Buggering off to Icelandic convention for a week....

Heading off to Iceland tomorrow for another Spaceship Nerd convention - 1 week of geeking out with friends... should be either really cheap, or pretty weird with things being closed down, due to Iceland being in pretty serious economic crisis at the moment.

I went last year, and had a fair amount of fun. Met people pretty quickly. If you think that the boardgaming hobby has few women to men ratio - oy. Last year it was 40 guys to each girl at the 1200 person convention. They had a wife 'babysitting' program, however, which is both sad, ironic, and pretty handy. If you force your wife to go to Iceland in November so you can talk about your nerd hobby... in general, the game is 97% male. In our 'Women's Roundtable' we had guys bursting into the room with cameras, like they expected us to be having a pillow fight (we did however, have a case of pink champagne).

Here is an example of what a good evening in Eve looks like - the guy talking will be at Fanfest - it's not worksafe, if your work minds a drunken Londoner calling people cunts and saying 'fuck' alot. He is pretty much a folk hero to my 'people' (Goons, known for our bee Icon and swarming in large numbers of low power ships)in game. This is a group of 30 or so 'Goons' killing some other players....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DKcSR-6D-o#
Also, watch it in high res (new option lower right corner of window!)
The interface is pretty retardedly complex, which has a way of driving away women, and alot of guys.

Also trading for a copy of a boardgame that CCP used to originally fundraise - the downside is I have to carry War of the Ring through 3 airports. Also trading Jolly Ranchers for good English Cider. They stopped selling that candy there, and it will have the added factor, that if someone is being annoying, I can just lob candy at them, and their mouth will be stuck shut and I won't have to hear them! Will take lots of nerdy pictures, to compare and contrast to other gaming cons...

Please make sure to take pictures of the pillow fights, and of the ensuing tickle fights.

For the, uh, good of the site. F:AT needs the ratings. It's November sweeps, you know.

Have fun!

Umm... what Ken said . Have fun Thaadd.

Wow, seems like you only got back from the last one.

The screaming pom was awesome but I still have no fucking clue what it is I'm looking at onscreen.

Enjoy and try and not come back with too many diseases.

Thaadd wrote:

... should be either really cheap [...]

It certainly should be very cheap because the Icelandic currency dropped about 80% of its value.

Hey, have fun Thaadd. Go kick some ass on EVE.

--Mike L.

Mr Skeletor wrote:

Wow, seems like you only got back from the last one.

The screaming pom was awesome but I still have no fucking clue what it is I'm looking at onscreen.

Haha! That makes me feel like picking up Eve just so I can scream out a bunch of shit non-players don't understand, and put my pottymouth to good use.

BOOYAH!!!!

Mr Skeletor wrote:

Enjoy and try and not come back with too many diseases.

Fucking choked on my toast with that one! Hehe.

Back. Still a bit jetlagged...catching up with work.

Had fun at con. Lots of time to talk nerd talk, singing in back rooms of bars, bars, bars and more bars (my poor liver!). Went hot springs swimming. Attempted, but failed to see the Northern Lights. Went out to super fancy restaurant, and ate puffin, reindeer, lots of strange fish, and yes, whale. (I feel a bit guilty). Played in a PVP (player verses Player) tournament, which was a bit weird, as it was fighting while your screen is blown up and a few hundred people watched your teams every move... (but like a true goon, I just flew a tiny ship, did not act how I was supposed to, squeeked toys into our microphone system, and had a jug of cider at keyboard...)

I took something like 6 gigs of video and photos that I am still sorting out. Here is a small sample though. Mostly worksafe, except for some swearing...

Singing at the Cultura Bar

(that is the same drunken Pom, btw. He is cult leader of sorts for us) - his girlfriend would not let me get within 5 feet of him without doing a sort of sheepdog cut the flock manuever, however. Pretty irritating)

Panel talks about game balance and the elected council feedback team... (the Scot asking the questions was one of my good friends that I got to meet there)


A video with everyone's character names, singing again...
reversegaming.com/fanfest08/littlebees-fanfest.wmv

Sillyness at the bar - that would be 'Orange Species' one of the big titan ship pilots, opposition faction of the game (and killed me a good few times) giving CPR to one of our little mascots (a squeeky bee). We filled the convention with squeek toy bees, which was not everyones idea of a good time...


Will be going again next year