You may see this plastered somewhere around the convention. When I tell you that we can always use creative talent, this is why. I actually had to do this bit of photoshoppery myself.
- 65+ hours of programming…
- 43 events…
- 23 MMORPG’s (and counting…)
- 9 ballroom events…
- 9 game development companies (we’re not done yet…)
- 6 parties…
- 2 best-selling authors…
- 1 amazingly cool geek celebrity gamer babe…
- a live action quest that lasts all weekend…
- …and a charity event that we’re gonna make you bleed for. (Relax, it’s part of the blood drive.)
That’s what we have in place so far for the MMO track this year. More importantly, we’re not done yet.
We’ve got a few more commitments to nail down. Once we submit the final schedule to the powers that be, we’ll post an unofficial schedule here. Once the schedule is made official, we’ll have links to iCal and XML files so you can put the entire weekend of events in your phone or PDA. Why? Because we’re geeks, and we love our toys too.
Stay tuned, folks. We’re only a couple more months away.
Just got word today that Leonard Nimoy is going to be appearing at Dragon*Con. I’m not one of those guys who would walk up to him and call him Spock all day long, but I don’t think it is a stretch to say that Mr. Nimoy, and Star Trek, has had a profound influence on my life. I also think it is reasonable to say that without Star Trek, there would be no fan conventions, especially not ones like Dragon*Con, as we know them.
And since a little birdie told me that Cryptic has expressed interest in participating in Dragon*Con this year, and that they are working on a certain new game that is relevant to this article, there is a better than average chance that I am going to at least ASK to have Mr. Nimoy participate in one of our panels. If I’m feeling really brave (crazy), I’ll see if he is interested in singing the Ballad of Bilbo Baggins at our Lord of the Rings Online panel. (Memo to staff: I’m joking. And if I ever seriously suggest this idea, you are authorized to beat me senseless.)
Feb 262009
I’ve had a few e-mails and messages on this subject, so I thought I’d go ahead and throw this out there.
Yes, we have a staff slot open on the Dragon*Con MMO team. If you want to know what volunteers do at Dragon*Con, you can read this. Unfortunately, this is just the tip of the iceberg for the MMO team.
Being in the MMO group is a year-round gig. We start planning next year’s convention about 2 weeks after the end of Dragon*Con each year. What will you be doing?
Do you blog? Can you write well? That’s a start. You’re going to be participating in discussions on forums and blogs all over the Internet.
Obviously, you’ll need to be up-to-date on the latest and greatest MMO’s out there. If you “play WoW sometimes”, that’s not going to cut it… Ideally, you will have played 4 or 5 MMO’s and know enough about others to carry on a conversation without sounding like a total noob. We are especially looking for folks who play Lord of the Rings Online, EVE Online, Warhammer: Age of Reckoning, or Guild Wars.
Do you know people in the gaming industry? If I told you to get in touch with a Community Relations rep at Flying Lab, would you have the foggiest idea who to call, or what game I’m referring to?
Oh yeah, you’ll also need to work your 20 hours at the convention. None of the year round stuff counts towards your 20 hours of time at the convention itself. (We had one staff member who worked over 60, that’s why we’re looking for more help.) We’re going to need you to be bright-eyed and bushy tailed, even if you get scheduled for a 10:00 AM panel the night after working a party until 4:00 AM. What’s more, you’re going to be dealing with game industry professionals, so you are going to have to be able to act like a professional yourself.
Here are some of the other skills that would come in handy in our group.
- Photoshoppery
- Designing your own graphics
- Familiarity with Youtube and Flickr (You’ll be searching for videos and pictures a lot)
- Public speaking (yeah, you might have to work a crowd…)
- Willing to bring (and use) your own laptop to Dragon*Con
If you’re just looking for a place to work 20 easy hours in order to get a free badge, we’re sorry, but we can’t use you. We do most of our meetings throughout the year in Ventrilo, so you don’t have to be local to the Atlanta area. If you don’t have all of the things I listed above, but are willing to work like hell to learn how to do those things, that’ll work too. It’s a fun job, but it’s definitely a job. If you’re interested in working with us, drop us a line with your name and contact information and we’ll be in touch. Ideally, we’d like to have the last spot filled by the time the staff meeting rolls around in March.
-Grim
