SOE Fan Faire:  What Really Goes On?

There are plenty of write-ups for Fan Faire discussing, PvP,
tradeskills, what might or might not have been said, but this was my first
Fan Faire. 
What really was going to happen bothered me as I arrived in
Atlanta
an hour later than I wanted to.  Apparently Atlanta
is on EST time too *smacks forehead again*  I check into the
hotel, and
hang out in my room, enjoying the time before the events.  
Strangely
enough, this turned out to be my favorite part of the trip.  
Maybe
it's due to the dire exhaustion I would have for the remainder of my
adventure,
or maybe I just needed the time. 

As the hour gets later, I meet up with Kiara and wander down to the
Champion's
Lounge.   The bar is active, but I notice beyond the
exhausted
businessmen trying to drink away their accounting sorrows, a large
group of
rowdy people.  Yep, that is what I was looking for.   I
see a
smattering of familiar faces at various tables.   I spy
Kyle/Glendral
and Brenlo and briefly say hello.  Joel/Raijinn is somewhere down
here and
being one of our favorite people, we're on a mission.  How many
people
could there be in here with shaved heads?

After an eternity of searching I call for a satellite re task so we can
get some
solid intel, but Raijinn is a tricky one.  I begin to search the
floor for
tracks or other clues of his whereabouts but don't see more than stale
popcorn.  Rolling her eyes, Kiara uses her cell phone to contact
someone,
most likely the CIA and moments later Joel appears.  He appears,
wearing a
ball cap....freaking cheater.  We shake hands and exchange hugs
(Kiara preferred
the handshake), and walk outside.   I see Blackguard, Aggro
Me,
Tamat, and many others loitering around discussing topics such as what
they are
drinking and why.

We walk back inside and pull up a table as Kiara seems to be
hungry.  I
agree to eat even though I'm still full from that snack size bag of
pretzels I
had all day.  Joel points out some people to us that we know and
love...and a few we don't.   Know that is.   
At this
point, we are introduced to Kendricke.   While Kendricke and
I
haven't really gotten along on the forums at times, in person he wasn't
that
bad of a guy.   He assaults me with a crowbar.  Ok he
didn't,
but only because he saw I had a taser.  He informs us he's been
drinking
on and off for 6 hours, and that his liver was removed a few minutes
ago.

Hanging out with Joel was fun, and I have to admit he's a hilarious
guy. 
I still don't believe that was a Long Island Ice Tea he was drinking
unless it
was made in a still (this IS Georgia),
but if it made him laugh, more power to him.   Eventually, I
was
exhausted, so I meandered off to my room for a long winters nap. 
I say
winters because the thermostat in my room apparently won't function
above 70
degrees.

The Sessions

Late!  I get up the next morning preparing for the summit
meetings, but I
just can't get moving.   Too distracted and sleepy.  I
miss
breakfast entirely and fly in the meeting room like 0.05 seconds before
Blackguard begins to speak.  I plant myself in the back of the
room, with
the magic recording thingy going and I wish I was back in my
room.  Don't
get me wrong, I loved the discussions, I just needed more rest. 

We go around the room with introductions, and find out what everyone
likes and
dislikes about EQ2.  I won't point any fingers, but there is one
guy from
the TenTonHammer site, that said he didn't like his pink Tier 7 armor
color.   Time for the questions!  I'm doing a separate
write up
for the questions and answers, so I won't go into any
details.   An
interesting note was that apparently our room was next to where they
load up
the transports with Stormtroopers because it got a little noisy in the
back.

The questions started out with Ferral who is in an uber raid
guild.  
Yes, I don't like raiding, but please put down your hanging rope. 
I
disagreed with his initial assessment of Deserts of Flame but that
doesn't make
everything he said bad.  We further discussed the usage of....my
bed would
be really soft if I went back to it.   Eventually, one of
SOE's
coordinators came in and moved us to another room.  I think Darth
Vader
needed ours for a command center.

