Consider yourself… linked
For some reason I have random lyrics and snippets from Oliver! in my head. Why.
Anyway, set up a new blogroll linking category to cover off a few of you called Playas, ‘cos y’all are. Which led me to checking a few places which leads me to pimpin’ ya out with linkage and quotage. Continue reading
Podcast Episode 2 – Attack of the Podcast
I’m not here! I’m in a lovely hotel in Portland, Oregon, with free wifi. (Hotels of the World: wifi should always be free. It’s like hot and cold water now, people.)
But, if I was here, I’d want you to know that the second official podcast wot I did (with help, of course, from my guest Melissa ‘War Witch’ Bianco and the indispensable editing of Chris ‘Aero’ Siddall) is now available to listen to online, download, or even read. Whatever you like.
Also: it’ll be on iTunes soon. I promise.
By the way – here’s a little secret. We had so much material for Episode 2 that we’re jamming it into (effectively) an Episode 2.5, which will be out Soon. TM. I’ll let you know when.
Comments welcome as always!
MiniCon Day Four: Monday
The last day, or half-day to be precise – at least that’s what we planned. Things don’t always go according to plan though, do they…?
Monday morning (couldn’t guarantee)
Woke up with a little bit of sadness in my heart as things were coming to a close, but it was almost entirely dwarfed by the fatigue that was all the way through my body. I’d had an amazing weekend but I knew I’d be paying for it during the rest of the week.
Of course, I’d had sleep, which was a blessing that had only come to our Task Force: Omega teams the previous night, many of whom would have been having their first proper night of sleep since Thursday evening. Brave warrior gamers, all of them. I hoped they liked their prizes and went back home to spread tales of their mighty deeds. Or alternatively, would just come back next year.
Up, and at ‘em for a last breakfast and a general chat about what we needed to do. There was nothing scheduled for Monday morning; no presentations, no talks, no artists to sketch and no-one to have your photo taken with. There was, however, a video… and… Continue reading
MiniCon Day Three: Sunday
Day Three. Three. Three days. I’m telling you, writing this is almost the same as doing it all over again. Well, not quite.
The big difference between the Ultimate Heroic Weekend (MiniCon, same thing) and any other show we do was simply time. At most shows, we spend an entire day on the show floor, but then with a usually audible sigh of relief (or more likely, cheer of elation) we pack up and go out – or go home.
(The one exception is The Show To End All Shows; the Games Convention in Germany. It’s five days long. Proud monuments stand in the aisles of der Leipziger Messegelände, honoring the booth workers who have fallen there.)
At Omega Sektor though, while we did leave the venue, we never really left the show. So by Day Three… it was starting to wear us down a bit.
Three Orange Whips, I guess
No early morning realisations of doom for me on Sunday, but instead just straight down to breakfast when I really would have preferred a lie-in. Generally at shows I try and ‘rally the troops’ a bit at breakfast, get them ready for the day, or just talk… Continue reading
MiniCon Day Two: Saturday
I warn you: this post is long. Like, epic long, Task Force long… long. So grab a drink, maybe some popcorn, sit back, relax… and hear the tale of the 2008 Omega Sektor MiniCon, Day Two: Saturday.
Wake up, Rockjaw
Saturday started bleary-eyed in bed, where I woke up at about 6AM with half a hangover and not enough sleep. Both were my own fault, so I couldn’t complain.
I remember lying there in bed savouring the quiet time before I knew I had to get up, when out of the blue, some part of my semi-awake consciousness asked me a question:
“Hey Stephen; can you remember the PIN number for the credit card machine?”
Instantaneous reply: no.
“But if you don’t know the PIN, how are people going to pay for stock, merchandise and/or make charity donations with their credit (and debit) cards, hmmm?”
My eyes snapped open. A cold sweat broke out. Great start to the day.
I hopped out of bed and sent a text to Chris, who replied immediately – a mistake, because now I knew he was up. After a quick phone call, we agreed that neither of us knew the PIN for certain.… Continue reading
Read this: MiniCon blogs
If my ramblings weren’t enough to sate you, a couple of more personal views have popped up on the MiniCon – one from a player who participated in Task Force: Omega, and another from the lovely Hazel, one of the official CrewNC Sidekicks.
