WoW Insider at Dragon*Con - Wrap-up
by Krystalle Voecks 
Sep 7th 2007 at 2:17PM
For our first year, we primarily set out to spread the WoW Insider love and get to know the community. That said, the reception and excitement we got from the Dragon*Con community at seeing us there overwhelmed both Elizabeth and I. It has ensured that we'll both be back in 2008 to cover all the myriad World of Warcraft goings on for WoW Insider! (As well as ensuring that we'll be back to help run the First Annual Dragon*Con MMO Costume Contest, slated for 2008!)
To check out a condensed recap of this year's various events, as well as the two (enormous) photo galleries chock full of various sights from D*C 2007, join me after the jump!
Arriving on Thursday, we settled into our respective hotels and met up with the MMO Track leader, Kevin Stallard, who proceeded to show us around the convention. We also met many of the other panelists for the weekend, including Trevor Legg, who has many years as a panelist under his belt, Terri and crew from FunCom (makers of the upcoming Age of Conan), and Mark Crump, hella cool MMO guru for PC Gamer magazine. From there we snagged some drinks and settled in with several of our readers for the fairly impromptu WoW Insider Meet-up. This featured lots of talk about different columns that were well loved (Reader WoWspace, Know Your Lore, etc) and some things that people would love to see us do in the future. The chance to get feedback directly from our community was fabulous, and something we're definitely looking forward to doing again next year!
From there, Elizabeth and I called it a night as we were to be up early for our first day of panels. Friday was a blur of topics ranging from the ethical issues involved in Gold Farming to Guild Management (both raiding and casual) to an MMO post-mortem on how can the current crop learn from the past. After a dinner break and a quick run to the room to grab The Swag Bag, we headed for our panel room to host the WoW Insider World of Warcraft Meet & Greet/Costume Contest. To say our party was a success is an understatement in the extreme! With having only about 1 month's notice to get costumes together, we still had a good strong dozen or so entries into the contest -- all of which were truly awe-inspiring! Sadly, the original room we'd been slated for was tiny, so we moved to a bigger room and still had to turn over 300 people away. (Of course, many of them stuck around and started their own WoW Meet & Greet in a room next door to ours with a lovely gamer cat-girl heading it up, and Elizabeth popping out to give out a case of TCG booster packs in the overflow room.) For next year, we've been promised a ballroom to accommodate the masses of WoW players who show up to join the fun! However, for those who weren't able to make it, here is a gallery of the costume contest and some of the overall fun!
Around Midnight, we brought the Meet & Greet to a close, and rather than splitting people up by server, we suggested that the entire WoW crowd head out and get their drink on together. (From what we heard, this was duly accomplished -- and without ganking!) Elizabeth and I hung out for a while to meet more readers, and she headed back to the hotel while I went out with my camera to catch some of the other goings-on at the Con.
The next day was once again full of things to do and panels to attend. We caught the Machinima 101 panel with Clint Hackleman from Myndflame.com and Matt Kelland, co-author of Machinima and Creative Director of Short Fuze. This is where we learned about many different aspects of making Machinima, as well as getting the skinny on the new book, Machinima for Dummies that came out a few days ago. (You can snag a copy on Amazon.com, if you're curious.) From there, we had to head out for more panels. I caught the EFF track's WoW Noob panel, and was surprised to see just how many people have only recently picked up World of Warcraft. (The room was packed!) Lots of good information given out in this panel to those who showed up. From there, we spoke on the Wrath of the Lich King panel, helping to quell rumors and explain some of the many things that Elizabeth saw and experienced at Blizzcon. We also came away with some good questions as to what the community there was interested in, and will be following up on those in their own post later. After that, we got to talk at length with people about whether they felt WoW was an "MMO on training wheels" and just what defines Casual and Hardcore to the overall industry leaders. After a lively series of discussions, we checked into some of the other tracks (like Dr. Who and Who Wants to be a Superhero) and snapped even more pictures. Later that evening, I checked out the Machinima viewing party and got to see some of the best Machinima across many different games, capped off with Oxhorn's ROFLMAO video -- easily one of my personal favorites due to having grown up on the Muppets.
