BEN has 388 chronicles

1. BEN in 2008
   

   Player Chronicle -- Posted on Jan 14 2009

   As I wrote in my recent Mentally Preparing To Drop "BEN in 2008" GoG Chronicle, I struggled to decide whether this memoir was appropriate to place online.
   
   After thinking about it and editing a few parts out, I've decided that this video game community is what fueled a lot of the adventures, so why not share it with the project and people that drive me?! It's a novel-sized Chronicle, but I would sure appreciate a comment/bookmark or two, so if you can make it through the reading, let me know what you think!
   
   FYI - This was written in a single writing session and was added to, during a single editing session. The lines within the story represent page breaks. ENJOY
   
   
   As I embark on (and I just wanted to start it that way, haha) thoughts of this year and all that as happened in 2008, it’s hard not to shake my own head in the thoughts of what I’ve done, where I’ve been, and how it all happened.
   
   It all started right around this time last year. It was December of 2007 and I was just finishing my best sales year at Captain Jack Communications (with around $250,000 in total web development sales), things were amazing (and still are of course) with Jodie, The Iowa 3v3 Soccer Challenge needed to be sold after a great second annual event in Ankeny, and my new company, Jet Set Studio was working to spread our social network just for gamers, called www.GatheringofGamers.com.
   
   I started to think about the details that I’d like to share in this story, such as Christmas, New Years Eve activities, and other holiday experiences that are pretty fun to begin with, but in order to keep this reviewing story from being a journal and more of a short burst of storytelling, I’m going to get straight to the crazy parts. It seems early in this journey to already mention my idea of “Fueled By GatheringofGamers.com”, but it really is where things start to get interesting!
   
   This custom-built, simplified but powerful little social network of ours had been serving the online video gaming community for only around 3 months, as 2008 came around. Our company had spent the time and good money to develop it through my other company, Captain Jack Communications, but when it came down to it, the skill, drive, and dedication of me is what everything relied upon. We had the tool, but how were people going to find out about it…not to mention enjoy and use it?!
   
   Along with naturally spreading GatheringofGamers.com around the Internet with search engine optimizing techniques that I build into the website every day and sharing it by word of mouth with friends, fellow gamers, and family...we had to get this social network out to the public, when they were not online. We had to make a real-life connection with the friends that we had built this project for, even before we knew these friend’s names. They would become names like codeh4xor, RyuBlitz, Dynafire, Silent Bob, and list does not stop.
   
   
   People started enjoying the website and the fun, but useful networking toys that our new community website had to offer. After speaking at the Science Center of Iowa for web development and video game development, we found a connection to offer “video game management services” to the SCI in the Fall of 2007. Each month, we were to host (which in this case, means do almost everything) a “Gathering of Gamers” video gaming event for the SCI. We took it as an opportunity to start spreading our video game community website and this new event management service with the Des Moines area, by using my 3v3 soccer tournament/event development skills, which had lead to having around 80 teams and 1,000 attendees in 2007.
   
   After a few months of running these monthly “Gathering of Gamers” events, I was able to meet 10 of my friends in Colorado for some amazing snowboarding in Breckenridge twice (because of a snowstorm) and Keystone. Along with the great friends to have fun with, the snowboarding was intense and included journeys to the very top of each mountains, untracked runs among trees, and even a hike up to some untouched powder with a friend named Shad and Jodie’s brother Denny (who worked there during that snow season).
   
   It was planned, but less than a week after returning from snowboarding, we held a full registration tournament at the Science Center of Iowa, called The Inaugural Gathering of Gamers IMAX Tournament. I always have to use spell check on Inaugural by the way, haha. Anyways, we had begun making some great new friends and connections around Iowa. So when this first big event dropped, we had just under 200 participants and probably around 300-400 people in attendance. It was a double elimination marathon (12 hours from start to finish), but it was a total success. The event was managed very successfully by my team, which consisted almost entirely of GoG members! We got our name out a little bit, but didn’t make $1 during the entire relationship with the SCI.
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   Obviously with the video game community website in its infant stage, advertising revenue for a small user base like ours was not paying much of the bills. We were fortunate as support through advertising did come in just at the right times, but after doing so much work for the SCI and feeling somewhat taken advantage of, I suppose it just clicked that this service of ours could be utilized and done very well.
   
