Mittens

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Mittens 2002 group photo. Missing are Adamski (Dark Stalkey), jet (JetXL), mattgoble
Mittens 2003 group photo. Missing is Pumaman (CJ)
Mittens 2004 group photo
Mittens 2005 group photo. Missing is Disco
Mittens 2006 group photo. Missing is Chrille
Mittens 2007 group photo. Missing are Pesty and Scummbuddy
Mittens 2008 group photo
(comedy version)
Mittens 2009 group photo
Mittens 2010 group photo. Missing is Jen
Mittens 2011 group photo
Mittens 2012 group photo. Missing are abstauber and Christina
Mittens 2013 group photo
Mittens 2014 group photo
Mittens 2015 group photo
Mittens 2016 group photo
Mittens 2017 group photo
Mittens 2019 group photo

Mittens is the annual real-life meeting for adventure game creators mostly from the AGS community. The first Mittens was held in 2002, and it took place in Laleham, England, and was organised by Mods. There has been a Mittens gathering every year since then, in nine European countries, thrice in the United States, and once in Canada.

A smaller meeting, named Brittens was also previously hosted each year, intended to be for those unable to attend the further-afield Mittenses. Other local AGS community meet-ups have also been arranged or suggested, often with names related to Mittens, such as Lapaset (Finnish for "mittens").

The name "Mittens" comes from a suggestion by Captain Mostly. The idea formed during the production of "The Vestibule", the team (which included Abstauber, Yahtzee, Captain Mostly & Mods) decided it could be fun to bundle around to Yahtzee's and have a BBQ. This never happened - but the idea was taken further and with it, Mods launched "Mittens". Mittens are actually fingerless winter gloves. It is also a common name for a cat. It has no association or related meaning with the annual AGS meeting, but the name was made up because it was funny.


Timeline

Attendees

The following people have attended Mittens so far:
Attendee 2002 (England) 2003 (Sweden) 2004 (USA) 2005 (Greece) 2006 (Spain) 2007 (Canada) 2008 (France) 2009 (USA) 2010 (Italy) 2011 (Ireland) 2012 (USA) 2013 (Germany) 2014 (Portugal) 2015 (USA) 2016 (Sweden) 2017 (Iceland) 2018 (USA) 2019 (Aus) Overall
2ma2 Yes Yes No Yes No No No No No No No No No No Yes Yes No No 5
Abby No No No No No No No No No No No Yes Yes No No No No Yes 3
abstauber No No No No No No No No No Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No 3
Adamski (Dark Stalkey) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No No No No No No No No No No 6
AGA Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 18
Andail Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No No No Yes No Yes No No No 6
Arj0n No No No No No No No No No No No Yes Yes No No No No No 2
Ascovel No No No No No No No No No No No Yes No No No No No No 1
BaRoN No No No No No Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No 1
Becky No No No No Yes No No Yes No No No No No No No No No No 2
bicilotti No No No No No No No No Yes Yes No Yes No No No No No No 3
cat No No No No No No No No Yes Yes No Yes Yes No No No No No 4
Chrille Yes Yes No Yes Yes No Yes No Yes No No No No No Yes No No No 7
Christina No No No No No No No No No No Yes Yes No No No No No No 2
Creed Malay No No No No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No No No 4
Darth Mandarb No No No No No No Yes Yes No No No No No No No No No No 2
Dave Gilbert No No Yes No No No No No No No Yes No No No No No No No 2
ddq No No No No No No No No No No No No No Yes No No No No 1
Disco No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No Yes Yes No 12
Dominika No No No Yes Yes No Yes No No No No No No No No No No No 3
DoorKnobHandle No No No No No No No No No No No Yes No No No No No No 1
DutchMarco No No No No No No Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes No No No No No 4
Edmundo (netmonkey) No No Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No 1
Erin No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No Yes No 1
Esseb No No No No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No 11
Farlander No Yes No Yes Yes No Yes Yes No No No No No No No No No No 5
Finkenstein (Jess) No No Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No No No No No 4
FruitTree Yes No No No No No Yes No No No No No No No No No No No 2
Goldmund No Yes No Yes Yes No Yes No No No No No No No No No No No 4
Grundislav No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No No Yes No 11
Helm No Yes No Yes Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No No 3
Jake No No No No No No No No Yes Yes No No No No No No No No 2
JanetC No No No No No No No No No No Yes No No No No No No No 1
Jen No No No No No No No No Yes No Yes No No No No No No No 2
Jess No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No Yes No 1
jet (JetXL) Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No No No No No No No No No No No 6
KANDYMAN-IAC (das kandyman) Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No 1
Kevbot No No No No No Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No 1
Kira No No No No No No Yes No No No No No No No No No No No 1
La Lore No No No Yes Yes No Yes Yes No No No No No No No No No No 4
Lackey No No No No No No No Yes No No No No No No No No No No 1
Layabout No No No No Yes No Yes No No Yes No No No No No No Yes Yes 5
LimpingFish No No No No No No No No No Yes No No No No No No No No 1
MachineElf (Vargtass) No Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No 1
magintz Yes Yes No No Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No No 3
mattgoble Yes No No No Yes Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No 3
miez No No No No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No 6
MillsJROSS No No Yes No No No Yes Yes No No No No No Yes No No Yes No 5
Mods Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Yes Yes No Yes No No No No No No 9
Monsieur OUXX No No No No No No No No No Yes No No No No Yes No No No 2
MrColossal No No Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No No No No No 4
Noavana No No No No No No No No No Yes No No No Yes No No No No 2
Petteri No No No Yes Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No No 2
Pesty No No No No No Yes No Yes No No No No No No No No No No 2
ProgZmax No No No No No No No No No No Yes No No No No No No No 1
Privateer Puddin' (custard) No Yes No Yes No No Yes No No No No No No No No Yes Yes Yes 6
Pumaman (CJ) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No No No No Yes 13
Quintaros No No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No Yes No No No No 6
Radiant No No No No Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No No No No No No 3
raeff No No No No No No No No No No No Yes Yes No No No No No 2
Renegade Implementor No No No No No Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No 1
Scotch No Yes No Yes Yes No Yes No No No No No No No No No Yes Yes 6
Scummbuddy No No Yes No No Yes No Yes No No No No No No No No No No 3
SeventhBard No No No No No No No No Yes Yes No No No No No No No No 2
Sinitrena No No No No Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No No 1
Snarky No No No No No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes 10
Sylpher No No No No No No No Yes No No No No No No No No No No 1
Tamara No No No No No No No No No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 7
Terri No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No Yes No 1
Tier No No No No No No No No Yes Yes No No No No No No No No 2
tzachs No No No No No No No No No Yes No No No Yes No No No No 2
The Ivy No No No No No Yes Yes No No No No No No No No No No No 2
violetnotpurple No No No No No No No No No No No No Yes Yes No No No No 2
Viporizer Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No 1
Wiggy No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No 1
yamipanda No No No No No No No No No No No No No No Yes Yes No No 2
Total 13 15 13 18 21 16 27 22 18 20 12 16 13 12 8 8 13 9

