EQ2 Guide Calthine's Blog - Part 2  

Calthine's Blog - Part 2

SOE Fan Faire 2007===

8:45 am

The Summit is this morning, and the first thing on the agenda is breakfast. I ask random NPC's, I mean employees, for directions to the meeting room as /waypoint seems to not be working in this zone.

9:05 am

Things are clearer after coffee. The Rio does a good breakfast buffet, which bodes well for events during the Fan Faire. As the fog clears over bacon, eggs, and hash browns (alas, no Spam), Coyote and I whip out our notebooks and start looking for a wireless connection. And looking, and looking.... Turns out our meeting room was changed at the last minute and we have a room with no 'net of any variety. Brenlo arrives and tells us if we really need it there's one connection a few rooms down.

9:15 am

With judicious use of elbows and a cry of "LOOK! LARRY ELMORE!" I beat Coyote to the one connection and begin to upload my blog. There's no time to double-check it, so I apologize for any glaring errors.

10:00 am

The SOE Community Influencers Summit begins. The Influencers program has been developed by Community Relations as a cross-game group of people who talk about the games. There were some fansites represented by by and large the Summit attendees were picked not for where they worked but for how they represent the concerns of the community. Among the attendees from EQ2 were myself, Coyote, and LFG. But by and large the attendees were "just regular players" who the Community Representatives felt would give valuable feedback to SOE.

I feel it's also important to note that this crew was not the same group as in February.  Some of us were repeat attendees, but there were about 80% new faces.  Brenlo tells us that these Community Summits will rotate in different people from the various games; the SOE Influencers are not an exclusive, elite group, but an ever-changing group of people who care passionately for the games and speak well on them (whether positive or negative).

For those of you who wonder what ever happened to the game-specific developer conferences, we were told that SOE will still do some.

11:00 am

The first topic, now that Brenlo has activated the mind-control chips he slipped into our breakfast, is the SOE forums. Most folks know that SOE changed from Lithium forums to forums developed in house. The new forums suffered from horrible stability issues for a while, and there are features players feel are missing.

The Summit attendees worked to develop a list is fixes and features we felt are sorely needed for the forums. From fixing the formatting bugs, to making the "read posts" indicators more accurate to RSS feeds and a dashboard, we gave them quite a list. While there is no ETA for the improvements, Community Relations will be giving our feedback along with their own needs to the web platform folks.

12:00 pm

More food! We break to a lovely taco bar and mill around a bit. I try to contact Kiara and Draknorr, who I know are here SOMEWHERE, to no avail. I make arrangements so my husband, who is landing in a couple hours, can actually get a key to the room. Several folks I met in February come in for lunch, including Julie the Intern and Momochi, the EQ2 Japanese Community Manager. Much squealing, bouncing and hugging ensues while we catch up.

1:00 pm

This was by far my favorite segment of the Summit, as we got to talk to Marketing. Largely we discussed some marketing programs they've been trying at SWG and their effectiveness and application in the other SOE games, but along the way we touched on the Trials, the new player experience, digital vs hardcopy, and, yes, the lack of EOF boxes. The Marketing team is very bright enthusiastic, has some new team members who are bringing in fresh ideas, and suprised us all by talking abot the games as only players can. Yes, the marketing department is full of gamers!

2:00 pm

I'm going to go all mysterious on this segment because what we discussed was the very beginnings of ideas involving guild support, and as it was just in the brainstorming phase I do not was to accidentally plant false expectations of implementation or timelines. But we were excited.

Ha, wiggled out of that one, didn't I!

3:00 pm

Aimee and the Community Team come in and start handing out our passes and swag. Swag, baby! We hear about some of he surprises planned for this weekend and Brenlo demonstrates our mind-control chips.

4:00 pm

We break up to meet for dinner later and I go to find my husband, who texts that he's just escaped the airport. We finally hook up and I hear now Nana is spoiling the boys and Kiddo bit someone at school yesterday. I put my fingers in my ears and hum the EQ2 loadup song - the kids are Nana's problem with weekend! We go to get him registered.

4:45 pm

The line is.... enormous. They are expecting 1500 people for Fan Faire. We're getting off looks from the SunMicro Systems conference people. But everyone in line is a gamer and conversations are instant and pleasant. Basically anyone wearing the conference pass badge this weekend is a friend.

6:15 pm

We finally get Hubby registered. No, I'm not exaggerating at all, it was an hour and a half. I've pretty much missed the Summit dinner, but we swing by the restaurant so I can introduce hubby. (If you're here he's Sutures Woundmender from AB, and he's my videographer this weekend). We decide to try the all you can eat seafood buffet.

7:00 pm

Up to the Voodoo Lounge! Normally this is an expensive nightclub with a dress code and a $30 cover, but we have the place until 10pm. Several of us have to ask an NPC for directions.

7:00 - 10:00 pm

Compress this to elbow rubbing and schmoozing with the best bunch of people on the planet. I finally get to meet my bosses, Draknorr, Illia, and Allakhazam himself, along with Dolby who also helps at 'Zam. I meet about a million Devs and lots of people like: Domino, Niami DenMum and the House Ogre, Brasse (beardless!), Winter, Kaitheel (who developed last Frostfell's events and crafting), Luxx from OGR (who along with EQ2's-day organizes an expedition to Quarks), Lockeye, Gordo, and more people whose names escape me 'cause I didn't get a business card. Scott Hartsman is flitting around with a big grin on his face, you can tell he's trying to see everyone at once and is just loving it. Momochi entertains my husband as Draknor drags me around introducing me to people.

My exhaustion is about to take me completely over, but I stop by a room party and meet more AgroFish and FINALLY get to actually meet Kiara. Coyote is well into his umteenth vodka and vodka and is eating pixie sticks and chocolate covered espresso beans (I am not making that up. I couldn't possibly make that up). I'd love to stay but if I try to Hubby will be carrying me back to the room, and our room is in the other tower.

To bed, to sleep, and on to more fun tomorrow! Stay tuned for the next exciting chapter!

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