Even though the doors only opened at 10am on Friday morning, gamers had queued since late on Thursday evening in the hopes of being some of the first to access the event.
By the time my friends and I rocked up at 4am, there were hundreds of tired but excited faces eagerly chatting away about games and the upcoming events.
The LAN
2200 people attended this year’s event which was jam packed to capacity. Gamers were met with rows upon rows of tables, chair, cables, multi-plugs and network backbone switches, all professionally set up.
The stalwart VC Crew were on site again to bring the LAN event to life. It must have taken a small army days to setup the entire LAN venue, and the appreciation showed. “Great setup, much better than last year, really impressive,” went on one Lanner, sentiment echoed by all others within earshot.
Clap… Clap, CLAP! Spontaneous applause broke out every so often among the Lanners, spurred on by anything from loud noises to random laughter. It’s like a gamers version of the Mexican wave.
As for sleeping arrangements; bodies lay strewn across the Dome floor on anything from old jackets to luxury double blow up mattresses. Others prefered to sleep face first on their keyboards, while some took shelter under the tables.
How they managed to sleep through the Mexican clap wave, random outbursts of nerd rage, and the occasional cellphone alarm is anyone’s guess.
The rAge 2011 Expo
The expo was massive this year, with something on show for everyone.
A host of stores including Evetech, Incredible Connection, Foxcomp and Computers Only were out in full force with show specials on a wide range of hardware.
Between the stores there was enough playable code to keep everyone happy. Batman Arkham City, Battlefield 3 and Ghost Recon Future Soldier drew huge crowds, with everyone wanting in on the action.
The main stage saw product demos, live gaming competitions and giveaways that kept a large crowd very entertained.
The biggest crowd of all gathered around the main stage at around 5pm on the Saturday for a special Diablo 3 presentation that ended up falling through.
The groan from the crowd after the MC mentioned that “the publisher has got cold feet and has decided to pull the presentation,” turned heads around the entire dome.
There were more attractions amongst the gaming and hardware stands including products demos of the latest technology, an artist section where the more creative were peddling their wares in an almost market atmosphere.
Digital art, sewn up dolls, clay figurines were all on offer, and were a fitting surrounding for the Cosplay competition that took place on Saturday afternoon.
From “Homer Simpson” in yellow body paint, t-shirt and jeans; to Nicholas Wolfwood from Trigun with life size cross.
All-in-all the expo was a great success, and cemented rAge’s place as the biggest, best technology expo and LAN in South Africa.
rAge 2011 event overview << Comments and views
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