Traditions

The most (in)famous Mittens tradition is the group singing of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. This tradition may or may not include being yelled at by angry people in the vicinity being disturbed by the group's singing.

Most years, a quote file is kept of some of the funniest things members have said during each event.

Another Mittens tradition is the attempt to photograph Chris Jones eating onion rings and/or ice cream cones. Also, attempting to steal CJ's passport to find out his middle name was a long running tradition in the earlier days of Mittens.

Mittens also includes a "super quiz" of questions relating to AGS and adventure games. It began at the first Mittens - those who wish to participate and those lucky enough to score get to choose from an array of prizes supplied by other Mitteneers. In 2003, Helm won a foam hand. In 2006 AGA got the highest score & won a special boxed edition of Ben Jordan 1 and a signed Mittens poster by La Lore. Grundislav is the competition leader - he has won the competition consecutively since 2007 (except in 2009, where no quiz took place) - claiming his "knowledge of random trivia" is to blame. He is yet to be beaten, scoring 50%, 25% more than 2nd place in 2011.

The Mittolympics are also a special part of the Mittens traditions. Normally run by Andail (when he attends), there are various games that Mitteneers contend against each other in, including; onion ring hoopla, dart, croquet, nail in wood, swimming, running, eating & most famously - arm wrestling. In recent years, as the locations have become less rural - the Mittolympics & notorious arm wrestles have been extinguished - with sight-seeing, game & video making now playing a major role in activities and traditions.

Noteable are the "Melt The Limit" productions and the string of Ben Jordan fan films. Various attempts to make games (involving Mitteneers for the duration of the event) have occurred but few have been successful. Smaller sister events to Mittens (such as Brittens and Lapaset) have seen short games produced by attendees.

Another popular tradition is to play a game of 1000 Blank White Cards on the last night of the main event. The game involves attendees creating cards of any nature for a high jinx game of memories, funny moments & quotes from the week.

There is also a popular tendency to: drink things, burn things, break things, smoke things, eat lots of different things, meet & engage with local people things, climb things, fall off things, sail in things, photograph things, tamper with things, argue about things & compare real life things to how they are perceived over the internet things.

