The 2008 Las Vegas Fan Faire
The fanfaire was great and followed a weekend in Denver for PhankPhest 08
All of the following images are in chronological order.
The Images!
Monday afternoon
Landing in Las Vegas. Picture taken out the window of the strip from across the city
Closer picture of the strip while landing
One last picture from the air of the Las Vegas strip
In the shuttle van from the airport to the Sahara I took a few pictures of the back sides of some strip casinos. The Excalibur
The Monte Carlo
New York New York
Some casino under construction
This was the view out of my window in the Sahara
Tuesday Morning
Looking down the monorail from Sahara station towards the Las Vegas Hilton where the Fan Faire was held
The Wynn and the Encore taken from the monorail
Big kitties in the MGM Grand!
Meow
Lioness trailing her fingers in the water lazily
The above lioness biting her brother's tail
Kitty butt
Lioness chasing the ball that the trainer just tossed
Trainer hugging one of the big kitties
The underside of one of the lions through dirty glass
The statue of liberty at New York New York
Looking up the strip from between MGM Grand and NYNY
The Paris
This was the first time that I had been in Vegas that the fountains at the Bellagio were NOT under maintenence
More fountains
Even more fountain shots
The finale of the fountain show, at noon
The last big burst
Dying down and the fountain heads receding back underwater
Wednsday morning
Hulkling arrived in vegas to split a room with me for the Fan Faire and immediately flopped on a bed.
Merloc infront of the Conrad ballroom on his way to help set up for the fan faire
The truck being unloaded into the Conrad room to setup for the fan faire
Merloc stuffing foam swords into bags
Some birds that got inside the convention center
The birds were pretty well camoflauged against the carpet
Things getting a little bit more set up for the convention
Jyve arrived, I called him by his real name 3 tmies and he never looked, I said Jyve once and immediately he responded
Dropping some things off in Jyve's room, hulkling catching every chance he got to sit down and relax
Winwin and Brasse
Brasse and myself ( Tharkis )
Misharu ... without any facial hair! along with Brasse. If I hadnt seen him from behind first, I probably wouldnt have recognized him.
Misharu and the King
Winwin wanted to pet Misharu's shaved head
Jyve, Winwin, Misharu, and Brasse at the space quest casino bar outside of Quarks
Winwin
Winwin, Jyve and Misharu, with Brasse in the background. Jyve was having some half smirnof ice half miller light drink
We got rickrolled by the casino on the big screens, just as Kendricke arrived, I blame him!
Kendricke introducing himself to some trekie
Kendricke, I forget, and Hulkling, the back of jyve's head, brasse's head, and Gethani's torso, not the best picture.
What Misharu would look like with long pink hair!
Brasse, Winwin and Jyve, also half of Gethani again
Hulkling and two whose names I forget
Jyve was doing some sort of dance on his back on the floor with no shoes...
Winwin couldnt resist getting into the pic
Jyve and Brasse
Misharu and other EQ and EQII players who showed up to party
Thursday morning
Misharu, way too early in the morning
Higgboth and his girlfriend who went as higgboth's shaman Wolf
Zieri and a mana potion
Ashlanne showing off her Hurburt the hamster shirt
Nuka, Alkaria, Misharu, Rynara, and Zieri
Misharu and Greblan
a big yoda, big froglok, and darth vader
Ashlanne says hi to Rynara, Alkaria, and Misharu
Brasse wearing a cape on her way to the massive gaming booth to work
Tnexus, player of the year
Steve Klug or Sklug, programmer for Everquest
Alkaria, Brenlo, and Nuka
The line (sorta) infront of us to get in for registration an hour before the doors opened
The line behind us... glad we were at the front
Somehow just before four the line infront of us got a whole lot bigger
Sklug, Gordo and Brenlo hyping up the crowd
Absor and Merloc
The flood gates opened at four and everyone herded to the registration line
Brenlo and Elidroth talking in the background
The line behind me as I waited for registration
The pile of swag bags for everyone, with tshirts in the middle
