From game fanatics to cosplayers both casual and competitive, this weekend’s Armageddon Expo is raising the pulse of many a geek. Oh, the humanity, writes Shane Gilchrist.
It remains to be seen whether the older chap who had a penchant for eating brie cheese and sardines at the same time will return for another helping.
Likewise, the whereabouts and intentions of the person beneath the faux fur of last year's Rocket Raccoon costume have yet to be established.
No matter. Benjamin White and Kimmy Sanson will definitely be among the throng heading to Dunedin's Edgar Centre next weekend for that annual celebration of geek culture, the Armageddon Expo.
Apocalyptic connotations begone, they say. Armageddon is a pulsing, vibrant and joyous congregation of grown-ups (and the not so grown-up), teens and children, who roam cultural boundaries that, although curious in some cases, are more mainstream than underground.
Amid the mildly inquisitive and the wildly committed there are various clans and sub-tribes: the gamers, of both online and old-school, dice-and-paper, inclination; the fans of fantasy and sci-fi films and/or books; the comics and cartoon consumers.
Some go to browse the displays, some to eat, or even eat and compete (yes there are such contests); others can watch wrestlers ham it up, or listen to celebrity discussions.
Some people go specifically because the event offers an opportunity to dress up, to exit their usual lives and resurface as comic characters, robots, miscellaneous mammals (sorry, Rocket) and/or various permutations of radioactive seepage.
Which brings us back to Ben and Kimmy.
Partners in real life, the Dunedin pair have been busy working on their outfits for next weekend's activities. Ben is going as Kirito, the blade-wielding protagonist from the Japanese game Sword Art Online; Kimmy will transform into Asuna, another character from the same series.
Members of the Dunedin Cosplay Cabal, which regularly organises picnics and other excuses to get into character, Ben and Kimmy agree life is more fun when you are dressed as someone else.
''In the cosplay (short for costume play) community, everybody respects anyone who wears a costume, whether it's bought or home-made,'' Ben, a 23-year-old electrician, says.
''I've only been doing it a few years but I'm right into it. On a scale of one to 10, I think I'm about an eight. I still have other hobbies. I'm building a car and other things. I work from 8am to 4.30pm then head home and might work on a costume until midnight.
''I don't care what other people think. It's what I love. When you put on the costume you are no longer yourself, so it offers a completely different experience.''
''It's about friends mostly,'' Kimmy, a 25-year-old cleaner, explains. ''My cousin got me into it ages ago and I made a whole lot of friends through doing it. For me, it's mostly social. Now and again, I'll go to an event without having dressed up and it's just so boring.
''I've made almost all my costumes. It's very satisfying seeing something you've made come to life when you wear it. And people want to take photos.''
From its beginnings in 1995, Armageddon has grown to become one of the largest fantasy events in Australia and New Zealand. Last year's expo in Dunedin attracted more than 8000 people and organisers have this year expanded its footprint to Tauranga (the other hosts are Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch).
Event founder Bill Geradts says the event embodies an ever-growing pop-culture phenomenon.
''Nerd culture has become cool. And this is a celebration of culture, as much as going to a massive football event would be to a sports fan.
''We try to embrace all the cultures and preferences of geekdom, from cosplay to animation to comics to props and toys to movie stars. It's all about allowing people to be who they want to be and to be accepted for that.''
Indeed, some have made a career out of escapism. This year's guest-list includes Ray Fisher (The Justice Leagues' Cyborg), The Walking Dead and Arrow star Chad Coleman, Miltos Yerolemou (who plays Game of Thrones swordsman Syrio Forel), Deborah Watling (Doctor Who's companion, Victoria, 1967-1968), and Billy Boyd (Lord of The Rings hobbit Peregrin ''Pippin'' Took).
There is also no shortage of animation voice artists and comic creators, including contributors to the looks and sounds of Adventure Time, Pokemon, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Lego Batman and Judge Dredd.
This touches on the wider appeal of story-telling in general, Geradts says.
''Beyond the people who are very passionate about all this, a lot of people have a general interest.
''Perhaps 10 years ago, people might have been judged a little bit for going to this kind of show. But I think the nature of the beast has changed quite a lot. Yes, we are a nerd and geek event, but geek has gone from being a bad word to a good one.
''I just went to see Logan at the movies; then there is King Kong. ... I think we are in a more accepting climate in regards geekdom.''
Imagination is certainly big business. Last year, the video-game industry generated close to $US100 billion ($NZ144 billion) in revenue, a figure roughly on par with the book publishing industry. Another core player in pop-culture, the film industry earned about $US40 billion ($NZ57 billion) globally in 2016.
At this juncture, it's worth mentioning Vin Diesel.
Not because he's the star of the action series Fast & Furious; nor because his was the voice behind 2014 Guardians of the Galaxy character Groot, a tree-like figure who repeated just three words (''I am Groot'') through the entire film, until the final scene (''We are Groot''). And not because he has a net worth estimated at $US75 million ($NZ107 million).
