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Permit me to take you back, dear Popverse regular, to a different era. An era when the cutting edge of entertainment technology was a monkey turning a music box, when "Nyah, see?" was a perfectly acceptable way to begin a sentence, and when a person could acquire a house with $80 dollars, A Fine Week’s Worth of Work, or by singing Widow Rutherford her favorite hymn. This was early 20th century America, and as I passed through the halls of the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, I got the sense that I've stepped one foot into that time period.

Why? Well, because though I'm separated from those long-gone days by a hundred years and more, I can't help but feeling that, at PAX East 2025, I was experiencing a modern version of their most celebrated mass gathering. That is: the old-fashioned American carnival.

Perhaps I should've had this realization before. I was, after all, absolutely drowning in clowns at the show, whether they be horror game villains, Kefka cosplayers, or anyone visiting the Elderwood Academy booth "just to look, not to buy." But if you, dear reader, have never visited a gaming convention, this parallel might not track. So if you'll give me a moment, I'd like to walk you through it. 

I'm having dangerous fun (from safe distance)

Part of the appeal from old-timey carnivals was that regular folks could go and experience a semblance fo danger... without actually being in very much. Think of your typical carnival acts - Lion Tamer, Snake Charmer, Man Who Gets Electrocuted - they're all outlets for an audience to get up close to their own mortality, but from behind something safe, like cage. As we sit behind screens in Boston's Convention Exhibition Center, fighting zombies and escaping medieval booby traps, what else are we doing but simulating the same stakes?

Granted, the risk of danger at a gaming convention is far lower than at a carnival 100 years ago... but to be fair, that was also a far more dangerous time. Remember, we're talking about an era in which a doctor could declare your headaches were caused by your baby not getting enough cocaine - we know better now. Some news headlines notwithstanding, we are able to better separate ourselves from our simulated danger while still experiencing it.

Aberrations of nature are on display all around me

While we're on the subject of carnival attractions that get your heart beating, I'd point out that gaming conventions, just like their predecessors, often rely on what I'll lovingly call "mistakes by a clumsy and whimsical God." Yes, nature's rejects of yesteryear were infinitely more problematic - every third carnival sign was some variation of "The Amazing Literate Irishman" - but though we've improved on what we consider unnatural tremendously, we are still absolutely and inarguably enthralled by the things that still fit the definition.

Gaming conventions make their very bones on Cats with Tentacles, Girls That Are Cats, and the profitable but surely blasphemous union of the two! I mean, what are Pokémon but chimera, the likes of which Turn of the Century America called 'The Fiji Mermaid?' No one at PAX East was telling you to "Step right up and see the Incredible Lightning Mouse," but I'd bet my last paycheck that you at least thought about buying a plush Pikachu - you're that kind of weirdo, same as me. 

Which brings me to my final point...

Here, the carnies appeal to the riff raff (that's you and me!)

But maybe the most important, if most easily forgotten proof that the carny spirit lives on in the PAX enforcer is this: they are here to entertain the masses. That would be us, the economically disenfranchised little freaks who, deprived of bourgeoisie leisures such as Water Polo and Health Care, must find joy in the technicolor land of the Come and Play, where controllers vibrate like joy buzzers and a Magic deck can still hold your future.

Come to think of it, people one hundred years ago probably looked a whole lot like we do now. They were recovering from a deadly plague, watching their economy grow increasingly more volatile, and feeling the terrifying rise of oppressive governments around the world. Is it any surprise that they, like us, sought out a place to be weird? To be free? To be happy?

A century from now - if our species makes it that far - our descendants will hopefully not have to deal with the consequences of our day. But if they do, I have a feeling that, somewhere, there will be a space for them that looks a whole lot like the one at PAX East.

And sorry to say it, but there are still likely to be a few clowns.

You don't need to beat the game to prepare for the next one—here are all the major new and upcoming games coming our way.