...still here? Well, don't say you haven't been warned. Back then on sometime around 2009 or 2010, Hakeru and some others (me included) once planned to establish an osu! Indonesia stand on a festival somewhere. This was made into realization (in Medan) by Sumatran through this thread, however due to the lack of Medan-based players at that time, there were no further news about this event (as far as I concerned).
We almost consider that this will be made impossible, but then - four years after, this message changed everything.
...frankly speaking, I'm a member of Genshiken ITB (the organization behind GenCarnival) itself, so let me describe what is GenCarnival itself : It's a creative exhibition. No, it's not a Japanese-themed event (although the influence of Japanese culture is strong on this one, undoubtedly) - the focus of this event is toward the creative industry itself. If you're looking at the collaborators' list, you'll see such as our fellow FaceArt! and MOREBEgames (which isn't related to Japanese culture, to say for a rebuttal example). And yes - I'm taking a role as a double agent somewhat here (as a GenCarnival official and a collaborator through osu! Indonesia)
Fast-forwarding to the D-Day, we got Falkcrown ready as our delegation since 07:00 local time. What happened sequentially in detail after isn't that important, though - this is never intended as a field report as I usually do. What I wanted to describe here is the big picture - the despair and the wrong turn of events.
Later sometime around 09:00, the electricity for the venue went down. We were reported that 'everything's gonna be fine at around 13:00', but as time passes by, everything turned out not to be fine. Emergency electricity was brought up, but is prioritized for the main stage - for the stands itself, electricity was back in around 15:30 or so. Even so, the commander-in-charge of the event only allowed our osu! Indonesia stand to utilize two laptops - had we utilize a power higher than that (for the TV and the speaker that we brought, for example), the electricity will come back down, thus risks the event's safety even further.
I can't help but saying what I (and we feel here) : utter disappointment. We carefully chose GenCarnival not only because we had a connection there (I'm not the only osu! player in that organization - say, - Rii - is actually my senior on that organization albeit being a very passive member) but also because it's a creative exhibition. Yes, I wholeheartedly believe that osu! is much more than a game - it's a media to express art. Many people has proven that true - inverness, Saturnalize, and myself as well to say some (check http://twitter.com/Nivalyx/status/320405785056264192 for proof, I'm sorry but I can't help not to promote my creation here)
Within this boundary we belong to, practically our stand is not possible to exhibit things anymore - the only thing we can do is to play. Yes, showing off one's playing skills with any available laptop, basically. If it's just a regular gathering like we did many times previously, this can be considered as a good thing, but no - in this case it isn't. It's a nightmare.
Why is it so? Because if all we want to do is playing, we don't need to spend our money to rent a stand like this - we could just go to someone's house, put that HDMI cable on that person's own television, and voila - magic happens. Well, it's not the kind of sorcery we want to conjure throughout this event. People are expecting us to show osu!'s creative side, as our forum thread of this event prevail upon. And, oh, let's not forget the arch-nemesis of an outdoor event, which is this:
...well, okay, ignore the rain - we (GenCarnival officials) had predicted it previously and anticipated with a back-up plan, which worked out. However, without us (osu! Indonesia collaborators) being unable to do what people expected us supposed to do, this event feels hollow. Really hollow. Especially for me myself - the disappointment and self-burden of disappointing many people here (not only osu! Indonesia members or other GenCarnival officials), but to many regular visitors out there as well.
Now here comes another interesting part : who is to blame for this all? I've explained it here, but I don't think it'll hurt if I rephrase it in English:
Later it's revealed that the one responsible for cabling and stuffs (not a GenCarnival official in any way, someone outside Genshiken ITB that we ask to take care of it) put an important cable roll into a wrong plug, thus melting the cable. The entire electricity (even in ITB's College Centre) went down for some time because of it, and although the issue may seem small, the inflicted cost (for the cable itself) - believe it or not - reaches Rp5.000.000,-
When the electricity got back up, the power is insufficient for all stand and the main stage (obviously) being prioritized. This is an interesting case of the butterfly effect, in which 'something small in the past may play a huge role in affecting the future'.
