04 Sep, 2010

Day one was  doozy.  Busier than the last several Fridays for Dragon*Con.   I went to several sessions.   Starting off with a Steampunk track entry, followed quickly by the Warehouse 13 track.  Star Trek Deep Space 9 was after lunch, followed by MMO Flops, another Steampunk track, and finally by Machinama.  It is spread over FIVE hotels now, and the hill is beginning to be a killer.  I pulled a hamstring mid afternoon which slowed me down, and then my knee kicked in.   On day one?  This is going to be a long convention...

03 Sep, 2010

I managed to get my tickets last night -- beating the crowds big time.  There were only about 20 or so in line in front of me -- even though the room at the Sheraton this year could probably hold hundreds.   It was a pain getting there though -- Rush hour , con crowds, plus several blocks of deactivated traffic lights made GETTING there very ... interesting.

30 Aug, 2010

With Dragon*Con coming up Friday, I'm going through checking everything.  Going thru the schedule, double checking to see which events I'm going to try for.  Like many years too many events on different tracks tend to coincide.  It means a weekend of choices -- and usually running from one hotel to another.  The worst part of Dragon*Con is being spread out over 4 hotels now is that you will likely be racing sometimes through thick crowds to get to one place or another.  And the crowds usually mean if you don't go early, you'll miss some of the popular tracks.

10 Sep, 2009

Sorry it has taken me so long to post about Dragon*Con again this year.  It was a hectic weekend.  But a fun one.  Unlike last year I got to see several celebrities, attend a live podcasting of Sword & Laser, see several Star Trek actors even if the lines were huge-- (Patrick Stewart, Leonard Nimoy, and William Shatner).  Costuming was wild -- from steampunk Star Wars to Michael Jackson's glove -- practically anything was fair game. 

Sunday featured three panels , one for each of the superhero role playing games.  Of the publishers, only Sony showed up directly.  The PAX effect strikes again, as may game publishers, electronic and otherwise, failed to show at Dragon*Con.     Since all three sessions were FILLED TO CAPACITY more or less, I find the respect given to Dragon*Con a little lacking.  PLEASE -- Cryptic? NCSoft? DON'T overlook us next year AGAIN.  Even if you send just one person, it would be GREATLY appreciated.

First off was the fan panel for Champions.  This was a discussion of several things that were likes/dislikes of the game.   Several comments over the patch that made things more difficult after launch were made -- it clearly had mixed feelings.  Most issues were with the interface and details of the game -- "How do you do...?" details.  At the time, I'd not yet played the game, but it seems that it was beneficial for those that do.  Their non-by-passable tutorial is not making any friends among the ALT happy Champions crowd.

Next up was City of Heroes -- The same person that ran the first fan panel recruited both myself and my friend as panelists -- Myself at the VERY last minute.  After twelve years of Dragon*Cons -- this was a first.   It seems that some swag was sent by NCSoft -- all Guild Wars.

• Issue 16 AND the Going Rogue expansions were high on everyones minds -- but no one really had any details to share.   A few details were leaked out --Going Rogue will likely add a third starting zone to the game.
• PVE is still rated high by most players
• Of the audience over 40% seemed to be Mission Makers in AE.  Farming was light -- but most of the "farmers" were using the rise in levels to bypass the under level 20 content that they've seen SO many times before. 
• Endgame content still low.
• Content of missions old.
• Villain strike forces seem to have some holes in level coverage, resulting in several stretches of grinding.  One comment that this brought up versus the grind is "That's WHY they are villains..."
• We want the return of the Cathedral of Pain!!!
• The recent T-shirt contest --- MANY attending there would love to have shirts with the winning designs and was wondering why they weren't being sold. 
• Several supergroups were at the event as a group -- Cape Radio was represented, The Icons group from Victory, a Top 20 Infinity group, and a Freedom group were all noted.  Several of the members were QUITE vocal.
• Chooch and Viv from the COH Podcast were in attendance as well -- The session was recorded and will likely be on their podcast shortly in some form or another.

