Alabama Tracks

So I know a lot of you are eager to hear of my adventures on the west coast so here’s the rundown…

I’ve played a game called Everquest for a while… years to be exact. In that time I found myself running a class board another player had started. For the past year or so the company that makes EQ has been holding Summit, where they pay to fly you out and stay in a hotel and you get to talk directly to the people who make the game. It would take too long to explain the entire subculture surrounding the game but it’s one I’ve been part of for roughly 6 years. EQ was one of the games that has really refined the MMOG genre and it’s been a game I’ve actually helped to shape for a while now so it was a privaledge to get invited (not to mention loads of fun). Needless to say I don’t spend a ton of time playing like I used to (what being married and all) but Erin’s started to like games and maybe… someday… gaming family?

Anyways…

Pictures. Please be sure to save any you want because I’m going to take these high res ones down soon and put up lower res for bandwidth considerations.

Thursday 9/29
They booked me on this crazy early flight for 7:40 AM. I am so not a morning person. We made it to the airport easily enough (Montgomery’s airport is so small security lines are rare). I’d not seen the new terminal and it’s a real improvement over the long, long hallway to the single terminal at the end. Now you go through security and you’re pretty much there. They even have jetways (which is a major step up since Delta stopped direct flights and took theirs out). I just forgot one tiny detail:

Montgomery seems cursed.

I have a long string of flight problems out of Montgomery. Maybe it’s just ASA (Delta’s connection partner). Today was no exception. I was hoping since this was a regional jet and not the normal turboprop box that there wouldn’t be one but, alas, my 7:40 flight took off at 8:25. The captain came on and said he hoped that the delay wouldn’t cause any problems. Thankfully a locked door prevented passengers armed with rolled up magazines from assaulting him. Keep in mind that almost nobody flies to Atlanta from Montgomery as a destination. You fly because you’re connecting. My own layover was 1 hour… So now I get to race the departure clock.

Atlanta’s terminals are 6 parallel lines with an underground tunnel to connect them. They start at T and then run A-F. We arrived at C something in the middle of the concourse and my flight leaves from T1. Having had to do this before I’ve learned that the train is the fastest way between terminals. That didn’t save me the fast walking I had to do to T1… I get there as they call final boarding.

The flight to San Diego was uneventful. Delta now serves cheese, crackers and half a can of soda. Chaper 11 hurts. I arrive and am told to look for a guy holding a sign saying “Sony”. I see no such man so I check out the courtesy van area. No luck so I wait where I can see both regular and courtesy lanes and after 15 mins I see the bus line the contracted to transport us. I get up to it just as a guy, holding a clipboard with “SOE” taped to the back, helps a woman in and says “The other guy was a no show”. I’m like “Uh… here I am”. Turns out he waited by baggage claim but, alas, I checked no baggage.

We were taken to the Doubletree where the community reps met us. It’s always nice to put faces to board posters. The rooms were very nice but the phone and internet service was rather steep. Hopefully we don’t get hammered for my cell phone usage. So, since lunch and dinner were on us I went to Quizznos nearby and got one of their sandwiches for lunch. Was quite nice. Hopefully they open here soon. That evening we ate at Joe’s Crab Shack and the lead developer came and joined us, along with the producer of EQ. I’d never been to Joe’s and it was an experience to say the least. Some people went back to the hotel to imbibe but, being hammered by jet lag and being up early… I retired.

Friday 9/30

Breakfast was again on us so I went to this small cafe near Joe’s and got a belgian waffle and a cup of milk for $4.99. Not too shabby. We went to the San Diego Zoo. I’ve been to their Wild Animal Park years and years ago and the zoo was just about as enjoyable. We started with a tour of the park. Have you ever taken a tour where you know you’re getting more than you paid for? Well, it was one of the most enjoyable tours I’ve ever been on. The tour guide driving the bus was constantly talking. Instead of someone droning “Here’s the zebras… and to your left you’ll see antelope” he was cracking jokes. Best one was

Some of you wonder how I came to do this job. Well I worked in special education for 25 years and then I retired. After about 2 years my wife says to me “For heaven’s sake get out of the house and do something with yourself” so here I am.

Yeah, that’s not on the normal tour.

They have baby pandas (check out the zoo link to see them) and tiger cubs but the tiger pen was poorly designed to photograph them so no pics of the cubs And the baby panda isn’t on display yet but they did have the same live feed that’s on their site. It’s a very thorough zoo compared to most and they have lots or rare and endagered species as well.

That night we went to Dave and Buster’s. I haven’t been to one since my bachelor party (no, we didn’t get drunk, we just blew a lot of cash playing video games). Well, they gave us $20 cards and an awesome “make your own mexican dish” buffet. I spent the first hour talking to a coder for EQ, though. Very interesting discussion. Then I went to play. In the middle of wandering around a fellow attendee gave me his card and decided to go see the movie they had offered to let us see. So I played a few games but got bored. Then I noticed a fellow attendee working the token machines. They have these not-quite-Vegas machines where you can convert your money into tokens and play these skill games to win tickets. Well, this person had like 1000 tickets. Very nice. Then I saw the rewards they had

So I decided to work the tokens as well. After all, this wasn’t my money on the line. D&B does a very good job of making the process as easy as possible. Win tickets and then, when you have too many to hold, you go to a machine, swipe your card (they don’t use cash for the machines, just magnetic cards) and you begin to feed these tickets in. Each one actually counts as two so the machine counts for you and gives you a total. Before the night was done I had racked up 750. I got myself a baseball cap. Not a bad return for 90 mins of feeding tokens in like some mad man.

Saturday 10/1

Breakfast was on Sony this time. Scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, cereal, fruit… was very nice. Lots of discussion about the pending visit to the home of all the developers. So we boarded the bus and headed out. We arrived and were greeted by the EQ and EQ2 head people who said a few words and then split us into tours for our respective areas. Most of the areas were cubicles. Nothing much to write about.

I’d love to say there was something exciting to write about after that but there really wasn’t. The rest of the day was meetings about EQ. Marketing, game development, game issues… most of it wouldn’t make sense. If you’re still dying to know I posted that bit of info here. Just gaming stuff. Lunch was grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, cooked by marketing.

That night we went to Gordon Biersch. Fairly interesting experience. They microbrew on site and offer their own in-house beers in addition to other versions of alcohol. I didn’t have any but the food was… different. They started with this chicken pizza that was heavy in garlic. In fact, there was a running garlic theme in most of the dishes. Lots more good discussion. It felt good to be a coder amongst coders. Lots of free stuff handed out too.

Sunday 10/2

By the time I was up and around roughly half the attendees had left already. It took me a while to navigate past the rather… uhm… interesting church that meets there. They had lots of books… about the end of the world. I decided to pass and have breakfast. Wasn’t much of one to have though. Danishes and croissants and that was it. Plus a frustrated concierge looking for the SOE event coordinator to sign off on it. I ate some, chatted with the few people left and departed for the airport. On my way through to the gate I just had to get a little something for the wife. See’s is to me as Yooper Bars are to Erin. Not the best purchase the day before starting a diet but I couldn’t pass the opportunity up. It’s not every day I can buy them.

The flight home was uneventful. Not much to write about that either. I got home and thus ended my journey. I was grateful to have someone to come home to.

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