I want to take this opportunity to invite everyone within travelling distance of D.C. to register for and attend MAGFest VII. I have gone to MAGFest for the last three years, and fully intend to make the pilgrimage again this year.
MAGFest (formerly the “Mid-Atlantic Gaming Festival”; now the “Music and Gaming Festival”) is the greatest weekend of the year for anyone that enjoys video games. Unlike other video game conventions, MAGFest focuses on the gamer and the fun aspects of video games. You will find a handful of vendors at the festival, but the place is not overrun by them. For that matter, many of the vendors at the festival are incredibly unique, rather than the standard collection of guys selling really expensive imported video games (though, there are usually one or two of those, too).
One of my absolute favorite vendors every year is a guy who calls himself Fizzman. He makes the most amazing video game-inspired sculptures. There are also quite a few other artists that show up to sell their wares during the weekend.
Basically, MAGFest is just a weekend of fun. They offer just about any video game you can imagine, ranging from original Ataris and ColecoVision systems up to the latest equipment for the Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360. They also usually have between five and 10 arcade units set up around the gaming room. They have a LAN room for those of you that are into PC-based gaming. They have tabletop gaming so that you can play card-based games like Magic, Pokemon or Yugioh and you can play classic board games like Risk.
There are scores of official tournaments with cool prizes.
You’ll also find a great selection of musical artists playing video game-inspired concerts each night.
To cap off the weekend, they always hold a really cool auction, offering all kinds of stuff ranging from the incredibly silly to the absolutely sublime.
If you are anywhere near D.C. and you even remotely enjoy video games, I urge you to check out MAGFest this year. The price is absolutely unbelievable for the value you get.