Archive for March, 2008
The power of social
Posted by Rockjaw in MMO-related, Pimpin' on March 30th, 2008
The other day Seb Streiffert, our English language Aion Community Coordinator, asked for the 100 or so members of the official Aion: The Tower of Eternity Facebook group to recruit a few friends. He wanted to get the group up to 500 people.
To give the group an incentive to recruit people, he promised the release of some new concept art if the number was met.
First thought: really smart idea from a really smart guy. (Seb’s a textbook example of showing potential employers that you’re super-passionate about the job before you even apply for it; he ran an excellent Aion fansite before we headhunted him for the job.)
Second thought: will they make it?
I guess I shouldn’t have wondered, because in just under two days the group’s grown past 500 members, and Seb – true to his word – released not one but two pieces of concept art as a thank-you. Here’s number one, and here’s number two.
If you’re on Facebook, you too can get sneaky peeks at cool Aion stuff by joining the official group for the game. So there.
Random MiniCon bits
Posted by Rockjaw in Day Today, MMO-related on March 29th, 2008
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.)
More will come to me, I’m sure.
Massively on the MiniCon
Posted by Rockjaw in Links of Others, MMO-related, Press on March 28th, 2008
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….
Andie Tong and Neil Edwards show off
Posted by Rockjaw in Links of Others, Pimpin' on March 28th, 2008
Two of our Draw the World Together artist friends, Andie Tong and Neil Edwards, have been showing off new stuff on their blogs recently. Andie’s been having ‘fun with markers’ and has been cranking out sketches like this one of Spider-Woman:
That doesn’t do it justice though – go see the full size version on his site, and make sure to check out the other sketches he’s done there recently.
The secret reason we do events
Posted by Rockjaw in MMO-related on March 27th, 2008
I know you all want secrets from me. I hear you whispering to me in the night while I’m trying to sleep.
(Incidentally, can I have my spare key back? Thanks.)
Well here’s a secret for you. Here’s a hidden truth. Here’s why we do events – shows like Memorabilia, or the UK Games Expo, or the Omega Sektor MiniCon this last weekend. Here’s why we spend all the time and the money organising these things, and thinking up new ways to separate you from your cash (either for us, or for charity). Sure, we do it to spread the word about our games. Sure, we do it to get our brand out there and known. Sure, we pick up a few new players here and there.
But there’s a deeper, darker reason than that. Are you sure you want to know?
Alright… then I’ll tell you. The secret reason we do events is…
You said what?