{"id":451,"date":"2012-01-16T17:34:22","date_gmt":"2012-01-16T22:34:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mageuzi.com\/blog\/?p=451"},"modified":"2012-01-16T17:44:36","modified_gmt":"2012-01-16T22:44:36","slug":"magfest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mageuzi.com\/blog\/2012\/01\/16\/magfest\/","title":{"rendered":"MAGFest"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MAGFest\"<\/p>\n

Last weekend, January 5-8, @Ndoto, @FlatFootFox and I decided to check out MAGFest<\/a> (Music and Gaming Festival). It was the first time any of us had attended this convention, so it was a bit overwhelming. Still, I think we all had fun! It was like a very small PAX, with an emphasis on music instead of upcoming games. In fact, in many ways, there was a strong focus on older games \u00e2\u20ac\u201c chiptunes and 8-bit graphics were prevalent.<\/p>\n

Since we didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stay at a hotel at the con, it was difficult to attend everything that sounded interesting. Instead of getting the full con experience, we only got a taste \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but it was enough of a taste to know that, if we go again, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be staying at a hotel nearby so that we can have better access to all the events.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

There were a few highlights from the weekend. The convention itself was organized well. That might just be due to its smaller attendance \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and the large venue \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but it never felt overly crowded, or impossible to attend the more popular events. The dealer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s room had some talented artists, sellers with older classic games and consoles, and lots of Japanese drinks and snacks (unlike Otakon, where the Baltimore Convention Center bans the sale of all outside food)! Notably, some of the artists there sold paintings on canvas of classic 8-bit video game scenes \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it sounds odd, but it was actually really impressive to see in person. Attached to that was perhaps the largest room at the con: a gaming room with classic arcade cabinets, old consoles, new consoles and pinball machines. There was even a projector set up with an Xbox 360 and Kinect \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Dance Central looked pretty good on that.<\/p>\n

There was only one actual panel we went to, and that was Ellen McLain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Q&A. For those who don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t recognize the name, Ellen McLain is an opera singer who has done vocal work for several Valve games. The most well-known of those projects, though, has to be performing the voice of GLaDOS. We arrived at the panel a little late, so we didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get the best of seats. Still, it was great to hear her\"John<\/a> thoughts on Valve, gaming, and her career in general. The panel ended with her introducing her husband, John Patrick Lowrie, and a group sing-along to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Want You Gone\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Still Alive\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.<\/p>\n

After the Q&A was a signing, which (unsurprisingly) had a large turnout. Due to a lot of luck (and a lot of perseverance), @FlatFootFox and I managed to get to the front of the line before time ran out for that session. Both Ellen McLain and John Patrick Lowrie are some of the nicest people I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve ever met. Not only was the picture itself really awesome, but afterwards Ellen McLain turned to us and said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153that was just like a picture with our boys!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201c to which I just laughed and thanked them for the photo opportunity. I mean, what do you say to that? Wonderful people, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m glad I got the chance to meet them.<\/p>\n

We attended a couple of concerts \u00e2\u20ac\u201c being a MUSIC and gaming festival, there was always music of some sort being played somewhere. A couple of the performances were original chiptune compositions, which were very well done. The biggest concert of the convention, though, was Earthbound Papas, headed by the one and only Nobuo Uematsu. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not sure what there is to say about Nobuo Uematsu that hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t already been said \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the music was beautiful, and hearing it performed live by them made it all the more spectacular.<\/p>\n

\"Earthbound<\/a><\/p>\n

Those were the highlights. As with any con, there were a lot of small details that made the experience unique, but I won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get into those here. Suffice it to say that we were all quite impressed, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be back in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last weekend, January 5-8, @Ndoto, @FlatFootFox and I decided to check out MAGFest (Music and Gaming Festival). It was the first time any of us had attended this convention, so it was a bit overwhelming. Still, I think we all had fun! It was like a very small PAX, with an emphasis on music instead […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[127,40,3],"tags":[131,129,128,175,130,163],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mageuzi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mageuzi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mageuzi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mageuzi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mageuzi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.mageuzi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":452,"href":"http:\/\/www.mageuzi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451\/revisions\/452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mageuzi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mageuzi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mageuzi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}