Danellyn working the booth for Gwydhar
The froglok standing in line to register, he wore his costume all weekend long
Myself along with AB and FV
More or less the same, the flash makes my camera odd to use for someone who's never used it before
Naylie and Ashlanne finding badges for Tnexus, whose badge was never printed
The registration line was still huge an hour later
Alkaria and Murryha
Huge EQ timeline poster that they had everyone signing where they started playing eq, the one at the far left is me, P4 beta
Gethani kept evading my camera so I had he stand still for a picture
There was this great little deli next to the sports book in the hilton, Tnexus and Hulkling having supper
View of the mountains outside of Vegas from the monorail station after having dropped off my swag bag in my room
Gwydhar working on a comission and Niami Denmother
The line outside the Barron room for the meet and great on the first night
Alkiaria ?? and Murryha from Safehaven, Nadev in the peach shirt in the background
The line for the meet and great wrapped around the room
Really bad picture of people filing into the banquet room, my camera chose to focus on the guy in the foreground
Sobe's cuz (AKA Sobe's b!tch) and Sobewiz
Zatozia, always too happy and nice to really be a torturess
We didnt have a name tag for our table so Zatozia claimed it for herself
Gloriana and Jyve
Brenlo getting some chants of S O E from the crowd
The EQII Dev team sat together at a table and put up the label EQII Beastlord Development Table on it
Brenlo had a bunch of people go up and do their best riverdance to get a prize
The winner was the guy in the green shirt, forgot his name, he got a nice pair of headphones
Fouey... train incomming !
Nallaana and Sobewiz
TR representing! Nallanna, Sobewiz, Higgboth, and Fouey
Prathun behind Absor, Zatozia to the right, the back of Rhatiz in the white shirt and Sklug to the left
Nodyin, Zatozia, Prathun, and Wycca sitting at the table
Terry, Kheibik and Rytan
It wasnt a blue screen of death, but this star trek slot machine crashed!
Elidroth and Nodyin
Nodyin's wife, Jen, had a cute nametag, Mrs. Nodyin
Gathered at the Space Quest bar the second night in a row, Nodyin and Hulkling in the foreground, Terry and Prathun talking with Kheibik in the background
EQ players took over the bar because for some odd reason Quarks closes wicked early
Wyora and Golgren
Prathun and Wyora
Wycca with Niami in the background
Wyora and Golgren again
Rytan, Prathun, April, Terry, and the back of Wyora
The same people, but a much better picture
Elidroth and Rhatiz ( Harvey is the last leezurd on the dev team now that Zajeer is gone! )
Elidroth gets a face full of lemon trying to squeze the huge slice into his corona
Merloc and Elidroth, wycca and Prathun in the background
Elidroth and Rytan, Prathun in the background
Someone dropped a glass on the ground, Niami saves people from potential sliced feet
Merloc and Wyora
Hulkling and Rhatiz doing some shot called a red headed slut, peach schnapps, Jagermeister, and cranberry juice
Prathun and Niami
The party finally gets started, Jose arrived !
I think this was another round of red headed sluts
Saroc finally made it long after registration was closed due to delayed flights, but he brought last year's badge
Friday morning
The uber secret community leader summit. Duno and Wycca, Absor, Rytan, Merloc and Ngreth
Terry, Nodyin, two people I dont know, and Wycca
Waring, Jyve, Tulisin, and Sklug
Rytan, Duno, Wycca, and Absor
Saroc made it having just picked up his new tag
Terry, Rytan, Rhatiz, Nodyin, Duno, Wycca, Absor and Prathun
Absor, Prathun, Nodyin, Maddoc, Ngreth, Sklug, and Merloc
Tnexus and myself presented Nodyin with a USMC tartan kilt to both thank him for his service in the marines and because he keeps calling them skirts. Tnexus and myself wore our kilts that day.
Zoyna from luclin just made it... he doesnt quite look the same without kitty ears and a tail
Alkaria, Nuka, Nevaran, and Murryha hanging out
Zieri and Tnexus back at the sports book deli
Gwydhar working on a commsion of two vah shir characters
Myself and Brasse. Brasse agreed, real men do wear kilts!
