Website tweaking ahead.
Ignore any explosions that occur over the next few hours. I’m updating the site a bit.
[UPDATE] All done.
SDCC – After the show.
Dear lord, is that one crazy event. Every night, I’d go back to my hotel intending to write something and instead I’d just pass out. But now it’s over and I’m safely tucked away at SFO, en route back home, so I’ll catch up a bit.
First off, a shot back across Barnett’s bow. If you aren’t aware, he’s guest-blogging for TTH throughout the Con, so keep an eye on that. In his first entry, he attributes to me the description of SDCC as “the Geek Prom” and claims it’s a “harsh” take on the event.
Bollocks to that, I say.
Here’s why:
Twitter.
Quick question:
What’s everyone think about Twitter? Is it useful/interesting at all or just spam-tastic Web 2.0 gibberish?
If you use it, what are some feeds you like to watch?
En route to SDCC.
I’ve got a 1 hour layover at SFO before I make my way into San Diego. I’m beginning to get the sense that this event is larger than I initially suspected, because – as near as I can tell – EVERYONE in this airport is heading to the Con. The departure board is just flight after flight into San Diego and there currently a multi-table dispute going on in the cafe behind me about whether or not it was appropriate to use “Ultimate” Nick Fury instead of “Classic” Nick Fury in the Iron Man movie.
Time to hop on beta and see if I can stir up some trouble.
SDCC
This week’s trip to California takes us to the San Diego Comic Con. We’ll have our Traveling Booth of Love with us, so come line up to get your WAR on (queue early, queue often!). I’ll be about Thursday through Saturday (as well as on Wednesday for some sort of “preview night” something-or-other). Barnett will be there as well – mostly roaming the show floor trying to corner and fawn over Frank Miller, but also occasionally in the booth to pose for pictures, gesticulate wildly and spread joy to the masses.
There’s also some party that EA and Oni are co-sponsoring that I apparently have to go to on Friday. I have no clue what it will involve and/or how to get people into it, but if it were to be crashed (and I in no way condone such things) it would be swanky to have it crashed by a crowd of our Faithful.
What else?
Barnett’s talk is apparently on Saturday at 2:00 “somewhere” at the con. Please come prepared to scream.
My current Nerd Goal is to get my hands on the con-exclusive Mousers that Neca is putting out. And to shake Sergio Aragonés’ hand.
That’s about it. See ya in San Diego!
E3 – The Week After.
Short version:
I liked the new E3. It featured enough serious press to make it worthwhile for us to attend, while remaining lean enough to not require a staff of hundreds to man a $5 million booth.
Longer version:
I actually blogged live from the event all week, over at TenTonHammer, so feel free to catch up with specifics there if you haven’t already.
The new E3 worked really well for us. We were able to give actual interviews and demonstrations, without having to scream over trillion-decibel techno music or wade through tens of thousands of people to get anywhere. We make games that can’t be summed up in a twenty second “whiz bang” trailer, so having the chance to sit down and talk for 15 minutes or more with each journalist was really helpful.
There are people who argue that without the over the top spectacle of previous years the show loses “value” for developers who choose to attend. Maybe those folks are right, but I have a hard time imagining a situation where ANY game that’s actually well-made and enjoyable wouldn’t be better suited by getting actual attention from the media rather than spending a million bucks developing a more effective swag cannon or having the army of bikini-clad models drop into their booth on zip-lines. It’s true that in the past more media overall attended, but to what end? They weren’t there looking at the games, they were covering the aforementioned spectacle. Getting the show on national TV does exactly nothing to help developers in attendance.
Now, don’t get me wrong – the new event is imperfect. It should be dropped down to 2 days total and the venue should be changed. I don’t think we need to send it back to hotels, but the convention center is simply too large for it at this point and holding it there only serves to make it feel less important than it is. I’ve heard rumblings that the show is now “dead” (but we heard that in 2006 and 2007 as well) or that it’s going to return to its Past Glory. I think either would be a shame, because it’s REALLY close to being a great event right now, even if it isn’t the sexiest thing in the gaming world anymore.
Speaking of E3…
…I’m going to be guest-blogging for the hep cats over at Ten Ton Hammer throughout the show, so keep an eye out for that next week!
‘Tis the season.
Summer Show Season, that is. As a result, Jeff, Paul and I (along with a rotating cast of other WAR notables) are in non-stop travel mode for the next couple of months.
Over the next six weeks, I’ll be heading out to E3, San Diego Comic Con, Games Convention (Leipzig) and PAX. Which is roughly 800 trillion miles of air travel.
E3’s a bit of a mystery, as it’s still a show that’s trying to find itself after the major contraction that took place in the wake of the ’06 expo. It looks to be a fairly well-policed “industry only” event, which is a bit of a bummer because hanging with fans is always more fun than doing interviews.
I’m going to SDCC because… well… I’m a huge comic nerd and it’s always a bonus to get a free trip to the Nerd Prom. We also get to unleash our full traveling demo booth there, which is always cool because thousands of people get to see the game first-hand in a short span of time.
Games Convention is, to be honest, totally nuts (in a good way). Well over a quarter of a million screaming Yurpians set loose in a huge air hangar filled to bursting with every kind of game you could ever hope to see. It’s one of the only events that brings out my inner fanboy because it’s so over the top that it’s hard NOT to get caught up in the excitement. Our friends at GOA always pull out all the stops and put up an absolutely kick-ass booth for showcasing and demoing WAR, but this year’s set up is totally, insanely awesome. If you’re anywhere in Europe, get your backside to GC Leipzig.
I’ve never been to PAX before, but it looks like the definitive heir-apparent to what E3 had inadvertently morphed into before it got “streamlined” a couple years ago. I think it’s safe to say that it’s the pre-eminent community-oriented gaming event in the US at this point. We’ll have the aforementioned Traveling Booth of Love set up, so if you’re looking for one event to hit between now and launch, PAX is probably it.
So those are the next few weeks worth of WAR – at least in terms of shows I’ll be at. If you make it to any of the events, make sure to swing by and say howdy.
Nerdblog!
The following is unrelated to WAR, so if that’s all you’re looking for, skip it.
Everyone still here?
Cool.
I’ve managed to carve out a few hours of free time over the past week and actually got a chance to catch up on some gaming, watch a couple of movies and generally act like a normal fanboy for once. Here are a couple of thoughts on things played, seen or read:
That can’t be right.
I don’t see how it’s possible that ONLY 300 or so of you have gone over to Super-Designer Justin Webb’s YouTube page to watch videos like this:
I mean, SERIOUSLY, this is the dude who brought you the Infamous Mongbat Video.