GamerTagged.net :: VGXPO 2009: Overall

VGXPO 2009: Overall

No, it had not been what I had expected. VGXPO was nothing as big or glamorous as the E3 every gamer longs to attend. Yet as I sat on the PATCO speedline heading out of Philadelphia, the train rocking like a roller-coaster over the city lights illuminating the dark of night, I felt a sense of satisfaction. This was swiftly replaced by a deep hunger growing within me. I was given a small taste of the game industry the past two days, but it was like a single Lay’s potato chip. One small taste isn’t enough. I must go out and have more.

I was pretty rough Friday night, disappointed from the small size of the event. The folks running VGXPO have some organizational issues to get down, and in particular should check with nearby conventions such as Otakon to see how they run things. That isn’t to say big conventions always run fine, as Anime Boston 2008 was nicknamed “Line-Con” for a reason. Still, some of the kinks that needed to be worked out should have been taken care of after the first year or two of the show.

Yet VGXPO promises what your typical small convention in something like comics promises. Independent, smaller talent being able to get together, make connections and learn. The panels weren’t just made by fans, but experienced industry professionals with a real passion. Bill Kunkel headed up a few panels such as “Rated M: Crazy Stories from the Video Game Industry” and ran “Mass Media and Video Games” with a few other experienced journalists, including a guy from Joystiq whose name I wasn’t able to catch. Ryan Morrison was able to share how he formed his new studio, Island Officials, and through hard work and spare time between day jobs his team is finally putting out their first game. It gives you a sense of the chops required, but let’s you know the old garage-studio method isn’t dead. Neil Kaplan, an experienced voice actor that’s done many characters you’ve likely known and loved, held a panel titled “Creating Characters for Games and TV”.

This is the sort of event the game industry needs right now, and it certainly needs more of them. Sure, everyone wants to go to E3 and play the latest of the big budget titles, but a small convention like the VGXPO allows the common gamer to gather with like-minded players, get a chance to meet and greet with other gamers, but also to gain exposure to smaller and talented studios looking to do something different. Storm City Games, formed by ex-Destination Software employees, will be putting out a DS title known as System Flaw. This is the first DS title that actually had me physically moving around in reaction to the game. While it may seem gimmicky, it shows a lot of promise to be an incredibly fun shooter implementing the features of the Nintendo DSi. Yet if it weren’t for a small convention as this I would never have heard of the game.

Still, while the event was pretty fun, it feels as if three days is quite a stretch to see everything. Friday was enough to see most of the show floor, despite a lot of guests not even setting up booths until Saturday. Most of the floor space went to retro-shop keepers, allowing a lot of great nostalgia and money-sink for collectors, and an arcade. While playing an actual Virtual On machine is sweet, it isn’t enough to satiate most gamers for an entire weekend. There were plenty of live acts and panels, certainly, but by Sunday most of them were repeats.

Nonetheless, the event was solid. Hopefully VGXPO and GameX can work together to find better schedules, where one occurs in the Spring or Summer and the other in Fall or Winter. Two conventions in a single month is going to wind up forcing most people into choosing one over the other, and as it is no game convention should be wiped out.

There need to be more of these, and people need to attend them in order to give smaller studios a chance as well as hearing some industry professionals that may have been forgotten. After all, the games business seems to be moving in five-year generations just as the consoles, and many influential names are already obscure to new gamers. How many players actually know of Ralph Baer?

Below are a select few of some of the images I captured of the event. If I can figure out a good way for everyone to see all 100+ photos, I’ll let you know. Until then, here are some highlights.