| Event: Nvision 08 (aka GeForce LAN 5 - LAN Party) Event Date: 08/08/2008 Written By: Warhawk Date Written: 02/16/2026 |
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The Lead Up
It was summer of 2008 and I was just starting the second year of my job at EA. I was planning one of the big yearly EA press events and I was in need of quite a bit of PC’s with which to run game demos on. The previous year I had begun working with Nvidia for events where I needed to borrow PC’s for demos and they had been very accommodating.
This year Nvidia had just brought on a new person that would be managing relations with companies like EA. She set up a meeting between me and my colleague at EA to introduce herself and to discuss our needs for EA’s upcoming event. Her name was Rika and she brought with her a guy named Roy Taylor. Roy handed me his card and it said VP of Content Relations. To be honest, I didn’t consider this meeting to be all that important, so I was surprised and confused as to why they sent such a high level executive.
After telling them what I needed for my event Roy did a lot of hand waving and said things along the lines of “yeah, yeah of course, not a problem”. Then I quickly found out the real reason he was there - to pitch us to be a sponsor for Nvision 08. He went on to explain that Nvision was not *just* another GeForce LAN, but it was also a convention that showcases all sorts of cutting edge digital technology (all powered by Nvidia of course). Being a big fan of LANs and GeForce LANs in particular I was enthusiastic about the idea. I told him that I was a big PC gamer and regular LAN party participant. He asked me what kind of video card I used, and I told him I was on the previous generation Nvidia card. He then said something along the lines of “I can fix that” and explained that I should really be using the new nvidia cards in SLI, implying that he was going to give me two new cards with which to do this (which he later did).
It all sounded great, but our participation was not really up to me, or even to my department. I took their information and pitched it to the various marketing teams to see if they wanted to participate, and a few of them did. In the months leading up to Nvision I was in contact with Rika about Nvidia support on a few more of my EA events. It was getting more and more difficult to get timely responses from Nvidia and it was clear that they were all completely overloaded with planning Nvision. I noticed over time a distinct shift from optimistic excitement about Nvision, to a definite feeling that they had gotten in way over their heads. They even mentioned a few times that they were going way over budget with the event, and as an event planner myself I know how easily that can happen. Without having prior experience it is extremely easy to underestimate the amount of planning and cost that goes into events, and this was definitely Nvidia’s first shot at any type of event of this magnitude.
For EA’s part they committed to setting up a number of kiosks that would show off some of the upcoming EA games. I don’t recall all of the games that were shown, but remember Mirror’s Edge, and Battlefield Heroes being involved. I volunteered myself to help with the Mirrors Edge kiosk for a few hours so that I could have a reason to come to the event for free.
Pre-Planning / Seating
The event was set for August 27th, 2008 and in the weeks leading up to the event, much pre-planning was done, especially in regards to seating arrangements.
There was some sort of deal made between Nvidia and an all female gaming clan called Pandora’s Mighty Soldiers - aka the PMS Clan... see what they did there? As part of this deal, the PMS Clan would be “hosting” the LAN area, and doing various contests and announcements on stage (more on that later). Nvidia reserved a large 600 seat area in the front and center of the LAN area that was dubbed the “Girl Gamer Zone.”
The description on the FAQ was as follows:
In an effort to support women in gaming, NVIDIA and PMS Clan have partnered up to create a female-friendly environment for women gamers at GeForce LAN. An entire section of the BYOC called Girl Gamer Zone has been dedicated for female gamers. The Girl Gamer Zone is open to all female gamers and will have its own dedicated tournament and fun activities.
Everyone who registers for the Girl Gamer Zone can also participate in the GeForce LAN official amateur tournaments and fun activities.
Out of the 600 seats in the Girl Gamer Zone, 300 seats were reserved for PMS members as well as their male counterpart Clan H20. PMS also opened up these seats to “friends of PMS” as well, which is how TMC ended up in this area.
Ocho, Dima and a few other TMC members had become Nvidia SLI Ambassadors, which were a special group of consumer volunteers that helped with the event and provided input on how things should be done from a consumer point of view. It helped to have guys on the inside and during one of these meetings they talked with Amber, the leader of PMS, and she offered to let TMC sit in the PMS area (also worth noting, Dima was dating PMS Missy at the time).
