The SOE crew is back from Atlanta! If you've never been to Dragon*Con, it is definitely something worth checking out if you ever get the chance. Dragon*Con, a pop culture convention with a focus on Sci-Fi and fantasy, has at least a little something of interest for pretty much everyone. Whether you're into games, movies, books, TV shows, writing, podcasting, philosophizing, or costuming, in any genre from high fantasy to science fiction, to anime, to paranormal, to historical, to crossovers, they've got you covered.
The SOE Community Team picking up our badges.
For three and a half days, conference attendees took over four hotels in downtown Atlanta, wandering the streets and common areas in nearly every fan t-shirt and costume you could imagine. They attended panels, met their favorite celebrities, shopped the vendors, did sing-alongs, competed in costume and trivia contests, played in tournaments, and even donated blood, all in the name of fan camaraderie.
This year there was a full MMORPG track and we hosted five panels to talk to SOE gamers and fans. It was our second year attending, and we really enjoyed having the chance to meet more of our players at Dragon*Con. Our Q&A panel room was nearly full for the EQII session, and the questions kept coming for the full hour. Although we didn't have any members of the Dev Team along with us, we took note of the questions we couldn't answer and will be responding to those either in an upcoming podcast, here on EQII Players, or both.
Kiara, Amnerys, and Brenlo hosting the EQII Q&A panel.
A surprise visitor: Borat stopped in to the EQII panel!
Another fun event on the MMORPG track was the MMO Costume Contest. One of the Judge's Favorite awards went to a Star Wars Galaxies player dressed in his Jedi finest. Of course, that was the "favorite" awarded by our very own Alan "Brenlo" Crosby, but we're not biased. *wink* Everyone did an incredible job on their costumes, and it was great to see how much time and effort was put into them. Next year we'd sure love to see more SOE games represented! Hint hint.
Outside of the panels we hosted, we were also able to attend some panels of interest to us, meet some of our favorite celebrities, and join in the costuming fun. A couple of us attended a sing-along (blog), and of course we all contributed to the local economy by visiting some great Atlanta restaurants. Yum! Kiara even donated blood for the blood drive, which was ramped up this year in case of emergency for Hurrricane Gustav, and at last notice was pwning donation records from previous years' drives.
Amnerys and the gang bumped into Matthew Lewis
(Neville Longbottom) from the Harry Potter movies
at the Marriott. Great night to wear a Hogwarts uniform!
Kiara, Naylie and Ashlanne being silly at the blood drive.
Monday lunch with the SOE gang at the Hard Rock.
The podcast team also took some time to record on the road, so be sure to listen to the next episode for their report from Dragon*Con.
Ashlanne with her coffee. No podcast is complete without it!
We had such a blast at the con and we're definitely hoping to go again next year. Check out Ashlanne's full photo album over at Flickr, then to chat about Dragon*Con 2008, come on over to the EQII Official Forums and chime in on our Dragon*Con Recap thread.