   A nice little chain of connections did occur through all the SCI work and the first generation was Children and Families of Iowa’s Kidsfest 2008. This is an all-for-kids type of convention. Families from around the Midwest come to the Iowa State Fairgrounds and close to 16,000 people walked through this all-weekend event. We developed a large and spacious 9 gaming station area in the corner of the convention hall and enjoyed sharing video games of all types, genres, and consoles with the younger generation of kids and their families. Of all that I’m going to mention in the coming pages, I still think this is where we gathered the most gamers into the GoG at one time. I know we’ve come close, so that may not be true anymore, but it was some great new members that we were looking for.
   
   Along with Kidsfest 2008, we were also doing small tournaments for Boston’s Pizza Restaurant, in exchange for some nice (and full priced) banner ads within GatheringofGamers.com. Those events and financial support kept the community growing and allowed us to connect with a very large company at the same time. At Kidsfest 2008, I also met a Roosevelt High School parent who we connected with for a video gaming element at a senior event for their high school. After working three long days at Kidsfest with various other GoG members, this was a small, but nonetheless paying job.
   
   
   I could start every paragraph of this story-like thing I’m writing, with “As the GatheringofGamers.com community continued to grow, my CJC job was doing well, and Jodie was amazing as always”; I’ll only say it here for the sake of paper space
   
   
   So as everything was going very well in 2008, things took a sharp turn for the amazing when a company called Brocade (who is a worldwide, publically traded company!), found us through my search engine work for “Video Game Tournaments” and “Video Game Community”, and emailed me one day, asking about our video game event management services.
   
   Brocade wanted our company to join them in Orlando, Florida to help organize and run a Guitar Hero III element within their Platinum Sponsoring Booth at Microsoft’s Tech-Ed 2008.
   
   Did you just read that? I mean after all the connection work (which went very quick, smooth, and clean) of mine; we were taking a 3-man team to Orlando in order to run a video gaming event at a networking goldmine, put on by the biggest names in technology. That’s not a category of technology, that’s the broader term to cover all those categories, just straight technology! lol
   
   Along with the obvious Microsoft presence, Dell, HP, our client Brocade, Symantec, Intel, Zune, Blackberry, a special secret one called Creative Maven, and hundreds more unknown companies were a part of this short week long convention and IT learning session.
   
   There were…I’ll call them homemade…video game stations that a few companies were trying to use for traffic building towards their company’s booth, but I honestly think that outside of some big prizes that were given away throughout the event, our Brocade booth that Zach, codeh4x0r, and myself put together and managed all week in Orlando, Florida among great people, was the most personal and exciting area within the huge sponsoring area for the event.
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   Brocade was such a treat to work with and after providing them the work we did, I have absolutely no doubt that we’ll work with their team somewhere around the world again soon. Of course, along with working with Brocade, we were there as Jet Set Studio and this was also my chance to network with the biggest names in the IT industry and share our video game event management service (and GoG) with some amazing contacts…not mention show them the crowd we were able to bring in for Brocade! Haha.
   
   
   Anyways, back to this story, which I’m starting to feel is getting pretty long. Brocade had nothing but praise and satisfaction for the work we had done and the friendship we had made with the team. As I mentioned before, along with the great people I was able to meet at Microsoft Tech-Ed, the person that connected some upcoming excitement for 2008 actually was working for an event planning and management service called Creative Maven.
   
   This new friend will come into play in a moment, but with trying to stay in an accurate timeline and after Jodie and I were able to enjoy a Chicago weekend for a Cubs game, architectural tour of downtown, and a great time celebrating her (and I’s birthdays), I suppose The Iowa 3v3 Soccer Challenge being sold to the Waukee Soccer Club was huge, but it was just what needed to happen as CJC and Jet Set Studio were not going to allow this great soccer event to continue to be great, with me as the Tournament Director and sole owner. It was a transitional year for the event, but the 3rd Annual Iowa 3v3 Soccer Challenge still took place and we had two beautiful days of soccer in Waukee’s fields of dreams, haha. It’s very cool to sell a company that I built from the ground up by myself, but I wouldn’t go very far without thanking everyone who helped carry out the planning and execution of this event three years and counting!
   
