Welcome to the Digital Overload blog! We know you’re all eager to sit down, log on, and begin racking up points on the DO ladder boards—but don’t worry, Digital Overload’s grand opening is nearly here. While you’re shooting scrubs in online deathmatches, we’re shooting for a Memorial Day opening. Sound good? We know. We’re as excited as you are, so excited that we took the DO team up to PAX East for a taste of what’s to come in console, computer, and tabletop gaming.
First, PAX is enormous. The Boston Convention and Exhibit Center is a massive multistoried building created with the single purpose of containing an unreasonably large gathering of this kind. Yet it seemed filled almost to bursting point with panels, exhibits, arcades, concerts, and giddy fans. The Expo by itself offered enough demos, play-time, and collectible swag to eat up and entire day or more. Check it out!
While impressive on their own, these pictures only show a fraction of the whole Expo. Above it, entire halls were filled with computers and consoles for guests to try new games or compete at older titles, with a few tournaments being held including a Super Smash Bros. Melee tournament with over 200 participants, and tourneys on even handheld systems. But digital gaming was not the only entertainment offered up—tabletop gaming made a strong showing, with an entire sprawling space of its own, filled wall-to-wall with tables covered in cards, miniatures, dice, and board games.
Wizards of the Coast held several tournaments there for their flagship product, Magic: The Gathering. Yours Truly represented Digital Overload at one and fought to the final round to win a complete set of Mirrodin Besieged (nearly foil, by a close game three loss!). Behold the unplugged revolution below.
Rest assured we scoured every last inch of PAX to find the latest and greatest in gaming for our customers, but in between the research and networking, we couldn’t help but have a little fun. Here is the DO team, just before we dove into the Expo. From left to right: Managing Partner Dawn Reshen-Doty, Partner Justin Doty, Manager Joseph Benedict, and Tournament Coordinator David Strout.
Dawn (left), shortly after winning an exquisite leather gaming mouse:
Dave, contemplating the fate of nations in his mech suit at the Red Faction exhibit:
And Yours Truly, taking his first steps out of an impromptu Vault 13:
