Mass Effect 3: Space Edition – San Francisco Report

Yesterday, in San Francisco, EA sponsored the launching of two Weather Balloons with the aid of local high school and college students and a few professional Meteorologists. This balloons ascend toward, and up to, the void of space. There are cases where they touch the very reaches of what is defined as Earth. These balloons are used to track higher altitude winds and weather patterns. Those who helped with the launches will be finding themselves en route to Alaska in a short while to study the Aurora Boreales with all the equipment that they used.

The two Balloons, Shepard (Sheprd) and Normandy (Nrmndy), were launched in the early morning From their launch point they made their way down near and in the West Waddell Creek State Reserve. Both sites proved to be something different than what anyone was expecting.

Shepard, the second balloon, came down about a mile away from White Canyon Road in the bushes of West Waddell Creek State Reserve. On paper, and some a simple satellite imagery, the location did not look too bad. Still, it wad dubbed to be on a cliff, nearly a thousand feet above sea level. The big problem was there were simply no trails really leading there. Normally, this might not be a huge problem but when it is thick bush taller than most grown men, it is. While exploring, GameShampoo encountered another group of explorers searching for the Shepard. While we attempted to track down the path to the proper ridge we came across two college students who had gotten lost out in the bush. One of the group, Skylar, wielding a machete make it over to them and then, as a group, we all made it out together. This happened to line up with the local sheriff's office making it out to the scene to find us all together. They had been summoned because of the two that got lost overnight in the bush. Still, everyone was happy to make out safe. The worst anyone got was a lot of scratches from the bush. While no one retrieved the payload we got the satisfaction of doing a good deed and bonding together.

EA were also looking to recover the beacon. They reportedly made it out to the site where the Shepard Payload came down. The problem was it was covered in thick bushes and apparently caught up in a tree. Many accounts collected at the scene dubbed it nearly impossible to safely retrieve.

Normandy came down closer to the Coast Highway 1, within a half mile of Finney Road on an access trail. In the end it was only two hundred yards in from the road. This was the first one to be found last night, early today. There was, of course, a complication. That took the form of the package being caught a good hundred plus feet above everyone in an old tree. While the tree itself presented no great challenge to climb, the height of the climb and the condition of the branches leading out to and around the Normandy were much more suspect. This meant that no one short of a professional Arborist (or a very well trained community member) could really get all too close. Even the best climbers in the group found themselves shy of the Normandy itself. Still, there was no lack of effort being put forward toward its retrieval. While EA did what they could to help, there was no way to get the needed support out within the day itself in the time they had. Still, they gave the contact information over for the Arborist so the group could contact them. Again, you saw the community of gamers coming together and working to solve the problem of the payload being close to inaccessible.

This site had its own little story though. Attached to the payload had been an Xbox 360 copy connected by an arm. It was theorized to have landed in the bush around the tree, likely within 20 feet of it. Numerous expeditions were launched into the nearby bush to find this particular copy. After none of the three expeditions turned up results, many began to regard it as the phantom copy. When people climbed up high, they did attempt to spy it, but they had no luck doing so. It could have come off in-flight or when the Normandy came down it broke off. It is very possible, much later, this copy could be found, but the world may never know before Mass Effect 3 comes out!

While, ultimately, neither had payload had been retrieved by noon today, much of the story remains on-going. There had been people who had actively tracked it as soon as its position had stabilized. It was something very different taking to the bushes and the hills in search of a video game. Still, it was an experience and one that many would likely repeat, just a bit more carefully next time.

SEE ALL VIDEOS FROM THIS ADVENTURE ON YOUTUBE:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwiyJl50cEw