Sunday was another blur of activity, with Elizabeth and I branching out to catch the last of the WoW costumes, culminating in being called out several times while walking around as being the "people from WoW Insider." We met many of the folks who hadn't been able to make it into the WoW Meet & Greet, and again got to spend quite a lot of time with readers discussing many of the things they'd like to see both from WoW Insider and the Dragon*Con 2008 MMO track. As Sunday night rolled around, we met up with many of the people from the MMO track, and proceeded to check out the Pirate Party (the Bloodsail Buccaneers have nothing on those party pirates) and enjoy some music made by Tesla Coils! Just as the sun was threatening to say hello, we headed off to catch a wee bit of sleep before our final panel -- the suggestion panel.
Monday found us packing and planning to depart, but not before we stopped in to hear suggestions on what people want to see for 2008. Many of the things that were suggested (a larger space for the WoW Meet & Greet) are definitely on the schedule, as well as requests to re-work/work in new panels on other topics of interest to the general MMO community. All of the suggestions were gathered up, and are currently being worked on at the Dragon*Con MMO site to ensure that 2008's events blow this years events out of the water. (I have no doubt we'll do it, too.)
So in all, a highly successful and fun weekend. If you're contemplating where to spend your Labor Day Weekend next year, we can heartily recommend Dragon*Con. (2008 pre-registration will be open on the 10th, starting at the low price of $45 for a 4-day pass.) Not only will we be back in force, but we'll also have some great new things to do and see! Of course, with any luck, Blizzard will send some folks out as well, so we'll have more news to cover. (Or hey, if any of the Blizz folks are trying to figure out where to vacation, you know where to look!) But even if all we get out of 2008 news-wise is hanging out with 40,000+ really cool geeks of all walks, that's more than enough for Elizabeth and me.
Hope to see you all next year at Dragon*Con 2008!
[Many images courtesy of Spawn of Bill (Charlie Taylor), Ken Kennedy/Dea Mozingo, with additional assistance from Rhett of GreenTime.]
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, WoW Social Conventions, Odds and ends, Galleries
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Parsec Sep 3rd 2008 5:22PM
This is Parsec, the voice of Arcattack. I would like to thank you very much for the nod in your post. I am not sure how close a look you guys got at me as the crowd sometimes did not let people see the front. However, I have been playing a Shadow Priest since shortly after rollout, and my costume was exactly that. I even made my own anathema for the event, which I ended up covering in Aluminum tape and using to arc the Tesla Coils in the traditional mind flay fashion.
I was SOOOOOO sad today when I was parsing stuff and found out that there was actually a WoW costume contest, woe is me!! I can't believe I missed it. Here is a link to me in my costume before the show, before I sprayed myself purple, just for the show...
http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh212/parsecironclad/2817234967_02a6413f8e.jpg
I dont think anybody noticed at all due to how dark it was and that bums me out because the stage show we are working on would be perfect for Blizzcon 2009. I mean, a shadowpriest led band with singing Tesla coils? How can you say no to that?
furroy Sep 7th 2007 3:15PM
Well my wife and I were really disappointed we couldn't get in. She was even dressed up as a Blood Elf and the door men wouldn't let her inside, because she said she wouldn't come in without me. She was sad she didn't get into the contest.
You guys turned away TONS more people than that. We were at the end of the line and people left in droves once they saw what the line looked like. It was obvious no one else was getting in, so they didn't even stick around.
Krystalle Voecks Sep 7th 2007 3:22PM
I really wish we'd been able to fit everyone in. That's the only real negative to the entire weekend -- the lack of space. But as the Fire Marshal was cracking down on numbers, we didn't dare risk it. (That's why they kept shutting down the Hyatt in the evenings.) The door people had explicit instructions to let anyone in costume through, so I'm very sad to hear we missed your wife's lovely costume due to not being able to let you in as well. :(
For what it's worth, I have a guarantee that next year we'll have a ballroom to host the First Annual Dragon*Con MMO Costume Contest in. I know that's small consolation for this year's space problem, but hopefully you will come out next year and dazzle us all with your fabulous costume(s).
My sincere apologies to anyone who didn't make it in. Come hell or high water, we'll be working hard with Dragon*Con to make sure that doesn't happen again.