Elidroth and Absor
Setting up for the first EQ Mechanics pannel
Sobewiz and his death stare
Myself (Tharkis), elidroth in the background
Jyve and his digital whine-o-meter, Wycca was working on the manual one
Ngreth, Rytan, Prathun and Maddoc
The Whine-O-Meter 3.0
People lining up to ask questions from the devs
The line got big really fast, and they had to limit everyone to just one quick question
Chanaluss made it to represent the iksar empire for players
Meahlana was representing for us luclin shaman all the way from Germany with her cool wolf head hat =) Chanaluss and Hulkling in the foreground
Prathun, Absor, Nodyin and Elidroth
The same but without the hand in the foreground messing hte picture up
Saroc asking a question
Elidroth doing a facepalm after Merloc said that degulid is a good option if you want to use another guild's guild banner
Everyone laughing at Merloc's answer as he hands the microphone back, they were reluctant to give it back to him after that
Higgboth asking a question
The same but without the fuzzyness
Myself and Tnexus showing our celtic pride
The last EQ pannel of the day before Smed's address
The EQ dev team listening to some really weird questions
Free Beer! While we were waiting to get in for Smed's address they were giving out free beer (if you can call MGD beer)
I forget her name, but her guildmates were complaining that they couldnt get any pictures of her when she kept hiding from cameras
Everyone piling up for Smed's address
TV crews were there from PBS interviewing people
The line sorta went in a spiral, which didnt work so well when the doors opened
More people mingling
Tom Delzer talking with some others
Ashlanne and Momochi
The stage for Smedly's address
Everone filing into the room for the community address
Someone got the wave going
Brenlo introducing Smedly
Brenlo tried to get a "flashbulb" wave going across the room with everyone's cameras
People came out and started chucking Tshirts at the audiance
A pair of shirts in the air, somehow i not only managed to take this picture, but i caught one of the shirts too
Smed
Recap video of the Living Legacy promotion
Clint Worley talking about Living Legacy and introducing the newest EQ expansion in the works
Seeds of Destruction
Just missed a good picture of something that I forget now
Bruce Economy introducing the new EQII expansion
Classic EQ dungeons making a reapperance in EQII including Guk
The box art for the new EQII expansion
The new announcment of Zam for EQII
A supprise for everyone in attendance!
Demonstrating the new SWG Cardgame
SWG Loot cards
DCUO producer and director presenting a demo of their game
Wes Yanagi on the mic and Jens Andersen getting hte computer ready
Jens' character
Tulisin and Chanaluss are GIRLS? ... the Tshirt says it so it must be!
Free Realms demo with Laralyn McWilliams
The Free Realms mascot
Grimwell handing out wristbands for people who forgot theirs
Getting on the bus for the fan faire offsite event
Someone commented, "are we supposed to be seeing pretty colors already before we've been to the open bar?"
Kendricke making trouble as usual!
More people piling on the bus
Kheibik got stuck just missing out on our bus and had to wait for hte next one with others
I tried to get some pictures of the strip at night from the east
This one came out a bit better, but without the flash everything sort of blurred together
The back of Ballys
A few experiments trying to cover the flash but leaving it on for the faster shutter speed didnt work out well
this one REALLY didnt work out well
We arrived after almost 30 minutes at the Las Vegas Sports Center
Disembarking from the bus
Elidroth inside, just about to go hunt down some food
the main gym floor became the stage for the live band kareoke
The band was just getting started and people were lining up for free drinks
Tnexus, Waring and Zieri
The rock climbing wall at the sports center
Pool tables, arcades and air hockey, what more could we ask for (in addition to the free drinks that is)
Sklug getting a drink, and to the right the frog without his head !
Murryha, Nadev and Nuka
Alkaria and Murryha
Nevaren made it for the weekend thankfully since he was down in pheonix for some work just before the fan faire
Zatozia, smiling as ever
Nevaren made it up the wall in record time, I almost missed it entierly
Nadev on the other hand was a whole lot slower, so i had plenty of time to get pictures
Tnexus, Zatozia, Gnorbin, Waring and Zieri
Gnorbin
Sklug
The go cart racing track... what better activity to do with an open bar... but to drink and drive !
