GDC day three

Misc
38 Comments

I missed every session except Phil Harrison’s keynote, because of meetings or just stopping in the hallway to chat. And that keynote has been reported all over the web, so I won’t go into detail, except to say that I wish I had my PSP with me so I could download Loco Roco onto it at the PSP download station. Oh, and that SOE got a great shout-out for our work on the network platform. Woo hoo!

Name-dropping now ensues: I did get to see Masaya Matsuura and his wife,who kindly gve me a copy of his new DS Tamagotchi game. And I hung out with lots of the academic folks: Constance Steinkuehler, who immediately asked if I had more puzzle games with me this year, and Dmitri Williams, and Kurt Squire, and Jim Gee, and Jesper Juul… oh, and Nicole Lazzaro, whose talk on emotion was reportedly excellent but I missed because it conflicted with the stuff I did on Monday…

I did attend the blogger’s group gathering, where I loudly pointed at Zonk and told everyone to approach him regarding getting Slashdotted. And I promised Jeff On Games I would link his blog — there’s good stuff there, so I am adding it to the blogroll on the side. Of course, I now notice he hasn’t linked to me. 😉 A common question for me at the gathering: how do I post so much?

After that came the MUD-Dev/TerraNova cocktail hour. We then went off to dinner at Teske’s Germania, because it’s a tradition, dammit. Also, they took a reservation for 25 on 10 minutes notice — can’t beat that. The food was typical Teske’s, and the conversation was fantastic. We did lose a largish group to sushi when they split off before we got there, but we had Alice Taylor and Lisa Galarneau, and of course it was organized by the indispensable Bridget Agabra Goldstein, and we had a bunch of folks from the Accelerating Change Institute there… just a great great dinner.

I tried to teach a fine arts guy how to program Space Invaders and Frogger using butter pats, a salt shaker, and packets of sugar. We eventually even added particle effects by shaking salt over the butter pats that represented the aliens.

Then the Linden Labs party, then the casual games SIG party… and I was there so long I actually missed the Sony party. Oops.

So now here it is, 3am. I suspect I am missing Richard Garriott’s talk at 9am tomorrow. 😛

I know it sounds like endless parties, but I am skipping over all the meetings I attended. I figure, you want to hear about game developers gettin’ DOWN, baby!

38 Comments

  1. We need a video of you getting down on the dance floor as proof that you’re not actually attending stuffy meetings all day. 🙂

  5. Shouldn’t you be saving whats left of the potentially greatest MMO in history?

    Toontown Online?

    I think its Hello Kitty World.

  13. Well, there’s some rumors floating out of the GDC. I’ve been doing some research tonight, and if I had to speculate (which I don’t but what the hey) I’d say the world is about to become a much smaller place.

    Impressive stuff if it’s true.

  14. Mr Koster,

    Now that you have left SOE can you finally convince them to tell the truth about the future of SWG?

    Don’t you think it’s about time for them to ‘fess up and come clean with those few loyal players that are still left?

  15. Hello Mr. Koster,

    As you now have left SOE, when are you joining Bioware and starting on SWG2? 😉

  16. I’d say the world is about to become a much smaller place.

    There’s also that odd thing called globalization happening. =P If I knew more about economics and politics, I’d study it more, but I’m not that good. I like my ivory tower, dammit!

    How did you know?

    “Who can see the future? Those who create it.” — Strider Hiryu. =P

  19. Just would like to thank you, really, for what SWG has been.
    Hope it won’t go more down that it already is with the NGE.
    Thanks again for the original gameplay, for the skills, the huge number of distincts and usefull professions available, for no jedis, for the CH system, for Star wars.

    /deepbow

  20. While the topic got already hijacked 😉 All my best wishes for the future, Raph! Hope you’ll find whatever you love to make next. I hope it won’t be a 9to5 job in an insurance company ;), so I’m looking forward already for what will come next from you 🙂

  21. Geez. I had to go to Abalieno’s blog (which, btw, needs an RSS feed so I can syndicate it on my LJ) to find out the rumor mill actually spat something true out.

    I’m complaining here, partly because I know Abalieno will read it anyways, and partly because I’m annoyed I had to read all those comments about Raph’s departure while being completely uncertain whether or not they were actually true.

    I’m also going to be sick if this much touted Bioware Austin studio can’t do anything better than “SWG, take two, this time without Sony.” They’re supposed to be good. Prove it!

  23. Gratz Raph. I really look forward to seeing what comes next (well, assuming it’s a MMO or a book about MMO’s … sorry, I’m not a big fan of poetry 😉 ).

  24. I think I have an RSS feed (the bottom of the sidebar, the XML thing), it sucks but it is hardcoded with no options that I know of.

    Raph at Bioware could bring nice things. I always believed that he is a great resource but that he needs to be forced in a precise direction so that he doesn’t try to make things too wacky. Bioware is a guarantee on that front, they could manage to keep him under control 🙂

    Then I’m a bit saddened by the fact that projects change but the people are still the same. How can new ideas spring if there’s no involvement if not between the same group of people telling each other the same stories and nodding their heads in agreement.

    You know, this industry needs to discover and bring new blood in, not just giving new homes to the refugees.

    But despite this, I’m overly excited to see Raph back on the practical side of things. Assuming the rumors are true. I want to see him in the front lines. Not in the back contemplating the sky and preaching about generic stuff. I want to see things vibrant and alive again. Direct interest.

    Breaking this sort of “suspension” we have right now where everything seems so stationary. Where everything is nostalgic toward the past.

  25. Here’s hoping you’re going on to bigger and better things, Raph.

    Y’know, an immersive MMORPG set in a persistant and coherent virtual world where the social side of gaming was part of the fun. 😉

    Just not another orcs’n’goblin basher, eh?

  27. All I want is for Raph’s Game 3.0(tm) to be free of existing fiction restrictions. We all know how that turns out 😛

  28. Best of luck in your next pursuit. I look forward to reading many posts in its development forum.

  30. I think I have an RSS feed (the bottom of the sidebar, the XML thing), it sucks but it is hardcoded with no options that I know of.

    I’ve never really been a fan of Drupal, from what I’ve seen of it. =P But you’re added now. Yay!

    We all know how that turns out

    Penguins and alligators?

    Personally, I’m just waiting for his next post, because this post just has nothing but amusement in it. =P

  31. Mr. Koster,

    Congratulations on leaving a company that…speaks for itself (frequently). Here’s to moving on to better things.

    Sincerely,

    MMOG Fan

  32. Raph–you’re leaving SOE! Any comments? Us fans of yours will follow you wherever you go…

    Philip

  33. Pingback: Terra Nova: Raph Koster
  35. Pingback: Jeff On Games » Blog Archive » Apologies to Raph
  36. Pingback: The Other Here » Raph Koster Taught Me How To Code With Butter
  37. Pingback: The Other Here » Raph Koster Taught Me How To Code With Butter
  38. Pingback: In the Metasphere 3/26/06 « The Electric Sheep Company

Comments are closed.