Back from SDCC 2011

I finally made it to a San Diego Comic-Con.  I think this is the only one I'll go to though.  While it was a fun time, and I definitely enjoyed the opportunity to go and see the spectacle, it just doesn't work for me.  The crowds are massive, and I expected as much.  However, I seriously misunderstood the lines.  There are lines for everything!  Being a con-regular, I expected lines for the bigger panels, however, I didn't expect that to get into a 10:00AM panel, you'd have to camp out overnight, or that getting there when the doors opened and waiting in line for 4.5 hours was a normal thing.  Hall H is where the big reveals take place, and it seemed that would take a good 12 hour wait, as people would camp out overnight for that as well.  Hell, I wanted to get a T-shirt, and there was a massive line for that!  Want to pre-register for next year?  Camp out overnight and hope you can make the 2 hour window they're accepting pre-registrations.  It's just too much, and I'm not a 19 year old kid anymore.

So what did I see?  The Star Wars Kinect panel was okay, then they announced the R2D2 bundle, which I prompty pre-ordered.  The C3-P0 controller is too cool.  I also sat in on the Old Republic panel, which was very cool.  I got a preorder code from the panel and need to go ahead and get that taken care of.  I like that they're doing a limited launch and really keeping the server populations in check at the beginning.  Also, having completely different stories without repeating quests is a huge win in my book.  I like that they're doing all spoken dialog, but I wonder just how big that game is going to be?   If WoW is a 5.something gb client, will this be 10?  I caught an advance screening of the third Torchwood Miracle Day episode.  Wasn't really expecting the cast to show up for it, but they did, and were fantastic.  I've been a bit cool on the show so far, but episode 3 seems to have them doing more Torchwood type stuff, so there is hope for the series.  The Battlestar Galactica panel was somewhat disappointing.  They didn't go into Blood and Chrome much at all, not even some video.  They did show a gag reel which was entertaining, but I suspect that can be found online.  I also caught the Big Bang Panel, which didn't really offer much.  Finally, the last noteworthy panel was The Guild.  They showed episode 1 of Season 5 and it was good, and they were a delightful bunch to listen to.  I wished that panel lasted longer than an hour, but oh well. 

Well, Dragon*Con is less than 40 days away.  I have decided that I'm no longer going to attempt to go to any of the large panels, and will leave those to the kids who are willing to waste a whole day standing in a line.  Me, I'll be happy hanging around the Star Wars track, and loitering at the 501st/Rebel Legion tables.