Vegas Sells Out
CCP Fozzie left us a love note earlier in the month, both to remind us that Eve Vegas is around the corner and that it might already be too late to get in on the fun as tickets for just about everything are already sold out.
This year promises to be the same giant affair that has become the expected norm for the Sin City event. This year’s festivities are being run out of the LINQ hotel and convention center on the strip near Caesar’s Palace. Near being a relative term when you are talking about Vegas strip hotels of course.
If you haven’t previously attended, I highly recommend making the time and spending the money to go at least once. It is a solid three days of drinking and spaceships. The Bar-crawl which ends with riding the giant Ferris wheel is a personal favorite of mine and is not to be missed.
There is a bit of mixing of event items from past years in that the dinner is the first night and mixed in with the traditional pub crawl, as opposed to being on the second night as part of the nightclub banquet. So, the usual second night 3-D’s (Dinner, Drinking, and Dancing) club event is now down to 2 D’s. This time the club hosting the event is Drai’s which appears to be either part of or closely affiliated with the LINQ. Personally, I most enjoyed the club night at the Rio, for its overlook views while getting wasted on Quafe and other consumables.
A third, and very cool, event has been scheduled in the form of a charity screening of Blade Runner 2049. The costs being picked up by CCP and the proceeds going to The AbleGamers Charity. Of the three extracurricular events, this is the one that still has some tickets remaining for, and that I most wish I could attend.
The event schedules have now been posted and CCP plans to stream all of the big events and news as they hold them.
The Loot
One item I didn’t mention, and another cool reason to go to Vegas in the first place, is the SWAG. Attendees always come away with a ton of cool goodies for both their in-game experience as well as home and desk items. However, this year CCP has done something else that is pretty cool. In addition to the annual T-shirts, the desk statues, and ship skins, CCP has invited in-game organizations to contribute to the swag bags.
Player groups have been encouraged to bring their pins, patches, stickers and other logo-merch to Vegas. They have always done this at every large Eve meet. This time though, CCP wants the organizations to drop the stacks of goods with CCP staff and volunteers so that the merch can be distributed via official channels.
On this, I am of two minds. On the one hand, it is very cool for the stickers, mugs, and patches to get wide distribution as it was pretty cool stuff a lot of the time. I looked forward to getting my hands on a few cool nick knacks through the course of the drinking…err the convention. But at the same time, it feels a little like CCP is trying to steal a bit of the credit for the time and effort those organizations put into creating their own merchandise.
Still, I think that overall the smaller organizations will come out ahead for being able (and encouraged) to bring items which will get their names out to a wide audience. For all the details, read this and reach out to GreyGal or join the Discord linked in the announcement.
Conclusion
To underscore what I said earlier, f you haven’t made the time to go to Eve Vegas you really should if you can. It really is worth the bit of expense and time to go. As I have said in other pieces, the thing that makes Eve special and really holds players to the game is the bonds that this horrible game makes us form between each other.
Even if you are an anti-blue donut solo for life pilot, go to Eve Vegas and meet some of the people that you have read about. Shake the Mittani’s hand, or PGL, or even Fozzie’s. Make those bonds, share your stories and have those glorious geek moments that are only possible when we meet in the really real world. It is worth it.
