Movie Jabber Play Experience: What went down.

 

In Kenya, video game conventions or any pop culture conventions at not that new in the country and they are becoming more each year. So, if you get the chance to attend one, go for it, because it is hella fun. 

On Saturday 29th April 2023, I got the chance to attend the anticipated Video Game Convention. The Movie Jabber Play event, hosted by Movie Jabber was held at the Sarit Expo Center, bringing a clan of gamers, cosplayers and nerds of all areas to one place just to compete, show out and have some fun. Many attendees arrived at the location as early as 9 AM, waiting for the doors to be opened at 10 AM. The attendees were mostly in their late teens to twenties and the least were kids and pre-teens. 

The Vibe 

Arriving at the scene, it was buzzing with a lot of youthful vibes all around. I appreciated the fact that these kinds of events happening at this time and age since most of us in our childhood days never got to experience such conventions in the country. One old adult could really become a kid again by exploring the comic stalls and the figurine stalls, just wandering around. For Anime fans, they got to dress up as their favourite characters, and gamers also got to do cosplay and more fun-packed stuff. If you are wondering if any was any sight of tech at the event, yes, it was there. 

Tournaments 

The Convection hosted a few tournaments for players interested in participating and winning some prizes. The tournaments were based on three different games; Tekken, Call of Duty Mobile Season 4 (CODM) and FIFA23 (Men's and Women's tournaments separate). Each tournament had different cash prizes for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd positions for participants who were in teams or individuals. 

Vendors

There were many notable vendors at the event. Most of them were Anime stalls selling Anime merchandise from wallpapers to figurines to masks, this was definitely paradise for some fans. Look up shops or dealers like Isewakaii, Nairobi Otaku Shop, Animehub 254 and Arraygato. You will get a piece of anime goodness. 

Other vendors sold the gamers' stuff (yes, tech stuff too) and put most of their products on display. One of them that had a huge vendor display was Logitech Kenya. All kinds of Logitech Gaming mouse, keyboards and headsets were there, the new Logitech G502 mouse was there on display alongside Logitech G432 Headsets and Logitech G213 keyboards. There were also PC vendors and PC Architects like PC Gamer 254, Shuffle PCs and GameChanger on the site to display their cool PC setups and have some hands-on with them, a variety of games on sale and more accessories. 

Aside from gaming and anime stuff, there was a booth set up by AfricaHackOn just for cyber security stuff. A brief intro - AfricaHackOn is founded by Dr Bright Gameli and has been running for 9 years, its mission is to build a cybersecurity community. Dr Bright Gameli was also on-site to interact with the crowd and give some mentorships, do live ethical hacking presentations and a brief Q&A session. Also, not to forget Moringa School were around as well showing the current courses on going. 

And lastly, I cannot miss out on the first vendor to meet with, the developers of Kanairo 101 (by ic4). Perhaps you might have seen them on TikTok with their creative animated videos. What I did not know is that Kanairo 101 is an actual mobile game made in the 254!! (Kenya to the world) It is a mobile runner game like Subway Surfers and Temple Run but with a different game deployment of the Kenyan urban environment. The game has elements of Kenyan modes of transport like matatus with graffiti, tuk tuks and motorbikes (nduthi). The player is a thief, or rather a mwizi (thegi) running away from the police, just like subway surfers. 

Kanairo 101 is available on the Google Play Store.

LAN Party 

This was a different kind of event part of Movie Jabber Play. LAN Parties are not new by the way, depending on the era you are from. LAN Parties have existed for a while. Let me explain. A LAN party is a social gathering of participants with personal computers or compatible game consoles, where a local area network connection is established between the devices using a router or switch, primarily for the purpose of playing multiplayer video games together. 

LAN Party in the early 2000s.

Back in the day, LAN party events differ significantly from LAN gaming centres and Internet cafes in that LAN parties generally require participants to bring their own computer (BYOC) and are not permanent installations, often taking place in general-use venues or residences. Today, Movie Jabber is still passing the baton of the LAN Party culture, especially with faster internet speeds and modern computers.

The LAN Party Zone

Sponsored by uRage, the LAN Party had its own time schedule. While the main event ended at 7 PM, the overnight LAN Party was getting started until 7 AM. A switch was provided for everyone to connect, and everyone had set up their cool range of PCs and Laptops with their snacks stock in check, a few Red Bull cans, blankets for the night and ready to play till morning. 

Probably you did not know this, but multiplayer gamers love an overnight gaming session, I should know because in the pandemic lockdown era, playing Among Us was the vibe, then Valorant one year later, until I had to stop because Valorant gave me frustrations issues every time I got shot in the game. But anyway, that is a rant for another day... 

Conclusion 

This being my first video game convention to attend, I can say Movie Jabber really did a great job with organizing the event, for a moment I almost forgot to keep track of time because I had to cover every area to feel the experience of the event. Next time you hear about Naiccon, Movie Jabber Expo or any other fun convection, do not hesitate. Go explore.

And on that note... Tanjiro Kmado says:

Special shoutout to the featured player Joel Kiega a.k.a Kitsune for informing me about the event by Movie Jabber and representing the Lost Gamers gang.