User:MyNameWasTaken/MAGFest

MAGFest (Music and Gaming Festival, originally the Mid-Atlantic Gaming Festival) is an annual convention held in the DC metro area (formerly Virginia, most notably Alexandria, but most recently in National Harbor, Maryland) that celebrates video games and video game music, as well as their surrounding culture. MAGFest's primary features are a large open video gaming room, a hall of arcade cabinets, concerts by chiptune artists and video game cover bands, and a Bring Your Own Computer (BYOC) LAN Party. MAGFest 10 took place at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, MD from January 5 to 8, 2012.

Attractions
MAGFest's arcade hall and console room are open 24 hours a day. The hallway contains dozens of cabinets, ranging from vintage shoot 'em ups to contemporary Japanese candy cabinets. Additionally, the console room houses dozens of televisions and attached game consoles, where guests are invited to play at will and each station's game is periodically swapped with a different one from a game library.

The concert area hosts several nightly performances of video game music and related works. Many luminaries of video game music fan culture have performed at MAGFest. Previous bands include Minibosses, Powerglove, the NESkimos, the Advantage and Chromelodeon.

Other major attractions include guest panels from the video game industry such as Sid Meier and Jon St. John, and from video game fan sites such as OverClocked ReMix. Filmmakers such as X-Strike Studios, Main Moon Productions, PBC Productions, and There Will Be Brawl, have also appeared at the event. MAGFest has also included intellectually-driven panels such as "Game Studies 101" where attendees were given a basic introduction to the manner in which scholars study video games.

Additionally, MAGFest features an open mic stage, a large LAN party environment, a film screening room, a tabletop gaming room, vendors, contests like "name-that-tune," and a video game "challenge booth" where players can "try to tackle insanely difficult gaming feats for prizes of all sorts."

Press

 * Destructoid review of MAGFest 6
 * PBC Productions' MAGFest 6 Montage