*Be forewarned, this post is quite lengthy*
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| MGC Entrance Banner |
As you may know (or may not know) I attended
Midwest Gaming Classic (MGC) in Wisconsin this past weekend. I drove a 10 hour stretch up to Michigan Wednesday night/ Thursday morning, to meet up with Mike from
The Dragon Cast. We got to hang out for awhile before we headed to Wisconsin Friday morning. We arrived at the hotel late Friday afternoon, with enough time to drop our stuff off in our room and head out with the
PSNation guys for some beer and karaoke. Now, I did not sing karaoke; but I did have a great time. We got back to the hotel around 1:30am Saturday, recorded a short blip of talk for the special episode of
The Dragon Cast, and then hit the pillows.
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| Arrival of The Dragon Cast |
Saturday morning we got up early and got a good start on the day. We got our wristbands for the two days and then stood in line for the "Vendor Hall". The line wrapped down four hallways, but once they opened the door it moved along frighteningly quickly. We did some shopping around at the vendors and then headed to the hotel cafe for some well needed food. After our "brunch" we headed downstairs to the
Retroids room to see what was going on there. They had some arcade machines and retro gaming consoles set up in there, so we decided to hang out for a little while. After a little gaming and hanging with some fellow gamers we decided to empty our packs of goodies in our room. Now that we had our packs empty, it was time to fill them again (of course). The second time through the vendor hall it was a little less crowded and we were able to spend more time at each table. Both Mike and I were able to get most of what we had initially been looking for, and some unplanned purchases as well. After lightening our wallets and heavying our packs again, we decided to head downstairs another time.
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| Magic the Gathering at MGC |
This time in the
Retroids room we had a small
PSVita party (not planned). We ended up sitting with a bunch of guys and we all pulled out our
PSVitas at almost the exact same time. We also stuck around for a special recording of the
PSNation Podcast, and got to guest appear on there for a couple minutes. That was a lot of fun and those guys are great people. After recording with them we headed to the hotel room for some R&R. In our room we unloaded our loads (backpacks) and relaxed a little.
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| The "Great" Fire Alarm |
Mike and I had brought some
Magic the Gathering CG decks and we played a few games. I got my ass kicked each time, but in my own defense we were using "event decks" (a pre-made deck) and mine was horrible verse his. During our last bout of MTG at MGC (confusing I know), the fire alarm went off in the hotel. So we quickly grabbed our computers and anything else worth possibly braving a fire for and dashed outside. After a short amount of time they got the alarm turned off and we were able to go back inside.
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| Museum Hall |
After dropping everything off in the room we went to check out some of the smaller rooms at the convention. There was a video game museum and a few rooms for tournament play of different kinds. One room was a Call of Duty game room and everyone in there was kids below the age of fifteen. A few of the rooms were for other podcasts, one of mention was the
PkmnCast, a podcast all about Pokemon and everything to do with Pokemon. Shortly after we headed out to get some food and beer for the
Retroids after-party that night.
We brought our food back to the hotel; ate, and then headed to the party. The party was a lot of fun. Mike sat and played a table-top game for about 5 hours, he said it was a lot of fun; I'll have to take his word for it. I played some arcade games and talked to a bunch of people that were there. I was able to hang out with Glenn from
PSNation Podcast for a couple hours, and that was awesome. The party ended at about 1:30am and we headed straight to the room. Once again, we recorded some of our podcast and then headed straight to bed.
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| Retroids After-Party |
Sunday morning we slept in some before heading down to check the vendors one last time. The Sunday crowd was much, much larger than Saturday. A lot of parents brought their children on Sunday. We made a quick pass through the Vendor Hall, stopped by the
Retroids room, and said goodbye to some of the guys. After a quick meal we hit the road back to Michigan. After a surprisingly quick four hour drive we arrived safely back in Michigan. We recorded the last part of our special podcast episode to end off our MGC experience.
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| Recording of The Dragon Cast |
All of the podcasts and communities mentioned in this article have links at the bottom of the post
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| All the Loot from Midwest Gaming Classic |
This is supposed to be an update so I'll give you an update, on what I've been doing with my time. I've said it before, but I'm a hardcore gamer... so I put in alot of gaming time over the past few months. As any of you gamers out there know, the holiday season is ripe with new games, both AAA titles and under-the-radar gems too. I spent quite awhile in Hitman Absolution, earning the platinum in the end. A great game, and a great addition to that franchise. Shortly after that I got into a platinum trophy race, my goal was to have ten platinums by the end of February. I did not reach my goal, having a grand total of 8 but I was still happy with the outcome. I was held back by a couple extra days, working my way through Socom 4 campaign on elite difficulty (no easy task). I also picked up Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, the game from Level 5 and Studio Ghibli. Let me say, any fans of Ghibli and RPGs... this is a must buy. Most recently I'm playing the new Tomb Raider which is a fantastic reboot of the franchise with a sexy new Lara.
As for anime... Of course the great Sword Art Online has finished (though here's hoping for a second season). It was a fantastic show through and through. Also, Say I Love You finished since my last update. This was a more serious romance/love show, but had a very realistic feel to it; both in animation and story. I have watched many many shows through the months and as I said earlier I have made sure to keep at the reviews. I am currently simulcast-ing: Oreshura, Kotoura-san, and Maoyu. All three of these are excellent shows and I talk about them weekly on the podcast, The Dragon Cast.
I've definitely put a lot more hours into anime than video games. I'm currently watching three shows simultaneously; Sword Art Online, Eureka Seven, and The Knight in the Area. 
