This year I'm a little happier with the Fanfest schedule than I was last year. A year ago my schedule had holes in what I wanted to see, which worked out because I could just walk back to my hotel and take a nap or blog a bit. This year I'm staying at the Hilton, which is two miles away from Harpa. Fortunately for me the schedule makers smiled down on me and left me with a full schedule on all three days.
So what does my schedule look like for the next three days? Let's see...
Thursday:
12:00 - 13:00: Retribution Roundup (Singularity) - "A chance to discuss and gather feedback on the Retribution expansion, its features and success."
Comment - I had a toss-up between this and the initial overview session for the dev track, but since I wouldn't go to any of the other dev track sessions I figured I'd just watch all of them once they reached YouTube. Also, CCP was nice to start late so that people could go to the concert Wednesday night. Of course, the reason isn't because people would arrive hung over or oversleep.
13:00 - 14:00: Ship Balancing (Tranquility) - "Presentation of goals, vision for current and future ship balancing in EVE"
Comment - I don't know who's doing the presentation, but I'd guess CCP Fozzie will make it on stage.
14:00 - 15:00: Make EVE Real - Bringing FTL to IRL (Tranquility) - "The Quest for Warp Speed! The thought of traveling to distant star systems has captured humankind's imagination for millennium... so what is being done to get us there? This lively discussion will delve into the challenges associated with FTL propulsion and tantalizing possibilities raised by the latest research in theoretical physics - Dr. Richard Obousy, President and Co-Founder, Icarus Intestellar."
Comment - The first of three "Make Eve Real" lectures/presentations. Unless something good is counter-programmed against one of these sessions, I'm going.
15:00 - 16:00: Game Design - Balancing Tears & Laughter (Singularity) - "CCP Soundwave talks about the EVE's design principles, direction and general feature creation. If you're interested in what thoughts and guidelines go into the creation of EVE, this is the session to go through. This session will not touch on the balance of individual attributes on a single ship, but rather the inner workings of how the game is made."
Comment - CCP Soundwave has a reputation for entertaining presentations.
16:00 - 17:00: Lowsec PvP/Crimewatch (Singularity) - "Team 5-0 review the last year of Crimewatch developments, and announce their next new feature aimed at Low-Sec."
Comment - Since I spend as much time avoiding high sec as possible, this is something I need to know.
17:00 - 18:00: (e)Merging Ecomomies (Singularity) - "Learn the complexities and intimate details of running the most sophisticated virtual economy ever created from CCP's own in-hourse economists."
Comment - Considering the next session, I think the first of two formal economics presentations is almost mandatory.
18:00 - 20:00: DUST 514 Keynote - "Uprising revealed! Please read the Keynote announcement in this brochure."
Keynote Announcement - "Please note that the doors to the keynotes open at the advertised time but it will take some time for everyone to get seated. Once the room is full the keynote will start shortly after. We do expect every seat in the main hall to be full for the DUST 514, EVE, and CCP keynotes so just in case you are not able to grab a seat we will show the keynotes live in one or all of Singularity, Multiplicity, and PvP Arena. Good news is that you can drink in there while Tranquility has a no drinks inside limitation.
"Fanfest attendees and press do of course get priority seating so you can expect the devs to be hanging around in the other halls."
Comment - I expect a bunch of people to opt out of the main hall and go to the overflow sites just to drink and/or see the reactions of the devs. I wouldn't be surprised to see some of the press there as well.
Friday:
11:00 - 12:00: Eve Economy - A Decade In Review (Tranquility) - "This lecture will review major milestones in the history of the EVE Economy in addition to reviewing the current state of the Economy. It will also include a future outlook for what the second decade might bring on the economic front for EVE."
Comment - Traditionally an early lecture, only two sessions begin before noon this year. Interestingly enough the other session is about World of Darkness. Given the economic nature of the game, I expect most coverage to ignore the game under development. If I wore a tin-foil hat I'd say CCP is trying to hide the game.
12:00 - 13:00: CSM Panel (Singularity) - "Members of the 7th Council of Stellar Management review their term and answer questions from the audience."
