Since Entropia Universe is coming to the GO3 expo in Perth, Western Australia, this coming weekend (August 1-3), and since Southern Fortress Engineering is becoming heavily involved with it, I thought it only natural to blog a bit on the subject. I've never "blogged" before, so let me know if I'm n00bing out on you!

The story so far...


Jim (EwoK Morris) noticed the ambassador thread in Entropia Forum about a month ago and we all went off our respective trolleys at the realisation that our humble city, the most isolated capital city on the planet, would be host to a visit from EU.

The six ambassadors from Australia had been chosen at this point, and we can't wait to meet them! They are:

Ozi
Missa
xaph
Bagman
Deathifier
Nightwolf

In addition to that, John K Bates (Mindark PR) (JKB) and his lovely partner Carmen planned to set up camp in our city for a little while, to make the whole event happen.

I immediately jumped on the idea, and Justin|Mindark put me in touch with JKB, who gave us some ideas for how we could get involved. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank JKB for being so open to our assistance and allowing us to be involved. This is very exciting for us, having such wonderful people come to our city, and we want to make sure everyone has a really good time.

Niko (Vantastic Holm), being the talented graphic designer that he is, whipped up some stubby holders that are badged with both SFE and EU insignia, to hand out to lucky people at the expo.

Niko also had some shirts made for us at SFE. We've been wanting our own real life uniform for quite some time, and this was the perfect excuse, so we decided to go for it. Can't wait to get some photos up!


On Thursday last week, John and Carmen arrived at the airport. Luckily, Jim and I were waiting at the airport in our SFE uniform, so John was immediately able to recognise us! We gave them a brief tour of Perth, including Kings Park, and dropped them at their accommodation, complete with travel plans for the south-west. We've since also passed on a list of media contacts for the event, that we think should be contacted in Perth. John and Carmen are lovely people, and it was a real pleasure to meet them. I'd urge as many people as possible to come and say hi while the expo is on. You won't be disappointed.

On Thursday this coming week, we plan to meet John, Carmen, and the ambassadors at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre to assist with the setup, and hopefully after that we'll have the opportunity to spend some time together over a meal, and get to all know each other a little better.

On Thursday night Hawkwing, the final SFE member, arrives by plane from Adelaide to receive his mission brief from me, and join the festivities!

From Friday, it's full steam ahead at the booth. SFE's aim is to help Mindark create a presence there, and to have as much fun as possible. According to the website, the expo runs from:
10am - 8pm on Friday
10am - 6pm on Saturday
10am - 6pm on Sunday

I haven't got much more to add now, but I'll be posting back here regularly with news as and when I have it. Please feel free to share your thoughts and ask questions, if you have any!

Wow, all seems very organized and glad to see that.

You have traversed some ground there, and quite a representation of welcoming MA official attendee's
All for the good of the cause and making our guest comfortable in WA ...I'd love to be there to assist.
Superb to show a welcoming by Aussies... absolutely a great example.
Regards to all
Xaph

Things have progressed since my last post.

John K Bates called me today, looking for a pair of blue snakeskin shoes! I suppose he thought since I'm a local I might know these kinds of things, but I had to admit I've never looked for blue snakeskin shoes. We'll sort him out though.

Jim picked up Deathifier (sorry David, I keep forgetting you're a real person, I'm sure it will sink in when I finally get to meet you!!) from the Perth Airport today, and as I write, I have just missed a call from Jim, probably to tell me they've finished setting up the booth at the Perth Expo and Exhibition Centre.

As I understand it, most, if not all of the crew (Ambassadors) are now in Perth, ready to go for tomorrow, and the plan is to go out for dinner together tonight, to get to know each other a bit better. I'll need to leave at 9pm to go collect Hawkwing from the airport, and at this stage I don't know whether the festivities will still be going by the time I get him back into town. If not, he'll get to meet everyone tomorrow.

I've handed out mission briefs to each of the guys from SFE now (except Hawkwing who'll get his when he steps off the plane tonight), explaining our goal at the expo of getting to know as many other Aussies as possible, and of making this whole expo as fun and memorable as possible.

At this stage it looks like there might be official expo drinks on the Saturday night, so it looks like Sunday night might be the night for UNofficial drinks.

NO SLEEPS TO GO!!!

WOOT!!!

Tomorrow I need to stay in the office (I also run a business IRL and walking away on Friday ain't exactly helpful for my customers!), but EwoK, Vantastic and Hawkwing will all be helping out at the expo. I'll hopefully get there around 5pm, for the last three hours of the day. I'll post an update if I get the chance tomorrow night, on the day's festivities. If you're lucky, we might even have some photos to show you!

Well, it's been go go go since my last post!

Last night I picked Niko (Vantastic) up and we went into town together, where Jim (EwoK) and the Ambassadors had just finished setting up the booth. We meet them, as well as John and Carmen, at a restaurant in Northbridge called "The Greek".

There were 11 of us all up, and the service was fantastic! We enjoyed a fantastic dinner, and it was a great opportunity to start talking to people, and getting to know them.

I was at one end of the table, talking to Missa, ozi, Nightwolf and Deathifier, while Niko and Jim were at the other end of the table, talking to John, Carmen, xaph and Bagman!

It was completely surreal to be introduced to these people. I know I wasn't the only one being completely freaked out by the concept that these virtual universe characters had suddenly taken on a reality I had never really given too much consideration to. I kept saying, "Deathif... DAVID, sorry!"

