SDCC Roundup: Gam3rCon

Kari wrote an article about what to expect for Gam3rcon a few weeks ago, which helped when I went to check it out.

I’ve been involved in Gam3rCon in one way or another for the past three years. It started off with an ill-fated rooftop party that involved getting hot tubs on the roof for a nerdcore show, but that story is for another time.

This year was a big year for Gam3rCon and there were many internal changes that could have easily brought the con to a halt, but instead the changes made for another great year. Due to their increasingly successful and busy lives, two founders of Gam3rcon, Walt Meyer and Brian Bielawski had made the decision last year to release some of the responsibility of the convention to a few new vice-chairs: Benja Johnson, William Morgan and Josh Stolze.

“I think they did great,” said Meyer. “There were glitches and dropped balls, of course, but it ran better and was far more successful than any previous Gam3rcon.”

As with years previous there were rooms dedicated to table top gaming, video games, theater, panels and the roof top with entertainment. Last year the main theater area was taken over by LanDiego with a huge console gaming set up and the 8-bit cubist art gallery on the second floor showcased gaming industry professionals’ fine art.

For rooftop entertainment Kirby’s Dream Band and Radioactive Chicken Heads were among the musical highlights while comedians AJ Salas, Ron Swallow and Andre from Black Nerd Comedy kept the con lighthearted and fun.

After working with Gam3rcon throughout the year I am always excited to stop by and see everything they are working on and to see them moving on up in the world.

I love seeing the convention grow. The past two years Gam3rcon has come in every month for the Nerdcore Nightmare showcase I host in San Diego. They set up their gaming station to promote Gam3rcon and when the convention comes around I host panels and have industry professionals come in to do presentations.

This year I gave a presentation on Nerdcore and was able to inform convention goers on the tenants of nerdcore, its history and how artists navigate the current state of the music industry.

Attendees also got to hear my favorite story of my prowess as a three-year-old Street Fighter champion in my house that started me on my path to nerd-dom. It was later pointed out to me that if I had kept with it, I may have been able to overtake Daigo Umehara today.

I’m sure by next year Gam3rcon will be able to overtake both myself and Daigo Umehara.