Play Expo Manchester 2012 – Report

Play Expo Manchester 2012 – Report

It’s not often that anything exciting happens up north, so when it was announced that Play Expo was coming to Manchester, MS and I were most excited. On paper, at least, Play Expo sounded intriguing enough for us to fork out £13.20 (each) for a day pass. We both had our own ideas of what we’d like to see at Play Expo, but neither of us had particularly high expectations for the event. We decided that to make our trip worthwhile (in case the event was rubbish), we ought to report on our experiences for the benefit of future attendees. After all, how will people know whether or not they should attend Play Expo 2013 (if there is one), if there isn’t a no-nonsense review to guide them?

For the sake of simplicity, I’m going to break down this review into the four separate event categories: now.play, pro.play. re.play and cos.play. Anything that’s not covered in any of these four these sections will be discussed under the heading of misc.play. Just to be clear as to what these headings actually mean, here’s Play.Expo’s official explanation:

now.play has a large emphasis on new and upcoming games, hardware and accessory releases, for the latest consoles and PC.  pro.play is an eSports event featuring [big-money!] competitive gaming tournaments whilst re.play will feature freeplay arcade & pinball machines, retro consoles and vintage computers. Finally, cos.play will include costume competitions, talks, DDR, Artists and Anime traders.

Now.Play

Inside the Event City warehouse (where the Expo was held), there were all kinds of videogame publisher’s booths scattered about the place. At the time of the Expo, the Wii U had yet to be released, so unsurprisingly Nintendo’s booth proved to be the most popular. It was so popular, in fact, that people were willing to stand in line for a chance to see (and play) Nintendo’s latest videogame hardware. Naturally, MS and I couldn’t be bothered queuing, so we decided to play Mario Kart on the SNES instead. If you were willing to wait in the queue, your patience would be rewarded with the opportunity to play the Wii U before anyone else. In my pre-attendance news article, I suggested that it would be great if we were given the opportunity to talk about the product (and/or the games) with the people who developed them. Unfortunately, Nintendo was represented by their UK sales and marketing team, so any information you’d receive about the product would have been in the form of a slick sales pitch.

 Above: Lucky girl

As well as Nintendo, there were other publishers/developers who’d sent teams of marketing types to represent their company. EA’s presence was certainly made clear with their two giant marketing booths – one advertising FIFA (unsurprisingly) and the other, the (then) new Need For Speed game. Gamers, of course, avoided EA’s booths like the plague, as many believe the company – through their alleged unsavoury business practices – is responsible for fucking up some of the best videogame franchises in history. Put it this way, there weren’t many Bullfrog, Maxis and Westwood fans flocking towards those booths. I’m not going to say any more about EA (because I don’t want to be sued), but there are many, many good reasons why Electronic Arts was voted 2012’s Worst Company in America by The Consumerist readers.

If you came to Play.Expo specifically to sample upcoming releases, then there were indeed opportunities to do just this. It was possible to sample games such as Ni No Kuni and X-Com: Enemy Unknown if you were interested in that sort of thing.  I can’t say I was all that fussed about sampling upcoming releases, so I didn’t really pay that much attention to this area of the expedition. Now.play, however, seemed popular enough with the other attendees.

Pro.play

In my pre-attendance news article, I made a list of things that I didn’t want to see at Play.Expo. Here’s a sample of that list:

• A room filled with Xbox 360s hosting a Call of Duty competition.
• A room filled with PS3s hosting a FIFA 2012 competition.

“A room filled with Xbox 360s hosting a Call of Duty competition” would be an understatement: there was an entire warehouse devoted to this nonsense, complete with a team of commentators and cinema-sized projection screen to replay the highlights. There were bays of Xbox 360s in which ‘clans’ would crowd around and take it in turns to (virtually) shoot their rivals. Interestingly, every single competitor was a male aged 16 – 30, which begs the question, why aren’t females participants in this (rather unhealthy) gaming culture?