I have to say, it was a real pleasure to meet everyone. We are spending time with a fantastic group of people, and we've been having an absolute ball already. We all had common ground to start from - EU, and we all just hit it off right from the start. I can tell it's going to be an awesome weekend.

I left at 10 for the airport to pick up Hawkwing, and it's a good thing too, because that was enough to break up the party and make sure everyone got a good night's sleep before the 12 hour shift on the booth today.

SFE met up and had breakfast together this morning - which is awesome in itself, to have all four of us in one place at once! - and then the other three went to the Expo while I came back to work.

I just spoke to Jim on the phone about an hour ago, and he said that the West Australian Newspaper, ABC, and a couple of other media people had already interviewed them, and that Channel 10 was apparently on its way too. He also says there are heaps of people there, and it's going off. I can't wait to get in there after work for the last few hours of the day - it finishes at 8pm tonight.

SFE is having it's AGM tonight at my place - I've got a financial report to hand down to the other members - so I probably won't get to blog again until sometime on Saturday.

If you are in Perth, please get down here and say hi to people! I can honestly say it has already added a whole new dimension to EU for me, and I can't wait to get stuck into virtual reality with the new friends I've just made IRL! We'd all be stoked for people from EU to walk up to the booth and introduce themselves. You've got till 8pm tonight, or 10-6 on Sat and Sun.

Looking forward to seeing you soon!

Nice post.

But I'm wondering.. What is being displayed at the Entropia booth.

Are they showing off the new CryEngine2 based version of the Game? Or still the same version we have now.

Hi Kakkoiii, thanks for registering

They are demonstrating the current version of Entropia and focusing on the possibilities that EU has to offer for players. The CryEngine2 has been mentioned but its not the focal point of any conversations.

I thought I'd get back here sooner but there's been so much happening!!!!

All four of us at SFE are having the time of our lives.

It's an incredible feeling to look back over the last 12 months, and think to myself:

12 months ago I dreamed of having a business in EU, and started talking to a few of my mates about it. I got EwoK, Vantastic and Hawkwing on board with the idea and we have been working day in, day out, at constructing a business model that works, and creating something on the verge of tangible, in a virtual universe that took me two hours to explain to my dad (and that was only the tip of the iceberg!).

One month ago, I heard about the GO3 expo, and that Mindark was bringing EU to Perth. SFE proceeded to go off our collective trolleys with excitement, and then got down to business. We sent out the feelers, and pretty soon showed MA that we were serious about doing whatever we could to make this thing a real time to remember.

Over the last few days, my dream, our business, and the entire virtual community of which we're all a part has suddenly taken on a whole new dimension. It's become a true reality.

I no longer feel inclined to turn the conversation away from this nerdier part of my life when people ask about it. Now I want to tell them. Now I want them to understand why it makes so much sense to me. This is an actual, tangible, real part of my life, and I'm making friends that are actual people.

The other thing is that I believe SFE is living proof that it's possible to run a business in a virtual universe, and that the people I'm meeting are living proof that it's a damn good place to invest! I have talked to a lot of people, both in and out of EU, about the future of the concept of a virtual universe, and I'm excited about where this is headed.

The fact is that Mindark is investing heavily in making sure that EU is cutting edge, and that there is solid extensive history that the model works. To me, it's inescapable that this is only going to get bigger and better - if not on the back of the concept and quality of the game alone, then because of the people behind it, and the quality of the community.



Back to the blog of events:

By the time I arrived on Friday evening after RL work, the boys were all busting to tell me everything, about all the people they'd met, and about how well received the concept of a virtual universe is to the public. There are so many people just walking up, saying wow, having a go at one of our avatars, walking away with an installation disk and an SFE stubby holder, and eventually walking away, only to come back and watch again half an hour later! We're personally noticing more hits to our website and our forum, and I'm sure Mindark is noticing the same thing.

Yesterday (Saturday) was absolutely packed with people. You couldn't walk at normal pace for more than about 1 metre, so the atmosphere was electric. It's pretty awesome standing around watching Ozi and Missa hunt together in Shadow too, by the way!

Bagman (Russell)'s penchant for being a practical joker is becoming a highlight of the expo (especially towards John, the Mindark Representative, who has now officially experienced some Australian). Xaph's been awesome company, and has been showing a lot of people (including us) some great places to hunt. Nightwolf's quiet and unassuming nature makes him an easy person to get along with, and having shared a drink with Deathifier last night, I can say he's taller than I expected, and a bloody nice guy!

By the end of the day, we were all exhausted, but a bunch of people from the expo went across the road to the bar anyway, and as you can see from the PHOTOS in Mindstar9's youtube post in the expo thread on EF (http://www.entropiaforum.com/forums/min ... -a-19.html), we had a great time catching up!

What a whirlwind to stand and have a beer with the likes of Deathifier, xaph, Nightwolf, Ozi, Missa, Bagman, my damn good pals from SFE, John from Mindark and his gorgeous partner Carmen!

I'm going back now to join in the fun again, and if you're lucky we'll get some more info up on the net tonight - otherwise it will be during the course of the week.

Thanks for reading! I'd welcome everyone's comments. Let's make this place even more of a reality!

Crikey! It was great to meet ya all, Hope to see you all again come GO3 2009

yer it was a real blast getting to know everyone.

I'm sure i speak for all the boys when i say we've come away from the expo with a new vigour and fresh ideas. Having our fist AGM over the course of the Expo put a bit of extra pressure on but we've got new direction and ideas abound.

I'm sure you'll all be hearing from us soon and i can assure you that MA will certainly be as we have a few recommendations/suggestions of our own for them having experienced the expo from the inside, so to speak.