Quake Expo 2007? 2008?

Talk about the Quake Expo and Quake Speed events.

When do you think we should hold the next expo?

Go Annual (Next Expo in 2007)
25
57%
Stay Biennial (Next Expo in 2008)
14
32%
Stay Biennial (Next Expo in 2007 - count this years as a 'bonus')
5
11%
 
Total votes: 44

Entar
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Post by Entar »

frag.machine wrote:I am afraid there is not enough projects in the Quake scene to keep an anual QExpo rolling, even if we bring Q2 and Q3 to the boat. Unfortunately.
Well, there are definitely more Quake3 projects than there were last year, and if we encourage the mapping community to contribute, I think it'd be enough for a decent sized expo. On the other hand, maybe we could take a poll?
scar3crow
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Post by scar3crow »

This thread is the poll =)
Sajt
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Post by Sajt »

a. Not enough mods to keep up, we don't want to have crappy little QExpos with like 30-40 booths (yet...)

b. It takes a fair shot of mojo for people to run this thing, a year isn't a humongously enormous amount of time...

I personally think it's too soon, but whatever. I doubt I'll be doing anything to host it this time, and I really don't want to see people say 'sure, let's have one. Maybe I'll host if nobody else does. Doo do do... oh look, a week left and nothing's done. And I don't have time.'
F. A. Špork, an enlightened nobleman and a great patron of art, had a stately Baroque spa complex built on the banks of the River Labe.
Spirit
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Post by Spirit »

Since when do good mods or maps not need more than a year of work?
QEXpo should stay something VERY special and thus shall not be done every year. Relying on Quake 2 and Quake 3 stuff (YUCK!) is just wrong. It's Quake the QExpo is about, Q2&Q3 are guests at most.

"Oh Quake Expo? Another? Who cares!" is very important.
Entar
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Post by Entar »

scar3crow wrote:This thread is the poll =)
I meant of people who would participate, not just whether we should have it or not.

Hmmm...
frag.machine
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Post by frag.machine »

What about a "permanent" QExpo ? Like, a site where you can have a permanent booth and, from time to time (every six months or once a year) we could pick up (or even vote for) the best projects for a more traditional event ?
I know FrikaC made a cgi-bin version of the quakec interpreter once and wrote part of his website in QuakeC :) (LordHavoc)
Sajt
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Post by Sajt »

That might be fun, but it wouldn't be QExpo...

To me it almost sounds like an old folks home for Quake modders...
F. A. Špork, an enlightened nobleman and a great patron of art, had a stately Baroque spa complex built on the banks of the River Labe.
leileilol
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Post by leileilol »

yeah and that would be quite redundant
i should not be here
Spirit
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Post by Spirit »

What's that thing called homepage again? :lol:
Entar
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Post by Entar »

I'm gonna have to agree with Sajt on that one. That would bring the idea of taking the specialness out of QExpo to a whole new level.
Entar
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Post by Entar »

So... we doing one this year or what? Could be a nice kick to get us going again, seems like things have been a little quiet. I know I would have a few things to show, anyway.
Sajt
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Post by Sajt »

I really, really, really doubt it.
F. A. Špork, an enlightened nobleman and a great patron of art, had a stately Baroque spa complex built on the banks of the River Labe.
leileilol
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Post by leileilol »

yeah no qexpo plz
i should not be here
CocoT
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Post by CocoT »

:roll: --(good thing not too many people said something like that in 2001...)

Anyway...

While the idea of a retirement home for Quake modders made me smile, I do agree that making it a fixed site would kind of go against the original purpose of the event, which was to channel all the energies towards a single, short event that would possibly appeal to all gamers, even beyond the Q1 community itself. What makes QExpo so unique is the incredible buzz concentrated in a couple of days. Granted the side effect (one we had not really thought about at the time we set up the first QExpo) is that the rest of the year becomes, as a result, pree-tty quiet (and that's a euphemism)... I realize it's only conjectures, but I still wonder what the community would look like today if there had never been any QExpo, though. Not to say that QExpo "saved" it (or "is saving it", obviously), but, despite some side effects, I think QExpo's have all in all had very positive effects.

I know I'm maybe gonna sound like an old jerk, but it's precisely because QExpo has become a bit of a key in keeping the community going (until other major events come along (the making of a "free Quake" could be one of these events)), setting it up should not be taken lightly. Not that it has ever been or that I have the feeling that's how you guys do it, though. All I'm saying is that I feel that, while we would want to keep some form of very basic structure to it (I believe the "event" dimension is one of them, thus), the process of setting it up should be, I think, preceeded with a lot of brainstorming about how to make it stand out 1) in comparison with the other QExpos but also 2) keeping in mind the current state of Quake and the state of gaming in general. Deciding on dates is good, but I think that we shouldn't do it before deciding how the next QExpo will possibly kick more ass than the QExpo's before it. And if you think there just aren't enough modders to make it kick more ass, well, you'll still have to figure out ways. Contact people. Open new threads with brainstorming sessions. Express your craziest ideas, and maybe some of them will make the cut. Compare with other events (the first QExpo's booth girls were inspired from similar "live" events, I'm sure there are lots of other things we could come up with (conferences? private showings? (we might want to avoid privateS showing, though) promotional material? ...)). Share your screenshots. Wet people's appetites (but not your pants). Write articles. Write reviews. Write interviews. Share possible designs, logos or plans on how to possibly organize the site. Point out what went well with the older sites, and what went wrong. Point out ways to have a better coverage. Point out inventive ways to attract new modders. ... etc ... etc ... etc ... QExpo is all that. It's not just a site, it's an opportunity for us to think about what we are and where we want to go.

