Genericon 2014 Review

Hey everybody!

You know what....I love cons! I love their history, the people, and over all the amazingly positive vibes I feel when I’m at one. Not too long ago, I went to the convention that started it all. Genericon!

Starting in the mid/late 80s as a science fiction convention, Genericon has since evolved with the times, incorporating anime, videos games, webcomics, artists, and other geeky elements. Today, the convention is still run by the students of R.P.I., and it still has that humble spirit that it had when it first started in the 80s. This year’s Genericon was considerably special for me, since I’ve now been going to it for 5 years. I’ll also have been going to Connecticon for 5 years this summer, but that review will come much later.

In the meantime, I wanted to post up something extra this week, and since Genericon 2014 is now almost a week past, I thought it was only appropriate that a review of the convention was in order. So, as a treat for you all, here’s my review of Genericon 2014. Have fun!

Good Things
Where to begin, that’s the question. Well, for starters, how bout the locale!?

Genericon is contained within just a few building. Around four, if I remembered correctly. The main building contains the con ops, artist alley, Magic the Gathering tables, Jazzman’s Café (Good food, btw), panel & viewing rooms, etc. It’s all surprisingly organized, especially when it gets packed with people. There also the gaming building, split into traditional gaming & video gaming. I don’t go into the game rooms much anymore, mostly because I prefer playing games in the main building. There’s the stage building, where some of the smaller panels take place, and the dealer’s room, a place to congregate & get some great swag (This year’s was a little lacking, but I’ll get to that in a second). Although this doesn’t look like a large convention, it is a humble one (Ironic, given that last year’s Genericon reached the 2000 attendant mark).

Next up is the convention staff. Let me tell you, these guys are some of the most helpful people on the planet! When I was having problems with setting up my panel, they were really great with helping me out. If you want to have a smooth & fun convention, be sure to treat the con-staff with respect. Trust me, if you’re in a situation, you might need their help!

Another thing that made this year’s Genericon great was the variety of panels. There was always something going on. There was Cosplay Chess, Clay-O-Rama, my panel on the companies of Borderlands 2 (The first panel I’ve ever hosted!), and a host of geeky things to do! Even on Sunday (It’ll get to this in a bit) there was fun to be hand.

A strange positive about Genericon (regardless of the year) is the food. There are plenty of restaurants nearby, mainly pizza, sushi, sandwiches, etc. I generally don’t go to them, because I prefer to keep my money at the con, but there’s been plenty of times where people have given me bits & pieces, and it’s actually really good. On a side note, Jazzman’s Café has some incredibly inexpensive stuff. The highest price food/drink items range anywhere from 5 to 8 something dollars, which is really easy on the wallet. There is also the R.P.I. cafeteria, which has good food also, but is a little more expensive (I think the price ranges from 8 to about 9 ½ dollars).

A surprising positive about Genericon (regardless of the year) is the cosplay. You’d expect that a college convention would have just okay cosplayers, but not this convention. I have seen some of the greatest costumes at this convention. This year had some really great costumes, including:

- Wonder Woman
- Old Spice Sage
- Joker (Great costume, and imitates the character perfectly)
- The spirit from Spirited Away
- The cast from Futurama
- Jack Skellington (Btw, this cosplayer was a 10-year old kid, walking around on 3-foot stilts like an expert)
These are just a couple of the cosplayers I met at the con. There were hordes of cosplayers all over the place: some complex & beautiful, and other more simplistic yet fun.

My last positive about the con is something that you’d normally expect, and that’s the people. There are always some cool people you’ll meet at this convention. The artists, panel hosts, convention staff, you’d name it: the people you’ll meet at Genericon are some of the kindest, most helpful, and loving (I mean that) geeks/nerds/otakus on the planet!

Complaints
Ironically enough, I had very little to complain about this year’s con. They really hit just about everything out of the ballpark. Sadly, there were two things I found a little subpar. For starters, I found the dealer’s room to a little sparse this year. I won’t pitch a massive fit, as I actually kinda understand why there weren’t that many dealers. Originally, Genericon was supposed to be in the middle of February (14th to 16th), but due to scheduling conflicts, it was instead pushed to the end of February/beginning of March. I get that there weren’t many vendors because of the scheduling changes, but at the same time it would have been smart to have some backup vendors incase anyone couldn’t make it, or at the very least have a vendor or two on call to take up an empty spot.

This other problem I have is one that a fair amount of Genericon visitors have, and that’s the lack of things on Sunday. This isn’t to say that there aren’t things to do: it’s just that there isn’t much to do. I only went to about 2/4 things, and that was really it. As a suggestion, space out all of the activities evenly amongst all three days. That way, there’s stuff to do on everyday of the weekend!

Overall Impression & Rating
If you don’t like big spaces with tons of people, Genericon is the convention for you. It’s large enough to fit a bunch of stuff in, but not large enough that it’s overwhelming. There’s definitely plenty of people at this convention, but there isn’t so many people that you encounter Genghis Khan’s Mongolian Horde. I have some personal connection with this con (And the people within), so perhaps that makes me a little biased, but I mean it with all sincerity that this is one of the best conventions on the east coast. So if you want a great con with not that many strings attached, give Genericon a chance!

Genericon 2014 gets a 9 out of 10

See you all next week. Until then, stay Otaku!

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If you’d like to look at a (short) history of the convention, take a look at the link below.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genericon