VIA Geared for Gaming in 2004
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Quakecon 2004
Grapevine, Texas, USA - August 12-15, 2004 |
Lasting Impressions
By Timothy J. Brown, Project Marketing Manager for
VIA
Well my first QuakeCon is just behind me, and thought I'd give
you some idea about the lasting impressions
the event has left with me.
Firstly, I have to say that strangely enough the main
thing about QuakeCon may not actually be the gaming. In
fact, while gaming is the tie that binds the whole experience,
I think it's more of a social or sporting event. A place
where people of common interest - old, new and online
friends - meet up, talk, party, let their hair down and
generally have fun together doing their favorite hobby.
In the same way that listening to your favorite band on
an iPod is a great experience, going to see a live concert
with thousands of others is a religious experience; QuakeCon
brings religion to online gaming.
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| Serious mods by serious modders. Three
lucky prize winning contestants were more than happy
to do a photo shoot with two of the VIA booth babes
(right)! |
QuakeCon is also a creative and competitive event. The
1st Annual VIA Master Modder Contest was a huge success
with 3 lucky winners taking home prizes for very creative
mods that went far beyond a few glowing lights and case
windows to a level that would have to be considered craftsmanship.
The 3rd place winner nabbed an ASUS AV8 Delux motherboard
(VIA KT800 Pro chipset of course!) while Sheldon Bright
scooped a nice US$500 check for second prize. The big
winner, however, was John P. Mangus Jr., whose robot on
rollerblade wheels design earned him the grand prize of
US$2000 not only being creative, unique and well built,
but also for being a very competent gaming machine as
well.
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| Some of the winners of the Quakecon
tournaments this year, most notably Fatal1ty, who
dominated the Doom3 contest with ease (left). |
Naturally the major competitive focus at QuakeCon is
on the gaming tournaments. The Quake 3 Arena 1-on-1 Tournament
was won by czm defeating fellow US team member Zero4 to
bag a cool US$25,000, while the self styled Michael Jordan
of gaming Fatal1ty lived up to his reputation by creaming
Daler with style to win the first ever Doom 3 Deathmatch
to pull in US$25,000 as well. Fatal1ty proved he is a
winner and an entertainer by shooting out lights, hiding
in the shadows and watching Daler cruise by and casually
plugging him in the rear much to the delight, awe and
jealousy of the enthusiastic crowd.
Fatal1ty and his handlers are making a concerted effort
to help build PC gaming into a credible sporting event
and if you were at the finals it's not hard to see them
succeeding. If you can imagine a Las Vegas fight night
atmosphere in a posh hotel with VIPs sipping cocktails
in a special section with flashing lights and two massive
screens showing all the action to 1000s of cheering fans,
then you can see the writing on the wall. This is the
element that non-gamers and even gamers who haven't been
to events like this may have trouble fathoming, but once
you've seen it... you're a believer as it leaves a lasting
impression.
First Impressions from a First Timer
By Timothy J. Brown, Project Marketing Manager for
VIA
Wow… Ok, I knew the event was big, as far as LAN gaming
events go, but I have to admit for a first timer that
I was still blown away by the huge line up this morning
of sleeping gamers outside the doors of the QuakeCon 2004
registration area.
The Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center (this
year’s new QuakeCon location) is a beautiful venue with
a nice Texan feel but the gamers roaming the grounds looked
more like rock concert groupies than holiday goers and
it didn’t take long to get into that PC gamer feeling.
The sheer number of people lined up hauling their own
unique “rigs” makes it abundantly clear how crucial to
this hard core gaming market segment their own hardware
is and just how popular QuakeCon is as a Mecca for them
to get out and meet and compete with the gaming elite.
I wouldn’t call myself a hardcore gamer, just the occasional
COD deathmatch with the guys at the office (and yes, I
did slowly plow through Far Cry when I got my new Voodoo
Envy 855 notebook) so you can take my opinions keeping
that in mind.
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| Gamers as far as the eye can see, not
only behind the PCs but also in the line-up for free
pizza (right)! |
Its been obvious for a number of years now that gaming
is one of the most popular sources of entertainment around
the world, and as a competitive event it adds an even
more exciting element into the mix. Watching the crowds
at the Abit booth where their sponsored gaming hero Fatal1ty
was eliminating all comers and the loud cheers that accompanied
one of his rare “near deaths” (no one actually killed
Fatal1ty today), plainly demonstrates that gaming will
also succeed as a spectator sport with an educated audience
that loves to watch their fragging stars in action. His
gaming system of choice (Abit KV8 Pro) uses a VIA K8T800
Pro chipset so the VIA booth is rooting for him. If you
are unaware the KV8 Pro won the coveted Ultimate Doom
3 motherboard on HardOCP’s Ultimate Doom 3 system article.
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| Sponsored gaming hero Fatal1ty in action
at ABIT's booth (left), and the C.O.D. Allies' HQ. |
At our own modest VIA booth we’ve got our Ultimate Fragging
Machine on display. Housed in a Voodoo case it’s an Athlon
64 (754 pin), Abit KV8 Pro Motherboard (with a VIA K8T800
chipset naturally) an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro and 512MB of
Corsair Memory to round out a very solid system. We’ve
also got some interesting mods to inspire those participating
in our upcoming VIA Master Modder contest. One of them
which is a “Humidor Cluster” made by Jeffrey Stephenson
has 5 VIA EPIA Mini-ITX boards inside of a beautiful wooden
humidor running of a single power source. Jeffrey will
be one of the judges in our Master Modder contest, and
if you’ve ever seen any of his work you’ll know why. A
7.1 surround sound speaker system with a large projector
showing off Doom 3 gave people visiting the booth a chance
to enjoy the full experience in an immersive sound environment.
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| Visitors came to look at the many gaming
systems displayed at VIA's booth, such as the "Ultimate
Fragging Machine" (right). |
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| A Mini-ITX gaming rig (left), and VIA's
own Captain Fantastic (a.k.a. Keith Kowal) checking
out Farcry. |
Despite all the hype about the large number of male geeks
that make up a lan party of this size, there are actually
a large number of girls also at the show but strangely
only 24 have signed up for the Miss QuakeCon contest.
We’re making a few videos about the show for you to download
to give you a visual idea of what this show is all about,
but those will be available later this week, if I have
time, between the partying and gaming… oh yes, and the
work.
Because I’ve been manning our booth, shooting video and generally
checking things out I don’t get to do that much actual gaming. One
thing I did make time for though was to visit ActiVision’s “foxhole”
to try out the new of Call of Duty expansion pack United Offensive.
My first impressions of it, mirrors my overall first impression of
QuakeCon… its awesome!
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