   
   It’s time now, for the E3 adventure in California.
   
   Even being a gamer most of my life, I did not pay much attention to the convention scene, but I did know what E3 was. As we conceptualize this GatheringofGamers.com project, one of my personal long-term goals was to attend this event. Becoming an invite-only type of event that was regulated very strictly, if I would be able to attend E3, it meant in my own mind, that I had developed a small place in the video game industry.
   
   The story is crazy at this point I’m afraid, but I heard about a Guitar Hero event at the Mega Mall in Minneapolis on a Friday morning. I had already made weekend plans, but I told Zach (who is amazing at all music games, but Guitar Hero especially) to make a quick decision and jump up there for this event that was to be held the next morning. He decided to go! He had fun, met up with my good friend CJ, and made a contact there that would lead me to the Status Quo MLG team and KSI Global.
   
   That was a long paragraph for trying to share that Minneapolis piece of the puzzle, but it ended up connecting me with the founder and CEO of KSI Global. I soon found out I would be able to get an E3 invite through him, but my flight left in less 24 hours to Los Angeles, California and I had to figure out, how it could work.
   
   It did work. I was able to seriously enjoy E3 2008 within even a year of going online with the project I wanted to guide me here! lol
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   While at the E3 convention, I was able to meet with amazing developers who were on the top of this game and playing directly with so many of them was something I will not forget. Shaun White Snowboarding (Wii) was my favorite, but I’m yet to pick it up because it’s the only reason I’d buy a Wii Balance Board. Owell.
   
   Anyways, I met some awesome contacts, made friends, and most notable (so far) was getting to know the KSI Global organization. This was a huge clan that had been established for a very long time. It was a pleasure enjoying many different elements of E3 with those guys and I thank them for letting me join in on the fun.
   
   As I consider my favorite parts from this adventure, almost connecting our GoG logo on the back of a few fighters’ shorts in the upcoming UFC video game from THQ was pretty cool, but the 10th Anniversary IGN.com After-Party was my most memorable moment. This was LA at its finest, as I was able to enjoy a private pool-side cocktail party with some of the biggest players from E3. This roped off event (which you technically needed a password to get into) was held at a nice hotel next door to the Kodak Theater, Staples Center, and Orange County Convention Center in downtown LA. With ESPN’s Espy Awards being held at the Kodak Theater this same night, it was a trip to be talking with all these great people at this party, enjoying free drinks/appetizers, and experiencing helicopters, bright lights, the downtown Los Angeles skyline, and even a blimp overhead! The KSI guys enjoyed this party with me and we all appreciated the IGN customized cocktail shaker we took home from the party. When it was over, we went back to a hotel across the street and partied a bit more, before I jumped in my sweet PT Cruiser and headed back to Hollywood to meet up with Rudy and his friends, to share my stories.
   
   O man, this reminds me that I forgot to mention that I was able to stay with a great friend Rudy in Hollywood while I commuted into LA each day in my Black PT Cruiser rental car. Even in this horrible driving machine, cruising through Compton, Englewood, and other places I had only heard about on rap albums…I was jamming Ice Cube’s “Today Was A Good Day” and let me tell you, I enjoyed every second of it.
   
   Overall, I couldn’t have asked for a more unique, challenging, but beneficial E3 experience and the KSI connection still offers the chance to bring thousands of new members to GatheringofGamers.com, but that’s still in the works, so maybe I can write more about that in 2009? Hmmmmmm.
   
   Alright, alright, let’s get to a new page, so we can get back on track!
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   Ahhhhh, there we go…ok, E3 was awesome, so it’s hard to think past that, but the GoG was moving and as we became more connected with Status Quo and KSI Global through that Minneapolis networking effort, the MLG was something we needed to get involved with on some sort of level.
   
