Thursday, February 17, 2000

TOCAATT Announcement - [6:37 PM PST] - Cali Girl
TOCAATT (Taunting One Company At A Time Tour) is doing a major redesign. Here are the full details:

Have you ever wanted to ask the big boys in the gaming community a question? Have you always wanted to know why a game company released a certain game? Do you wanna know whats coming next from your favorite company? Well, nows your chance! On top of our upcoming redesign, we`re also going on a tour of many of the communities biggest companies. We`re going to let you ask the questions, thats right, you call the shots! We`ll be in Cali for a week and heres our itinerary- Monday we`ll be hitting Tecmo and Interplay. Tuesday will be Saitek and THQ. Wednesday will be Sega and Eidos. Thursday will be Infogrames and Capcom. Friday will be Gravis and S3. We`ve also got some suprises coming so make sure to check the site everyday. You never know what company could be added next. So, if you`ve got a question and you want an answer, swing on by www.gamersplayground.com and submit it!

Wednesday, February 9, 2000

Alliegance Chat - [1:15 AM PST] - Cali Girl
Microsoft is holding a chat for Alliegance which will be held today, February 9 at 6:00pm PST (9.00PM EDT). The Lead developers from Microsoft Research will be in the Zone Theater Chat Room to talk about Allegiance. Soon to be released, Allegiance combines furious space combat with the social challenge of squadron-based combat in a stunning 3D universe. To participate in the Allegiance chat, click "Chat & Events" on the navigation bar across the top of any Zone page, and then click "Chat Rooms" and "Zone Theater Chat" in the room list.

Sunday, January 30, 2000

AOK Tournament Matches - [9:56 PM PST] - Cali Girl
Mr Fixit Online's EWO DM Tourney has begun with 170 participants! Recorded games of every match will be posted as they are played! Also, a comprehensive beginner guide to the first five minutes of a DeathMatch game (called "Survival" :) has been posted with detailed explainations and a sample recorded DM Frank opening. This article will show you how to stay alive at the beginning of a DM game!

Nox Event: Feb 5th! - [9:39 PM PST] - Cali Girl
Westwood Studios announced that The Meet Nox Tour's next stop will be held in Pomona, California at the IceLan Gamecenter on Saturday, February 5th, from 3 to 7 p.m. The event will give 50 gamers a chance to play Nox two weeks before the game is available worldwide at a full range of retail stores and online e-commerce sites. Further details can be found at WestwoodNews.com.

Thursday, January 27, 2000

Gamescon Cancelled - [5:01 PM PST] - Cali Girl
Gamescon, Game Show for Gamers has been cancelled. Here is a letter from the President of GamesCon, Mark Chandler:

It is with a sad and heavy heart that I announce that GamesCon in the Bay Area is cancelled and that GamesCon has decided close it's doors.

Why?

The reasons are many, but the killing blow for the event was having three of our Corporate sponsors all pull out in a matter of a few days during the last week or so. Other factors that contributed to this were due to the fact that sales were slow for the event. Unfortunately we have no choice but to throw the towel into the ring and accept the fact that our ideas and concepts will never be fully realized. Despite the fact that the PC and Video Games Industry very much wanted this event to occur (a Game Show for Gamers), and felt it was something that was needed to help expand the market, the support in sales was not there to make an event like this a reality. The sales we were looking for were not exuberant at all, in fact the event was going to cost a typical company about 50-100 times less than what they would be spending at E3.

When I started this venture, we decided to set our goals to make this happen within two years and to use a large amount of personal financing to make this happen. The two years are now up and the financing is all gone. Without the financial support of the industry the dream can no longer survive on it's own.

There are many people I have to thank for helping us along the way, and some I must apologize to.

Apologies first.

Torsten Opperman at Computec Media, publishers of Incite PC/Video Games, who believed enough in us and the concept to give us a full double page ad in the upcoming issues of the aforementioned print magazines. In turn, Incite was our Official Media Sponsor for the event and had first right of refusal for the next event planned in New York at the end of the summer. It was turning out to be a great partnership. The concept behind Incite is very much like the concept of GamesCon, create a games medium for the Mass Market, get more people to play games and expand the market even more.

"Torsten, I am so sorry that I was not able to make this happen, I will have to repay you greatly in some form or another for all you have done in helping us."

Now for the thanks I must give.

I have to thank the GamesCon Advisory Board, they were fully behind us every step of the way and going so far beyond the call of duty that I was amazed, almost perplexed, many times by their actions and help.

In case you are not aware of the Advisory Board Members, here they are its current incarnation.

