My Day With EA

Originally Posted by Gazz

Well, if you really want the list to be longer then you could always use the dreaded S word as "protection". That way you can be sure to lose me and Kami as customers.

How do you guys stand on companies like activision switching to consoles as their primary platform instead of pc anyway? How's that console project you guys are officially not working on doing?

So many questions...

Wow... ;)

I wrote up a little article on the Burnout Paradise Community Day for your reading pleasure. I might edit it a bit today though.


As some of you may know, this past Friday I was invited to play Burnout Paradise with some of the EA guys and the lead designer for Paradise, Craig Sullivan. Now, before I get started on my day at EA, I will tell you that this will not be your normal article. Why? It wasn't your normal event. I will explain as I go.


I will start my story when I first got into the San Francisco airport. I arrived at about 6:50 pm their time, which was 9:50 pm for me as I live on the East Coast. EA was kind enough to send a driver to get me and take me to Redwood Shores. After I found him, I took the twenty minute drive to my hotel and let me say WoW!! This was one ritzy joint. As I was checking in, I noticed behind me there seemed to be a party going on. I asked what the deal was and was told that as there is not really much to do around there, that the hotel bars were the place to be so, I dropped my luggage off at my room and proceeded to the bar.
Not for the reason you would think though. I knew other sites were going to be there but, I was not sure who. So, after a couple beers, I started asking everyone in the place if they were there for the EA day. You would not believe the looks I recieved! After about an hour of this, I gave up looking and thought about going to bed. However, as it was only about 9pm at this time and I knew that the next day we were all going out to eat. I did not want to be the only old man that left early because I was tired! I stayed up until midnight and then proceeded to bed.


Friday morning I was up at 6am because I am used to getting up early when I am home. After about an hour of trying to go back to bed, I said screw it, got up, showered, got dressed, and went downstairs at about 8:30 to meet everyone and then have breakfast at the hotel. I grabbed a $3 coffee from the little shop and headed to the lobby for the meet and greet. There was just one guy sitting in a chair when I got there and I had to go ask if he was there for the EA day because I had no idea who these people were. I would tell you his name and what site he was from but, I am not real good with names. We talked about games for about twenty minutes before other people started showing up and then continued to talk about games until everyone else was there.

At about 9 or so, Andrew, PR guy for EA showed up. I have been working with this guy for a couple years now and it was really nice to meet the guy finally! He really wasn't what I expected! I expected a suit and tie kinda guy and he was the exact opposite! Very nice guy! I was the only one in a button up shirt and slacks! I almost felt out of place but, everyone else was really nice and talking about games made me a bit more relaxed.

After everyone showed, we proceeded to go have breakfast in this posh hotel. Let me tell ya, it was a blast. All of us gamers swearing and being loud in the back room. I can't imagine what the other people there thought.

At about 11am we walk over to the EA HQ. Now, by this time, it is pretty bright outside. When we walked in to EA, it was like walking into an arcade! On the left, there was four or five screens on the wall that had EA games on them, straight ahead there was a huge 300inch, or bigger, screen on the wall showing trailers and such. Above was track lighting with green, blue, red, and yellow lights shining down. On the right was a wall but, if you walked behind the wall, there were three almost enclosed chairs that had a diferent console and the screen on the wall. I reallllly wanted one of those. Behind the nifty chairs was an enclosed room that you couldn't really see into.

After we signed in and received our badges, we got word that we had a little surprise! Apparently, the devs were showing Army of Two in the room you can't really see into so, we had the pleasure of playing for about a half hour. Aside from killing my partner the first time I got on there, I had a lot of fun with the game and taking to the devs. I would go into more detail but, that is for another article.

Next came the tour! Now, if you have never been to this place, it is massive! Think of a university. That is how big this place is. We toured through the cafetirea, the EA store, the game room, and other places. I never have had so much exercise in one day!

I am guessing around noon or so we all went to a room were 13 360's were hooked up for us to play with. As I was one of the last ones in there due to my smoking habit, I got the monitor that was a tad screwed up. It was all good though! For about an hour or so we all kinda practiced doing our own thing like playing the Takedown mode or Showtime. After this, we had a tournament of sorts. We met the lead designer for Burnout Paradise and he explained that we had about a half hour to score a million points in the stunt run. If you did this, you would get a t-shirt that basically says you are in the million point club. So, for the next half hour or so, I tried like hell to get the score. I only reached 435,000. However, four or five of the other guys did get it! It was most impressive! Proceeding that, we had lunch. There was like seven pizzas or so. They were gone quickly even though I did not eat. I had to spend 10 minutes explaining to the dead silenced room why I don't like pizza.

After lunch, we had a six on six tournament to see who could complete the first 25 challenges the quickest. It is killin me that I can not remember what mode it was that we were playing. It was great! The teams were basically split down the middle with six on each team. Everyone had headsets and the little cam that took a picture when you were taken out and everyone was screaming back and forth to go this way. The team I was on was having a little trouble so, we would look at the other teams screens to see how far they were. Some of also plotted to go unplug them but, we decided against that. After what I would guess was an hour or so, the service crashed and no one could join. Which most of us thought was rather funny. After it was back up, our team decided to forfiet as we had no chance to catch up with the other cheating team. Hehe.

After our defeat, some of us talked to Craig, some of us tried for the million points, and some of us just played the game for a while. Then, Andrew told us we could take the game we were playing and the cam! You can imagine the bum rush that we all did to get these things. They also handed out t-shirts, matches, and beer glasses for us to enjoy. At about this time, Craig started signing the copies of BP we all had. I was kinda at the back of the line and everyone had him sign the cover and some the disc as well. I, on the other hand, had him sign the cover, disc, and the book! I tried to get him to sign my boxers as well! Maybe I should wait til I have bigger boobs before I try that again.

We all then went back to the hotel. Some of us worked before we went to dinner and others met at the bar where we talked about games and drank until it was time to go to dinner. When it was time for dinner, cabs had to come and get us. It was a sight to behold! However, another gamesite guy and I rode with a guy from EA and Craig. I am terrible with names! We got a little lost on the way but, it was rather enjoyable. All of us gamers gathered in a back room that accommodated us to eat. We even had our own little menu that had Burnout Paradise across the top! After that, things became a little fuzzy due to a drinking challenge that was presented to me. I won't go into detail but, if you would like to know more, feel free to ask in the forums and I will explain the rest of the night.


That was my time at EA! I had so much fun and met the nicest people you could ever hope to meet. I would like to thank Andrew, Craig, EA, and some other people, even though I can't remember their names, for a great time!

to much to read. make a podcast or a video XD

sounds like a pretty sweet time