Last up was DC Universe online.  They showed several videos, all online.   Most questions went unanswered, as it seems they are still early in their build, and a lot of issues hadn't been decided yet.  I've my doubts about them -- When asked about copyright infringing "clone" characters, they commented that "we trust our players to make original concepts."   After 5 years of Hulk, X-Men, Superman, clones and more, they've NO clue what they'll see on launch.  

It was an exhausting weekend.  Crowds were THICK.  And to make matters worse I twisted my knee Saturday and it is still hurting.  It slowed me down a LOT on Sunday.  Fortunately that was mostly Sheraton/MMO track.  

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04 Sep, 2009

Heading into Dragon*Con shortly .  Will be twittering this year -- @CentralNexus.   LOTS of guests this year -- promises to be BIG.

02 Sep, 2008

I've got something new in the works -- a photosite for my pics.   Check out http://photos.thecentralnexus.com .   I've a gallery started for DragonCon 2008 already underway.  I've got over a hundred pics taken Friday and pre-parade Saturday up so far.  I've got more taken at the parade and after still to add.  Here is a taste.

By the way, one of the surprising things of the con happened after I won the trivia contest.  As I and the others of the team were given their prizes, the woman giving out prizes saw my lanyard with the Central Nexus logo on it and recognized it and complimented me on the blog.  I knew they used one of my observations from test server runs once before and linked to the article, but wasn't aware it was held in any regard.  One note after that was the impression that this was a group/team operation.  Nope -- Central Nexus is a one-man operation...

01 Sep, 2008

Its Sunday night and my friend and I have called it early after spending nearly 3 hours at the MMORPG Trivia contest -- but our team, Wanna by a Life, took first place.  So we've had a good day.  A couple sessions, time playing Age of Conan at the Funcom exhibit, and a Mutants and Masterminds take on Shadowrun that we got to try.  (Yes there WERE COH questions in the contest, and we got them both right!)

If you tried to visit my site in the last few days we had some problems -- A slight change in my domain hosting resulted in all the files being moved which made them "missing".  With the con going on , I've not been in a place where I could get AT the internet, let alone on long enough to get things straightened out.  The blog is okay, but my base site isn't fully functional yet because of Front page problems.  It may take a couple days to get that going.

Yesterday was the parade, and that keeps getting bigger and better.  You wouldn't believe some of the costumes.  I'll be posting those somehow later this week.  I've snapped pictures of lots of costumes from everything under the sun -- literally.

City of Heroes -- NCSoft was a no show thanks to PAX.  BUT they were kind enough to send lots of stuff to be handed out as Swag.  That lessened the blow.  Even without anyone there we had the room filled with players.  I didn't see that many Virtue players -- the guys behind me were all Freedom players.   A lot of talk was about rumors -- Architect system and what it could be, should be, etc.   PVE players getting nerfed because of PVP usages, as much other such topics.   Affects of competition from DCU Online and Champions also hit the bill.  There was no news as yet.

I did get to see a Champions Online demo -- it was hit and miss.  Yes it was an early build.  I like some of the comic like interface.  Your character select screen had the character on a fake comic book cover.  Comic style text fonts were used throughout.  Some of the openents had little animation and weren't that intelligent yet, but they were in a demo mode, and the player character for the demo was a level 60 (with level 50 being the cap as a I recall).   Yes they have an open ended system - and a customizable system.   But the view I saw wasn't as detailed as City of Heroes gameplay -- it looked more like a video action game.   Some of the effects were cool, yes, but it makes me wonder.    Can a voice-chat system (required for the Xbox 360 users) work with a keyboard happy game like this?  I'm thinking of all the abilities my level 40 and 50 CoH characters have -- and imagine the struggle to find the right menu to signal the computer to fire off that one ability I want that is not usually used.  Where is it?  Since my PC probably won't run this, I'd be a 360 user, at least at first.  If the 360 users can't play with PC users, that would be a negative.  If the game suffers from keyboard versus controller play balancing issues - That would be another problem.  I wish Cryptic luck, but they've a tough road ahead of them.   Would I like heavily customizable characters ?? Yes.  But I don't think that alone would get me to leave CoX.  I'm going to have to see more.  A LOT more.