It’s not just physically-unhealthy, sat down, staring at a screen intensely and downing energy drink after energy drink, it’s also socially-unhealthy. If a competitor ‘fragged’ someone, they’d get up and shout ‘in your face’ or some other equally as obnoxious and uncouth Americanised phrase. If someone did that to me during a game of chess, for example, I’d probably punch them in the face. These young males have spent so many hours chatting gaming nonsense through their headsets that they can no longer communicate with people in a civilised manner. They’ve adopted this aggressive form of online communication as a means of socially-interacting with the outside world, which to me seems rather dangerous. Sooner or later, someone’s bound to take offence at their blatant disregard for Grice’s Maxim of ‘manner’.

I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve never quite understood the appeal of Call of Duty. At some point in the franchise’s history, COD was a historical FPS which portrayed warfare in a realistic manner. However, nobody plays this game for its setting… or its plot… or um, it’s character development, they play it to shoot strangers online. Before Black Ops 2 was released, I had a chat with a couple of fans who had the game on pre-order. I asked what they thought of the single player campaign, to which they replied, “I only play it online; I just wanna shoot people on Xbox Live.” I’ll admit, the few people I spoke to were rather chavvy-looking, but these comments seemed to represent the shared mentality of the COD fan. They’re not gamers; they’re complete fucking wankers. If they really want to fire a gun at strangers, they ought to consider joining the army.

It’s a shame that Play.Expo devoted so much time and space to this ugly gaming culture, but if they’re going to appeal to a mass market, they need to cater for these people. There were some competitive events which were aimed at normal people. The Super Mario Kart time-attack challenge was one such event:

Above: That guy in the red hooded top… if Grumpy Cat were a gamer…

The challenge was to beat Sami Cetin’s (world record holder) time trial score on the first course of the Mushroom Cup. At 50p a play, the purpose of the event (aside from having fun) was to raise money for the Ludus Magnus charity. Unlike the COD competitions, this event highlighted how gaming can have a positive impact in society. Unsurprisingly, the Mario Kart competitors were a lot less obnoxious and socially-inept than the COD freaks.

Aside from the Mario Kart challenge, there were other competitions aimed at traditional gamers, such as Street Fighter II tournament, however, neither of these events benefited from the same floor space/resources as the headline pro.play tournaments.

Re.Play

Re.play, arguably the most enjoyable part of the Expo, gave attendees access to freeplay arcade & pinball machines, retro consoles and vintage computers. There were rows and rows of retro videogames machines hooked up to 14” CRT televisions:

Above: The Joker appeared to be playing Batman Begins on the Gamecube.

Obviously, there were plenty of the more popular consoles such as the SNES, Mega Drive and N64, but it was nice to see some of the more unusual systems such as the Turbo Graffix and the er, MGT SAM Coupé (whatever that is).  Attendees tended to flock towards the more popular consoles, however, particularly the Super Nintendos playing Street Fighter and Mario Kart. I can’t blame them, of course, this was a rare opportunity to play these classics on the original, non-emulated system. During peak times, there were queues to play these more popular games, which forced people onto the lesser-known systems. This was probably a good thing, as whilst both MS and I have access to a Super Nintendo and Mario Kart at our homes, neither of us owns a Goldstar FC-200 MSX.

Above: Amiga Vs. Atari – I was always an Atari man myself

As well as home videogames systems, there were also arcade and pinball machines. Admittedly, I’m not much of a fan of pinball, so I’ll just relay my observations. There were well over 50 pinball machines, which were all occupied for pretty much most of the day. As well as competitions to win cash prizes, this was also an opportunity for pinball enthusiasts to purchase spare parts for their machines from the Pinball Daze stand. It was unsurprising to see that this area of the Expo was so popular; with so few amusement arcades nowadays, it begs the question, where exactly do people go to play pinball?

Above: It’s not every day you see Guile drinking a pint of lager

Of course, the same question can apply to the videogame arcade machines, too. In my youth, going to the arcades to play videogames was one of my favourite pastimes. Beat-em-ups such as Final Fight and Killer Instinct were the machines I clocked up the most time on. When virtually all the arcades closed down in my town, it was a sad day indeed. Yes, we can play far superior games are our Xboxes at home, but there’s something to be said for playing these charming titles in an arcade environment, stood in front of a big, black cabinet. It’s not an experience which can be (easily) emulated at home. Moreover, in an arcade environment, you can physically interact with people (rather than virtually through Xbox Live), and challenge them to a game of something. It’s poignant to consider how few modern gamers will ever experience the pleasures of arcade gaming.

