Seriously? This is it? You advertise a four day event, but day four's "event" is "check-out?"
BOOOOO
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Not that I didn't know in advance that Sunday's schedule was essentially empty, but the total lack of ANYTHING interesting was a real let down. Next time, just advertise it as a Thursday-Saturday event, or better yet, Friday-Sunday.
Boo.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
SOE Fan Faire Part 3 (Saturday Night)
No more panels, which makes me very sad. I do love picking dev brains! Time for the banquet, however, and by then I was getting pretty hungry.
We met up with a couple more friends who don't currently play SOE games, but were long-time EQ1ers. One of them is a Vegas local, one the other is dating a SWG dev, so she came along just for fun. It was nice to see them again, and we were able to get a table all together. Permafrost had two tables reserved, but only about 8 registered attendees according to the website, so it seemed OK to use the extra space.
I'm torn about the dinner. On one hand, it was very tasty, filling, and meaty. Take away the bread and it was an Atkins dieter's wet dream :P However, it was also burgers and hot dogs.
To repeat: A "banquet" of burgers and hot dogs.
I've no doubt that budgetary concerns played a role in that, but it was still pretty sad. The one and only other Fan Faire I've been to had much better food. I can't quite remember what that food was anymore, but I know for sure it was many culinary steps up from a glorified cookout.
Ah well, I still stuffed myself silly and that was nice. There were various prize giveaways that I didn't pay much attention to. Then came....the wedding.
Does getting married at an SOE Fan Faire bring you to new heights of dorkishness? Yes. Is it beyond-weird to do a costumed medieval wedding while having Darth Vader and Stormtroopers lead the processional? Oh hell yeah.
Is it still a legitimate wedding, deserving of at least a modicum of respect and decency? Absolutely, and to the little prick bastard 12-year-old-looking Crushbone pussy in the camouflage hat who couldn't hold his booze worth a damn: You have NO IDEA how close you were to getting your head stomped in by a bunch of angry Permafrostians (and others) around you. Eat a bag of death.
...ANNNNNYWAY, it was a good time besides him. Watching big fat guys cram themselves into tiny pink shirts was scary, but I was a long distance away so that helped.
Brasse won the costume contest, of course, because she rules! She says she's going to keep making costumes but not enter the contests anymore. I suppose I'd feel similarly if I was in her shoes, because it's nice to let someone else win and she's awful hard to beat, but it still seems a bit of a shame that the best of the best won't be strutting her stuff on stage in the future.
More swag was given out at the dinner, too. SOE employees were trying very hard to give away a bunch of t-shirts with product ads on them. I was just glad that the dinner-swag was something useful, and not more copies of The Matrix Online (*cough*BlockParty*cough*)
My little group didn't wind up sticking around for the party afterwards. So far as I could tell, there was neither open bar nor karaoke, so my interest was minimal ;) Wound up back in the hotel room watching TV and relaxing. When the kiddie is with Grandma, kicking back and relaxing is a darn fine thing!
We met up with a couple more friends who don't currently play SOE games, but were long-time EQ1ers. One of them is a Vegas local, one the other is dating a SWG dev, so she came along just for fun. It was nice to see them again, and we were able to get a table all together. Permafrost had two tables reserved, but only about 8 registered attendees according to the website, so it seemed OK to use the extra space.
I'm torn about the dinner. On one hand, it was very tasty, filling, and meaty. Take away the bread and it was an Atkins dieter's wet dream :P However, it was also burgers and hot dogs.
To repeat: A "banquet" of burgers and hot dogs.
I've no doubt that budgetary concerns played a role in that, but it was still pretty sad. The one and only other Fan Faire I've been to had much better food. I can't quite remember what that food was anymore, but I know for sure it was many culinary steps up from a glorified cookout.
Ah well, I still stuffed myself silly and that was nice. There were various prize giveaways that I didn't pay much attention to. Then came....the wedding.
Does getting married at an SOE Fan Faire bring you to new heights of dorkishness? Yes. Is it beyond-weird to do a costumed medieval wedding while having Darth Vader and Stormtroopers lead the processional? Oh hell yeah.
Is it still a legitimate wedding, deserving of at least a modicum of respect and decency? Absolutely, and to the little prick bastard 12-year-old-looking Crushbone pussy in the camouflage hat who couldn't hold his booze worth a damn: You have NO IDEA how close you were to getting your head stomped in by a bunch of angry Permafrostians (and others) around you. Eat a bag of death.
...ANNNNNYWAY, it was a good time besides him. Watching big fat guys cram themselves into tiny pink shirts was scary, but I was a long distance away so that helped.
Brasse won the costume contest, of course, because she rules! She says she's going to keep making costumes but not enter the contests anymore. I suppose I'd feel similarly if I was in her shoes, because it's nice to let someone else win and she's awful hard to beat, but it still seems a bit of a shame that the best of the best won't be strutting her stuff on stage in the future.
More swag was given out at the dinner, too. SOE employees were trying very hard to give away a bunch of t-shirts with product ads on them. I was just glad that the dinner-swag was something useful, and not more copies of The Matrix Online (*cough*BlockParty*cough*)
My little group didn't wind up sticking around for the party afterwards. So far as I could tell, there was neither open bar nor karaoke, so my interest was minimal ;) Wound up back in the hotel room watching TV and relaxing. When the kiddie is with Grandma, kicking back and relaxing is a darn fine thing!
SOE Fan Faire Part 2 (Saturday Day)
Saturday morning's big task? GET BADGES AND SWAG!
The swag bag was kinda lacking, actually, because we were too late for t-shirts that fit. There were two choices when we got there: Small and double-wide camping tent. We chose neither, but I think SOE is planning on emailing us replacement shirts when they get the right sizes in...and figure out how to scan them.
We did get beta keys for Gods & Heroes and Pirates of the Burning Sea, though, so that was a bit of a morale boost.
After wandering a bit in the exhibit hall, and meeting one SOE employee who had one of the highly limited-edition Billy dolls (only 6 ever made, and Kushi has one of 'em!), our first major stop was the Q&A panel for the new game that SOE was announcing at the Fan Faire.
What we didn't realize when we showed up super-early to reserve seats was that the game itself had already been announced on Friday afternoon! Here I was sitting with my friends chatting about how much I hoped SOE would finally be unveiling the DC Heroes MMO, totally clueless that the cat was out of the bag.
The room filled, a bunch of SOE-ites showed up (including Scott Hartsman, which I thought was odd since he was an EQ2 guy, and EQ2 is hardly a new product), and again, with me and mine totally clueless, someone says "any questions?" and a bunch of hands go up.
After a couple questions regarding something about "cards," I wanted to raise MY hand and ask, "hey, how's about you actually tell us what the new game IS?!?!" But I didn't...I waited patiently and put together the pieces of the puzzle until it was clear that the new game was an Norrath-based online collectable card game.
At first I was really annoyed that we'd camped out seats for this crap, but I started warming to the idea over the hour-long Q&A session. I used to be a big offline TCG fan, but got out of it YEARS ago and sold all my Magic cards that were worth anything (not sure what happened to my Star Wars TCG cards).
I love a good turn-based strategy game, and TCGs fill that nook. I also love the lore behind Norrath, so a game that ties together turn-based strategy (as opposed to Lords of Everquest *gag*) and Norrath lore AND has some neat potential bonus items I can get in EQ2....well, they had me sold :)
But more on that in another post...
Anyway, the Q&A for Legends of Norrath was decent once I figured out what was going on. Next after that was an ATTEMPT at getting some news and info for the Vanguard branch of Circle of Shadows, but the "Vanguard Adventuring Classes" panel was cancelled, so I instead went to the Breaking into the Industry panel.
For the most part, the panel was interesting from a storytelling perspective, but most of the meat wasn't anything new. Still, even if I pretty much knew what the panelists were saying already, it was nice to have certain things confirmed from real industry people:
The swag bag was kinda lacking, actually, because we were too late for t-shirts that fit. There were two choices when we got there: Small and double-wide camping tent. We chose neither, but I think SOE is planning on emailing us replacement shirts when they get the right sizes in...and figure out how to scan them.
We did get beta keys for Gods & Heroes and Pirates of the Burning Sea, though, so that was a bit of a morale boost.
After wandering a bit in the exhibit hall, and meeting one SOE employee who had one of the highly limited-edition Billy dolls (only 6 ever made, and Kushi has one of 'em!), our first major stop was the Q&A panel for the new game that SOE was announcing at the Fan Faire.
What we didn't realize when we showed up super-early to reserve seats was that the game itself had already been announced on Friday afternoon! Here I was sitting with my friends chatting about how much I hoped SOE would finally be unveiling the DC Heroes MMO, totally clueless that the cat was out of the bag.
The room filled, a bunch of SOE-ites showed up (including Scott Hartsman, which I thought was odd since he was an EQ2 guy, and EQ2 is hardly a new product), and again, with me and mine totally clueless, someone says "any questions?" and a bunch of hands go up.
After a couple questions regarding something about "cards," I wanted to raise MY hand and ask, "hey, how's about you actually tell us what the new game IS?!?!" But I didn't...I waited patiently and put together the pieces of the puzzle until it was clear that the new game was an Norrath-based online collectable card game.
At first I was really annoyed that we'd camped out seats for this crap, but I started warming to the idea over the hour-long Q&A session. I used to be a big offline TCG fan, but got out of it YEARS ago and sold all my Magic cards that were worth anything (not sure what happened to my Star Wars TCG cards).
I love a good turn-based strategy game, and TCGs fill that nook. I also love the lore behind Norrath, so a game that ties together turn-based strategy (as opposed to Lords of Everquest *gag*) and Norrath lore AND has some neat potential bonus items I can get in EQ2....well, they had me sold :)
But more on that in another post...
Anyway, the Q&A for Legends of Norrath was decent once I figured out what was going on. Next after that was an ATTEMPT at getting some news and info for the Vanguard branch of Circle of Shadows, but the "Vanguard Adventuring Classes" panel was cancelled, so I instead went to the Breaking into the Industry panel.
For the most part, the panel was interesting from a storytelling perspective, but most of the meat wasn't anything new. Still, even if I pretty much knew what the panelists were saying already, it was nice to have certain things confirmed from real industry people:
- Game design degrees are mostly worthless - talent and passion is what counts
- I can't afford to try to break into the game industry, because I need a much higher income than what a gamemaster makes (that's where most people start!)
- If I DID want to try to get a foot in the door, my best bet would be a job in the Midwest, where the poor pay would be partially offset by a sane cost of living that simply doesn't exist in SoCal
Maybe when I'm 65 I can "retire" into a gaming job ;)
Next up was the Rising Into Kunark panel. I was in the front row for that one, and I got to meet (via sitting next to) Allakhazam's Calthine, who was very nice and even asked a question for me despite having lost most of her voice (hard to get called on twice with so many folks wanting to ask their own questions). Still, I can't believe I had to push for that 2nd question - how could NO ONE in that entire room besides me be wondering what the Sarnak racial powers would be?? Shameful!
The final panel of the day was EQ2: Into the Future. Though it certainly needed a MUCH bigger room, the panel itself was awwwwesome. It's going to be a long, painful 9-12 months while I wait for the guild houses to go live, but I'm SO excited to know that they're finally being made! Lots of other cool news out there too, but I don't need to re-post all that here (since I already posted panel write-ups here). Here is where I simply give a big thumbs-up!
Next post: The banquet
SOE Fan Faire Part 1 (Friday)
Had a real good time at the Fan Faire!
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make it for the whole run. I had just started a new job at the beginning of that very week, and that left a big 'ol gap in my available time off.
So my wife ("Kushi") and I left SoCal at 1:00 on Friday afternoon to head through the desert to Vegas. Too bad so many other jerks had the same plan! Traffic SUCKED, and we didn't get to The Rio until nearly 7:00!
Check-in at the hotel took quite a while, then we threw down our bags and went to go find the Fan Faire check-in/registration area so we could have our passes in time for the party. And what did we find? An empty check-in area!!!
Actually, it wasn't quite empty...after wandering around a bit looking for ANY open rooms in the convention area, a trip back past the registration desks led us to a couple girls who seemed to know more about where they were than we did. I asked if they were with Sony and they said yes, so I explained our situation of needing to check in. They sympathized, but were unable to help because they weren't Sony employees, but rather models trying to find the costumes they were to be wearing at the party tonight.
That was a bust, so Kushi and I went over to where the party was going to be held, and at this point was just about to begin. I found an SOE employee and asked how we could get our badges so we could attend the party tonight. He left to investigate, and came back to tell us that he couldn't get us our badges, but he would let us into the party anyway.
