Bad News First

Hey everyone, before I get on to how awesome Capcom's Super Street Fighter IV event was, I have to say that I'm really upset and disappointed in whomever it was that stole one of the film crew member's laptop and camera, which had everything the person filmed, recorded, etc., throughout the entire night.  That's right, for someone, it wasn't good enough to get to go to a really cool, totally free event, meet Yoshinori Ono, Seth Killian, and all of the members at Capcom's Unity site, play Super Street Fighter IV before it comes out, get free posters and other swag, take photos with fans dressed up as Street Fighters, be on TV, see a cool car with a neon blue light underkit and a  Hadouken license plate, be in a Turkish oil wrestling match, take cool pictures in the digital booth, etc.

How awesome was it of Capcom to treat its fans like that?  Well, just about the exact opposite of how disgusting it was for someone to steal something of such magnitude from a film member.  You know, there's a reason why most companies don't put on a free event to the public and it's because of stuff like this.  Take the Electronic Entertainment Exposition for example.  This year I will be attending for my 9th time, and as happy as it would make me to know that all of my friends and the millions of hardcore gamers around the world, could go and experience the fun that I do, I don't blame the E3 comitte for only allowing media to attend and folks willing to pay $700 for a badge.  Now this isn't to say that nothing will ever get stolen through a journalist's hands, but reducing the people from millions of potentials, to 60,00 on the list, helps.

I really hope that by some small chance, the laptop and camera are found and that it was just misplaced this whole time, however it's unlikely and so I hope that if the person out there that stole these items, is reading, you'll hear me out.  Please return what you took.  What you did really sucks.  Capcom is in my opinion, one of the very best game developers in the world, and is in fact, one of the best in doing cool things like this with its fans.  By you stealing from them, do you think they're not going to remember?

As much as it would suck, I wouldn't blame Capcom if they don't do a similar event in the future because of this.  With Marvel vs. Capcom 3 coming out next year, I wouldn't be surprised if before tonight, they totally had something in mind, even in this early state.  I mean, here we have a unique company that really went out of its way for its fans and though a lot of appreciation was shown back, one fan had to really crap on the parade.

If the guy or girl who stole the laptop and camera, is reading, just ship them back anonymously to Capcom USA, in San Mateo California.  You'll be anonymous and you'll have gotten away with doing something bad, but at least make up for it.  For me, more than I am a member of the media, more than I am a journalist, I am a hardcore videogamer.  I want to see these kind of events happen in the future.  I want Capcom to still be tight with its fans.  I want to see the amazing footage caught.  Capcom Unity members, including myself, were filmed, interviewed, etc.  Shots of the crowd, the VIP room, the center stage faceoff, etc., were all recorded and are all now gone.

I hate to start my Super Street Fighter IV event article with "bad news" first, but I think it's something important to address.  I spoke with the camera guy and Seth after the show, and they both appreciated my idea of such an article.  Well, I want to say that I appreciate you guys for the great work you did last night.

Fans reading, if you ever go to such an event, please have fun.  Laugh, take pictures, get as much free swag as you can, etc., but please always be respectful.  I hope that this was of some help to Capcom...I really do.  Now the real help would be if I had seen the person in the act, because I'm a 22 year martial arts practitioner and rest assured, would have stopped the thief.  :)  Thank you for everything, Capcom and I'm sorry this happened.

Good News Last

With that part said, the event totally kicked ass in every other area!  The night started off for me arriving a little late, because my gps brought me to a rail road track about a mile away, but once I rolled up, I did so in my Red 2008 Dodge Charger with HADOKN 7 license plate and blue neon light kit glowing underneath.  I also did this, by the way, in front of a couple thousand people outside, whom began cheering and taking pictures.  Webshows were recording and interviewing me too, which was cool.  :)  Oh and I didn't mention it earlier, but I actually just finished from my Shotokan Karate practice and was ironically wearing my white gi top, bottom, and black belt...as well as a red Ryu headband for fun.

The event was in one huge room and had dozens of Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles hooked up to TV's, giving thousands of fans the chance to play Super Street Fighter IV, while other setups had Final Fight for some retro fun.  There was a digital photo station set up, that let you take a photo and be put against Hakkan.  There was even a section of oily grass with an oil wrestler on it, that you could challenge in a Turkish oil wrestling match.  Yoshinori Ono, Seth Killion, Daigo, Paul Gale (woo woo), and about a dozen fans dressed up as Street Fighters, were around, posing and taking pictures with each other and other fans.

Capcom had a cool VIP room up top, an artist that was painting some nice works of Ryu, Chun Li, etc., on a wall, a section that was giving out posters and other goods, and a big center stage were the top matches of the night took place.  I absolutely loved my time there.  I wore normal clothes for most of the night (I changed after I arrived), but then changed back into my Ryu getup, and had fun posing for a bunch of people.  I ended the night back in normal clothes, and being the last "non-Capcom/non-security" guy there, tried to help look and find the camera and laptop, as well as got to talk longer with Mr. Yoshinori Ono and Seth Killian.

Below are a look at the fun pictures I took of my night, and a little explanation of each.



Here's the first picture I took of the night, with Noah, aka BigMex from CapcomUnity.  We talked a good amount about the event, all things Street Fighter, and the future integration of companies such as Capcom, possibly reaching out to its fans for actual development help.


Seth Killian and I go way back to when he first told me, "congratulations, Capcom chose you as one of the few to be made into a character in Street Fighter IV".  It was great as usual to talk with Seth, and I look forward to talking with him about industry work, Street Fighter, etc., in the future.


After I took a group photo with Seth and other Capcom Unity members (not shown here), I got together with Chun Li, Cammy, Dhalsim, Charlie, and Crimson Viper, for a cool character pic.


Throughout the night, a really talented artist was painting this Ryu, and other Street Fighters.


I met another Chun Li towards the end of the night.  Heh, you'd be surprised how many people took pictures of the two of us together.  :)


Towards the end of the night, Chun Li and I took one more picture together.  Some Street Fighters that I didn't take a pic with were Guile and Dan.  Oh well, maybe next time.

 
Unsurprisingly, there was only one Dudley all night.  Surprisingly, there was only one Ryu.  Ha, fun picture.


The man next to me is not Sagat by name, but by appearance, you could call him that.  He actually has his own comedy web show and he was one of the guys interviewing me when I first rolled up in my Street Fighter car.  I forgot his name, but will update it when I can.


Here's a picture after the Super Street Fighter IV launch party event was officialy over, of Daigo Umehara and me.  Congratulations on the good job playing tonight, thank you for the picture, and it was nice talking with you.


The last picture of the night was of Mr. Yoshinori Ono and me.  We actually spoke on the phone a week ago, so it was cool getting to continue our conversation in person and with a translator.  We spoke of a possible collaberative project between Capcom and me, too.  Now who knows if this title will ever come to fruition, but if it does, I think I'll have a good role.  ;)  Thank you Mr. Ono for taking time with me, as usual.