I was an exhibitor there. My game class from Camden County College was displaying our game DragonSpire. Our booth did not have power (as it was supposed to) and we had to run our game off of our personal laptops (for about 45min-1hr on battery). To make up for it they gave us a computer in the LAN center. So if someone wanted to play our game (and the laptops were dead) they had to walk 100ft to try it. The staff is all teenage kids that wanted to get in for free. It was more of a accessory and retro game show. There were only one or two actual game companies (I dont count my game's team even though we had a better disiplay than one company)and only one had a game on display. It wasn't much but it was at least something. Since most events happen in CA it was nice to be able to visit something and get our game out there.

Maybe we were covering different events? David Jaffe had an interesting post up today on how he was completely shafted by the operators of the event he was supposed to appear at (via Skype). There wasn't a single major publisher there and the East Coast Games Summit was nearly impossible to find. Couple those with the constant shouting of Comcast and Commodore shills over the pa system and you've got yourself a big fat goose turd of a convention. Wizard World was bigger for chrissakes.

Scrappy is definitely the word I would use to describe it. Things were cancelled and moved left and right without any notification. Most of the staff didn't even know where events were being held. There was a lot of arbitrary up and down the escalator, through 5 security checkpoints, to find that whatever event was being held got moved to another room, but no directions on where it was.

I'll agree with Benjamin too, the PMS Clan and Commodore people were SO LOUD on the microphone that for a good portion of the Expo I couldn't think.

The "Breaking In" part of the Expo was actually pretty interesting, with panels of HR/Recruiters and well-connected professors giving good advice. The different sessions were far too short with questions getting cut off and there were lots of technical difficulties to add confusion to the matter.

All those complaints aside, it was still fun. And the Counter-Strike tourney was fun to watch.

I have been to the expo over the last several years and this year was by far the best. The sheer number of people who attended says it all "Philly can support a game show". I was the exhibitor and an instructor from Camden County College, not the student who posted above, and would like to clarify a few things. We did not pay for power, so we did not get power as was explained in their classes on more than one occasion. One of their fellow classmates got it in their head that power would just be mystically given to them and that was never the case as was made crystal clear to me when we lined up the booth. They were told to be prepared for this. When the LAN center, which was a blast, generously offered us two PC’s to show off the student’s game we instantly jumped on the opportunity and loaded the games up, unfortunately the students didn’t really feel like walking 35 steps to show off their work, which was a shame because what they have done in 10 weeks has been wonderful. The show itself was a solid amalgam of VG traditions. There was a bit of everything and spanned the history of electronic gaming and its culture. Many of my students volunteered at the event and it was great to expose them to an event like this on the east coast. I have been to the bigger shows that are closed to the general public and really enjoyed this year’s event. There was always something to do and I was engaged the entire three day weekend. As for the staff and organizers of the show I would like to say THANK YOU for a job well done particularly without the mainstream support of the industry, maybe their eyes will open a bit more now and realize the east coast is a viable option.

I would like to apologize to the people who ran the VGXPO. I had thought we were to be given power. Apparently that was never the case. That was a misunderstanding on my part and not the fault of the expo. One thing I failed to mention was the fact that the expo gave us our booth for FREE. This was a great deal considering how much it cost to rent out the Convention Center for the weekend. It is really cool to see how they are supporting fledgling developers. Overall it was a great experience, although it still had a few hiccups as many newer shows do. Hopefully the attendance numbers will get the attention of a few larger game companies and next year will be even better.

This years event was a marked improvement over past years. The convention center was packed with all kinds of people coming together to revel in gaming culture. It was really fantastic to see everyone come out and having a good time, and it definitely seemed to me that a lot of people were. I’m sure there were minor problems the kinds of things you see at every major convention like this one, but I think the vast majority of the people walked away satisfied. The VGXPO may not be the most glamorous of affairs but it showed a lot of potential, and I’m very hopeful for the future. I’m looking forward to next year, and I hope to see even more of you there!

The VGXPO marked the first time I have been to a gathering of that sort, and I must say that even with my prior knowledge of conventions I did not expect to see as many people as I had. While I saw over one of the booths I occasionally found myself being asked questions relevant to the gaming industry, such as the amount of work that needs to go into games and the environment said work is performed in, some of these questions coming from individuals that appeared to have no prior interest. This made me realize how much of an impact the VGXPO was having on the surrounding community, something that doubled as a possible calling to the attendees that a career in the gaming industry might be something to reach for. Thinking it over, what some have been commenting on as negative qualities of the convention might have just been the restrictions on a budget due to fears of a poor turnout, but given the amount of people I saw in just one day I would like to think that the overseers are looking at results they did not expect in the least from something that might have partially been a test.