Sometime in the last week www.evevegas2.com has turned into vegas.eveonline.com. A little digging around on the site brought up the FAQ where it says:
Is EVE Vegas supposed to be Fanfest USA?
No. EVE Vegas is a different event in another part of the world, established by EVE players who still make up large part of presentations. The event has enjoyed support from CCP Games throughout the years and is now run and managed by the company, with the programming being conducted in close cooperation with EVE players.This was a surprise. Eve Vegas is a player run event started by Zapawork. I first attended in 2012 where we had six developers that we had to fly in to do presentation. There was a good turn out of around a hundred and seventy people or so (I think). This was followed in 2013 by Eve Vegas growing. Almost three hundred people went and CCP sent an entire Developer team to do tournaments, streaming, Valkyrie demos and give our goodies and toys. It was a lot of fun and much more polished.
This year, CCP has fully taken over while still working with Zappa. And I think it is both good and bad.
The FAQ notes that Eve Vegas is a player run Event and that CCP plans to keep it that way. I do not know what agreement they came up with Zappa but CCP is in charge of the buss. I've been to Fanfest and last year Eve Vegas was great. I expect it to be amazing this year.
Having CCP makes it seem more official to those who are uncomfortable going to player events. We already give money to CCP. We have a level of trust with them as their clients. They are professionals at this type of things. It means more goodies, a polished experience, and lots of fun Eve focused things.
My worries are that it will become affected by any ups and downs at CCP. A player hosting the event could also have ups and downs. I've become fond of Eve Vegas and I want for it to succeed. I've had a good time in at CCP's official gathering and it will be interesting to see how Eve Vegas is handled this year and in the future.
My flight and hotel are booked. It will be a busy September and October full of Eve Online.
I think now that Eve Vegas (EV) is a CCP sponsored event you'll get more players to go. I live in San Diego which makes EV just a short 45min flight to Vegas, however, I've been hesitant to go in the past because of the shenanigans players seem to act out. I'm a little older than your average Eve player - 54 - and I'm not interested in all the drinking and clubbing that the younger players seem to be attracted to - not anymore anyway:-) Count me as one who approves of CCP taking over sponsorship!
ReplyDeleteIf you'd ever been to fanfest you'd not say that ^_^
DeleteCCP Employees are almost without exception party animals from what I've seen the 2 times I went to Iceland.
That said despite my lemony fresh 33 years, I to am no party animal and always managed to entertain myself just fine in the evenings at fanfest with the rest of the more moderate minority so don't let that stop you! :)
In don't go to Vegas to drink nor gamble. :)
DeleteI tend to skip the parties. I guess I'll try it this year and see how it goes.
So I'm not alone...
ReplyDelete50 myself. Been gaming since I programed a lunar-lander game in BASIC onto a TRS-80. With a cassette-tape memory.
I wish there was a way to API verify a players RL age.. create a corp with women over 30 and men over 40.
I guess I want more professionalism and less "Animal House".
Far from alone.
DeleteMost odnitnis very polite fun convention. The drinking stuff isn't overly crazy that I've seen but I normally bounce out from parties pretty quick.
Considering the prominent role Somer Blink played in last year's EVE Vegas, I have to wonder how much of this announcement stems from recent events and the need to fill a hole.
ReplyDeleteAnon 5:48 & 8:52...
ReplyDeleteYer not alone... I am also 54 and HBHI's Directors are me, my 27 y.o son, a Marine stationed in Korea and his former corpmate (and my son-by-another-father)...
And If I EVER get to go to FanFest or EV or any other EVE get together event anywhere... sponsored or not, I will go to the event, then most likely head back to my room...
mix up a Cuba Libre,
fire up an H. Upmann Reserve,
get comfy and logon and fly the deadly skies... =]