Shoutie

[Rexer]

WOW! MaxisCactus is a very talented lady. Just doodling? Looks rather impressive to me.

Agreed! That's some artistic talent! When I first saw that picture, I assumed that those were just 'panels' specially made for community days like these.

When we walked into that room around noon, that wall was blank. After playing Spore for a while, I looked around the room and noticed that Theresa had picked up a marker and started drawing. She did the creature on the left first - the one holding the sign, then she put the marker down and walked around the room more to see how everyone was doing. When no one needed questions answered, after a while she went back to the art work and did the space ship and the creatures to the right. Remember too, she is the Community Director; her job isn't to be an artist Although, she is said by others at Maxis to have made some of the absolute best creatures. Check out her Sporepedia Profile and browse the creatures she has made.

Wow! Sounds like it was a very well organised event Rex!

It was. MaxisCactus communicated with all of us extensively the two weeks leadng up to the event and getting all our travel arrangements. I do'nt know who was behind all the organization, but the event calendar was well-planned to allow time for tours of the offices and studio, to talk to the developers in casual settings, an extensive demo of Spore by Caryl, time to play the game, and the Q&A time. I can't think of anything they could have done to add to our experience. One of the most interesting parts of the day for me was talking to the other fan site owners back at the hotel lobby afterward while waiting for our limos to pick us up. There's something: We each had separate limos, even if we were leaving at the same time on the same airline. xDreamache and I were even on the same flight back to Atlanta! We would have liked to consider our conversation in the car, but we rode tandem in separate limos. (By dumb luck, he ended up sitting in First Class for the 4-hour flight to Atlanta, lucky bastard! )

And you met dr Vu !

Yes, I was pretty impressed at meeting the famous, Doctor Vu! I believe I have seen his name associated with Maxis products since that great credits roll in SC2000.

Commies!

LOL! I thought someone would snap a picture of that. At the time we were around it, it was early upon our arrival and Sarah was talking to us about what we could and couldn't snap photos of, so I was reluctant to. I know now that it would have been OK, but at that moment I was a bit timid about snapping everything I saw. It's a hilarious poster someone made.

I also saw that several people had Spore-branded items like lunchboxes. We recieved Spore bumper stickers in our visitor's gift bags. Also in there were a CD-ROM with some goodies on it, a Spore T-Shirt, a copy of the Creature Creator full version, autographed by Will, and a large wall poster of our own Creature avatars.

Great pictures Rex! Looks like you had a great time, and you don't look too shabby either.
I imagine people who work at Maxis have a great time by their office design. So open and airy.

Thanks. Yes, the Maxis folks are incredibly creative as a group and individually. So you'll see lots of personalization including their own artwork designs at their desks.

[Gil]

What? You have an autographed Creature Creator *goes green*

[Rexer]

Yep. Of course the greatest thing was to get to meet all the terrific people at Maxis who make these great games for us, and to meet the other site owners and get involved in cross-pollinating sites and ideas for a greater sense of community. But i have to tell you, the autographed creature creator was pretty cool. You won't be seeing my copy of it on ebay.

Here is the building that houses Maxis offices. There is another floor in the building behind this building.


Once we arrived, MaxisSarah danced a soft shoe number for us. Just kidding. Here she is giving us an introduction to the tour.

Maxis has a 3D printer that can create anything out of modeling material. These are creatures made by Maxis developers and printed using sand and glue. They are very fragile. Recently they enjoyed some Spore snacks, comprised of creatures printed from chocolate, and gummy creature candies.

Everyone at Maxis is incredibly well-organized. The cubicles are always neat and tidy. There is a place for everything, and everything is always in its proper place. (yeah, right!) These photos can be clicked to link to the full-size versions.

01 02 03 04

05 06 07

[usman]

Great pics Rex! Waiting for you to post in-game pics.

[Rexer]

Great pics Rex! Waiting for you to post in-game pics.

Sorry, you probably missed it when I said this:

We were allowed several hours to play Spore, but not to take photos, screen shots, or videos of the screen while doing so.

However, we were allowed to take pictures and video of the demo. The Demo was Caryl playing the game and showing us how it all works. I have video of that. However, I am having difficulty editing it. Refer to the games & Computers forum, the Technical Assistance thread, and if you can help me solve the problem, then I can make video clips of some of the various areas of Spore, including the screens while Caryl was playing it.

[toroca]

I'm honestly a little surprised at the apparent average age of the fansite owners. I uess we're past the days when videogame fansites were all owned and operated by teenagers, eh?

Waiting for more...

[Jirnsum]

Then again: think of the average age of people here (both the community as the staff )

[Nick C.T.]

LOL! The Homer in the last pic sold it for me. I want to work there! It seems like they can have a lot of fun unlike other companies. Though I'm sure some other companies in the industry have it that way, like Microsoft. Yeah, right.

[Rexer]

It will take this photo a long time to appear because it is ni the upload queue behind a large video. But once it does appear, it will be cool.

[Jirnsum]

from the frontpage

Complete List of Community Day Experiences

MaxisCactus has just informed us that a short recap of the Spore Community day has been posted at the official Spore site. A list of participating sites, with links to their reports can be found there, along with some pictures (we can see Rex playing along on a laptop in the top middle photo).

[Nick C.T.]

Great pictures! Although it seems like Rex didn't have a laptop in that one picture. That bird creature is awesome.

[Rexer]

Why didn't we ever get a BAT of this building? California Place in Walnut Creek was offered early on, but the Emeryville building after the move was never BAT-ed that I know about.

[Rexer]

It will take this photo a long time to appear because it is ni the upload queue behind a large video. But once it does appear, it will be cool.

And it is finally uploaded.

[Gil]

You @!#$$%^#$%)!% !

[Jirnsum]

[Rexer]

I have to say, it's a real gem. I am not an autograph seeker. I think this is the second autograph I have ever gotten in my life. The first was G. Gordon Liddy in 1982 on the cover of his autobiography when he spoke at my college, but that is enough about that. This one, though, is a great one, and I will be keeping it in a safe place.

[Rexer]

Simphoni is continuing its Spore Community Day coverage with the release of two exclusive videos from the event. The first is a video of the Demonstration of Spore by Caryl (MaxisLucky) Shaw, showing in-game action. The second video covers the Q&A session with the developers. In our podcast special episode on Sunday, we already parsed out specific questions and answers from both of these events, but now you can see some of the in-game screens, and watch the developers as they discuss elements of Spore.

Unfortunately, my camera batteries and memory were limited, and so I only captured about the first 2/3rds of the demo and about the first half of the Q&A. Still, there is a lot of information in these videos, and the important bits in the portions that I didn't get were covered in the podcast.

[usman]

Nice video! I had to wait quite a while for it to load, but in the end it was worth it!

[Jirnsum]

http://hikispore.blogspot.com/2008/08/spor...s-day-us-5.html

Simphoni heeft op deze pagina een nieuwe video online gezet van de Spore Fansites Day, 8 dagen geleden, op het hoofdkantoor van Maxis in Amerika.

translation:

Simphoni put a new video online of the Spore Fansites Day, 8 days ago, at Maxis HQ in America

EDIT: http://forums.electronicarts.co.uk/spore-g...ty-day-vid.html (no translation needed )

[Andro]

Maxisians

They were Maxoids in 2001, have they changed it since?

That was all pretty awesome, Maxis HQ used to be the one place on Earth I most wanted to go. I guess now I don't really have one....