Advertisement

Dragon*Con 2009: Massively is in the house!

Krystalle Voecks
Contributor
Updated ·5 min read

It's that time of year again! For the next four days, the streets of Atlanta, GA will be transformed from a bustling downtown business center to prime acreage chock full of enormous nerd herds. With a handful of East coast writers, we here at Massively couldn't let all the geeky shenanigans - and MMO fun - go on without taking part. That's right, we have been invited back to participate for a third year as panelists and general party fiends at the MMO track.

On site this year to take part in the fun are Colin Seraphina Brennan, Shawn Schuster, Elizabeth Harper for both Massively and our sister-site, WoW.com, and myself. When we're not lending our professional hands to various things, we'll be catching up with guests, attendees, and generally scouting for anything that might send gamer geek hearts fluttering.

If you're also in Atlanta for this enormous pop-culture love-in and would like to catch up with the Massively crew, be sure to check out the listing behind the break for where we'll all be. Just remember there's tons of other great things going on for the MMO track, so be sure to check the pocket guide for a full schedule!


Friday:

  • 1:00 PM - Guild Wars (Athens Room, Sheraton) - Join Shawn and your fellow Guild Wars enthusiasts as you talk everything ArenaNet. We'd bet there's going to be some Guild Wars 2 talk as well.

  • 7:00 PM - Second Life (Athens Room, Sheraton) - Colin Seraphina Brennan will be there to lead discussion on Second Life and what it's like as a resident of the land that Linden built.

  • 8:30 PM - Global Agenda hands-on demo and LAN party in the Hilton Computer Lab, 3rd floor. Food and drink will be there too.

  • 10:00 PM - FunCon (Rooms A601 & A602 in the Marriott) - Funcom has welcomed the Massively staff to pop in, so be sure to pop by, say hello, and enjoy a night of Dragon*Con fun, by Crom.

Saturday:

  • 10:00 AM - Free to play/Freemium MMOs (Augusta Room, Sheraton) - Krystalle Voecks takes a look at some interesting games in the genre for players to check out.

  • 11:30 AM - Lord of the Rings Online (Athens Room, Sheraton) - Love LotRO? Come spend some time with Shawn of the Massive Hobbits and meet your fellow Tolkien (and Turbine) fans!

  • 1:00 PM - Best of MMO screenshots and videos (Capital Ballroom, Sheraton) - Last year we packed a room with people to enjoy some MMO schadenfreude and general hilarity. This year we've got the ballroom for folks to stretch out in as Krystalle takes us on a tour of some of the silly MMO screenshots and videos culled off the internets and sent in to us. (If you'd like to send along any funny MMO images, chat captures, or suggestions of videos for use in the panel, you're welcome to contribute! Email them to me at oneshots AT massively DOT com before 8:00 AM on Saturday.)

  • 2:30 PM - MMO Industry Roundtable (Athens Room, Sheraton) - Krystalle will act as moderator for this first-ever industry roundtable at Dragon*Con as we look at the current market and the trends shaping the future. This year's panelists include representatives from Cartoon Network Digital, CCP, Funcom, Hi-Rez Studios and Sony Online Entertainment.

  • 4:00 PM - Star Wars: The Old Republic (Athens Room, Sheraton) - Come join Krystalle for some rampant fanboy speculation about this upcoming title with your fellow Star Wars gamer geeks.

  • 5:30 PM - Guildie as Charged (Athens Room, Sheraton) - Colin Seraphina Brennan joins panelists Michael McGreevy and Trevor Legg for a look at what being a leader in a raiding guild is like. Mmm. Tasty drama and interpersonal conflicts, just like your ____ used to make.

  • 10:00 PM - Tournament of Azeroth (Capital Ballroom, Sheraton) - Elizabeth Harper will be there to represent WoW.com, partying down with Kevin Stallard, the D*C MMO track director at this year's World of Warcraft event. Come prepared to punt gnomes - literally.

Sunday:

  • 11:30 AM - Champions Online player gathering (Augusta Room, Sheraton) - Come join your fellow Champions Online players and our very own Colin Seraphina Brennan for a free-for-all panel on Cryptic's new game. (Gronn not included.)

  • 2:30 PM - Warhammer Online player gathering (Augusta Room, Sheraton) - Siege for Order or Destruction and hang out with your fellow WAAAGH players as Sera shares some insights gleaned from Games Day and beyond.

  • 5:30 PM - City of Heroes and Villains player gathering (Augusta Room, Sheraton) - Break out your best spandex and come meet your fellow Heroes and Villains. Sera will be on hand in case some player-run costume contests break out in the middle of this Atlas Park-like gathering.

  • 10:00 PM - SOE's Dragon*Con party (Capital Ballroom, Sheraton) - Join Sony Online Entertainment as they throw the party that has been unofficially dubbed "Fan Faire East". We'll be there to check out the festivities, so be sure to say hello!

Monday:

  • 11:30 AM - Post-MMOrtem survivor's gathering (Athens Room, Sheraton) - This is where the track gains another level. Come by to grats the DING! Memories will be shared, triumphs will be applauded, kvetches will be kvetched. Colin, Shawn and Krystalle will also be on hand to snag one last free cup of coffee before we get back to that pesky real-world MMO.

If you do drop by, feel free to say hello! We love to get out into the community and enjoy great times with people who share our passion for MMOs.