The Official SOE Live 2012 Feedback Thread

[OldDirtyGamer]

This was my first SOE-related event that didn't tie into anything else (either Game Developer Conference or E3). It was great to not only attend but participate as a panelist. I would gladly do this again, any time or any place. I was disappointed that there was maybe not enough publicity directed towards the DCUO crowd as many didn't hear many details about the event until closer to mid-September and therefore didn't commit to attending. This year's meet-the-devs was brilliant and, because of the low number of attendees for DCUO as opposed to either Planetside 2 or EverQuest, access to the team was stellar. I truly enjoyed being able to meet and simply talk to the people behind the game and any time this can be arranged in the future, count me in.

As was covered before, there was very little DC-related merchandise available and maybe a little sub-licensing deal could be made either with WB-direct or one of their distributors to ensure that more stuff will be available the next time around. Sadly, this meant that a lot of my extra spending money really didn't get spent the way I'd have liked. Still, I was able to purchase some prints from the artists you had on-site including Larry Elmore which was really, really cool.

Although I'd asked in advance, I don't think I was fully understood when I asked about access to PS3 online for DCUO. The only consoles which were available for online were the two in the DCUO corner of the exhibit hall space and those were strictly for display. While the dev team was kind enough to allow me to log in for a few minutes, there was no chance to log in on my PS3 to update many of the players who couldn't make the event on what was going on day to day with panels and late-breaking news from the showroom floor. Also, I missed our regular raids because I didn't have the access I though I would. More disappointing, actually, was that the in-hotel internet was incredibly poor -- I paid 1 evening at their $14.95 price but wound up using my personal, tethered internet from my cell phone because it was significantly faster. Even if I would have brought my own PS3 (which was something I deeply considered), I would not have been able to play the game consistently in my room. If there is one thing that was a knock on the hotel, it was that and I hope that if SOE Live remains there that this issue can be brought up to the catering team to see if they have a solution in place.

All of the panels were great although I missed one of them (the DCUO raids panel) because my panel (Guilds and Leagues) ran concurrent with it. Fortunately, I was able to meet with the devs after the fact to compare and share notes so ultimately there was no lasting harm done aside from not being able to physically be at the panel. If there were one gripe it was that the hotel didn't have proper signage up and misdirected one of the official panels (The Next Big Thing panel) from one side of the hotel to another only to find out it was supposed to be in its original room and that the space was being shared with another event after hours. Ultimately it cost the panel maybe about 10-15 minutes of its running time.

Overall, I had a tremendous time. While I wished there was more to do, it was far better to meet other gamers and learn more about SOE in general as my original belief was that they were strictly the EverQuest company with DCUO being more of an aberration than the norm. I met some really cool people, learned a great deal about the commitment SOE has towards all their games and look forward to the next one.

Cheers!

[SOE-Brasse]

Thank you one and all for your tremendous and constructive feedback. Now it's time to join the Official 2013 thread!

[Turns the key in the lock for 2012 - that's SO last year!]

;-)#

Brasse