Famous Mittens NPCs

  • SHUT-THE-FUCK-UP man, Mittens 2002 (provoked by our singing of 'Bohemian Rhapsody')
  • Sausage Girls, Mittens 2002
  • Vin Diesel, aka really angry tour operator, Greece 2005 (infuriated by Helm)
  • "No photos" black lady, Greece 2005 (believed soul would be captured)
  • Metro security guard, Greece 2005
  • Random waiter guy, Greece 2005 (wore CJ's chef hat)
  • Old pizza lady too old to cook 20 pizzas, Greece 2005
  • Home from Home girls, Spain 2006
  • Wal-Mart employee ("You tell those boys to stop having a good time! Oh I'm just kiddin'!"), Canada 2007
  • Random guy at Schenectady gas station who borrowed Eric's phone and was on it for 10 minutes ("I'm comin' ovah now! Tell your momma she got a big mouth!"), Canada 2007
  • Crazy Science Centre lady ("Did you step on the white squares? GOOD!"), Canada 2007
  • (Wo)man of ambiguous sex renting out electric boats, France 2008
  • Tony the Pony, and the flies who sucked the juices from his eyes, France 2008
  • Maureen ("Recalculating, turn left, turn left, turn left"), Mittens 2009
  • Nelson ("You're a Leo? Rrrooar"), Mittens 2009
  • Christopher Walken sat nav - "Turn right!" (if you know what's good for u) 2010
  • Blue (Cup) Bar man with Moustache & chocolate cigar 2010
  • Knock knock creepy morning cleaning lady 2010
  • See randomly the contents of my room man - Florence 2010
  • Don Corleone / Hitler / Popeye man at restaraunt - 2010
  • Mirage - vivacious blonde who likes Grundislav - taught CJ & co how to jig - Ireland 2011
  • Ethan "Meatballs" - Guy who was eating at the same Italian restaurant who got stalked on foursquare by Disco - Anaheim 2012
  • "Hilarious" Greek Waiter - Drops a pretend espresso over guests for comedic effect as an icebreaker on arrival - Germany 2013
  • "Can I use a phone to log in and send a message on Facebook please?" guy who was then given a blank expression by 9 AGSers & a single "no" from AGA at the hostel - spreading the love - Germany 2013
  • Pool-bot! Germany 2013
  • Rooster and hens, Portugal 2014
  • The boy in the basement, Portugal 2014

Mitteneers and Major Events

On 7 July 2005, a series of co-ordinated bombs were detonated in London targeting civilians on public transport. Dave Gilbert was traveling through London at the time on his way home from Brittens, Mittens' smaller Summer event again held in Laleham not too far from London. Dave was thankfully unaffected.

On 14 August 2005, the same year, Helios Airways Flight 522 crashed into a mountain near Athens, it became the deadliest aviation disaster in Greek history. 1 day later, many Mitteneers flew in to Athens airport for the first Greek Mittens, unaware of what had happened the day before just miles from the airport.

Late August in 2011, Hurricane Irene hit New York and caused major travel disruption. Grundislav was unable to fly back to New York and had to stay a couple of extra days after the official end of Mittens in Ireland.


Related Media

GAMES

» Mittens 2013 (Germany): FMV game (working title 'Francesco Motion Video')

A series of stills and video clips comprise a short adventure game set at the Mittens location. In production.


AUDIO CLIPS

» Mittens 2002 (England): Comments round-up with Kandyman, Magintz, Dark Stalkey, CJ, 2ma2, Chrille, Andail, FruitTree, Viporizer, Mods

http://www.screen7.co.uk/junc/mittens2002comments.mp3

» Mittens 2004 (New York): Christopher Walken (Grundislav) at Mittens, talking to AGA, MrColossal, MillsJRoss, CJ, DarkStalkey, Mods & JetXL, with laughter from Finkenstein & Dave Gilbert.

http://www.screen7.co.uk/junc/walken_at_mittens04.mp3

» Mittens 2006 (Spain): AGS Show, hosted by "DGMacphee" (Layabout). Very loud, contains very strong language.

http://www.screen7.co.uk/junc/mittens06agsshow.mp3


VIDEO CLIPS

» Mittens 2011 (Ireland): 10 short video snippets, filmed at moments throughout Mittens 2011. Contains drunk people, occasional strong language and lots of confusion:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqrDIHl7QuO2bftxls3CjmwiAlnwVTY1t


VIDEO PRODUCTIONS

» Melt The Limit (not filmed at "Mittens") http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76iZ9hWvkv8

» Mittens 2006 (Spain): Melt The Limit 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gonIf9KkUTE

» Mittens 2008 (France): Melt The Limit 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amUhG_4Uk3M

» Mittens 2010 (Italy): Melt The Limit 4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQYDkkzLw8k

» Mittens 2008 (France): "Le Chateaux Macabre" - Ben Jordan movie starring many members of the AGS community http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPGSrfa0oD8

» Mittens 2010 (Italy): "Ben Jordan Must Die" - in production, for release Summer 2012

» Mittens 2011 (Ireland): Das Banshee - to be revealed alongside Ben Jordan Case 8 in Fall 2012

Titles

Users who have attended one or more Mittens have a custom title on the AGS forums. As of Mittens 2019 these are:

  • Mittens Serf (1)
  • Mittens Vassal (2)
  • Mittens Knight (3)
  • Mittens Baronet (4)
  • Mittens Baron (5)
  • Mittens Viscount (6)
  • Mittens Earl (7)
  • Mittens Marquess (8)
  • Mittens Duke (9)
  • Mittens Lord (10)
  • Mittens Prince (11)
  • Mittens Consort (12)
  • Mittens King (13)
  • Mittens Deity (all)

Mods had the title of Mittens Founder due to his having hosted the first Mittens.

See also

External links