[News] Chesapeake Players @ Gencon: Meetup!

[Terence Duff]

<font size="2">This just in from Xotche of Meade and Tancred RedStar. This August several Chesapeake players are planning to get together for a meetup at the Gencon Indy Computer, Card and Board Games Expo going on from the 18th to the 24th at the Indiana Convention Center:</font></p> <blockquote> <table border="0" cellspacing="1" id="AutoNumber1" align="right"> <tr> <td width="100%">

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<font size="2">GenCon is an annual convention geared towards computer/card/board gamers. This year it is being held August 18-21, 2005 in Indianapolis, Indiana at the Indiana Convention Center.

Last year, EA/OSI, the creators and operators of Ultima Online held a gathering at GenCon. Although not officially an exhibitor at GenCon, they leased a meeting hall adjacent to GenCon and held various events there. On May 12th, 2005, Binki, the Online Community Manager for UO announced EA/OSI would once again hold a similar event at this year's GenCon.

<a target="_blank" href=http://boards.stratics.com/php-bin/uo/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=5839290>See the announcement here</a>

This coincides with an ongoing discussion the Fellowship of Virtue guildmembers were having concerning a guild and friends style meetup later in 2005. Given that the UO presence at GenCon was a fun and interesting event last year, we decided why not tie our meetup and the GenCon shindig together to have a great weekend together of UO friends and fun.

The UO presence at GenCon promises to be interesting this year as well as it will be yet another of the ongoing &quot;Town Hall Meetings&quot; EA/OSI is holding once per month around the country. In addition to meeting your guild and possibly other UO friends, there will likely be contests, games, Q&amp;A sessions, giveaways, happy hours, Meet The Devs events and maybe even a peek at the future of Ultima Online. Past &quot;Town Hall Meetings&quot; have included discussion on the still-secret next expansion. Since GenCon is about as big an event as EA/OSI has been attending, this could very well also double as the official unwrapping of the next expansion with beta-testing, gameplay or other suprises (this is conjecture, not a guarantee!).

Getting to where GenCon is being held, Indianapolis Indiana should be affordable if you make travel arrangements early enough. If you live close enough, you may even be able to make a nice road-trip out of it, perhaps even consider car-pooling and splitting gas money. Again, when buying airfare, the sooner you purchase a ticket, the cheaper it will likely be.

As for accomodations, there are likely several hotels of various prices all around GenCon since it is being held in the Indiana Convention Center. Consider trying an online service, such as hotels.com, expedia.com or even call your favorite hotelier.

As for the GenCon convention, it begins Thursday, August 18 and runs through Sunday, August 21. Visit the official GenCon Indy website at:
<a target="_blank" href=http://www.gencon.com/indyhome.aspx?file=indy>http://www.gencon.com/indyhome.aspx?file=indy</a> for complete event listings and schedule.

While precise details have yet to be announced, last year's UO shindig at GenCon DID NOT require GenCon admission as it was held adjacent to GenCon, not inside the convention itself.</font></p> </blockquote>

<font size="2">So if anyone is interested in meeting up with the Chesapeake gang, post in this thread, discuss, plan and more!</font></p>

 

[Terence Duff]

<blockquote><hr>

going on from the 18th to the 24th

[/ QUOTE ]D'oh, that should be to the 21st!

Also, FYI, Stratics has no involvement in this and is not sponsoring it. For anyone interested speak to Xotche of Meade or Tancred RedStar, who are easily contactable through PM here.

 

[imported_Guildmule]

Hoely Molly! I thought they were going to Indy to watch Nascar racing!

 

[imported_Xotche of Meade]

<blockquote><hr>

Hoely Molly! I thought they were going to Indy to watch Nascar racing!

[/ QUOTE ]

Puhhleeeaaase Guildmule....you were invited way before this ever hit the newsprint and you snubbed me off! hmmmmf (see if ever I offer 'room turn down service' again!

)
_______________________________________________________________

Common Chessy folks, go to Gen Con! It will be so much fun!

