PixelVixen707

Bringing my Game Developer Conference coverage, at last, to a close: I’d like to clap for the folks who proved I was at GDC, by sending in a pic of my business card, or finding one of the notepads I lost at Moscone (dammit, butterfingers!). My pal Jessica will be in touch soon. She didn’t think I’d make any new friends, but like I said, I made many. Game designers are some of the sweetest, coolest, most inspired folks on the planet. I almost agree with Jane McGonigal: you all will save the world.

Couple more housekeeping items before we turn the page on this. You’ll notice above the back of my business card. I slapped an enigmatic message on there for fun. Noone decrypted it! Come on guys. Take the weekend and if you figure it out, shoot me a line, snarl.pixel.vixen at gmail dot com. Can’t promise any presents for it but you’d have my kudos forever.

(UPDATE: Code broken! Congrats to Nara Malone and Conor Davitt! But I won’t print their answers … the rest of you can keep cracking … or write me to say “uncle.” Or um, “aunt.”)

Last but not least: half my reporting during the week went straight onto Twitter. I don’t usually live-tweet my life, but walking around San Francisco and Moscone, catching stray observations, was my favorite part of the week. They’re all up on my Twitter feed, but we know that their servers could up and die any moment, so for the sake of posterior I’m repeating some of them here.

The first day: I flew in Sunday and got settled.

SFO struck me as surreally sci fi - until I was almost run over in the terminal by a bike cop.
3:54 PM Mar 22nd

 

First food of the day arrived. Hello, burger. You’re f***ed.
6:19 PM Mar 22nd

 

Just got talking with a merchant marine, almost my dad’s age. Not a fan of the intrawebs. (I hid my BlackBerry.)

His take: “You’ve got these effeminate men going from computer games to a computer job! It’s not real!” He had a point.

Called himself “the discontinued man.”
7:39 PM Mar 22nd

 

Monday: Disoriented and dazzled.

Oh jet lag, up yours
6:27 AM Mar 23rd

 

Moscone west is quiet. Debating what to check out. Serious games? Too serious. Raph koster at 10? Hmm …
9:32 AM Mar 23rd

 

Thought I saw @corvusE from the escalator. Moustache is hard to miss, although the guys in kilts stand out even more.
9:33 AM Mar 23rd

 

Jane Mcgonigal telling us that dancing together and humiliating ourselves makes us happier than opiates. I’ll settle for opiates.

Jane mcgonigal has the futurist’s silver tongue. I am pumped to hack my alternate enhanced reality. And wear cyborgic contact lenses.
5:09 PM Mar 23rd

Don’t mind the typos! I blame my BlackBerry.

Tuesday, we had more panels and more time around Moscone. But I ended the day at the Harmonix Rock Band party. Did someone say free drinks? Noone said I’d have to shlep halfway across town to get them!

Watching young girl on tip-toes smooching hat and coat clad hotel doorman. Love is in the air.
8:16 AM Mar 24th

 

Time to shlep from Moscone west to north again. Pack the mules, fill the flasks. #gdc09
11:07 AM Mar 24th

 

Hmx party - rock band 2 at EAR SPLITTING VOLUME - righteous
8:21 PM Mar 24th

 

I would play, but I don’t want to shame a whole roomful of strangers. Some of you have families.
8:47 PM Mar 24th

 

GDC really took off Wednesday, when the full design panels kicked off - plus Iwata’s keynote.

Guys with uke and guitar moving thru moscone west. God help us
7:47 AM Mar 25th

 

So here’s where those 20k GDC attendees have been hiding all week.
9:08 AM Mar 25th

 

This is not GDC news per se, but I smell burgers in front of Moscone like you wouldn’t believe
12:52 PM Mar 25th

 

The boy with the kitten ears - does he change or wash them? They’re cute, but I hope they don’t wilt.
3:41 PM Mar 25th

 

Thursday: wear and tear sets in. But also, the Expo crawl! The Game Design Challenge! And finally: more free drinks.

Crowd outside Westin a blend of chic and slob. Guess which con brought the slobs.
8:34 AM Mar 26th

 

That poor booth babe at the front of the expo - she looks like a Barbie in a condom
1:58 PM Mar 26th

 

Watching onlive “demo” their perfect performance is a bit like the carny act with the chicken that can count
2:01 PM Mar 26th

 

At Sony booth, PSP row includes … Scrabble. All that money on a platform, just to go head to head with facebook.
2:46 PM Mar 26th

 

Experimental game design challenge made my brain hurt. Derek Yu’s closing remarks on the meaning of death made my heart hurt.

Wait, did I really just type that? Damn you crazy gameboys.
5:44 PM Mar 26th

 

Big love to the brainysphere dinner and @corvuse and @brainygamer- maybe next year?
9:02 PM Mar 27th

 

Snuck into exclusive GDC level99 afterparty - living in NY taught me a FEW things
10:54 PM Mar 27th

 

Petri Purho way cuter in person. I want to pretend he’s doing my homework.
11:34 PM Mar 27th

 

Men were just dancing! Two of them!
11:40 PM Mar 27th

 

And for the last day … well, what was left to say? We were tired.

Wow, you can smell the hangover in here.
9:19 AM Mar 27th

 

Prowling the career expo. If I could do any of this stuff, I wonder if I would? #gdc09
12:00 PM Mar 27th

 

To girl who brought her chihuahua to GDC, in purse, where it looks terrified: don’t. #gdc09
1:36 PM Mar 27th

 

No volume of coffee would be too much right now.
2:18 PM Mar 27th

 

Just saw molyneux’s talk. He and we seemed tired. But the demo crashed spectacularly. #gdc09
3:24 PM Mar 27th

 

But by 5 PM? They started locking us out. Summer camp was over, and it was time to hit the airport.

Sweet dreams, Moscone Center. #gdc09

… ‘Til next year!