Gamers racing eachother on the fairly large sized track, with teh strip in the background
Ashlanne was taking a ton of pictures
Ashlanne attacking Tnexus with an action figure arm chop
This picture didnt quite come out, but the airport was right next door and planes were taking off right over the sport center
A bunch of the guides drinking together with Misharu at the head of the table
Jyve suffering the agony of defeat as his girlfriend whooped him in air hockey
Nevaran looking like a deer stuck in headlights, Tufflehunder to the left
Kheibik
Nadev giving Moonlight / Breave / Sharon (whichever she choses to go by) a hard time, Nuka Alkaria and Zatozia looking on
Smed singing Welcome to the Jungle
People partying on the dance floor while Smed sings
Prathun and Waring
Brasse doing what dwarves do best and having a cold one
Brenlo singing, not sure why this came out so hazy
Brenlo breaking it down
Kytherea
People partying
Tnexus and Tom
Sobewiz and his deathstare, he never smiles on camera if he can help it !
Fouey and Mrs Fouey
Make that Auroarra, Fouey's druid alt =)
Tnexus panicing as he realizes that with Fouey there... a train is shortly behind
Danellyn and Gwydhar
Terry and Jen
Jen, Terry and April
Alkaria and Nuka start on their water bottles while Brenlo and Zatozia chat
I think Nuka was trying to hide behind his water bottle?
Nevaren and Zatozia
Golgren and Wyora playing pool
Fricka from the Safehouse
the "VIP" area, where the only difference was, more places to sit and popcorn on the tables
Leaving the party back to the hotel... to party!
Cramming into the bus for the ride home...not even the same bus, but it still has the funky colors that the other one had
Brenlo greeting everyone as they got back from the sports center
A quick stop in Tnexus's room before hitting the suite that Waring had to party
Zieri and Waring relaxing as others arrive
Wana pet my sporran? ... Well, she did !
I see yoru schwartz is as big as mine
Zieri, Wycca, Wyora Golgren and the back of Tnexus
I figured out why Nodyin kept calling my kilt a skirt, he didnt know how to wear a kilt. It's on backwards here but he's wearing it !
A picture of Tnexus, Nodyin and myself before Nodyin went to correct the backwards kilt, a suprisingly common mistake for people who havent worn one before
Tnexus and Nodyin with the kilt on properly
Tnexus Nodyin and myself again, real men wear kilts!
Prathun forgot to pick up Apples to Apples on the way to the party
Terry, Jen and April behind Nodyin
Prathun returns with Apples to Apples
What has become a fan faire tradition, apples to apples after a night of drinking
this game was a lot smaller than the last one with only 13 of us playing
Jen was so neat about laying the cards down when judging them
I forget what the adjective was, scary i think, but Terry narrowed it down to Kilts and Weddings
Kilts won, for which i had to thwap Terry in the back of the head
More apples to apples
even more apples to apples
And yet more apples to apples
Unfortunately this card that I played only got 2nd and didnt win the hand... how can pirates not win when the adjective is Dangerous!
Elidroth arrived fashionably late but waring decided to step infront of my camera just as I took the picture
This time without waring's head
Nodyin and Elidroth, Jen, Terry and April in the foreground
At this point, we were playing to four cards and like five of us each had 3, it was also around 4am so people were ready for bed
Prathun cheats, he always wins !
group photos, trying to center it and use the timer function
This one was more centered but half of us werent smiling
This is the best one, Elidroth made it into this one. Back to front left to right, Wycca, Hulkling, Golgren, Wyora, Waring Tnexus, Nodyin, Elidroth, Terry, April, Tharkis, Zieri, Prathun
Saturday Morning
The early 10am living legacy feedback forum, I was suprised to see Elidroth there after we didnt get to bed till nearing 5am
Mostly the pannel was marketing with just a few devs and CR people
Zatozia, someone in EQ marketing, and Elidroth
Rytan showed up more than half way through the pannel
The community relations pannel
Handing the mic to me is a dangerous thing!
