I took the day off today to attend the Gamestop Expo at The Sands Expo. While I am excited to be here - I woke up 2 hours earlier than my alarm to get ready - I am also alone. I invited Vince to come along with me but he declined. It was a stuffy convention for gamers from a company that prides itself on pre-orders and store credit; why would he go through the trouble of going to it when he can read about it online? That's not what he said but I would imagine that would be his reason.
That and he just got Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain yesterday. So he has that going for him.
I'll be doing updates and taking a few pics for the rest of the day. Right now I'm eating a protein breakfast (chicken breast, egg white omelette, and tomatoes) at the Grand Lux cafe.
----------
Warning: Incoming fangirl train of thought
I'm getting a weird feeling that Dean Ambrose will not be here. I saw pics of The Ryback at the 2K booth and Stan Lee at the Lego Avengers booth last night, and neither guests were announced to be there. Maybe this was for the Gamestop staff and managers? The main roster is off on Wednesdays and Thursdays. I'll probably leave early if he's not here.
----------
So, I'm super early. Doors open at 9:30 am for VIP and 11:00 am for General Admission. I was so close to wanting to upgrade to VIP but I don't know if paying nearly three times the GA ticket price for a swag bag and early access would be worth it. I spent more for the Hello Kitty Friendship Festival VIP ticket than on the merchandise I bought from the store. I have 2 hours until the doors open O_O The VIP line to get in is freaking looooooooooong.
----------
9:40 am
Dammit, I should've been doing the timestamps. I'm currently waiting in the general admission line and we're all watching the VIP (wearing the black rubber wristbands) making their way in. I had no idea that they extended the line all the way downstairs! People are still making their way upstairs and through the front doors. I shouldn't regret not spending that much for the VIP package but getting in 1.5 hours earlier seems worth the expense. Ughh....
----------
10:15 am
The "line" for General Admission turned into a squished group of people against the wall. At least I'm near the front. There's a weird mix of the Expo being extremely cold and body heat being emanated from the surrounding people. It's uncomfortably comfortable.
Vince would've hated this.
----------
2:25 pm
I'm gonna try to type this while it's still on my mind...
The General Admission group was finally ready to go in. I went straight for the 2K booth and saw a line forming around the booth. Turns out it was for the NBA basketball player (I didn't bother with remembering his name, sorry) who was doing the signing from 11 am to 1 pm. Dean was not scheduled to arrive until 1 pm. I decided to just go around and try the demos.
I went over to the Nintendo booth. Ther booth was right across from 2K so I can keep an eye and see if a line starts forming for 1 pm. I tried out Yokai Watch on the 3DS, which is going to overtake Pokemon pretty soon in the U.S. The gameplay was more sophisticated than Pokemon's turn based system and the art direction is what you expect from Level-5 (which is uniquely quirky). Then I tried out the new Yoshi game where it everything was made of yarn. It was light fun and really cute but also way way too easy. I got a free Pokemon dungeon pin with Pikachu after playing.
I went over to the Pokemon TCG booth and saw so many plushies, including cosplay Pikachu! Sadly, they were only giving them away in a raffle. I could still get it at thepokemoncenter website.
Speaking of which, there actually wasn't a lot of things to buy, even at the ThinkGeek store (which Gamestop bought out recently). Funko was there but they were exhibiting their upcoming lineup of vinyl toys. I thought I would go on a spending spree but I didn't, yet I feel like I should've bought something while I was there.
A little past noon, I started to fall in line at the 2K booth, which wrapped around the front entrance where the NBA player was signing earlier. I ended up talking to a nice gentleman named Michael who was a wrestling fan, and eventually talked to Tomas, a former coworker I knew from Century Theaters at Sam's Town (my first job when I moved to Vegas). Micheal and I talked at length about the current WWE storylines and he shared some of the pics he took from Wrestlemania 31. He drove all the Cali to go to the 2K booth signing. As for Tomas, he sorta of remembered me - he knew my name started with an "S" - and he still works there at Century Theaters. Turns out he's also a wrestling fan. Anyways, we noticed the staff placed one of those rope thingies next to us at the back corner of the booth. No one else was falling in line behind us anymore. Then, the signing table was moved right in front of us. That's when we learned that we were not wrapping around the other side of the booth, we were actually THE FIRST PEOPLE IN LINE. We totally lucked out! Micheal felt bad and wanted to move to the end of the line but the others said, "Screw it. We're not giving up our spot now."
Then security told us to step back as DEAN AMBROSE WALKED TOWARDS THE TABLE AND SAT IN THE CHAIR RIGHT NEXT TO US. I literally uttered, "ohmygod," because it was happening so quickly.
Michael asked me if I wanted to go first and I said, "No, you go first!" which he was more than happy to. After Michael was done, Dean left the table to take a picture with the NBA basketball player for promotional media stuff. Then I was next. I didn't want a repeat from WonderCon, where I was too stunned to really say anything to Dean. This is how our conversation went, to the best of my recollection:
Dean: "Hey."
Me: "Hi, Mr. Ambrose!"
(I don't know why I politely addressed him like that; I'm a year older than him O_O)
Dean: "Hey girl. How you doing?"
Me: "Good! Welcome back to Vegas."
Dean: "Aww thanks. It's my kind of town."
**poses for pic taken with my phone then goes to sign the W2K16 autograph card with a silver sharpie**
Dean: **groans** "This pen sucks!"
**keeps redoing his autograph**
Me: "Eeh, it's fine."
**hands card to me**
Dean: "You take care, all right?"
Me: "Thanks. You too!"
**I smile and walked away, then desperately tried to figure out how to preserve his autograph**
----------
4:45 pm
Just got home. I had an average tasting beef shwarma from the Venetian food court while typing out the above entry earlier. I'm not feeling so good. Maybe it's because I woke up super early for the Expo, spent 3 hours waiting till 11:00 am hit, and then I spent another 3 hours walking around there.
I got to play Mighty No. 9 and the upcoming Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree's Woe and the Blight Below at the Square Enix booth. I saw new figures for Disney Infinity 3.0 (Mulan is th next princess Vince has to get). Lego Dimensions looks great, even though I'm only going to get the Doctor Who figures. I kept going around the exhibit floor to see if I can find that walking Pikachu mascot from last night's Expo but I guess that was for the staff too.
All in all, the Gamestop Expo was fine, it was no different from last year's Playstation Experience. I spent more money on food than on the merchandise. Again. And I got to see Dean Ambrose. Again :D
I got to play Mighty No. 9 and the upcoming Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree's Woe and the Blight Below at the Square Enix booth. I saw new figures for Disney Infinity 3.0 (Mulan is th next princess Vince has to get). Lego Dimensions looks great, even though I'm only going to get the Doctor Who figures. I kept going around the exhibit floor to see if I can find that walking Pikachu mascot from last night's Expo but I guess that was for the staff too.
All in all, the Gamestop Expo was fine, it was no different from last year's Playstation Experience. I spent more money on food than on the merchandise. Again. And I got to see Dean Ambrose. Again :D
I'll edit this with more pictures soon.
----------
6:43 pm
Yay! My Instagram pic ended up on Ambrose-Images and without my permission, although I am credited! I'm gonna humblebrag and say that my pic looks different from the current submissions because of the better lighting and I included his autograph card thingy.
I must buy a new picture frame!
I must buy a new picture frame!
No comments:
Post a Comment