Media observation #10

Hello everybody!

A week ago (4.-6.11.) there was an expo weekend in Helsinki, consisting of DigiExpo, GameXpo, Skiexpo, BoardExpo and Lätkä&Säbä (ice hockey and floorball). I went there with Pirre! Our main reason to go there was because the Finnish cosplay championships were a part of GameXpo and I also got a free ticket because the expo used our musical's prop as a decoration there.

Me and our sweetie Gyarados, who was doing a superb job at being a decoration!

The expo hall was quite big and everything fit there surprisingly well. However I'm used to sharing nerdy culture with other nerds so it felt a little odd to walk there among all the non-nerds who were there for for example the Skiexpo.

There were mainly lots of booths. In the GameXpo section there were booths for Xbox, Nintendo and Playstation, but also for Turku game research lab, a board game association and some others too. There was a Just Dance booth where you got energy drinks if you just played one song so all the young boys were dancing there in hopes of getting an energy drink. It was funny. Keep on dancing fellas!

At Digi-Game stage were held small gaming competitions and also short interviews with game makers. I went to partly listen to some small speeches about VR and AR. I was expecting a little more from those but then again I just went to Mindtrek to hear about those things so no wonder there was nothing new for me.

Program on the digi-game stage.

I used the time before the cosplay competition to wander and goof around with my friends, some of which I hadn't seen in a long time. I didn't attend all the expos even though I could've (the ticket included all of them), but I did take a peek at DigiExpo and Skiexpo. Otherwise there wasn't much to do since the program wasn't interesting enough and all the gaming consoles were swarming with teenage boys. So yeah, I was goofing around.

I was personally very excited about the cosplay competition because three of my friends were competing there and my favourite Finnish odottemita group PUREmode was also performing. The competition was pretty nice, I liked it a lot more than the basic cosplay competitions you see in Finland. I also was more entertained than while watching the European championships so good job Finland! Hapsu's Barbossa skit was exceptional, it really made me laugh a lot! Congratulations on winning the solo competition! If I'd have to give some negative feedback to the organizers it was the volume of the music: it really hurt the audience's ears. But I heard it had to be loud because there was a rapper having a gig nearby the competition stage... Maybe a better expo scheduling would've been in place or the competition could be held in more suitable environment.

The winners and runner-ups. The first three from the left were the winners of the group category and the winner of the solo competition is the fourth from the right. Photo taken by Nyymix.

I'm proud of my friends for competing even though they didn't get a prize. I'm so happy that they got their beautiful costumes and skits done in time and had the courage to take part in the competition. ♥

As an experience the expo was OK. I probably will not attend again unless the Finnish championships are held there again. Someone has suggested that a better environment would be a handicraft expo and I partly agree on that. So, we'll see where the future takes us.

Happy thoughts,
Oona