   For a quick background, the Major League Gaming organization, or MLG as it is commonly referred to, is what ESPN considers to be the top level of professional video gaming. I believe they’ve actually purchased this event! Anyways, the MLG hosts very large and cash prize-awarding tournaments around the country along with running the popular online ladders at GameBattles.com, which leads into a season-ending national championship where they award the top pro team $100,000. I was interested in the MLG as a whole, so we started talking to more teams during the following 1-2 MLG circuit stops and began thinking about ways we could connect our video game community to this top notch organization.
   
   A short time, a very short time in fact, before MLG Dallas 08, Zach and I cruised 11 hours to Dallas from Des Moines to attend this weekend long, MLG tournament event.
   
   MLG Dallas 08 was very cool, entertaining, and beneficial. We had a great room at the venue, where we would eventually host a gathering of 25-35 people. A top pro, KBG Soviet, joined that gathering and played some 2v2 friendlies with others at the party that we met during the main day’s action. We met some great people in Dallas and also were able to chat with the MLG organization itself on “Pro Sunday”. Zach had challenged me to get up there for a conversation when we first had arrived and before we took the long drive back home, I had a great chance to share some of our goals and ideas to work with MLG.
   
   Team Foxy, additional KSI friends, some pro player introductions, and many others were all people I was able to share GoG with and enjoy MLG Dallas 08 with, so thanks to Zach for making the trek (that ended up costing as much as only a single airline ticket would have!) and to everyone else we met and continue to work with today.
   
   Whew, we’re finally starting to reach my short-term memory, haha.
   
   After two very interesting event “research” trips to E3 and an MLG tournament, I’ll now randomly connect that friend I mentioned from Creative Maven, who I met at Microsoft Tech-Ed a couple months previously. I picked up the phone to touch base on a random day and their company had just received a job in New York City, working for Massive Inc.
   
   They needed a professional video game event management team to run the upcoming Guitar Hero: World Tour (almost Madden 09 as well) with them. So shortly after MLG Dallas, we were hired by Massive Inc. and I jumped over to New York City’s Times Square to do a “site visit”.
   
   I bet your wondering what Massive Inc. does right about now. I too was wondering that, but soon found out that this was an awesome company who developed dynamic advertising IN video games and was a full subsidiary of Microsoft! I will tell you right now that I would love to work with this company and I hope to organize a way to someday work remotely for them in this “centralized location” of Des Moines. The North American Sales Manager asked if I’d move to New York City and at this point I had to say no…but then I shared my remote location idea, so we’ll see.
   
   So I’m in Times Square. I’m staying at the Hilton a few blocks from what I think of as “Times Sqaure”, got to meet up with a KSI friend from E3 who took me to the “Top of the Rock”…effeller Center Building, and then I toured five hot spots around Times Square the next day with the clients, so we could discuss and decide where the big event was to be a few weeks later.
   
   Zach and I’s new GoG Clan System (which continues to grow in popularity and size) had gone online the day before I left for NYC, this site visit in Times Square lasted three amazing days, and I was back in Des Moines one night before Jodie and I headed off to vacation in my surprise destination. You ready for this?
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   With one perfect thing on my mind and La Crema Pinot Noir being a special wine between Jodie and I (which we first had in Key West during our 2007 vacation), I spend time many months before this trip preparing and planning a semi-surprise adventure to California’s Wine County for Jodie and I. I told her a week before we left (so see could at least know what to pack) and we jumped into San Francisco, picked up our convertible rental car, and drove through downtown San Francisco with the car windows and convertible top down, as we headed towards HWY 1. It was a bit cloudy and cold on the far West Coast this day, but whenever the sun would get going I’d be begging for our convertible’s top to come back down. We enjoyed the amazing drive up this semi-famous stretch of highway, before we settled into Sonoma County for two wonderful nights before the big day.
   
   After two amazing days in Sonoma Country, which I’ll save the details for when Ioi have photos to look at with you, I surprised Jodie in the mid-morning by taking her to Kendall Jackson’s Wine Estate. They greeted us as though we were expected…which we were, and before the public arrived we began a private morning tour of the culinary garden they had at this amazing vineyard. After a wonderful tour from our new friend Anne, we were able to browse the garden alone for awhile (which was also planned). As we neared the red wine and Pinot Noir sections of the garden, where we were surrounded by incredible life, I asked Jodie to marry me!
   
