Sleepless in Seattle accurately sums up my trip to the Seattle Town Hall Meeting this past week. I woke up and headed to the airport at 6AM for my 9AM flight. As I arrived at the San Francisco International Airport I get through security with no issues and meet up with GM Silvani and Lady LU at the gate. Fertbert is taking a flight out of the Oakland airport with his lovely wife. The only person missing at this point is Wilki. At about 8:00 I get a call on my cell phone, it is Wilki. He is stuck in some major traffic where a fire truck smashed into the lane dividing barrier on the major bridge connecting the east bay and the peninsula. Looks like Wilki is going to miss the flight. )
Lady LU, GM Silvani and I arrive in Seattle, get our rental car and take Lady Lu to her hotel. We hung out there for about half an hour while she did some work remotely…she is a workaholic I tell you, this game is in good hands. I hung out downstairs watching the interesting people of Seattle go about their day.Upon leaving the hotel the three of us were starving so we went to a place in a mall called Todai. A sushi and seafood buffet. It was pretty good but we found out there is one not very far from the EA campus so we missed out on the local Seattle food. Oh well, another day. )
We decided to go find the GameWorks center and make sure everything was going as planned and all our proverbial ducks were in their proverbial row. As we were going back to the parking garage Lady Lu noticed that we parked in the garage directly under the GameWorks ! How we didn’t see the huge and bright GameWorks signs when we first passed is beyond us. We head into the center and I meet with the event coordinator and the assistant General Manger to go over everything. Everything was looking great and the plan of attack was top notch. The event manager then informed me that a few people had been waiting at the center since they opened at 11:00 AM and another couple had been there for a couple of hours and she pointed them out sitting in a booth in the far side of the restaurant.After crossing the “t’s" and dotting the “i’s" on the paperwork I headed over to the booth with the couple and introduced myself. They had been trying to figure out who I was because I was wearing my UO 6th anniversary hoodie. We chatted it up for about 20 minutes or so about everything from the game, their origins, and the fact that the Mrs and I were both from Louisiana. I had people waiting for me downstairs so I said my temporary goodbyes and rejoined Lady Lu and GM Silvani and we headed to Starbucks of course! Come on, we had to go to Starbucks in Seattle! We just had to! )
After consuming our delicious beverages I got another call. It was Wilki again, he was finally in Seattle. So we headed back to the airport to swoop him up and go to our hotel to check in and freshen up a bit before heading to the event. At the hotel there was a man in front of us who looked like he had seen better days. His clothes were dusty and he had a chunk of skin missing from his forehead and was a bit bloody. He was checking in like nothing was wrong and the lady at the hotel was visibly shaken by him but went ahead as business as usual.As we were headed back to the city we still hadn’t heard from Fertbert so Lady Lu gave him a ring to discover his original flight had been cancelled and he had just arrived in Seattle. He was headed to his hotel to freshen up and informed us he would be about an hour late meeting us at the GameWorks center. )
No worries, we had plenty of time but Lady Lu decided she should get her rental car and meet us at the GameWorks before the event. The rest of us wanted to do a little sight seeing so we dropped her off at her hotel and decided to go to the Seattle Space Needle. We didn’t have much time to spend sightseeing and what better iconic Seattle landmark than the Space Needle! And right about this time my stage freight is starting to kick in. I am getting very nervous thinking about the number of people that will be attending and having to present, and my way of dealing with the nervousness is to start talking to people. So I started conversations with every single Space Needle Employee we came across. We talked about everything from soaring with the eagles to how the one older lady must speak a different language because no one understands her to how the elevator attendant should call it the “Elevator of Death!" to add a little excitement (which for the record, she did on the way down!).We hung out at the top of the Space Needle for a while and took lots of pictures like tourists do and then we headed back to the GameWorks center. This time when we arrived there was a line of people all the way across the footbridge and down the stairs. WOW! What a feeling! It was great to see everyone one there so early. My heart started to race a little and I almost became overwhelmed by the turnout. After dropping off my bag and setting up the laptop I went over the final details with the team then went to mingle with some of the people at the front of the line while the rest of the team finished making final preparations. Everyone was so excited and eager to get in, seated and started. We finally opened the gate and a steady stream of people started flowing in. Checking in one by one, I tried to personally greet as many people as possible. I told a couple of people that I felt like a politician “Shaking hand and kissing babies." As the attendees got their game card and raffle number they then proceeded to their seats until the place was packed! )
Once we hit the cutoff mark of 100 people I headed up to the front. Wilki stayed back at the check in where there were still close to 25 people waiting to get checked in. Once everyone was in and seated and the team was situated I hit the stage!The beginning is always the most nerve racking and exciting part of these meetings for me. Looking out into the crown, and in this case a huge crowd, seeing all the strange yet oddly familiar faces, knowing that everyone cares so much about the thing that has been such a huge part of my life for the past 9 years is simply astonishing. )