More later...

28 Aug, 2008

Starting tomorrow, Dragon*Con starts, and I'll be there.  Hopefully my new camera won't be a no-show this year.  Travel is going to be a problem, as they picked this weekend to practically close down 85/75 through downtown, and there are a couple other events that may make parking interesting at times.  My friend Doug is coming into town in a couple hours, but we'll likely be in line tomorrow for the badges.  (The worst part of the con--as it may take an hour or more to go through and get everything)

The MMO track has my interest with a MMO video and Machinma sessions Friday. Champions Online session with Cryptic, an MMO costume contest, a CoX player meetup, and more.  I'll be spending a lot of time in there -- from the looks of things we got the ball rooms a few times rather than cramming everything into a single meeting room like last year.  I'm thankful for that. 

Podcasting track looks interesting as well, and there is the Parade of course Saturday morning.  Also we have a MST3K live show it looks like (wow - that takes me back). Glancing through It looks like we might have something on Dr. Who, Torchwood, and others. 

I'll be spending the bulk of the next 3 and half days there .  Wish me luck, and I'll be posting some listener meet up shots here as well, and links to the other DragonCon shots. 

Look me up!   I still have a COH Blogger tag on a lanyard from last year on my desk...  More than likely I'll be wearing that, though I've not made any Tshirts for this year.  (The Iron transfers don't last more than a few washes before they look BAD!)

26 Nov, 2007

For some reason, Character clones , what I call the copyright violation of likeness or name charactes seen in game, despite being a EULA violation, is on the rise again.  Or at least so it seemed this weekend.   The majority of these were new characters, in the single digits, but a few were getting close to the teens.  MOST of these were not-so-clever attempts at getting round the name filter that tries to block this by adding spaces or puncuation to get the name allowed.  And TWICE the violators I noticed were transformed to GENERIC characters very quickly. 

This seems to go in cycles -- and possibly a lot of publicity on the upcoming ISSUE 11 is driving people to the game.  Perhaps some store chain has put the game on discount again.  WHO knows.  But the new users repeat what the FIRST users of the game did and make a clone.   Some characters should know better.  I saw a striking Hawkwoman clone that was a PEACEBRINGER -- meaning the account has a lvl 50 character on it. 

This isn't to say that you can't make a character in the style of something you like.  Homage characters can be done -- but you don't want to use the SAME name, the SAME backround, or the same look of the familiar costume character.  Superman and Supergirl clones were noticed 3 times over the weekend -- including one Kara Jorell ; TOO close to Kara Jor-el for comfort.   I saw in one costume contest a character in red and yellow called "F L A S H", who became a Generic a few minutes later.  In  the same contest was a Tick and Die Fledermaus clones as well.  Tthe Tick clone was even asking about his "buddy".    A Green Lantern clone named Lantern Sector 733 or some such was noted -- which had a Lantern Corps-esque uniform and even mentioned the "Corps" in his background.   Even an old independent comic character Solar was seen.

Some High level characters were seen in Atlas Park wearing costumes that made them clones --- I saw one Superman inspired one  with a J instead of an S, and one that was a green skinned Martian Manhunter style.  I can see doing these for private SG parties; I've done that on one occasion.  BUT not out in Atlas Park in full view of the general audience.   This behavior seems risky to me -- I wouldn't want to try it and have my Level 50 genericed because of it.

