Liam has Andy to thank for his HoloLens experience at MineCon 2015. In February, when we were planning our summer in France, Andy asked if we could go to London for the weekend of July 4-5 to attend MineCon, the MineCraft convention. He enjoys playing with his friends both locally and all over the world, so it was easy to say yes.
Getting tickets wouldn't be as easy . I was poised at the computer, ready to click purchase exactly at 12:00. For the last convention, in 2013, bots purchased all the tickets within seconds and then scapled them. MineCraft had promised that this time actual humans would get the tickets. Success! Just as I was hurrying to type in our personal information as my credit details, Andy began texting me from school: 'Did you get the tickets? Did you?? Did you???'
I had to turn my phone off.
Fortunately, I was able to successfully apply to be a MineCraft 'agent,' which is a glorified name for a volunteer. Attendees under age 15 must be accompanied by a ticket-holding adult, and at 129 pounds ($201 USD), that was too steep a price for something I have no interest in. Being an agent meant that I got to spend my days helping people to have a great experience, and in exchange I got the cool T-shirt, the cool neck tag, access to the 'special places,' all the bottled water I wanted, and a lunch voucher. Among MineCrafters, there is quite a cachet about being an agent, so when a group of us walked by wearing our green T-shirts, there was a 'buzz' of chatter .
Getting to London was a bit of a challenge. I hadn't booked that travel from Paris in the spring, and when I looked at the possibilities closer to the date, things got complicated. French air traffic controllers had called a two-day strike for July 2 and 3. French ferry workers had been striking off and on for several weeks because the new management company for the ferries had established a new contract the workers didn't like. The ferry strikes meant chaos at Calais, where the trucks (lorries) were backed up and the migrants who hoped to stow away for England were able to access the trucks without ferry company security stopping them. They threatened drivers with metal pipes, glass, even guns. Finally, they had accessed the Channel Tunnel on several occasions, which caused EuroStar trains to turn back to London and Paris.
Ah, well, life is an adventure. I chose the EuroStar through the Chunnel partly because it seemed the most likely to succeed and partly because I'd never been in the Chunnel.
We had spent the previous week on the coast of Normandy, escaping the heat wave that swept across Europe . Mont St Michel, the Bayeux Tapestry, and the D-Day beaches were all wonderful, not only because the weather was pleasant. After we returned the rental car to Charles de Gaulle airport, we took the train to Gare du Nord to board the EuroStar. We must have looked like we were suffering from the heat--and we were. The Red Cross had tables with free cold bottled water at both the airport and the train station. Train station staff directed people with luggage to the elevator, for which I was grateful. I think we each drank about four litres of water in two hours.
Finally, we boarded the air-conditioned train. I didn't fully relax until we were will within the tunnel as it was then too late to turn our train back.
Ahh, delightful London! Temperatures in the mid-20s instead of the sweltering high 30s.
ExCel London is owned by the Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company. It occupies a large space on the north bank of the Thames east of the city where the former dockworks and derelict buildings used to be. It's enormous, but it tastefully fits in . Outside the west entrance there are several restaurants and a pedestrianised area.
The boys explored the Expo Hall first on Saturday. There were indie gaming developers with their games to try out, a MicroSoft area with plentiful computers to try out MineCraft on different platforms, the trivia area, the stage, MineCraft-themed carnival games, a competitive gaming area, and several food vendors.
In various rooms around the convention center there were panel discussions, 'reveals' of new aspects to the game, YouTube and MineCraft personalities showing their expertise, and various other MineCraft themed events. The boys were in heaven.
Later Saturday, Liam told me he was going to enter the trivia contest and win a 'Golden Ticket" so that he could try out the HoloLens. 'Great!' I replied. An hour or so later he raced up to me with a Golden Ticket in hand. I didn't really know what that meant, but Matt, another agent and a techie by day, just went nuts. 'Don't wave that thing around!' he warned Liam. 'Someone will grab it off you .'
'Do you know what that is?' he asked me. No, not really.
'It's huge! The HoloLens is in development, and your son is going to be one of the first people in the world to try it out!' He eyed Liam's Golden Ticket. 'That's an amazing opportunity.'
Liam and I visited the MicroSoft booth at Matt's urging to select a time slot for his HoloLens experience on Sunday. An adult had to be present with each child, though I wasn't given the chance to try out the HoloLens.
Andy was green with envy, but he managed his emotions well. Liam is the luckiest child, really. He says he is going to do something and it just happens. 'I'm going to Washington, D.C., for the National Spelling Bee."
'I'm going to win a Golden Ticket in the Trivia Contest.'
Turns out getting selected for the trivia contest was the trickiest part. A MicroSoft employee cruised the Trivia area where 2,000 or so kids were trying to be chosen and selected two teams of five kids. This happened five times on Saturday afternoon, and the five winning teams were awarded Golden Tickets . Out of 10,000 kids, 25 got the opportunity.
Liam said his strategy to be chosen wasn't to yell or jump around like many other children but to make eye contact with the person choosing and to make 'puppy dog eyes' at the person. I guess it worked.
Sunday we rocked up for Liam's HoloLens trial. We were escorted to a door guarded by a security staffer, taken upstairs in the elevator, and engaged in conversation with employees while we waited. I think everything was filmed and our conversations recorded as part of the marketing strategy for MicroSoft.
Liam's turn! We had to put everything in a locker, and then we were escorted into another room with a couch and a man who talked really fast. He gave Liam the tutorial about how to control the HoloLens and how to look at things. Everything directly in front of the lens is part of the 'world.' When you want to turn your gaze, you need to exaggerate the head turning a bit rather than look out the corner of your eye. A raised index finger that then snaps down turns things on and off . It's like a pinchless pinch. Liam practiced a bit without the HoloLens.
Finally, the room with the HoloLens. There were three MicroSoft employees there. One played MineCraft with Liam (he was using a laptop), one watched a screen, and the third coached Liam. Liam turned on a world on the wall and another on the coffee table. He was encouraged to play a normal MineCraft game in each world. He could poke his head inside the world on the wall and look to the side and see things that weren't visible from the first position. He was encouraged to lift the bottom of the world on the table and look at its underside.
He especially enjoyed trying out the 'lightning strike' feature. He chased after the adult he was playing with and 'griefed' him with a torrent of lighting strikes, causing everything in the world to burn. They didn't know what they were getting when they invited Liam to try out the lightning strike. This is the kid who loves driving or flight simulator games because he gets to crash things.
Liam's take on his HoloLens experience: 'The screen I put on the wall felt like a 3-D movie. It was like the world on the table was sticking up out of the table at me.When I turned to look at my mom, blocks started forming in her shape, incorporating her into the world.'
And so, the end of the experience. MicroSoft staffers wanted to know what Liam thought about the experience. He looked like he had just set foot on Mars; it was a new world, and he couldn't find enough superlatives to describe it.