The OFFICIAL FFO 2007 REVIEW

[Fatty]

Ok, here we go. I'm going to lay out the notes I have from our staff meeting on Sunday, more or less in outline form. Please feel free to make constructive comments about both what you thought went well in addition to anything you think could be improved on. Try not to beat anything into the ground, but feel free to reinforce comments made by others (simply by posting agreement, etc).

 

This topic will include all notes, some that aren't necessarily relevent to attendees. However, for the sake of organization, I'm going to include ALL my notes.

 

Staff Meeting attended by:

Staff: Fatty, Bub, Duke, Fish, Renegade, Clue

Civilians: Shaftiel, Tracid, Tyranus

 

Electricity

-Only 1 power outage due to gamers overloading one powerstrip. This is a first for us! NICE!

-No breaker box or 220 outlet issues, however, a few breakers need replaced. Thursday night next year we'll test / replace all.

-Can we build a box to utilize 1 phaze 220 outlets to accomodate growth?

 

Sponsors

-Duke did wonderful in gathering stuff

-Need to get thank yous sent out

-Dropping anything having to do with Bawls

-Starting earlier this year, Fatty will put in time with Duke to get even more prizes

-Door prizes will be awarded using a special ticket stub filled out and deposited upon registration.

-Ziff Davis is out

-Feel out Alienware or Gigabyte for lanyard sponsorships

-Duke needs to get Fatty the contact for Antec

 

Sound

-Renegade did an awesome job

-Sound with CS tourney observation was cool

-Great sound with console games and mp3 player

-Mics worked very nicely

 

Food

-Awesome form for organization

-Duke gets the credit here again!

-Staying away from minimum orders if possible

-Duke needs help with pickups, we'll prearrange who's going where

-Jackie (Mrs. Fish) has offered to take care of food

-Redeyez knows someone that may be interested in catering. Prices to come. Duke to contact Red.

-Need plasticware and plates

-Rocco's, KFC, and Swenson's were all great

-Possibly trading out Rocco's for Pizza Pan (pizza and ribs....don't forget the wipes!)

-Amy has a coffee urn to have coffee brewing in the mornings next year

-Talked about having a grill out back, can still toss this around

 

Hotel

-Great deal with Breakfast coupons

-2 1/2 hours to get garbage emptied on Saturday. Discussed with Sigrid already.

-A/C was broken in West and wasn't fixed during event. Be sure to check these prior to next year.

-Security of ballroom needs addressed, hotel staff left it open on Friday morning, only prearranged people will be allowed to have it opened using a double top secret code

 

Gaming, etc

-Mini is going to look into getting the bandwidth upped for the weekend, possible sponsorship by AT&T

-Tourney servers will be tested on Thursday night

-Magruter and Dingy will work together as staff on the tourneys next year. Dingy might do UT if it's out, Mag will do CSS.

-Prelim round may be played earlier in day

-Emphasize the "team" attitude of our random draw CS tourney. All skill levels are to be expected. Players who can't afford losing the $10 in a sportsmanslike fashion (i.e. have fun no matter what) should not play. No big issues this year, aside from some mumbling about some draws.

-Discussed seperate room (in lower hallway) for anyone who wants to move and game all night.....

-Moving all SWars, etc to a seperate room would be a negative on socializing, except for the open bandwidth from a different port. We'd like to keep everyone together.

 

Golf

-Great time!!!

-Sponsors for the golf outing???

-Format? Teams were somewhat random and it worked out well

 

Poker

-I won, even with Bub trying to cheat

-Don't forget to tip your dealers!

-Bub and Clue to build table, possibly financed by rake from our monthly games

-Pricing custom poker chips for final table

 

Paintball

-Where the <bleep> are my pictures?!?!

-Look for the field in Norton, which would only be about 25 minutes away.

 

Trailer Loading Cookout

-Good time, everyone who tried it love the sausage

-Find out who was reloading the kids' squirtguns

 

Apparel

-Develop standard logo to have on shirts that won't age, perhaps hats

 

Misc

-Renegade is bringing a printer next year

-Appreciation coupons for $10 off following year for attendees that lend above average amount of help

-Closing times will be on schedule (3 AM on Friday night, 5 AM on Saturday night).

