Fanfaire Wrapup
Everyone had a great time at the Boston Fanfaire last weekend. I've got pictures for you and a wrap-up of what went on. First, I'll start with the hotel. If you are ever visiting Boston and looking for a place to stay, whatever you do don't stay at the Boston Park Plaza. No really. She was obviously once a grand and impressive hotel. Now, like an aged trollop, she smears on the makeup in an attempt to hide the pockmarks and wrinkles, puts on that tattered old party dress and stands in the street wondering why nobody looks at her with lust anymore, but instead with disgust and pity. Enough of my waxing poetic. You can check out the reviews people gave it at fodors for a better idea.
Of course, most of us were not really interested in the hotel. People come to a fan faire for one reason, and one reason only -- to party with other Everquest players. That we did in spades. If you've ever wondered what the heck people do at one of these things and figured it was something you just wouldn't enjoy, you should really think about trying one out. If you enjoy drinking, socializing, boasting and joking around, all with a group of people who know the layout of East Freeport at least as well as you do, then this is something you would enjoy. Let me give you an idea of how the weekend went.
The party started at 1:00 Friday afternoon with early registration. At that point a line snaked around the hotel lobby to get to the registration tables and get your identification badge. Since nothing was actually scheduled until 8:00, the hotel obviously assumed everyone would register and then head out to see Boston. Some did, but many headed to the hotel bar, got a beer, and started moving around the lobby looking for people they knew from in game. Soon we just took over the hotel and Everquest people were pretty much standing everywhere talking to anyone who wanted to join in on the conversation. The two bartenders they had on duty probably left work and collapsed from exhaustion the minute they got home.
This continued until they opened up the main ballroom at 8:00 for the official cocktail party. Sony did a good job of organizing it so that the players could gather together by server and meet people they either may have played with in the past or are likely to play with in the future. The Povar contingent was especially enthusiastic. From 8:00 to 10:00 there were drinks and hors d'oeuvres, and the players were given time to meet and socialize with the players from theirs and other servers.
After this, many headed back down to the hotel bars, some went out on the town and those in the know headed to the suite that Allakhazams and Casters Realm had rented together for some after hours partying. This soon became know as the "shhhh" party, since, even though they had promised to put us somewhere where we wouldn't disturb the guests, the hotel in fact put us right next to an older couple who were quite rightfully unhappy to have a large group of loud drunks talking in the room next door. Thus, in order to keep from getting shut down, every couple of minutes as the noise level started to rise, someone would go "shhhh" and, like a group of elementary schoolers, we would try to soften our conversations. We still managed to have a lot of fun.
The true official events began at 1:00 on Saturday. Everyone gathered in the ballroom again as Cindy, who does a terrific job of putting these things together for Sony, welcomed everyone and introduced the GM's, Guides and members of the development team that were there, as well as those who were there from the EQ fan sites, like myself. They then kicked off the live quest. This takes place all over the hotel. Players group up in teams of 10 or so and compete against each other to solve the most puzzles and win an in game prize. Sony employees, GM's and Guides all dress up in costume and are scattered around the hotel and play the NPC's you need to hail in order to complete your quests. Quite a few people were on cell phones calling friends with access to our site to look up some of the information they needed to solve the quests.
What’s nice about the live qest is that if you want to participate, you can and it is a good time. Conversely, if you don’t want to participate, you can just head back down to the bar and pick up where you left off the day before. Either way, you will have plenty of fellow EQ'ers hanging around with you. I decided to skip the quest this time since it is almost as much fun watching the players run madly around the hotel trying to solve the most riddles as it is to group up and help solve the riddles yourself. Just as precious is standing at the hotel entrance and watching the non-everquest guests enter the lobby and stand stupefied at the spectacle before them. "Honey, isn't that man wearing a sword and armor?" ... "Maybe we'd better stay somewhere else". ROFLMAO. There were some octogenarians staying at that hotel that clearly thought they had finally lost their senses.
After the live quest was finished, the more serious part of the fanfaire began. Discussions were held in four different rooms on different game topics, and the Sony employees made themselves available for questions on all aspects of the game and development. This was a chance for the players to give the developers feedback on things that bothered them or ask questions about things they didn’t quite understand. It was actually quite interesting and informative to sit in on these discussions. Hopefully, Sony will give serious consideration to some of the player's suggestions.
It was now coming into the evening hours, and they opened up the ballroom for everyone to gather for dinner. After dinner, there was a drawing and quite a few prizes were awarded, ranging from allakhazam premium memberships donated from yours truly, to t-shirts and other items donated by some of the other sites, to several sets of very nice Altec Lansing speakers. (Although I’m sure that the winners of the surround sound speakers were really bumming that they got that instead of an allakhazam premium membership). [:smile:] After dinner, there was a DJ and dancing for those who wanted to dance with the probably 70% male turnout, and a trivia contest. The majority of us, of course, headed back down to the bars to continue the party. We also had round two of the Allakhazam/Caster’s Realm after hours party, and this time were not forced to shush each other every 5 minutes, though they did end up moving us down to a conference room since word had gotten out to more people about the party and we ended up spilling out into the halls of the hotel.
On Sunday we rested and returned home. Again, if you have never really considered going to one of these things, you should really consider giving it a try. Everyone I met was interesting and fun to hang out with. It’s a blast to be in a whole hotel full of people who know exactly what SOW is, even though nobody will agree on how it’s really pronounced. I want to congratulate Sony on the great job they did in keeping 800 people organized and entertained and providing everyone with a truly great time. I also want to thank everyone who came by and let me know how much you enjoy the site. It's great to get so much positive feedback.
I hope I can make it to the next fan faire.
OK. Here are the pictures:
General Pictures:
Friday Night in the Ballroom
Baelish of Caster's Realm
Some T-Shirts for Sale
More Phat Loot
The new Everquest RPG Books
The Phat Loot Hall
The film crew from 48 hours
Cindy at the podium
The hotel lobby during the live quest
The gang from the test server
Catching t-shirts in the hotel lobby
The Allakhazam/Caster's Realm party
Players in Costume:
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NPC Costumes:
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