A large crowd of people gathered from Friday to Sunday at the DCC, and—ironically—it had nothing to do with classes! Genericon held its 21st anime, game, and sci-fi convention, drawing hundreds of guests—students from RPI and elsewhere—who roamed the Great Hall holding their conbooks at ready.
Because of the variety of anime, game, and sci-fi addicts that attend, Genericon has typically held a number of different panels, competitions, and film showings to cater to the fans. The Genericon staff also managed to invite special guests and experts of the trade, including comedian Karl Custer (“Uncle Yo”), who amused the crowd with anime and game jokes on Friday night and Saturday afternoon.
Friday night began with the opening ceremonies, with minor events happening in the CII. Uncle Yo entertained the crowd with his quick tongue and many humorous anime allusions. A few panels and small games also took place, including the traditional Eye of Argon reading, where prizes were awarded for whoever read the story longest without bursting into laughter.
On Saturday morning the events finally came into full swing, as most of the DCC and CII was reserved solely for Genericon. So many different events took place that it was practically impossible to go to each and every one of them, but the convention participants at least knew where to go with the schedules listed in their conbooks.
Out in the DCC Great Hall, numerous tables were set up and equipped with different board games. Players participated in strategy games such as “Risk” and “Blitz Diplomacy” as well as card games which included “Magic: The Gathering.” Prizes were awarded for teams and individual challenges.
CII 4050 was the headquarters for video games, which included various tournaments for fighting and arcade games. Some of the bigger tournaments included Tetris, Dance Dance Revolution, Halo 3, and Super Smash Brothers: Melee. There were others who also participated in a number of fighting games as well as Guitar Hero. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one room filled with so many different game consoles at the same time; from the old Super Nintendo to the Gamecube—there wasn’t much missing.
For the anime fans, DCC 318, 324, and 330 were reserved for various anime episodes and movies. Different genres were available for the audience, ranging from romance, to adventure, to comedy. There were shounen (targeted toward a male audience) and shoujo (targeted toward a female audience), as well as a mixture of things in between. Although the anime shown may not have appealed to everyone who attended, the Genericon staff did a pretty good job selecting a wide variety for the visitors. I’m pretty sure people thoroughly enjoyed watching Hayao Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke, Mamoru Hosoda’s The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, or Square-Enix’s Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children—even if they have already seen it for the umpteenth time. Grave of the Fireflies wasn’t bad either, but then again, I’ve always been a fan of almost anything Studio Ghibli-related.
Anime wasn’t the only thing shown in the DCC rooms, however. During the course of the weekend, a few science fiction movies were played to appease the fans. Some of these included George Romero’s classic horror film Night of the Living Dead and Vincent Price’s The Last Man on Earth, an old adaptation of the I Am Legend story.
On Saturday, DCC 308 and DCC 337 held trivia games for those who wanted to show off their vast knowledge on video games and anime. Questions included naming the anime that a certain tune came from, recognizing which image belonged to which video game, and knowing which character appeared in which anime or game. There was even an anime music video contest held on Saturday night, which gave the audience some amusement over the talented editing of those who mixed anime and music together.
There are many people who actually recognize the term RPG when it is mentioned (and for those who don’t, it stands for “role-playing game”), but LARPs are another story. LARP, short for “live-action role play,” consists of participants actually acting out roles they choose to play. Depending on the story, the number of participants ranges from 5–50 and certain LARPs are geared towards those of any age or those for teens and adults only. Some of the ones in this year’s Genericon contained stories that took place in the 25th century, in an apocalyptic environment, and even on the RPI campus itself.
The RPG rooms themselves held different games for convention-goers to participate in. This included the annual PanReality Scavenger Hunt in CII 4003 and CII 5003, which was one of the Dungeons and Dragons-based games that took place in the convention. There were other Dungeon and Dragons-style games running throughout the convention, though not all of them required players to be thoroughly experienced. There were even those RPG games where the instructions were given on the spot, so as to give novices a chance to begin their first try at role play.
The cosplaying event is usually what piques the interest of the curious non-convention goers—or, if it didn’t pique their interest, it probably scared them a bit. Cosplaying is pretty much dressing up as an anime, manga, or video game character. The contest that took place in Genericon gave prizes to novice and expert levels of those participants who sewed their costumes to its minute detail. There were also a few skits performed as part of the cosplay event.
If all the aforementioned events weren’t enough, there were definitely panels strewn across the DCC and CII that should have kept the interest of the various attendees. Some of them included a plushie-making workshop, panels on how to create successful webcomics, and advice on writing science fiction. By 9 pm on Saturday, a few attendees were participating in a little kareoke, singing Japanese songs all night long.
Of course, no Genericon could be complete without the vendors and visiting artists selling their merchandise. Attendees hovered over tables poring over posters, wallscrolls, bookmarks, and even manga novels throughout the convention. The artists stationed themselves in separate rooms, selling artwork they drew on the spot as well as hand-made bookmarks and prints.
On Saturday night, the McNeil Room was also overtaken by Genericon, as FuMP (Funny Music Project) performed satirical songs for the visitors. The crowd increased by the time Echostream—a band from New Jersey—arrived on stage.
With the huge list of events during Genericon, it’s a wonder that people managed to sleep at all!