   It was perfect and a moment that seems surreal yet today.
   
   We came back into the Kendall Jackson Wine Estate, where they knew what had happened and were excited to share the special food and wine pairing with us, which was one of the most perfect experiences in life. After a great time and moments we’ll both never forget, we headed into Healdsburg, where we’d stay one night, and went to who helped me set a lot of this trip up, our friends over at the La Crema Tasting Room.
   
   They had their private tasting room prepared for us when we got there and it was definitely a special tasting experience for both Jodie and I. After Healdsburg, we enjoy Napa and numerous other wineries for three more days, before coming home to many excited family and friends
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Honestly, I should stop there, because that was my favorite part of this entire story, but the calendar days continued on and our Massive GH:WT Event was coming up in NYC soon, so the story must continue…
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   Before we jetted off to New York City, we had the not-so-fun-to-deal-with section of this story. As we were developing this project, we selected a company name that was hot and had the ideals of why we set out to build GatheringofGamers.com. Jet Set Studio LLC has been our company name ever since the beginnings of this quest and as you’ve read; turns out I’ve been sharing our company and services with a lot of great people and using our company name this whole time. Our company’s identity had been researched and setup correctly, but after a few letters between a larger Jetset Studios and my Jet Set Studio, it was time to consider a company name transition.
   
   This is not a job I looked forward to, but after some precise and detailed work by a few key people, I was able to turn this situation’s frown, upside down, lol. We will be changing our company’s name in 2009, but we also plan to work WITH Jetset Studios to run a video game event in California next year. It is still a lot of work and a tough situation, but I have to believe that I’ve made the best out of this tough situation.
   
   
   A couple weeks pass by and after I sported “Halo’s Master Chief in a Business Meeting” for Halloween; Zach, Joe, and I (which is the same team who rocked Orlando at Tech-Ed) flew into New York City on the day Barrack Obama was elected President, we found the energy of this place intoxicating and everything else was put on hold for two nights in the big city. Joe had stayed up the entire night before we left, haha, so while he napped Zach and I jumped into the action. After checking out the venue for the next day’s big event, we walked back into Times Square and ate at the Hard Rock Café, which I had done a site visit for, during my previous site visiting trip. We then walked over and I went back to the “Top of the Rock”, with Zach this time. The Creative Maven team we were there with invited us to the W Hotel, so we stopped by this awesome hotel in the heart of all the crowds cheering, chanting, yelling, and honking within Times Square for a few drinks and nice conversation. Even when we left the W Hotel, people were still rocking with the Obama victory. It was quite a site.
   
   The next evening was the actual Massive event and after all day working from the well developed plan, setting up, and testing…we were ready for what would be the best event we’ve done to date.
   
   Imagine New York City’s nightlife at its best.
   
   Now I’m not a local or anywhere near to experienced in the Big Apple, but the Guitar Hero: World Tour Event we preceded to rock this night, was super hot. I co-hosted the entire event in an all red suit (which was Massive’s main branding color) as Massive clients organized 4-person bands to rock the show. The tournament participants enjoyed the evening by playing in our competitive (but fun) bracket, dressing up like true rock stars in our “green room”, and performing on stage, under the light show, in front of the excited crowd and our three celebrity judges. Two of the celebrity judges were from Run DMC, so it was cool meeting DJ Johnny Juice and DMC that night as well.
   
   A guitar signed by Aerosmith was given to the first place band and as I had hoped, the event went perfectly and I know Massive enjoyed the work we did and the event we helped to build. My team enjoyed the morning in NYC, and then we headed back home to share the adventure with the GoG, family, and friends.
   
   
   Since the Massive job in New York is the most recent event we managed, that’s as far as I can take you with the events we’ve developed so far, but unfortunately that does not mean this story has reached its end.
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   Although my 2008 travels may have led you to forget that I still have been working at Captain Jack Communications full-time, in the Fall of 2008 and after a pretty slow year of web development sales, I was able to conceptualize and sign the largest development project in CJC’s 14 year history. This $40,000 project is still being worked on and is going very well. This client was huge for me to be honest though, because I had not had as much time to help clients build websites in 2008. The economy is also super bad, so within the commotion of media and financial markets this year, I’ve been able to thrive I suppose.
   
