Toronto Thumbs

Gaming Represented
At This Year’s Canzine

Despite being tired from having hosted a Halloween party on Saturday, my wife and I made it out to this year’s Canzine the following afternoon (after sleeping in and not really cleaning up around the place). After finding a spot to park, which may or may not have actually been a parking spot, we ventured towards the Gladstone Hotel. We tried our best to mentally prepare for how packed full of ‘zine geeks the place would be, but upon entering we were hit will a wall of heat. Those that had been there longer than us were sweaty, and some of them smelled a little off.

Getting around the exhibitor tables proved to be a little tricky at first, as every few steps we found ourselves asking to be excused so that we could walk by. Thankfully most of the attendees were polite and glad to step aside. It wasn’t long after we entered that we came upon our friend and ultra Troll 2 fan Katie Durant’s table. She was selling copies of her ‘zine So Bad It’s Good Movies. We chatted with her for a while and then I headed upstairs to try to find the arcade cabinet that The Hand Eye Society had put together to showcase some of the games that Toronto indie games developers had produced.

The upstairs of the hotel was less packed full of human roadblocks, and the room that The Hand Eye Society set up shop in was off to the side and therefore not too crammed. At the entrance sat Toronto game journalist Mathew Kumar, who had just recently published his ‘zine, exp., and was debuting it at Canzine. I’m not huge into the ‘zine scene, so I can’t comment on the quality or existence of other ‘zines devoted to gaming. But Kumar’s exp. is a very polished publication that’s quite different from most games writing I’ve read.

When asked how the ‘zine was selling, Kumar replied that people either picked it up without a second thought or showed absolutely no interest at all – there was no middle ground. The ‘zine itself is probably as professional-looking as it can get without it being considered something else entirely and, although it’s short (eight articles), it’s definitely worth the five bucks.

Kumar begins with an anti-manifesto, of sorts, while not wanting to drop clever puns of what exp. might stand for but doing so anyway. The articles cover some games he played from September 21, 2009 to October 25, 2009, but aren’t actual reviews, or essays for that matter. Many of the articles come across as fleshed-out notes or even diary entries. Interestingly enough, none of the articles seems like something I would want to read on a website, so the ‘zine format suits them very well.

Surprisingly, the article I enjoyed most was the Metal Gear Ac!d DIY board game despite not actually trying to play it (I doubt I ever will). Here’s hoping the next issue includes some equally thought-provoking yet absurd content.

Posted in Canada, Events, News Bytes |