It's somewhat reassuring to observe that people can be geeks no matter which corner of the world they're from. This welcome confirmation was kicked off by my attendance at MEFCC, the Middle East Film and Comic Con, which was held at the Dubai World Trade Centre. MEFCC is the largest convention in that part of the world, and it has been an annual event in Dubai since 2012.

If you've been to any pop culture festivals before, you'll know what to expect. Fans of comics, anime, film, TV and games peruse the aisles of merchandise, catching screenings of shows, participating in activities, events and contests, playing and trading card games and strutting about in the costumes of their favourite characters. MEFCC was likely the most crowded convention I've ever attended, and at its busiest it was next to impossible to move around within the gargantuan Za'abeel Halls that the expo took place in, due to the sheer amount of excited fans swarming the venue.

There were the obligatory TV and movie celebrity appearances, game contests, promotional arenas with settings from new cartoons for unique photo ops, a life-sized Pac-Man maze in which participants chased each other around in giant foam costumes, even a gallery of modern art inspired by Dubai. I myself sold Nintendo-related stickers in the Artist Alley section of the convention, with a little bit of a NWR display to promote my Mariobilia articles – and it was especially cool to hear that many people in the region are regular visitors to the site. Thanks, guys!

Speaking of the people themselves, they're as crazed and passionate fans of anything in the way of geekdom that you'd expect to see in the West. They've also been fans for the same amount of time; video games have been prevalent in the region since the days of the NES, and there are in fact just as many Japanese cartoons dubbed and subtitled in Arabic than there are in English, perhaps more! Through cosplay alone, I noted recognisable characters from Super Mario, Pokémon, Zelda, Final Fantasy, Assassin's Creed, Mega Man, Pac-Man, Sonic, Batman, Spider-Man, Deadpool, Iron Man, Avengers, Fantastic Four, Guardians of the Galaxy, Disney princess movies, Transformers, Gundam, One Piece, Naruto, Bleach, Chobits, Cardcaptor Sakura, Haruhi, Gintama, Studio Ghibli, Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Wars, Star Trek, The Corpse Bride, Despicable Me, Nickelodeon, Homestuck and many, many more.

Being in a largely conservative society, you wouldn't see as many skimpy or suggestive cosplayers roaming about as you would expect in other regions of the world. It was however interesting to see that some fans adopted a Middle East flavour in their representation of their chosen characters.

Surprisingly, there were quite a few people selling retro memorabilia from classic Japanese shows like Mazinger Z and Treasure Island, and even a couple selling old and rare video game consoles like the SNES, the Game Boy Camera and the GameCube bundle pack DDR Mario Mix.

The convention was a haven for StreetPass, as I'd wager is the case for just about any culture expo. Unlike the conventions here in Australia though, the interesting thing was that these StreetPass hits came from a mixed bag of locations, partly due to the region of the 3DS systems for sale in Dubai - more about that on the next page. USA, Japan, Australia, Europe, I even had a few hits from Hawaii! While the UAE can be selected as a 3DS region in the system settings, it's interesting that I had very few hits from local areas. I'm told that gamers choose to set their system to America instead, as UAE has no eShop to connect to.

Overall, I had a great time at the convention, especially chatting with other fans about their favourite Nintendo games, their comic collections and their artwork. It's wonderful to be able to do this with people from a very different culture, and share in the similarities between people of like-minded perspectives no matter where they're from. It's strange how things can be so different and yet stay the same.

Check the gallery below for more pictures, or click on the chapter pages to the right for more of my Dubai article!

Mario and Luigi artwork courtesy of Milkybee.