Player's Summit

Took it. Hopefully alot of people suggest an Account-wide Patron Pool Unlocker item in the Paragon Market...

I used the idea for paragon market slot to post a idea about making some combat pets and making them Tier 9 VIP. I figured that would be locked behind enough that it won't get flooded but it would give VIP something to get. And every so often they can make another and rotate them out, then after awhile rotate them back through.

I'm afraid the need for hairstyles that don't look stupid edged out the need for patron pools for me.

I used the survey to Voice that the market should have the rest of the CoT parts, and the Black Knight Armor.

D_R's recap:

Day One (Friday):

Arrived at SFO 1:30pm... attempt to get rental car only to realize keys are missing from the car. Attempt #2 gets car, off we go to Dinah's. Get checked in and run into a group of players outside (most of whom recognize me on sight). Hugs and hellos (and introducing Bloodspeaker and Jade Crush, aka the Hubby and the Roommate).

Figuring out whose rooms are where (and cuing several rather lewd and inappropriate jokes). Then deciding to do happy hour at Trader Vic's rather than tromp all over town looking for food. Discover that the awesome sounding pizza isn't available for an hour. Grumbles. Instead I end up with a freaking TUREEN of wonton soup, plus a hamburger and onion rings the size of a Flying Disc (one of which Megumi immediately claimed). In come more players - more hugs and hellos and introductions.

We head next door for gaming with the devs. I get suckered into Jungle Speed with War Witch, Hit Streak (or Think Tank, one of the two) and another player. Then it's Betrayal at House on the Hill... I was REALLY hoping to be the traitor, instead I turn out to be the one who drives the poor woman playing the traitor stark raving nuts because I kept dodging her banshee while running all over the house. Imprompt COH session in the hallway where we're showing off costumes and punny names (whoever had "Rent to Pwn", I love that name). Then it's back inside to kibbutz with Megumi and the group playing Monty Python Fluxx before joining the Wentworths and Smofzilla in a cutthroat game or three of Guillotine.

(Oh yeah - also got the heavenward glance and sigh from Positron when he saw I was wearing my "My One True Pairing (OTP) is Positron and Tava" TCoSR t-shirt.)

Night one - me, hubby, roommate and Arbiter Fabulous share a room. John and Chris both have earplugs because I snore (Fab just has hypersomnia). Which is how all three managed to sleep thru me falling out of bed THREE TIMES (resulting in double charley horses). Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow. I end up sleeping on the floor - less distance to fall.

Day Two (Saturday):

7:30am - off the four of us go to Holder's. BACON WAFFLES FTW. Lots of friends (old and new). More hugs and hellos and introductions. Scarfing down food, then racing back to the hotel to join the crush of players waiting to get in.

Keynote: Discussions of upcoming stuff (I-23, new powersets, Summer Blockbuster, etc). Leading to this exchange:

Me: "Where's the I-23 trailer?"
War Witch: "Where's yours?"
Me: "Where's my paycheck?"
(Which led to a fun discussion later with Ross Borden about COH marketing. More on that another time.)

Summer Blockbuster event, btw, looks AWESOME. That movie theater. That colosseum. Those posters. OMG. Want want want.

Market panel: Arbiter Warrant sings (yes, I will be doing a video to his song when he records the studio version. We've already discussed it.), Black Pebble breaks out with the Gundam quote, and much spirited discussion from the players.

LUNCH: Dash over to the poolside grill after I spend an hour talking with Ross. Oy. Someone else comes over to say hi (I forget who), and then I get to tease Fab over lunch. He knows why. As for the rest of you, none of your business.

Design a Powerset - way cool. Not my first choice, but Hubby and Roommate seem enthused.

Design a Costume set - me and Impish Kat think alike. But Arbiter Fab trumps us both. Still, we got the idea out in front of the devs, that was the important thing. And David Nakayama is hilarious as usual with his doodles ("Miss Paragon", "copyright infringement costume set", "dead fish", etc).

Make a Case for Zone Revamp - some really good suggestions. This one, ironically, I did NOT submit an idea for. I couldn't narrow it down to just one zone. Was glad to see that John "Protean" Hegner thinks the same way I do in that delving into backstory will probably feature strongly in whichever zone gets chosen.

Lore/EndGame - oh yeah. My favorite panel. Lots of give and take with the devs on this one (and especially AFTERward between me, Fab, and Hegner). Also had a great conversation with Viridian about this topic.

Cocktail hour: OMG mai tai fumes. Not to mention me getting called out over the PA for monopolizing Dr. Aeon. (Thanks, Zwill.) Anyway, rest of cocktail hour involved me going around to most of the devs, with me now doing the hugging. Except Matt - we're not ready for that yet.

Dinner: HOLYCRAPSPICYPEPPERSTEAKOMGOMGOMG. John promptly takes my food away from me before I inadvertently give myself an ulcer. Great conversation, however, with TheNet, Zwill, War Witch, Hit Streak and Viridian. (Yeah, FIVE devs at our table - we were definitely sitting with the cool kids.)

After dinner: Roommate wins one of the keyboard/mouse/headset combos. Much cheering til we realize we have no room to get them home on the plane. Solution: give Arbiter Fab $$ to ship them home to us. Go us.

