I'm sitting on the plane headed home from the San Francisco Fan Faire and I'm trying to think of something positive to write. The only things that I can think of that were positive from this fan faire did not come from Sony, but rather from the friends I have met at other fan faires and the new friends I have made at this one. Fan faires have always been about getting the people behind the characters together and have fun. This fan faire was about how much money Sony could get out of people in a weekend when they were away from their computers.
I always enjoy going to fan faires and the feeling was no different in going to this one. When I arrived at the hotel after a delayed flight I was impressed by the opulence of the hotel. I checked in and looked around the hotel for others that might be there early (it was noon on Thursday) but all I could see were business people in suits talking on cell phones. No big deal it was after still a work day and we weren't due to take over the hotel until Friday evening. I went to my room and settled in and the room was very nice even though I gave up an executive suite in the hopes that I could find a roommate to split the cost with me. I went down to the hotel bar and looked around and felt really out of place (imagine that me out of place in a bar). I did not see a single person in that area that wasn't wearing business attire. I went to the front desk and asked where the other bars were and they told me the 39th floor was a restaurant/bar, but it didn't open until 4pm and there was a sports bar that was not part of the hotel but connected to it though the carport. So off to the sports bar I went. I walked in and knew that this was the bar we would have to start drinking in. Looking around I bumped into Illia and a friend of his. So I join them and drank a bit and then we decided to try the Atrium bar that I felt out of place at. We went up and realized that the drinks were the same in the sports bar but more expensive, so after one round of drinks we went back to the sports bar. We played a bit of pool and drank a bit more and no one else showed up. We decided to part ways for a bit and I decided to take a nap(jet lag was starting to catch up with me).
After trying to sleep for an hour I gave up and headed back to the bar. This time at the bar there were a few more people and we proceeded to run the bar out of Guinness. We hear from the few Sony people that were there that the bar at the Metron called Portal 1 was open from 10pm to 2am and had drink specials for the fan faire. We proceeded to hit a few more bars before 10 pm and then headed to Portal 1. We got there and this place is a mini version of Gameworks. We head to the bar and talk to the guy running the refreshment area and he tells us that the drinks are $6 each and showed us the list of drinks. Now let me pause here to say that all weekend things that were set up by Sony that needed a tag, like for food or drinks, usually had some kind of in game connection. I found it both amusing and disturbing at the same time. Anyway back at Portal 1 we decided that it wasn't going to be the happening place tonight because the only people that were in there at 10pm were the people that we walked in with and the employees. We went back to the sports bar and drank until they closed which was midnight. Then wandered back to Portal 1 and wandered in again and there were a few people there but nothing like the great pre-Fan Faire parties that usually happen on Thursdays. We wandered back to the "bar" and the person there offered us drinks for only $2. Most of us passed and decided to call it a night.
Friday morning dawned earlier than expected for me but I was unable to shut it out so I got ready for the day and headed down stairs to find people. I found a few people and we decided to go to breakfast. We headed up the escalators and went to the Atrium restaurant. I ordered the buffet since the 2 egg breakfast was $12 and the buffet was $15.50. Thanks Prexus! It was about time for registration, so we all wandered over there and there was already a line. We waited in line and and then got our registration packets and Tee shirt. You get a tee shirt for going to fan faire but this time the shirts weren't of the same quality they used to be and this time they had advertisements on them. I noticed a lack of vendors here, so looked to see where all of the other vendors were and the information packet said they were in the basement of the hotel. So we had to go back to the hotel through the rain to check out any goods other than the stuff Sony was selling. We decided that sight seeing was off for the time because of the winds and rain, so we went to see Attack of the Clones at the IMAX. After the movie we all went our separate ways, some went to drink some went to nap some went to nap then came to drink. Around 7:30 PM we started gathering for the Friday reception. Now normally the reception is held in a big room and there are tables with chairs and laminated server signs where you can get your server together. There is also food served here like vegetable trays or cheese trays or other types of finger type foods. This time though the room was OK and the food was great but there was probably 20 chairs in the whole room and half as many tables along the walls and about 800-1400 people. The food was decent and plentiful and again they had in-game labels on each type of food. Tables were about 3-4 to a table. The decided to do away with the server signs that sat on the table, and consequently alot of the servers weren't able to get together as fast as they could have if they had tables and signs. Sony did how ever make large banners of each server and character class to silent auction off later. After a bit someone in the front of the room got on what sounded like a Mr. Microphone and started talking. He went on and and and every so often we heard can you hear me back there? and we would shout no and he would continue. Eventually he got it a bit louder and we could make out some of the words. He said they were doing a raffle at 9:30pm. I had to leave at this point (8:50pm) but was planning on getting back in time for the raffles. Well I head back at 9:20 and there are streams of people leaving. I asked if it was done and they said yes they had done the raffle and were headed out to drink. I got a group together and headed off to an Irish pub and then went to bed.