-Drinking parties should be moved to rooms by KWill if things seem to be getting threatening to equipment, etc

-Hospitality door will be locked the entire time to prevent people sliding in

-Everyone should stop anyone who doesn't belong there, or at least alert the staff (if KWill is off duty, etc)

-Need to set up form or ordering instruction for T-shirts / stickers during rest of year

-Bring back the case modification contest

-Schedule 2008 ASAP. Looking at July 16 - 20

 

 

Ok, thanks for reading through that. Please discuss / add / ammend anything by posting. Thanks!

[Tracid]

Review: Everything was great, the people were nice and friendly. I got to meet a lot of nice people. Fatty and Mrs. Fatty were gracious hosts. Awesome food, sausage was a bit spicy. Pancho has some good food, pizza was nice, Swenson was good, KFC was nice, although if you want to switch that out for grilling in the back or some other items I don't mind! Thank you for lunch on the last day, I'm 90% sure I will return next year (other 10% is for unforseenable zomg stuff)

 

 

 

 

Ideas:

 

I know you have pics of people in FragFest site album and such, but would it be ok if we have face pictures ala year book style so we can better memorize or photoshop their names into the pictures. FF blast by so fast for me my memory haven't fully updated itself

Stronger specs PC Rentals (I know you have no control on that end but if it helps toss a subtle hint at them hehe)

The CSS tourney this year was kinda off, not Dingy's fault.

A hat would be awesome, maybe sweats hoodie with zippers be cool.

A special FragFest ID plastic card with a face shot pic (like credit cards) and a reader so when people go into the LAN area they have to swipe and it logs their time there.

A spinning thing for raffling stuff yay

 

 

Mmmm more to come if I get any more ideas.

Edited July 19, 2007 by Tracid

[JackieChan]

-Jackie (Mrs. Fish) has offered to take care of food

whew...

 

-Everyone should stop anyone who doesn't belong there, or at least alert the staff (if KWill is off duty, etc)

This is just me, but it should be a requirement (if it is already, enforce it a bit more) to wear your name tag with or without your FF shirt. I'm not sure, but I think I saw some people who shouldn't've been in there and were eventually chased out. Not naming any names, but I did see some attendees there not wearing their name tags. Since I didn't meet half the people I wanted to there, it would've been hard to see who was attending and who was "trespassing".

 

-Guitar Hero shouldn't be played as much next year since that's the only console game that was played <_ that i have anything against the game it was just waaay overplayed once poker tourney started only console being played entire weekend. src="%7B___base_url___%7D/uploads/emoticons/default_shrug03.gif" alt=":shrug03:">

 

-Where the are my pictures?!?!

Maaaav.....

 

-When the CS tourney is up and going and teams are playing, I'm going to kick everyone in the nuts who gathers around my seat and starts talking loudly. You've been warned.

-Don't let me be in charge of spectating for CS tourney matches unless my computer is the spectator (those people who know know what I'm talking about).

-Block Cujo from using an AWP.

-Have KWill wrestle black'ice.

-Thanks Duke again for all the food preparations and such.

-Don't let Allanon order any quantity of food over x1.

-Have everyone in my CS tourney team follow the plan: HP>0=Victory

 

Anywho, this FF experience was a blast and I think succeeded without any trouble (aside from getting lost going to Paintball and blowing an hour trying to get there, running into non stop detours, and almost getting smacked by a yellow car... then getting pegged in the neck). Thanks again for everyone who made that weekend possible.

Edited July 19, 2007 by JackieChan

[Playaa]

- Get m0m helpers!

- get the servers for the tourney's up and running at least 6 hours before the draw for the tourney (4 servers should probably do it just fine)

- set a time limit on when teams can start matches...

- basically, organize the tournament a little more overall. The more people we have the harder and harder it's going to be to get things organized.

- get a little dinky computer or laptop that we can hook up to a projector to be the "information" computer...that way we don't all lose track of who is on our team when Fatty decides to play Flatout2.

- definitely get a non-seat-based way to draw for door prizes. plenty of people moved around all weekend.

 

- definitely don't move anyone to a separate room...even if they do play silly Star Wars Galaxies. As much fun as it was to make fun of them, they are still our pals.

