photo courtesy of www.shininghalf.com

This is one of the characters from Mage Duel, a role-playing game (RPG). Anime is often associated with these games, and it refers to a style of Japanese animation.

Alma Otaku and Gamers gather with other fans at convention in Mt. Pleasant

LAURA SACHJEN

Staff Writer

Saturday’s second annual MiCon Gaming and Anime Convention at CMU’s University Center in Mt. Pleasant proved to be a success for the Alma College Okatu and Gamers and all who attended the event.

Attendance doubled this year, with more than 100 people in attendance, and organizers would like to see attendance triple for next year’s convention. “Whether or not we turned a profit,” ACOG vice president Jen Bussell (05) said, “it was still a good success and everyone is excited for next year.”

There were a number of Anime and gaming related events at the convention. Upon entering the building, patrons found themselves in a large room filled with about 10 vendors selling gaming supplies and memorabilia.

In the middle of the room there was a large screen set up where AMVs (Anime music videos) were shown. People take clips from Anime films and set them to any kind of music. In smaller adjacent rooms, games were played. Some of them were set up before the event started, while other games were impromptu. A few titles of some of the games played were 7th Sea, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, and Mage Duel.

Ian Jarrad (06) ran a Dungeons and Dragons tournament. “The tourney went much smoother than last year,” he said, “and there were some great door prizes.”

Anime films were shown all day in another room. My Neighbor Totoro, Techni Muyo in Love, and Jin Roh were a few of the films presented during the day.

While not very many people new to gaming attended the event, organizers stressed that non-gamers are always welcome at events like these ones. ACOG members have big hopes for the success of next year’s convention. “It had much bigger and better attendance than last year,” Lissa Snowdon (05) said. “Hopefully it will be better next year.”

Nate Harris (06) also thinks that more is in store for the gaming convention in coming years. “It has the potential to become a large event that could become well-known,” Harris said. Gaming enthusiast Susan Dalgarn (05) had never been to any kind of gaming convention before Saturday’s event, and she enjoyed going. “I met a lot of nice people,” Dalgarn said.

For those who don’t know, gaming refers to role-playing games. Players either make up their own characters or have them pregenerated according to the person who runs the game. Each game has different rules and guidelines. Play is only verbal, and players roll a dice to move the story and their characters along. Anime is Japanese animation, and an “Okatu” is an Anime enthusiast.

ACOG started two years ago as a way for gam-ers on campus to get together and share their com-mon interests. With events like the MiCon gaming convention, ACOG is still doing what it set out to do two years ago.

Top