AMD Fan Day 2013 (San Francisco)

By Zott820Zott820
08 Apr 2013 08:08

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Biased Blog had the opportunity this last weekend to attend AMD Fan Day 2013. This event, which took place at the Metreon in San Francisco on April 6th, was host to videogames, food, and most importantly SWAG! Let's take a look.

(There's going to be brand names up the ying-yang here. We're not being paid to mention them, but I'm doing it for completion)

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First off, this event wasn't heavily publicized. We only found out about it from a friend liking it on Facebook. So I guess that shows that Facebook has some success as an advertising network. Registration for AMD Fan day was free, and the first 1,000 registrees in line received a complimentary AMD A8-5600k processor. Woot! Biased Blog was on the scene at 2:00pm for the 5:30pm start of the event, and based on the aforementioned publicity, it looked as if all those who lined up before the official start got the processor.

The first 120 hardcore attendees that weathered some light morning mist and even a few that waited overnight for the event were rewarded with an additional bonus. Not only did they receive a 'Cooler Master CM Storm Trigger Mechanical Gaming CherryMX Keyboard' but also had the option of a Gigabyte GA-F2A85X-UP4, ASROCK FM2A85X-ITX, or a MSI FM2-A85XA-G65 motherboard. Game ON!

Most attendees probably already had a more suitable gaming rig/processor at home, but it was a nice gesture by AMD and their partner companies.

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Proceeding into the fourth floor exhibition hall, we were greeted with tables filled with laptop computers, desktop computers, and even a couple AMD arcade machines. All these devices were of course running AMD processors. The various playable games included Bioshock Infinite, Crysis 3, FarCry 3, Sim City and Tomb Raider. A tournament with Street Fighter was also held. A little disappointing was that not all these computers were setup to run at their max graphical settings. Even more disappointing was the severe lack of multiplayer activity. The only multiplayer game that was actually running was Sim City. When Sim City is your multiplayer game of choice, it screams casual. While Crysis 3 does have multiplayer, the origin login requirement prevented us from having our own little LAN party. Awww come on guys.

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However, never fear, there was still plenty to do. Venders such as Corsair and Newegg had spinnable wheels where prizes such as shirts, tattoos and stickers could be won. Biased Blog won a Corsair sticker. :/ Gaming development company Telltale games was also present with a playable version of their recently announced 'Poker Night 2'. Alas, there was so much to do that we didn't have a chance to try it out, though judging by the Portal turrets decorating the area, I'm sure it contained gobs of fan service.

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Poor Western Digital needs to learn the art of an interactive display. While Sapphire had a contest to see who could install an SSD and two sticks of RAM into their EDGE-HD mini-PC the fastest (15 seconds was the record), the Western Digital hard drives on display just sat there. I wasn't even sure if WD's booth handed out any swag. Swag is vital to the art of advertisement!

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The event's sponsors understand this overall however. Throughout the night, raffle tickets were handed out by participating at the various booths. Raffle prizes encompassed memory sets, graphics cards and even a full $1,600 PC. I feel sorry for the person having to carry that home. Near the end of the night, raffle after raffle after raffle happened in series, rallying the cries of 'SWAG' and 'BEAST' from the audience as partners threw shirts, glow sticks and mouse pads into the audience. Having so many raffles got out of hand when numbers were being read but people weren't sure which color of raffle ticket the number belonged. We weren't even sure if we turned the qualifying tickets into the correct places.

TigerDirect decided that having raffles were too old skool. They opted for using the natural deficiencies of nerds, movement, in a dance-off contest. A critical lesson for both the dance-off and even attending expos in general is 'positioning'. Those dancing at the front of the stage received more attention, and those near the front of the stage had the opportunity to catch and receive more swag. My theory is that those standing on the exact edge of the stage generate a black hole of pure attention and maximum swag generation whereby one both generates and captures swag (in all senses of the word) for a state of nirvana.

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One more give-out mention: I can't remember the sponsoring company, but in lieu of raffles they opted for a 'cry-me-a-river' contest where candidates had to win over the heart of the audience with their story of why they need the prize. Well one guy, who I refer to as 'Humble Man', told the audience that they shouldn't vote for him, but instead give their support to the other, more deserving, contestants. What do you think happened? The audience loved his humbleness and voted him into the top two! When it came down to the second round of judging, Humble Man continued his modesty by again advocating the other. Despite the audience's raging continued support for Humble Man, the sponsors gave the first prize motherboard to the other man, and awarded Humble Man the second prize video card. Now normally you'd think this was over, but no. Humble Man was not just a humble act. Humble Man called up one of the previously voted off contestants and gave them his second prize winning. Oh, Humble Man. You walked away with nothing, but you earn a spot of mention here on the internetz.

Finally, to finish off this day, let's speak food. AMD kept the food rolling in all day. Deep-dish pizza was constantly served throughout the night, and those 21 and older were treated to two beers on the house. Pita bread and humus evened out the offering, while cookies and freshly made popcorn were there to top it all off. While the room became crowded with people, the food was always plentiful.

Overall, the event was fun. I hear that over $70,000 worth of swag was given out over the course of the night. Therefore, I have no choice but to rate this event as swag-tastic.

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