Comment - This selection could change depending on what I hear at the DUST 514 keynote. The CSM Panel is opposite the "DUST 514 Planetary Conquest In Low Sec" presentation and may prove a more important session.
13:00 - 14:00: Eve Economy - A Decade in Review (Round Table) - "Roundtable following the presentation by Dr. Eyjo on 'Eve Economy: A decade in review'."
Comment - The first of the round tables I plan to attend. I don't know the location of any of them.
14:00 - 15:00: Make EVE Real - Asteroid Mining (Tranquility) - "Our Search for Riches Enters the Final Frontier! First it was the gold rush, then we began hunting for oil and soon, we'll begin trekking across the solar system in search of new and rare resources. In this session, the Flight Director for NASA's Mars rovers "Spirit" and "Opportunity" will show us how plotting our resource expansion by rocketing across The Milky Way to mine asteroids is just around the corner. This engaging presentation will discuss the near-future of space exploration and asteroid prospecting - Chris Lewicki, President, Planetary Resources."
Comment - The second of the "Make EVE Real" presentations. I've been following the asteroid mining activity and I was really surprised how far along the efforts are when I first heard about it.
15:00 - 16:00: Eve Security (Tranquility) - "Team Security will be doing the annual 'Year in review' about the war on botting and 'RMT' in EVE, and discussing some of the new initiatives that were started in 2012 and the first quarter of 2013."
Comment - CCP Stillman & CCP Pelegro (I'm assuming) will get to play the big room.
16:00 - 17:00: Game Design Live Session - "Participante in an interactive game design session, with a selection of developers writing a design document live on stage based on audience input!"
Comment - For me this was the weakest hour of the convention and depending how I feel I may skip it.
17:00 - 19:00: Eve Keynote (Tranquility) - "CEO Himar Veigar Petursson and the EVE development team look back at the last 10 years of EVE Online and forwards to Odyssey and the Second Decade. Please read the Keynote announcement in this brochure."
Saturday:
10:00 - 13:00: EVE Movie Morning (Singularity) - "Sit back, relax and enjoy watching EVE Movies on the big screen."
Comment - I'm scheduled to go on the dev crawl Friday night so I might not make this.
13:00 - 14:00: EVE in China (Singularity) - "A presentation from EVE's publisher in China, Tiancity, on the Chinese server: Serenity."
Comment - While I still might go to the resource distribution roundtable instead, I've always been interested in the other New Eden.
14:00 - 15:00: Prototyping The Future Of EVE (Singularity) - "Team Avatar and Team Prototyping Rocks have been developing new gameplay ideas for EVE over the past year and a bit. Come along and find out what prototyping is all about and see some of the ideas they came up with for features as diverse as Mining and Exploration. They will also be discussing the new features they are implementing for the summer expansion which were generated as a result of these efforts."
Comment - I would have liked to go to all three of the "Make Eve Real" presentations but this sounds too good to pass up. I'll catch Michael Laine on YouTube.
15:00 - 16:00: Improving EVE's Player Experience (Singularity) - "CCP Fear explores this sticky subject and how it might affect you!"
Comment - I was torn between this and the Games as Art - EVE At The MOMA presentation. Seeing CCP Fear won out but I may change my mind at the last minute.
16:00 - 17:00: Eve Security (Round Table) - "How has 2012 been from your perspective? Are the bots running wild? This roundtable will be discussing the actions taken against botting and RMT, and what other things could be done in the fight against it."
Comment - Really, how can I miss this one?
17:00 - 19:00: CCP Presents (Tranquility) - "Find out from CEO Hilmar and his all-star guests about the future of EVE, DUST 514, and CCP. Please read the Keynote announcement in this brochure."
Comment - And at this I expect to see a new video debut. I was blown away last year and hope to see something special Saturday night.
20:00 - 02:00: Party At The Top Of The World
Comment - This is not my type of music so I probably won't stay until the end. But a couple of Eve Radio DJs (Hangedman and Saucy Miso) start playing in the lounge at 22:00 so I may slip in to listen live.
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