Brian Bruning - 3dfx Interactive Director - Third Party Applications
Chris Charla - Next Generation Magazine Editor-in-Chief
Ed Fries - Microsoft Corporation General Manager - Games
Peter Molyneux - Lionhead Studios President/Game Designer
Dave Perry Shiny Entertainment - President/Game Designer
Chris Taylor - Gas Powered Games President/Game Designer
Andre Vrignaud - Intel Gaming Evangelist
John Romero - Ion Storm Game - Designer, Chairman

Again, thank you all, the Advisory Board provided us with input, advice, help, and were a true believer in our vision and us.

There are some past Advisory Board members I have to mention also, as well as some personal friends that were helping us in many ways.

Dave "Zoid" Kirsch id Software
Scott Miller 3dRealms
Richard "Levelord" Gray Ritual Entertainment
Stephen "Blue" Heaslip Bluesnews
Jason Rubinstein Past Intel Games Evalgelist
Brett Schnepf Microsoft
Marc Saltzman Journalist

And of course the GamesCon Staff;

Derek Ferkranus
Rick Lund-Pedersen
Brian Kallion
Glen Chandler
And lastly
Haig Tossounian, our "Suit"

These above people dedicated their time and skills to make GamesCon a success, they worked long unbearable hours at each of our shows and followed me without question down the long path GamesCon has taken.

Thank you very much guys, again I will have to make this up to you.

Someone else will pick up the dream of GamesCon, I have no doubt about that, the opportunity is just too great to be ignored. But, I will not be the one to make it happen, but I feel I did my part in the evangelizing of the concept to every person I ever met in the industry, and that number is easily in the 3000 people range.

And thank you to all the gamers out there that supported our past events and us, without you we would be nothing.

We tried our best..............

P.S. I will be looking for full time employment within the industry now, any and all opportunities will be considered. Please send me email with any positions you might have open where you feel my talents would be put to good use, my strengths are strongest within the Evangelism/PR area.

Mark Chandler - mark@gamescon.com
el Presidente - GamesCon Inc.

Tuesday, January 25, 2000

CPL Razer Event - [1:01 PM PST] - Cali Girl
According to Avault, CPL has launched the website for the upcoming Razer-CPL Event, in Dallas, Texas - USA. Online registration will be up February 1st. Everyone planning to attend must register, as the event will have limited space. Razer-CPL is a 24 hour, four-day event scheduled for Friday, April 13, 2000 through Sunday, April 16, 2000. The website has complete details on the prizes and location, with information on the schedule and exhibitors coming soon. A public forum has also been launched and is filling up with messages from people anticipating the $100,000 tournament.

Flash Contest - [1:01 PM PST] - Cali Girl
Think you can make good some good Flash movies? The Clan Network is holding an interesting Flash movie contest. You can win a Voodoo 3 Card. The movie has to be about a death scene in either Quake 3 or some of the other action related games mentioned at their contest page.

GotApex Contest - [8:42 AM PST] - Cali Girl
GotApex.com has announced that they are giving away in combination with theirr sponsors: Aureal, Best Data, Activision, Enhanced Memory Systems over $2000 in prizes. The prizes are:

• 2 Aureal SQ3500 Turbos(retail $199)
• SQ2500 Quad PCI
• Best Data Cabo Mp3 Player 64MB (retail $239.00)
• Theatrix Dolby Digital 5.1 sound card
• EMS 128MB HSDRAM
• Activision Quake 3 special edition tin box version and hats

The Grand prize to the winner of the Quake III Arena Tournament 2000 a 19' Sony Trinitron Multiscan 420gs. You don't have to play in the tournament to win.

Friday, January 21, 2000

XSi Quake 3 Tourney Coverage - [8:27 PM PST] - Cali Girl
EuroGamer's coverage of the XSi Quake 3 tourney in Stockholm has kicked off with some background information on the competition and the twelve top international Quakers taking part in it, as well as a report on the first day in Sweden and the warm-ups.

The final results of the XSi qualifying round are now up on EuroGamer's news page, and a full frag by frag report on the three map match between Makaveli and Sweden's DOOMer is also available as part of our on-going coverage of the event. Full reports on several of the other qualifier games will be up on the site early tomorrow, so keep your browser pointed this way for all the latest news!

Delta Force 2 Ladder Opens - [2:05 PM PST] - Cali Girl
The Xtreme Gaming League would like to announce that they have opened one of the first Delta Force 2 Gaming Ladder's. Check out the site for further details.

Wednesday, January 19, 2000

AOK Tournament News - [6:22 PM PST] - Cali Girl
Some great new content is now on-line at MrFixitOnline including:

• A detailed primer on Artificial Intelligence in AoK by Pharaon
• Calculating the "Real Cost" of Resources by Council_of_Elders
• Pre-Castle Costs Data Table by Council_of_Elders

The DM Tourney is still allowing sign ups, with $500 in prize money and over 110 people signed up (of all levels), come over and join up today! You can also see who is currently signed up and their DM skill level.