by Moorgard on 2001-06-17
FanFaire landed in Minneapolis on Friday and Saturday, June 15-16, 2001. It was the first I'd ever attended, and I must admit I had some reservations. Despite the fact that Minneapolis is the Mobhunter headquarters and as such we wouldn't need to pay the $99/night price for a hotel room, there was still the matter of the $85 attendance fee for what might have ended up being nothing more than a Trekkie convention for the technologically inclined. Did I really want to see the 300-pound sweaty men who play all the wood elf druids we're all so enamored with?Thankfully, what Csenicier and I found at FanFaire was that there are a lot of cool people who play EverQuest. Lots of them. And believe it or not, there are some real women who play the game who are hot. Ladies, why are you spending your time behind the keyboard?
| The official FanFaire welcome banner. |
FanFaire was held in the lovely Marriot Hotel in downtown Minneapolis. The city's skyline served as the perfect (albeit sometimes a bit rainy) backdrop for the event, which got underway Friday night. I'll spare you the boring pictures of long lines to get into the registration room. Suffice it to say that Csenicier and I stood around a while and soaked up some of the atmosphere as people excitedly donned their nametags and got a look around.
 | A view of the hotel interior. |
Verant made attempts to remind attendees that we were indeed in their world now, as evidenced by the signs at the entrance and exit to the store area.
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The store area itself featured mousepads, action figures, t-shirts, pins for each race and class, shot glasses, and many other little trinkets. On Saturday Keith Parkinson had a table selling prints of his artwork (he does the box art for all EQ products). Memory maker PNY, one of the sponsors of the show, had a booth peddling their new line of video cards, including a GeForce 3 card--which you will all be buying very soon (more on this later).
 | The EverQuest store. |
And what FanFaire would be complete without your chance to get a picture taken with the lovely Firiona Vie? You could select a backdrop to be added via computer and receive a print for $10. I opted to take a picture myself for free.
 | Hubba hubba!!! |
The first night was basically registration followed by an informal reception that offered cheese, crackers, and the chance to buy a glass of draft beer for $5. Ouch. Atendees hooked up with other players from their servers and got to know one another in person. Csenicier and I were no exception, as we hooked up with a bunch of fellow players from our home server of Xev.
 | The reception hall. |
After 10pm the serving staff kicked us out and we were on our own to find something to do. Many people lingered in the lounge area, while others of us headed upstairs to enjoy coolers full of malted alchoholic beverages (at least until hotel security kicked us out--but that's a story you don't get to hear).
Suffice it to say that the first night was a blast, and many people partied til the wee hours of the morning and barely got any sleep before the meat of the convention on Saturday.
Want to hear about all the juicy tidbits learned about EverQuest in general and Luclin in particular? Then check out Part 2 of our FanFaire coverage.
Don't you just love cliffhangers?