If you are a new player, you may not be aware of the fact that Clones are a violation of the EULA which you agreed to abide by when you logged in, and will get you caught as soon as someone reports you.   The long term populace of Paragon City -- those Vet Award heavy players, will remember when City of Heroes was sued by Marvel for being an engine that allowed their characters to be copied and played.  A lot of them don't want to see another law suit.    Since Marvel's MMO is Cryptic's project, and Cryptic has sold out to NCSoft, I wouldn't put it past Marvel or another Comic company to sue again on this issue.   Many players remember this and help out by reporting each and every clone on sight.  It is best to be safe and be as original as you can.    You don't want to log in and find out your favorite character is now called Generic80808 283 2822 or some such nonsense, and your character now wears a default monocolored featureless outfit.   Getting the name changed to something acceptable is a troublesome process you can avoid by being original.  Getting some characters to ICONS to make a change (which you might have to find FINANCING for), may cause you to give up , delete, and start over.

Avoid the issue. Don't clone around. 

02 Sep, 2007

Some aspects of Dragon*Con, despite the spread over 3 hotels, seem a tad smaller.  I've seen less super-heroic costumes in general this year.  A couple Batgirls, an Adam-west Batman, a Robin, A good Golden Age Doctor midnight, Rorshack, 2 Wonder Woman (Including one in full battle armor), and of course, multiple Pheonix/Marvel Girls.   There have been  plenty of video game characters like Sub-Zero from Mortal Kombat, Cammie from Street Fighter, several EQ elves,  and even a Peach/Daisy/Toadstoal trio.  Lots of Anime characters abound, a few Battlestar Galactica (both versions), plenty of fantasy , a smattering of Klingons,  Plenty of Jedi,  Princess Leias (including slave girl dresses), 3 different Twilek females.  There was even a Parthenon costume I saw -- (see SciFi's 2nd season of Who Wants to be a Superhero).   And of course all the Dawns, a Dragon*Con staple.

The game exhibtors, both computer and board/rpg are in much shorter attendance this year.  Some other MMos, like the Conan MMO were represented, and one Fallen Earth MMO game -- a future post-holocaust game.  Compared to previous years though, it is low.  I can't help but wonder if we are having scheduling conflicts with other late-summer cons. 

City of heroes continuned to be brought up in the MMO Sessions Saturday.  Even in one that was 99% WoW,,, mention of the new character classes being unlocked was compared to the Kheldians in City of Heroes.  And peopl wanted City level character customization.  Even when I was looking at the Fallen Earth game, it was clear they had given LOTS of work to the character customization there, including body peircing, age wrinkles, and body tattoos being added to the mix.  City may not have WoW level popularity, but it seems to have done SEVERAL things right.

Day 3 the MMO tracks were more specific, and though I attempted to attend the Conan demo, it was much too crowded to even try.   This happened at another panel Sunday, and one wasn't what I thought it would be, so I eneded up with LOTS of time to kill.  My first session of the day was the best, where I got to see 3 Buck Rogers (Late seventies TV show) actors Gil Gerad, Erin Gray, and Felix Silla.  It was a a very enjoyable session - I almost didn't recognize Gil - he'd lost over 150 lbs since the last time I'd seen him at Dragon*Con a couple years ago.   A close second was for the first-season Who Wants to be a Superhero contestants which included Major Victory, Fat Momma, and of course, Feedback.

I did wander thru the Walk of fame later - and saw Lou Gosset Jr, Bret Spiner, Jonathan Frakes, John De Lancie, Gates McFadden,  Ron Glas, Richard Hatch, Lori Petty, Barbara Luna,  Juliet Landau, James Marsters, Elisabeth Rohm, among others.  It was packed.

But of course the highlight was the City of Heroes Session -- The room was relinquished from the last panel late -- I don't know if they tried to do SEVERAL sessions for the Conan people -- the line was beyond capacity.   But CoH fans filled the room - 60 or 70 EASY if not more -- the room was near full.    And what was discussed?

