"..you don't just hob nob with devs."

You do if you have friends who actually attend and work in the industry and introduce you to others. And then there are after parties held at the W or events on Minna /Howard/Mission street which I frequent often and know people from Ubi, Zynga and other independent mobile game companies stationed all around SF.

So again, you may have went there and stood the wall, but that wasn't me as I got to actually talk, question and get absurdly drunk(afterwards) with a lot of folks there.

So looks like that type of social interaction doesn't work for you. No tries left.

He's just told you he's done it before and you continue to act like that?

@gangsta

" So looks like that type of social interaction doesn't work for you"

Yeah

Nope. Went there because I have had business with Epic. I didn't have to slide into some party and pretend. You really do not understand what it means to hobnob. Obviously we look at it from different points of view. But let's be honest, the reason you said something in the first place is you have nothing but hate for people like me.

Going to some parties and trying to rub up against someone seems more like worship. Drinking a beer with them and honestly discussing business and laying the ground work out of mutual respect for other each others unique field are two different views. Getting absurdly drunk? I'm not a college student that just came of legal drinking age. Social interaction? No, what you are doing is chasing fame.

@hamburgerhill,

Twice was enough. With the way streaming works now, I enjoy everything more without being there. When you are there you actually miss a ton of announcements that you do not find out about until later that evening or the next day.

Lol smh

".Social interaction? No, what you are doing is chasing fame"

Lol!! Chasing fame! Wtf 🤣

"Nope. Went there because I have had business with Epic. "

Oh so is this the business meeting you had where they confirmed to you that Gears of War was confirmed for PS3??

LOL!

did you ever think you mighta had a different experience Morgan? Especially since you said you haven’t gone in a while, and i don’t understand why you would just instantly attack him. Like what reason would he have to lie?

@Morganfell

Lmao! I mean seriously, if I knew that this would hit you so hard I would have thought more about your feelings before I left a comment saying what I (personally) might do at GDC.

"I didn't have to slide into some party and pretend."

And judging by the way you behave on here I can completely understand why.

"You really do not understand what it means to hobnob. Obviously we look at it from different points of view."

Obviously, but please do go on....

"But let's be honest, the reason you said something in the first place is you have nothing but hate for people like me."

So let me get this straight, I leave a comment, FIRST might I add, of what I might personally do when this convention comes rolling around. You then come prancing in and say I won't do this and now all of a sudden this has all turned into me hating people like you?

I would say to get off your high horse but that would be given that horse too much credit for carrying your inflated false sense of self worth.

"Going to some parties and trying to rub up against someone seems more like worship."

Or having fun, but we have already established that this is pretty much a foreign concept to you.

"Drinking a beer with them and honestly discussing business and laying the ground work out of mutual respect for other each others unique field are two different views."

Which I doubt has ever happened between you and anything that had ever walked on two legs.

"I'm not a college student that just came of legal drinking age."

Lucky for me then I am! PAAARTAAAAY!

"No, what you are doing is chasing fame."

Whew...Well there you have it folks, I simply wanted to go down to GDC say hello to folks, hangout and enjoy the festivities and according to Morgenfell all i'm doing is chasing....fame....

I really have no idea what that actually means but I might get another paranoid response detailing other aspects of what I'm actually doing or insights on how I hate people like him (???).

Until then I'm going to see if I can get in GDC and chase fa...i mean have some serious discussion with Epic. Maybe tell them about how PUBG would be the equivalent of CS:GO and how no one would ever play the game.

You can indeed hob knob with devs there. GDC isn't a press event, even though the press does attend. GDC is a developers conference. It's in the name itself. There may be 30-40 lecturers, but there will be a couple thousand developers attending. The discussions range from ethics, to new technology, to game design principals, and many other things. There is usually a keynote, which is the most notable thing for the press, but the press is there for interviews mostly.

They also have an expo, which is more about the press getting time with devs, and given the short amount of time available, devs are going to spend more time with the press than a random expo goer, or even other developers on the expo floor.

You are right that you aren't likely to spend an inordinate amount of time with devs, but there will be many you can talk to, and you can spend some time with them. It's unlikely you'll just spend time with them outside of those few minutes unless you are with someone who they know. Developers are careful about talking about their business with outsiders, so as not to inadvertently break NDA's.

@Gangsta

I'm wondering how your friends got you in. Unless you just got into the Expo. But even then, the GDC is a paid event.

To get into a GDC you will have to have a pass. These passes are given to the press, or the press pays for them, and to those who PAY for them within the game industry, or maybe someone giving a lecture. You aren't allowed to bring guests, unless your contacts are some really high ups in the industry. Even the people paying for booths have to register people ahead of time, and they have a limited number of passes to give out, so it seems they'd give this to their people, and anyone attending on the companies dime isn't likely to have that company be OK with what you're saying. I know mine certainly wouldn't.

The passes are picked up in similar fashion to most anime or comic conventions. Anyone in the press that comes with someone...say a cameraman, has to have that person registered ahead of time, although they do have separate rates for the expo only.

The cheapest ticket you can get is for $150. I find it hard to believe they'd just let you in because you had a connection. Game developers don't get in free. I've been to several, and every time, my work paid for it.

Not saying you didn't get in, but your story seems to ignore a rather large aspect of what it takes to attend a GDC.

Smaller conferences of this nature are pretty much the same. They usually do have a public show floor though, but that's more marketing for the devs,pubs, or vendors than hob-knobing. Most don't do more than discuss their product.

Edit: I see further down that you mentioned the parties outside GDC. I suppose you could attend those without a GDC pass. If that's what you meant, then never mind the above.

@rainslacker

As you already mentioned there are all sorts of events and discussions that actually don't require having a GDC pass.

Plus there is a section we're developers/publishers set up booths for recruitments purposes that also don't require a pass. Where a lot for folks hob nob.

But to actually get in to the show floor to check out all the latest tech and other things of that nature, there are ways to buck the system and aquire a pass especially if you have east coast friends who don't want to attend their company paid for GDC event and would rather skip it and hangout in the SF Bay area.

This is where I come in.

I've done it before when the smaller comic con events used to come up here and the other one a long time ago thrown by Wizard magazine.

And even still this isn't 100% garunteed to happen anyways as i am more than happy to attend the after events thrown all around town.

Your east coast friend should be very careful about giving away his pass. They could be banned from GDC permanently for doing that. The companies that provide those passes usually frown on such things.

I used to work for Ubisoft, and my first two years there, I wanted to go to GDC. They wouldn't pay for me to go, and the company wouldn't allow me to use someone's pass that didn't really want to go. They pay to have their developers go there for a reason, and it's so they can see what's going on in the industry. An all access pass is in the $2000 range, not to mention the cost of travel, hotels, and expense accounts.

The actual rules for passes says that they aren't supposed to give them out.

I'm sure it happens, and congrats if you got one that way. Just don't cause trouble. :)

In terms of the booths for recruitment, I doubt you'd be doing much mingling there. They aren't likely to waste their time on someone who isn't there for such purposes. I had to man a couple years at stuff like that, although we were in the general expo, and I had to screen potential candidates to contact later.

I will agree with you that while it's against the rules, there certainly are those who would be willing to give up their pass. I have seen people get in this way, and they often get reported. Particularly those who make an ass of themselves. I know one dev who was banned from being able to attend again, and he was eventually fired from his company come the next year when they tried to send him again and found out.

From my experience, most devs don't care to mingle with the wide eyed gaming community at such events outside the expo floor where its a marketing thing. Most of them don't even care to mingle with them outside such events, because they tend to be annoying about games and tend to say stupid things about what expectations are for developers.