Mittens
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 various places in Europe, once in the United States, and once in Canada. The next Mittens has been organised from Monday June 29 to Monday July 6 2009, in Hollywood, Florida, United States. Details can be found on AGS forums.
A smaller meeting, named Brittens is also 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
- 2002: Laleham, England, 29 July - 02 August, organised by Mods.
- 2003: Near Gothenburg, Sweden, 28 July - 01 August, organised by Andail.
- 2004: "Electric Boogaloo" in Upstate New York, United States, 23-30 July, organised by MrColossal.
- 2005: Agia Anna, North Evia, Greece, 15-22 August, organised by Helm.
- 2006: Benidorm, Spain, 16-23 August, organised by Farlander and La Lore.
- 2007: Bayfield, Ontario, Canada, 20-27 July, organised by Quintaros and BaRoN.
- 2008: Near Charleville-Mézières, Ardennes, France, 15-22 August, organised by AGA and scotch.
- 2009: Hollywood, Florida, United States, 29 June - 06 July, organised by Grundislav.
Attendees
Attendee | 2002 (England) | 2003 (Sweden) | 2004 (USA) | 2005 (Greece) | 2006 (Spain) | 2007 (Canada) | 2008 (France) | Overall |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2ma2 | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | 3 |
Adamski (Dark Stalkey) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | 5 |
AGA | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 7 |
Andail | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | 4 |
BaRoN | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | 1 |
Becky | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | 1 |
Chrille | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | 5 |
Creed Malay | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | 1 |
Darth Mandarb | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | 1 |
Dave Gilbert | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | 1 |
Disco | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 4 |
Dominika | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | 3 |
DutchMarco | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | 1 |
Edmundo (netmonkey) | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | 1 |
Esseb | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | 1 |
Farlander | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | 4 |
Finkenstein (Jess) | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | 3 |
FruitTree | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | 2 |
Goldmund | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | 4 |
Grundislav | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 5 |
Helm | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | 3 |
jet (JetXL) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | 6 |
KANDYMAN-IAC (das kandyman) | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | 1 |
Kevbot | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | 1 |
Kira | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | 1 |
La Lore | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | 3 |
Layabout | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | 2 |
MachineElf (Vargtass) | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | 1 |
magintz | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | 3 |
mattgoble | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | 3 |
miez | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | 1 |
MillsJROSS | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | 2 |
Mods | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | 6 |
MrColossal | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | 3 |
Petteri | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | 2 |
Pesty | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | 1 |
Privateer Puddin' (custard) | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | 3 |
Pumaman (CJ) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 7 |
Quintaros | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | 3 |
Radiant | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | 3 |
Renegade Implementor | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | 1 |
Scotch | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | 4 |
Scummbuddy | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | 2 |
Sinitrena | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | 1 |
The Ivy | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | 2 |
Viporizer | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | 1 |
Total | 13 | 15 | 13 | 18 | 21 | 16 | 27 |
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.
Another Mittens tradition is the attempt to photograph Chris Jones eating onion rings and/or ice cream cones.
At each Mittens there is also a "super quiz" of questions relating to AGS and adventure games. Everyone participates and those lucky enough get to choose from an array of prizes! 1st prize 2006 went to AGA, who won a special boxed edition of Ben Jordan 1 and a signed Mittens poster by La Lore. Grundislav won the competition in 2007 and 2008.
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.
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
Related Media
» Mittens 2002: Comments round-up with Kandyman, Magintz, Dark Stalkey, CJ, 2ma2, Chrille, Andail, FruitTree, Viporizer, Mods http://www.screen7.co.uk/junc/mittens2002comments.mp3
» Mittens 2008: Ben Jordan movie starring many members of the AGS community http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=I51OTQVn0NE