• The new powersets -- LOTS of questions and debate over Willpower.
• Content -- Some people wanted to see more content. 
• Altism - Several people admitted to being altaholics.
• Issue 10 - Some complaints here - many thought that the Invasions were nothing more random lagfests -- "Lets have a Hamidon raid HERE!". 
• Villian side -- Lots of praise for masterminds, but complaints over multi-mastermind teams that induced lag. 
• Debate over examplaring being good or bad -- some felt that losing all their powers to run with others was unrealistic somehow.  Many were very verbal of the pros and cons there.  Oner person called it "Every time you exempar, your character has a different writer", comparing it to comics.   Some were complaining about having to exemplar for content -- such as going through Faultline missions with a level 40-50 character.
• Complaints about Patron Pools. 
• Villain powers were described as BETTER than hero powers at several times.
• Complaints about the fitness pool
• DESIRE for the Villain epic types.
• DESIRE for the base raids -- Cathedral of Pain to be fixed and available.
• Lots of DESIRE for power crossovers -- a Dual Pistol blaster was VERY desired by the crowd.  Some really wanted the ability to have a hero FALL to the villain side, or have a villain REDEEMED to the Hero side.  Heroic Masterminds, Villainous scrappers? LOTS of interest in this, and many seemed to think it should be easy to do.
• Some concern over the sporadic rate of Issue releases -- and whether work on the Marvel MMO will affect this.
• Complaints over the recent attack of the TELL spamming from a certain Influence peddler site.
• Nature of the City community - generally agreed that it was much more friendly overall than MANY other MMOs.

It was a very enjoyable session.   HOPEFULLY we'll get more space next time...

 

01 Sep, 2007

I'm about to head off for Day 2.  Thought I'd leave a quick note.  Yesterday was a little bit of a struggle.  Things were not in the same places as last year -- at all.  Gaming sessions were at the Marriott, instead of the Hilton.  Dealers rooms were at the Hyatt, not the Marriott.  I'm not sure I like the layout.  Seems like I always had more space to trek than I wanted.  One major frustration - my digital camera was dead on arrival - apparently an internal lens is shot so now no images can be seen/taken.  It worked last May no problem and is only 2 years old.  HELL of a time to happen.  I saw SO many good costumes.

I met a couple players on day one - One was behind me in line at registration, and we talked a length -- a Pinnacle player I believe.  I found another in the exhibit hall who was a Triumph player.  A good start.

I did attend one session of the Gaming/MMO track.  They were talking about past dead games.  City came up in a positive light several times -- and the Sidekicking system was agreed to be their BEST invention for play. Several games were mentioned, including EQ, Wish, Auto Assault (which shut down yesterday), and even WOW.  I expect more from some panels on day 2 -- and there will be other things going on.

I hope the weather holds.  It was raining when I returned last night, and their is a parade set for Saturday morning.

05 Sep, 2006

I managed to get in on a couple MMO panel discussions.  The first dealed with games for the Casual MMO player.  I found it very interesting - the chief concern was people who only had a little time every now and then to play and not NEED to be on repeatedly throughout the week.  I loved the way they started it -- "If you need to have a spreadsheet or program  BEFORE you make your character - leave now."  (If I recall correctly).  Most of the discussion was how too many games are based on constant participation and penalize those who are unable to keep involved.  Either in design and loot dropped, need to participate in repeated itterations of the same mission to get certain loot, or camp out at locations waiting for a particular spawn.  Not many complaints that can be back tracked to City of Heroes.  Actually City was recognized for its sidekicking system -- one of the panelists said that EVERY MMO session he had ever been on or seen, the sidekicking system has been mentioned and praised.

