CONVENTION REVIEW: ROC-CON 2014
Roc-Con was held at the Kodak event center on September 19, 2014 – September 21, 2014. A surprising crowd of people to be seen on Saturday – Friday looked dreadful with a low attendance count; which may have been due to the fact that Friday’s convention hours were from 5pm – 10pm. The line for at the Saturday’s door sales continued to get longer and didn’t seize until 2pm. Although this may have been good for the convention staff; not everything made passing marks.
Firstly, when I entered the Kodak event center on Friday, I was directed to get my pre-sale tickets I purchased ahead of time, but was not told to go back outside after I received tickets as the center was not open yet, so I was waiting for a friend near the restrooms, when one of the head staff (A short, older women with long dark hair in a ponytail) came up to be and was RUDE – stating that I couldn’t be where I was and to go outside, then trying to usher me forward. I got in that I was waiting for a friend to come out of the restroom. Still ushering me forward she said to go outside and wait there. One of the volunteer staff apologized for me (a women with short blue dyed hair and glasses) stating that she was just stressed out – firstly, if you are one of the head staff you should be NICE to all attendees regardless of how you are feeling – Try to be more professional! This was the start of my unimpressed experience.
If you are a convention stating “Sci fi, Comic books, Gaming and Anime Convention,” I expect EVERYTHING you have stated. To my disappointment all panels were Sci fi based. There were only a couple that was anime, but the lack of anime panels disturbed me. Most of the panels I read in the event book were boring.
Even the Video Gaming lounge was sad – a small area in the corner of the 3rd dealer room, with lack of decent games. The tournaments posted were a disgrace to the gaming community – I feel if there was Super Smash Bros., Street Fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom, Mario Kart – games such as these would have been successful tournaments.
Also, a Furry dance party….. In my opinion: LAME. The dance party should have just been a regular cosplay dance party – which it might have been; but because it stated “Furry dance party,” I did not want to attend.
I find it unreasonable that people had to pay, just to sit closer to the special guests at their panels. Then also had to pay just to get an autograph or a picture with the star – even more ridiculous is you had to pay just to get a photo with the star USING YOUR OWN CAMERA!
Although most of the convention was a disaster, there were some unexpected highlights:
The Button Basher’s booth in the 3rd dealer room; having become more interested in table top games, I was interested in what the game was about. Without giving away all the details, it is essentially “a card game modeled after popular arcade style fighting games.” There creators were very friendly, and were happy to explain in detail how the game was played. They stated if people didn’t understand everything, they had created some YouTube videos, with step by step instructions. If you are a table top game enthusiast I recommend Button Bashers; you can find them on Facebook, or http://www.multibitgames.com/ & https://squareup.com/market/multi-bit-games.
The Kingdom of Novitas LARP panel was interesting. I myself did not know what LARPing was until after attending this panel. They essentially explained the basics of LARPing, types of weapons/outfits to wear, why they prefer people over 18 years old; but some exceptions may apply to younger players, where and when they host LARPing sessions, and how one should go into detail when creating a background for their character. At the end they showed anyone from the audience who wanted to learn how to LARP fight – with actual LARP fights going on until the end of the panel. If you want to learn more about LARPing and attend some sessions (your first session is free); you can find the Kingdom of Novitas at http://kingdomsofnovitas.net/
The Vendor’s rooms were good – I did not know where one of the vendor rooms was until I was upstairs in the event center (The staff need better, more visible signs). They had comic book vendor’s, to anime, figurines, table top games, hand crafted jewelry, posters, to actual knives and swords.
Vic Micnogna – Had a Q&A panel along with him showing his most recent episode of “Star Trek Continues”. I had not met him until I went to the Panel and I must say, he is an awesome guy, very nice and engages himself with his fans. Along with his Q&A his had autograph sigings and photo ops throughout all 3 days.
All in all, I was not completely unsatisfied with my experience at Roc-Con, they could have done much better with events, panels, tournaments and over all organization. This felt like a mediocre convention; the bottom of the totem pole. In my opinion, they need to have a wider range of panels reaching out to more than sci fi fanatics – again if they state they are a “Sci fi, Comic books, Gaming, and Anime Convention,” then I expect and equal amount of everything. The only reason that made the Convention slightly more enjoyable was that I had attended with my friends. As to if I will attend next year: that is still up in the air.
