For those of you who like to fill these things out in advance (and we LOVE you for that!), we’ve made available a copy of the World of Warcraft Costume Contest sign up form. Feel free to fill it out ahead of time and bring it with you before the contest on Saturday.
There aren’t many TV shows about people who play MMOs, and usually when those shows have characters that do, we all cringe when they blurt out nonsensical dialog clearly written by someone who hasn’t spent a single minute in a virtual world. But that’s what makes The Guild so different. In addition to being hilarious, the show is also written by one of us. Now wrapping up a 5th successful season, The Guild is a bona fide hit and Internet sensation. Creator and star of the show Felicia Day (Codex) came to Dragon*Con two years ago, and last year we were graced with the presence of Jeff Lewis (Vork) and Sandeep Parikh (Zaboo). This year Felicia Day returns and is joined by Robin Thorsen (Clara), Amy Okuda (Tinkerballa) and Wil Wheaton (Fawkes).
We’ll be doing two The Guild Q&A sessions with the cast this year. The first is on Friday at 1 PM in the Grand Ballroom of the Sheraton hotel, with Robin, Amy and Wil doing the question answering. Saturday’s 2:30 PM session, also in the Grand Ballroom, will feature Robin, Amy and Felicia.
On Sunday, in the Atlanta Ballroom room, starting at 10 PM and going until we are finished (and then maybe starting over again from the beginning), we’ll be screening entire seasons of The Guild in our Watch The Guild Marathon. Come and see them again, or see what you’ve been missing as we watch Cyd Sherman and the Knights of Good deal with life both in and out of game.
It almost goes without saying that Blizzard’s World of Warcraft is a part of the MMO Track at Dragon*Con. It has the most fans, and being a fan driven con… well… But the question isn’t if WoW will be represented, it’s how.
If you love the lore of the World of Warcraft or if you just like stories, songs and laughter, then you won’t want to miss Chad and Megan Tindale of Lessons In Lore (and members of our very own staff) lay down the beats. It begins on Friday the 2nd at 11:30 AM in the Savannah room of the Sheraton hotel with WoW Lore 101, an irreverent look at the history of the world (of Warcraft). Return on Saturday the 3rd to the Savannah room at 1 PM for the History of the Alliance as our loremasters present the tale told with the fairness and balance that you would expect from the mighty Horde. And on Sunday the 4th, still in the Savannah room at 2:30 PM, hear the Tales from the Horde, courtesy of the Alliance News Network. Trust me, you won’t want to miss any one of these three panels.
Have you been playing WoW with all the wrong addons? Do you even know what the right addons are? Addons? What are those? Luckily for you, we’ve got a panel with experts ckknight and Chad Tindale just salivating waiting to impress you with their knowledge of all the things you need to have that Blizzard refuses to add into the default interface. Come and see what all the fuss is about in All About Addons in the Savannah room on Sunday the 4th at 11:30 AM.
Now that you’ve got your addons squared away, maybe it’s time you learned how to chew bubble gum and kick ass. Monday the 5th in the Savannah room at 11:30 AM Andrew Patton is all out of bubble gum, so he’s left with showing you how to do the other part, or at least showing you the tools that can help. He wants to help you with Setting Yourself Up to Win. Be there!
But perhaps celebrating WoW isn’t your style. Perhaps you would rather lambaste it instead. Well, come to the Savannah room on Friday the 2nd at 7 PM and join in on What’s Wrong With WoW! You play, you know you do, and clearly you know better how to fix every thing broken in the game better than Blizzard, so come and put your mouth where you money is and be heard (by people with absolutely no influence over the game what so ever)!
Enough about the game… what about the socializing? Saturday is a big day for WoW on the MMO Track, beyond other panels listed above, the afternoon kicks into high gear with the World of Warcraft Costume Contest at 4 PM in the Marriott hotel, rooms A601-A602 (on the same level as the bar – I’m sure you know where THAT is, right?). Sure, Dragon*Con is full of costumes, everywhere, and there are easily a half dozen costume contests, but this one is just for WoW. Come and see people show off their Azerothian Finery for our celebrity judges and win prizes! ckknight, Oxhorn, and The Guild’s Robin Thorsen & Amy Okuda will preside. Once the winners have been crowned, hightail it over to the Capitol Ballroom in the Sheraton for our 
World of Warcraft Meet and Greet: The Darkmoon Faire! Come and play carnival-style games for fun and prizes, and enjoy live entertainment from ckknight, Oxhorn, and the MMO Track staff. The faire begins at 7 PM and runs for two and half hours, but the fun doesn’t end there. We might be packing up our games, and opening out doors to the rest of the MMOs that aren’t made by Blizzard, but the prizes won’t stop as we slide right into the Gathering of Heroes track party. From 10 PM until they shut us down we’ll be spinning and oontzing into the wee hours.
Of course this is just the WoW-centric parts of the track, and we are so much more than WoW. Be sure to check out all our programming and stop by our party on Saturday night. See you there!
While Dragon*Con is far from being an Industry event, we have managed to wrangle a few visitors from various game companies to come and talk to you about their games.
Artix Entertainment kicks off the weekend on Friday at 2:30 PM in the Savannah room of the Sheraton. The AQ Worlds Meet and Greet is full of goodies, sing-alongs and more. It promises to be a blast.
At 5:30 PM on Friday, also in Savannah, Zack “Jick” Johnson, Josh “Mr. Skullhead” Nite and Kevin Simmons will be on hand to talk about their journey from hobby to profession with their home-grown satirical browser-based MMO at the Kingdom of Loathing Q&A. An adventure is you!
Over in the Piedmont room, at 7 PM Friday, Sony Online Entertainment takes over to talk with you for the DC Universe Online Meet and Greet. Linda “Brasse” Carlson, Tony “RadarX” Jones and Ted “Mepps” Stone will share the secrets of being a superhero and other information about the game. At 8:30 PM, they’ll open the floor for all of SOE’s stable of games for a Sony Online Entertainment Meet and Greet. EverQuest, EQ II, Vanguard, Planetside, Pirates of the Burning Sea, Free Realms and more. Come and see what they have to say about all the worlds they run.
Atlanta locals Hi-Rez studios will be here as well. First on Saturday at 1 PM in the Piedmont for a little Global Agenda Meet and Greet. On Sunday, they’ll return to the Piedmont room at 1 PM as Hi-Rez Studios Presents their upcoming releases. Come and see the preview.
On Saturday at 4 PM in the Savannah room, CCP will be hosting a CCP Games Meet and Greet where you can speak with the Ned Coker and Oscar Garza about EVE Online, the forthcoming Dust 514, and the eagerly anticipated World of Darkness MMO.
Also on Saturday in the Savannah room at 5:40 PM will be the Star Wars Combine Meet and Greet. Come and talk about one of the longest running Star Wars MMO’s out there. Sure, BioWare might have a game on the horizon, and these people aren’t technically a game studio, but this one is made for fans, by fans. Come and share in the love.
So I lied. I’m not going to wait until Sunday. Here’s your dang schedule! (You will also notice that there is a new tab on the main menu above… same thing.) Or course, we have schedules ready to go in iCal and XML formats so that you can import them into the digital assistant of your choice.
This schedule is unofficial until Dragon*Con releases the official track schedule. What does that mean to you? It means that this schedule can (and in at least one instance, probably will) change. As of this moment, this is the schedule that is in Dragon*Con’s database.
Since the pocket program only allows Twitter-sized (150 characters or less) descriptions of our panels, here is a little more information on some of our events that isn’t self-explanitory from the title of the panel.
and finally…
If you’re not already stoked about Dragon*Con this year, check your pulse.