1000heads gaming night
On the evening of Wednesday the 5th of July I met up with a work-mate (who shall henceforth be referred to as Matt) and we headed over to 1000Heads HQ for an evening of gaming. They are based over in Piccadilly Circus, so it was only a few stops on the tube after arriving at London Waterloo.
In retrospect I should have taken a few more pictures and talked to a few more people, but I still managed to meet few more interesting people. :)
We were initially greeted by Nicola (@NicolaJ88) (Apologies again for constantly forgetting your name and calling you Claire!) and shortly after by Lauren (@idreamelectric).
Awaiting us were some lovely cupcakes and a few snacks and drinks. The ice cold water available just inside the entrance was more than welcome given all the heat!
Awesomely geeky cupcakes
I arrived at the same time as Jonathon Choo (@jonchoo), author of a blog and the owner of some very cool mini business cards and Jenifer (@hardij) so we naturally got chatting straight off. There were a few people there already, and try as I might, I never really got round to saying hi to all of them.. Those I did manage to say hi to I (sometimes) forgot their names/twitter accounts *facepalm*. Arianna (@arianna) was also there near the start but had to head off at short notice before we had a chance to chat.
Shortly after Melinda Seckington(@mseckington) author of a blog on all things geeky arrived and not too long after that Cristiano Betta (@cbetta) (why yes, he does have a website too!) showed up. Melinda brought up the topic of unified identities (a name spread across twitter, websites, email etc). Whilst it may help newer readers identify her uniform identity – what about the “goodwill” associated with the name? Her current social circle, her followers etc will know her by her current twitter name, but changing it – how many will adapt quickly? – will the name lose associations built with the twitter following? Matt provided a counter point in that he can separate his identi.ca account and his twitter account for his open source activities and general ones. He found it quite a useful thing to be able to do.`
We spent a lot of time chatting then eventually the pizza arrived!
We dug in and chatted some more.
There were some consoles set up (image courtesy of jon choo) so a few of use started playing while others continued to chat and eat pizza.
Left to right: Arianna's foot? Melinda, Chris Illman (womworldNokia), Natalie, Tom scott, cristiano, abul (@adonisdemon), matt and Jon (far right).
We had a little mario kart tournament (groups of 4 – top 2 went through). We had a little trouble with connectivity – but eventually got the wiimotes working thanks to Matt.
Whilst I was awaiting my turn I had a quick drop into the offices. All of those desks there on the right belong to the WoM World Nokia team!
Nokia are one of 1000heads.com's biggest customers – and they manage to take up about half of their desks!
One of my early matches again Matt (I’ll link to his blog as soon as he gets his servers back up ;) ), Chris Alexander (he has some pics over at his site as well) and Jess Ratcliffe (@GaBoomTweet) – someone else I didn’t even manage a brief chat with!
A quick picture before the match started.
After starting out holding the wiimote the wrong way I eventually managed to reach the finals against Tom scott, Matt and Cristiano
Total Concentration in the final!
The order of podium positions:
4. Cristiano
3. Fauz (me!)
2. Tom Scott
1. Matt C.
Lauren promptly brought out prizes.
I, and the other finalists, won mariokart pull-back-racers
I was playing as yoshi too, so well chuffed!
After taking a group photo (thanks to Jon).
Shortly after the pic we had a quick race with out little toys. Cristiano had amazing technique and consistently finished first (distance wise).
Whilst we did have a lot of fun I feel there was a downside to it. I believe that Lauren briefly mentioned that I was rather focused.
I’m not sure how long I was playing for – but all that time I don’t recall conversing with anyone.
I think because I’d gotten so far I didn’t want my take my eyes off of the thing for fear of coming last – but perhaps should’ve been more laid back and talked to people while playing.
The fact that I have recognised this negative trait is good thing and it means that I can work on trying to interact more at these events – enjoy myself and NOT be so competitive.
Amongst the other attendees were Craig Richards(@geekcomputers) and Luca Massaro(@iamluca) apologies if I’ve forgotten anyone else’s names (do let me know! I know for a fact that I didn’t get everyone’s twitter accounts e.g. Godfrey’s)
I would like to thank 1000Heads for their offices, Lauren for hosting, running around all day and trying to get stuff set up and Nicola for co-hosting.
For those of you wondering why I’ve not been posting regularly – I’ve been a incredibly busy in my day job!
I’ll aim for at least one a week.
Fauz.
An insight into my development, opinion and most importantly a chance to share my knowledge with you. Big on tech, bigger geek. Opinions are my own, not my employer's.
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Looks like you had fun I see!!
And glad to see you beat Cristiano ;) But clearly, you’re just not good enough, if Tom Scott, and Matt beat you!