Rage 2007, my thoughts and opinions

[Jimmwyrm]

This year was my 1st time at Rage, not only as an exhibitor but just as a visitor to.

I have been to a few other local events, and thus far, nothing i have been to has compared to Rage, i was genuinely impressed.

Ok, highs and lows:

Highs:


The people that came round to the Praxis Comics stall, asked questions, showed me their own work, and bought stuff, you guys were all great, and thanks for the support.

Getting to talk shop With Reilly Brown over at Animeworx.

Catching one of the "Play" ninja's off guard :D

Buying Halo 3 Legendary Edition.

Drawing a few commisions for people at the show.


Lows:

My boss's phone got swiped while we were all busy with various customers and interested parties.

Kids who kept trying to swipe posters and comics... good flipping grief, i had no idea there were so many klepto's...

The smack talk from guys that think they're better artists (seriously, if you think you're better than me, go draw your own comic, good for you, but until then shuttit)

The smelly people... oh man... barf!

And lastly, for some really strange reason, on saturday, some fool decided it would be a good idea to start handing out those fekking vukuzela (spelling???!!) things, oh my god...
Ok, from an exhibitor, and visitor stand-point, that was the most annoying thing to deal with, and if one more jock tried to blow the thing in my face...


All that aside, i had a great time, and im looking forward to next year. Thanks to all that were involved with the organisation of the event, you guys did an awesome job.

[Chronic]

the vuvuzel's were horrid i will admit. I know the gamers at the intel stand were on the verge of wrapping them around the spectators neck. Arena 77 lost many valuable items and I am to scared to ask what Intel's list of lost things are too. A few gamers mouse pads were stolen as well as their mice.

i heard of 5 ppl being mugged on the way out (brand new xbox's and screen cards and such)
and i had a ton of ppl demanding "free stuff" NOW NOW NOW. which upset me quite a bit.

generally it was a good event, and i know alot of people really enjoyed it.

what i did liek was the way all the stand vendors helped the other stand vendors out as much as they could. it was great to see so many ppl caring for others

[Jimmwyrm]

I almost got mugged leaving on saterday... in the exhibitors parking...

[-Bouncer-]

Wow thats kwite bad. I enjoyed the expo alot. It was my first time there. I just HATED THAT DAMN VUVUZELA CRAP!!! I mean wtf made them decide to give those things out? Sigh....

[Miktar]

I almost got mugged leaving on saterday... in the exhibitors parking...

You need to communicate that to the event organizers, so that a point can be made of avoiding such things next year, please.

[Jimmwyrm]

Will do, at the time i was just a bit stunned :\
I'll get Jen to talk to them regarding that, she organised our stall, so she has all the appropriate contact details.

[NeoN]

I almost got mugged leaving on saterday... in the exhibitors parking...

OMW! That's rough. "almost", I take it you ran out of bubble-gum... and just kicked a$$. ;)

Seriously though, had no idea stealing was going on. Spent almost all of my time LaN-ing DotA or running around looking for my DotA opponent - for the 1v1 comp, ;D Walked out with what I walked in - oh, add some aching body parts. ;D

Did check the expo, loved Assassins Creed, looked so awesome. The only Halo 3 gaming I saw was a few dudes jamming it up high, did not get a good view. :/ AWX was as busy as ever on Saturday, glad I went there on Friday. ^_^ The announcer dude shouting "*mumble* *mumble* Wiiii!!!!" every now and then had me in stitches. Played on the Wii at a buddy's a while back so no highlight there - was good to see the reaction of some of the random peeps as they were checing it out.

Only grip was the spiking in the LaN network, although only from time to time.

And of course, was awesome to put some faces to nick's.

[no_fear]

haha,after awhile i wanted to kick that announcer with the "WIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII" was sooo annoying.but otherwise it was great, and the vuvuzelas got a bit much after awhile too

[meth0s]

rAge was awesome!!! Yeh the WIIIIII guiy was kwite f***ing annoying, and those vuvuzelas ZOMG i'd kill those bastardo's if I wasn't so busy pwning ;) hahaha!! Was great fun, definitely going again next year, oh and LOL got bruises from sleeping on the tiled floors :/ but was worth the 150km drive!! Almost mugged?? Why weren't you? Thats bad, and whats with the dude who got in without the wristband that stole a mouse saturday evening?? Common guys what was the security doing?? having a wank around the corner :/

[-Bouncer-]

I almost got mugged leaving on saterday... in the exhibitors parking...

They really should have made the security a bit better. They don't even search you or you bags when you come in.