More significant, according to Ben Horne, president of the Otago University Roleplaying Society, is the fact the Hollywood heavy-hitter is keeping it real by indulging in the unreal.
Yes, Diesel is a Dungeons & Dragons player.
Like Diesel, Horne mixes a taste for fantasy gaming with thespian proclivities.
A former theatre studies student at the University of Otago, Horne uses his experience in improvisational techniques when he runs a game, a role more traditionally referred to as dungeon master, or DM.
''I focus heavily on improvisation. There will be various events in the year where I don't prepare anything. I'll get the players to come up with a couple of plots then run a game for about five hours based on those plots.
''The nice thing with tabletop, role-playing gaming is you do it once a week or fortnight and it's kind of your fill.
''It's actually incredibly exhausting. Last weekend I played four sessions of D&D, from 9am to 6pm each day with an hour's break for lunch, over two days.
''I'd suggest that my particular style where I'm improvising probably uses more processing power than, say, someone who plans their game a week in advance. That said, players will always do something you cannot predict. Always.''
Horne (21), who also ''dabbles'' in cosplay and plans to go to Armageddon next weekend (''It's one of my favourite events of the year . . .''), has played various games, from cyberpunk, futuristic ones inspired by films such as The Matrix, to open-source games derived from D&D, such as Pathfinder, ''which is what I specialise in''.
He says there are a range of gaming organisations in Dunedin. These include Games Workshop (which organises regular sessions and specialises in Warhammer and derivative scenarios and storylines) and Megazone, which holds regular games sessions for Magic: The Gathering.
Dunedin man Daniel Stride might be a relative newcomer to roleplaying games such as D&D, but he does have 10 years' worth of involvement in the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA), a medieval re-enactment group ''which tends to attract similar people''.
An international organisation dedicated to researching and re-creating the arts and skills of pre-17th-century Europe, the SCA has a ''Known World'' comprising 20 kingdoms. It also has more than 30,000 members around the world who dress in clothing of the Middle Ages and Renaissance and attend tournaments, royal courts, feasts, dances and workshops.
''I think it's both about socialising and unconventional creativity, if you will,'' Stride says.
''There's a strong desire to explore something different and more intellectually stimulating than a nine-to-five, mundane existence.
''Escapism is perhaps a loaded term, just as it was back in 1939, when Tolkien noted that people 'confuse the escape of the prisoner with the flight of the deserter'.
''Just because we want to imagine something different doesn't mean we're a bunch of lotus-eaters.''
Notably, Stride has recently celebrated the publishing of a novel. Titled Wise Phuul, it was picked up by small United Kingdom imprint Inspired Quill late last year.
''I started the book in 2007, though most of it was written in 2011-2012, during a particularly horrific period in my life. From 2013 onwards, I submitted to literary agents and small presses, before being accepted. The book was published in November.''
Influenced by Clark Ashton Smith's 1935 short story The Empire of the Necromancers and Mervyn Peake's 1950 work Gormenghast, which portrays a crumbling society obsessed with deference to tradition, Wise Phuul focuses on necromancy (raising the undecomposed dead), a universal ability in the Viiminian Empire, to the point where it is taught in schools.
''The entire economy hinges on getting the undead to do all the menial work, which in turn shapes the social and political structure,'' Stride explains.
''The book pits the Empire - which for all its faults is staunchly meritocratic and accepting of gender and sexual equality - against the neighbouring Principality which, while hostile to necromancy, is much more misogynistic and bigoted in other matters.
''Even in a dystopia, there are shades of grey.''
Part of Stride's motivation in having a circa-1900-flavoured setting was to avoid faux medieval European fantasy, which he believes has been ''done to death''.
''I wanted to go in a different direction, which is also why the setting is explicitly southern hemisphere, and features native New Zealand flora and fauna. Things like that move the setting away from generic fantasyland.''
Back to the here and now:
Stride is the author of a extensive series of blogs on Wordpress, where he offers opinions on everything from his favourite fantasy, sci-fi and horror authors, to a 4500-word back-story on a Dungeons & Dragons character, Ivor the Bard, whom he has brought to the table at recent Dunedin gaming sessions.
And although he's not into cosplay - ''beyond making my own garb for the Society for Creative Anachronism'' - he might be found amid the crowds at the Edgar Centre next weekend.
''I think being into this stuff is a good deal more socially acceptable than it once was.
''That in turn has created a positive feedback loop in terms of variety.
''If fantasy and science-fiction are no longer niche, then there will be more effort to satiate public appetite through the provision of quality material, which in turn means broader appeal.''
The event
Armageddon Expo 2017 is at the Edgar Centre, Dunedin, March 18-19, from 10am-5pm.
