Two weeks ago, the Spike TV network held their annual Video Game Awards show, or VGAs for short. The official PlayStation Blog held a meetup to celebrate 17 nominations awarded to various PlayStation games in Hollywood, and I was lucky enough to live in the area to attend.
The day began as it never does in almost perpetually-sunny Southern California – raining. Not just raining, but pouring, windy and just a hazard to drive on the freeway. Knowing how much fun these meetups are, however, provides for more than enough incentive to brave the elements and drive down to the rendezvous point. In this case, it was the Capitol City sports bar.
I arrived at around 1:45 PM after about 40 minutes of drenched freeway that slowed the traffic down. To the speed limit. There was valet parking around the back which only cost $7. When I got to the bar, a Sony worker saw my Home shirt and told me to sign in on the list at the front counter. Although I was over two hours early, my name ended up number 63 on the list! The place was practically empty, however, indicating that those before me simply signed in and then left to go explore Cahuenga Boulevard or simply just avoid having to pay to stay out of the rain. I just took a seat in the room to the left and ordered a lowly coke. I chatted with Emanuel Merino from rpgamer.com, and we passed the time in the bar talking, checking e-mail or even watching whatever was playing on the many televisions surrounding us.
4:00 PM. The event is almost underway. Emanuel and I get chased out of the main room because they have to prep it for the party. So we get to wait in the front lounge, outside of the cold rain where now a long line had formed. We got a few looks in our direction, perhaps of jealousy because we were nice and dry. They started letting people in and I ended up second in line!
I was handed my raffle ticket, and was instructed to fill out a name tag and take a ballot to vote for my choices in various categories. I filled out a name tag, grabbed a ballot and pen and picked a perfect seat. I could see the large projector in front clearly and the center table was right in front of me. The event started with I believe Chris Morell from the PS.Blog announcing some of the Naughty Dog team that were there with us that night. A few minutes before the show kicks off, I get up to have my swag autographed by the team. I brought a copy of Uncharted 2 and a longsleeve tee-shirt I had nabbed at the E3 2009 PS.Blog meetup this past June. While I saw others wearing the shirt, I was the only one who brought it to get signed, and the Naughty Dog team commented on how much they liked the idea. Besides, out of all the PlayStation-related shirts I have collected over the years, my favorite is still the Home shirt, no offense to the awesome Uncharted 2 longsleeve.
