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What a fuckin waiste of SPACE. I cant believe how lame a convention that was.

• None of the booths were happy to be there, sulking behind their tables…
• The dude from Clerks was a fuckin ass, $20 for a signed photo, I asked how much for a photo with my wife, he said he isnt feeling photogrentic today. 
• Local merchants and vendors (people who got in free) were competing in events for gamers, and winning. Bawls chug off, rockband comp.
• The PMS girls as always think they are hot shit, have no stage presence and have no idea how to work a Mic.
• Vendors didnt have time to explain their games, even though thats why they were there.

Only booth i had fun at was the Bawls booth, and thats because i work for them and know a few of them.Enjoyed the free retro arcades too.

It was more of a get together of people who already know each other in the NJ and PA area, then a true expo.

well the folks runnign ti said that its because of the rain that noone came out.  and to be honest with you, If i were the kind of gamer who just brought their laptop an wanted to lan in the back room, i would love it because theres plents of LAN space, and people doing it. 

I wanted to play lots of games, see lots of gear, possibly buy some stuff.  There were like 3 game booths: Warhammer, Inferno and soem other starcraft looking one.

Another issue i think was that they either needed 30 more vendor booths, or a lot lesst space, because it was thinned out. All the crazy sized booths were at the front, and it got thinner and thinner till it was just artist in the back.

Stay away from the hot ass girls in the go army booth…. they will flirt their ass off to get you to sing your soul over to them. Seriously. Chick was blowing a kiss at me in front of my wife. She almost went Rambo on them. lol

I think you may have judged some parts of GameX a little too quickly. I was there with the MAGfest and YGOTAS crews and, yeah Friday was pretty lame and there were not many attendees other than industry folks, but it picked up on Saturday and I thought a lot of the people there were really nice (I didn't go to the Army or PMS booths, though). Brian from Clerks was very friendly and social, so maybe you caught him at a bad time, but I had chatted and raced go carts with him at the parties on Saturday night and thought he was a really nice guy (never asked for an autograph though, so I dunno). The Escapist and LRR crews were very nice as well, and all very social, friendly people who kept introducing me to more people and made me feel welcome even though I had just met them all. I think the guests and bands are the only part that made up for the conventions lack of flair, really(and the awesome party at Arnold's was really nice too after a day of working). It seemed like most of the vendors and exhibitors realised how disappointing the convention was, but I think most people kept an upbeat attitude and tried to make the best of it. (The people at the Bawls booth were very nice, I might add ^^)

I did notice that a large chunk of the people in raffles and contests were vendors or exhibitors, but part of that was probably because they were desperate looking for fun things to do because the expo itself was lackluster. I'll admit I entered all the free car raffles. The panel rooms were especially small and disappointing, and one thing I found really annoying was how LOUD the Rockband booth was playing their music, even when there were ACTUAL bands on stage – that's just rude. There were a couple of rude staff people too, like one woman who came around nearing the end of the con to the YGOTAS booth and was asking all these snotty ignorant questions trying to make the site and series look bad when she knew nothing about it, and the fact that our table wasn't even available on Friday caused a few problems too..

Overall, I would say I don't feel like I wasted my time because of the people I met and the bands (and for buying a cute little Luma plushie from the Omnomopoeia vendor in the artist area). I hated the location, and if it weren't for the parties and guests I feel like it would have been very boring. They definitely need more vendors and exhibitors, larger panel rooms and better panels in general, and a better location that isn't in the middle of nowhere that people have a hard time finding (correct instructions on their site would have been nice too, given that they say to take some incorrect turns). I definitely was expecting more given the guests and sponsors they had, but maybe next year..

Liked: Parties, Bands, Super Art Fight, Guests

Disliked: Not enough vendors and exhibitors, bad location, panels were disappointing, didn't sell very much there at all, low attendence

I know all of the MAGfest crew and they do like to joke around a lot, so I am sure they weren't being seriously condescending when you asked, or thought that you were joking when you asked. I've never seen any of them be outright rude to people asking about the festival. Sorry that happened to you, though.

I guess you are right about everyone attending knowing the other attendees or knowing of them, but that should sort-of be expected of most conventions, shouldn't it? I mean everyone is involved in similar industry so it makes sense for them to know of eachother.

DavidSKi said:

If you have a booth, your their to promote your product, not jerk each others egos off, or try to flirt with the big titty brunette on the PMS clan.

In an expo, you are the flagship/rep/face of your company. Your there to swap biz cards, shake hands, make sales, make connections.  I was floored at how many people DIDNT have Biz cards to take. Had 1 guy try to write down his info… Im like dude there places on the net where you can get cards for FREE.

So i am sure the your “crew” are a bunch of nice guys to you, but when your in a booth and someone asks if they could explain what MaGfest is and you blatently ingnore him…  thats just bad business.

In defense of the MAGFest guy, he's a musician and not a businessman.

…but as far as the actual businessmen, yeah, they definitely should have been more salesmanlike and had cards and literature ready to hand out.  I'm very surprised to hear that a group would actually spend the money on a booth and have somebody sit there all day, yet not even take the time to make some handouts.

Hey guys, 

I'm reading all this back and forth, and can see both point of views. 1st thing i want to say is MagFest has a great group of people, its disappointing to hear that you (DavidSki) had that experience. I know them very well, and see them at all the con's promoting Magfest. Its hard to believe that happened but hey stuff happens sometimes. One the the big issues we had was with Alienware . I wanted to interview them about the tournaments and let them promote their brand or whatever. The reps tell me that they are not equipped well enough to handle Interviews with media???

Your right about another thing, i felt like no selling was going on also. I love when i go to coventions and people are walking up telling me about stuff and have Energy. It does make a big difference between just sitting behind your booth and selling your name. 

The loud music was so damn annoying during interviews and the BAD singing by the PMS clan sucked so bad lol. They are cool because they promote girl gaming and all but that is the only reason they are popular. They never really won anything and when I played Ghost Recon in competitive tournaments we wiped the floor with that clan. From here i will just list the good and bad.

Bad

1.) Vendors ( Not all but most)

2.) Not enough Vendors and bad layout

3.) They had to many things going on! Should have focused on just a few and made them great instead of alot of mediocre stuff. 

4.) Bad location and Directions

5.) Reps reading information to me that Im holding in my hand because they don't actually know about the product lol.

6.) Me and Mike have our own issues with them!

Good

1.) People were really great to us ,( But I was media so maybe that had something to do with it.)

2.)  The artist tables were fun, i played street fighter with one after we just started talking about games and stuff.

3.) Bawls Root beer flavor lol

4.) Great presentations on the Industry Summit side

5.) Philly game Jam was great. They groups created some really fun and fresh looking games.

6.) Playing laser tag and riding carts During the VIP Party.

Yeah E3 and other Expos are better but they also have YEARS of experience. GameX first year was a 6 out 10 at best . Hopefully next year will be better.

o hey, Mike, how far away from Cherryhill, Williamstown, turnersville are you?

Yeah, in my experience an event's first year is usually pretty rough.  GameX tried to do just about everything they could think of and I wonder if they should have focused on a few important things rather than goign all-out the first year.  Hopefully next year I'll actually get to go.