The weekend of July 28, the Classic Gaming Expo took place at the Riviera Hotel and Casino in fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada. The CGE is something of a black sheep in the world of video game events. Even though it covers a specialty niche, it’s not an industry event like GDC, and it’s not a player’s event like PAX. CGE is a collector’s event.
And yet, it’s not a collector’s event like Comic-Con, which took place the very same week in San Diego. Comic-Con is a media event, attended by throngs of diverse attendees: cosplay weirdos, rare issue dorks, and ordinary fans alike. Today, Comic-Con is as much about seeing Joss Whedon or Ron Moore as it is finding issue #1 of Fraggle Rock. CGE caters mostly to the rare issue dork-type of attendee, collectors of classic video games and accessories. And that’s really too bad, because it could be so much more.