- set a monitor size limit (i.e. dimensions on width and depth only). I had plenty of space around me...but could definitely see some issues happening if we don't keep track of this. (depth being measured solely so your monitor doesn't get in the way of the table behind it)

- get rid of the $25 chips at the poker table. At $20 the chips would have worked better (only 1 more needed to stack to $100 and $25 was the only denomination with 5 in it which caused annoying problems at lower betting levels)

 

that's all for now

 

oh wait:

- don't let me make really stupid calls in poker, like calling Fattie's All-In with AK6 on the table when I have K7. Note to self...Fatty probably isn't bluffing there.

[Shropshire Slasher]

K. First, let me say thanks for all the work everyone put in this year. I had a great time, even though I logged a shockingly low number of minutes actually playing CS:S. This was my choice, as there were lots of other things to do.

 

The Keg was a great idea. Hope to see this back. How about a keg of Sam Adams next year?

 

My only constructive criticism is to make sure that the CS:S servers, both tournament and open servers, are up and running by the opening gun. We spent a big part of mid-day Friday playing off of other peoples computers. Not a huge deal, but for an organized event such as this it would reflect well on us to be up and running. Plus, we need to find a way to have multiple IPs for the servers, rather than ports. Perhaps this would require multiple NICs each with their own bandwidth. Finally, it would be nice if admins could setup various games on the servers (gungame, scopeless) more easily.

 

 

Cheers, and hope to see everyone next year.

 

CEM

[Fatty]

JackieChan: Buy your seat earlier so you're not right by the main door.

 

Good input, guys. Keep it coming.

[Sgt. Slaughterâ„¢-TopBrass]

Booo for Pizza Pan...Woooohoooo for Roco's!!!

 

Give me 4 hours and 2 liter of pop, and I will eat an entire pizza!!!!

[Windex]

I'll bring the grill next year and some some burgers to contribute to the cause (i love grilling what can i say?)

 

Think we Should have pre-determined people that will guard the room overnight to allow for all-night gaming. (or a designated door guard)

 

I'll check with my company about sponsoring a surveillance system to keep an eye on our stuff for the week! IR cameras gigiddy gigiddy

 

Only other suggestions i have are to play more of my maps ps. i have the full beta version of de_arabia if anyone would like it! it still has a WEE bit more to go on it however it's 98% done! clap for windex.. thank you thank you..

 

I have a small portion of the hotel map done however i still need better layouts.. the hotel layout was worse than the hand drawn maps previously posted! hehe

*I'll work on having this as well as the Finished cs_bank by next year.. and yes! special treat! I'm going to work on a source mockup of cs_siege to be done by next year as well!

[[LaW]Maverick]

Is it possible to get Mani on the servers? That way we can have pre-set up admins that are familiar with the interface instead of yelling across the room for rcon commands. I haven't used rcon in so long I have no idea what I'm doing with it.

 

That being said, everything was fantastic! I can't believe what an amazing job you guys did. I mean seriously, that was a LOT of work for so few people! That leads me to my next point. You guys need more help next year. Just let me know, and I'll help with whatever I can.

 

That being said, paintball definitely needs pictures...which is my fault. My camera batteries died right before the event. Also, if Fatty gets me the name of the field in Norton, I will set it up there next year because that's a much handier location.

 

 

Ummm...

 

Oh, this may sound a little....um...sissified...but if we could get a night of..well, semi-healthy food, I'd appreciate it. I mean, I don't know if there's a Subway (or better yet Quiznos) around there, but that'd be freakin' great. Of course, the problem with that is that food orders would take longer to fill. The only reason I bring it up is because I felt like I had a solid ball of grease in my stomache for like two days after eating all of that food. That didn't feel so hot when I got sick on Monday either. Oh, I'm fine with Swensons--but the KFC put me over the top. By the way, Rocco's beats the tar out of Pizza Pan.

 

So I guess my biggest criticisms are Mani and more bandwidth. The Star Wars Galaxies guys hogged what little there was However, from Fatty's list that is already in the works

 

 

I agree that door-prizes should be done via tickets filled out upon arrival. This will be much cleaner, and you can even call out by name rather than number so there's not confusion over "E8" and "D8."

I agree 'bout the monitor size limit, but think that we should possibly have a table designated for people like DJ who want to bring their 42" monitor. If that's what he's used to gaming on, throw him on a table with other people that want to bring ginormous monitors. Heck, by next year, I'll havea 46" LCD 1080p TV myself--though I doubt I'll bring it.

