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.

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
Mittens 2006 group photo. Missing is Chrille
Mittens 2007 group photo. Missing are Pesty and Scummbuddy
Mittens 2008 group photo.
(comedy version)

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


Attendees

The following people have attended Mittens so far:
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

See also

External links