Hello everyone, after my enjoyable time at GAMCON, I had very strong thoughts about it. So, being a writer, I decided to write a review. It gives a perspective from an attendee and I hope it helps plan for a bright future, AKA the inevitable GAMCON 2015! =D --- I first want to say that I am a seasoned convention attendee. I have been going to conventions for over 12 years, and they have ranged from the small (Aki Con and Emerald City Comic Con in their early years) to large ones like Sakura Con and San Diego Comic Con. I generally attend anime-themed conventions, so my bias may show a little. It is true that I have been spoiled in a way to expect certain things from conventions, but at the same time, am welcoming of new experiences. Saturdays GAMCON (as I only attended one day) for me was definitely a new experience. This doesnt mean it was good or bad, and I do want to say I enjoyed the day I spent amongst fellow nerds, but I also want to point out some positives and negatives I ran into during my first visit to Bremerton. Something I noticed about GAMCON that surprised me was the maturity of it all. Me, being at the age of 24, usually feels old at most anime conventions where the younger crowd generally dominates. (My looks may fool most, but in the end, I know I cant change my years!) While at this convention I felt like I was in a mixture of ages, and I was smack dab in the middle. My brother (who came with me to GAMCON) also felt young amongst GAMCON attendees at the age of 20. During panels people often disclosed their ages, and to my surprise were generally around my age or older. This made me feel very welcome to this particular convention. I breathed a sigh of relief as I realized it was okay to be what Im into even after my teen years/early twenties (as I wasnt going to change, thats for sure). Similarly, I was happy to find that this con encompassed lots of subjects. While I love anime/manga/video games, I also am a fan of Doctor Who, Star Trek and other titles. Being an older crowd, there were people around me that had, dare I say, more aged tastes, such as The Twilight Zone, the episodes of Doctor Who before the 9th Doctor, and Star Trek The Original Series. As another positive, the panel guests were amazing! (Seriously, how do you find these guys?!) I attended the Stand Up Comedy, Late Night Gaming, and Digital Vaudeville panels. I was almost on the floor laughing for the first two and very engaged in the last. I was also impressed at the amount of bands this con had to offer. Three bands for a first con is fantastic! But for the convention being named GAMCON, it had a severe lack of video games. As a gamer myself, I thought this con was going to have a dedicated room to freeplay games, maybe have some tournaments. Thats what conventions featuring video games generally had at minimum. I was shocked to find that the only games were FPS, a genre I dont generally play, and were somehow hardwired onto a truck (which was actually pretty cool). For me, it was a statement that all gaming encompassed was Halo and Call of Duty. I would have liked to see some fighting, racing and puzzle games. Speaking of games, I found it to be a mistake to not include trading card games like Magic, Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokemon. When I checked out the gaming room, I didnt find anyone playing these games, nor did I see any pre-made decks or whatnot in the game collection for fans to spar with. As someone who is invested in TCGs and didnt know the tabletop games provided, this was unsatisfying. My brother brought his best Magic deck and some tradeables, but was disappointed to find no use for them at the convention. Still talking about gaming, while this was mostly because of my own experiences, I generally think of video games as gaming, so I had completely forgotten that it included tabletops and LARPing too...even though I play them myself! So I was very surprised to find the panels I went to relating mostly to the latter. It reminded me of old memories, thats for sure. (Ive been in a couple D&D campaigns and I used to LARP Garou and Changelings.) I didnt know so many people in the Bremerton area enjoyed tabletops and LARP. As a participant of the cosplay contest, I understand the disorganization that went on (as it was originally supposed to be held outside and the rain hated us). I do not know how I would have improved the situation at the time, to be honest. But I think for next year it should have its own room, large enough to have crowds of photographers and make the cosplayers feel comfortable without blocking the pathway for those not participating. As a person with a giant rocket launcher, I was pushed into a corner until called, since the participants were all squished toward some tables near the entrance. (I was a little concerned for my prop, to be honest, as people kept bumping into me.) Washingtons weather can be very moody, so I think playing chance with it isnt the best idea, and should be avoided when possible. Switching over to the dealers hall, while it was a good size for a first con, there was a booth in particular that I would like to address. Because of my own personal bias, I was sad that there were only two anime-themed booths, but thats okay since Im biased. What really bothered me the most was that the far anime booth (near the older games booth) was selling bootlegged items, AKA fakes. I found this to be infuriating. I am a collector, most notably of PVC figures, and from far away had thought I found one I had been searching for. When I picked up the box, I noticed it was faded on all sides; that was my first warning. But the second I took a look at the distorted face and messy paintjob, I knew I was holding something terrible. I peeked over at the other merchandise and I could tell that most of it (but not all of it, just to cover my bases) was fake. Theres nothing more enraging to a collector then to see attendees carrying bags of these copies, and I did see that during the day. In closing, I want GAMCON to flourish. I understand that it is a new con, and I understand it is difficult to found a new con. I only hope that the founders of GAMCON will read my review and take it to heart, as I think it could help next years con. Im very happy that whomever got the idea to start GAMCON went through with it, because with it came opportunities for those with like interests to meet and connect with each other. Thank you for reading.
Posted on: Mon, 07 Jul 2014 06:19:11 +0000
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