Charlie Taylor Sep 7th 2007 3:43PM
I'm really glad I got to participate in the few panels I went to (so little time, so much to do!) and even more glad my photos were included in the gallery! I'm definitely coming back next year barring unforeseen circumstances, and I hope to work more closely with the MMO track next year!
unchi Sep 7th 2007 4:11PM
i tried coming by to most of the WoW-Insider panels. they all seemed to have filled up easily 10-15 minutes before the start time and some of them began early too. thankfully it was only a short walk back to my warmed seat at the bar. i also think this d*c had a whole lot more people than the past few years. next year.
Mark Crump Sep 7th 2007 4:24PM
I am most likely the person that turned you away, so some clarification to at least Krys is required.
We did let her in, the problem was we were really stretching the point letting costume folks in. We were at capacity and shoehorning folks in, not to mention some costumes were like 1.5 people (not even counting Warlocks and pets.
Unfortunately, I had to make the call that "handlers" and people with the costumee couldn't get in. I was really afraid the fire marshall was going to shut us down as it was. I feel bad I had to do it, and it sucks you guys couldn't get in, but we had to make some difficult decisions. I'm not going to offer the lame story of "Well, you should have come earlier." :). That said, if a lot of the entrants were from people who read about it on wowinsider, I'd hope Krys posts a "due to overcrowding potential, please please pretty please, come early" post.
We were promised a larger room from what we had last year this year and I don't believe that was the case. I really hope we get a larger room next year, but I'll believe it when I'm standing in it. :)
sithvixen Sep 8th 2007 4:08AM
I'm sorry that you had to turn away so many people. You weren't the only ones unhappy with this situation over the whole weekend. We got the wrong fire marshall this year and she was a biotch in past years when we got her as well.
Thanks for holding the contest though and thank you for the lovely prize that I won :)1 month of free WOW!
Doc X Sep 8th 2007 9:13AM
Some suggestions for next year:
- Panels are where folks ask questions of the panelists. They are not very conducive to roundtables with a lot of audience participation (especially when the room is filled to capacity). Instead of a discussion you get many separate discussions and so many people are talking we can't hear what the panelists are saying.
- Panelists need to speak clearly into the mics. With so many people in the room, it's very hard to hear what your saying from more than a few rows back in the room.
I was only able to make the Burning Crusade panel, but left because a) I couldn't hear the comments of the panelists and b) some wanker was making snarky comments every minute or so a few rows behind me.
I look forward to seeing what improvements are made next year in organization, presentation and content.
Krystalle Voecks Sep 8th 2007 10:21AM
Aha, I think we've hit upon the source of the confusion! The Burning Crusade panel (and indeed all the WoW panels on the EFF track, as well as the Trivia Panel on the gaming track) were run by a completely different group that is in no way affiliated with WoW Insider. We had our panels on the Gaming track only -- Wrath of the Lich King, Meet & Greet, Ethics of Gold Selling/Virtual Economy, WoW an MMO on Training Wheels, etc.
I was wondering where the complaints of people bantering a lot was coming from. It makes sense now. We did try to keep cross-chat to a minimum in our panels, as well as trying to keep on top of the mics and I'd thought we were at least moderately successful. (well, except the Meet & Greet, but that was meant to be kind of madcap!)
Next year, these panels should all fall under the MMO track hopefully. That way we can get all the bumps from this year worked out. The EFF guys have lots of great panels, already. With the overlap, there was much confusion (as evinced by this) as to who did/was doing what.
Thanks for helping to clear that up! :)
Mark Crump Sep 8th 2007 1:25PM
That said, the mikes weren't that good. In our room, you either couldn't hear us, or you heard the "funny man puts mike right next to his mouth" sound.
bwest0526 Sep 10th 2007 9:13AM
Krystalle, where's the pics of Spike?! LOL You guys did a great job of covering the Con. need any help for next year look me up..head over to the D*C Boards and I posted a little over there. Also on the Guild site as well! See you there next year!!
Niklaw
ICftB
Zangarmarsh
Doc X Sep 10th 2007 10:42AM
Thanks for clearing that up. Given the high quality of the content posted here I had difficulty reconciling that with the poor quality of the content presented at DragonCon. Here's me looking forward to the MMO track next year :-)