North Carolina

Dear Friends:

This week, I'm spending a couple of days in North Carolina.  I'm here on business, on a whirlwind trip to visit a major game developer.

The flights took me through Chicago.  While there, I passed by a well-known popcorn chain called Garrett Popcorn Shop - it's special because of G-Man ; )

There aren't too many video game companies in North Carolina - that's why this one is unique.  They make games, as well as enabling technology called a "game engine".  Hundreds of other game developers use this engine to create their own games.  It saves them time and money, to just build on top of someone else's reliable engine.  The company is called Epic.

These guys are in the business of making mature, rather violent games.  Not exactly for the entire family.  However, they have a good reputation for the graphic quality of the games.  They've been quite successful, and the quality of their headquarters reflects that.  This is a two-story statue of a character from one of the games...amazing:

This is a life-size statue of a popular character called "Marcus Fenix" from the game Gears of War:

This is a working motorcycle, that was built specifically for these game developers, to reflect a vehicle in the game:

Just like Google, they have a quick way to get from the 2nd floor down to the cafeteria...a slide!

The dining area was equally impressive.  In addition to a giant video screen (to show the entire company how the games are looking), they had a big climbing wall available to anyone:

Inside one of the offices that we were meeting in, I found this awesome statue.  It's from a game called Titanfall.  I showed the owner some pictures of the toys in my own office.  Instant respect ; )

We went to lunch at a local sports bar.  The folks here are pretty dedicated to their sports - with fans of University of North Carolina, Duke, Wake Forest and the Carolina Panthers.  However, this is one of the few places that I've ever seen a large-screen TV in the bathroom!

It was a very short visit - but we accomplished exactly what we needed to do.  That makes grueling trips like this worth the effort.  I'm glad to head home ; )

Thanks for reading!