The Safehouse Fanguard San Diego 2006 Write-Up-Part 1
Written by Justin “Nenjin” Wheeler
Safehouse Staff Writer
Fanguard
San Diego was a blast, plain and simple. The good company of fellow
Rogues, the exuberant fans, and the accomodating and often times
hilarious Sigil staff made every minute of this week end worth it. The
game could have gotten minimal exposure during the event and I still
would have had a great time. As a fan, it puts developers and gaming
companies in a whole different perspective when you can listen to them
crack jokes, tell stories, and relate to you through something else
besides forum posts and new announcements.
In this first part
of my write-up, I'll go over the 2 days of the event and what happened,
what we did, and just what these Fanguard things are about. In the
second part of my review, I'll give my impressions from the demo floor,
and the tidbits I was able to ferret out.
Day 1
Running
on nothing but 4 hours of sleep and 32 ounces of coffee, I stepped out
of the airport in sunny San Diego about 2 in the afternoon. After
blundering around like a damn tourist for about an hour, I made my way
over Sheraton West Tower and met our website Administrator Aidden, one
of our staff writers and moderators Nocte, and Xelbaaz, a Safehouse old
timer and character extrordinaire. We had a stunning view of from our
hotel room, looking out over the marina, with seagulls periodically
coming to hang out on the railing of our balcony, back dropped against
blue waters full of schooners and sail boats.
Seagulls cost extra.
Because it's the only pic I can find with the
marina, damnit.
The thieves den, at least for the weekend.
Apparently,
I had missed a load of drinking that had started hours eariler, but
that didn't stop us from immediately heading to the bar (Poor Nocte,
his day started at 4am and Aidden had him drinking the minute he was
off the plane) for more. After stopping off to register and get our
Affiliate Kits and do our raffle stuff, we sat down to drink and eat
(at least I did. Needed food to absorb the booze). Lenilya, a long time
Safehouser showed up, and we were sooned joined by Glip (Nick
Parkinson, Community Relations), Jeff Butler (Executive Producer,
President, and Cannon Baller of Newbs), Cindy Bowens (aka Abigale
Seashaow, Head of Community Relations) and other Sigil Staff and
Fanguard attendees. Zato, another Safehouse Staff Member also arrived,
much to our pleasure.
L to R: Myself, Xelbaaz, Lenilya, Glip, Nocte
The back of Jeff Butler's head, Nocte, GM-Fessius
GM-Lady Daegarmo, GM-Aruspex, and Xelbaaz.
Even spider man came to this thing!
Within
30 minutes, the bar was rockin with masses of people and laughter as
more fans started to show up to register. I'm sure someone was talking
about the game, but for the moment, everyone just seemed to be enjoying
each other's company, some booze, and plenty of laughs. Everyone was
having a pretty good time. Well except for Leni, who kept bitching
about over priced Italian food and the lack of hamburgers. ;)
Cocktails and Backstabs
We headed back up to the room to gather ourselves for (yet more) drinks and commiserating
at the scheduled cocktail party, which started promptly at 7pm. Drinks
weren't on the house (I can dream can't I!) and fruit was served at a
small buffet. (Which turns into punch when you mix it all up!) All in
all, about 150 people showed up to Fanguard. While it wasn't the
biggest event I had seen, there was plenty of energy and the smaller
numbers made it easier to talk to people, fans and devs alike. As we
gathered in the ball room we were joined by another large contingent of
Safehouse Rogues. Our forum's administrator Fricka joined us with her
boyfriend Wotan, another Old school SH rogue. Nymm and his girlfriend
Megan, Kierra the Silent and her boyfriend, and Jeters, all of whom are
old faces from around the Safehouse. With this many experienced Rogues
standing around the same table, if they were from anywhere other than
the Safehouse, you'd have had a knife fight.
The ballroom floor of the cocktail party.
Nocte's head, Kierra the Silent, Megan, Nymm, and
of course, Fricka.
Zack Karlsson orders a hit on someone with a quick chopping
motion of his hand and his fiery eyes.
The
drinks quickly began flowing (did they ever stop?) and the volume
picked up. Cindy made a very nice address to the attendees welcoming
and thanking us, and egging us on to have a good time. The next hours
saw lots of laughs, a few backstabbed CEOs, Developers, and even a
couple GMs, a quadruple backstabbed rogue, and an overall good time.
Nocte's stellar Vanguard Lore Compliation (which you can read here
in HTML format on our website) was passed around many hands in book
form and won him high praise. Like I said, while I'm sure people were
talking about the game and getting feedback, most seemed to be taking
it as a meet and greet sort of thing. Sigil did some initial raffle
prizes, which included ATi PCI-Express Cards (better than x800s).
Does Sammy Hagar even have a place in the Hardrock Cafe? Besides his tequila, I mean.
I
could have easily curled up and gone to bed by the time the cocktails
ended, but others arriving late wanted to go out to dinner (and of
course, to drink). What started as a small group of Rogues quickly
swelled into a huge group. Aidden, Nocte, Xelbaaz, Fricka, Wotan,
Lenilya, Jeters, Zato, Kierra, Glip, Paul Luna (a.ka. Vladamir,
Production Assistant and Forums Moderator, and one of the funniest guys
I've met, and ironically anothre long time SH reader), Bill Fisher (aka
Tagad, Senior Game Designer) and Zack Karlsson (Director of Business
Development) an ATi rep that I can't remember the name of, and myself
all (slowly) formed a convoy and ventured out into downtown San Diego
for a place to hang out.
The crew looking for a place to hang out
that isn't overflowing with people.
Wotan, Xelbaaz, Bill Fisher (aka Tagad), and Kierra's
stylin hat, which Jeters is using to hide.
Mostly everyone that went to the Hardrock Cafe
Paul Luna shows us where the bullet would go
if he was allowed to have a gun.
Glip has just discovered he's pregnant.
He was actually in a pretty good mood, until
we told him some hard truths about
Sammy Hagar. He didn't take it well.
For
a midwestern Rogue like myself, the night scene was pretty wild, and
the streets were overflowing with party goers, street musicians, mimes,
cops on horseback, and all sorts of other friday night stuff. We
eventually settled on Hardrock Cafe because there wasn't overflow
coming out the doors. Over the next hour and a half or so we ate and
drank (not that any of us really needed to by this point). Aidden was
so full of booze that a cut he had mysteriously recieved bled for 3
hours straight. Xelbaaz promptly told Glip that Sam Hagar sucked, and
battle was joined. (If you're wondering why Glip looks like he's
throwing down with someone in the Hardrock pics. Or maybe it just IS
being around Aidden). We caught Paul Luna on video doing a little dance
and I sipped my way through some gawd awful alcoholic fruit punch
concoction. Like before, everyone was taking things easy and not mining
for info (there was plenty of time and opportunity for that on
Saturday) and I can't claim to have been in the most lucid state of
mind. We wrapped it up 12:30 California (or 4:30 am Nocte's time) and I
promptly crashed to the floor clothed in our hotel room. We had a
breakfast to attend nice and early, and I needed my beauty sleep.
Day 2
The
next morning came way too early. We made our way down to the hotel
restraunt for the affiliate breakfast with members of Sigil's Community
Team, such as Cindy Bowens and Nick Parkinson. There were 8 Affiliates
in attendance. The majority of our time was taken up by discussions
about past events that had afflicted the community, such as the buyout
and war of words involving IGE and Sigil. For some fansites, this was
their first time being able to really go over the specifics of what
happened and to express their concerns. Some things I probably
shouldn't talk about, but one stunning detail was that IGE had gone so
far as to offer 6 figures to the owners of newly formed fansites with
no traffic as of yet during the buy out, a far cry from the commonly
known 5 figure amounts a lot of other fan sites had been offered.
One side of the Affiliate table at breakfast.
And another
Da Safehouse
The
breakfast broke up and it was time to hit the demo floor. As I said,
I'm saving that part of the write up for later so I can focus on it.
Suffice to say, it was crowded, and damn hot from so many gamers
clustered together, and busy busy busy. There were 4 machines set up
running a combat demo, and another 2 machines set up for character
customization. Not many if any fans were actually able to play the
combat demos, as it was high level content that would have befuddled
someone jumping in a second. Wouldn't do to introduce people to
Vanguard with a high level corpse run, now would it? :) More on this
later. The HUGE banner that you see in the background of the demo room
caught the attention of many of the Safehouse Rogues. We had more than
enough manpower to, uhm, relocate it, but I have yet to see a Sigil
Man-in-Black, and I'm not in much of a hurry to do so. Besides, that
banner probably costs more than my car.
The demo area. I've worked out this theory that
gamers put off like 4x as much body heat as normal people,
because that place was toasty.
And that's not even the whole banner.
Hail, Idara.Outside the demo room Fricka set up her Offline T-shirts
table (where you can buy Safehouse Gear and other sordid goodies,
incidentally) and we were joined by members of Vanguard Spheres, who
had a very impressive banner designed by Lyrcist, their web graphic
artist, and another framed piece of quality art design from another one
of their traditional medium artists who does character portraits, and
excellent fan music, all of which you can find on their site. The ebb
and flow of people moved around around us pretty steadily for the next
few hours until we broke for lunch.
Fricka running her OfflineTshirts table.
Teh phat l3w+z
Me standing around while other people are working.
Marketing and Public Relations: Assumptions can be misleading
A
group of Safehouse people headed down stairs to the restraunt and we
were joined by the charming April M. Jones, Sigil's new Senior
Marketing and Public Relations Manager, who was hired in December of
last year. We invited her to join us for lunch, and we had a
fascinating and candid discussion with her. April is a veteran of
Marketing period, starting her days with Red Storm marketing single
player games like Rainbow 6 before moving on to work for Funcom with
Anarchy Online, and SOE for Everquest 2, before joining Sigil. April
described to us the kinds of things a PR manager has to deal with (like
being told to put good spin on the Sony Station Exchange, her first
week on the job, which should earn someone a medal for taking on such
herculean task as reforming SOE's image with players). She told us how
some of the inner workings of decision making goes on in gaming
companies, when the desires and demands of the developers come head to
head with what publishers want. We talked about celebrities playing
games and how they can be great to have around, and be a total pain in
the ass to deal with at the same time. (Apparently there are a few
intersted in Vanguard).
April Jones, Senior Public Relations and Marketing Manager for Sigil,
and a very nice lady in spite of all that. (I'm kidding April.)
Further
more, we talked about what it actually means to market an MMO, and how
essentially it's still a brave new world for people like April because
no one has ever really run a smash marketing campaign for a game where
you want people to buy it year, after year, not to mention subscribe to
it. Having learned through hard experience how different it is
marketing an MMO versus other kinds of games, April has brought that
experience to Vanguard. She even managed to paint a picture of
secondary sales that I had never really considered before, how it does
actually help some people get into the game and enjoy it because it
frees them from time constraints, an admirable point if one I don't
wholly accept.
For
many gamers, at least for myself I know, PR people usually start out
with a big penalty to trust. In many cases the hype and tantalizing
half-truths we find on game boxes is their job and responsibility.
April managed to humanize what she does (something all Sigil employees
excel at) and to show me that, hey, PR people have a job to do that
they some times don't even like or agree with, and it's not just about
positive spin and advertising dollars. April doesn't just market these
games, she plays them too. Can you imagine what it must be like to
market the secondary market to people when YOU yourself refuse to play
on the secondary market servers?
I can say that I feel
pretty good about who is in charge of marketing on Sigil's end. April
is pretty down to earth and totally she violated my expectations with
her outlook and her honesty. Because it's either that, or they need to
give April a pay raise, stat, because she's a PR ninja. I can't wait to
see what she has planned for marketing Vanguard.
Next time I'm bringing a hacksaw for LiveQuest
Our crack live quest team. Nymm is at the table, Wotan is
next to him. Strokke is on the right, and Aegis01 looks like he's got
his hand stuck in a can. :)
Trust me, they are far nastier when you find them
still loaded with water along the shoreline.
We
headed back up stairs as the LiveQuest was kicking off. Anyone who has
been to an Everquest Fan Faire is probably familiar with it, so I guess
we could call this a "beta lLiveQuest". No GMs playing NPCs that needed
to be hailed, but we did have an extensive list of things to go
collect. Together with Strokke, White Eagle, and Aegis01, we pooled our
efforts and like many fans, pillaged the flora and shoreline outside
the hotel (because NO ONE would use things from the hotel, no no) for
items that would pass as stuff like "a venom sac" or "a sword sheath".
It's one part scavenger hunt, one part arts and crafts, and one part
BSing. I thought we did pretty well, but the competition was pretty
stiff...
Thankfully, no one tried to accuse us of setting
up a meth lab.
This is quite a rare image indeed, of Aidden, our Safehouse
Webmaster. This is one among only a few known pictures of him,
the others mostly of him at the Donkey Show in Tiajuana.
I signed up right at the end after
most of the work was done.
Things _almost_ went according to plan.
Sigil Panels: Development Panel, Community Panel, Customer Service Panel, and "How I broke into the gaming industry" Panel.
The
demos closed at 2 and after the interm period where the LiveQuest was
running, the panels opened up. Being so caught up in the LiveQuest, I
actually ended up getting into the Developer Panel pretty late. No
worries! The other deft Rogues of the Safehouse got it all on video,
which we will be brining to you soon.The panel featured Brad Mcquaid
(aka Aradune, aka Darth Mcquaid, Executive Producer, Chairman and CEO
of Sigil Games Online) and Jeff Butler taking questions from the crowd.
I'll save the in-depth reporting on what I got out of the panels in
Part 2, but suffice to say, Brad and Jeff both again demonstrated how
much tact and class they have as game designers and as reps for the
game. Honesty was the watch word of the panel, followed closely by
creativity.
Brad and Jeff answer questions from the
audience during the Developer Panel.
Jeff
and Brad broke down their vision for the game to the fans in a way that
respected the fans expectations. If something was in the planning
phases, and couldn't be commited for release, they'd say so. If there
was a cool idea and they liked it, they said so. They talked about how
these games grow in layers, each layer building on the old to make
something bigger, cooler, and more dynamic. And they expressly stated
that they would rather take the time to do something right, and to make
it all it can be, rather than making it trivial and doing it half-assed
because of time contraints or poorly planned deadlines. Maybe I'm
sounding a little like a sycophant at this point, but it's panels like
this one that continue to earn Sigil my support. Many developers suffer because they promise the moon and aren't realistic
about the game with themselves or fans. They make cheap content and
inflate it's value or depth. As usual, managing expectations is lesson
that both Brad and Jeff have learned to master, and it was applied in
force during the panel.
Fricka representing the Safehouse on the Affiliate panel.
After
the panel ended the community broke up into the smaller panels, I
bounced between the community and affiliate panel and the Customer
Service Panel. I never did locate the "How I broke into the Gaming
Industry Panel", which may explain why I've never managed to do it. :P
Generally, (I'll talk about these in depth in Part 2 as well) Cindy,
Nick, and Paul took questions from the community (many dealing with
IGE) and the fansites introduced themselves to the community and
explained what it is we do, how we started into it, and why we continue
to do it.
I caught less of the Customer Service Panel, but it
was at a prime moment. I will say this. Sigil takes their CS very
seriously. It's the sort of thing you expect companies to say, but they
mean it. Want an example? Jeff Butler. Executive Producer, President,
and an avid PvPer with the power to destroy those who displease him. He
had a run in with CS and they forced him to agree with policy. No, I'm
not making this up. He wanted to make a character named PeanutButter
Succubus. Cute as hell, and totally at odds with Sigil's naming policy.
Rather than exerting executive privelage or threatening to send the
Men-In-Black into the CS department, Jeff relented and had his named
changed by CS.
It takes some pretty big stones to confront one
of the guys at the top of the heap with a violation of player policy.
And it takes a lot of commitment to said policy to follow your own
rules even though they are pretty restrictive. What can I say about
Sigil's CS execution? Learn the rules, because they know exactly what
they mean, and you should too, because they don't flinch when they
interpret them. A few questions directed by Kiranth from Silky Venom
also touched on really tough issues (like how FD went from exploit to
legal tactic). More on this later.
According to Talisker, there is no God.
The banquet.
The Safehouse Table
After
the panels ended, the banquet dinner got underway (and of course, so
did the drinking) and the Safehouse secured ourselves a spot with
Rogue-like efficiency. We really needed 2 tables. Darrin McPherson sat
down with us and mentioned some very cool things that I really hope I
can share with you guys about the Necromancer. (I need to make sure it
is repeatable at this time) I'll say this now. Rogue4life baby, but
damn, I'm going to have a Necro alt. They may well be "the" caster
class to play, we'll see. In Darrin's words "Necros are Pimp". Capital
P. I totally agree with him.
The winners of the LiveQuest, congrats to them all.
The
winners of the LiveQuest were announced, and we weren't it. Some rather
creative entries might have won, if it hadn't been for the minors and
families in the room. The winning team, who didn't get to display
their items, will recieve signed copies of the game when it ships. The
raffle also got under way. The first and second winner picked up
another set of awesome ATi cards, and the last winner, our very own
Nymm, won (I think this is the one) a god among sound cards.
It has a remote and everything. The middle one however, if you're an
old time Vanguard Forums poster, was a bit of twisted irony. Ultar has
been a member of the Vanguard Community for quite a long time. And if I
had to pick one person that Glip has had to deal with more than anyone
else, who has treaded the line on polite discourse more than anyone
else, it's him. Watching Glip hand him an ATI All-in-Wonder Crossfire
card, was like watching Santa hand his bag of presents to Satan. (I
kid) I couldn't tell if Darrin McPherson was laughing or crying when he
had his face in his hands, but I'm pretty sure judging by what he said,
his faith in cosmic justice took a pretty big hit.
They say that when it rains, god is crying. Well, then
I'm pretty sure a small country was engulfed by a
monsoon when we snapped this pic of Ultar recieving his prize.
Another winner with their prize.
Haha! Victory is Nymm's!
Ikik with his prize.
Cindy Bowens, Mistress of Ceremonies
Can't
say I was too impressed with the fair the Sheraton put out. Roast
chicken with something orange on top, stuffed with what I think was
rice and onions, some thin sliced potatoes, some carrots, and an almost
caeser salad. The Tiramisu was pretty tasty though. In a final treat to
Fanguard attendees with the (official) closing of the event, everyone
recieved a guarenteed spot in Beta 3, and got a poster of their choice
of one of the 3 "spokespersons" for Vanguard, and 1 of each poster had
been signed by a bunch of Sigil Staff.
The
tale of Fanguard San Diego '06 mostly ends here. There were so many
people in the downstairs bar (when it finally opened) afterwards that
we quickly decided to buy booze and head for the rooms. Before I knew
it I had $180 bucks in my hand and was off with Zato to the Liquor
Store with orders for strong drink. You know, San Diego is a funny
place. You go to one place and buy liquor sure, fine. If you go another
2 miles, you'll find the same liquor that works out to be like 300%
cheaper than the first store. Here I get worried about pick pockets
when I travel (yes, Rogues worry about pickpockets too) but I guess
they just rob straight up in San Diego :p
Glip's room would have been ideal to have this
many people to get drunk in, but he was unavailable,
so we went with Fricka's.
Oloh tilting one back.
What
started as maybe 8 people heading for the rooms became 20 by the time I
returned. Oloh, Bill Fisher, Nymm and Megan, Kierra, Lenilya, Jeters,
Labrynth from Silky Venom and others who I don't remember, even
Michelle Butler and Jeff Butler stopped up. I didn't really get to hang
out for this one (I had to make a second alcohol run pretty quick with
Zato) so maybe Fricka will fill in the gaps for you. We started
editting pictures and video and some of it was just as hilarious as
when it was shot (when we get the Community Panel Video up, you MUST
watch it. You'll know why when you do). We got to talking, and
drinking, and eventually we condensed down to Safehouse folks again. We
stayed up until about 4:30 in the morning. I wish I could say I was
smiliing when I got up 2 and a half hours later to catch my plane, but
I'd be a liar. I don't think there's one Safehouse Staff member that
didn't go home Sunday night and just crash like a brick.
Don't knock rubbing your nose across another man's
leather coat until you've tried it for yourself.
Jeters, smiling, while Tagad tries to chennel
the force.
So how the hell was Fanguard already?!?!
In
all honesty, I wanted to stay longer, even though I think my wallet is
allergic to California. I laughed more at Fanguard than I have for a
while, and I simply had a blast. I think Fanguards of the future are in
good shape based on this experience, and it's a testament to how long
the Sigil folks that organize these things have done them. Sometimes
the whole Community thing gets a little mushy, but in truth, it's there
and it's alive. I saw more diversity that I really expected at
Vanguard. Families, couples, kids, lots of adults, and a gaming senior
or two. It's one thing to talk about community as an abstract thing or
via faceless internet posts, but to see it in the flesh is a totally
different experience. To hear 150 people cheer with the same common
interests and beliefs is a special thing. It's community.
So Sigil, where to next? Vegas!
Keep
checking back with the Safehouse in the coming days, as we've got more
writes up, extensive video coverage, and more photos yet to come. Read Part 2 HERE.
The Safehouse Mugshot Galleries
Essential Fanguard Links
List of Affiliated Fan Sites
Thanks for reading.
