Invinc the Cynic: TGX 2012

The Organizers of The Game Xpo (TGX) no longer cares or understand the spirit of Video Gaming.

This is the common consensus among every fellow gamer I know who dropped by at the event at Singapore EXPO this weekend. (8/9/12 - 9/9/12). The event is a horrible flop and as a gamer, I feel INSULTED that they dared to call this a Video Game Convention. This “Game Con” was SO BAD I have to divide this critique into THREE SECTIONS!!!

SECTION ONE!!!

Let us start from the very beginning, for the Pre Event build up. Apparently, they got a “Chen YiXi” and a “Kimberly Chia” to be GX Ambassadors. I would assume they’re supposed to be ambassadors for the Video Gaming Community in Singapore?

Here’s the thing. They are MediaCorp Channel 8 Celebrities. And they are virtual unknowns in the video game community. Why are we getting TELEVISION celebrities to be our ambassadors? It makes sense for them to ENDORSE the gaming community, but it doesn't make sense for them to be "ambassadors". To represent GAMERS. To REPRESENT US!!!

This reeks of "LETS GRAB THE CLOSEST CELEB TO GIVE STAR POWER".

Honestly, how many video gamers even WATCH TELEVISION anymore?! WE DON’T! We do not CARE for TELEVISION!!! We are busy hanging out with our friends, or playing GAMES! Let me get this message across to you. THEIR STAR POWERS ARE IRRELEVANT! WE DO NOT CARE ABOUT THEM!!!!!!

Wouldn't it make over 9000 more sense to use Popular Local Gamers as our Ambassadors and use these celebrity endorsement as a bridge instead of under-representing Local Gamers?

SECTION TWO!!! [BIGGEST PROBLEM!!!]

Also...TGX suffered from what the Playstation 3 suffered at it’s launch.

TGX has no games!!!!

Many people compared it (unfairly) to Singapore Toy, Games and Comics Convention (STGCC). STGCC is not targetted at Video Games... so why do I call it unfair?

STGCC HAD MORE GAMES THAN TGX!!!!

It makes NO SENSE!!! It is RIDICULOUS!!! The moment you walk into the event hall, you’re greeted with a GIGANTIC DRAGON NEST booth smack in the middle of the EVENT. And apparently, THAT IS ALL TGX HAD!!!

One thing good is they have PLENTY of gaming apparels. You got plenty of booths selling amazing Gaming Equipments. Mouses, Headsets, Sound Systems... you name it! But here’s the kicker... there is NOTHING at the event that can fully utilize these amazing hardware at all!!! Seriously! Are we going to run Dragon Nest, Counterstrike, SD Gundam Online on the lastest and most powerful gaming machines?! 

IRRELEVANT! The people who play these games (minus Counterstrike) are kids who play on their outdated PCs that wouldn’t utilize the latest hardware! WHAT IS THE POINT?! Everyone agreed. This wasn’t a Game Con... this was CHERRY CREDIT CON. It makes me sick!

The “Ambassadors” were dressed up as Chun Li and some random futuristic armoured FPS looking thing... It gave me the impression there’s at least going to be some Fighting Games featured and maybe a small variety of shooting games?

No. Zilch. Nothing. The Con had NOTHING. It was literally a CON JOB. THERE WAS NOTHING BUT CHERRY CREDIT AND COUNTERSTRIKE.

That’s not all!!!!!

It’s fairly common for Game Conventions to have screens everywhere, showing trailers or gameplay footages of various video games? Yeah... we had that at TGX. 

Problem...

To add further insult to injury, the trailers, footages and everything screen were OUT OF DATE!!!! 

• Why were there trailers of Diablo 3 (released 3 months ago) or worse... 
• Batman: Arkham ASYLUM! (****ing 2009, THREE YEARS AGO!!!) 
• There was a screen with a XBOX360 plugged in that had Soul Calibur... Sounds good? No. SOUL CALIBUR FOUR!!!! (2008, FOUR YEARS AGO!!!) Soul Calibur FIVE has been out since the start of this year! (9 MONTHS AGO). Seriously what the bleeding ****?!

SECTION 3 [Saving Grace?]

Also, you know an event is a complete utter failure when the side show attracts more attention than the main show itself! Huge Props to Movie Mania’s Cos X @ TGX.

Yeeeaaahh, the pre-shows and pre-competition was kinda wonky. Instructions weren’t as clear as they could have been to the contestents but eventually, they pulled through and put up an AMAZING SHOW!!! Props to Luel for being a spontaneous and active emcee!

Turn out for Cosplayers were impressive to say the least with a good variety of Video Game, Anime and Western Cosplays! I would actually attribute the “borderline pass” rating of part of TGX because of the attention cosplay attracted!!!! (again, good job Movie Mania for raising the prize money for Western side. We know it needs more encouragement!)

Countless families from the Robinson Sale next door were attracted, mesmerized, entertained and sucked into the event by the colourful costumes with great variety of cosplayers! Parents encouraged their children to take pictures with the weird dude in the Red Spandex suit, or with the giant golden faceless angel, or with various colourful anime characters around!

The increased prize money really encouraged our local cosplayers to push the limit! BIG PROPS to Maria Tachi and her amazing Mistress of Pain Cosplay (Diablo 3). That was really amazing and it deserves GLOBAL ATTENTION!!!!! Let’s see if we can get you to Blizzcon for that amazing piece of work!!!

So... at the end of the day, did people at TGX go home with memories of video games? Or did they go home with the memories of being entertained and enchanted by the magic that is cosplay?

(Hint: There are NO GAMES)

'Invinc stole one pic from Blacklash's FB shares. You evil contributor'

Organizers of TGX. Shame on you if you can’t figure it out and get your **** together. You may be able to entertained the surrounding countries with this kind of gimmick. They’re fresh to the gaming scene in comparison to Singapore and may find this kind of standard... amusing.

But for Singaporean Gamers? This is a big ****ing insult to us.

Get better, or get out.

-Picture Credits to Invinc, Blacklash Jo, PixStory, TGX FB

::: Invinc is a guest contributor at Project Harata for the column, "Invinc the Cynic". Comments are solely his alone and does not represent the entity of Project Harata.