We rallied the troops, and organized everyone to register and reserve seats along designated tables in the PMS area. A bit of a wrench was thrown into this when Nvidia announced that as part of the LAN they would be trying to set a Guinness World Record (GWR) for most people gaming together over a 72 hour period. Anyone that wanted to be a part of the record had to sit in a special world record area so that representatives from Guinness could observe them and ensure they were actually playing the entire 72 hours and not sleeping.
A few TMC members split off to be a part of that, but even so TMC had a full 2 rows of members in the PMS area. An impressive showing to be sure; our TMC banner was hoisted above our main table and could be seen throughout the LAN area. To the surprise of no one, at the end of the day, the 600 seat “Girl Gamer Zone” ended up being composed of about 90% dudes.
The LAN
Apparently there were also some sort of pro gaming finals or tournaments of some kind going on. Not being a pro gamer myself I paid virtually zero attention to what went on there.
For those of us in the LAN area, as per typical corporate LAN event style there was a stage set up with a PA system in which regular raffles and contests took place. It provided a welcome distraction and gave people a reason to get out of their seats, move around and most importantly win cool prizes. Typically when it comes to the contests, the goofier the better. Some past contests of this nature at other LAN events involved seeing how many marshmallows the contestants could fit in their mouths, peanut butter eating contests, dance offs, and various physical challenges.
Since the PMS Clan was given charge of the LAN area, they ran all of the goofy giveaway contests on stage. Unfortunately, many in attendance felt most of the contests seemed aimed at belittling or humiliating the contestants rather than making it goofy fun. Maybe they were trying to be edgy, but it just had a bit of a weird vibe.
One example of this occurred during the pushup contest when the PMS leader said “do ya’ll know where a man should be when he’s in front of a lady? ... on their knees!” followed by barking out the orders “assume the position!”. One contest objective was to be the first to bring an XL condom to the stage, and another involved making one guy give a lapdance to another guy.
The lapdance contest apparently got enough complaints from attendees that Nvidia had to step in and tell PMS to tone it down. We know Nvidia gave them a warning because, in a rather unprofessional move, the PMS leader unapologetically complained about it onstage the next day. She also attempted (unsuccessfully) to rally support from the crowd saying “I want an agreement, that after the show, you go and tell the Nvision folks that are headin it that you loved the lapdance, and that you loved the arm wrestling. Alright? Please, help a sista out!” To which the crowd responded with mostly silence.
One last additional story about one of the PMS stage presentations comes from [TMC]Hybridchemistry:
I attended much of this LAN, decided to forgo the GWR event in order to sleep and enjoy the LAN. However, after watching one of the PMS stage events, sleep would not come easy. I'm not talking about the demeaning acts they made poor gamers perform, but rather a feat of strength for malnourished young men.
I've seen many different contests at LANs, musical chairs being my favorite, but nothing as grotesque as the arm wrestling contest that one of the blond PMS ladies decided to hold for a computer case. Being young and bright eyed, I was right up in front watching this event. Two poor gamers got down on one knee across a boxed computer case and grasped hands, not in peace, but in battle. On cue from the sadist PMS overlord, they started. Hand grasping hand, muscles (the small amount that there were) flexing, straining, teeth gritted in determination, the NEED TO WIN. The battle raged on, both struggling for something they clearly wanted, but one wanted it more than the other. It was clear that the battle was winding down, as one guy had gotten to about 2 o'clock when suddenly in a rally of strength the other pushed forward back to 12 noon! But it was too much. The soon to be winner rallied his own strength, and gave push- SNAP.
You ever take celery, or carrots for a salad or some other dish, and break them by hand instead of chopping them up? You know that sound of threads of the celery or veins of brittle carrot breaking? That's the sound that echoed in my head. And through my eyes, I saw not just the looser, but the victor look on in horror as the looser's arm sat twisted back towards 3pm with his shoulder in the same place as it was. The loser looked up at the PMS overlord who looked down with her own confused and horrified stare, and leaned into her, as if for comfort.
