Mr. .NET

First the day 0 wrap-up:

Last night was fun.  The TV in our room makes a horrible screeching sound so Adam hooked up Guitar Hero to the TV out in the hallway.  I met another developer, up from North Carolina, who is at his first GenCon since the last Milwaukee show.  While we were chatting a few more attendees had gathered to watch the GH goodness.  Then they started playing a very fun game called Apples to Apples…so we all joined in along with another player from Tennessee.

Day 1 wrap-up:

The day started early with a trip to the continental breakfast.  I had a banana and some OJ, I was hoping for a muffin, no luck.

Once we got to the Con we proceeded to the exhibit hall entrance thinking they opened at 10am.  Turns out if we would have read our program books we would have seen that there was an opening ceremony to kick off the 40th GenCon.   Some notable people in the gaming world showed up, including Gary Gygax.  No pictures because I was in a crappy spot to see the ceremony.

After the ceremony the exhibit hall opened and we headed in…first order of business for myself was to pick up a badge wallet and GenCon t-shirt.  While I did that Adam, Mary, and Kat headed over to the e-gaming arena where the Guitar Hero tourneys were going to be held.  I’ll upload a few pictures and videos later from it.  Adam didn’t win; he came in 3rd place after several great contests and some showing off (which I unfortunately did not get in the video).

After the tournament, we hit the city centre mall for some food and drink then went back to the exhibit hall.  I didn’t notice it until we left, but the hall space had expanded quite a bit from last year.  Its great to see more video game companies there this year.  Blizzard, Sony, NCSoft, the guys that do EVE Online, the guys doing the NeverWinter Nights 2 expansion (as well as The Witcher and some other title that slips my mind), Eidos, the company doing Fallen Earth, the company behind Sword of the New Age (complete with booth babe), the company behind Age of Conan.  Last year I only recall seeing Blizzard, NCSoft, the company that did NeverWinter Nights 2, and EVE Online.

The swag bag was great this year, Upper Deck included a starter box for the World of Warcraft TCG; a much better idea than including just a booster pack.

Time to head out to the Con again, will post later….assuming the internet is working.

I made it to Indianapolis in only about 3 hours. My group decided to meet at the Indianapolis Zoo, myself coming from Columbus, OH the rest of the group coming from Mt. Pleasant, MI.

The zoo was fun. I’m uploading pictures to my Picasa album if anyone cares to check them out.

Highlights of the trip so far…Kathleen slipped and almost fell into the shark petting tank. That was funny.

This picture didn’t turn out well, but the effect is great! We watched the dolphin show, which was fun. Adam recorded the whole thing so I’ll have to get the video from him.

The meerkats were fun to watch, I can see why they made a show about them. I’ve got a video of the pavlov effect, all of a sudden the meerkats that were just dispersed through the area all bolted to the door. A few seconds later a worker came out with food…a mix of cat food and meal worms. Yum..

We walked right past this turtle before I noticed it was a turtle…it looked like a huge rock. While taking pictures I saw other people do the same thing so I didn’t feel so bad.

More to come late, we’re about to leave for the convention center!