As some of you may know, I’m attending as crew at a large computer party in Norway this easter called The Gathering. I just arrived after a two-hour train trip, which was spent on IRC and sending off a few e-mails using my cell phone over GPRS.
The party has almost 5000 people attending, and a good 200 people are responsible for making the party happen. In just under 24 hours, the Vikingship will start to fill up with enthusiastic computer nerds of all ages, to attend the party for five full days. It will be a party filled with all types of different elements, that make up the computer scene as we know it.
You will have professional gaming tournaments, music competitions and the genre I love the most; demo making. For those of you that don’t know what demo coding is, I can sum it up with this definition. Think of a music video, think of computer games and 3D environments, add those two together and you have yourself a demo.
A demo is a program that displays lovely graphics, stretched to the extremes of what is possible with today’s technology added with catch, groovy music tracks. It’s all meant to entertain and amaze you with what can be done with today’s 3D accelerator cards.
Of course, an event of this size does attract quite a few people with vast computer knowledge, so the whole hall sizzles with people with good know-how. For those that are interested, it’s a great chance to get to learn new stuff and expand your social network.
And this is the greatest aspect of the event itself, the chance to meet up with likely-spirited people that love the same stuff that you do. And of course, with the way the internet works, you actually get to meet those people you chat with online that live too far away from you to meet on a regular basis.
An event like this erases the borders that you have on a day-to-day basis. It’s just great to be with people that love the same stuff as you do, namely computers! It’s gonna be a great five days and I can’t wait to keep you up to date. And here’s a sneak peek of how the hall looks, just to get a feel of how it is.