After a three- hour drive yesterday, I pulled in to The Anatole Hilton in Dallas, the site of this year’s QuakeCon. After quickly checking in, I took a self-guided tour to get a handle on my surroundings. This hotel is absolutely huge, as it should be. After all, it would take a huge venue to house something as colossal as QuakeCon, billed as the world’s premier multiplayer gaming event.
When I found the exhibition hall, I also found the LINE. Gamers had been camping out for hours for a chance to register their own computers for the event, and they and their assorted electronic gadgetry had been queued up in a long twisting line that ran the full length of the entrance to the hall. The sheer amount of computing power represented in this line boggled my mind. Although the wait was long, most made the best of it, some playing poker on the carpet, while others spontaneously organized the crowd into performing a stadium-style “wave.” It was clear these gamers were in for the long haul.
When I arrived this morning, the line was still there and, unbelievably, it was even longer. I was told by several QuakeCon volunteers that although they expected around 3,700 registered participants, it was looking to be more than twice that. I didn’t ask if all of these gamers would be accommodated, and honestly don’t see how they could.
Then I saw the hall itself. A picture, as they say, is worth a thousand words:
Each of those glowing lights is one computer, and this quick snapshot only caught a small fraction of what was in the hall.
Back at the Intel - Dell Extreme Gaming Tour truck, things have been hopping. The crowd is invited to take on various members of the PMSClan at different games for prizes, and every couple of hours PMSClan co-leader Athena gets volunteers to do “silly human tricks” for bags of goodies (seen below).
All in all, everyone is cutting loose and just having a good old Texas good time. I’ll be here through Sunday morning and posting video as I am able. Check back here later for more tidbits.