   
   So to catch you up to date as the calendar approaches the end of 2008 and to squeeze in one more sweet adventure before 2008 is over, let me share our experience from the private MLG event that we were involved with, called the Winter Wonder LAN. The weekend after a wonderful Christmas, we had a very unique chance to connect with the top Halo 3 players within the MLG community.
   
   This casual, fun, but intense gaming event was held at a beautiful mansion in a suburb of Chicago and although we were only there to meet people and watch the professional gaming action, one of my best friends, Paul and I thoroughly enjoyed this experience. I had met the organizer, who is parents of a player on Status Quo, at MLG Dallas and after collaborating on a few elements surrounding this event, I developed the event’s logo and 40 customized console and controller skins to make the equipment look uniform and professional.
   
   Paul and I first went to meet up with some of his college friends when we arrived in Chicago and after their band’s solid performances and a fun night overall, we first arrived at the Winter Wonder LAN around 2:00am. The thing about this event though, is that’s when the tournament action is in the most intense stages?!
   
   From that point on and with very little sleep for the rest of the trip, I had the chance to meet and get to know top names in Halo 3, such as StrongSide, Walshy, Elamite Warrior, his brother Ace, FearItself, CallMeGod, Cloud, Roy, Lunchbox, FlamesworD, and around 30 other MLG-quality guys. Wow, my spell checking tool is having a hay day with this paragraph, haha. Anyways, I personally enjoyed a lot of NBA Jam arcade action, as I was no match for these guys in a video game I thought I was decent at!? So along with many new friends and people I’ll be attending more MLG events to hang out with, the relationship I developed with the event’s host, Joe, is also very interested and I hope is something that will lead to bigger and even better things in 2009!
   
   
   Christmas and New Year’s Eve will be great and semi-calmer this year, but once the holiday is over, we’re currently working on new video game events around the country such as another event in Orlando’s Disney World working for RIM/Blackberry at the IBM Lotusphere 2009 this time, doing another science center tournament in downtown Pittsburgh, possibly working for Jetset Studios in California as I mentioned, and a very exciting opportunity to run 8-10 gaming stations in Madison, Wisconsin for an event of 3,000 people in a 100,000 sq. ft. venue...so let’s keep this thing going!
   
   There’s really so much more I could type about, but I think you’re supposed to end somehow, so here’s one more page to do just that…
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   I’m engaged to the love of my life, we’re approaching 2,500 members on GatheringofGamers.com, CJC is now downtown and still a great place for me to work, my family is all doing well, friends are more distant now because of life’s different paths, but still all good, and although 2008 may someday become the best year of my life…I have no doubt that 2009, 2010, and 2011 may somehow surprise me…
   
   
   THE END

   
   

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BEN has 4 comment s on this chronicle.

1. JackDaniels624
   Posted On Jan 21 2009

   Congrazzio BEN (that's made up Italian)! Like I promised I did eventually read this! Now if only I could rant and manage to keep the rant interesting for that long, I could die peacefully 10/10!

2. LadyLiliBean
   Posted On Jan 14 2009

   Great story!!! Wow, 2008 was a great year for you and the GoG! I'm glad to be a part of this growing community and I will continue to spread the GoG word. After all, in GoG We Trust!
   
   I'm jealous after reading your Napa story! I'm dying to go there, as an avid wine lover that I am.
   
   And congrats on being engaged. I'll give you the best advice anyone can give you for your future marriage.
   
   "my CJC job was doing well, and Jodie was amazing as always”; I’ll only say it here for the sake of paper space"
   
   The woman is always right!!!
   
   Learn that and you will live a long, happy life together! LOL

3. DecipherOne
   Posted On Jan 13 2009

   A lot of people site 2008 as one of the worst years on record. Here's to a successful year for your endeavors Ben, and to the success of the GoG. Let's hope the coming years are as kind.

4. Link
   Posted On Jan 12 2009

   I was able to read most of this... but frankly, as with anything long (such as a textbook), I tend to skim...
   
   I would say.... Epic Chronicle BEN!
   10/10!