With all eyes focused on me I kicked off the show with a hearty welcome to Seattle and moved swiftly into the rules of the event and then into team introductions. The team members in attendance included Producer Jessica “Lady Lu" Lewis, Live Team Lead Peter “Fertbert" Phillips, Lead GM Anne “Silvani" Pitkin, Community Coordinator John “Wilki" Wilkinson, and Myself.After the introductions were out of the way we dove right into the Q&A session. Man did everyone come prepared! Once the questions started they continued for the entire hour and forty five minutes! Questions ranging from GM support to weapon attack speed to the Invasions were asked. We tried to get to as many questions as possible but I don’t think we could ever answer all of the questions the group had. A few of the key questions asked during the first group focused on guidelines the Game Masters adhere to, issues with PvP balance, and how you should be able to place a house on both the Test Center and a regular production shard. )
With about 5 minutes until the next group was slated to come in I hijacked the meeting again thanking everyone for coming out and spending the evening with us. As people were getting up to leave I sprung the surprise announcement that we are working on a new expansion! That’s right, a new expansion that will “Change the face of Sosaria forever!". A new expansion that will introduce a return of the redeemers and a new expansion that will unleash a corruption that will twist all that is good. A new expansion that I really count say anything more about until the June 2nd Town Hall meeting. Some people were very excited to hear this wee bit of information while other just wanted more information and details. Soon…soon.The first group was over in what seemed to be a blink of the eye, but people had questions and wanted to talk and mingle. We had to start ushering people out of the meeting room so we could get the second group in. Once the 50 or so people in the second group were in and seated we started the process over again. We went through the introductions and the short presentation and jumped right into the Q&A. I was quite surprised that we didn’t have a whole lot of overlap in the questions. There were about 4 or 5 questions that had been asked in the first session but other than that the second group had a whole slew of their own questions, ideas, and comments. )
Surprisingly, or maybe not so surprisingly, two of the most well received suggestions presented by the players were an insurable quiver and the ability to go to the character select screen rather than all the way to the log in screen when you log out.As quickly as it began our allotted time in the meeting space was up and the Geameworks attendees began clearing out the room causing everyone to disperse into the hallway. Many more conversations were had in the hallway with all the members of the dev team and the patrons that were left, including the two Aussie players. I had my own questions for them! I interrogated them about the Dingos and the baby eating and the shrimps on the barbie. They informed me that the dingo’s don’t really eat the babies and they do not eat the dingos…but they do eat kangaroos. I also talked briefly with the UORADIO.com presence about doing a live broadcast of the June Washington DC event…nothing has been nailed down but we are working on it. )
Many pictures were taken with the remainder of the attendees as we made our way to the door of the GameWorks where we bid everyone a fond farewell. I’m sure those pictures will be used as extortion down the road somewhere…that or they will be worth a million bucks!Wilki, Silvani, and I headed to our rental card and by the time we got to our hotel it was past 1:30AM and we had to be at the airport for a 6:00AM flight. I was so pumped up and so tired that I couldn’t go to sleep for what seemed like forever. Once I finally dozed off I woke up in a panic and it was already 4:15AM. I had forgotten to set my alarm! So after a quick shower and packing session I rushed downstairs to find I was the first one there. )
Once Wilki and Silvani joined me we headed to the airport where Wilki’s troubles continued. It seems that the airline attendant canceled his return flight during all the original flight mess. So he had to get in line and get a new ticket. Silvani and I continued on just in time to board. I thought for sure Wilki was going to miss this flight too. Thankfully, just before they locked the cabin doors, Wilki came bouncing onto the plane, what a relief! The entire flight back was a big dream. I was asleep before we left the ground and was out until we landed. I was exhausted.But it was all worth it. These community events are an experience I wouldn’t trade for the world. Meeting the people behind the pixels, finally being able to put a face with the sig on the message board, and hearing stories about how Ultima Online, the one constant in my life for the past nine years, has affected so many others across the country and around the world is a truly memorable experience. It makes all the stress and arguments and flame wars worth it. You, the community, drive UO and you, the community, drive me and the entire UO team to build a better game and deliver a better virtual world experience but also so much more. One thing that has been reinforced by the amazing patrons of the Seattle Town Hall meeting is that Ultima Online is so much more than a game. - Binky Ultima Online Community Manager For some great recaps of the Seattle Town Hall Meeting please check out the following sites: UO Stratics: UO.Stratics.com Thread 1 UO.Stratics.com Thread 2 Ian Storm: IanStorm.com Thread 1 Check out the rest of the pictures from the Seattle Town Hall Meeting: )
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