 

Well, that's my 2 cents for now!

[Xterminator]

Once again good job to all the staff for setting up FF and it was nice to see so many people attend. I have some ideas (in no particular order)

 

- If we rent from Escape next year, faster systems would be a bonus but it would also be nice if they brought mouse pads with them. Using the white table cloth for thursday night wasn't too fun. Thankfully m0m had some extra mouse pads laying around that he brought friday. Also I brought a MIC and headset just incase because I wasn't sure if they'd be provided. In the computer rental thread it said a headset would be provided. Escape (as far as i know) never provided any headsets or mic's. I know Shaft was playing with no sound for thursday evening.

 

-I agree with the monitor size limits. No offence to DJ but that thing was a monstrosity. It honestly illuminated C table and everything that was facing it.

 

-The food runs were great we should keep them for next year. Maybe some more variety to choose from? i'm not sure what Hudson has to offer but if there are other choices i'd love to maybe have a vote in the community b4 fragfest on what restaurants we'd like to have for the weekend.

 

-The server setup was an issue, I know m0m was doing everything into his power to get things going but it turned out alright in the end. With this problem resolved we can start the tourney earlier and not end at 2am.

 

- Along with my previous point, if we could give Rcon to certain players so they can run the servers. I remember trying to setup a scrim on a server and i had to constantly run to mom's computer to type in commands to restartmap and such.

 

-I recall fatty mentioning that BBbandit's computer was soaked in beer? or something because of flying donkey's. There should be a designated throwing area, for example wherever fatty is standing at the moment (j/k). No i think we can do without the donkey throwing during gaming. If you feel you need to do something, get up walk over to the person who angers you and slap them upside the head (i.e Shaftiel). It's more effective and intimidating. Plus this way no one accidently throws something that tips over a glass and ruin's someone's day.

 

-The kegs were a great idea we might need more next year. I didn't have any but from what i saw those 2 kegs went FAST.

 

-Guitar Hero was fun but with powered speakers it was loud, i remember playing and having Sweet Child O'mine over powering my headset. We should 1. turn the volume down. 2. Put in the room dividers as we had them when the Final CS tourney match was on. Those padded walls will reflect some of the sound and in theory make it quieter for the CS players.

 

- Everyone should stay in the room for gaming, moving people away into seperate rooms because of the games they play is dumb.

 

- One thing that I didn't like about the random draw tournament was the seating of team mates and competition. For myself I had Farmer sitting right behind me. Mo and Shrop had Jackie right beside them. I know we all play honest but it's hard to plan a round and execute when you have the other team right next to you (like Jackie sittin next to Mo) that eliminates 2 guys from callin strats or even saying stuff over the mic because it will be heard and possibly communicated to the other team. Jackie i'm not saying you did this, I'm just using a generalization. If possible could we move teams around for games. People might think this is a bad idea because everyone has their own configs and their own computers and doing this would be tough. At the very least can we invest in some Dividers for players who play side by side. That way if someone is tempted to take a peak at their neighbours screen, they cant.

 

-I have no issues with golf except that i have to practice. I had a great time and that went off without a hitch.

 

-Paintball was too far away. Granted we all had fun playing but the drives (notice the the plural ) was too long. What with all the detours and such just getting there took us over an hour. If there is anything closer that'd be great.

 

-Fatty, can you try and block of a section of rooms at the hotel close to the ballroom for FF next year, that way we're all kind of isolated and close. Going to other people's room across the maze was confusing and annoying sometimes. I'm not sure if it's possible but maybe you can try to look into it. We've used this hotel what twice now? maybe 3 times? i'm sure they can try to accomodate us because they now know how many people attend this event.

 

-Nametags should be worn at all times when in the gaming room. First of all it'll be easier for security to distinguish who belongs and who doesnt. Second it's nice to be able to call someone by their name (even if it's an alias) then goin up to them and being like "hey dude come here".

[ZesteR]

Oh, this may sound a little....um...sissified...but if we could get a night of..well, semi-healthy food, I'd appreciate it. I mean, I don't know if there's a Subway (or better yet Quiznos) around there, but that'd be freakin' great. Of course, the problem with that is that food orders would take longer to fill. The only reason I bring it up is because I felt like I had a solid ball of grease in my stomache for like two days after eating all of that food. That didn't feel so hot when I got sick on Monday either. Oh, I'm fine with Swensons--but the KFC put me over the top. By the way, Rocco's beats the tar out of Pizza Pan.