Hope to meet some of you fine people there!

xo

 

[Guest]

Like i said before i will be there. Since i started on chessie and stilll have a few characters there i hope to meet many of you. Cant wait this is gonna be one humdinger of a meetup I am sure.

 

[imported_Xotche of Meade]

Hope we meet so I can thank you in person for your generous donations in the past Festivals. I am excited to go, never been to one of the conventions.

<font color="blue"> Thank you Terrance Duff for the post, would you be so kind as put a sticky on it for a few weeks?</font>

 

[imported_Guildmule]

Who's bringing the whips and whip creams?

 

[CottonEyeJoe104]

<blockquote><hr>

Hope we meet so I can thank you in person for your generous donations in the past Festivals. I am excited to go, never been to one of the conventions.

<font color="blue"> Thank you Terrance Duff for the post, would you be so kind as put a sticky on it for a few weeks?</font>

[/ QUOTE ]

I'll be there since I live 10 minutes from the convention!

I hope to meet you Xotche I helped you with like 5 events last year and deaths in the family stopped me from helping again.

I hope to meet you!

Crimson Rose, I met you last year if you remember, Big fat guy long hair.

 

[Guest]

*insanely jealous that she can't go*

 

[imported_Xotche of Meade]

Awww gosh Bonami, just tell your family that you have a long lost relative, second cousin twice removed that needs a kidney.....heheehe.

Too bad this wasn't timed around when you were last in the states. There will be more chances, I am sure of it.

Looking forward to meeting you to Joe and thank you personally for all your help. Ooooo come to think of this, what a great opportunity to hit ya'll up for Octoberfest!

 

[Tabulon]

I too plan to make it this year, along with my friends that got me started ingame a few years ago. We went last year, and it was a hoot. Hope they already have a bigger room this year, so we won't need to move. I look forward to seeing you all there. . . Peace!

 

[imported_Xotche of Meade]

Wooot! More folks from Chessy!!

Bigger room? Did that many folks show up? Wow

....and a few of us were considering being total addicts and dressing up in costume, hehehe (I may have to reconsider how many ppl I want to know I'm a dork.)

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

I may have to reconsider how many ppl I want to know I'm a dork.

[/ QUOTE ] Too late, everyone knows!

 

[CottonEyeJoe104]

We need Name Tags... And we need to agree on a place to meet in the HOTEL before hand so we can meet and takl to one another that are on Chessy. Then go to the meeting when it starts .

for example:

Say meeting starts at 6

let smeet at 5 and chat.

Xotche, I go to oktoberfest every day the festival is going. I go the German Restaurant on the south-side of indy. My cousins dance in it, as does my aunt. And they work in the food places so free food .

If your going i'll giv eya my CELL hit me up while your there i'll meet ya there too.

 

[Blue Collar]

Joe, I'm in Plainfield.

ICQ 282-711-177

 

[imported_Xotche of Meade]

If we go into that conference as a 'Shard' (name tags or t-shirts or banners) we will have a bit more attention drawn to us....so the first person to blurt out they want curtains or dyeable rugs is gonna get smacked and dragged out like a baby crying during church sermon!

Hopefully many of our supporters who cannot attend will give us some good positive questions to stay focused on for the meeting. Along with our own positive insight this will be a great convention and perhaps some of our input will actually be actively used by the dev team.

About a week before we leave I plan to post a thread asking for 'good questions' to focus upon and take with us. (someone make sure we give Lyc his medication and put the duct tape on Guildmule) The better the questions, the more positive we stay, the better the input.... the more likely we will be paid attention to.

Go Chessy Go!

 

[Guest]

So I guess my plan of getting falling down drunk before I go in and blurting out obsenities is out of the question?

 

[imported_Xotche of Meade]

Think we should leave that opportunity for the Orcs in our shard.

