Fanfest 2014 - The Day Before

Yesterday was my fourth day in Reykjavik, so while a lot of people were getting acclimatized to Iceland or excited at the newness, I pretty much relaxed all day.  I had breakfast, wrote for a bit and then went downstairs to join with what is turning into the daily morning EVE chat.  While we were gathered, the final industry dev blog came out.  That resulted in a dramatic reading from Neville Smit, with people interrupting with their opinions.  After reading or listening to all six of the dev blogs I'm not sure that low sec doesn't come out taking the heaviest nerfs, but we still have the Fanfest presentations to attend for additional information.

Afterwards I met Diana Dial of EveTimeCode.com for a bit of lunch.  I grabbed the peanut chicken soup instead of tomato soup because I figured why not try something new.  Let's just say that I liked the conversation a lot more than the soup.  But if I don't try something, how can I say I won't really like it?  Unless it has coconuts in it.  I hate coconuts.

I learned a couple of things talking to Diana.  The recent negative news hasn't hurt her business because of the bitcoin broker she deals with.  "Bitcoin?" I hear you ask.  That's right, going to her site means you can actually pay for your game time using bitcoin.  I think Eve Time Code is the only site offering to take a crypto-currency in exchange for game time codes.  Also, she told me that her business is better when PLEX goes for around 400-500 million ISK.  That's counterintuitive, as I would think that people would more likely purchase when the price of PLEX is at 700 million ISK because players would get more ISK for the real life buck.

Afterwards, I returned to my room and actually went through the schedule to figure out what I want to see.  The schedule doesn't have very many holes in it for me.  I do see that the schedule was rearranged so that the CSM panel is no longer opposite the Industry panel, but I still have no plans to attend the CSM panel.  CCP Dolan so pissed me off at last year's panel that I'll just skip the probable aggravation he'll conjure up.  I have a new rule.  If CCP Dolan is involved, I'm not going.  I'm trying to avoid disrupting the good feeling I've enjoyed since landing in Iceland on Sunday.

I got down to the lobby around 4pm and met up with the group going to the unveiling of the monument.  Among those in the group was Les Johnson.  Les gave a talk at EVE Vegas and so impressed CCP that they invited him to reprise his talk on Saturday.  Les is a science and science-fiction writer who works for NASA.  I talked with Les while we walked to the monument site and learned a few things about technology and what is possible.  While we were walking his wife was trying to track down the location of a one-man show, "How to Become Icelandic in 60 Minutes."  I hope she found it because I hear the show's pretty good.

Hilmar listening to artist Sigurður Guðmundsson

I'd never attended the unveiling of a statue before.  Not really impressive.  A speech by Hilmar, another by the artist, and a third by the mayor of Reykjavik.  For those not familiar with the history of CCP, Jon Gnarr is a comedian who played the granny in The Danger Game, the game that helped kick off the funding for EVE Online.  Something tells me that what I witnessed is not a typical statue unveiling.  But then again, do Icelanders do anything like the rest of the world?  I think they'd change their ways if they ever discovered they did.

Is giving the mayor a knife really wise?

I definitely didn't dress warm enough for the ceremony.  I had another layer in my room, but the temperature dropped so fast I got fooled.  I think that contributed to a rundown feeling when I got back to the hotel.  Either that or staying up late blogging the night before.  Either way, I thought I'd take a quick nap before going to the Celtic Cross for the Tweetfleet meetup.  Quick nap?  Right.  I woke up at 10pm.  By the time I was up and about, I found a line to get into the bar.  Even with a warmer jacket, I didn't feel like standing in the cold.  I wandered around for a bit and decided to just grab a sub from Hlölla Bátar and go back to the hotel.

Taking a nap wasn't the best thing for trying to sleep at a normal time, so I wound up back down in the lobby talking with Kelduum, Bairfhionn, and Gaylen.  Gaylen and I finally went to our rooms around 1am.  Needless to say, I still wasn't ready for sleep, which resulted in my finishing this blog post before breakfast.

This is probably the last day I publish two blog posts.  The schedule is pretty full and I don't plan on having enough time to write as much as I have in the first part of the week.  I might publish on the weekend since Fanfest is a special occasion, otherwise I'll finish up the Fanfest posts next week.  Of course, the news coming out of Fanfest will provide fodder for posts for weeks to come.