Life - Southeast Game Exchange MMXIX-2

Despite my best efforts, I still arrived at the second day of SeGE 2019 almost into the afternoon. My resolve to sleep in defeated my resolve to have more time for looking around. However, I was in enough time to eat lunch there.

Which brings me to my one major gripe about the new location. The concession food and beverages are way expensive. I can almost justify a fully loaded hot dog being around $5-6, but I am completely flabbergasted at the notion of $4 for a 20-liter bottle of soda. One could argue that I'd pay that much eating out anywhere, but at least restaurants offer combos with fries and refills on the drink. And I suppose the other gripe is that it feels short, but that's not a very strong complaint.

Whining done.

I did get more time to look around, although it was essentially reduced because in the last 0:30 of the day, most vendors were getting ready to pack or were already packing stuff away. Still, despite the larger size of the Greenville Convention Center's large room, I was still able to see everything - even if I wasn't able to play much of the free play stuff. The spread was the usual combination of video game stores, individual game sellers, art people and a few non-gaming booths, like a display with a drawing for Hilton. Some of the art was really cool and tempting, but owing to the size of the perler-on-canvas and burnt wood stuff, I would have no place to display them.

Mainly I looked around, but I did attend one panel: a publisher called Limited Run Games was holding a panel on their history and origins. I'd already purchased a game from them the day before, so I was interested to hear about them. They're a publisher that takes mainly digital-only games and gives them a limited physical run (hence their name). It was a most interesting panel, delving into why he and his compatriot decided to start it in the first place, how they managed to make it big publishing for the PS Vita, and other dealings they'd had. We even got heads up on a few future releases.

Also, there was a games giveaway - the people who asked questions played rock-paper-scissors to narrow the field - and I managed to snag Star Wars: Bounty Hunter (for the PS2 for the PS4) from it. By the time the panel was over, I went back to trying to find some good deals.

At the end, I was scrambling to find the Legend of Zelda: Triforce Heroes and Star Wars: Episode I Racer I'd seen; I managed to negotiate the former from $15 to $10, and found the later for $5. I already have Racer on Dreamcast and PC, but I wanted to see how it compared to the other versions. Triforce Heroes I was just curious about. Oh, and I got another over-sized Lantern ring, this year being the orange "Greed" one.

The only thing I regret missing was a loose Gameboy Advance SP that I could have either cleaned up and used, or opened up, looked at, and possibly fixed if it was broken. My overall budget was fairly limited, but I wasn't looking to add too many games to my collection, and I wouldn't have been able to get much of any hardware.

It was still a fun time. As always, I am resolved to do better in the cosplay contest next year. I'd also be interested in other cons happening at the GCC in the future - despite the risk of giving in and buying more comics than I need, for an example. I'll definitely keep this space posted if I do go to another convention in the future.

Life - Southeast Game Exchange MMXIX-1

The annual Southeast Game Exchange finally rolled around again, and I was semi-prepared this time. Sure, I didn't have as much spending money as I would have liked, but that was for a pretty good reason - the cosplay contest!

I can't remember when, but I started preparing for the contest in advance. I'm not super creative about this kind of stuff, so it was more of a "scavenge the right clothes" type costume. Some, like the jacket and pants, I already had. I managed to just barely get the right shirt in time. However, the key pieces of the ensemble - the tie and rubber hand - had to be sourced. (Oh, I also got my hair bleached. I would like to say it was entirely for the costume, but I also had to get a "natural" non-blue hair color for my day job.)

He likes the Mona Lisa

Having just finished catching up with the anime JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, I was insisted to go as the Part 4 villain, Yoshikage Kira. The synergy of needing a "natural" hair color, being a costume with relatively mundane parts, and having a simple prop all came together.

My original plan was to paint a wooden model hand and carry it around. However, a trip to Sally's revealed small, already ready rubber hands. All I had to do was add some fake nails and paint some blood/bone on the end for extra effect. It's a good thing that it was JUST a prop for effect, since my skills in applying nails would have failed any kind of technical inspection.

I actually spent most of the day at the cosplay stuff. After arriving too late for the speedrun panel, I had enough time to sign up for the contest, go to a panel, change into my costume, and look around a little bit before going back to hang out before the line-up.

I can't remember exactly, but the categories were: child and/or teenagers, adult novice, adult advanced, and group. I am (still?) very glad that there is a novice category, since some of the costumes were extremely elaborate - stuff like sculpted swords, hand-made clothing, etc... I didn't win, but I did have a few people that recognized and/or liked my costume. Also, some people even asked to take pictures with me!

I feel like I should have started off in costume, for two reasons: (1) my small suitcase was still big enough to be annoying to wheel around, and (2) I could have been looking at video games while carrying the hand around, talking to it, and being a little bit in-character. Maybe next year?

Afterwards, it was 3:something, so I managed to find some time to actually look around. There were a ton of tables this time. I think the location (new location again) is even bigger - at least, the ceiling was way higher! (As were the concession prices...). My "haul" was GTA: San Andreas and Dragon Fantasy. The latter was from the Limited Run table, and I was motivated to get it because I wanted a nice little indie JRPG-like game. I might go back and get another, possibly.

I think tomorrow I will try to peruse more and play some of the free play stuff. There was VR, arcades, pinball, and a whole row I missed.