 

[Guest]

Hey I live in Greenwood....that is so funny.
Yeah nametags would be nice...but heck my chest would be covered with tags...hehe since i would be representing not only chessie but LA and Origins as well. Maybe i will take my tshirt from last year and just put my name on the back hehe.
Since last year's meetup was on a friday I am thinking it might be the same this year. But with them being in Europe early in the week I think they might do friday so they can go home for the weekend....Dont care what day it is i will be there for sure. Gotta find out soon though I got friends from out of state that want to come as well...
I am so excited.

 

[CottonEyeJoe104]

Crimson what part of greenwood? I'm off of meridian by Banta and Southport.

And like 2miles is GREENWOOD city limits. lol

We should emet up sometime.

 

[imported_Xotche of Meade]

Do you all or has anyone posted on the other shards about this 'road trip' yet?

 

[imported_Xotche of Meade]

Today is August 1st, the countdown begins...

 

[CottonEyeJoe104]

<blockquote><hr>

Today is August 1st, the countdown begins...

[/ QUOTE ]

actually its the 3rd!!! heh

 

[Guest]

Bad news everyone

http://boards.stratics.com/php-bin/uo/showflat.php?Cat=&amp;Number=6035254

 

[Guest]

Sorry about that you all.

At least if you get together still you get to see people you know though! I don't know anyone going to this one in Berlin. Want to give me a list of stuff to bug them with?

*makes note not to mention rugs or curtains or duck from Xotche*

I am hoping to ask about teleport tiles for house to house linking (very cool for guilds so that members can zap to the guildhouse instantly) and additional static designs for L's, Keeps and Castles. I also want to run my idea of allowing shepherds to contribute to the zoo quest up the flag pole.

 

[Guest]

Not one person Ive spoken to has said theyre not going to show up. This thing is on and we're going to meet up and have a great time

I was sad to hear EA/OSI wont make it to hold a Town Hall meeting as originally planned. Im hoping they can at least send someone to represent them or otherwise help make it a special and memorable UO-related event. In my repositories I have some goodies from past UO events that I will try to bring along to help make this special like some UXO stones I got in San Francisco in 2003 and a few cloth maps from the last UO Renaissance lunch held in 2003 too. We may even have to temporarily rename some place in Indianapolis the Red Wolf Cafe for a night for some fun

I hope the dev team can lend us a hand and help make this a lot of fun even if they cant hold the Town Hall meeting as originally scheduled. More details as I plan this out and hopefully hear back from a few ppl Ive contacted...

 

[Guest]

OOO!!
Da humies nub bi dere?!?!
Dat ib ukee, demz ib tuupid agh smellie. Latz nub mizzin nuffin.
Da reel rezon demz nub bi ere, ib kuz demz skard ogh Gak. Gak mak demz kri lyk panzee kubz.

....Agh Gak wud makin dung tu gib tu demz... SKAH! Tuupid nubhosh humiez.

Gak stylz bi dere doh. Gak neeb tu pynd uddir humiez dat ib guud enuff fur Gak tu thro frezh, hut-maad dung ad.

 

[imported_Xotche of Meade]

It is true we have 14 'for sures' coming to GenCon and an additional 7-10 more maybes. Currently I am still getting messages and pm's from the other shards; where folks just like us, have been left behind as well.

We have opened our invitation to Lake Superior, Great Lakes and Legends to join us that Saturday evening (August 20th) in hopes of having our own 'real' Red Wolf Cafe night.

If anyone has a suggestion for a nice pub (not a biker bar or foo-fooh-yah-ya cafe) that can handle a medium size crowd with moderate prices, we would like to toss some electronic darts or shoot some pool, have a few 'adult' beverages and perhaps some food. Please post here and/or pm me or Tancred Redstar.

Distance will be a factor (taxi fare) since a majority of us will be staying in the Downtown area hotels by the Dome, in Indy. That I know of; only 3 people have volunteered to be desginated drivers. We truly want to enjoy ourselves but also be safe in doing so.

Thanks for your input, see you all soon!

