Call a spade, a spade and a club, a club but no matter how you identify a card, its suit will always follow. A name or even a title is a powerful thing. It gives off this impression of expectations revolving around that name or title and while overcoming these expectations is always a good thing, failing to reach it would oftentimes lead to somewhat consequential results.
Before anything else though, let’s talk about the event space here in the Philippines and why having a successful major gaming event matters.
Conventions or major gatherings are the cornerstone of a community and as of the moment the gaming community or rather gaming as a whole doesn’t really have that sort of event. Toys have Toycon and Cosplay has Cosmania among other cosplay events and even books and literature have the Manila International Book fair. What these events have in common is it attracts community members from all parts of the Philippines and even overseas, has spectacles related to their niche whether it be a guest, activities or attractions and most importantly, it stays true to its name.
Adding a country to the event name or even international adds to the prestige and whether you like it or not, should be judged as such. The Philippine Game Show with all honesty ticks all of the boxes mentioned previously but not to the point where it would have a passing mark. It’s not all doom and gloom though but it’ll all make sense when you remember it’s the Philippine GAME Show.
World Class Production Value
Across all three days of the event, there’s no doubting the amount of starpower present and if the stage wasn’t telling of the degree of the performance quality that was about to come I don’t know what is. Normally stages would just be a rectangle but they had a full on thrust stage or t shaped stage where the performers could have a deeper connection with the audience. I didn’t even know a stage show in SMX Aura with fog jets was possible but it sure did make the performances stand out even more and that’s not even taking into the lighting, sound design and even the staff and videography involved during the event.
A Great Showing for Local and International Talent
Cosplayers, Musicians and Cosfluencers from all over also came out in droves as guests in the event. Imagine the finals for the World Cosplay Summit was held in the Philippine Game Show with it also having its own competitions in Animelody Star, Cosplay Champions, Cosplay Talent Showcase and the Ultimate Idol for Solo performers and groups. Each performance was on its own level for sure with the finals culminating at the Philippine Game Show itself.
International Cosplayers and Performers also graced the stage with their charisma being amplified by the crowd especially during the third day. Headlining guests like Marika Kohno just took control of the crowd and saying the energy wasn’t world class during her session would be a discredit to how great it was. Other performers like Kamen Joshi, Miura Ayme ft. Miko, and Super Macaroni Salad were also amazing and you were missing out if you weren’t able to see their performances live.
The local talent was also no slough with the hosts Lucee and Rajee having their A-game all throughout and Davao based idol group Pastel Mix and the Filipino Final Fantasy group Squeenix Productions showed just how much they love their craft.
Opportunities only PGS Could Give
Did you know that fanmeets aren’t actually common practice in Japan especially once a talent becomes established or gets more renowned? This was news to me as I caught up with a colleague that would often frequent Japan to support their Oshi. The Philippine Game Show offered a fanmeet during days 2 and 3 of the event for Marika Kohno and it finally clicked when one such fan flew all the way to the Philippines just to attend said fanmeet and return back to Japan on the next day.
It’s this sort of event that makes you realize how it really is for fans and having a mini stage where the performers and other guests could be interacted with for free mind you, is a nice touch. Sure there’s the option to attend fanmeets as well but when the stars align and the schedules are free, you could even see them twice.
Games?
Notice how until now I never really talked about games. It’s not like there aren’t any games present as they could be found on the second floor with a couple of card games and booths found on the main floor of the SMX convention center. As a generous description, you could even say around 20% of the event actually revolved around games but the thing is, this event is called the Philippine GAME Show.
The lack of focus towards games hurt the event in a way that going into it as a fan without knowing what was happening might just leave that fan disappointed. Better yet, if you call the event anything other than the Philippine Games Show like say the Philippine Idol Festival it’d make more sense but the branding was confusing. I’d scour the halls across 3 days but there just wasn’t enough gaming involved to warrant the event.
Quality of Life and Logistics
Speaking of the event quality, let’s remove the name debacle as for all intents and purposes, it was still an enjoyable affair. Event announcements and details were oftentimes distributed on their social media pages at the last moment. Normally you’d get a floor layout a week prior and schedule early on to allow guests that know about the event to prepare but literally hours before the event itself? There’s even the lack of official PGS Merch that could’ve been helpful like maybe t-shirts, lanyards or even glow sticks considering the guest performers present.
Apart from the last minute nature of the event announcements, one concern is the lack of announcements in general and possibly even the lack of organization at the venue. You wouldn’t know that there was a second floor with more at the event and the lack of signages was apparent. It’s kinda ironic as well considering that most of the gaming at the event was found on the second floor and wasn’t really as advertised. It’s quite a shame as well considering there was a full on sticker area with the Sticky Expo which could’ve been highlighted more.
Addressing the elephant in the room
While the Philippine Game Show was taking place, and games weren’t as present, there was one particular booth that caught my attention. It isn’t hard to catch especially with it being seen from the onset of the venue’s entrance but its presence was somewhat of a disturbance and that was the PlayTime booth. It’s kinda ironic that there weren’t as many game booths on the first floor but gambling of all things being out there front and center just isn’t a good look for the Philippine Game Show especially for its first outing. Adding to that, it doesn’t help the event’s reputation to the online crowd especially with the Philippines cracking down on gambling as a whole recently.
It’s the circumstances surrounding gambling at a gaming event that make its appearance more of a hindrance rather than a full on burden but looking back, there were measures taken to keep it that way. Its participation was wiped from the social media profiles of the page and there were little to no advertisements for it during the event outside of the booth and its staff itself. The fact that PlayTime is actually licensed by PAGCOR or the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation should be telling that at least it fights fair
There comes a time when a discourse would have to be made between the public’s perception on gambling but to boycott an event for having a gambling presence while celebrating an event for being in the presence of gambling like with some of the recent events in Okada shows how much of a double standard it really is.
Closing Time
After all that’s said and done, the Philippine Games Show was still a fun event albeit with a couple of hiccups here and there. It may be a bit costly at 700 Pesos per day or 1,000 Pesos if bought on the day itself but the performances were worth it even warranting a solid 7/10 as an event if you don’t know what event you’re walking into. Reality can be a bit disappointing though as knowing that it’s a gaming convention leads you to have expectations on what could and should be there and that’s games.
It’s a 4/10 event in the context of being a gaming event and the definition of gaming is already loose here including music, and culture among other things. It doesn’t help that there are established events that follow the same template of Placeholder Game Show like the Thailand Game Show and the Tokyo Game Show but not all events are perfect on the first outing and I’m sure the next Philippine Game Show will be even better on its next incarnation. If it doesn’t work out, at least it’s a great idol event!
