If you didn't make it out to the latest SOE Fan Faire in Atlanta, I feel sorry for you. Why? Because it's the most fun I've had in a long time. Fan Faires are a unique entity in the gaming world. I've been to other gaming events, conventions, gatherings, etc. But none of them are quite the same as a Fan Faire.

At Fan Faire, everyone is your friend. You can hop into an elevator, see someone else with a Fan Faire badge on, and talk to them as if you've known them all your life. You can sit down at a table of perfect strangers and they'll welcome you because you play EverQuest II, not necessarily in the same guild or even the same server, but there's a bond between us that transcends cliques.

You can even bust into a random room and yell something equally as random because you hear some kind of party going on, stand there in awkward silence for a moment, then shout "EQII!" and they'll welcome you into their party for the rest of the night. Thanks go to Raijinn Thunderguard and Iniquity for another wonderful Fan Faire story (which I won't tell in detail here, but you can surely find it on the forums).

That's what SOE Fan Faire is all about. We're all friends. We all experience the same things in the game and talk to the same people. We all have at least one interest in common: EverQuest II. We may be lawyers, accountants, lifeguards, firemen, postal workers, waiters, students, or even game developers, but we're all friends here. It's something everyone needs to experience at least one time in their life. Thousands of friends in one place. It's simply amazing.

I would say something like "on to the juicy part" but I honestly believe what I've just said is the juicy part. Fan Faire is about having fun with other people who play these games. I'll keep this fairly brief because the player comments about Fan Faire are much more telling than anything I'm going to cover. That said, on to the juicy part.

Wednesday, Day 0 - Flight of the SOE

This was probably the least interesting day for you to read about. I woke up too early in the morning to get on a flight that took off too early for me to cope with, only to arrive rather late in the afternoon in Atlanta . We did have a quick get-together at the local bar (Champions), of course, which was far too much fun for the day before Fan Faire when running on 3 hours of sleep. I got to meet players I already knew and players I met for the first time, leaving as friends after the very first night we met. That's about as interesting as the night turned out, however, so on to the Summit .

Thursday, Day 1 - The Community Summit

It's no secret that we hold Community Summits at just about every Fan Faire and even sometimes between them, and this was no different in Atlanta . We identified a small number of guild leaders, high level players, and fansite folks to come talk to us in roundtable discussions and share in some food and drink.

The basic format of the Summit included a series of roundtable discussions as the meat of the day, and we got an incredible amount of feedback. Jokes were exchanged, Kendricke and Ferrel talked a lot, but we got great feedback from everyone involved. The most important part of the Community Summit for me? When we asked what people wanted to see in an upcoming expansion, and several people identified PIRATES and PIRATE SHIPS as what they wanted to see the most. I promise I didn't put them up to it, but a hearty "YARR!!!" to all of you.

Friday, Day 2 - The First Real Day

We started the day off with breakfast with the players. Or from your perspective, breakfast with the developers. I tried to hit just about every table in there for a brief period of time, and it was quite enjoyable talking to everyone and getting even more feedback (more than I had expected during a breakfast, anyway). Luckily, I had my handy notebook around to jot the feedback down in.

The panels on Friday went incredibly well. I picked on a few people during the sessions, so if you were one of those few, thanks for being a good sport about it. We took pages of notes during the panels and will be taking the feedback into consideration as EQII matures.

Friday night we had a welcome reception in which players and developers alike got to meet up and talk shop, or just say hi and talk about whatever they darn well pleased. This was somewhat eclipsed by what happened next: The now-infamous Tabernacle.

If you didn't go to Fan Faire or the Tabernacle, you missed out on some hectic fun. There was an awesome live karaoke band called Metalsome Inc. along with some other great live music upstairs. The highlight for most was the karaoke and free alcohol, of course. For those of you who claimed that I was a pansy for not going up there and singing, I want to make it clear that I did indeed sign up to sing "Pour Some Sugar on Me," but they didn't get to me by the end. :( Maybe next time, maybe next time.

Saturday - Day 3, Banquets and Something Else That Starts With a B

The morning of Saturday, day 3 in Atlanta , is mostly a blur. The Tabernacle, as far as I am told, was a blast. All I remember from Saturday morning is that I was a) really tired and b) experiencing technical difficulties due to the amount of free iced teas I consumed the previous night. I'm pretty sure there was something scheduled for that morning, but I will steadfastly claim that I don't remember anything until the first panel that day. It was all a blur.

And the panels were good. More excellent feedback, and more of me picking on unfortunate souls who I decided to make a joke about. Thanks again to those of you who were such great sports when I (or other panel members) decided to make fun of you.

The night rounded out with the Grand Banquet, which brought on my utter defeat in both the Pirate Talk and Beatbox categories (though I swear my lack of enthusiasm was brought on only by the collective 8 hours of sleep I'd managed in the past three days combined). The costume contest was great fun, and I was amazed to see someone conquer Brasse's costume with a rather eerily accurate looking Troll costume. Well done. Some guilds might remember that night as the infamous "Blackguard wore an NPU hat and taunted us" night. Yes, I wore the hat. It's a nice hat, and I'm a sucker for free guild schwag. If you bring me schwag next Fan Faire, I'll probably wear your stuff too. :P

The rest of my night was spent relaxing, for the most part. We hung out and danced for a little while before heading back over to the local bar, where I intelligently decided against consuming any alcohol in order to make my flight the next morning. Sunday wasn't exciting enough to go on about for more than one sentence. Suffice it to say, Sunday I managed to get home to San Diego in one piece with a lot of wonderful memories from Fan Faire.

The EverQuest II Community Speaks Out About SOE Fan Faire

Don't take my word for how great the Atlanta Fan Faire was, take a look at what the attendees have to say about their experiences!