Convention Report – Anime Expo 2013

I attended Anime Expo 2013 July 4 thru July 7 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.  Anime Expo is a convention that is focused on Japanese Animation, which is one of my interests outside of tabletop gaming.  There were over 61,000 attendees at this year’s Anime Expo, which makes it the largest Anime convention in the United States and the second largest fan convention on the West Coast behind San Diego Comic-Con.

Outside the Entertainment Hall at Anime Expo 2013

I am sure you are wondering why I am writing a review about Anime Expo in blog about tabletop games.  It is because this year Anime Expo made a huge effort in the gaming genre overall with the introduction of the Entertainment Hall.

Inside the Entertainment Hall was a large area set aside for table top gaming.  When I say a large area, I mean that the square footage set aside for table top gaming rivals the size of the gaming space at most small and medium local or regional gaming conventions I have attended.

There were a couple of game companies represented in the tabletop gaming area.  Japanime Games, the company behind Tanto Cuore, had a presence there. They were doing demos of their game, Kanzume Goddess and KrosMaster: Arena as well as Tanto Curore. The local club for Wyrd Miniatures game Malifaux, Socal Malifaux, was doing demos of Malifaux as well.

The Japanime Games Area

There were only a few scheduled events throughout the convention.  On Thursday there was a Settlers of Catan Tournament.  On Friday they had a Big Eyes, Small Mouth (BESM) Tournament of Champions, the first round of a Cosplay Poker Tournament, and a Weiss Schwartz event.  Saturday had a Yu-Gi-Oh Battlecon, a Munchkin event, and the second round of the Cosplay Poker Tournament.  On Sunday there was a Pokemon tournament.  There were also a number of Magic events throughout the weekend.

There was also a library of games available.  Unfortunately there was not much of a variety of games in the library.  It mostly consisted of a number of copies of Settlers of Catan, House on Betrayal Hill, Cards Against Humanity, and a handful of party games.

I was disappointed that there was not much in the way of anime and Japan related games available or scheduled.  It would have been great to see a Battletech or Mechwarrior event on the miniatures side of things or people playing Samurai, Shogun, or Yedo board games.

A Malifaux Battle Scene

The problem they had this year had everything to do with the fact that they did not handle the transition from having a few hundred square feet of space in a room at the back of the convention to having a few thousand square feet where they could run multiple major events as the same time and have room to spare for open gaming. 

It was also painfully obvious that the staff did not have the mind set beyond what they would do when they only had the small space of previous years.  I spent a number of hours in between panels and views in the tabletop gaming area and the half dozen staff members would just sit at their headquarters area the entire time I was there and really did not make themselves accessible to the players.  This is not to say they were rude or mean to people.  They just did not move from their station and engage people of any of the gamers or companies representatives while I was there.  This is the type of behavior you would expect from a staff that was running an oh and gaming room(as in oh and our convention has gaming as well), not what Anime Expo had set up for them this year.

While the Tabletop Gaming area did not make this a destination event for tabletop gamers this year by any sense of the imagination, it was a definite step forward for Anime Expo for what they had in the past.  Provided they continue to try to get support for the tabletop gaming communities local to them, there is lots of potential in the future for this venture.  I will be definitely keeping an eye on it.