Feldon Linda “Brasse” Carlson has taken to Facebook to provide an update on some key points regarding this year’s SOE Live event in Las Vegas.
Confirmed: increased area of grand ballroom to accommodate 150 more Premium Passes. We will sell tickets online right up to event time (unless we sell out).
Confirmed: hotel has “increased nodes” in ballroom in an attempt to improve smart phone access – to be tested at the event! Initial tests by staff are positive, but huge numbers of people do weird things to cell reception.
Confirmed: Player Got Talent auditions to be accepted SOON – as in tomorrow. Start practising!
Confirmed: International attendees CAN participate in our awesome game tournaments this year!
Confirmed: EverQuest players lead the pack of 1542 people registered with 520 attendees, well in advance of second place EQII with 392.
Confirmed: Dead Carpet event, the Zombie Prom Party – we WILL have a zombie-themed drink special. I hope it does not contain gross lumpy or chunky bits.
WHUT ARE YE WAITIN’ FER? RETWEET THIS & SIGN UP NOW! ;-)#
https://www.soe.com/soelive
Better Cell Phone Service?
Last year’s cell phone reception on the show floor was absolutely atrocious, amounting to a media blackout. This was not just an inconvenience for attendees. It cut off diehard players, fansites, and media who were all trying to Blog, Tweet, and post on Facebook on the most important weekend of SOE’s year. We were preventing us from getting the word out about EQNext, Landmark, Planetside 2, and SOE’s other properties. We’re cautiously hopeful that are happy to see a mention that cell phone service may be improved this year.
WHUT ARE YE WAITIN’ FER? RETWEET THIS & SIGN UP NOW! HER DERP
It’d be much easier for them to include wifi for guests and set up the bandwidth to handle it. I really wouldn’t bank on 4g sustained speeds, but I’m hopeful I’ll be surprised. I wonder who their primary carrier is. I need a travel sim.
Planet Hollywood charges SOE absolutely exorbitant fees for the Wifi and hard-wired internet they were using during the event and it still wasn’t enough last year. Getting enough for everyone is not gonna happen. What I asked for was for them to contract with AT&T or someone else to bring out a mobile booster truck. AT&T charges about $500 for a weekend for this service.
A media blackout is purposeful censorship. What is decribed here is a lack of adequate resources. Calling this a media blackout is akin to calling a hotel buffett that ran out of food a famine.
Like in 2012 (the last time they had the convention at Bally’s) and they ran out of food before many people sat down . . . not that you could call what they gave us, “Food.” . . . I’ve thrown out more edible food than what they gave us that year. And that food WAS purposeful . . .
Famine? No . . . GTFO because we’re fed up with this convention . . . possibly. We don’t care about service anymore because the world is becoming more and more apathetic . . . most likely.
Food last year was quite good and plentiful. Food the last year at Bally’s was cold hamburgers, hot dogs, and chicken wings. Just atrocious quality.
I did use the phrase “amounted to”.
I am not really sure why you pointed out your use of the phrase “amounted to”. Using the phrase “amounted to” means you are equating the lack of cell phone reception to a media blackout. The use of the words “media blackout” in the context of the described events is pure hyperbole, histrionic and misleading. You are implying to the reader that the lack of cell phone service was a purposeful move on SOE’s part.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_blackout
What bad cell phone service? 😛
Feldon
I work for AT&T and In the division that has the mobile wireless trucks that we deploy to large venues. I’ll see if I can pass the idea along to the right folks and see if we can get something to come of it