Xo

 

[imported_Xotche of Meade]

<font color="blue"> Ok fellow Chesapeakians going to Gen Con, since all of us out of towners will be arriving at various hours Friday evening we opted for a small dinner party of the folks within each hotel.

BUT.....
Saturday, August 20th at 7:00pm Indy time we will be at Jillians !</font>

Follow this link for information, directions, and venue:
http://www.jilliansbilliards.com/club_detail_E.asp?club_id=34

It is our plan to grab a section of tables all together we'll be under the name ULTIMA, easy to remember!

See You All this Saturday!

Xo

 

[Guest]

hey everyone,

Lissa, Aurora, Xotche, Gak'uct, Blue Collar and myself all met up last night for some drinks, dinner, and then some more drinks, lol

Gak bought us all dinner which was very nice, especially for an orc!

We then hung out til well after midnight chatting about UO and other stuff, it was a lot of fun. A minor crisis was avoided when it turned out Xotche had a bottle-opener on her swiss army knife - the hotel room did not have to be destroyed in a flurry of orc rage over un-openable beers!

Not sure if anyone else is awake yet, hehe, but we're gonna head to the convention center to check out GenCon later on after we get some grub and hopefully meet up with some more of yall. Tonight we'll also be heading to Jillian's which is just a few blocks from the convention center. Look for the UO t-shirts or eavesdrop for conversations on how stealth archers sux0r, lol

We have a few cell phone numbers we're gonna hit up today as well

If you havent passed your cell number along, dont hesitate to PM it if ya wanna arrange to meetup!

GenCon in the news

 

[imported_Xotche of Meade]

Woooozah! What alot of fun we had! News and pic to come as soon as Tancred lands back on Lonestar country...hehehehe

 

[Guest]

We all recovered quite well from Friday night and after a nice breakfast at a local place we loaded up and headed for GenCon in downtown Indianapolis.

Where to begin? GenCon was HUGE. It wasnt big, it wasnt large, it wasnt even expansive, it was HUGE. Imagine a large building at college with row after row of classrooms - this was what all the various game-playing rooms were like. Card games, board games, games with models and miniatures, it was all there, rooms and rooms with seemingly no end. Personally, I had no idea d20, card and board games were so popular anymore, not even sure they were this popular back when I played D&amp;D back in the day, twas truly impressive! Then came the giant exhibit halls - one had series of "world championship" matches going on for various games. If youve ever wanted to be THE world champion Yugioh player or the world champion for Axis and Allies, this was the Olympics for your game.

The main exhibitor hall was several acres of game and game-related companies. Blizzard was showing off both the infamous World of Warcraft as well as the derivative card game. NCSoft was present with a large booth where you could play Lineage II, Starcraft, City of Heroes and GuildWars as well as chat with them and get some schwag. Wizards of the Coast had a huge and impressive display as well, featuring something that really caught my eye - a real Sherman(WWII era American tank), a half-track(original rubber tread intact), a jeep, motorcycle and a amphibious assault vehicle. They were showcasing Hecatomb, Magic:The Gathering Online, and Axis and Allies. There was a seperate booth also featuring Dungeons and Dragons Online and also the D&amp;D RTS game by Atari and Turbine. WoW has good graphics, but DDO even exceeds that, impressive for an online game. Microsoft had a spacious booth, but I pretty much ignored them(boooooooo). This was just all the computer gaming-related stuff, there were also acres of card and boards games I'd never even heard of, but the aisles were absolutely packed to the gills with people of all ages. There were the requisite large, middle-aged men with too-small tshirts that hadnt showered in a week toting suitcases of intricately painted miniatures and decks of game cards worth more than a car, the hordes of people dressed as both heroes and villains from every tv show, movie, book and game imaginable. There was even a crew of Ghostbusters onhand just in case there was a sliming. I remember one booth selling kilts under the premise they should be everyday wear - they had an office kilt, a workman's kilt, etc. I also got a firsthand introduction to LARP's by watching some guys swing foam weapons at each other with gusto. Across the street was an immersive dungeon where your team of heroes had to disable traps, pick chests, find treasure, solve puzzles, fight monsters and undertake other dungeoncrawling tasks irl. My account cannot fully explain GenCon, but I hope it at least leaves a taste of the breadth and depth of the things there were to see and do. To me, it was a shocking revelation of just how alive and vibrant the non-computer gaming industry is, but certainly there is also a cross market effect with computer, especially online, gaming.

