Last weekend saw our first official Player Meet here in sunny Brighton, which was a great success all round. Nearly 50 of you travelled from around the country (and, in a couple of cases, from around the corner) to meet each other, NCsoft Europe staff including Rockjaw, Amboss and myself, and our special mystery guest, Melissa ‘War Witch’ Bianco from Cryptic Studios!

War Witch kindly flew over specially for the Player Meet, and spent the day and evening chatting with players, demonstrating her Guitar Hero skills and being interviewed by Evolution Radio and others.

Meanwhile, the 30 gaming PCs at Game Heaven, where the Meet was based, got put through their paces. In addition to general play and more than a few Arena matches, we held ‘deathrace’ competitions in both Paragon City and the Rogue Isles and a Task Force race that saw two teams from Defiant and one from Union charging through the Hess TF on Striga as quickly as their heroic feet could carry them.

The highlight of the day for many, though, was the charity auction, where dozens of items were sold off in 20 separate ‘lots’ to raise money for Draw the World Together. On offer where many unique, exclusive and limited edition City of Heroes and Villains goodies, including statuettes of Statesman and Lord Recluse, a copy of the absolutely enormous Korean Collector’s Edition of ‘City of Hero’ and the originals of the rather splendid picture of Rockjaw, War Witch and Bridger shown here.

Thanks to the generosity of our players, we managed to raise a grand total of £528.02. No, we’re not sure where the 2p came from, either, but every penny counts.

All in all, it was a fantastic day, and everyone involved seemed to have as much fun as we did. Thanks to all our loyal players who came along and, of course, to the amazing War Witch!

To see pictures from the day, check out our Flickr account. You can also listen to the Evolution Radio interviews with War Witch, Rockjaw and myself, or read about people’s experiences in the thread on the official message boards.