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VGXPO: The Aftermath
A Recap of the Weekend's Events
by Sarah
Well, VGXPO 2008 has now come and gone. Along with the rest of the Gamervisioneers, I was at the Philadelphia Convention Center from open to close all weekend long. Despite some organization issues, I had a lot of fun, met some cool people, bought a bunch of games, and covered myself (and others) in temporary tattoos. Good times!
Here's a recap of just some of the things that went on in the last three days, as well as the limited amount of pictures I took when I wasn't doing other things, like judging contests or invading Retro Con. Click any image to view it in Expand-O-Scope!
Ah, how peaceful the Gamervision booth looked before the convention center opened all three days. Later, this area would be full of people playing Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe.
On Friday, I tried to get some time in with the coin-op arcade games before things got too nuts. Unfortunately, there was a line for Paperboy at all times, so I had to settle for Pac-man.
Then we went to cheer on Luke, who was in Friday's Madden tournament. After starting about two and a half hours late, the thing finally got underway, and a couple hours later, Luke emerged victorious.
Saturday was the longest day of all, and we spent some of it making new friends. Nikkita in particular was very popular.
While she was rubbing elbows with the likes of Master Chief, Boba Fett, and various Stormtroopers, I was checking out all the old-school gaming booths around the convention hall, as well as the super-cool Retro Con. I managed to control myself and not buy any more consoles (I barely have room for the 11 I already own), but I did pick up a few games on the cheap.
Then Luke and I went to the panel and screening of Fighters High, a series about a group of high school kids who are also kung fu masters.
On Sunday, Luke and special foreign correspondent Sean covered some robots for All Sorts of Sports.
Then it was time for the extremely heated Rock-Paper-Scissors competition, which had many entrants, but only one winner. The crowd gathered for the intense event.
After the contest was over, Luke interviewed the winner and official Gamervision Rock-Paper-Scissors champion.
Following that, Nikkita and I judged an Air Guitar contest, which was much harder than I thought it would be. We picked out some good tunes, and then let the competitors go wild and show off their skills. And skilled they were! I didn't want to pick one winner, but we had to. Still, everyone involved was awesome.
The rest of the day passed by in a blur of face tattoos and giveaways, but we managed to survive the crowds of game-crazed people and made it out alive. Thanks to all the gamers who came by our booth and made VGXPO a fun time, despite what else may have been going on in the convention center.
Got more pictures from the expo? Post them! We'd love to hear more about the times you had.
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Comments
I ended up being bogged with school work. Sigh. How was this years convention in all? Did they have any booths selling new games? Sucks about the cancellations and stuff.
They actually had a lot of 360 games really cheap at Retro Con, some good titles too. My friend got Assassin's Creed for five bucks. Most of the games on sale were much older, though.
Aww fuck I missed Master Chief!!! DAMNIT! I would've asked him to have my children. -____-
I was not impressed with the VGXPO this year. For something called the Video Game Expo, there were a serious lack of video games on display. It's bad when one of the most entertaining booths is labeled "Swords." I stopped by the Gamervision booth a couple of times but there was always a mass of people there, and if there's one thing I hate, it's lines.
We got there around 1:30 and after doing one lap around the convention I turned to my buddy Chris and said, "I am not nearly drunk enough for this right now." We left and went down to the Field House, hung out with the Penn State hooligans, and downed several rounds. Somewhere around 3:30 or 4:00 we decided to head back up and walk around a bit more. Despite the copious amounts of beer, it was still major suckitude. We did a few more laps before stopping at the arcade games. We managed to play a few, including a little co-op Robotron XBLA style (Chris moved, I shot, we still sucked). I've also got a picture of me humping the Tac/Comm cabinet which I'll have to upload and post. I don't think the people next to me were amused.
We made our own fun though. After we got back we hit up old NES games. At 5:30 in the morning we were declared Superspike V'Ball champions and passed out as a victory celebration.
Overall I'd say the VGXPO was disorganized at best. They didn't have signs for anything. There was a marathon signup in the other building, so it was fun watching packs of nerds and athletes cross 12th street because they went in the wrong building.
I agree with you Oni. It was a pretty big let down. I wanted to see more. -__-
There were a buttload of Jedi. I think the booth they had where people play fought with lightsabers was a bit unnecessary.
I wanted to go but couldnt :/
Congrats Luke. Wish i could have been there to get revenge on those 2 games of madden that he beat me in
holy shit...master chief would have owned me -;;
Holy shit Luke's suit rules.
by the way nice beard luke!
the best part of the vgxpo is when we left and went to north bowl to get "saucy"
pitchers of lager FTW!
Is sean really captain nemo