I (almost) went to PSX

Earlier today, the PlayStation Experience wrapped up in Las Vegas. I nearly went to this event, and there's actually a somewhat interesting story to this, so I thought I'd write it down and share it.

The PlayStation Experience (PSX) is a video game expo that is focused on games coming to the PlayStation platforms (PS4, PS3 and PS Vita). It was announced back in October and tickets went on sale toward the end of that month. Over the following weeks information on what would be at the expo trickled out and it became clear that PSX was going to be a significant event. I read various articles posted on the major gaming websites and was interested in the event but had no intention of actually going. Then, about two weeks before PSX, I was listening to Podcast Beyond!, the weekly PlayStation podcast put out by IGN, and the hosts mentioned that they were giving away free tickets. To be entered into the drawing you would send them an email and they would select winners from their inbox. I was listening to Podcast Beyond! the day after it went up on IGN, and I decided to send them an email. The thought never occurred to me that I might actually be one of the persons selected. I figured that because it had been a day since they announced the giveaway they were already inundated with emails and probably had even chosen the winners. This was reinforced by a tweet I saw later that day from one of the podcast hosts that he had sent out codes to persons selected in the giveaway.

You can imagine my surprise then, when on the following Monday I got an email from Podcast Beyond! with a code for a free pass to PSX. Maybe they had gotten some more codes from the people at PlayStation since the last podcast, but whatever the case, I was now a winner. At first I was excited. I have never been to any sort of gaming expo but closely followed the coverage of ones like E3, PAX, TGS and Gamescom. Thoughts came rushing through my head of how cool it would be to finally attend a gaming expo and also see Las Vegas while i was at it. Those thoughts were quickly greeted by the realization that PSX was the following weekend and I would have to make a decision very soon on whether or not to go. The next day I sat down with a friend of mine who has been to Las Vegas several times and got his input on traveling there. I looked up airfares and possible lodging online and found that this would not be a cheap foray. Round-trip plane tickets would cost be a bit over $400, even on the low-cost carriers, and combined with lodging and expected expenses for food and cab rides, it would probably cost me about $550 total, maybe more. That Tuesday night I was sitting at my computer, staring at the screen. I was all the way to the page where you enter your credit card info to book my flight and hotel, but I still wasn't sure whether or not to go through with it. There was an internal debating raging inside of me, with one part of me arguing for the coolness of going and another part arguing that the expense was too much. After awhile I decided to go to the gym and sweat it out for a short bit. I find this sometimes helps me get away from the heat of the moment and better process information so that I can make a decision that I can stand by. Over the course of 50 or so minutes, the arguments against going won out. As cool as it would be, the funds that I would spend on the trip could be better applied elsewhere (such as, actually getting a PS4 and some games to go with it). PSX just wasn't worth $550 to me.

On Wednesday I was thinking over what could have been. I knew I had made a good decision, but I was still thinking over what it would have been like to attend PSX. Logging into my email inbox, I printed out my entrance ticket to PSX and made a pledge to myself that I would attend next year's PSX or another gaming expo. In a box in my garage I found an old picture frame and I put my ticket in that frame as a reminder of my pledge. This recent "almost happened" with PSX is catalyzing me to get serious on something I've wanted to do for years now. PSX 2015, here I come.