DISCLAIMER: The following contains lies and made up facts based loosely on the events of the NCSoft meet and greet in Austin, TX. Names, however, have not been changed, as no one was innocent.

[liesandmadeupfacts]

Now that the hangover is gone, I thought I'd list a rundown of what happened Saturday night in captain's log form:

6:05pm - Wife and I arrive at Dave and Busters and proceed to wait in line

6:35pm - We make it in the door (at least they were taking drink orders while we waited)

6:40pm - Looking around, we see lots of nerdy folk milling about. Ah, our people

6:55pm - Look! There's Ghost Widow! Hm...she just said 'excuse me' as she brushed past someone. Not exactly the Ghost Widow I'd read about, a bit image shattering, but no worries.

7:09pm - Standing in autograph lines. Hm, I see Guild Wars. I see CoX and the Defuser. There's TR...wonder where the DR table is.

7:18pm - Oh, there it is. The kiddie table off to the side.

7:26pm - We approach the DR table to find no line and two gentlemen (later introduced themselves as Mark and Stephen) who were locked in an epic thumb war that seemed to have lasted as long as they had been there.

7:29pm - They finally call it a draw when they noticed us standing there. Mark notices my DR ribbon on my nametag and says, "Holy crap! You guys play DR!"
"Its worse than that I'm afraid," I said. "We pay for DR."
"Well," Stephen said, "here you go, you paid for 'em," and proceeded to hand me the whole stack of photocopied DR stick figure swag that they were signing. At this point, my wife and I decided that these guys were far and away the coolest [censored]'s in the joint, and award them thusly:

7:42pm - Jaeger Bomb shots

8:08pm - Q and A with General British. We're still at the DR table yucking it up.

8:36pm - CuppaJo starts shouting random numbers as the raffle begins. More drinks down. Mark tells me he wants to add whips to DR inspired by General British's rattail of a ponytail.

8:48pm - Jaeger Bomb shots

8:49pm - Stephen pants'd Defuser

9:05pm - Everyone gets their swag bags and most of the place clears out.

9:16pm - Mark slides over to the TR table and starts signing TR posters for the stragglers, clearly marked: "I did not make this. Play Dungeon Runners."

9:30pm - Jaeger bomb shots (at this point I've bought 2 years subscription in shots).

9:45pm - On our way out, Stephen's kid calls me a noob. Stephen is a proud father.

?:??pm - blur


And that was it. We had a blast with the DR devs, partying like rockstars! I got all kinds of inside DR info, really awesome stuff coming down the pipe! Sadly, it was all Jaeger-wiped

[/liesandmadeupfacts]

On a serious note, we had a blast. Mark and Stephen really made this event fun. They love their game, and moreover, they love making people laugh...and thumb war.

Thanks for a most excellent time!!

Loved it. Can't wait to hear more.

Stephen sounds so cool.

I, too, was at the meet-n-greet. If my powers of deduction are correct, you and your wife were two of the four (other than my daughter and I) non-NCSoft employed DR players. In fact, I'd hazard a guess that you were standing in line in front of me (your character name was something literary and your wife's was her real life name?).

Stephen and Mark were funny, friendly and more than happy to talk. I took advantage of there not being very many DR players to monopolize Mark for a bit and pick his brain. I also got to meet Crickette, who was a joy!

Highlights?

* Had not one, but two sweaty palms, refuse to let go first hand shaking contests to determine both strength and will (a la Bulletproof Monk) with Stephen.

* Stephen got me with that old "Tap you on one shoulder..." trick

* Getting to meet Stephen, Mark and Crickette

* Getting some insight into stuff that's coming, other titles and how things are going, thus far.

* Stephen made my daughter--hereby known by NCSoft staff as "Daughter" or "Ripper's daughter"--laugh hysterically.

Lowlights?

* Continued my impressive streak of NEVER WINNING ANY RAFFLE PRIZE EVER and missing out on any of the phat lewtz like the two iPods, wireless keyboard/mouse combos, etc...

Since I live in Utah, I mostly used the meet-n-greet as an excuse to take my daughter on a father/daughter trip for the weekend. We rented a Mitsubishi Eclipse Spider convertible and had fun driving all around Austin for two days.

Ha, that was a great read. I don't think we personally met, although I could be wrong...I was on stage with Cuppa during the raffle. I did manage to get CuppaJo to plug DR once while we were up there. And I also hung around the DR table some, at least, as much as I could

I think I dealt with just about every product there except for TR, GW, and L2. (Although I don't work on COH/COV anymore, I saw a few of familiar faces.) I'm just used to managing each community separately, one at a time. But on Saturday night, all three of my communities were there, all at the same time. Boy, talk about feeling conflicted...I felt like I was cheating on one community while I was discussing another one of my NCsoft games...oh man...I was totally busted on that. Oh, the shame, the guilt. But I love you all!

Mark and Stephen might forgive me if I get a "DR 4 life" tattoo, but even that may not be enough. I'm loyal to DR, I swear!

I'm glad you got a chance to meet them. Now you see the craziness I deal with in meetings But it is a good form of crazy. It is the kind of crazy that keeps you smiling. The best way to make a fun game is to know how to have fun in general.

I heart DR.

Ripper, it was great meeting you! I'm glad I got to shake your hand and thank you personally for all your contributions to the DR community. I hope your trip back to Utah went smoothly - talking about Utah made me remember how beautiful that state really is.

Ya know, I really wanted to make Stephen look like an ego-maniac while he was sitting at the DR table, just for giggles. Like I told him, a 10 foot picture of Stephen right beside the real Stephen would have been a nice touch. We'll have to do that one next time.

but that describes you so perfectly ripper

OK, so this is a bit after the fact, but I finally got my pictures developed. There is a moral to the story: If you run out of the house without your digital camera, you have to use a crappy disposible. This is why there's only one pic with Mark and Stephen. The rest turned out horrible. So, here's the survivor (after I've cleaned it up a bit).

http://s5.photobucket.com/albums/y183/Ghost_XIII/?action=view&current=DRDevs.jpg

Mark's on the left, Stephen on the right, my wife in the middle. Sorry again for the crappy pic, I'll be sure to bring the digital next time

EDIT: edited per Ripper - thanks!



Edited by Masse (10/11/07 05:09 PM)

Mass - click on the Share URL link to the right of your photo and use that for the URL you embedded. That way you just get the pic, not the ads, too.

Aw, I want a dungeon runners tshirt. If only this wasnt held across the continent.

I fully expect more DR players at the next Meet N' Greet! We need an army of people to show up to prove we are worthy of our very own full-sized table!

If you think the crossbow drops are bad now you just wait and see how bad they get if I have to sit at the kiddie table again!

For those who weren't there, we had a blast! I can neither confirm nor deny (actually I should probably just deny it all) anything Masse and Ripper said. I wish I could deny the photo, but that's kinda tough to do. However, I can say this, I have no doubt we will have fun at the next meet and greet, whenever and wherever that is.

Nice Mark wish I could have come sounds like the DR fans that went had a blast. Hopefully something in the North East though.

I would have loved to be there to show my support for DR. I even have a place to stay in Austin as my Aunt/Uncle/Cousin live in the huge metropolis of Bastrop TX just down the road a bit. But I of course used all of my vacation time up from work so no Meet-N-Greet for Mama. I second the "next time on the east coast please" sentiment.

Quote:

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If you think the crossbow drops are bad now you just wait and see how bad they get if I have to sit at the kiddie table again!

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What? There was a problem with the crossbow drops?

He he, kiddie table...