On April 1st and 2nd Mohegan Sun will play host to Connecticut’s first-annual Gamer Con. The event is being produced by the self-proclaimed Johnny Appleseed of Comic Book Culture in Connecticut, Mitch Hallock, who also produces Terrificon in August.
Similar to Comic-Cons, gaming conventions encompass the fun
of Cosplaying, shopping at unique vendors and the indescribable milieu of being
immersed in Geek Culture. Smells like
plastic. If you have never been to a
gaming convention and would like understand more about it I would highly recommend
checking out this piece about the current state of E3 written by Bleeding Cool’s own Patrick Dane.
While gaming conventions on a regional level may not be as
prevalent as Comic-Cons at this time, Hallock is of the opinion that will
change and they may even become larger than Comic Cons in the near-future… recently,
Hallock and I discussed the origin of Gamer-Con
and what fans can expect from its first outing.
Shawn Perry: What made you want to start a Video Game
Convention?
Mitch Hallock: When
I would promote TerrifiCon I noticed
a crossover of comic and gaming fans. In
many ways, gamers are more passionate than comic fans. There is this whole
subculture of EA Sports of kids playing games for hundreds of thousands ofdollars. They have their own Major League Gaming just like the NHL and NBA. It’s the new thing man. You could
have the next Tiger Woods sitting next to you. The
Barclays Center in Brooklyn just sold 17,000 seats for ESL One in October and in Japan gaming culture is even bigger. They’ve
embraced gaming culture, they have what I call ‘extreme fandom’ and in the
future I think there is going to be your typical cons and then there will be ‘extreme
cons,’ a new concept of conventions where you live and breathe your passions.
That’s where we’re going and that was the evolution of Gamer Con: at the last Terrificon
we had a room dedicated to gaming and it was one of our most popular spots and
I knew it was going to have legs. There is already ConnectiCon [a successful convention that has heavily emphasized
gaming culture for years held annually in nearby Hartford] and I think there is
demand for more in this market.
SP: What is it about
gaming that attracts such fascination?
MH: Anybody can
be a superstar at it. You didn’t have to jump the highest or run the fastest…if
you could just play well enough you could be the Michael Jordan of Donkey Kong or the Wayne Gretzky of Galaga. When they brought arcades home
and then made it online it brought it to another level and now some six-year-old
kid could be kicking your ass in Battlefront.
Everybody likes the fact they can immerse themselves into a whole other world.
I played a game yesterday on the VR and it was a haunted amusement park game
and I was jumping out of my skin with a creepy clown jumping out of the corner
at me. I’m screaming “Oh My God” and my
kids are running downstairs to see what is going on! It’s fun!
SP: What is Gamer Con going to be like?
MH: As you walk
in we have that massive ballroom and half of that is going to be devoted to a
massive competition featuring Gears of
War, Super Smash Brothers, Street Fighter V…you will have the
option to play with your friends for no money or you can join the competition
for a nominal fee and there will be cash prizes over $2000 bucks! The other
half of the convention center will feature artists and vendors selling
t-shirts, vintage video games, action figures and all the things you see at a
‘normal con.’ Then out in the lobby area we are going to have our giant Arcade
games like DDR and if that wasn’t
enough we are going to have folks that are into card games like Yugioh, Magic: The Gathering and Pokemon
and they will be able to play traditional card games. Really anything that you
can play I am going to have a table set-up for that. Hopefully it’s a big event with a big turnout
and we can do this maybe once a year in addition to Terrificon.
SP: How much is it
going cost?
MH: It’s only $15
to get in and if you want to enter some of the tournaments you have to pay a
nominal fee. Kids 8 and under are free.
SP: Do you think
there’s any chance that Gamer Con
could become bigger than Terrificon?
MH: Yes. There comes a point where those
high-priced movie star autographs are going to become beyond people’s reach.
You can’t spend $400 to go to these things and get an autograph. God bless you
if you can but there comes a point when people say ‘I have had enough.’ There’s
always going to be Comic-Cons but I do think down the road you are going to see
gaming conventions become the next big thing. I mean, you have Youtube channels
of gamers that have millions of followers. I want to be the guy that brings
both those things together, something for the comic fans and the gaming fans.
SP: Do you think
there’s a big crossover between gaming culture and comic book culture?
MH: Yes, anything
about playing the hero and escaping to another world is just using your
imagination and having a little help. It is a tangible outlet for your
imaginations. I deal with the comic book writers and artists who create the
comic book visually and this is just another extension of that same fantasy
just a different form. It’s the same with sports fandom; I was surprised a
couple years ago when I first heard that people were watching video games for
money and that you could watch video games on TV. My son was like ‘you watch
sports with people playing how is this any different?’ These days they are just
looking for that competitive spirit and passion. I think they finally came up
with a way to tap in to the meat-and-potatoes sports guy. They are becoming
nerds and they don’t even know it.
There are plenty of tickets
still available to Gamer Con that can be purchased here.
