what’s possible with narrative storytelling, maybe we’ll see more examples of how different choices can lead to different outcomes rather than just right choices that end in victory and wrong choices that end in death.

So far, I’ve seen people dressed as the witch from L4D, the witch from Bayonetta, the Team Fortress characters, Lara Croft, a Gears of War guy and some other people I’m sure were dressed as characters from games I didn’t recognize. At least I hope those were costumes. And we saw one guy we’re pretty sure was wearing a bathrobe.

Tomorrow: Hopefully I get to see Morgan Webb of G4TV.
And, you know, probably do some other stuff, too.
[Ed. note: Oops. I was so tired last night I got my days confused. That’s not till Sunday. Today, I’m hoping to be in the audience for some live podcasts and get some info on upcoming Prince of Persia and Dead Space games.]