Last Sunday, I went to the GX-Con, the first console gaming convention in the country.  The event was organized by GamEX Magazine, from what I gathered is a console gaming magazine.  They were to have game demos for the next generation consoles like Nintendo Wii, Microsoft XBOX 360, and Sony Playstation3.  They also advertised a gaming tournament and cosplay only from their approved list of games.  I was rather excited to go because I was expecting something different.

Anyway, I was there early at around 10 am.  I was alone as everyone I knew who were coming were late.  Good thing I met a friend of mine on the way in.  When we got in, someone gave us this small piece of paper with instructions on how to play the games.  I didn't quite understand the instructions at first as there wasn't any signs to point you in the right direction.

The convention space was small.  In fact, my friend and I circled the place three times in like 30 minutes looking at everything that was available. I cannot begin to emphasize at how small the place was and how little there was too see.  That alone was disappointing. What we found rather odd was that we weren't actually able to identify where the gaming demos were.  I mean if you were just wondering around, you won't notice it unless you were actually looking for them.  Like I said, NO SIGNS.

After awhile, we finally figured out how the gaming demos worked so I registered for free play which was advertised as being five minutes only to find out they changed it to three minutes.  Another Disappointment. How can you effectively gage if a game is good or not, or a console is good or not in just 3 minutes of play.  I can't even finish my business in the CR that fast. And yes, if you were thinking it, that's the word I would like to describe that last minute decision to change the demo time.  Did I fail to mention, that you can only register once?! Yes, once and only once.

Now as we were waiting for the others to arrive, we decided to go outside the convention place to find some seats.  There was nothing much to see except the steady crowd of people starting to come in. 50 percent I thought were cosplayers.  The convention did offer a cosplay.  I just hoped they presented a good cosplay event.

You see, here's the thing that I hate about cosplays here is that there is a growing trend where EVERYONE will cosplay whatever the mainstream series is.  Which annoys me to no end.  At one time almost EVERY cosplayer was cosplaying Naruto.  I like Naruto manga, but you know too much is too much.

So anyway, while we waited, I started to notice 2 more major flaws with the convention.  As the steady increase of people came in to the convention, there was less and less space to move in.  I realised that the booths were arranged in the oddest way where you had the game demo booths at the very center of the convention space occupying near the entrance to near the stage area.  This left the space between the stage area and the booths barely useable.  And because there was these huge game demo booths in the middle, you left the side with rather small passageways for people to go through.  You can't even pass in front of the gaming demo booths because it's completely cornered off and only those who had the game stubs can pass and only so that they can play a game.

So not only was there a rather weird arrangement of booths, you could barely move as more and more people came in.  This became more apparent when the cosplayers started to line up inside the hall waiting to be screened for the competition.  And boy, were there so many cosplayers.  It was cool though, we saw some good ones.  I especially liked the ".hack//G.U." cosplayers (.hack is one of my favorite anime/game/manga/novel franchises ever).  But again, cosplayers + costumes + props + audience = no space to move. 

What irked me though was one of the emcees.  I believe his name was Mao.  He is probably the most obnoxious and most rude emcee I have ever seen and heard.  You see, he was sitting on the edge of the stage. So now he was trying to have the audience move back so that they can have more space for the cosplayers when they model.  The thing is, as he was trying to have the audience move back (which they were doing already), he said in the most sarcastic tone, and I quote "Can the audience move back?  Honestly, wala na kasing space para sa cosplay eh! (Honestly, there is no more space for the cosplayers)".  I'm like, "what the?! How dare he treat the audience like that?" I don't know about you people, but, in my world, if you were to host a convention or an event, you do not treat the audience like that no matter what.  Besides, they were the ones who created the blocking problem by putting the game demo booths right in front of the stage without thinking of the consequence that there won't be space for both the audience and the cosplayers.  But that was there problem

After that line, I couldn't help myself but mock the entire convention from there on, adding the word "Honestly" to everything I said in the most sarcastic tone I could.  And I was making sure I was heard.

Now here's what's stupid.  They said they would start the cosplay at 230pm.  I was looking forward to it because for the most part I was disappointed at how things were going already. Lack of things to see, lack of free stuff, lack of seats, lack of space, lack of games and gaming time were already on my list so I was thinking that this could be the only thing I can look forward to.  Boy, was I wrong.  They didn't start at 230.  They kept saying 5 minutes, until the 5 minutes became 5pm. When they finally started only one cosplay group kept me going and I just lost interest at the rest.  Sad to say I was unimpressed.

Now you must be wondering, what happened to the gaming tournament.  Well that's just it, I was wondering myself.  They barely covered it.  I had not seen it anywhere except when I saw some of the contestants playing it and they were on the side.  They were not even televising it on a video screens unlike when LU LIVE are showing competitions.  There was not even a mention about the ongoing stats of the players during the course of the convention.

In a nutshell, the GX-Con was sorely disappointing.  It lacked almost everything.  It was very disorganized from the layout of their booths, to the program they had (which was barely a program).  It lacked any coordination.  There were no visible signs to help people around the convention area.  It lacked booths and sponsors who were mostly just hobby shops.  For a gaming convention there was a serious lack of actual gameplay seen on stage.  Too much focus again on cosplay. And who can forget, rude emcees. So HONESTLY, it could have been done better.

I guess I am just lucky that I belonged to a generation that remembers C3 Con and probably has put that as a benchmark on what conventions should at least be or come close to.  In my opinion, no one has met that mark or even come close to it.

Time for me to sign off.  Ja~!