I honestly can't imagine what kind of comfort you can get for ripping a tendon in your elbow. But I know for sure not to let malnourished gamers participate in feats of strength against one another.
A medical team showed up a few minutes later and I think the next day I saw the guy who had lost an arm wrestling contest for a computer case back at the LAN, but I can't imagine he had too good of a time.
Regarding the LAN itself, GotNoRice posted a nice summary that outlines the areas of improvement. This was posted on the GeForce forums on 08/29/2008:
I got there probably about 9:30am on Monday, not too early but not too late either (about an hour from my house) and was pleasantly surprised that the XFX lot still had plenty of spaces available. There were also spots available the other two days after I left to a friends house (to sleep) and came back (also around 9:30).
On the first day however, after unloading my computer onto my dolly and heading out from the XFX lot, I ran into my first problem. The XFX lot was right across from the Convention center but the convention center is a huge building and it’s pretty awkward walking around Downtown San Jose with a dolly full of computer equipment. I was not very familiar with the area and there wasn’t a single sign indicating which way we were supposed to go to get our badges/equipment check-in. Considering that the XFX lot was a pretty big lot I don’t think one sign pointing to the front door would have been a big deal. I took a gamble and asked someone with a badge (though not a Geforce LAN badge, still didn’t see anyone else from the LAN at that point) where to go and was pointed in the right direction.
Once I found my way to the convention center Main Entrance, I ran into a bit more trouble with there being a lack of signs. After asking a few more people I was directed to the GeForceLAN Check-in on the 2nd floor where there was surprisingly no line at all.
For my 24” LCD I kept the cardboard and Styrofoam from when I bought it and use it to transport it at LANs. I was a bit annoyed that they demanded that I take my LCD out of it’s box in order to tag it, since it was going to be inside the box on the way in to the LAN and inside the box on the way out of the LAN wouldn’t it make sense to tag the box instead of the monitor itself? Un-strapping it from the dolly and taking it out of the box for basically no reason was pointless.
Once that was taken care of I made my way through the impressive two levels of security into the BYOC and didn’t have too much trouble finding my seat based on orientation to the stage and where my friends were sitting.
Power at the event was great; I don’t recall hearing or seeing a single power failure at any of the tables. The LAN on the other hand, was incredibly sub-par. Gigabit has been standard at LAN events for a good 5+ years now, yet not only were we limited to ancient mid-90’s style 100Mbit but the event was segregated in such a way that computers in one section of the BYOC could not directly see computers in other sections of the BYOC in many situations! Dropping the ball on the LAN at a LAN Party is pretty lame.
The stage events I thought were sort of hit or miss. I have a lot of respect for PMS clan, especially given the good relations between them and our clan (TMC) but suffice it to say that public humiliation isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. I can’t help but echo some of the same complaints others had about the way things were handled on stage.
I thought the GWR definitely had its pros and cons. It was something new and different and many of the participants definitely enjoyed themselves, but it also had the effect of segregating the event. To a large extent it felt like the people in the GWR vs. the people in the regular BYOC area weren’t even at the same LAN Party. Maybe, at best, you could jump in the same game server and play a bit but in the end that’s only as good as internet gameplay and not really what a LAN is all about. A LAN is just as much a social event as it is a gaming event and it’s not atypical to spend just as much time talking and catching up with friends as gaming at a LAN party. The nature of the GWR attempt precluded any sort of social interaction on this level as people in the GWR would have had to use their limited break time.
I was surprised that for an event of this size that there was a relatively limited selection of games being played. Even games that are still semi-popular, such as BF2, weren’t played much at all during the event. Games that were played, such as TF2, usually had one full 24-man server and several other empty or significantly less full servers. There was certainly the potential at the event to have a more diverse selection of game servers as well as to raise the population cap. No huge 64+man servers in any games? That sort of thing used to be the highlight of LANs like these! Many of the GWR people spent a significant amount of time playing games they wouldn’t otherwise have played (or modes such as co-op, etc) at the LAN, but did so for the express purpose of passing time as quickly and as easily as possible. While that may have made their attempt go smoother it only helped to exacerbate the problems of the GWR folk seeming segregated from the general BYOC as well as cutting down on the overall selection of real LAN games being played.
