EQ2 Guide Calthine's Blog - Part 1  

Calthine's Blog - Part 1

SOE Fan Faire 2007===

August 1, 4:40 am Alaska Time at an airport in the middle of Alaska

This is me, stalling before going through security. Usually I pack so I can flit through security at will, but this laptop is gonna slow me down.

I woke at 3:20 to Hubby's elbow. He heard my alarm and I didn't. No surprise, since Baby's been cutting molars and not sleeping well; basically I'm on my 4th two hour nap in about 36 hours. I tell myself I can sleep on the plane.

Riiiiight.

All it really means is I'll arrive in Vegas as fresh as a four day old glazed donut on a Trooper's dashboard.

The airport's surprisingly busy. Usually this is the airport you can get to 45 minutes before your flight and still make it with no problem, but it's tourist season and there are three flights leaving around the same time as mine. So not grabbing that extra hour pays off, I'll make my plane in plenty of time.

5:35 am ADT

Having discovered that my flight boards at 6, not leaves at 6, I debate braving the security checkpoint again to have another cigarette. What's really making me hesitate is the $2 bottle of water I just bought for the plane that won't make it through the check point. Abandon it? I'm cheap, I hate to do that. Our airport is small, and I'm at the front of the plane so I'd have plenty of time.

I'm gonna go for it. I'll chug the water before I come back through. I need to drink more water anyway.

5:37 am ADT

One look at the line and I crack a piece of Nicorette and call it good enough. I settle into the waiting area with an old Kurt Vonnegut (Cat's Cradle, if anyone was wondering).

8:53 am ADT

A nap, and a light $5 breakfast (it was small, but quite good) and I'm feeling refreshed. I'd like to nap a bit more, but just like the last couple of days after a nap I'm good for a few hours. Maybe on the next leg.

I add headphones to my DVR, making it a passable MP3 player, and turn on the SOE Podcast 20. I've actually never listened to a podcast - I'm not a digital sound geek and trying to listen to anything at home with the kids is almost impossible. It's neat to hear Alan and Aimee chatting. I met them at February's Community Summit and I'm looking forward to seeing them again.

My notebook is acting up. This was a gift from an old EQ1 guildie, who said it'd been sitting under his desk for 4 1/2 years, so as long as I can do my reports and upload them I'm not concerned. It's got a mystery hardware/driver related BSOD that it eventually boots though. I'm convinced it's the CMOS battery, entirely possible after 5 years, but everything I've read says tree's no way to access the battery without causing physical harm to the case.

That's okay, I brought the restore disks.

Now that my travel anxiety has passed (now that I'm on the way it's too late to panic) I'm really excited about Fan Faire. I'm going a day early for another Community Summit.

Now, February's Community Summit caused some negative reactions in the EQ2 community, as there were some changes to the Summit focus. Previous Summits were game and developer oriented, while February's Summit was Community oriented. So not only were people who had become accustomed to attending these Summits not necessarily invited, but players who were expecting a high amount of Developer information were disappointed. We got to meet and socialize with the Devs (great bunch of people, by the way, all the SOE people are), but the focus was on the SOE community and SOE's interactions with the community.

We didn't get an advance itinerary for the pre-Fan Faire Community Influencers Summit, but I'm told it is again a Community Relations Summit. Which makes a lot of sense, as there will be plenty of Dev interaction at Fan Faire, and the six month mark will be a good time to follow up on the discussions we had in February.

And while that's all going on friends and family will be arriving! My husband lands Thursday afternoon, having made sure my Mom knows where the duct tape is; Kiara and a whole bunch of the Zam Network staff will be showing up; Coyote, Radar, Niami DenMum, and other "talking heads" from Fan Sites and the forum community will be there. That's what I'm looking forward to the most, honestly, meeting the people I've gotten to know on line IRL.

Over a thousand people pre-registered for this Fan Faire! I can't wait.

1:40 pm Pacific Time somewhere between Seattle and Vegas.
I'm watching Go, Diego Go! over the shoulder of my seatmate, Jameson, who is three. I've been seated next to large, nice families on both legs of my trip, and the children have been actually quite delightful. Jameson is the youngest, and just a sweetie. He's very concerned because he looked out the window and wanted to know "Why the airplane not moving? When we gonna go?"

We got off the ground a little late, and we're coming up on turbulence; apparently there's thunderstorms in Las Vegas. And me without my windbreaker! But in about an hour I should be on the ground.

3:15 pm

Finally, we're off the plane, only about half an hour late. I bypass the slot machines the the airport, although it's tempting. Last time I was in Vegas my luck was ho-hum until we were on our way out, when I managed to win about $80 on the airport slots. But I'm eager to check in and see who else has arrived.

3:45 pm at the Rio

Gamers ho! Right there by the front desk is Kendricke, with a half-dozen or so people from the Legion of the White Rose. I turn around and see Scott Hartsman in front of me at the check-in line. We all chit-chat a bit and I wander off to figure out where on earth my room is. This place is huge! Past the bar, around the jewelry store, past the Starbucks...

STARBUCKS!!! Stopping dead in my tracks I forage a grande Java Chip Frappuccino. Mmmm, caffeine!

4:30 pm

I call home, everyone is fine, they've survived 12 hours without me. This room is huge, easily twice the size of any hotel room I've ever been in and bigger than my whole first floor at home. If all the rooms are this size there's a lot of potential for room parties. I stop and ask an NPC directions to the closet. Word arrives from Aimee that people are meeting in the I-Bar so I change and head back downstairs.

5:00 pm at the I-Bar

Yep, there they are! Now, here I'm going to make excuses, because I met a lot of new people and saw lots of folks I knew already, and half of people's names have already left my head. I'm absolutely miserable at names, much to my perpetual embarassment. So if I forget you, forgive me now. I see Ashlaine, Brenlo, Grimwell, Gallenite, Autenil, LFG, Coyote, Brent, Radar, Cuppycake, Gethani, Yivvits and Mr. Bubble, and about 20 other people! It's a nice mix of Community Relations, developers, players, podcasters and fansite people.

Cocktails occur, and eventually we catch a shuttle to go see Lance Burton, Master Magician. Which was a great show, by the way, and family friendly if you're looking for something to take the kids to.

9:00 pm back at the Rio

People split off for food and whatever, and I seriously consider making an early night of it since it's been a very long day for me on very little sleep. I stop at the bar for a nightcap and discover that sure enough, there's a room party.

I finish my cocktail and go to bed.

Nah. Even I'm not that goodie-goodie!

Much later

After many drinks and lots of socializing I leave and /waypoint back to my wing of the hotel. I crawl into the (absolutely huge) bed with visions of gamers dancing in my head and excitement for tomorrow, with a day of Summit work and then the welcome reception ringing in the official start of Fan Faire.

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