The next room had about half the space the previous one did. 
While I
suggested "holding our breath" to make space, apparently more logical
thinking like "bringing in more tables in chairs" prevailed.  I
sat down surprisingly enough next to Mawie, who attempted to assault me
with a
crowbar (I think Caster's Realm gave all their employees one).
Fortunately, she
hesitated when Gallenite looked over.   We discussed some
duping,
raid content, and why I was not in my bed sleeping.

Lunch!  OMG!  Screw lunch!  I dashed straight to my
room! 
I had to rest even if it was only for mere
moments.   I saw
Niami making her way up to her own room with the same idea.  
You know
great minds and all.  Guh!  It actually was mere
moments.  I didn't want to leave my bed, but I had a job to
do.  I
changed back into my Superman outfit, and ran downstairs arriving 0.02
seconds
before Blackguard started speaking again. 

There was talk about things I can't repeat, what we'd like to see in
an
expansion,  and why exactly pirates are so much better than
ninjas.   They are.   When asked what they'd like
to see
in an expansion I never once heard "You know, I'd like to be able to
wear pajamas,
and live in a house with paper walls."  So take that, you star
throwing, "Oh look at me! I'm walking silently!", ninja loving fools.

The sessions were great, they really were.  The SOE staff
seemed
really
concerned with what we had to say, always took the time to answer
everything,
and I'm beyond grateful I could attend them.  I got to speak with
the
amazing Aggro Me and Cynabane from EQ2 Daily who are amazing at what
they do
but I was pretty beat.

I walk out of the last session looking to meet Coyote and Kiara, and
avoid any
more crowbar wielding fan site writers.  We finally meet up, and I
get
Coyote and his gear to our room.  He brought a sleeping bag
because sadly,
I thought it would be funny to tell him there was only one bed. 
Of course
when he told me he had no problem spooning, I immediately confessed the
truth.  He seemed disappointed.   We said our hellos and
it
really was great to see him, but I was curious what Coyote was going to
be like
in person.

The Fishies

I was so excited to meet my fellow guild mates Tallika, Loolee, Sandor,
and
Tonguu.   I'd heard Taea was going to be there too, but we
hadn't
made specific plans to meet up with her.  We got the call to
somebody's
cell phone and made our way back downstairs.   Tallika almost
broke
my hand with his handshake, and Loolee was just as sweet in person as
on line.  Sandor was not quite what I expected, but neither was
Tonguu.  
Either way we decided to go hang out.

Time to eat!  It was heart wrenching to decide between the SOE
dinner and
the Fishie dinner but the decision was made.   Apparently
Tallika had
done some recon and found the local Hooters.  Oddly enough, I
don't think
I ever asked him if he ever saw another restaurant.   We pile
into
Hooters and I think I was one of the few people who can remember what I
actually ordered.  I think I just saw Coyote pointing at a woman's
chest
and saying "Fubahhhh...."   They brought him some wings I
think.   The drinking had officially begun for Coyote when
they
brought him some apple cutesy beer.

All of sudden within the crowd, we noticed them.  A small group
enjoying
food and laughs, but an EverQuest 2 hat marked them as one of our
own. 
Coyote and Kiara quickly plotted to end this by grabbing a coaster and
throwing
a /duel.   The group accepted.   Back and forth it
went,
until it utilized words I'm not allowed to publish (on TenTonHammer
anyways). 
We made some friends that night.

The rest of the night is a blur of alcohol and laughter. 
Sadly?  I
didn't even drink.  I know my room was filled with about 15 people
at one
point, and I even knew who some of them were!  Tallika had what
appeared
to be a 40 ounce Smirnoff, but glared at me when I wanted to pour one
out for
my homies.   There were people coming and going, and one man
was bludgeoned to death with a trackball mouse by Kiara for commenting
it was good that Wash died in the Serenity movie.Overall, minus the
Firefly comment that had
Kiara
throwing large objects at Gilligan the night was a lot of fun.  .

Let me close this section, by apologizing to fine folks of Caster's
Realm for poking at them, but those crowbars really hurt. 

More to come....


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Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

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