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Mass Effect Community Day
Back in early October, BioWare had a large number of the press up to our Edmonton studios to start spreading the word about Mass Effect. They were given demonstrations of the game, interview time with Producer Casey Hudson and the rest of Mass Effect team leads, hands-on time with the game itself, and all the usual perks of being a press person invited to one of these things. Your intrepid Community team (Jay Watamaniuk and I, Evil Chris Priestly) were part of the team that helped show off the Mass Effect coolness to the press. It all went well, the press loved the game, we had a great time, and it started to generate good buzz for Mass Effect. Once it as over, Jay and I discussed the press event, and the conversation pretty much went like this:
We know we have a great community of Mass Effect fans out there, whether they are from the BioWare forums, the Pandemic forums, Xbox Live, or numerous personal websites. So, we took it upon ourselves to gather together a group of them to come to Edmonton for a first ever BioWare Community Event. They were treated just like we treat the press, with free travel, food and accommodation, demonstrations of the game, interview time with Casey and the Mass Effect team, studio tours, and hands-on time with Mass Effect before it was available in the stores. They were also given special invitations to attend the exclusive staff-only Mass Effect release party. Release parties at BioWare are very rare and uber-cool. This time we took over the Edmonton Space and Science center for the event. It was very schwanky, with free drinks, amazing catered food, poker games, Mass Effect stations setup for play, and all of the staff and special guests mingling around. Now, we could go on about the fun we had; the meals and fun; the release party; Alastor, Knuckles, and the blonde at the poker table; and all of the Mass Effect coolness. Instead, we're going to let you hear from the Event visitors themselves. Check out what they had to say about Mass Effect and the Community Event itself at their links below. One last comment is a huge thank you to all who attended. We did it for the fans, and having you all up here to play the game and have fun was what it was all about. We especially want to call out Rob, Chris, and Major Nelson from Microsoft for all of their help and support, as well as the MS setup crew who were invaluable in getting the furniture and systems setup for the visitors to play on. 
"I was lucky enough to have been invited to attend the festivities and all the fun leading up to it. There are simply no words to describe the excellent time I had up in Edmonton with BioWare. "Awesome" is the only word that even comes close!" - Michael Patty "This epic story is very deep, and I won't sit here and spoil it for you guys, but remember it's going to be a huge trilogy. The unique thing they've done with this game is they combine the signature Bioware RPG style of gameplay, with a third person shooter, so that you actually get to fight your fights, no turn based stuff here kids!" - XboxAddict "When my time was up, and they came to collect the controllers I didn't want to leave. I was right in the middle of an engrossing story line that grabbed me from the start and that I won't be able to stop thinking about until I get the game back in my grubby little hands when it launches November 20th." - Xbox Canadian Live "Aside from the game being all that and a bag of chips, so was the entire event. Limos, room service, a 70 dollar dinner the night of the party, all the food we could eat, swag coming out my hind-end, a complete tour of their offices including projects that can't be discussed just yet... The people were awesome, the visit was awesome, the party was awesome, and seriously I just cannot articulate the extent to which you should hate me." - Alastor from the Pandemic forums 
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