Kritiek Aster — rAge 2013

Olivetti 45 — The views, the news and iconic graphics of the annual really Awesome gaming expo (rAge) as hosted by the NAG magazine at the Coca Cola Dome had this Astertjie sleeplessly submerged in the gaming world over the past weekend.

Launched in 2002, the 11th annual rAge Expo prepared for more than 30 000 visitors and 2000 LANers (the bleeksiele that make a trip of the weekend expo and stay overnight to complete a gaming bonanza of 52 hours).

Yes, the food was expensive. As it goes with every single exposition you’ll ever attend. But between myself and gamers SputNic and Br1dge, we saw to the regular consumption of R24.95 breakfasts at Maxi’s and R30 – R35 lunches and dinners at Spur, King Pie and who knows where else at the nearby Northgate Mall. We were too tired, too hyped and our minds too distracted to really care. Let me break expo food down for you — cans of cold drink at an average of R17 per can, chocolate bars at an average of R8, chips at an average of R20 per (tiny) serving and mini doughnuts (I guess it’s considered food?) at a staggering R22 for 12. The bargain — R20 for a 2 litre Coke — was a favourite choice. We had those jool plastic cups ready for it. McDonald’s saved us at 3 am when the stomachs grumbled and your fellow gamers just didn’t let you sleep.

As SputNic once told me, for rAge, you’re expected to have ticket money, food money and Coke money. He even made a list, listing himself as the number one thing you simply cannot attend without.

But was it a blast!

The real deal about this whole event is that you’re supplied with free, fast internet (that doesn’t lag) and wifi. Between us we uploaded about 2 terabytes of files to share and downloaded a brilliant 23 terabytes of just… stuff. I won’t have time enough to watch all these pirated movies, play the games and listen to the music before the next rAge. The other advantage that us bleeksiele made use of was the exposure to the latest or upcoming gaming consoles and new game titles.

I’m talking Watch Dogs with the added bonus of one of the European developers giving you a walk-through of the game.

Call of Duty: Ghosts.

Battlefield 4.

Xbox One (or it’s unfortunate nickname, xbone).

Playstation 4.

We LANed until we passed out on our keyboards or under our desks, playing non-stop Call of Duty: Modern Warfare co-ops and endless games of Dota 2 and League of Legends.

Oh, the babes. Yes, the bleeksiele had tons of smoking hot girls to gawk at with the Cosplay competition on Saturday 5 October. Cosplay, my dear Roodepoorters, is a fun nerdy activity where girls and guys dress up as their favourite video game characters and animé (japanese cartoon) characters. These girls had obscene amounts of next-to-nothing on, some of them even body painted to make up comic book-like impressions of characters. How proud am I to announce that one of my close friends, Lauren, a fairly new Cosplayer, won a prize for her impression of a Bleach character. One girl even made the smart move of dressing up as Roxy, NAG’s own rAge character, complete with pink hair.

I overcame my own fears of Slender, a first person horror game, by posing for photos with a guy that dressed up just like the legendary Slender Man. I’m serious that it’s scary — some people get very drunk to play this game. Refer to YouTube for proof.

If only I could have given you a guided tour and photographs of the event, I would. (Although I’d prefer not to show all of them, I’m sleepless and thus terrible-looking but also, my state made for some blurry pictures).

Excited, yet? You should’ve gone.

Gamers might be considered an icky subculture but even your little brother plays Fifa 20-whatever. Join us.