While deciding on a date is an important step to take and does give an impetus to the whole project, the success of a Qexpo does also rely a lot on hopes, expectations and novelties that the upcoming event is about to offer. So go crazy on that and the buzz will quite naturally rise again from the ashes, trust me :)

Note: I also totally agree with Sajt on the fact that it's important to decide who is doing what pretty early on and personally believe that the "main organizer" should be someone who has been in the community for a little while, is ready to commit him/herself to it wholeheartedly and whom the rest of the community approves of.
scar3crow
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Post by scar3crow »

Back to back QExpos kind of exaggerates the problem of eerie silence between them. If there is a QExpo every year, it is easier to just decide to save everything for QExpo and thus we don't get any of the smaller releases.
setting it up should not be taken lightly. Not that it has ever been or that I have the feeling that's how you guys do it, though.
Hah, you should have seen the qexpo development channel last summer, "Wheres SantaClaws?!?!!?!" for a long while, then ultimately Sajt going, in his proper British accent because he is British you know, "Bugger all I'll do the php myself!" QExpo2006 was honestly the wonderful work of Sajt and Randy coming together at the last moment. I will say what happened was about 1/5th of what I had planned (I can get quite grandiose, trust me). However I did arrive at the position of running the last expo with the intention of doing something different for this expo. Ultimately only one of those things happened (Romero interview) - well another happened with a delay, I wanted to get the maps GPLed in time for it but we had to wait for approval from id. But other things just didnt come together (Worch and Peterson never responded for inquiries about an interview, server listings, several more articles) due to personal time and other things (I was working full time actually, and a lot of the QExpo news posts were made from my work machine in between tasks).

Wow, tangent. Anyways, I dont know about the other QExpos, but the last one was not particularly organized.

I do however wildly encourage (*wiggles arms and screams*) sharing of new ideas to innovate and give a fresh aspect to the next expo.

You should know at least the month it will take place in within 8 months of that time occurring. Then you really need to knuckle down and figure out exactly what will be included and what needs to be coded. Or enjoy the breakneck pace we endured in 06.

So ideas for the QExpo08 page?

A wiki style view of changes made to the booths from the previous version, with notes as to whether the changes are public or not yet. Makes news posting a whole lot easier.

Use relative linking for every single thing.
In the same vein, upload everything for your booth to the expo site (exceptions perhaps for huge files). RenegadeC's TAoV booth now has broken images since he used circa1984 to host the images, which is now down.

Get at a least a server or two, NQ and QW, for the new content - and court community leaders for both protocols. I tried to pimp QExpo a lot with QuakeOne.com but saw little reaction from them honestly (no offense meant, just saying) and gave it some word at the QW forums.

Promote a server or two regularly that are just playing Quake period.

Random quote thing up top for fun tidbits about Quake, things like "The long elevator in e2m6 was inspired by Disneyland's The Haunted Mansion ride." but also "Play Quake deathmatch now at dm.quakeone.com" and provide related links in the same bit.

Server listing, sorted by location (US-East US-West Europe-East Europe-West Australia/NZ) and then gametype and link to downloads of any custom maps or mods they are running. It is nice to talk about Quake on forums and read about it in news posts, and even download new maps and mods - but there is the simple fact that we need to play more. For a while I was actively playing at ra.clanhdz.com with LordHavoc and Sajt, and a lot of players were surprised to see us there. We have not been keeping up our presence as players in anyway.

Reach out to the still going TeamFortress community, they are oddly autonomous but still around (and it is still one of the best mods IMO no matter how much Valve tries to take the name), avirox and skid may be good to contact about that.

Promotion via Facebook and (sigh) MySpace. People use them. I have a Facebook Quake group (named just that) which has over 100 members now. I can help with this.

Categorize booths (mods, maps, engines, tools, fun generically). Booths can have multiple flags (I'd say work by people like LordHavoc, FrikaC, Preach, aguirre, and RenegadeC for example would justify multiple tags).

More interviews - I am willing to help with this definitely.

More articles - I am willing to help with this.

CocoT release something. Yes that would be a QExpo feature.

Thats just some stuff off the top of my head, now others, contribute, ideas, go!
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