Magfest

[Dracos]

I've been lured to magfest to hang out with some old friends.  I'll be there for a couple days of the con if anyone else is in the area.

I'll probably try and beat everyone at smash brawl, because hey, that's what I do.  It won't go that well.

[Merc]

Speaking of luring you to hanging out with old friends...

You should start planning for Soulriders Gathering 2013!

We survive the apocalypse, so plan for a different celebration! =p

[Jason_Miao]

I've been lured to magfest to hang out with some old friends.  I'll be there for a couple days of the con if anyone else is in the area.

The convention at National Harbor?  I live moderately close to that area.  I wasn't going to go initially since most of my friends are out of town (and we LAN sometimes anyway), but if you or other soulriders people are there, I might go just to hang out.

[Dracos]

Yes, that's the one.  Well, if you're around, swing by.  Let's have a hangout.

Merc: Noted :)

[Dracos]

Well, heading there shortly.

I promise I won't raze washingdon down. :3

[Dracos]

I only may not.  No promises.  There now.

[Dracos]

So I caught up with Miao and another friend Deter which rocked.  Feel I should talk a bit about the con for reference sake.

Magfest is kind of a crummy con.  Despite being around for 11 years, it just didn't give the feel of a con with it's act together.  The convention center might've been amazing, but so very much of it was empty of things going on.  Entire blocks of hours where panel rooms sat empty.  And worse, it pitched itself as a 24 hour con, so a lot of things would get scheduled past midnight.  Not something to mind except when you look at 7 pm and see the only thing going on is a concert and every other room is empty.  They'd also have unlisted events that 'happened every year'.  Well, fuck, if you can't be bothered to coordinate together and list what events are going on, then what are you scheduling anyway?  I have no idea how many of these there were, as I just caught one (A big organized nerf gun play zone).

The con's guests for the most part were folks that I would call "Internet Nobodies" and their fans.  There were literally big lines for people who's claim to fame was they animated their own game reviews or jokes on youtube.  I wouldn't normally raise an eyebrow at this, but they were almost the height of con events.  Just an extreme lack of actual famous individuals.  Despite this and the significant empty chunks, the con had few if any repeat events.  Basically, the height of 'guests' were like 3 musicians from game dev, The Megas, and then you had stuff like Egoraptor or Channel Awesome.

Usually a lot of con's events are driven by real nobodies, but these when they happened were generally scheduled in the 1-4 am block.  Man, got to feel pity for someone that sets up a presentation and gets told they're giving it 3 am to 4 am on friday night.

I'm not sure they had a cosplay contest.  I don't think they did, despite a lot of decent cosplayers.  I'm not used to seeing that so...wasted.  The only thing that might've been a cosplay contest was again a 12 am block.  Of course, who is gonna go see the cool costumes and shows that people put together if it's starting at midnight.

A lot of the concerts were video game music folks that were talented musicians but didn't have a clue about live performances beyond flashing a lot of lights around.  Lack of movement, lack of talking.  But really, they had no chance anyway as the crowd was the most dead crowd I've ever participated in.  Literally eighty percent of the crowd at any time was just standing put and staring.  Even when folks got up that I could say categorically did put on a good show with nice pacing and motion, that was the best the crowd would give them.  Shame really.

What was good about it?  They had a pretty decent freeplay arcade, largely covering from late 70s to early 90s.  Lots of systems dying during it though.  They had lots of space that they did set up for lan parties and consoles, but lacked good controllers/tvs even for the competition areas.  As I mentioned earlier, the actual convention space was lovely, even if it really was only one day that they had enough people there for it to matter.

I had a fair bit of fun playing brawl.  Didn't actually compete as I ran into enough people that could beat me on the early days (But at least the vast majority couldn't :P).  My zelda was declared op several times, to my amusement.  Went around and did a few arcade cabinent plays.  Just shy of beating Lunar cart game on my first time ever playing it.  My mind is saying lunar lander, but that's not right at all.

Basically though, I can't really recommend this as a con to go and stay at.  To drop by perhaps with some friends on a day pass maybe, but not really to stay at.  But take it with a grain of salt, as I am pretty cheap normally and don't find cons a good money to time investment.

[Grahf]

As much as I like Egoraptor, if he's one of the headliners to a con then, ouch, you needed to get more famous people.

[Dracos]

Yeah.  I mean, I kind of feel like I'm looking down my nose at it but really...  I don't think these people are headliners at all.

[Jason_Miao]

I went during Friday afternoon.

The best part of that con was Dracos.

The second best part of that con was that it was close to a bar/restaurant that gave a hell of alot of loaded fries if you ordered an appetizer.  That way, you didn't need to actually get stuck at the con.

I feel sorry that most people don't know Dracos, so were stuck with the second and various third-rate benefits of attending.



Okay, the pinball machine was kind of fun.  Loved playing those as a kid (even if I sucked), so that was nice.  The pickup Smash Bros. part might also have been fun if the machine hadn't suddenly died in the middle of the game.