I go to a video game expo to play video games (retro and new) and to see what new hardware/software is coming out.
The retro arcade area was a joke this year, the small amount of machines which were there, most were either not turned on or had broken controllers. This year there was NO PC gaming, not a single PS3 that I can remember. They had a few XBOX 360 systems running Call of Duty 4, but they were tied up for the contest. Every time we saw an open machine we were immediatly chased away by a VGXPO rep.
I would have had more fun staying at home playing on my Atari PONG machine. The only good parts of the show was the Nintendo Booth and the excellent retro hardware vendors that they had this year.

Next year I will spend the money for the show $29.00, $22.00 hotdog lunch, and $24.00 parking to buy an new game for one of my systems.

I hope that GameX is alot better next week.

I have no idea if there were money issues, but I heard that Ed had a falling out with one of his partners, whom in turn, created GameX which took NBC as well as most of the big exhibitors. THat was the downfall of VGXPO. I also agree that Ed is an idiot and has no clue about how to run a Video game expo.

Meanwhile, I have my reservations and my tickets for GameX and I am looking forward to next weekend.

My understanding is NBC dumped VGXpo after Ed defaulted on money owed and stuff. Then NBC formed a partnership with the folks behind GameX . What a stupid bastard for f*ing up that relationship. Now he’s been saying everywhere GameX stole the NBC relationship! What an idiot.

The wrist bands for a weekend attendee were a joke.

It took all of 15 minutes to see everything there was in the exhibitor hall. The biggest thing there as the headline exhibitor was the Wii booth…are you kidding me?

There was nothing for the “hardcore gamer”, nothing for the PC crowd, barley anything for the other platforms, no big tournaments and no demos of new games to try.

Fail, Fail and more FAIL!

I won’t be going back. They should just shoot VGXPO and put it out of its misery.

I heard about GameX from someone there (the only good thing about the trip) and the first thing I did when I got home was make resrvations and buy ticktes for that. It looks ike it will be everthing VGXPO couldn’t be.

And I’ve been going to Otakon since 2001. I can’t believe they tried to dupe you guys by telling you this con would be as big. What a joke.

When we arrived at the convention center Friday morning to set up, there were no maps, signs, or lists indicating where we should set up (eventually Paul Truitt, the guy who actually runs Game Core, was able to help us find it). Workers didn’t seem to even know whether or not there WERE exhibitor badges, much less where to send us to get them or where they were located. After waiting about 20 minutes for bewildered volunteers to track them down via some dynamic walky-talky work, I was eventually handed one wristband and a piece of notebook paper to write my company name and to sign. So, obviously not working off of an official list. I informed them that I had paid for 4 badges total, but I could have said 400 and they would have had no way to verify it (which was confirmed by the fact that Ed Flemming later approached our booth and tried to hand us more wristbands, asking how many we had ended up paying for).

After setting up, we checked into our room at the Marriott. This was the hotel with a convenient walkway connecting to the convention center feet away from Hall A and that offered a convention rate for the weekend. Returning to the convention via the walkway, we were turned away. Guards stated that VGXPO had requested that attendants only be allowed access via one particular entrance, which Marriott guests could only access by leaving the building, walking a block and a half, re-entering the convention center (where access to the closest escalators was also blocked), and then going back up to the second level.

So clearly the con is not organized, and you’ve already covered the fact that obviously 25,000 people were not in attendance. The last straw for us was Saturday night. The floor closed to the public at 9:00pm. By 9:15, a staff member (who I believe was named Scott) was circling our table yelling at us for still being there packing up our wares, saying things like “I have a life. Let me get back to it!” and something along the lines of “It’s 9:17, you should have been out of here 17 minutes ago.” Eventually I responded that, yes, the floor closed to the PUBLIC at 9:00 and since then we had been packing up and it was not an instant process. To that he said, “That’s not my problem. You’re still here. THAT’s my problem.” He continued to circle us until we finished packing up and then followed closely behind us as we exited.

We ranted angrily about this on our way to the hotel (which would could use the walkway to EXIT the convention and return to), and in the elevator a nice man named Darell asked, “Who said those things? I’m a VGXPO staff member.” We told him that we thought the man was named Scott, and Darell told us that Scott is second in command (so quite a bit above Darell) but that he would say something to make sure we had more time in the future.

He soothed our nerves a little, enough to prevent us from making a fuss. But the lack of organization, the promises of a large con but delivery of a small con, and the scathing disrespect from the con staff will keep us from attending future VGXPO events.