We headed back to homebase to refresh and then hit Jillian's just after 7. Im specifically leaving out names to protect the innocent in some cases, lol. Im also leaving out my mad dash across 3 lanes of traffic to.... save a baby kitten, yeah. Xotche gave us each a Jillian's card which was a kind and generous gift. I played the hell out of the South Park pinball game as did Lissa Eldi. However, she beat me in the respect of scoring a 3-assed monkey while I could only manage a 2-assed monkey. I was able to bring forth Mr. Hanky tho. I also beat the dragon playing Gauntlet:Legends($7 later, lol). There was some serious smacktalk over shooting hoops with Xotche and Gak'uct. Apparently Xotche won the contest, but Gak went into a rage, screaming "tupid hummiez" and "blud fur da wargodz" while throwing barstools around and setting the Golden Tee machine on fire. There was also talk about "Fallen Saints" but I cant say much more about that here, but something Im going to check out. I also vaguely remember the waitress mentioning she was from Ft. Worth.

Around midnight we stumbled out of Jillian's and made way for the oldest bar in Indiana, the Slippery Noodle. Opened in 1850, it once housed a brothel. It is now a jazz bar and we enjoyed that place well enough, not only for the music, but also the human drama. Gak and I watched these two guys argue about football within inches of each other's face for almost 45 minutes. I was sure they were going to get into a fistfight at any second. Getting on to 3am, we finally called it a night. Several of our band lived either in or nearby Indy and we bade our farewells as the rest of us headed back to our encampment. Lissa was the most qualified to operate heavy machinery at that hour so special thanks to her for getting us all home alive

 

[Guest]

It was interesting that the convention center was built next to and around RCA Dome, home of the Indianapolis Colts NFL team. There was a preseason game there on Saturday night and so while the massive gaming crowd was in full swing, the massive football crowd was arriving. Quite a contrast and I'm sure a shock for the sports fans to park and be greeted by Klingons, Stormtroopers, and a 7 foot Viking who was delicately sipping Starbucks coffee.

Among the dress-up crowd were scores of ladies who were dressed in medieval gear, dominatrix regalia, and in some cases pretty much strings and body paint. Not sure what that had to do with "gaming" but it kept the guys entertained!

 

[Guest]

*walks in and looks around*

Pictures? I don't see any pictures. You all have had two days and no pictures yet. Where are the pictures???

*looks ready to throw a tantrum*

 

[imported_Xotche of Meade]

*ducts from Bonami's shoe tossing fit*

But, but, but......I gave the only good picture of us to Tancred because I don't know how to host them to post it. He must be still be cropping, snipping, air brushing the final edit before posting. (some folks are truly beautiful inside and out, but way way shy)

I got a great picture of the gang outside holding up the Dome wall having a smoke break. Two pictures of the town square, Indy is farely good looking and one very funny picture of Tancreds feet in action as he jumped out of the car/bolted down the sidewalk *coughs* he couldn't hold his beer any longer.

Then my last photos, nothing would not stop spinning long enough to capture it. Only other person who had a camera was Count De'Mone from Lake Superior and I have no idea if he posted any of them.

We truly had a wonderful time, enjoyed each others company very much, explored together, laughed and hugged tightly when it was over. I miss you guys already and thanks so much for the fond memories I have re-visted many times now.

Next meet-up will be Chicago! <font color="red"> IF UO doesn't pull out AGAIN! </font>

 

[Guest]

Hmmph... Ok well send me a set and I'll hold them hostage. Then Tanc's got 24 hours to pretty up the ones he has or I host 'em unaltered!

