Cosplay Arabia - December 2018

38
Cosplay Arabia
BARAA
ABDULLAH
The man, the myth - THE LEGEND.
Seldom do you come
across a man who can
claim to have seen it all
when it comes to gaming
conventions, not just in the
country he resides in - which
for the record is Bahrain - but
the middle east as a whole.
Baraa is now officially the
face of the Middle East Game
and Comic book convention
scene - be it Animania where
he made his start a lifetime
ago, or the more recent
GamesCon which was held
in Abu Dhabi last month,
he’s seen (and hosted) it all.
We knew this magazine just
wouldn’t be complete without
his presence to grace our
pages. Without further ado -
let’s get cracking!
Q. Over the past eight years
– you have been the voice
of the Gaming and Comic
Book Convention scene in
Bahrain as well as the middle
east. Can you elaborate on
that journey and what it has
been like to watch this trend
grow?
A. The journey has been a
blissful one, beautiful full of
adventure, challenges, and
drama. If it ends now, I will
thank God because I feel I
have served and have been
part of a lot of memories and
beautiful moments. I hope I
get to live more of it in the
future. 8 to 10 years that’s a
lifetime full of moments and
adventure. At this point, it
feels like there’s more to give.
How does it feel to see this
trend grow? It grew to the
point where it became
overwhelming, to the point
it became oversaturated. We
want to serve everybody, but
it became challenging. We do
see a sense of change right
now regarding events – what
works and what doesn’t, so
that’s what I see so far.
Q. Eight years is a long time
– do you think the trend is
just starting to pick up or
has it lost its steam/appeal
to the youth (to which it is
generally aimed at) already?
A. First of all, I don’t think
it’s a trend. It’s not something
that’s going to lose its pace
because at the end of the
day pop culture is a culture
that goes around in different
platforms, and gaming it goes
around different platforms
– an event is just a station to
the platform itself. So would it
lose its pace with the youth?
I don’t think it’s going to lose
it at all. Maybe the style of
events might change – some
will go bigger, some will go
smaller, some might stop – but
people will not stop talking or
experiencing pop culture.