The Sprite Engine
proudly carrying the Vice City torch since 2008

Alex will not barf

Vice City 2010

Post Mortem
So how about that Vice City 2010?

Still not your goddamn babysitter
Vice City continued its policy of denying access to those who were under 21 and unescourted by an adult into the party room. Shockingly, we only had to enforce this policy a few times. All of the kids were very understanding when they were told that they couldn't enter the party without one of their parents being with them the entire time. Those that did come back with their parents were very polite, fun to play games with, and courteous about allowing others a chance to play the video games.

Booze

Standing room only
All of the games were set up to be played while standing. Chairs were removed from the room, and people that tried sitting on the floor were politely asked to stand while watching/playing. This allowed us to squeeze a total of six game systems into the room, including the massive MAME projector system and the Nintendo Wii's Muscle March.

Game selection
We did not honor requests to change cartridges on the console systems. Each night, we picked one game for each of the console systems and just left them in all night.

Games were chosen that were fun, simple to play, and (most importantly) discouraged long play sessions. The shorter games encouraged people to swap out and take turns and discouraged long term game system camping. That's why Mario Brothers was available for play and Final Fantasy wasn't.

This is the first year that the Sheraton added the fancy new large flatscreen TVs. We took advantage of this by setting up a Nintendo Wii and playing nonstop Muscle March on it. Yes, it was a little gay. But that's the way we like it.

A full Vice City crew
This year we had a full crew of 5 people to help set up, host, and pack out the party room. With five people, a pickup truck, and Jarrin's rockstar van we were able to load the gear up and bring everything to the hotel in one trip. Running the party was a breeze with 5 hosts - we were able to divide up shifts among all of the party hosts, allowing each of us time to get out and enjoy the rest of the convention.

Business up front, party in the back
Vice City 2010 was clearly divided into gaming space in the main room and socializing space on the front porch. The focus of the party room, of course, was the large game section in the back. For folks that wanted a break from the games and actually felt like talking to other convention goers we made a neat little social area in the front. It was standing room only, but we did manage to arrange the game room so that the social crowd could get a good gawk at the Muscle March game through the plate glass. We also ran an audio and VGA extension out to a front monitor with a cloned image of what was going on with the MAME cabinet. And beer. We kept the beer up front in the social area, mostly because that's were we hosts hung out at. Hosts like beer.

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Cashflow
Here are the financial numbers for Vice City 2010. The expense column covers fees, consumables, and other forms of non-permanent items. There is no capital column this year since no capital items were purchased or created for Vice City. The income column covers donations of some sort, usually a pre con Paypal donation or an in person donation at the at-con tip jar.

 
Expense
Income
room rental
432
bed removal
0
hotel staff tips 60  
direct donations
250
Hardy beer
150
cups
20
ice
5
bar tip jar
444
masking/duct tape
10
pre con fundraiser party
36
subtotal
677
730
net profit for Vice City 2010
53


This is the first year that Vice City actually made a profit! Hot damn! Sure it's only $53.00, but more importantly that means that this is the first year that the hosts did not have to shell out personal funds to keep the party alive. Also, this means that Vice City 2011 is the first year that Vice City will have carryover funds from the previous year's party. Hooray!Luigi

We did get a bit lucky though. The hotel lost their paperwork and forgot to bill us for the bed removal. That's $150.00 in expenses right there. I like to think that they didn't really forget to bill us - rather, they think Vice City is so kickass that we don't need to pay for that sort of thing.

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Credits
Vice City 2010 was too big for me to accomplish on my own! I'd like to thank everyone that helped with the party, including:

Ian, Jarrin, John, and Josh for setting up and tearing down the party room, for running the party all weekend long, and for sharing great ideas for making the party happen.

Tom, for brewing up all the excellent beer that Vice City served.

Seth, for loaning us his Nintendo Wii so we could play Muscle March.

Laurie and Ian, for hosting the first 6 glorious years of Vice City. If it weren't for them Vice City would have never graced the poolside of Convergence, and that would make Convergence exactly 4.7% less awesome.

The beautiful Rhea, for serving drinks and for putting up with outrageous fanboy flirtations for all three nights of Vice City.

My lovely wife Emily, for supporting me and my Vice City shennagins throughout the year.

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