Saturday morning dawned a bit later for which I was really grateful. This was the big day. Seeing as I had already registered I went to find where the non-Sony stores were located today. ( They were in one room one day and then they were moved the next day) Found them and looked around for a bit and then decided it was time to get in line for lunch. Found a few people and then headed across the street from the hotel. We got to the spot where the were lining up for food and we started to wait. Shortly after 10 am they opened the serving lines. The food here at the Metron was poor to put it nicely. Most of the stuff was largely unidentifiable, other than OK that is pasta noodles and that is chicken wings. The brownies and rice crispy treats were good how ever. After we ate we had some time to kill so I went and took a power nap. I got up and headed over to the same room that we had lunch in and was told that the live quest was pushed back an hour because of the amount of people that hadn't eaten yet. So I pulled up a seat near the rest of the Povar people and grabbed more brownies. Things were a bit different this time with the live quest. First of all each team got a colored bag. There were only allowed a maximum of 10 people per team. When all was explained on how the live quest works, the teams were allowed to leave the area based on bag color. After all the teams had been released the NPCs were supposed to start spawning. Well somewhere the communication was messed up and there were 2 colors of teams that were supposed to be released and the NPCs started spawning. A few minutes after the NPCs started to spawn the first of the 2 teams were released and shortly after that the last color of teams were released. I was in the last set of teams to be released and there was a NPC right next to where we were sitting and by the time our group was released there was a line with several groups waiting to talk to the NPC. My team continued to play as best as we could and the puzzles were really hard this time. They extended the time to do the live quest because they started late. Even with the extended time there was at least one NPC that stayed there after the 4:00 time. Gratz to all the groups that got their stuff after the NPC were supposed to despawn and still got credit for it. Next on the agenda was the forums and discussion panels back in the hotel and they started at 4:00 so if you were with your team you were late for the forums. If you went into a forum you got your name tag marked and if the forum was full and had your mark for that forum you were not allowed back in. Nice idea but poor planning on the time and not getting all the people out in-between the sessions. The discussion panels ended at 7:00 pm and dinner started at 8:00pm. Most of the people just wandered around in the bazaar or hall way near the entrance to the ball room where dinner was going to be served. Dinner was EXCELLENT!! the deserts were marvelous. After we had been eating for a while they did the introductions and winners of the costume contest. The sound system was just as bad as the first time and most people could barely hear what was being said. At this time is when they read off the winners of silent auction. Some of the signs went for several hundred dollars. I have heard rumors of the enchanter sign going for $750.00 The amount of prizes that were given away was staggering but the time it took to give them away was also staggering. About half way through the raffles people started leaving. After dinner a group of Povar went to visit the Safehouse party but it was really hot and we decided to go out on the town and hit a great bar that was only a few blocks away. Well sorry about the length of my review but I needed to vent and now if you have read this far click here to see the pictures other wise click here.