GDN welcomes a new name to our list of contributors, Chris Cesarano, who recently attended VGXPO in Philadelphia and gave us this fine look inside from an industry writer’s point of view.

For most gamers living on the East Coast events such as E3 or PAX are merely a pipe dream (except that PAX is coming to the East Coast - Ed.). The sheer cost of flight and hotel coupled with the distance to travel makes for a pretty steep and insurmountable obstacle. In the meantime, conventions on the East Coast are mostly dedicated to classic gaming and don’t offer much in comparison to the big flashy events.

A few years ago VGXPO was founded to begin developing a greater presence of the games industry in the Philadelphia area. However, in 2007 Ed Flemming, head of the expo, got some poor press due to drunken shenanigans and all around poor behavior at PAX. Even so, I’m always one to forgive and forget if someone can show a cleaned up act and new attitude.

As such, I have a sort of love-hate relationship with VGXPO. For a convention that advertises itself for so much floor space and being “the largest and longest on the East Coast” they make some pretty basic newbie mistakes. There was no indication as to where registration was on the outside of the convention center. In order to get into the event you have to find a small side-door with no signs outside to point you the right way in.

Upon registering I was given a yellow wristband that couldn’t be removed without tearing it. In other words, I was stuck with this thing the whole weekend as I slept and showered. Somehow this seemed like a better idea to the guys running the show than a tried-and-true badge used by other events and conventions.

I also received a swag bag without any swag. Not even a show schedule. It wasn’t until I was conversing with a few volunteers a couple hours later, who were also discussing how disorganized the event was, that I learned how to get a show guide. Whoever was in charge of the printing clearly doesn’t understand color modes, either. The convention map appeared as a dark color over a dark background. Even so, one would think the different sections outlined on it were all separate rooms, but everything was cluttered together in one giant hall. Yes, aside from panels, the entire convention fit into a single hall. With room to spare.

This was all the more confusing when viewing the cramped free-play area. There wasn’t much room given to the Smash Bros. or Halo ODST tournaments. In fact, tournament registration wasn’t even located with the gaming stations. It was a walk around the corner without any sign or indication as to where it was located. Good luck hearing anything in this main hall, as music and announcements are blaring loudly throughout the entire cement cavern. The mish-mash of everything together generated such noise pollution that communication with people behind the booths proved to be a chore. It would have been wiser to separate everything into smaller chunks and distribute them throughout the individual rooms.

As for booths, panels and events, within the show guide was a detailed list of guests but no details on anything else. A panel’s content was only explained by its title. Live entertainment was clearly labeled in the schedule but there was no telling what precisely they were showing. It turns out most of the acts were bands, but none of this was made clear in the pamphlet. Same goes with the anime. If you had never heard of any of the musical acts or anime shows then you were left in the dark.