Zatozia's SOE Block Party Recap On Friday June 25th the SOE Community Team headed down to the 2008
San Diego's Comic Con International. A few of us decided to take the trolley down there to avoid the parking chaos. We were unfamiliar with how the trolley actually worked so were a bit hesitant on actually getting there at the same time as others. Yes we were trolley newbies.
We first became the blind leading the blind while purchasing the tickets for the trip down to the convention center. Once we got our tickets, we had to figure out which size of the tracks to be only. After trusting a fellow passenger and viewing a sign, we crossed the tracks and waited for our first trolley.
After making a connection the trolley took us directly to the convention center. We met up with everyone else who we beat there by a few moments. First! Well except for Ashlanne who cheated and brought her family down there really, really early. Once gathered, everyone walked into the main show area.
The show had all the usual comic book things you would expect – artist alley, comic book stands, characters and fans in costumes and more. Not being a fanatic about comic books I just enjoy going seeing everything. We even stopped by the Heroes booth where I got a snazzy pin!
After a few hours of walking around and geeking out over everything there, a couple of us headed out for lunch. Once returning to the show, Laikas (our community intern) and I couldn't help but head back to the Lego booth where I had to resistant the urge to by all of the Indiana Jones sets. I'll make that a Christmas present to myself!
After we saw all we needed to see, Laikas, Soffrina (French Community Rep.) and I decided to head out. We hopped back on the trolley for another adventurer. Unfortunately, there wasn't an express trolley back to where we needed to go so we had to hope that we would end back at the right spot. We did!
Saturday finally arrived! Everyone got in the office nice and early to begin preparing for the Block Party. The rental tents and tables were set up before we got there! Quite a few diehard fans even got in line as early as 2pm for the Block Party.
As we scurried around making sure everything was in place for the party, the line continued to grow! The band, Foo-U, entertained us as they practiced. Finally it reached 4pm the buses started rolling in and the Block Party officially began!
The band went into full swing! The atmosphere was full of music, food, drinks, and lots of chatter as attendees rushed in to meet the dev teams, and others here at SOE. Besides the games, the youngsters were able to participate in activities available just for them! Attendees got a chance to see previews of Free Realms, The Agency, and DC Universe Online. They received lots of loot including Block Party T-Shirt, other SOE Game shirts, pens, and more!
Most attendees went on tours of our buildings where they saw many areas of the company including the development team artist, designers, programmers and other members of the game specific teams areas, and they saw customer service and the operations teams in action.
Several members of the EverQuest development team were present throughout the day including Jourdian, Elidroth, Raramor, JChan, and Aristo. The team was on hand to discuss EverQuest, Living Legacy and they demo'd Blackburrow group event.
Renowned Comic Book Artist Jim Lee was present at the Block Party from 4:00pm to a little past 5:30pm. He signed autographs and drew pictures on back of posters for many fans. He even stayed a little longer than he was scheduled. He wanted to make sure that everyone in line got a chance to get a signed poster.
Overall the block party was a complete success.
See you next year!
Lydia Pope
Zatozia the Torturess
Community Relations Manager
