Game On — Myriad Misadventures

Last September I stumbled on something on WeChat. It was called Game On and it looked like a video game expo. I’ve played video games most of my life and back when I lived in Spain I twice went to Madrid for Madrid Games Week. Needless to say I was pretty excited to see something like that in Shenzhen. I’d been living in Shenzhen for 3 years at the time and was definitely ready for some video games. So I hopped on the subway and made my way out to Shenzhen Bay Park to check it out. Turned out it wasn’t quite an expo.

When I think of “video game expo” I tend to think of something like E3, where companies set up shop and show off new games and products that they have coming up. Attendees wander around getting some free stuff and waiting in line to try out new games. And the companies hope they decide they like them enough to buy them when they come out. Madrid Games Week (NAME) mostly followed this blueprint. Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft all had areas, in addition to third party companies like Bandai Namco, Bungie, and Activision. Shenzhen’s Game On went for more history and less new games. In retrospect that makes sense.

Consoles are a new thing in China. There is PC gaming but the biggest area is probably mobile games. A stereotypical convention might not have done well. (Move this to a different area?? Farther up maybe?) Game On was sort of a walk through the history of video games. Maybe nothing that new to someone from Japan or the United States, but for China, which doesn’t have the same video game history, it was pretty novel. And cool.

After walking through a room that seemed like a big video game mosaic you got eased in. There were some action figures and cardboard cutouts, a place to buy snacks, a room with a little VR and some games you could play, like a multiplayer pong game and Fortnite. After going through through that area you got the real cool parts. The history walk started with some of the oldest games from the 1960s and 1970s, like Computer Space before moving into the more familiar old arcade cabinets. The two rows of arcade machines with people crowding around them was awesome. I played a couple before moving on to the next area. When I played Donkey Kong it went straight from level 1 to level 4 so I think they may have been emulated, as opposed to old machines, but it was still cool to see them all set up in the cabinets.

After the arcade machines there was a little bit of history, first some examples of old concept art for games, including the space invaders guys, and then a display of old video game magazine. I loved this bit. I used to subscribe to Nintendo Power and Playstation Magazine back in the day and read some other magazine when I got the chance so I loved the trip down memory lane.

After that there was a big staircase that got to the part that I enjoyed the most, the consoles. I was never much of a PC games. When I was young I got a Sega GameGear and a little later an N64 and I kept going from there. So I was always a console kid. And at the top of those stairs were loads of console displays. They started with ones too old for me to remember, like the Magnavox Odyssey, but quickly got to the Nintendos and Segas of my youth. In addition to a little bit of history (I think, most of it was in Chinese) most of the consoles were also a set up with a game, often one important to the system’s history. There was a Super Nintendo running Super Mario World then a Nintendo 64 with Ocarina of Time and around a corner an Xbox with Halo. There were setups like this for tons of games, from Contra on the NES to God of War on PS4. This area was definitely one of my favorites. I got to see all sorts of old consoles, see some old stuff from Japan like art from Dragon’s Lair and Grand Theft Auto game spread.

The next area was also full of games but it seemed more focused on playing them. The previous area was sort of like an interactive game museum. You got to walk through the history of video games and play one or two from tons of different systems. This next area was just chock full of games that could be played. There didn’t seem to be a focus on the systems or the importance of the games and consoles in gaming history. It was all about playing. It was really cool but I found some of the controllers were a little finnicky, maybe from being played by hundreds of people over a couple of days.

The final area was more focused on multiplayer and modern games. There were some modern set-ups like some Halo multiplayer and 8 player Smash Bros 4 plus some VR stuff. I poked around a little but I’m much more a of a single player kind of guy so I didn’t spend too much time there. After leaving the last area but before you left you had to pass through the store. Because of course you did. There was an entrance fee but no reason to pass up a chance to make a little extra money. There was plenty of video game paraphernalia like T-shirts and bags, plus some books and guides and a cool 8bitdo set up. I’d never heard of the bluetooth controller company before but loved the retro stylings

It wasn’t exactly what I expected, or even what I really wanted going in, but after walking through I was kind of glad it wasn’t a stereotypical expo. The history bent it had was something I hadn’t seen before and it was cool to see something new.

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