Day 2: The Kiss of...

...sleep. The Gathering has a love/hate relationship with the sandman's work. On one carpal-tunneled hand, sleep gets in the way of non-stop fun; on the other equally-constrained-but-not-quite-as-damaged hand, sleep is necessary.

We eventually succumbed to the disease early in the morning of the second day around 0300. We stayed up so late partly because of the jet lag; but, more in part because of the captivating environment that enveloped us.


Our fascination stemmed from several items of interest. First, the shear magnitude of the event had us sitting and soaking up its grandness. Almost 6,000 people, each and every one with their entourage of worldly, technological possessions tends to make one stare. Second, coming from the highly competitive, kill-or-be-ruthlessly-and-quite-graphically-murdered LAN parties in the U.S., the social factor of the event intrigued us.

The event is made up of many more casual gamers and “cool” kids whose other activities include snowboarding, skateboarding, and disturbing society in typical teenage fashion. Additionally, female attendees were quite noticeable at the event (and not because of a contrast to the geeky stereotype). There was actually a larger percentage of girls than would be in the U.S. and they could be commonly found among the rows of computers (though it was sometimes hard to identify the gender of an individual owing to hair length and fashion of certain gamers).


Finally, the last thing that fascinated us and kept us up that morning was the cacophony of sounds that permeated each nook and every cranny of the arena. The BOOM-KISH KISH BOOM-KISH KISH of techno arose from not only the loudspeakers above, but also from the sponsor booths and individual gaming stations. Quite a few gamers brought their 20” subwoofers to bless the surrounding players with their unfortunate taste in trance music. The most awesome sound (and my favorite part of the Gathering) was the hue and cry raised at random approximately every 30 minutes. One particularly emotional gamer would stand up on a chair and yell at the top of his lungs. The players immediately around him would pick up the hue and cry; spreading like wildfire and reminiscent of Viking battle cries, the noise would start at one end the stadium, swell, and then die at the far end. Such is life at the Gathering.


But even that can't delay the inevitable; in the end, sleep catches us all...