Back to the Expo… the arcade section was to some extent, a disappointment. Many of the arcade machines which should have been set up for multiplayer, i.e. Sega Rally, were set up in single-player cabinets. To make matters worse, the multiplayer games in the multiplayer cabinets (such as Killer Instinct) weren’t in full-working order. This meant that if you wanted to have a two player game of Killer Instinct, your opponent would have to play without half his/her controls working. This really annoyed me, as these machines should have been in full-working order before they were put out on the floor. Yes, they were ‘free play’, so I shouldn’t be complaining, but at the end of the day, I paid good money to attend this Expo, and part of my ticket cost has paid for the use of these machines.

Above: Arguably the best arcade machine at the Expo… shame it didn’t work properly.

Overall, the re.play segment of the Expo was a good laugh. MS and I probably spent the vast majority of our time at the Expo playing these gems from the past. Had the arcade machines all functioned properly (and that includes being set up for multiplayer gaming), re.play would have been worth the ticket price alone.

 

Cos.Play

Let me start this section by saying that prior to this event, I have never actually met a cosplayer, let alone sat in the audience of a cosplay competition. This means that I’m perhaps not the best person to judge this section of Play.Expo, so apologies if my understanding is somewhat erroneous. From what I can tell, cosplayers invest a huge amount of their free time creating replica costumes of their favourite videogame or anime character. Part of the skill is to reproduce the costume as accurately as possible. However, dressing up is not the only aspect of cosplaying. When on stage, they must also ‘play’ (hence the term cosplay) or act out the part of the character they’re trying to replicate. So, for example, if they’re dressed up as Gordon Freeman from the Half Life series of games, I would imagine that they’re not allowed to talk. Again, as well as being judged on their outfits, cosplayers are also judged by how well they act out their characters. Whilst I can’t quite understand the appeal of this unusual pastime, there’s no denying that the cosplayers themselves appear to really enjoy what they do.

The event itself was broken up into 3 parts. To start with, a seasoned-pro gave the audience an introduction to ‘cosplay’, discussing what it is, and what one needs to do in order to get involved in the culture. Following on from that, there were live demonstrations on how to apply ‘anime’ style make-up and things. At this stage in the event, MS and I had temporarily disappeared, as the demonstrations became rather tedious. When we returned, the main event was about to begin – the cosplay competition. As you’d expect in such a competition, there were lots of ‘neckbeards’ with high-powered digital SLR cameras, stood as close to the stage as humanly possible. The cynic in me would say that they were only there to take photos of scantily-clad young girls, but I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. They were probably just cosplay enthusiasts, who document these events in the same way that MS and I document our gaming experiences.

The competition was judged by 3 cosplaying experts, and there were roughly 30 (mainly female) participants. From what I could gather, they were being judged on the accuracy/craftsmanship of their costume, as well as their character performance. I wasn’t that arsed about character performance, I just wanted to see to scantily-clad ladies. Ahem. Anyway, as the cosplayers walked on stage, appropriate music for their character played through the rather loud sound system. It was quite well-organised to a point, but every now and then, there were a couple of fuck-ups regarding the correct music tracks. There’s not really much else to say about the cos.play event, other than despite the fact I’m not the least bit interested in cosplay, I actually had a good laugh watching them all arse about on stage. Anyway, here’s a picture gallery of some of the most interesting cosplayers at Play.Expo:

Above: She was the seasoned-pro who gave the cosplay lectures.

 

 Above: It’s Princess Zelda, of course. She appeared to be pointing at everyone, for some reason. Still, she looked the part.

Above: Oh my, someone’s ripped the poor girl’s jeans. She seemed to know how to work the stage, though.

 

Above: This man looked like he was dressed for the pub. I assume he was drunk when he got on stage, as he had absolutely nothing to do with the competition.

 

Above: Another Princess Zelda, and this time she’s brought Link along. They seemed to know what they were doing.

Above: It’s the Joker, and he looked pretty convincing.

Above: He certainly acted the part, but I can’t say he looked particularly convincing.

Above: She looked good from all angles, even if I had no idea who she was supposed to be dressed as. She must have been bloody cold, though, considering the outdoor temperature that day was around 5 degrees Celsius.

Above: Judging by all those belt buckles, I’m guessing she was dressed as a Final Fantasy character.

