SpotGamers: Gaming Walkaround Special: The Games Xpo 2009

Well guys, WCG Asian Championship have made its curtain call, but the review is not over yet. I haven’t fully recovered from a train lag from the Lion City, but for Spotgamers readers and fans, I try my best to make a review on Gaming Walkaround Special Edition: The Games Xpo 2009.

The Games Xpo 2009 was being launched by Mr. Zaqy Mohamed, Chairman of Government Committee for Information, Communication and Arts and MP of Hong Kah GRC in a grand opening ceremony on 3rd July 2009. The opening ceremony also unveils the official mascot for TGX 2009, ii-chan.

TGX 2009 exposes a lot of what’s in the gaming industry of Singapore as well as showcasing the product and game innovation of Singapore. Even I didn’t knew that Garena was actually from Singapore (honestly). Dell also promoted their new weapon, Alienware to the public in this expo. Not forgetting, Samsung promoted their official product for WCG2009.

There were exhibitions and promotions by companies such as MOL Singapore, DigiPen, Ban Leong Technologies, HP, MSI, and many more. There is also a competition to crown The Fastest Geek in Singapore when participants are required to assemble the whole PC in less than 15 minutes. I don’t know how fast I can do since I only knew how to put on power supply, CPU, RAM and bla bla bla, but not the small components. :P

TKA Virtualand also made an effort by opening some of arcade machines such as Wangan Midnight 3 DX (my favourite), Street Fighter IV, Tekken 6 and others. There are also distributors offering a cut-price bargain for TGX’s visitors such as Barracuda, Razer, HP and others. They also invited the champions from Korea and Japan to battle it out with Singapore’s best fighters in Street Fighter IV challenge.

Animax Asia also used this event to organize cosplay gathering and competitions with the co-operation of Singapore Cosplay Club. Erm, maybe we can have Malaysian Cosplay Club in the future.

Oh ya, there was a Games Business Summit or known as SAGA which I am unable to cover due to lack of manpower for WCG Asian Championship. Maybe next time. T_T
Overall, the whole event of TGX 2009 was amazing, with the massive support from the Singapore government and other companies who put their full effort, I couldn’t complain more about how the event was run.

Except…

Due to the small size of the area, the place was overcrowded. However, it’s a good sign that the event is garnering attention from the public which signals a good sign for Singapore’s gaming industry.

However, a major blunder by Dell Singapore has totally given the bad impression from the Malaysian gaming media towards them. It occurs during the Dell GRiD Media Challenge on the first day as when yours truly and Chapree from Multiplay seems to get the top 3 to receive A Dell Mini 9 Netbook, their names were not announced as the winner, giving a surprise shock to us and the marshal who watches the intense battle. It was later known that the challenge is only for Singaporean media only and none of the marshals knew about this faux pas created by Dell. E ven though the Corporate Comm. Manager for Asia Pacific apologized for the major blunder, it has created a bad reputation towards, especially when gaming media around Asia is all around for WCG Asian Championship.

To sum it all, here’s the pros, cons and the rating given by us in Spotgamers.

PROS – The event demonstrates a diverse of gaming industry in Singapore whether it is gaming, education, and business area. The PR was very nice in providing the support and assistance to the media. WCG Asian Championship might be the main attraction in Suntec City but The Games Xpo makes a good compliment at the right time.

CONS – There no specific time were when is the media room is closed and while we were updating the pictures after the prize giving ceremony, the internet was suddenly cut off, making our efforts difficult to update the pictures for the readers. Overcrowded place is another issue, but this is Singapore anyway. And the major blunder by Dell, hopefully it would be a lesson to other companies to not making this blunder again.

RATING – 8.5 / 10. A good inaugural event for Singapore to kick off their massive gaming development as mentioned by Guest of Honour during the closing ceremony.

And Spotgamers would like to thank:-

*Rapture Gaming: For giving us opportunity to cover for their event. Great job, guys!
*IMSG: The PR in-charge for the first time for this event. A great PR credit should be given to them
*Marshals and crews: For giving us a lot of assistance in providing the results
*And those who involved directly or indirectly to make ourselves felt welcomed in Singapore.

Well, a new experience occurred to us when we tried to make ‘The Great Singapore Escape’ when we were trapped in Suntec City for more than an hour due to rain, and we didn’t realize that all taxis are on-call during rain. Thanks to Team Japan, we managed to get to train station, unfortunately we missed the train by a mere 5 minutes. We chased the train until Woodlands and we managed to catch up the train just a minute before the train arrives at Johor Bharu. Whew!

Enough with the ranting, let the pictures speaks everything