MAGFest X, Wedoca pic's and comments

[Majors]

Main album:
http://wedoca.dyndns.biz/gallery/index. ... lbum&id=17

I'm no artist or photo-phile, so all pic's are just snaps I made all weekend, mostly while I was drunk.

Highlights:










We had over 120 cabs and massive console room. Dealers room, board games and LAN area were all in the same expo hall, but seperated by an airwall. I know there was over 6000 attendees (double last year) but with the size of the new location, it was not crowded at all. Saying that, I did walk a lot since hotel room, smoking area, game room whre spread out. MAG runs 24 hours so I was up to 4-5a every night, three cases of beer helped me out with that!

I want to get any RBers that attended reviews of MAG- good, bad or smelly. Since I'm staff, I have a view from the other side.

[gradualmeltdown]

24 hours? That is just....amazing.

Every other gaming con or tourney I've ever gone to had strict opening and closing hours. Pax, EVO, CAX, PGRE (Portland Retro Gaming Expo). I always thought that most of the demographic including me was just getting into a gaming groove as the shows closed up. I mean bar hopping and hotel room madness can be fun, but the point of these events is to bring everyone together to play not to separate up after midnight.

[Jamisonia]

My opinion was it wasn't as good. I know the Mark Center in Alexandria sold out last year, but whoever though of moving it to the Gaylord was nuts. National Harbor is not a very good environment for that sort of convention. Too expensive.

[Strider77]

Of course I was the star of the show with all my cave PCBs and my mad Daytona USA 2 skills. Well maybe in my dreams.

[dogman91]

I thought it was way better than last year considering they had more arcade cabinets this time around and a lot more open space to move around in (not even mentioning the awesome panels). Yes it was very expensive though!

[Majors]

I know the Mark Center in Alexandria sold out last year, but whoever though of moving it to the Gaylord was nuts. National Harbor is not a very good environment for that sort of convention. Too expensive.

Subway and Baja were hit hard by the attendees, since everything else in walking distance was a$$ expensive. I heard hotel rooms were almost a grand for five days(full wknd) but for the record, the room rate that MAG got was the lowest that the Gaylord has every done for any convention. I wonder what the Marriot and Hampton Inn across the street where going for?

Contract is signed for Gaylord next year, just plan ahead. Knowing is half the battle!

[Jamisonia]

Having extra space was awesome, but I don't think there were more arcade cabs, in fact there were some that I think were missing from last year. The console room definitely had less games. The only area I really saw they utilized the extra space was tabletop and vendors. I guess the vendor thing makes sense. More money.

The fact they chose to do it in national harbor was nuts. That area is expensive just to be expensive. Thats the only reason. There's nothing that attracts people there, other than its ritzy, or at least ritzy for PG county, which isn't saying much. They just decided to build some hotels, and some expensive restaurants just to do so. Its can't attract DC visitors, cause the visitors of the means to stay at the Gaylord could stay in nicer hotels in the city, in the nice parts, instead of PG County, which is by all accounts not the best place in the world.

[heatherina]

Contract is signed for Gaylord next year, just plan ahead.

When did you sign the contract? Just curious, I'm a meeting planner and I'm always afraid that our groups are going to have us kicked out for being to "lively" after this at the Gaylord, I'm no longer scared of that.

The main thing that I find frustrating is that it doesn't seem like things are well planned out...more like they just happen. For instance, the online program said that it wasn't final, even during MAGfest...seems strange to me.

Also, I wish that you all would set up kiosks somewhere near the main room where people can buy sandwiches/chips/food in general even if its boxed lunches or something similar. It's really frustrating to have to go out and search for food, especially when you are super hungry but are in the middle of something.

[Hobie-wan]

Also, I wish that you all would set up kiosks somewhere near the main room where people can buy sandwiches/chips/food in general even if its boxed lunches or something similar. It's really frustrating to have to go out and search for food, especially when you are super hungry but are in the middle of something.

Unfortunately I think that requires a food license. That's why convention centers usually get away with screwing attendees with crappy $7 hamburgers and $3 drinks.

[Majors]

When did you sign the contract?

"You" in the plural. I did not sign anything, MAGFest has signed a contract. It was announced that they would be back next year at the Gay during the con (Jan 3-6. 2013).

The main thing that I find frustrating is that it doesn't seem like things are well planned out...more like they just happen.

Frist MAGFest? Nothing new there...remember this is by gamers for gamers, nothing professional here. I know the main staff are looking at all the comments (there is a 8+ page google doc for gripes). All Wedoca does for the event is bring WORKING arcade cabs. And we did that...well, that and drank 3 cases of beer and a gallon of vodka.

Did you have fun though? Panels, concerts, games? Find any goodies in the dealers room? My buddy picked up a PC-FX and a few games from Mad-gear. I was much less ambitious, and only got a couple of pads I needed and Time Soldiers for SMS.

I knew it was gonna be hell-of-expensive, so my crew and I brought food stuffs with us. We still needed to hit Subway once or twice, but it saved us a few bucks. I like how the Starbucks self-serve coffee units all over the convention took credit cards >sheesh!<...I'm totally bringing a REAL coffee maker next year!