On Thursday, July 2nd, the THQ*ICE team attended Anime Expo 2009 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Armed with wallscrolls, Closed Beta Test invitations, in-game Anime Expo balloon codes, "Wings of Paris" stickers and new video content on a flatscreen plasma playing nonstop, the crew settled in for the long haul in our beautifully designed corner booth on Aisle 400. We loaded up Dragonica Online on our four demo machines, turned the gameplay trailer up and braced for the onslaught of 50,000 attendees eager to begin their journey to the world of dragons. The clock struck noon, the PA system declared Anime Expo 2009 open, the convention hall doors opened...The next 96 hours is largely a blur of incredible cosplay, thousands of free stickers and learning how to yell above the din to announce raffle results. Booth visitors ranged from the uninitiated to dedicated forum members. Hundreds of new Passports were registered. The wallscroll giveaways yielded audiences that filled the aisles around the booth. Sadly, the event wasn't without casualties. One of the demo machines overheated and failed to locate its hard drive after its third reboot. Thankfully, the humans promoting Dragonica Online persevered and endured. When the PA system announced Anime Expo 2009 closed on July 5th, the Dragonica Online team walked away not only with an incredibly successful event which saw all of our wallscrolls, CBT invites and stickers claimed but also with the knowledge of how to make our next event even bigger, better and more undeniably awesome.
Arigato and sayonara, Anime Expo 2009! Comic-Con looms in the not-so-far-off distance and we are ready for it because of your teachings.
