Fan Faire - Day 1

So, this is my first ever Fan Faire as an employee and not a fan. I gotta tell you, it's just as much fun from the other side.

I got up at an unholy hour Thursday morning to make sure I had everything packed and ready to go. Then I hopped in the car and headed over to Vegas. I got here and was met by Calthine, who graciously helped me lug a really heavy box to the conference room. (I'm actually still sore!) I snuck off for a bite to eat and got to see Quark's bar for the first time ever!

It really wasn't at all what I had envisioned in my mind... But it was still awesome. There were several different Star Trek episodes playing at once and on one screen they were showing First Contact, which is my favorite Star Trek movie! I didn't have a Warp Core Breech, because I had to go work and I'm pretty sure that would have put me under the table, but I did have some fru-fru blue drink and this amazingly rich and tasty pasta thinger. I'd recommend going except for that whole closing in September thing.

Here's the fun part! After lunch, Calthine went off to do fan site stuffs, and I went off to start working. I know a lot of people will think that it couldn't possibly be fun. I'll grant that it's a heck of a lot of work. There is absolutely no denying that. It's still just as much fun as being a fan, though. In some ways, other than the whole job at SOE thing, it's more fun.

At 4pm the doors opened for people to come in and either register or pick up their badges if they'd pre-registered. As always the line formed up like you wouldn't believe. I was stunned. It honestly looked like the line went on forever!! We had five people checking people in on the computers and at least that many of us running around behind the tables finding badges and making sure we had enough lanyards and wristbands at the tables.

There was one point when our computers went wonky and there was a stall checking people in. No one really panicked, but I still can't help but imagine one of those old slapstick cops and robbers bits. We got back up and running and the line was still jam packed.

After what seemed like hours, we finally cleared the line and got everyone badged up and sent off to enjoy themselves with swag bags in tow. I looked down at the time, expecting it to be at least 7pm, only to find out that only about an hour and a half had passed. It felt like so much longer! As much work as it was, though, it was fun. I saw a few people whose names I recognized from forums and some folks I knew from previous Fan Faires. I really think that was the best part of it. It's always a rush for me to see the other people I game and post with up close, even if it's only for a few minutes in passing.

I worked at the registration table up until the welcome reception. By that time I was starving! Sleepy too, but mostly starving. Fortunately, there was food at the reception and even better, it was good! I invited myself to settle at a table with Brasse and some of the EQII Guides. WOOT!! They're all super nice folks, except for Squeecha who kept trying to take my cheese.

Brenlo got up and did the usual welcome to Fan Faire thing that he's done every year that I've been. Then he got to the really fun part. Handing out prizes! Now, anyone who has been to any SOE function knows that Brenlo likes to give away prizes. But, wow, does he make you WORK for them! I vowed that I'd never get up on stage for anything at my first Fan Faire and Thursday night just reinforced that. I am so not even brave enough to get up on stage and be goofy for everyone.

He had folks doing the usual emotes from their games. The kicker for me was when he got people doing the Macarena. It was hysterical! All the folks who went up were great sports and really got into it and had fun, which made watching it even better.

After that was the late night LoN gathering. I saw a few people actually playing LoN, some playing other stuff, and the rest mostly just hanging around and chatting. I got to be the mistress of the sign up sheets (GIRL Breakfast, EQ Best of the Best, and EQII Tournament). Ashlanne tried to make it sound really important as she threatened my life if I lost the sheets, but I really think she just wanted to let me sit and sleep with my eyes open! At that point, I might very well have been asleep and not realized it. I know I talked to people, but I can't really remember what I told them. I might have promised to break into dev offices and code in beastlords...

Fortunately, everyone read the rules and didn't feed me after midnight or anything and Ashlanne sent me off to bed. At which point the only thing you could have gotten me to say coherently was: Bed. Comfy.

Let's see how day two goes!

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Fan Faire - Day 2

Tired. So tired. What's up with this sun thing anyway? I stumbled down to the little coffee shop that was fortuitously located near my part of the hotel and grabbed some tea and a danish. Mmm, danish.

As soon as my brain started working Amnerys, Grimwell, and Gnobrin showed up. They'd flown out to Indy for GenCon and the meet and greet at Jillian's and then from there flew straight to Vegas for Fan Faire. Collectively they might have gotten a full night's sleep. Maybe.

I waved to them and wandered off to help out at registration before the Live Quest began.

 

I'll say it now. Our EQII Live Quest was amazing. My name got attached to it as being part of the design and whatnot, but the truth is, it was all Gnobrin. From start to finish, he had the whole thing done before I even started working at SOE. I got to help out getting it all up and running at Fan Faire, but the fun factor was all him! And he did an amazing job!
Not only did Gnobrin do a great job creating the Live Quest, all of our NPC's were awesome in their roles as well. We had guides doing everything from being bookies to being ratongas. Our ratonga actually dressed the part. Complete with nose. We also had Kander playing... drum roll please... a dev! Imagine that!
The brief synopsis is that our quest giver had bad wife faction. He'd slacked on some chores, forgotten their anniversary, and lost a lot of money to a bookie. Our questers had to help him get his faction back by doing his chores, paying his debt, and getting a pretty ring for his wife. Everyone seemed like they had a great time, and this one group had me in stitches because two of their group members were racing between their group and the quest NPC for updates. I almost got run over at one point...

After that was a mad dash to the guild halls panel. I hadn't seen much of them before Fan Faire, so it was shiny and new for me too. The guild halls were amazing! The art is simply beautiful and they are definitely spiffy. The crowd reaction was the best part, though. There were many cheers and a lot of excitement in the room. It was another one of those times where it felt a little surreal knowing that I was there as staff. Cause the player part of me was all "Oooh!" "Aaah!" and the employee side of me was listening to everything people said looking for potential "dev promises." Oh and desperately trying to get some sort of food into my body since I wasn't going to be able to eat again until Saturday morning.

After the guild halls panel, no one needed me for anything. For like a whole hour and a half. It felt a little like a holiday! So I snuck upstairs to my room to start my write up. An hour and a half flies by in a hurry at Fan Faire. I think it somehow warps time... I'll have to find out if there are gnomes involved in that.

Back downstairs for Smedley's Community Address! Huzzah for announcing the expansions for EQ and EQII! It was a really good address and the audience reaction was amazing. As a player myself, I'm really excited about our new games... all three of them actually. Free Realms, because it just looks amazingly fun. Totally good for those easy play days when you just wanna do a little bit and have a little fun with no pressure. DCU cause omg... WONDER WOMAN!!! And I'm also really excited about The Agency. I wanted to be a spy when I was little. It just seemed so cool. I'm going to have to play one of each company because I can't decide who I like better.

After the address, it was time to head off to the Las Vegas Sport Center for the offsite fun and games. I love the karaoke contest. It's so much fun to see the surprisingly good singers and the horrifyingly bad ones get up there on stage. They all have WAY more courage than I do, as no amount of alcohol could ever induce me to sing for all of Fan Faire. Or even half of Fan Faire... or my co-workers... the one thing that really amused me about the whole off-site thing: A bunch of drunk people driving around in go-carts!

I confess to not staying for the whole thing. I was sleepy and hungry and went back to the hotel intending to get room service and go to bed. I got half of it!

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Fan Faire - Day 3

Somehow or other I found myself downstairs in time to start up the EQII tournament. This was another one of those things that were set up before I started, so all I really needed to do was make sure it ran smoothly.

 

Yeah. Right.

We finally figured out how to get people onto the test copy server to run the tournament. No problem. It only took the guys about five minutes to get that straightened out. Then we had to get ME straightened out.


Grimwell: Now just type /goto and their name.
Me: I *did* and I'm not moving!
Grimwell: <confused silence>

We figured out that not only was my GM flag not on, but you also had to capitalize the person's name when you want to go to them. I am so making myself a cheat sheet for next year!

Then during the first couple of rounds one of the computers started acting up... then another one... then we started to fall behind. That wasn't so bad, except that once things finally started to run smoothly, all my help had to run off to panels and there I was all by my lonesome trying to get groups set up and going and summoned and buffed and, and, and...

When people got back after panels, it was a Lord of the Flies sort of thing with people summoning themselves over my prostrate form while housekeeping cleaned up where my head exploded.

Alright, that isn't what really happened, but it felt that way. Right about the time the panel on The Shadow Odyssey started, I abandoned the schedule and just started taking groups and running them through as they showed up. It was actually a lot of fun for me and for the folks who participated. We had three groups kill all three named mobs in Veksar. They were all within just a few minutes of each other too. At one point, Grimwell spawned Nagafen on top of one group, which was absolutely hysterical.

Somewhere in there I think I had lunch. I know I got a cookie from one of my players (<3!!!) and a chocolate covered strawberry! A totally groovy afternoon... After the tournament was officially over, I ran a few groups through just for kicks and giggles before heading in to the banquet.

That was awesome as well. I cheered for everyone and everything till I was hoarse. We handed out a ton of t-shirts, and I even saw Grimwell sneaking around with copies of RoK for people. Brenlo did the pink t-shirt thing again this year...

...and I watched through my fingers just like every other year.

I even managed to get to Quark's and have part of a Warp Core Breech before they closed forever.

 

I can't wait for next year's Fan Faire... I should be recovered by then, too!