Above: Ah yes, arguably the most hated Internet culture of all, the furries. I’m not sure if it was a he or a she under that fursuit, as I don’t think it was ever taken off.

Above: Bloody hell, that’s a costume and a half. I’m pretty sure he actually won the overall competition. 10/10 for effort.

Above: Er, probably not the outfit for her body shape.

Above: Ah yes, she was by far the best cosplayer in my opinion.

Above: She got a lot of dirty looks from her fellow female cosplayers…

Above: … and an awful lot of photographs from the (mainly) male audience.

Above: At last, I think I finally understand the appeal of cosplay.

 

Misc.Play

One thing I always look forward to at expeditions is picking up a rare souvenir or momentum. There were a number of stalls selling videogame-related artefacts, ranging from retro games and systems to t-shirts and plush toys. The merchants selling actual games and systems had a good range of products, but were selling them at a premium. Put it this way, they knew what their stock was worth, so there was no chance of getting a bargain from them.

Above: £80 for a Mega Drive? No thanks.

I’d rather it was more like a car boot sale, where people sell items based on how much they want for them, rather than what they think they’re worth. There seems to be this shared mentality amongst certain videogame merchants that if a product is old and boxed, it must be worth a lot of money. This just isn’t true. The Sega Mega Drive, for example, does not hold the same cultural or aesthetic value as the Super Nintendo. But to get back to the Expo, the videogames stalls were disappointing simply because they didn’t offer anything cheaper or more unique than what’s available on eBay.

Whilst the videogame stalls weren’t brilliant, the related-merchandise stands were a lot better. Their prices were realistic and their range of items was decent. For example, there were people selling their own videogame fan art and other related homemade crafts. A lot of this stuff had sold out on the Saturday, but there was still plenty leftover for Sunday attendees. Admittedly, these merchants are entering into the realms of copyright infringement. The legalities of selling drawings based on copyrighted videogame art are somewhat questionable. Personally, if their work is original, using unique character poses etc., then they deserve to make money from their hard work. If, however, they’ve just traced an existing pose, then I don’t believe they should be allowed to profit from their efforts.

Above: Okay, technically I was photographing the t-shirt stand… ‘Babydoll’ just happened to be stood in front of it…

Both MS and I had specific items in mind that we had hoped to pick up at the Expo. MS wanted a decent mug, presumably with a retro Nintendo design. I was happy to settle for a decent t-shirt or vinyl statue. Unfortunately, neither of us found what we wanted. Nintendo, for example, had their marketing booth, but for whatever reason they weren’t selling any merchandise from it. Just think how many people would have loved an officially licensed Nintendo mug or t-shirt from the Nintendo stall. This was a wasted opportunity, because people like me will throw good money at anything with the official Nintendo licence stamped on it.

Finally, it’s worth briefly discussing some of the facilities Play.Expo had on offer. If you needed to empty your bladder, there were plenty of toilets situated in a convenient locations. If you wanted to fill your bladder, there was a stall to buy food and drink. The food wasn’t brilliant: it was the typical junk food you’d associate with a gamer’s diet, served from what looked like a glorified burger van. If you didn’t fancy anything from the burger van, The Trafford Centre was just across the road with its HUGE food court, as well as an ASDA hypermarket. Because everywhere was heaving in the Trafford Centre, MS and I (regrettably) elected to eat at ASDA. If I ever visit again, I’ll probably just bring my own food.

Above: Bronies…

Conclusion

The underlying concept of Play.Expo is sound. If there’s one thing the North West needs, it’s an annual expedition devoted solely to the pleasures associated with videogames. The basic foundations are in place for future expeditions; but this is not to say they don’t need building upon. The pro.play section, for example, needs to cater for a wider demographic. Unless you’re a socially-inept male aged 16 – 26, you’re not going to want to partake in a COD competition. There should have also been pro.play arcade challenges, for example. The re.play section for me was the highlight, but as mentioned in the report, the arcade machines weren’t in full-working order, and there weren’t enough multiplayer racers.

Despite all these problems, I did enjoy myself. If I was asked if I’d go again, I’d probably say yes. Like I said, Play.Expo is fundamentally a great idea – I just hope all the niggling flaws are ironed out before my next attendance.

Score: 7/10

RH