The closing events with the Mythbusters was great to watch and the amazing amount of prizes that were given out, though it took a long time, was pretty impressive. Overall it was a good event with the potential to be an amazing event, IMO.
The Expo and Stage Performances
Regarding the whole of Nvision 08, the event itself was huge. It took up all of the San Jose Convention center and nothing like it had ever been seen in the history of LAN events. A huge green carpet led up the walkway to the entrance, and event the fountains in the front of the convention center were spraying Nvidia green water. The tradeshow area of the event was very large and had a variety of vendors. There was a theater area set up to show off various 3D presentations and other tech demos or screenings. One of the screenings was a movie called “Fly Me To the Moon” and they even brought in some actual astronauts to be a part of it, including Buzz Aldrin himself. This was pretty awesome, as it’s not everyday you get to meet someone that walked on the moon and is a genuine part of not only American history, but world history.
In the nearby San Jose Center for the Performing Arts there was a stage show by none other than the Mythbusters. Part of their stage show included demonstrating a monstrous 1100 barrel paintball machine that created a “painting” of the Mona Lisa in a single simultaneous shot of all barrels at once. It was quite entertaining and only tenuously linked to anything to do with Nvidia. Apparently they were attempting to illustrate the parallel processing abilities of Nvidia GPU’s (or something).
During the evening, across the street at the San Jose Civic Auditorium there was a complementary performance of “Video Games Live” which was a traveling concert series wherein a live orchestra would play iconic music from popular video games. I was able to get front row seats to this and I found it to be enjoyable and definitely worth checking out.
Side Story
As you may remember from the GeForce 3 chapter, Quemine and his buddy Voodoo had gone out and bought EVGA brand GeForce 8800 cards the minute they were launched at GeForce 3. They brought them to the LAN and had the cards as well as the boxes autographed by Jen Hsun (the Nvidia CEO) and actress Adrianne Curry. EVGA who was a GeForce LAN sponsor caught wind of this, and shortly after the event posted up pictures of QueMine and Voodoo offering to give them a full refund in exchange for the autographed boxes (they would get to keep the cards, essentially making them free). Unfortunately, none of us saw this website until years later when a few months before Nvision one of us discovered it.
EVGA would be a sponsor of Nvision, and Quemine and Voodoo planned to bring their autographed cards and boxes to see if EVGA would still honor their offer.
They presented their cards to EVGA who was very interested. From what I remember the guy at the EVGA booth had to find his manager to see what they were allowed to offer them. In the meantime, a company called Palit caught wind of this. Palit was an established brand in Europe but was a newcomer to the American video card market, and anxious to make a name for themselves. They decided to step in and make their own offer on these now famous cards. A bidding war between EVGA and Palit ensued. Quemine was torn as to which offer to take. He came to me regularly during the event and gave me updates on the latest offer and asked for advice on how to maximize the opportunity.
Eventually Palit came through with the best offer, and QueMine and Voodoo each came away with special edition GTX 280’s (at the time, the best card available). Each card was outfitted with nickel plated Danger Den waterblocks, and each received a DangerDen watercooling kit to go with the cards.
Unfortunately the sad end to this story happened after the event. Quemine kept in contact with the Palit marketing guy, and in an effort to keep the tradition of signed video cards alive, he made an arrangement with the Palit rep to have his new card autographed by the Palit CEO. Quemine sent his card in, but never received it back despite numerous follow up emails that went ignored.
Soon after, Palit’s efforts to break into the American market fell apart completely, causing them to abandon the market entirely. This all took place right around the time QueMine was asking for Palit to return his card. Sadly, Quemine never received anything back from Palit.
Summary
While there were definite areas of improvement, especially in regards to the LAN setup and raffles; it was by far the largest and most ambitious corporate LAN event / expo I have seen. Pulling off an event of that magnitude was quite an amazing and impressive feat and the Nvidia staff involved deserve major credit. I am glad I was able to be a part of the event, and hope that someday they decide to do another.
Pictures by Warhawk:
Photographer unknown:
