PlayEx07 - My Experience

Looking at the banner, you know it's gonna be Geek Heaven. Then again, unlike in the West, such interests are not the sole preserve of the geek/nerd/socially-inept community here. Toys, Comics, Gadgets, Games - that just about covers the whole male population in Malaysia!

I received an invite from Nick to come cover this event, which I'll admit is rather overdue (the cover, not the invite). As a "minor" blogger. Cool stuff, I didn't know that us ickle storytellers get our own space and invites too. Here's the booth we got, which Nick (obviously) decorated:
That's a Wii they're playing. It was my first time playing one, Tennis to be exact. And IT KICKS ASS!!! Such silly fun. Tires the arm too.

I didn't quite understand the purpose of the bloggers' booth though. It had to be manned throughout the exhibition (more or less 10am - 10pm Fri - Sun), which meant Nick had LOTS of time there with Carmen and whoever else came along. Hence the Wii, and that ice box that's in the corner. Its contents may make Tennis a totally different game.

Introductory notes
I need to mention that I went on a Friday afternoon, which was the early point of the event. Some stalls were yet to be set up and there were but handfuls of people (work, school, etc). And of course, it's not quite my scene - only the games aspect appealed to me as I'm not big on toys and comics. So the Wii took up quite a bit of my time and I'll repeat that IT KICKS ASS! Also, my camera battery died on me halfway as I was taking pictures, which is kinda annoying.

Toys
I'll let the pictures speak.
Toys really abounded (no, DVDs aren't really toys but whatever). Macross, Gundam, Transformers, Star Wars, other Japanese flers I don't know, random bits and bobs of Japanese fluffy toys and kawaii toys and decorations and trinkets. Nice set of DVDs of anime and manga.

Comics
Only one stall at the point I was there, guarded by Spider-Man.

Games
New Era Interactive had a booth, selling games cheap, selling various peripherals and giving away posters for free.
My biggest temptation came in another booth, with just ONE item for sale:
Yums. RM10 discount on The Orange Box, which is the coolest packaging idea from Valve yet. Half Life is genius in a game. Christmas is coming, anyone?

Of course, someone had to set up a pseudo cyber cafe. Playing DotA (oh what imagination). Which attracts a crowd. Sheesh.
MyCNX tries to sell their latest MMORPG, Kung-Fu Legend or some nonsense like that. With girls dressed up in costumes. Which is usually a great idea, until you see the costumes. Captured below, on the right:
I'd take a better shot, but as I was checking one of them out and deciding whether or not she was cute and the costume ruined it or she was not and the costume wasn't helping, she came over and proceeded to insist I try her game out. Er, do I get a free costume?

Magazines
The only other "booth babes" were at PC.com's booth, who very reluctantly decided to pose for me here:
Hardware Magazine (HWM) were also present with a rather uninteresting display.

Education
At least they attempted some sort of education at an event called PlayEx. Below is MMU Melaka (I think)'s booth featuring their Robotics Challenge Week:
They showed a couple of hardware systems, the most identifiable one being a traffic light system (look, it counts down!). The other booth was called e-baca, which somehow seemed quite out of place at the venue. Valiant attempt though, Mak Cik.

Miscellaneous
Of course, no event is complete without the big corporate players trying to get their branding thoroughly embedded in your head. Below is Celcom's incomplete booth:
It's X-pax, which is young, hip and happening. And they were blasting 80's music once they had their sound system up. Sorry guys, but 80's music is for the slightly-not-so-young but of course very bloody hip and happening children of the 70's. Who aren't so big on your animations and MTV-style branding.

Some movie dudes also put up interesting stalls (sorry no shots): Buena Vista Columbia Tristar & Disney had a life-size revolving Wall-E model with a screen showing the trailer, while a Chinese film company had a mock-up bedroom for Steven Chow Sing Chi (sp?)'s latest movie.

Thoughts & Conclusion
Idea? Good. Point? Not so sure. I understand that it's meant to attract people interested in these things and either get them buying or at least aware of some of the other things there. And it's here that I think it missed the mark slightly.

The strength of such an event is in its turnout, and people attendance is heavily based on awareness. Tell the people, and keep telling them. This is key, as even the booth renters will feel the power of the event.

Unfortunately, I believe that this is a common problem in Malaysia - we just don't know how to create awareness enough. Not enough information dissemination. Perhaps not enough avenues and outlets of distributing information. We have so many events happening here, yet people just don't know about it.

Well done to Forward Icon for staging such an ambitious event, and all the best should you decide to do it again next year. I recommend it, if any of the above appeals to you.