the net raiders

All right folks, Day 1 is over and was mostly spent feeling out how the show was going to go down. We arrived about an hour before the show began and all got into the ridiculously long line that was waiting for us. Thankfully there was forms of entertainment available, up towards the front there was a large screen that had some text chat going on, and videos to try and engage the crowd. This was helpful, and gave you a good idea of how a lot of the show was going to go – lots of waiting in line.

Once they opened the doors and we were let in, you immediately realized the sheer size of things here. We wandered around for about 5 minutes just seeing what was there, and then decided to go to our first panel. The Bonus Round was being taped live and we got to check it out. This was pretty interesting panel that allowed us to get a kind of “behind the scenes” look at how these are made.

Afterward, we ventured through the Main Expo hall and started to try and play some of the games there. The lines weren’t bad on games not coming out this year. Except in the case of Blizzard games. There was only about 2 or 3 people standing behind a computer, but the demos seemed to go on for a good 25 to 30 minutes – or maybe until the person playing got tired of the demo. All in all, I never felt like it was overly difficult to get a chance to play a game. The games coming out this year had some of the larger lines, but you wouldn’t have to wait longer than 30 to 45 minutes.

I can’t say the same for panels. As time progressed we found that it was considerably difficult to get into panels. We arrived at 2 different panels 30 minutes before and didn’t get into either of them. We soon learned that you’d have to arrive a good 45 minutes to an hour before the panel if you wanted a seat. All in all though there is a decent amount of stuff going on at a time to make the large amount of people in attendance not feel so overwhelming. Plenty of tournaments, PC freeplay, console freeplay, and tabletop action to keep you busy.

As you might have gathered this community is full of people who are all the way into video games. If you are into games, this is the place for you to be.