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…?
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.
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 just to see her admission that despite the slave labour, she really did enjoy herself:
I’m sure my fellow sidekicks will tell you at times we worked really hard and missed out on a some of the things we wanted to do/see. But it was worth it.
See! See, officer! Ahem. She also has (gasp!) pictures of herself at the event, some of which I might steal for an upcoming post. Wait and see.
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.
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.
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….
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 forget something. We’ve done plenty of shows when I’ve been half way to the venue and then suddenly started swearing because I’ve just remembered something. (The best example of this was when I realised en-route to Bristol Comic Expo last year that’d we’d forgotten the (then brand-new) CoH/V lapel pins, as well as our free trial DVDs. Considering how mad I was, I don’t look it.)
Eventually though, time forces you to just say ’screw it’ and leave, so that’s what we did, walking back out into the cold to see that everyone had arrived. It helped that Chris had, quite literally, packed everything we had into the van he was driving, so we were pretty confident we’d have everything we need. Although there would be the small matter of finding it.
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.
… that I’ve seen so far:
Tabula Blogger: I meant to catch up with Shuttler and didn’t get a chance to, sadly, so it was good to see he had a good time. Reading his write-up also reminded me to subscribe to the TabulaCast, which I’ve now done.
Evolution Radio: Can’t go far wrong with this opening line: “I think I’d better make a report on what the hell has just happened to us. It’s like being hit by a large brick wrapped in gold.”