Kerwooky.com is the domain of Richard, AKA Geoffrey (You can see how confused we get) and not only does he have this to say:
There was booze! There was 40 hours of gaming! There was very little sleep! There was sketches! There was auctions! There was womenz! (Well, about 5? but by geek standards, that’s a turnout and a half) There was a game designer to grill! There was everything else involved with lots of gaming and booze, like smelly people, which is probably one of the bad things.
… he also has a very grainy phone-cam video of himself and a fellow player beating each other in the Super-Sumo suits that Omega Sektor provided. Very sporting. Go read that, and then…
… go see what Hazel (real name) AKA Wild_Red has to say about her time as an Official CrewNC Sidekick. (Read: unpaid, but very appreciated through gifts and free food/booze, volunteer.) It’s worth reading… Continue reading
Random MiniCon bits
The re-telling of the MiniCon is turning into an epic – Saturday’s over 3,000 words and only up until the auction – so I want to add some photos to make it more palatable, and that won’t happen until Monday.
Until then, some random bits that don’t fit in my narrative. I don’t know when all of these happened exactly, but I’m pretty sure they did:
- Sitting cross-legged on the floor with Melissa, going through the presentation for Saturday and making sure the jokes worked.
- Doing an interview with Titan Gaming Radio in which I showed my hairy stomach, briefly. This is of course all they chose to use.
- Finding out that Relentless is an excellent Red Bull substitute for a certain person. Which is handy to know.
- Seeing Neil Edwards’ art for his sadly aborted take on Flash Gordon just as he was going out the door. Great stuff, which will never see print, tragically.
- Chatting with Riff from MusicWorldRadio, and being asked to talk about music tastes. Afterwards I realised I’d mostly concentrated on the ‘B’s in my nervousness. (My experience has been that when I talk about music I like, people go ‘You like who?’ a lot.)… Continue reading
Massively on the MiniCon
Massively has a report up about the MiniCon from Adrian Bott, who sadly I didn’t get to meet during the weekend – well, I didn’t even know he was coming, so that makes it a bit harder. However, I might be making up for it with an interview for them, we’ll see.
Adrian has a good overview of the event, and also a few choice quotes from Melissa that I hadn’t heard myself – as well as one of our favourite pictures of the event. (I wonder if ‘Super Noob‘ was related to him!) Our official Flickr feed will be updated next week by the way – our photographer needs rest too….
Favourite quote of the article has to be this I think:
What with developers who care passionately about the game, staff who went well out of their way to ensure a good time for everyone, artists working long hours for charity and professional Omega Sektor operatives on hand to help out, the level of magnanimity and sheer goodwill were enough to make a cynic shrivel up like a salted slug.
Thanks for the coverage, Adrian (and Massively)! Let’s make sure you make it there for all four days next year….
One more Omega Sektor video…
Another vid from Carl (Elky_), basically showing as many players as he managed to video.
I hope you manage to save up for another memory card by next year Carl, heh heh.
MiniCon Day One: Friday
So let’s go back in time again… almost a week ago now. Boy, doesn’t feel it.
This is – believe it or not – a little lacking in detail, but I did my best. Let’s go…
The first day of a show, any show, pretty much unfolds the same way every time – a bit like the day after a show, actually. So Friday started with the entire team converging on our offices. I walked in to the compound to find several people freezing their asses off, just like I was thanks to some intense winds. I let them into the minibus I’d hired so they didn’t turn into people popsicles, and called Chris.
He was inside the office, collecting the last few pieces of stuff. I went to join him, and we did a few last minute things like printing out a few more maps and schedules to put up all over the centre. Then we piled everything onto our trolleys to move it downstairs.
This point on a ‘show timeline’ is always kind of maddening for me. We know we have to leave, but we’re slightly reluctant to, because we know there’s the possibility that we’re going to… Continue reading