My talk is going to be all about how community experience can be an asset in other areas of the games industry – either for community managers who want to move on to new roles or those who simply want to expand the scope of their current position. This is something I feel pretty qualified to talk about as I’ve worn quite a few hats over the past few years and ‘community’ has been at the core of nearly all of them. In fact, in my current role as a games designer I’m mostly responsible for creating social and retention systems. These are clearly areas where a strong understanding of player dynamics are essential.

Plenty of notable CMs will be there too, I’ll be in such august company as Donna Prior, Jörg Koonen, Sean Kaupinnen, Martin Rabl and a former colleague of mine, Fabien Alexandre. This is the first event of its kind in Europe and hopefully will become a fixture in the industry calendar – there’s certainly been a lot of lively discussion on the main CM industry forum and it looks as though Two Pi Team who are organising it intend to build on it for the future. For me it will be a nice change to be at the GC without needing to be on my feet for 14 hours a day and to be able to wander round and chat without feeling guilty.

There’s also a strong possibility that a Warmachine game between myself and Donna Prior may happen at the event. Should such a titanic struggle come to pass then it will of course be properly chronicled over on my other blog.

There are two things you should know about Southern Spain. One is that it is very brown indeed, the other is that it is very hot. Crazy hot in fact. I stepped off the aeroplane and, by the time I’d struggled across the baking tarmac to the immigration office I already needed a shower. This was at 9pm, It boded poorly for the midday conditions.

The Campus Party itself is a 7 day long LAN party which is held in a massive convention centre. People camp on the ground floor (there were literally halls full of tents) and set their PCs up in the halls on the top floor which is also where all the exhibitors are.

I took some notes during the event along with loads of pictures. I started trying to write this up as an amusing travelogue but eventually realised that teh funny was not to be found and so I’m just going to give you my raw notes. Stream of consciousness, GOOOOO!!!!

Day 1

Damn it’s hot! Wave of heat as I stepped off the aircraft. Hotel is miles from anywhere but pleasant in an anonymous business hotel kind of way. Spain is mostly brown. Trees are prettier here.

Feria is a huge and cool hall with air conditioning (yay!). We are next to the Spanish Navy, Wii Fit and all the food. English is not universal here, Segways are however. We are also close to the Rockband stage. I doubt I will grow fond of this. Had hachata which was delicious in a nut flavoured milkshake kind of way.

Day 2

Marta says that Valencians only eat paella for lunch so we decided to be tourists and eat it for dinner instead. Yum!

Day 3

Moved to a nicer hotel in the centre of Valencia. The old one was in an industrial estate, the new one is in a beautiful city plaza.

Went looking for cocktails at 2am. Failed. Ended up in a flamenco bar *with no flamenco) where the barman didn’t know how to mix a bloody mary. By that time though it didn’t matter, enough wine, beer and cider had been consumed to make further alcohol irrelevant.

Day 4

Today I have mostly been giving t-shirts to the Spanish military. I do have a decent haul of swag in return however – my favourite loot so far is the LED soap bar. I also got to play in a djembe circle with the same group that initiated me into their capoeira band yesterday.

We said goodbye to Marta in the morning and hello to David and Pedro in the evening. The stand was busy all day and the Spanish kids are really excited about WAR. So was the Dutch guy from Antec. I got a henna tattoo of the WAR symbol which looks hella cool.

In the evening we went to the cathedral square  and had tapas, paella and a huge fish skewer. I love the food here.

Day 5

Rahim popped in for a flying visit this afternoon. He was around for a quick interview then he had to go again.

Saturday is the last real day of the LAN party. On Sunday everyone packs up and goes home, we will also be packing but we don’t go home till Monday.

Team WAR rocked the joint on the last evening. I was on drums, Lionel pushed out some sweet bass sounds while Jose laid out the riffs on Gimme Shelter. Much fun ensued and we got a respectable score despite our noobness.