Nah, it's not good to blame anyone in this case, in my opinion. We did our best, and so did the officials. A classic miscommunication-and-misfortune issue also took part on this though, and I see it's not wise to fully blame the logistics or the one that misplugged the cable. Concerning this, the head of this event has spoken an apology to us (through me) personally. Speaking aside the sorrows, had we stick to our original plan, this is what we'll going to show up to the public:
- Indonesian Mappers' Slider Art Compendium - Practically this is the only thing we exhibited there, as this is a physical book and doesn't require electricity. It's a concept book containing slider arts from various Indonesian mappers (right now the contributors are only me, WVS, and Saturnalize but it'll be expanding in the future - its status is still a concept book, though). Here's a shot at the compendium:
It's never meant to be published in a mass to take profit (why would I take profit from a game which isn't created by me and free-to-play for everyone though? It's just very wrong in my opinion) - I arranged the production of this, and I know by myself that this is kind of costly. In the future, we plan to convert this as a constantly-updated .pdf file in which everyone is free to read, with more contributors as well. - Live Mapping - Mapping is an art, no doubt. In GenCarnival we planned to map this song, an original composed by me and my fellow Genshiken ITB member who goes with the nickname ntLKM. A more-polished version of the song (with cleaner and more diverse instrument samples) were planned, but we're lacking out of time on this.
- Slider Art Tutorial - Self-explanatory.
- Map (Storyboard) Showcase - as inverness himself emerges from his hideout that very moment, we agreed to showcase one of his many storyboards (Open Window, most likely) with the newly integrated Cinema mod once the electricity comes in place. Well, by now you should be able to guess what happened.
- IMMA Video - At this point this is less-known to public, but apparently 10nya and Saturnalize had made a tutorial video about the fundamentals of mapping/timing as part of the IMMA (Indonesia Mapping & Modding Academy) project recently. I've downloaded the video and gotten the permission to play it during this event, but too bad the electricity issue kicks in.
- Talk Show (Sharing) Session - A big success comes to us on this one, actually. Aside from sharing about osu!'s huge potential and its charming creative side, there is something about the next osu! Indonesia Tournament that we spoiled out there. It's not worth to share again what did we spoil here though, as it'll eliminate the surprise factor by miles (the user Susilo Sakata managed to record our conversation with the master of ceremony, though - a footage of this may or may not be uploaded soon)
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...
...
...and the joy of having a foreseeable bright future in our grasp.
As declared by opening sentence, this tale tells about a reversal of fortune. It's not important to understand how it works - it's more important to know that it could happen in a split second.
The time's around 18:00. Within the coldness of the night, the sound of the officials' preparing the second talk show session crawled over the night's tranquil ambiance. Then again, both of Kaegi and Itasha Indonesia's delegation were already ready - as for us, we still have Shurelia missing from the backstage. A huge panic struck us, and while some of our members were in the quest of searching him, rzkadi poked me in sudden whilst delivering an important message:
'Niva, someone over there is looking for you - he said he's looking for osu! Indonesia's contact person number'
Astonished with this news, I ran to the person in particular like never before. It turned out that he is a delegation from Telkom University (Shurelia's university, if you're wondering) who is wandering around GenCarnival in search of probable stands for their upcoming Nihon no Matsuri 7 event. Some negotiations later, and magic happens.
For international audiences, this is the (free) translation of the text above:
Good evening
I'm Aji from Nihon no Matsuri 7, Telkom University's Japanese festival. I want to offer the osu! Indonesia community to participate in our event by opening a stand. If interested, please contact us back
Thanks in advance
And as it's not enough, all of the osu! players I discussed this with there says 'let's do it!' in sudden, and guess what - we had the rent fee (Rp200.000,-) on our hand already.
...yeah, I can't believe it as well. This 'disaster' is indeed a key for us to advance forward - a key for us to penetrate further to the blooming field of brilliance. With osu! Indonesia now has been on the scout's list to fill the empty stands throughout festivals and more, we'll try our best to deliver the very best of osu! upon the fruition of this masterplan. And yes, in the end, it's a honor for us all!
Ah, this miraculous stuff.
Then again, do you believe in second chance, after all? We do.
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EXTRA :
Yet again, even until now, I don't understand the mystery behind how fate works.
Frankly speaking, if I see things from a completely different perspective, I'd be extremely pleased myself. What bewitched me the most is probably the saga of Lightning Wyvern and AllRiseSilver throughout the event - these two has been together for a while but never met each other before GenCarnival. Classic long-distance-relationship story, I know.
Some of you may question me right now : Why is this very important to me personally? Well, the answer is seeing this couple having fun around the event made me happy. I got that feeling at least that 'the Rp250.000,- that we spend here isn't completely useless, in the end'. Combined with the main essay above, I think it's just natural that seeing people happy you're having an emotional bond with could bring bliss as well, and disappointing people you're having an emotional bond with could also made you disappointed. In my case here, I personally think the bond I'm having here is with the community itself in general (as one of the person who has been taking care of osu!'s progression in Indonesia since 2009), not only to these two specific person.
Then again, let's not forget this fabulous moment where Shurelia was interviewed by the host herself:
