Fan Faire is always exciting! Whether it's your first or your tenth, you always come away with fond memories of the experience. Some of our memories:
Ashlanne: One of my favorite memories is from the 2007 Fan Faire that we had at the Rio in Las Vegas. We boarded our flight and then had to deplane again because they had "issues" of some sort. While we waited for the new plane, Brenlo and I played Magic on the floor. That's also the Fan Faire where I learned that snorting when you laugh kills brain cells, but that it's okay because it's only the weak ones, like with a herd of buffalo.
Brenlo: Mine is from the very first Fan Faire in Baltimore. I sat up all night, until about 7:00am, talking to a group of players about EverQuest.
Ashlanne: How did you function the next day?
Brenlo: I didn't!
Kiara: Mine is from my first Fan Faire in 2006 when we were in Atlanta. I didn't work for SOE then or even a fan site. I was wandering around the convention area, waiting for registration to open and kept trying to go into the hall where they were setting everything up. Brenlo kept stopping me at the door. He'd put on this stern face and tell me to shoo. Later, when registration opened, Gar'Va stopped me to say "Oh, you're Kiara! I'm the reason you have to spell your name with two I's on Kithicor!" Talk about feeling uncomfortable because the teacher knows your name on the first day of class!
Gnobrin: Setting up and running last year's Live Quest. It was the first time I'd spoken publically like that and emceeing and running the event was a lot of fun.
What are your favorite memories of Fan Faire? Share them with us!
My favorite Fan Faire memory from SWG was when I asked Loche if I could show him my ingame house when he was trying to show off the game the first day. That was fun because Loche was so impressed with what I had done, he had called over Blixtev to show it off.
Then Blixtev caleld Valara over and was like "why didn't we see this house"? and Valara being a cool cat was like "you did, it was on the Homeshow." After that, it opened the door for many other SWG players to show off their houses and Blix mentioned my place during different forum panels. Great times!
Of course, my other favorite experience was what I mentioned in Podcast 58 when I was going home to the airport and got to talk with Ashlanne and Brenlo. Memories...I cant wait to see you guys again!
"Memories, Like the corners of my mind, Misty watercolor memories"bixie conga lines
closing down the bars ( we wiped out most of their booze too)seeing all the people you play with and laughing with them in personthe povlar server group screaming out POVLAR being able to personaly thank a person/persons for something in game you really enjoyed.
being with a ton of other people who are as game crazy as you are.
San Diego - Getting to meet all the SOE people for the first time. Doing my first live quest and some players bringing me live slugs for fishing grubbs.
Baltimore - Brenlo to me "Are you here again?" Hotel bar running out of alcohol.
Chicago - Singing along to the jukebox in the pub. They're playing our song Ashlanne.
New Orleans - The parade through the French Quarter!, The scavenger hunt was awesome. Running through the cemetary to get stone rubbings.
Atlanta - Shots of Johnny Walker Blue Label in the hotel Lobby. Sitting at the Starbucks in the hotel while a Guide sang to us.
Las Vegas x 3 - What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, enough said
Rynara wrote:
Everytime that song comes on I think of that night! Such a great memory!!
Fan Faire 2006 - New Orleans ... well the flight from northern montana was hectic, and then meeting a guildie to take me to waffle house on the way to the convnetion was cool... I was overwhelemed with the costumes, and outfits that people did, I was very cool....Meeting Brenlo was a big plus...Being from BristleBane . I also enjoyed the merchants, though my pocketbook didnt, and now my house supports the Monk and Bristlebane banners from that year...(my wife keeps threatening to find them a new home ...) Over all... Just being an EQ Player is the best memeory
Kastle Kildragyn Formerly of BristleBane, currently of Seventh Hammer
My favorite Fan Faire memory was remembering when The Matrix Online had a developer to meet. Pity I can't relive that memory this year.
Atlanta 2006 - The cool moment was realizing that the guy holding the microphone at an EQ panel when we were asking questions was the game's producer.
Las Vegas 2007 - The party on top of the Rio was pretty darn awesome. One of the coolest moments had to be talking gaming and MMORPGs with a group of people at the party for 30min, and then having someone ask if this was everyone's first fan faire - half the group looked puzzled, and said they were there for the Sun convention (they'd opened the doors after a few hours for the general public)! The poolside party was pretty cool also - especially since the producer gave me his special SoE black band...
Las Vegas 2008 - Welcome to the Jungle! Drinking with various devs and discussing game stuff was cool - the TR party was pretty fun too - anyone have a handy pic of Waring? Community address was pretty neat also.
Mave wrote:
Same here!
I have a hard time having a 'favorite' i like them all !
Which is why a huge portion of my website is dedicated to the fan faires of the past =D
http://www.tharkis.com/fanfaire.html
Smile, my favorite memories of Fan Faires go back to 1999, Las Vegas, not even in a huge hotel. The only Fan Faire before that one, I think, was a picnic in Los Angeles. In Las Vegas, the devs were all there, the first GM's, Cindy, the organizer of the first fan faires, the early generations of guides ... Mallku and friends. There was an Elvis wedding, there was a late night party with devs and the staff of Everquest Express (EQ Express was the first news and community site for EQ iirc ... all of us resplendent in our EQ Express logo'd shirts) and an even later night gathering around the pool with Matt and Ryan leading the discussion of where mmorpgs would go in the future .... dreaming, tech, numbers of people, gameplay, what if's and what we hoped for. (And yes I still have photos from then!)
Then came the Fan Faire in San Diego ... a memorable tour of Sony for me, lots of time hanging out with the guides and gm's and devs ... everyone relaxed and enjoying the growing community, the guild competitions for attendance, the shared stories of drowning in Qeynos the first time swimming ... Fippy and the irrepressable Zalumbas, the very funny guys of Tarew Marr.
The last Fan Faire I went to was in Seattle. Again, there was the fun of seeing guide friends and meeting up with so many of the people I had gotten to know in EQ, especially the Test Server folks where I was then guiding. The Live Quest was amazing and so much fun.
Sadly, that was the last Fan Faire I went to. Perhaps .... there's a slim possibility ... I'll make it to the 10th Anniversary bash now as a Vanguardian (after a fair number of years in EQ2) ... and have a chance to celebrate the fun I've had in these games and the friends I've made. For me, that's what Fan Faires are all about! I feel so lucky to have been able to attend and even if I don't make this one ... I hope everyone there has a wonderful and memorable time!
Best always,
Nepenthia (EQ Beta 1), Loviane (EQ Guides Gen 5), Lovi (Silky Venom of Vanguard)
Hey, you don't even have to worry about remembering the game at the fan faire now
Many many wonderful memories of Fan Faires past. My husband Zhark and I attended from 2002 thru 2006. I made matching embroidered tee shirts for our guild Legends of Madcap. We won first prize in Vegas for the scanvenger hunt (100 gift card to Best Buy) and the next year came in second with a spin off guild that formed from some of our members to EQ2. The friendships made still stand today.
My beloved Zhark passed away on June 1, 2007. I will be attending Fan Faire this year in Vegas (my home is just an hour drive from Pahrump) in his honor. There will not be many from our guild but the warmth of friendliness that spreads throughout the entire event brings people together so I know we will have a great time no matter who we are sitting with.
One particular memory stands out regarding Brenlo. Zhark and I were up bright and early waiting for the EQ live game to start. Poor Brenlo was having difficulty getting things started on time. People were getting antsy and Zhark and I just enjoyed being together. When it started Brenlo began by trying to "wake up the crowd". Charlie was cheering, whooping and clapping and answering when Brenlo spoke.
The rest of the crowd was not enthusiastic enough so Brenlo said, "Wake up people, look at this old guy in the front he has more energy than all of you combined!"
If Brenlo reads this he may recall that and the fact that I told him I would make him a tee shirt. Now you know why I did not return the following year. See you soon Brenlo.
Best regards,
Beyba
Fan Faire 07: The Voodoo lounge meet and greet. 2 things I remember:
1) Witchdoctors.
2) I met a bunch of EQ2 people, and we chatter for a LONG while about the games, the similarities, the differences. We were going on about raiding, and they mentioned a "really hard raid". So I proceeded to tell them about Queen Sendaii, Uqua, and OMM. I think they almost crapped themselves, but then again I was REALLY wasted, so maybe that's how I want to remember it.
