Gamers Came To Party, Perhaps Too Much!
As I’m writing this, I’m way past my deadline. MAGFest 9 has been over for over four days and I am still going through tons of material I recorded. And to make matters worse, I happen to be suffering from one of the side effects, Con Flu. The only day I had off this week and I spent it lying in bed feeling like I’m near death. This is not the way to recover from an event such as MAGFest 9.
Then again, I guess it is my own fault for being sick. After all, I spent each night sleeping in my car. Why did I do this? Considering I didn’t save up enough cash to get a room for three days (which would have cost me over $300,) and many events I attended didn’t finish until 3:30am at the latest, and then had to be back at 9 am the next day, traveling two hours round trip was out of the question.
This is my second year experiencing MAGFest, and after having the time of my life last year with all the events that took place, I was hoping that this year’s experience would live up to the reputation. Did it? For most of the time, yes it did. But there were some issues I had that I hope get resolved for the big 1-0. Let’s start with…
THE GOOD
The Panels! If there is one thing that is a must attend at MAGFest, it’s the amazing panels. Of course we had the big names in the mix such as Jon St. John (who I will get to later) and Wes Johnson (thanks so much for the Caps’ GamerGeeks bumper, by the way.) But even the smaller panels led by some of my favorite online reviewers such as the Channel Awesome staff (another group I will get to later,) the Retroware TV crew (including the Happy Video Game Nerd and Pat the NES Punk,) and even panels about non gaming matters such as pro wrestling (Maffew from Botchamania for instance.) In the end there was plenty to see and do.
JON ST. JOHN!
How could someone who was so awesome last year be even more awesome? Let’s see. Not only did he do a great panel featuring new lines he recorded for Duke Nukem Forever, but he actually spent a lot of time with his fans. He attended a record 31 room parties and was even able to attend a live heckling of Uwe Boll’s Postal. And when I told him that Kelly had to pull me away from the ledge after seeing it the first time his response was "YOU ACTUALLY WATCHED THIS S*** BEFORE AND YOU WERE ABLE TO SEE IT AGAIN?" Needless to say, he attended for the fans, and definitely shows it. Heck, he even had me autograph his iPad!
Gamer Iron Chef.
Unlike last year, I was able to take part in the Gamer Iron Chef competition. Not really as a chef, but more of a videographer, but I was still able to take part in the full experience. And the scary part was, one of the teams made a recipe that was actually quite good. If only I could remember what exactly it was because it was the best thing I ate on day 1. Of course, Jon St. John emceeing the event didn’t hurt either.
The Arcade.
When I arrived for registration, I met up with Sean Fausz from That Guy With The Glasses and he warned me the arcade was larger than last year, and yes of course, there was always the 6-player X-Men on display. Was he ever right! It seemed there were twice as many games as before. Maybe a bit too many, as you will see below.
The Channel Awesome Rock Band 3 Open Stage!
Ok, no brainer time, I LOVE Rock Band 3! But when I get to play it on an open stage with some of my favorite web reviewers and comedians, it was a slice of gaming nirvana. Nothing says epic like hearing The Spoony One try to belt out System of a Down’s Chop Suey and destroying his voice in the process (a fact he later admitted on his Twitter page.) I only played one song (2 Minutes To Midnight,) but the whole event was as much fun to watch as it was to play.
Ok there was more than enough of the good to experience, but sadly there was some of THE BAD that I have to mention as well.
The BAD
Power Issues on Day 1. The opening to MAGFest 9 was hampered with not enough power to handle all the games. Some of the games I really wanted to play (such as Discs of Tron) were not on at all because it would overload the circuits. (Why have it out if we can’t play them?) Even worse, the console room’s opening was delayed a few hours as a result. I do hope this gets resolved next year, as well as…
The slow LAN!
As a member of the press, I needed to find a location to update my status and get my videos uploaded. Good luck doing that. Not only did I have issues trying to upload clips and get them mailed off, but the speeds for just checking my updates was unbearably slow. I was told that the internet was powered by a wireless 3G and 4G modem. Whaaaa? I was hoping for more, and there was no way I’d be paying $10/day for the hotel’s Wi-Fi!
Drunken Debauchery!
Maybe sleeping in my car might have been better after all, because I heard the crowds were pretty raucous in the later parts of the night. And if you all don’t believe me, two words…ELEVATOR PARTY!
The Colossus WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!
Every freaking minute people were yelling like Colossus from the X-Men arcade game. I should have started a MAGFest drinking game where people did shots every time someone did that. I’d be part of the debauchery by the end of day 1!
Don’t get me wrong though, thankfully these issues did not ruin the experience for me. I had an amazing time at MAGFest 9, about as good a time as I did last year, and I’ll definitely be coming back. I just have one recommendation…start it on New Year’s Eve again!
Currently Playing: Nothing. (Still going through all of my photos and videos.)
Waiting For: Dead Space 2 (360.)