San Dieguard, Saga of Rihko
So the router at my house broke last week and my computer didnt have internet access, though the other 3 did, and I forgot that the flight was Thursday afternoon. I was checking online Wednesday night for my information and it said Thursday, so I had to find someone to drive me to the airport. Finally, I got my fiance's mother to go with me as long as I drove there, she would drive my car back. I had to print out my ticket at home and i got "A" class, which was cool. I got there at about 1:10 for a 4:05 departure. I went through the whole security thing, taking my shoes off and letting them take my camcorder apart to inspect for hidden nuclear devices. I was reading my book at the gate and stuff, and then some mormon kid started talking to me about pottery, plane crashes and blue collar comedy. The flight before us had switched terminals, so we were dubious about where to wait in line. Our plane finally taxied in, only for the announcement to go out and then spent a half hour with "engine problems" and a door that wouldn't open, meaning people couldn't get off. I'm the first one in line for "A" boarding, but all the people with kids under 11 had taken all the good seats. The trip itself took about 45 minutes. The plane ascended to about 25k feet, plateaued for about 5 minutes and then started coming back down.
So, at the SD airport, i wandered outside to the courtesy vehicles veranda, and met Leonai and Arnie from Ogaming. A few seconds later, Zeus from Gamergods swaggers over, and then we see the arrival of Shelby from Okratas and Behemoth from Fires of Heaven. We wait for the shuttle to the hotel which should be there in about 5 minutes. After a half hour or so, Leonai started making phone calls to the hotel and to cindy torectify the situation. Mental note: NEVER PISS LEONAI OFF, DEATH WILL ENSUE.
Wandering around the hotel, no one knew who i was, so I started making a nametag, then I go to follow everyone else down to dinner... And Cindy hands me a nametag. I moseyed around the dinner room with my sucky camcorder, getting a minute or so of lame video in low light settings. I decided to go stand over by Arnie and Brad (McQuaid). I sat at Brad's feet abd just listened to him talk about game design, betas, and all that other stuff.
Dinner began, and I sat at a table with MorbidDeath(Vanguardwatch), Zeus, Freonsmurf(Safehouse), Allakhazam, Staunch(epicvanguard) and Michelle Butler, game designer. We talked about ADnD experiences, M:tG, EQ, EQ2 and other game design stuff. I asked Michelle how to introduce my fiance to gaming, and she gave me really good advice. Dinner was interesting, very "iron-chef". The Dev team introduced themselves, and afterwards, we players introduced ourselves. People wandered around during dessert, and I met Anyuzer and stuff. It was leet.
The dinner room closed at ten pm, so we had to all shuffle out of there and into the hotel lobby, which was way too loud because of some lame ass salsa music night. It was awful. I could barely hear what Anyuzer and Brad were talking about, while sitting right across from them, so I just talked to Shelby and Morb for awhile, until the music died down. I got to talk with Brad, Nepenthia and a couple others for an hour or so until midnight when he left. lightweight. I talked with Michelle some more, and Staunch. She left too, since Jeff was getting tired.
Now there was a group of us gathered around, talking about old times. Mostly led by Oloh, the unscrupulous, exploiting, multiply-banned lawyer, we talked about everything, from macroquest, and memory offsets, to pathing problems and wizards just going on autofollow for a whole raid. I left at about 2:30, when Leonai left, and I think everyone left shortly after that, so we could be ready for our 8am breakfast and subsequent office visit.
Breakfast was nifty, I talked with everyone some more about all hte great times we had. Alla got starbucks, so I asked him where it was. Staunch and I went out to get one together, got lost, and asked people where the nearest Starbucks. All of them laughed and said "there's one on every corner!" Well, at least we got back in time. The bus ride to the offices was long, but I got a chance to talk to Raya and Nepenthia about the life experiences we learn in online games, like cooperation, leadership, and patience.
to be continued!