Well, it’s that time of year again and thank god it’s in San Francisco this year. I will go on record as saying that I’m not, at all, a fan of San Jose. (It is the Game Developer’s Conference, of course.)  GDC is, for me, a combination of dread and fun. I do not like public speaking, but I just treat the dislike/fear as a weakness to be beaten down, so I’m giving my first GDC talk this year. I thought it best to start out small, so I’m speaking for only 20 minutes, followed by 20 minutes by Sulka Haro from Habbo, and 20 minutes by Erik Bethke from GoPets Live! I’m also running the same roundtable (on three different days) with Daniel James as we did last year.

Although this is my fifth or sixth GDC, it’s the first one where I’ve got more meetings than sessions I’ll be going to. I’ve currently got fourteen meetings scheduled, which is not a patch on a lot of people I’m sure, but which pushes the limits of my tolerance for socialization even though on an individual level I’m looking forward to every meeting.

There are a few things I’m really looking forward to besides saying ‘hi’ to old friends I don’t see much and making some new friends though. Tomorrow night I’m playing, along with 119 other people within the industry, in the ISM Charity Poker Tournament, benefitting the Starlight Foundation. I expect it to be pretty amusing insofar as I barely know how to play real poker. I play poker with with stupid-but-fun rules on the rare occasions I play with friends. I did sign up on a site called Party Poker (I am not going to link to it) last night and played some Texas Hold ‘Em though. Hopefully that’s what we’ll play tomorrow night.

The only downside to the poker tournament is that it starts at 9:30 and I turn into a pumpkin by 11 or so barring rare occasions. I like to work from 10 or 11pm until 1 or 2 am after some relaxing earlier in the evening. My experience on Party Poker has shown me that what’s likely to happen is that I’ll go all in on a hand that is not as good as I think it is and get crushed by someone who has a clue. At least that way I can go home and sleep to prepare for the long, long days that will be Wednesday-Friday.

(But hey, how can I not be excited about going to hear freaking Shigeru Miyamoto speak? Miyamoto for crying out loud. He’s like a god, but better, since gods tend to send plagues and locusts and demand sacrificial lambs. Miyamoto just asks for $50 and gives you Zelda. W00t!)

I’m also looking forward to a few other sessions, the Level99 party, and the Three Rings (arrr!) party. Eileen and I also took the aforementioned Sulka Haro and Par Winzell (from Three Rings) hiking yesterday near my house, which was quite enjoyable. Par even informally apologized to Sulka for Sweden’s domination of Finland in the past, which I felt was a crucial step in repairing the historic rift between the Swedes and the Finns.
In any case, if you’re going to GDC and want to meet up for whatever reason, email me at matt (-at-) ironrealms (-dot-) com. I have a fairly busy schedule already but maybe we can arrange something.