the other MMO panel that I attended was one my friend was interested in that dealt with Gold Farming issues.  It seems from what I heard to be MUCH more rampant in other games.  I mentioned how the only problems City has to deal with is Influence/Infamy purchase and power-leveling services.  Infamy has been hoarded by high level villains until just lately as more and more level 50 characters are around. No real solutions were mentioned, save stoping ALL trading between players.   There was no clear solution to whether a trade is legitimate or not, and it concerned many there.  Most didn't want to be around players with purchased characters that didn't know ANYTHING about playing that character or that class.  It was reminded that most EULAs make the elements of the game the property of the game company and NOT the property of any customers there of.  So if you pay for a character or items for that character -- not only are you paying for virtual items that don't really exist, but you are paying for something that NEITHER the seller or the buyer can actually literally own.   I found that a unique and ironic perspective on the whole issue.

At both of these sessions, other City players were seen, and a few business cards were handed out - I hope they found their way here.  I also met a few people in the dealers room, noticing my shirt and/or badges.    I didn't see anyone in a Statesman or a Longbow garb - and I was looking.

It was mentioned at these panels that there would be a strong push to get more MMO activity for next year's Dragon*Con.  They are trying to get Blizzard to attend.  If they do, maybe NCSOFT will follow? I'd like to see that.  Perhaps with the recent downgrade in the big E3 show,  Dragon*Con will see some traffic come their way.

03 Sep, 2006

I just got home from the second day of Dragon*Con. I've worn various badges and stuff that mark me as City of Heroes & Villains player and have bumped into several COH players.  One on Virtue I know of.  It gave me an opportunity to pass out a few cards.

This year is the second year the Con has been in three downtown Atlanta hotels - ONE is doing MASSIVE remodeling, so one street is blocked off,  screwing up direct travel to my favorite parking garage, as well as putting a BIG detour in hotel to hotel transfer.  Add to that heavy crowds, confusing event distribution, at least one broken escalator, and a bumm knee, and I'm already exhausted. Costuming is HEAVY - on Stargate , Dr. Who, Farscape, Serenity, Lord of the Rings, Ghostbusters, Pirates, Anime, Superhero comics, Star Trek, and of course Star Wars.  I've been fortunate enough to bump into Phil Foglio, Scott Sigler, Tracy Hickman, George Perez.  In the parade I got to see Denise Crosby - and even the Ghost Hunters from the Sci-Fi channel, just to name a few.

Podcasting is big this year - I've alread been at a several panels that were recorded.  I'm still concidering doing a podcasting on CoH and CoV - If I can get over the style, intro, set up issues, and make sure that I'm not going to suffer a big hit on bandwith costs.

More to follow SOON!

23 Aug, 2006

I do plan on attending Dragon*Con again this year, coming up at the end of the month. I'll be keeping an eye out for other City of Heroes players. In previous years I made some T-shirts, but they've not endured well. This year I think I'll be making my own badges and/or stickers - so if you are GOING, keep an eye out for the logo. It might be me or my friend. I'll also be on the lookout for any costumers with City costumes -- Somehow last year I missed someone in a Longbow costume.

If you are planning on attending, drop me a line so I'll know who to keep an eye out for. I'll be at any MMORPG session they have for sure. I hope to see you there

03 Sep, 2005

I've seen almost as much spandex here at DragonCon as any day in Atlas park. X-men, 3 or 4 Batmen, Catwomen, Captain Marvel (the Kree version), Space Ghost, 3 of the Fantastic Four, etc. I'm still trying to get photos of all and learn my new camera.

Firefly is the big thing here - 4 cast members did show (Joss Whedon couldn't make it after all), and have proved to be a BIG draw. Almost as big was Star Trek Next Gen stars Marina Sirtis and Levar Burton. So If my feet can stand the lines and crowds - I'm having fun.

The Parade is today and starts in a few hours. I hope to get some good shots then.... Wish me luck.

My Custom City of Heroes shirt yesterday already allowed me to me one party from Liberty as well as a half dozen more players!

I'll be posting more city shots next week ONCE I get back into the game during my vacation - when I'm not posting photos, updating one of 3 websites, etc.



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