There is a Subway inside a gas station down the road from the hotel.

At the main traffic light near the hotel, make a left, try to get into the right lane. I believe it's the first traffic light down and the gas station was (maybe still is) green & white. Make a right at the light and turn into the station. There is a subway inside. They sell beer too

Maybe talk to them, or if, like me, wanted something a little healthier, take a ride down with a few guys and stock up.

 

Also, How did the virus scan pan out?

I do not see it here in discussion, so either it turned out better than years past or nobody wants to speak of it.

 

I am going next year, and wish I could have attended this year. I plan on golfing, for I am learning and Can help as much as I am able to on Thursday-Sunday.

[Tyranus]

Remember when Tyranus is a civilain! Or his feelings get hurt

[JackieChan]

JackieChan: Buy your seat earlier so you're not right by the main door.

lol, I was the 22nd person to buy a seat. I'm not complaining about where the seat was, but... why did everyone out of the entire ballroom, crowd around my seat??

 

/cry

 

Oh well, it's all fun and games. I'd still like to be authorized to kick people when they gather around my seat

[Fatty]

Go ahead. The aftermath would be worth some footage, no pun intended.

[JackieChan]

rofl XD

[Raw-C]

All in all, it was awesome.

 

My comments mainly concern the CS:S tourney as it seems like thats the center piece of the whole shibang.

 

1. I know the random draw has been done for a couple years now and it more or less worked out, but some teams were a little unbalanced (too good or too bad). Perhaps a draft of some sort could be established? And if people are worried about hurt feelings as far as how early they went and what not, just have the order only known to the captains or tourney operators.

 

2. Possible to do double elimination? I know this makes the tourney longer, but it gives people more game for their buck and also allows teams who were very close to winning to potentially battle their way back through the loser's bracket and give the top dogs a run for their money.

 

3. Start it a little earlier. Yes, this is due in part to the problems that arose with the servers, but it seemed like people just wanted it over and done with as the night drug on. Also, since it was so late by the time it finished, people's overall enthusiasm to play more seemed rather low.

 

4. Vent servers for every team. I know most teams had these and maybe all did, but "official" tourney servers set up would be nice to ensure everyone is on equal footing.

[Windex]

-Suggestion for tournament-

 

Have a pre-liminary match set up in two servers (4 teams)

Take the top 2 people from each team to make captains (Team numbers etc can be switched of course)

take a SS of final round for scores

then each captain draws for order of pick (starting with bottom 2-3 players to ensure stable and not stacked teams)

Continue until teams are selected.. everyone has some good and some bad!

Edited July 20, 2007 by Windex

[Clueless]

I kept reloading the squirt guns...and suggesting targets, and I must say...Elaina follows instructions quite well

[farmerisme]

Overall I had a blast... everything other than what I mention here was awesome ;p

 

1. I was a little concerned about the not having someone in charge around in the ballroom. Again I saw many folks in there that did not belong there. I think there should be some clarity on behavior in the gaming area, I know this makes me sound old, but some people need to think a little bit about what they are doing around other folk's expensive electronics.

 

2. A little more organization on the CSS server side. Maybe more maps loaded so it wasn't DAD all day, and allow some folks admin rights to change map or set up things. Tourney was pretty hastily drawn up as well (I do not blame anyone, but it was).

[aldan]

Now, as for me, this was my first Fest, and due to just random luck (or lack thereof), I ended up only being able to attend on Saturday night (and I left Sunday). I had a blast, even though I didn't get to play CS, but did play some UT (even though I think I had a HUGE icon from a French Store (aka Target) pasted on my chest and back, as well as floating over my head.... *aldan shrugs* Ah, well, it was my first time playing the game, so I suppose 'tis to be expected.

 

As for 'tags for attendance, it's a beautiful idea. I'd have worn mine, IF I had one, but... *aldan shrugs again* ...it just didn't get printed out or whatever. I don't know the specifics on that. I DID, however have a ticket for the full thing, so that, at least shouldn't have been a problem.

