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Good or Evil?

Video Report: The Gathering

Blog

The Gathering 08

10-Nov-2008 Bringing the Xbox 360 community together for a unique event

The Gathering is an annual event organised by the Xbox 360 community team. It gives the most dedicated Xbox 360 fansites from across Europe the chance to meet up, chat with developers and play some games that won't be out for ages yet.

I was there to see how it all went down, and am glad to report it was one of the most feel-good gaming events I've attended.

Community sites don't get paid for what they do, and their enthusiasm for gaming is absolutely outstanding. Not only were the best homegrown sites like XboxGameZone, Xboxliveaddicts, Ready-Up and Wonderwallweb in attendance but also great sites from almost every country in Europe.

"This is hugely important. You see a lot of communication between game publishers and corporate websites, but in my experience they don't often have the same relationship with smaller sites. By the nature of being smaller community driven sites they don't have the same opportunity, so events like this are a great chance to talk to people."

Lisa Bidder, XboxGameZone.co.uk

The gamers I spoke to were obviously relishing the opportunity to play upcoming titles like Tomb Raider, Left 4 Dead, Street Fighter IV, Resident Evil 5, Prince of Persia and You're in the Movies. Many developers and community managers were also there to answer their questions and do interviews.

"Things like the Gathering are a highlight of the job, definitely. You get to come here and feel like you're part of something different. Not only part of a website that you do on a daily basis but part of a higher level of the gaming industry. You can play all these games and it's a really fun day out."

Eleanor Saunders, Ready-Up.net

Xbox Community Manager AceyBongos was also there to chat with the sites and listen to their views on the New Xbox Experience.

I was there filming loads of footage and opinions on the day. I'll be putting them together tomorrow so check back on Wednesday for a video report and some views from the guys and girls that were there. Plus there's a guest appearance from 80's hair metal icon Jimmy Spandexx. Don't miss it!

Ben Talbot

Screens

With this Resident Evil 5 you're really spoiling us!	Oh yeah!	Guitar Hero World Tour afterparty.
Leo Tan from Capcom	Dutch gamer Rick Van Beem was loving it!	Graeme Boyd taking up the SFIV challenge.
Me about to get smashed up by Readygamer.com's Kate Davies at Street Fighter IV.	Chatting with Valve in the Left 4 Dead session.	AceyBongos on the mic
Xbox 360's biggest fans all in one place.