If you were anywhere near the DCC this past weekend, you felt the presence of Genericon, in some way. Genericon is RPI’s convention for fans and enthusiasts of gaming and anime, a Japanese style of animation. Attendees from as far away as California gathered on the final weekend of January for a nonstop schedule of events, spanning from Friday afternoon through Sunday evening.
On Friday, at about 4:30 pm, people waited in the pre-registration and ticket lines for the convention to start. Many of them were dressed up as characters from their favorite anime shows or video games. The ratio of guys to girls was seemingly at least as high as it is for RPI as a whole, and women took to dressing up more than their male co-attendees by far. Staff members and volunteers rushed to get things in order before the convention opened promptly at 5 pm.
Following an introductory hour of anime screenings, the opening ceremony began. Introduced by the convention chair, sporting a power glove, Pac-Man wristband, Megaman t-shirt, and the ceremonial wizard’s hat, the short ceremony thanked those who made this 18th installment of the convention possible, and then let loose the attendees into the festivities. Immediately, the majority of the crowd rushed to the vendor rooms in hopes of grabbing the best deals before anyone else.
The DCC lecture halls were showing anime almost continually, while the Great Hall was filled with tables for board and card games, as well as a couple of games involving pyramids made of clear-colored plastic. Down on the second floor, one could find a number of rooms dedicated to role playing games, such as the popular Dungeons & Dragons.
The south wing of the CII housed the operations room, where radio-wielding staff members coordinated the events and made certain that all of them ran smoothly. Across the frigid causeway in the north wing were the vendor, panel discussion, art, and video game rooms. Vendors sold merchandise ranging from posters, imported DVDs and CDs from Japan, and figurines based on anime and video game characters, to recreations of chain mail and medieval jewelry.
Question and answer sessions concerning web comics and other topics were held in the panel room, while skilled and amateur artists left their work for display and auction in the art room upstairs. At the end of the hall was the expansive video game room, where almost every video game console from the Atari to the Xbox entertained con-goers. Friendly video game tournaments were common, including one for Dance Dance Revolution, a popular dancing game, sponsored by RPI’s own DDR club.
A highlight event of the convention was the cosplay competition, a first for Genericon this year. Cosplay, short for costume play, is where fans dress up as their favorite anime and video game characters, and often perform skits acting as those characters. Bowser from Super Mario Bros., Link of The Legend of Zelda, a Pokemon, and a group of characters from the popular Final Fantasy series among many others made appearances at the convention, and most entered into the competition. The show was run similarly to a fashion show, with some group entrants performing short sketches. While many competitors received certificates of excellence in a number of categories, a group of players called the Fruit Baskets, who were competing for the first time, won Best in Show. The award of Judge’s Choice went to one cosplayer dressed as Optimus Prime from the ‘80s cartoon show Transformers, whose costume drew the largest response from the crowd.
Other events included an anime trivia competition, and the Eye of Argon reading. The Eye of Argon is piece of science fiction with uncertain origins, fabled to appear mysteriously on the Internet. It is riddled with misspellings and other errors, and is considered one of the worst works ever produced by even the most accepting reviewers of the genre. The reading is a traditional event where participants rotate reciting passages, trying desperately to maintain a straight face and not stumble on the rocky sentences. UPAC Cinema contributed to the mood of the DCC on Saturday night by showing Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, a futuristic anime feature film released last year.
Genericon convened on Sunday evening for the closing ceremonies. The first order of business was the art auction. Throughout the weekend, attendees bid on pieces through a rolling auction. Any items with more than three bids, as well as others especially set aside by the artists, were sold in a classical vocal auction at the ceremony. One piece sold for more than $60. Awards were announced for the winners of the anime trivia competition, the Eye of Argon reading, and the video game tournaments. Finally, the ceremonial transfer of the wizard’s hat from chair to vice-chair took place, setting the stage for preparations to begin for Genericon XIX.
This year’s Genericon was very well attended, with over 300 preregistered guests and a total of 600 attendees. About 20 staff members and 22 volunteers worked the events. The high attendance is especially impressive considering that the date had recently been pushed ahead a week, putting it in direct competition with a number of other popular conventions in the Northeast. The Genericon staff aims to maintain its strong tie to RPI, from where most of its attendees come, but openly welcomes con-goers from all around.
The convention staff, under its Union funded parent organization, the Rensselaer Science Fiction Association, works for the entire year, and their hard work definitely paid off. The chairs of the last six Genericons were present, and the eldest of them commented that this was the most smoothly run convention he has seen. To make this happen, the staff is required to sleep for at least six hours during the convention, and are instructed to bathe and eat. This year’s chair, Sam Kaplan, said that working the convention is simply “lots of fun for the committee, or else we just wouldn’t do it.”