Karaoke: If you want to hear me sing, go watch my I-21 teaser. Fab, however, has decided he is going to MAKE me sing at the next Pummit. Uh-huh. Right. The drinks continue to flow, as Fab, me, and Hegner (later joined by Arbiter Hawk and Black Scorpion) launch into a two-hour-long discussion SHOUTING AT FULL VOLUME TO BE HEARD OVER THE KARAOKE about the game and its storylines and stuff.

(Note: Fab has had, at this point, several Mai Tais. Not quite to the point of seeing vapour trails, but he is weaving in and out of character in mid-sentence. It's a good thing I love him because even he usually knows better than to call ME "poodles".)

Oops, get thrown out of the ballroom. Out we go onto the patio, to find a group of folks out there. More socializing, then Zwill shows up, supposedly going to go to sleep. Two hours later, he's still there and so are we. Memorable topics included the dev-proc (random chance that a dev will appear in-game and say something pithy), and the Cat Vanity Pet (summoned via the click power of placing a can of tuna on the ground - 50% chance the cat will appear, with an additional proc that the cat will sniff the food and promptly vanish again in a huff).

Back to the hotel room at 1am. We promptly pass out.

Day Three (Sunday): John, Chris, and I discover that waking up Fab when he is ASLEEP is HARD. Poke, prod, tickle, shout his name, pull away his blankets, nothing works. We were starting to wonder if he was dead when he abruptly sits up. Back to Holder's for more breakfast (the hubby and the roommate get the Supreme Omelettes and decide they won't need to eat again for a week). Much hugs and kisses and goodbyes to the gang of friends at Holder's (including the Wentworths, to whom we donated the three posters we got from the swag bag, a costume code, and a David Nakayama signed comic book, all for the REAL WORLD HERO charity event come November).

Back to the hotel, pack, check out, head to airport. Upon check-in, we realize that upgrading to First Class is surprisingly affordable. Oh HELLS yes! Roommate pays for the upgrades, we have surprisingly good sushi at SFO, then fly back to Seattle.

Life is good.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

Okay, 'fess up. WHO GAVE ME THE CRUD!? My throat's been bugging me all day, and now I have a runny nose. Don't mess with me--we have the CDC here in Atlanta, where they keep the SERIOUS crud...

I had a fun time as well. Honestly, I think my favorite part is meeting up with folks and hanging out. I successfully hung out with: Pollyanna Matronic and Figurehead, Hyperstrike, the Wentworths, Texas Justice and the Justice server crew (gotta create a character there), various devs and reps, and a crapton of other people.

On game night, I was a little late. Once I got there, I kind of floated around a little bit and ended up at a table playing Acquire with Andy Maurer, one of the devs, who is a number crunching machine, keeping track of counts of seven properties of five other players to win. Needless to say, I'm glad he's good at numbers.

Hey, does anyone remember that (relative) new guy's name, Rob? (I mean, his last name, of course.) And his position? He was the guy who, when a player asked about the possibility of an Android client to City of Heroes, got up, walked across the room to the microphone, leaned over, and said, "No." Speaking of which, I don't know who that guy who asked the question was, but I felt kind of bad for him. Everyone had a good laugh, but it really wasn't a dumb question. It's just something that's incredibly resource-intensive and time-consuming to do, basically developing another game from scratch. Plus, MMORPGs on mobile devices still don't quite work yet, as no one's really developed a viable interface to something as complex as City of Heroes. If you're a developer, your first thought is that this is the development equivalent of asking to move Mount Everest over a little bit, which is why the question got the reaction it did. Anyway, I talked to Rob for a while outside with Black Pebble, and he seemed like a pretty cool guy. Zwillinger introduced him in the keynote, I think, but they don't have that posted on Ustream (yet... hopefully...).

Mmm... Mai tais... Quick suggestion: If you ever come to a Player Summit, unless you just don't do alcohol, get a room at Dinah's Garden. Even if you live in the area, you're either 1) going to hate yourself for passing up the bar, or 2) NOT going to be in shape to drive anywhere.

To Zwillinger and the OCR team, I like the format of the player input panels, but I don't like ALL of the panels being that format. To me, the panels were a lot like the forums, where we provide input, and the devs say, "Okay, we'll look into that..." with an occasional follow-up (which is also true on the forums). For the players, there was the advantage of having the devs' undivided attention for a minute or two, knowing they're listening, but still, even that is very possible between panels and before and after panels. I'm not saying that there shouldn't be any input panels, or even that the majority of panels shouldn't be input panels, but I would like at least one or two panels that are dev-driven instead, where they do most of the presenting.

Oh, and I'd still love the Player Summit to officially be extended. I know it would be harder on you guys, but what I'm thinking is maybe shuffling things around so that the keynote is on Friday night, and possibly starting game night earlier and make it as combo game night/meet-and-greet kind of thing, with devs/reps rotating between playing games and wandering around meeting people. (Give the devs/reps a half day off to show up on time!) Just a thought...

Here, my favorite picture I took. It's Pollyanna Matronic with a stuffed Observer and an invention cube, both (if I'm not mistaken) created by Rei.

Shining Finger from G Gundam