This weekend was the second EGE – Electronic Games Expo at the Cape Town International Convention Center (CTICC) – that was even a fingerful to type! I had not attended the expo before, but was keen to see what the gaming landscape is like in South Africa. I know we love games, who doesn’t, but how does our location and accessibility to tech affect the industry. So Mr John and I popped down to take a look.
Unfortunately, Mr John was out of town for a gig on Saturday…
So we were only able to, literally, go for the last hour on the last day. None the less, it was super interesting and I enjoyed taking a closer look at the gaming world. Some of the features this year included an interview stage, where experts were featured for visitors to listen to their insights…
A LAN set up where gamers could buy tickets for the whole weekend and compete with others:
Traditional gaming (not too sure where the electronic element comes in here but I’m not familiar with the details of these things):
Food trucks – don’t judge me! Loving tech doesn’t mean you can’t love food either!
Tech stalls and information stands – I don’t know about this stuff to tell you any more about it, but if you are into gaming then I’m sure some of these stalls would have been very interesting. They even had stalls like City Varsity and the Animation School, where you can learn to code and create digital content.
Top 5 EGE Features:
Since I’m not very gamey and don’t know much about gaming or tech in depth (basically I play 2 Dots and Pokemon Go and that’s it!), I liked the more commercial, elements. In no particular order, these were the top 5 things I liked in the one hour I could see everything.
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VR
This included seeing virtual reality (VR) gaming stands. I didn’t give them a go because time was short and I couldn’t queue, but next time!
2. Counterstrike Live
So I actually have a vendetta against gaming because I would watch my ex-boyfriend and his friends get stoned and play games from 11am in the morning to midnight every Saturday for YEARS. It’s totally my fault that I wasted my awesome twenties watching that kak and should have dumped his ass way sooner, but you know how you are when you’re in love – you make such hard sacrifices to be with the one you love! Especially when you don’t have your own driving license, LOL! So I’m not the biggest gaming fan in the world, but those days are well and truly over and I was actually impressed with the setup at EGE.
Mr John was literally just telling me about the championships overseas and how they play the game live, broadcast it online so that people can watch it from around the world, when we stumbled upon the Counterstrike Global Offensive auditorium at the EGE. This is where two teams, Carbon and DC, playing off one another with the best team being flown to Europe to participate in the championships there. You can see where all the ‘men’ are on the projected version of the game so you have a more holistic view, opposed to just watching first shooter pov of one player.
I won’t be trading in my love for music for game watching, but I think this is very cool for those who play games and who want to do it on a bigger level. And it’s great to have this setup in Cape Town so that any of our homegrown talents have a chance to play overseas. Good one EGE.
3. Modern Dragon
I first saw Modern Dragon at FanCon and I just love the concept and illustrations. Basically, it’s how dragons would live in modern society. They are drawn to objects of power like TV remotes or car key beepers, and this series illustrates how they would integrate. I love it!
4. Art and merchandise row
I enjoy seeing what’s for sale at conventions as it gives a different insight as to what’s common, what’s accessible, what’s rare, what’s valuable, what’s available in SA. Also there are some cute fantasy stuff, reminded me of Labyrinth!
Team Valor FTW whoop whoop! Speaking of, there wasn’t a lot of Pokemon stuff at the expo, which makes sense since the brand has kinda been on the DL for the last 5 years. I’m sure there’ll be more stuff in the future.
5. Gaming
There were lots of gaming stands that visitors could test out. I didn’t give it a go, but it was pretty cool to see how much gaming and the technology has advanced since I was playing Ice Climber!!!
Well done EGE! I can see the people who know what they’re talking about had a really good time. According to Twitter, it was a vast improvement on last year’s, which is great. Bigger and better each year! If your gaming knowledge is far better than mine (not hard to be!), then check the conversations out on Twitter. #EGE2016 is the hashtag.