[BattleMoose]

I had all my bags checked when i came in & out. And generally was very impressed with the security inside the dome. Outside is apparently a different issue. With over 15 million rands worth of equipment (rough underestimate), the security outside should have been alot better. Alot better.

In fact you could call it downright shocking, that exhibitors nearly got mugged and some ppl did.

[ShadowOrphan]

As with most things in life, because rAge has now become somewhat “famous” it will start to attract undesirables. I will make sure to highlight this issue so that it may be better addressed.

[Jimmwyrm]

My own little story...

I had run back inside to check if we had forgot anything at our stall, and lo and behold, found our lockbox under the table... long story.

Anyways, it was a bit late, most of the exhibitors had left, and the announcers were asking that the rest of us make our way to the exit. My girlfriend and i were on our way back to the car, which was parked a fair distance down the parking lot. I had the lockbox in my hands, mainly cause i had nowhere else to put it. We're almost at the car, when i notice this chap trailing us off to our right, and he's checkin out the box in my hands and looking around to see who else is there. He then starts coming straight after us alot quicker, and he puts his one hand inside his jacket, and i dont mean he's reaching for a cigarette... And now he's really looking around to see who else might be watching.

So i hurry up, get my girl in the car, chuck the box in the boot, get in and start the car. The chap was about 6 feet away from us by now, and coming straight for my door, so i reversed in quite a rush. The moment i reversed, he stopped, turned round and walked away.

I don't want to sound like a typical paranoid south african, but im damn sure he was thinking about it, and at the time, i was concerned for our safety. So if i maybe have blown it out of proportion, i do apologize sincerely, but we really got a bit worried. :(

[BattleMoose]

You cannot take your own personal safety too seriously.

Without that, you have nothing.

[Gizmo]

After this being my third rAge. My last rAge I went to prior to this was in 2003 and 2004 and they were awesome, the whole LAN area was at the top of The Dome and just worked perfectly however, this year was a huge disappointment to me after missing the last two years, I was expecting something really great.

Firstly the Expo was cut in half to what it was in 2004 which made it extremely cramped, specially mid-day on Saturday. The LAN area was the most unorganised it has ever been. When I arrived on Friday afternoon at around 3:00 the LAN was actually full. No joke, I struggled to find seats for at least 40mins. There were seats available at some parts but when I went to try and acquire these seats some random dude would say "These are reserved for my clan, sorry". I mean? Wow. Even though the tickets say unreserved seating but oh well, too avoid a fight I continued to look. Also the security for the LAN was inconsistent. On the Friday night we were able to bring food in from else were because to be quite frank the food was waay too expensive inside The Dome. However, when we tried to do the same trick on Saturday it was totally forbidden to our amazement.

The whole LAN as a whole left a sour taste in my mouth, why has it deteriated soo much? Yet, I will still go next year though, the event is not yet at a level that you won’t go again, it’s just from what used to seem like a professional expo and LAN it’s now nothing special really. The hype doesn’t fit anymore, sadly. Also even though the LAN had gigabit switches the speed was bottlenecked to 100MBPS which is something else I cannot understand. Oh and to emphasise how poor the security was, there were a couple of people inside the LAN area without the green band on their arms playing games and proudly bragging how they just got in without even buying a ticket.

*On a hight note I got to buy Enemy Territory Quake Wars and played it crazy on LAN!*

[NeoN]

@Gizmo - There were +-1500 sexy-man-gamers so the chaos is understandable. Being MIA for two years, while the LaN area kept growing, is another reason the change felt so heavy.

@Jimmwyrm - Yeah, that was definitely a dodgey dude. Glad to read you guys got away safely.

[Icenflame]

Once Again grand event... Was great as a gamer to drive up from CT and enjoy the event to it's full extent. I managed to keep all my things in once place and nothing went missing.

I think in a perfect world nothing would have been stolen but you know there are certain people who seem to have grey morality issues when it comes to that subject.

One thing that did annoy me where a bunch of lighties running around either trying to flog "ripped" games or "fakes" or "punk anyone that bought it" that was a bit tasteless. But they are young and well as I was at that age stupid.

Otherwise was good I think security could have been slightly tighter perhaps a Exit gate with separate entrance and Exit isles so one can be checked before leaving and returning. I left twice without my bag being checked which did concern me.

but it was fantastic, I might be up for next years rAge this depends on the wife handling the youngun for the weekend... hmmmm

[ib3waffle]

Just curious, when can we expect a video? I understand Miktar's busy, but any rough estimate?

[Miktar]

December DVD if we're lucky.

[NeoN]

I might be up for next years rAge this depends on the wife handling the youngun for the weekend

@Icenflame - Why not bring the youngun with. ;) You're never too young to own n00b's. ;D