 

*aldan shrugs again, just because*

Edited July 21, 2007 by aldan

[Batman]

I think the over all format of FF is good, I enjoyed the entire event.. I dont have any complaints about how FF is run, and I dont think you could do anything to make it better.. I loved Flatout2, had some fun playing BF2 and CS as well.. I wish there were a new game that everyone at FF wanted to play at the same time, instead of us all being split between several games.. I think in years past more of us were addicted to CS than there are now..

 

I do think the hotel is getting old, my room didnt have a fridge this year!!! ARG!!! The ATM was broken!! So Duke's great food runs were no good to me, GOSH those burgers looked and smelled so good!! And the ATM squashed my $10 dollar entry into the CS tourny..

 

I was sad that I didnt see a lot of faces from past FF's, but everyone cant make it every year..

 

So like I said, I dont think there is much more the awesome staff hosting FF could do to make it better other than make some awsome new game that would excite us all, fix that broken atm, and put a fridge in my room... All things out of there control..

 

Thanks for another great weekend of guilt free, kid free, wife free pc playing goodness that I have grown to love!!!

Edited July 21, 2007 by Batman

[Gond]

I think everything went great...I'm not sure what you could change to make it better...but I've always got a couple cents...LOL

 

 

1. You don't have to give everyone something in the giveaway. It's nice but if the stuff isn't there oh well. Not everyone wins all the time.

 

2. Seemed to be quite a bit of gambling going on. More than any other FF I've been to...maybe I just noticed it more. Be careful there. Don't want FragFest turning into GambleFest.

 

3. The little I did play CS the servers weren't quite as "clean" as the GC servers I've seen online. Just cause it's a LAN doesn't mean you shouldn't filter your language.

 

But really...great time...none of the above was horrid...just noticed it.

[[DLM]->Fish]

I would like to see on a dedicated lcd screen computer a count of the people on the different servers ie BF2 UT CS

Maybe do a web page and that way we can post pertinent information all we need is a a/b switch if we want to see fattys comp also save seat next to fatty /bub for lcd computer

Dedicated Closers of the room or all nighters so morning shift can come in and relieve

Also if we cant get a t1 them maybe we can do routers connected to different internet ports for each table and connect them to a switch

Also dedicated people to help with basic network and computer help that way we take the stress off of yermother

 

Sorry for rambling just notes for me for next year

[Renagade]

I thought everything went well with the exception of a few things, but that was to be expected. As far as the sound that has a lot of room for improvement I will deffently bring both amps next year. I will also try and have my karaoke system up and running if anyone wants to embar.....um... I mean honor us with a song.

 

I would like to also thank everyone that stayed on sunday and helped with tear down. I can only recall one person that was not on the staff that was a tremendous help. Thanks E-ward. If there was anyone else im sorry i dont remember. I BLAME THE ALCOHOL!!!!

 

And thanks again to everyone that put all this together i.e the organization, food, swag, tourneys, the hardware, and the software side.

[JordanRinke]

Review: Everything was great, the people were nice and friendly. I got to meet a lot of nice people. Fatty and Mrs. Fatty were gracious hosts. Awesome food, sausage was a bit spicy. Pancho has some good food, pizza was nice, Swenson was good, KFC was nice, although if you want to switch that out for grilling in the back or some other items I don't mind! Thank you for lunch on the last day, I'm 90% sure I will return next year (other 10% is for unforseenable zomg stuff)

 

 

 

 

Ideas:

 

I know you have pics of people in FragFest site album and such, but would it be ok if we have face pictures ala year book style so we can better memorize or photoshop their names into the pictures. FF blast by so fast for me my memory haven't fully updated itself

Stronger specs PC Rentals (I know you have no control on that end but if it helps toss a subtle hint at them hehe)

The CSS tourney this year was kinda off, not Dingy's fault.

A hat would be awesome, maybe sweats hoodie with zippers be cool.

A special FragFest ID plastic card with a face shot pic (like credit cards) and a reader so when people go into the LAN area they have to swipe and it logs their time there.

A spinning thing for raffling stuff yay

 

 

Mmmm more to come if I get any more ideas.

 

If anyone is interested in actually setting this up, and if I have until next year I can probably get setup to borrow the equipment to actually do this. Either magnetic strip or RFID badges with central control and door locks.