I’d be hard pressed to find someone in the geek community that isn’t familiar with Penny Arcade, at least just by name.  I myself got hooked on their comics back when I started college in 1999.  Since then Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins (“Gabe” and “Tycho” to the rest of us) have spun a small comic strip into a online phenomenon that now entertain millions with their tomfoolery, informs the gaming community with Ben Kuchera and the PA Report, and gives back to the community through their efforts by the Child’s Play Charity.

And then there’s the PAX Expos.  The PAX gaming festival began in 2004 as a celebration of gaming and gaming culture yearly in Seattle.  Since then its expanded to PAX Dev for developers, PAX East held in Boston, and even PAX Australia kicking off this year.  Each year the PAX conventions are filled with industry speakers and panel,  a show floor flooded with games of all kinds – console, PC and tabletop, concerts, tournaments, and all sorts of other delicious game geekery.

As well as Cliff Bleszinski, formerly of Epic Games delivering the keynote at this year’s PAX East, the festival’s going to have a crazy nerdcore musical schedule, including The Videogame Orchestra, Those Who Fought, the Protomen, Sam Hart, MC Frontalot, Jonathan Coulton and Paul and Storm.

And of course that’s to say nothing of the PAX East Indie Showcase and tens of thousands of awesomely passionate attendees.  Oh and right, the cosplay.

And most importantly, as some cons have gone a different route, open to the public and not a media-only event.

Out of these festivals, PAX East is upon us, taking place next weekend in Boston from Friday, March 22nd through Sunday, March 24th. And guess what kids?  IHOGeek will be descending upon PAX East to bring the best of it to you, our peoples.  Both Colby and myself are stuffing our schedules to the limit to check out speakers and panels as well as getting some time to talk to some publishers to give you a taste of what’s coming from the gaming world.  So far we’ll be bringing you the latest from Volition and Square-Enix, and working on getting as much information as your keen little eyes can grab.  We’ll be giving you updates until showtime about who we’ve secured some time with and other stuff we get our grubby little hands on.

Want more info? Have more questions? Drop us a line!  Throw some comments up.  And rest assured we’ll be getting everything we can for you.  Make sure you stay up with our Facebook and Twitter to keep updated.

Tushar Nene
Staff Writer
@tusharnene