 

[Guest]

This is half the booth hosted by Wizards of the Coast to show Axis and Allies. That is a real Sherman tank(WWII era), not a cardboard and wood mock-up with a good paint job. The other half behind the wall was done up to look like a gothic cathedral for the other game they were showing, Hecatomb. Stretched out about 100 feet was a line of people waiting their turn to roll a 20-sided die the size of a basketball for free stuff. The interesting thing was that it was all *nice* free stuff like whole boardgames of Axis and Allies($30-$40 in a store), not just cheap stuff like stickers.

Blizzard had a huge booth as well, here showing a demo video for Starcraft:Ghost to a standing crowd that was always 20-30 people at a time. They also had World of Warcraft going on the other side.

This was just one side of the NCsoft booth, the gamestations where people could come give City of Heroes a try. They also had another side for GuildWars and Lineage II stations. Their devs were on hand to chat and answer questions. I dont know their dev team, altho one was pretty damn cute. They were giving away kewl bumperstickers, comic books and 2-weeks-free gamecards like cheap candy on Halloween.

This was in a seperate exhibit hall than the vendors, it was the game championships arena. In the middle was this huge fake building done up to look like the Daily Planet. Behind those doors *was* a small office they used to help keep things organized - very cleverly done. Some of the champions from some of the more famous card and board games were winning prizes up to $50,000 each!(*considers career change*)

Lastly, this is some of our crew at Jillian's later that night. Some had to leave early and others came later so we never got a giant group pic all at once. I am the dork with the beer in-hand who is of course blinking when the picture is taken. I think we drank pretty much non-stop from 7pm-3am. This was from around 10 or 11pm.

So that's the GenCon 05 Chesapake pics(there was one guy from LS, which I mention so he can represent, and a shoutout to Fallen Saints too).

EA/OSI, altho they cancelled on us at the last minute and ignored my numerous emails, has said they will likely be holding a UO Town Hall in Chicago sometime this fall. We had so much fun at GenCon, some of us are already talking about making it to Chicago if/when something happens there. Although UO brought us together for this, it was far from the sole topic of conversation. It was a lot of fun just to hang out and meet friends as well as new people I'd not known before.

My special thanks again to Gak'uct for buying us all dinner Friday, to Xotche for giving us all Jillian's cards and to Lissa for getting us home alive with limbs intact early, early Sunday morning. And a hearty thanks to everyone who came out, some of us who lived there, but also more than a few from different corners of the country.

Hope to meet some more fellow Chesapeakians and UO players in Chicago!

 

[Guest]

Yay, who is everyone else in the picture? Names to faces.

 

[Innocent One]

Yes, who is the rest of the drunken gang?

Oh and Bonami did you also notice that the group pic was much smaller than the others? Hrmm, I can barely make out the kind of beer he is holding.

 

[LordWillieNelson]

looks like silver bullet to me...yuck

 

[Guest]

I'm the one in the back carefully placed with my arms around two young men. I'm no dummy!

 

[Guest]

They had no LoneStar, they really didnt have anything. Their idea of a premium beer in several of the places we went to was Amstel Light!

 

[Guest]

Ok, are we gonna get anyone else to fess up to being in that picture or were they just some random people you two got to pose with ya, knowing I'd throw a fit if I didn't get a picture?

 

[imported_Guildmule]

<blockquote><hr>

Ok, are we gonna get anyone else to fess up to being in that picture or were they just some random people you two got to pose with ya, knowing I'd throw a fit if I didn't get a picture?

[/ QUOTE ]
Okay, let me help you here...

That picture from left to right, and top to bottom order of appearance...

That guy, another guy, and the third guy... that girl, this girl, that dude, a chick, and lastly, him.

hope this helped cleared up who is who in the picture. =P

 

[Terence Duff]

Gonna unsticky this, it should be on the 1st or 2nd pages for a few weeks after this, so don't hesitate to bump it when you want to make a post!

 

[Guest]

If/when EA/OSI announces the Town Hall in Chicago, we'll need another one