Life Outside PLT1

Events: Armageddon 2009

October 25, 2009 on 9:23 pm | In Reviews | | Balinor

Armageddon 2009. A gathering of pulp culture - whatever that means - has happened again. This year they shifted the venue from the Aotea Centre in central Auckland to a bigger venue at Greenlane event centre. The rumour I heard was that the Aotea was over flowing with people that they needed a bigger place to contain all the fan boys/girls. This indicated to me that Armageddon has finally got better and it is finally time for me to return to the event that has disappointed me after years and years.

A little back story of my experiences at Armageddon. I first went to this event back in 2003. That’s the earliest memory of, I think I might have been earlier but it wasn’t memorable and thus not important. Aoeta Centre was packed, all the 3.5 floors was jammed packed with comics, games, tv/movies/anime and other things that make up armageddon. The games section had plenty of booths of playable games and there were pods of computers networked where you play vs each other. The promotion people stands etc was mind blowing. They were all up in your face with play this game and there were so many of them. Each section was different and within those section it was really diverse. It was so pleasing that I had to go back next year.

Since the first year though, the event suffered from getting sectioned removed and focusing more the retail side of things. It was no different this year even though it was at a bigger venue. Here are the list of things that did not sit well with me:

Even longer line to wait to get in (1.5 hours for my group)
Bigger venue but same bottle neck at admission

Lack of freebies
In a paid event like this one you usually expect freebies but it was not the case here

Wasted floor space
There’s more room to put things but instead of placing them efficiently they wasted

Gaming section was lacking
Gets worse every time I go and this is the main reason why I go

WoW booths showing off WoW that people have already seen
Just normal WoW, so you can play WoW at an event where you can play at home

Probably some more but I can’t think of them right now. However it wasn’t all bad though there were some good in there as well:

Gaming stages
Show casing games like DJ Hero where people can go play and humiliate themselves (like me)

Celebrity panels
Where you can see the stars and ask them question. May it be a little cringe worthy for the amount of non-related to what they’re promoting question and more just fan girls/boys remarks. (HAVE MY BABIES!)

Screening rooms
Needed more but the screening rooms were good to show case things that you may not have seen before

There could be improvements of course, this is what I propose:

Split the events
Armageddon is comprised of essentially three events. Comics/anime, gaming and unconventional events. It would be better if the events only contain elements related to those events. A lot of people go to the event and won’t bother with the others. If the same are group it makes for a better community. Also it will make those that do go fit in. There’s nothing worth turning up in cosplay and everyone thinks you’re weird. It’s much better to turn up in cosplay and the majority of the others are in cosplay also.

More screening rooms
What’s better than to screen shows to the public and have the available DVDs for sale right at the door.

Proper layout for booths
Actually think what booths will attract people and layout accordingly. Nothing worse than people all gathering around something that they can’t see or obscuring walkways

Better admissions
Know that their will be a lot of people who won’t pre-purchase tickets and set up a way to sell people tickets and shift a line. This isn’t new, Armageddon has always had lines that stretch for ages and yet there is still only three people that sell tickets

Have sections with age limits
There was an age limit to a specific gaming area but on the whole there were too many children mixed in. To me that wasn’t the best of experiences.

I think the reason for my dislike stems from the saying of “been there done there”. I guess also because I’m older now these things doesn’t seem to hold it’s appeal. People that know me know that I’ve been wanting to go to a gaming event for quite a while now and I honestly believe that there is enough audience in New Zealand to hold something like that. I honestly believe if Armageddon was to split of into gaming event, comic/anime event and ‘others’ it would make for a better experience. Until they do that though, this will be the last Armageddon I attend as an event.