Brenlo answering a question
There were not many people in the pannel
Sobewiz, Higgboth, Wolf, Auroarra and Fouey
Higgboth, Wolf, Myself, Auroarra, and Fouey
The Matrox TrippleHead2Go demo was awsome, i want to get one now
I told Misharu that he must be from vanguard, because he had no tail
Tnexus and Zieri in Quarks for lunch
The main room in Quarks
Some Warp Core Breaches
Siene and Gloriana
Gloriana's a blinker so we took two pitucres to be safe
The last EQ Mechanics pannel
The DCUO demonstration booth
My camera focused on the matrox in the background, but it was supposed to be looking at the monitor names, they were 3x samsung syncmaster 920NW monitors
Nadev and Nuka hiding under his hat
Nadev got a shirt from the Safe House
This year the safe haven game of choice moved from Guitar Hero 2 to Rock Band
Wyrrykk, one of the few safe haven SWG players, dont ask me how to prounounce his name i duno
Teufelhunden got himself thrown out of the champaign brunch so was going to take a dip in the pool
He jumped infront of my camera when i was taking a picture of someone else, neibuse i think
Irish car bombs in the works
Safe Haven people hanging out
The EQ Expansion pannel
this pannel got quite full
How many EQ devs does it take to fix a projector?
Not quite visible in this picture, but half the geometry wasnt displaying right... we could tell it was a live demo !
Chanaluss asks a question about Trakanon's head
Ack, a dark elf!
Lilith's corpse, walking around, bouncing about, and saying hi to everyone
Higgboth, Wolf, and Sobewiz hanging out for the last pannel on Mercenaries
Sklug, Maddoc, Rytan, Nodyin and Prathun, demonstrating mercenaries in EQ
A very fuzzy Sklug
A much clearer Sklug leading the discussion on mercenaries
Nodyin and Rytan grouping up with their mercenaries
Sklug and Maddoc
Absor Sklug and Maddoc
Higgoboth blinking
People hoarding the EQ devs after the mercenary pannel with questions
The SoE gameroom
Fuzzy picture of Lilith's corpse, FV and AB
Louie and Qberskies, formerly of Stormhammer
The line starting to form for the supper saturday night
Neibuse, Murryha, Nuka, Nevaren, and Alkaria
Tiviona and Keewi
Joodah
The supper line spreading out behind us
Joodah and Wyrrykk almost could have been twin brothers... but werent even related
Inside for the 'grand banquet'
Nallanna blinking
Sobewiz and Sobescuz brought their own beers
The line for food
Brenlo getting people up on stage to do strange stuff for prizes
The Safe Haven table
A repeat of last year's "Lets get big guys to squeze into tiny pink women's tshirts" event
They played suggestive music and had each guy do a strip tease taking their shirt off
Some people danced far too long without their shirts on
How these shirts didnt tear in half, i'll never know
Teufelhunden got a pair of headphones and decided he liked the shirt so much he wore it hte rest of the night
The costume contest finallists
The packed banquet hall
Teufelhunden in his new favorite shirt
A bad picture of one of the winning LoN challenge photographs
Rytan, Tnexus and Jose in quarks with warpcore breaches
The bright green Borg Sphere
The bar closes wicked early so they made everyone get their drinks in plastic cups to go, Rhatiz in the background
People milling about infront of Quarks
Merloc along with Lilith's corpse and someone else
Back to Waring's room to party away some of the night, Waring, Sobewiz and Hulkling
Meahlana with her cool wolf hat again =)
This year we didnt have the bathtub full of beer, but the mini-bar sink full instead
Zieri and Jyve
Saroc, Fouey and Mrs Fouey
The safe haven rockband party
Nuka and Alkaria relaxing as others wail and jam
Jose, Tnexus and Rhatiz just before some went to find more food
Zatozia and Jyve
Waring, Tufelhunden and Hulkling
Tufelhunden's friend was the first of the evening (and only one) to pass out
We were more polite with passed out people this year, no writing on people's forheads or propping them up with blowup love dolls
He wasnt totally out of it!
I bet he's going to feel this one in the morning
Sobe getting aonother drink
More fun with passed out people
This was where it got not fun, shutting someone in the wall fold-out-bed when they're passed out was a little too far
which didnt stop me from taking pictures of it
He slid down to the pillows and mumbled alot but everything was ok
"he's alive!"
