On Friday 28 October 2011, MWEB GameZone and EA South Africa co-op’ed to host a local launch event for Battlefield 3 over at MWEB’s Cape Town headquarters out near N1 City. As MyGaming’s only Cape Town-based special operative / commando hack, I was dispatched to see what’s-what, drink free crème soda, and steal blueprints of top secret weapons prototypes from MWEB’s office Wi-Fi.
After missing my turn-off and almost ending up in a hostile foreign country (Bellville), I finally arrived at the venue only to have my iPad promptly confiscated at reception.
Apparently somebody had tipped them off to our plans. Undaunted by this temporary setback, I disguised myself as a regular gamer using only a t-shirt, jeans, wild hair, and infiltrated the crowd.
Blending in like a boss.
The organisers went all out designing and constructing an authentic replica gamer habitat, stuffed with Battlefield 3 paraphernalia, gigantic TVs, consoles, Alienware laptops, and heaps of junk food.
There was free pizza. Yes, FREE. This started out as a standard mission, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t turn into something a bit more.
After some introductions and rallying war speeches from MWEB GameZone reps, EA go-getter Bryan Banfield and local community Tweet-‘em-up champ Glenn Alexander, it was game on as 40 or so gamers grabbed mice, keyboards, and controllers and got fraggy.
For the next two or three hours, nothing was heard but gunfire, grunts, and – at one point – a loud conversation about that old 8-bit NES game, Circus Charlie; only it had bad localisation or something, and was called Circus Chubbly instead. There were also prize giveaways from Kalahari, Dion Wired, and Panda Security, and did I mention the free pizza? Because there was totally free pizza.
I bet I could get into that ducting.
Pew! Pew! Pew!
PC gaming is not dead, it’s just downsizing a bit.
I told this guy I was a Russian spy. He thought I was joking.
Actually, I’m pretty sure these were spies too.
BRYAN BANFIELD! IT’S BRYAN BANFIELD, EVERYBODY!
Realising I’d blow my cover by not participating, I played a round of Rush, but made sure to play with the sort of appalling lack of coordination and skill, and super-abundance of girlish giggling spectators expect from a woman, to avoid any awkward questions later.
I think I was pretty convincing too – I even remembered to toss a grenade at a fence instead of slashing it open with my knife. NAILED IT.
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A thermonuclear bomb-sized thanks to everybody at MWEB GameZone and EA South Africa, as well as Glenn and Bryan for organising and hosting this ace event.
Debriefing: Battlefield 3 launch event in Cape Town << Comments and views
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