Later on, when two friends/guildmates got to town halfway into the party, we had to do more begging and cajoling to find a way to get them in without having their pre-paid, pre-registered badges.
It seems to me that when you're dealing with a primarily adult population, there should be more planning put around the fact that people have jobs and can't always get there when it's most convenient. Be prepared for the late arrivals, even if it means having the security guards watch a box of registration materials at the door to the party, and having an SOE employee come over to check in the occasional stray. For those that had to deal with the much lengthier hassles of one-offing the latecomers, I hope they'd agree that having the badges accessible would have been a bit of a time saver.
The party itself was great, and I didn't even dance OR swim ;) The open bar really helped relieve the stress from driving through a desert traffic jam, and we met a fellow Permafrostian and had a nice time getting to know him. The live band was pretty slick with their karaoke setup, and they were about 8000 times more talented than the group at the previous week's SOE Block Party.
After a couple drinks, I decided I'd give the Karaoke a try, and when I went up to the table to find the song list, I met BRASSE! I knew her (if only a little) from a time when we were both working on the same panel that was putting together Prima guides for EQ2's original release and the Kingdom of Sky expansion. Her maps are positively phenomenal! (give her a job, SOE!) We planned out a Billy Idol rock block, but though we were told we would simply have to wait about an hour to get up there, but the band got tired and went home before we got our chance :(
I drowned my sorrows in a giant omelet, and then went back to the room for a nice, alcohol-aided slumber.
By the way...we never did see any costumed-models show up at the party. They could still be sitting there - at the Fan Faire registration desk - to this very day, waiting for costumes that will never come...
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make it for the whole run. I had just started a new job at the beginning of that very week, and that left a big 'ol gap in my available time off.
So my wife ("Kushi") and I left SoCal at 1:00 on Friday afternoon to head through the desert to Vegas. Too bad so many other jerks had the same plan! Traffic SUCKED, and we didn't get to The Rio until nearly 7:00!
Check-in at the hotel took quite a while, then we threw down our bags and went to go find the Fan Faire check-in/registration area so we could have our passes in time for the party. And what did we find? An empty check-in area!!!
Actually, it wasn't quite empty...after wandering around a bit looking for ANY open rooms in the convention area, a trip back past the registration desks led us to a couple girls who seemed to know more about where they were than we did. I asked if they were with Sony and they said yes, so I explained our situation of needing to check in. They sympathized, but were unable to help because they weren't Sony employees, but rather models trying to find the costumes they were to be wearing at the party tonight.
That was a bust, so Kushi and I went over to where the party was going to be held, and at this point was just about to begin. I found an SOE employee and asked how we could get our badges so we could attend the party tonight. He left to investigate, and came back to tell us that he couldn't get us our badges, but he would let us into the party anyway.
Later on, when two friends/guildmates got to town halfway into the party, we had to do more begging and cajoling to find a way to get them in without having their pre-paid, pre-registered badges.
It seems to me that when you're dealing with a primarily adult population, there should be more planning put around the fact that people have jobs and can't always get there when it's most convenient. Be prepared for the late arrivals, even if it means having the security guards watch a box of registration materials at the door to the party, and having an SOE employee come over to check in the occasional stray. For those that had to deal with the much lengthier hassles of one-offing the latecomers, I hope they'd agree that having the badges accessible would have been a bit of a time saver.
The party itself was great, and I didn't even dance OR swim ;) The open bar really helped relieve the stress from driving through a desert traffic jam, and we met a fellow Permafrostian and had a nice time getting to know him. The live band was pretty slick with their karaoke setup, and they were about 8000 times more talented than the group at the previous week's SOE Block Party.
After a couple drinks, I decided I'd give the Karaoke a try, and when I went up to the table to find the song list, I met BRASSE! I knew her (if only a little) from a time when we were both working on the same panel that was putting together Prima guides for EQ2's original release and the Kingdom of Sky expansion. Her maps are positively phenomenal! (give her a job, SOE!) We planned out a Billy Idol rock block, but though we were told we would simply have to wait about an hour to get up there, but the band got tired and went home before we got our chance :(
I drowned my sorrows in a giant omelet, and then went back to the room for a nice, alcohol-aided slumber.
By the way...we never did see any costumed-models show up at the party. They could still be sitting there - at the Fan Faire registration desk - to this very day, waiting for costumes that will never come...
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