Tufelhunden thought it looked fun so had waring shut him in the wall too
two thumbs up, they should make it a ride at disney
The party moved down to the casino where a lot of people were playing blackjack
Jen, Absor, Rytan, and Rhatiz. Absor cashed out while he was ahead
the "Scenic" elevator, which wasnt very photo friendly
Jen, Prathun and Merloc in the elevator
Harvey curled up to sleep, Merloc closing the shades
Jen assassinating Prathun with a foam pirate dagger
Prathun, April, Jen and Jose in Terry's room where we finished off the last of a bottle of tequilla
It was past 4am and we were all hungry, thankfully there was a 24 hour caffe, April, Terry and Jose look on.
April, Terry and Jose, who looks like he was tring to bite Terry's nipple
Jose comments on Terry's hair
Terry does fifty pushups... why? because he can!
Jen, Prathun, April, Terry, Jose, and Zatozia, enjoying a good breakfast at 4:30 am
Sunday Morning
For no particular reason, i ended up waking up at 10am after going to bed at 6am. I just caught Jyve as he was leaving
Nodyin's tshirt was great, cowboys do suck!
Nallanaa playing some early morning slots on sunday
Someone decked out the statue of the King with flowers
Inside the men's restroom in the Hilton, the pictures were cute
Prathun had a great tshirt too
Nodyin Prathun and myself
Saroc, Zonya and Meahlana and myself got together to wander up and down the strip
On the monorail to go to the MGM and see the kitties
Kitties!
A much better picture of the kitties
Lions are just like housecats, only 1000 times the size
Lazy cats
That's gota be a cool job to work with lions all day
We went over to the New York New York to rid the rollercoaster there
The rollercoaster, they made me put my camera in a locker before the ride though
Having just got off the rollercoaster, mixed feelings, it was a fun ride, but not worth the 14$ to get on
Inside the Paris hotell and Casino
Saroc and Zoyna watching the fountains at Bellagio
The fountains going again
Lunch! I was very scared when i got the lobster chowder in a bread bowl when i saw the color, but it was infact real chowder. Tomatoes have no buisness ever being near something called chowder
The circular escalator in the Cesar Forums
Treasure Island
Others wanted pictures of TI as well
Aristo didnt make it to the fan faire, but we found he was there in absentee... in the fashion mall!
A fountain and waterfall at the Venetian and Pallazo
Saroc and Meahlana rest infront of the fountain
This is why you should use refrigerated vending machines in vegas, so your cans of soda dont burst in the heat
Maddoc and Gloriana hung around an extra day so they could see Cirque Du Solei
I ran into Alkaria and Nuka again before I went back to the Sahara to get some sleep... good thing too! They had an extra ticket to see Terry Fator
The monorail
Waiting in line for Terry Fator
Terry Fator on stage
Our seats were in the back which made getting a good picture not that easy
the "Live" dummy was the best
Monday morning
Leaving Las Vegas, from the plane looking at the strip from the south
Another pic from the air, you can see the luxor in this one
This picture came out better than any of the rest from the air I think from a distance
Since we circled over the city i took a few zoomed in shots from the air
The strip seems so small when you're in the air, the buildings are so huge that it's deceptive
I thought this was a good picture of the Excalibur
This pitrue puts more into perspective how big the strip is compared to normal city blocks
Zoomed in so that you could see how small a city block was
The zoomed out view
More vegas from the air
The strip from the north
Due north of the strip in the air, showing the airport too
I was trying to get a good picture of the vegas hilton from the air... and realized as i took this shot that the hilton was off to the left and not in it
The hilton is in the center of this photo
I wouldnt like to be one of the people living so close to the airport if I lived in vegas
My last picture of the Vegas strip before we got too far away
Heading towards the Grand Canyon
The Grand Canyon from the air
More of the grand canyon
A good shot with the grand canyon and the clouds
Providence RI just before landing, This was the clearest photo that I got
As always, send corrections to tharkisREMOVE@REMOVEgmail.com (yes, get rid of the two REMOVE it's a normal gmail account)