Armageddon '09

I spent most of today at the Armageddon Expo at Wellington's TSB Arena. It opened at 9, but Shane and I got there around 7:45 (with Eric showing up around 8).  The queue wasn't very long when we got there, but grew in the 30 minutes before opening. 

About 20 minutes before opening, the lines were split into two: one for those who already had their tickets, and those who had pre-ordered but not received their tickets or (like us) were buying their tickets at the door.

Of course, the doors opened, and line #1 head straight in. But the Ticketek computers weren't cooperating, so we were in line for another 20-odd minutes. None of the staff seemed to know what was going on, or how to fix it, or what to do in the meantime for the hundreds of people queuing up out the door waiting to give them money. Honestly, I've seen traffic jams that were better organised.

Eventually -- about 30 minutes after the doors were opened -- we got into the hall (and we were near the front of the queue). This was my first time at Armageddon, and I have to see, first impressions weren't too good. Several big names weren't there -- like Weta Studios, or Sony Playstation -- and the rest just felt like a third-rate country fair.

We wandered around a bit -- Shane and Eric buying DVDs, and me being very unimpressed. There were a couple of things that looked nice -- a miniature X-wing pilot's helmet, but at $129, it was a bit too expensive -- and the 501st Legion (Outpost 42) representatives looked impressive (Stormtroopers, Boba Fett, and a rather portly Garindan), although stormies with female breastplates are less impressive than the Emperor would possibly hope (at least the one I saw didn't have an exposed midriff).

Of course, being a pulp expo, there were plenty of people dressed in costumes. The influence of the new movie Twilight was evident: lots of teenage girls dressed as vampires, although somehow I doubt that vampires have problems with acne.

The only reason I had gone to Armageddon was for the guest stars, specifically, Peter Davison and Mark Strickson who had played the Fifth Doctor and Turlough (one of the Fifth Doctor's companions) on Doctor Who. To quote David Tennant in Time Crash, Peter Davison was "my Doctor" -- the only one who I remember from his first appearance in Castrovalva to his final one in Caves of Androzani. Both gave very interesting talks, recounting stories from their time on the show, as well as what they're up to now, and was worth the price of admission all on their own.

Overall, though, Armageddon was disappointing: poorly organised, short on big-card draws (apart from Davison and Strickson). Unless another Doctor or Companion turns up next year (or somebody just as interesting, like Peter Molyneux), I won't be going again.

Why I will never deal with EB Games again.

Seven weeks ago, I went into EB Games in Cuba Mall, Wellington, looking for a copy of Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation. They only had a pre-owned copy, so I asked if they could get a new copy in. They looked in their computer, and found that the only new copies in all New Zealand were in Invercargill and Johnsonville. The bloke behind the counter called Johnsonville, and found that their copy was scratched. So he called Invercargill and asked for their copy to be transferred to Wellington. That done, I was told it might be a week or two because they were "in the middle of their stocktake".

Two weeks later, having not heard anything, I went back to Cuba Mall EB and ask what was happening. Without even looking at the computer, the bloke behind the counter (the same one who took my original order) told me it would be a week or two because they were "in the middle of stocktaking."

Another two weeks pass, and I go in again. This time, there's a different chap behind the counter, who helpfully tells me there's no record of my order. Annoyed, I ordered the game again, and once again, it'll "be a week or two".

Two weeks later, I go in. The order is in the computer, and the game is in transit -- should be in "next week".

Finally, I get a call yesterday saying that my game has arrived. When I went in to pick it up, it's a pre-owned copy (remember, I went through all this because I didn't want a pre-owned copy) with a battered case. Admittedly, they only wanted $85 for it (plus another $5 for "scratch insurance"), while it's selling for $120 new.

I did buy it -- and the damn scratch insurance -- because (a) I had a $25 voucher for EB, courtesy of my sister-in-law, and (b) I want to play the game, and didn't want to wait any longer. But I will never, ever again buy a game from Electronics Boutique, or even visit any of their stores.

My recommendation for buying games: MightyApe. We've had nothing but brilliant service from them, and their prices are usually on par -- or better -- with bricks-'n'-mortar stores. They also do books (the Watchmen comic for under $50.00? cool!), DVDs, and other odds and ends. And free delivery within New Zealand if your order is more than $50.00.

Grrrrr.....

As we were leaving Johnsonville tonight, we got on the motorway and accelerated up to 100 km/h. Just past the J'ville on-ramp, bright orange flash.

I'll be seriously annoyed if I get a ticket -- it was a 100 km/h zone, my speedometer was reading 100 km/h, and the Tomtom GPS was reading only 94 km/h. (When I go past those little info boxes that tell you how fast you're going, they always say I'm travelling around 5 km/h slower than what my speedo says.)

Ugh!

Wandered into the Electronics Boutique in Cuba Mall at lunchtime to see where a game I'd ordered 6 weeks ago was. Hasn't arrived yet -- will hopefully be here next week -- but at least they haven't lost the order like they had two weeks ago.


They also had posters up for the red X-box 360 (a limited edition bundled with Resident Evil 5), and it looks revolting. The Xbox looks really nice in black or white, but this is just plain icky.

New blog

I've decided to create a second blog for all my game dev stuff.