GDC

This year I decided to attend the Game Development Conference in San Francisco. I have been to a game conference in Brighton but I did not get much out of the experience. Since GDC has usurped E3 as the premier event for gamers and game creators; I felt that this would be a much more productive experience.

Day 1

As an introverted person, the act talking to strangers intimidated me. However, I was able to move past this reservation and make a few contacts. When I first arrived at Moscone Center, the bright banners and hordes of gamers disoriented me. After getting lost in the lobby, I managed to work my way to the career booths. I had no idea what to expect at the time so I spent a good five to ten minutes walking around. I happened to see a booth for ping0/Flagship, which is the company that made the Game, Hellgate: London. While the game did not experience much success, I still play it once in awhile. Furthermore, I felt that I had enough experience with the game to speak comfortable about it. There were two people stationed at their booth and a student already chatting them up. I stood, somewhat awkwardly, behind that student waiting for my chance to ask for an internship. When the person in front of me finished, I lunged in and introduced myself. I mentioned that I played Hellgate and that I was a student at UC Berkeley. We talked for a bit about the internships they offered and the level of experience they were looking for. They seemed to like me so I asked the guy from Ping0 what I should do at this event. He smiled and said, “Get to know as many people as you can. Ask them what they do and why they do it but make sure that you have fun.” This immediately became my goal for the rest of the conference.

Shortly after talking to the people at Flagship, I made my way to the Keynote Conference. It was supposed to be about creativity in the game industry but I think it closely resembled a huge Microsoft and Xbox 360 advertisement more than anything. They did manage to showoff some pretty cool games like Ninja Gaiden 2. On a side note, the lead designer for Ninja Gaiden 2 looked like he had fought off some demons himself. His skin was clearly very worn (possibly a burn) and he wore a black leather jacket. With his dark hair and sunglasses he could have easily won a cosplay contest. I was blown away by the demo of Ninja Gaiden 2. Impressive graphics ensure that a game sells well but fine tuned gameplay is the most important aspect of a game. The weapon and combat system looked comprehensible and polished. While I wish that switching weapons was done in real time (a la Diablo 2) going to the start menu works well. It does look like a linear hack-and-slash sort of game but at the same time it feels like it could be a very good game.

After the keynote lecture, I rushed to get in line for the lecture being given by the Lead designer of WoW. I waited patiently in line only to push and shove my way to get a great seat. Rob Pardo, was the lead designer of Wow and he also worked on the other blockbuster games released by Blizzard. Needless to say, I now know what it feels like to be a tween at a Hannah Montana concert. Everything he said about Blizzard’s approach to multiplayer gaming made sense. Also, the material was not obvious to me. In fact, much of the lecture discussed the nuances more than the highlights of multiplayer gaming. One such idea was that Blizzard designs the multiplayer aspect of a game before the singleplayer game. At first this did not make much sense to me because all of Blizzard’s games had great singleplayer or story modes.

To be continued….

Welcome!

Hi, I’m Matt. I’m a sophomore at the University of California at Berkeley where I plan to major in mathematics and economics. I grew up in Oak Park, Illinois and I am a gamer. I have played games my entire life and I have been playing video games since elementary school. I’m writing this blog in order to document my analyses of the gaming industry, games, developers, and other relevant trends.

As for experience in the industry, I spent much of my summer between freshman and sophomore year at the Electronic Arts Headquarters in Redwood City. EA was my first break in the industry and I relished the chance to see what making games was all about. I worked under Shawn Stafford in the Global Online Services team. The team was responsible for the online features of many EA titles. The work behind the game that we see on the screen is so much more than leader boards and matchmaking. I’m very grateful to my friends at EA for giving me my first taste of what I hope to be a long and fruitful career in the game industry.

The games that I like to plan now are mostly role playing games. However, I have been known to pick up an FPS from time to time. The immediate thrill of shooting someone and then hearing them whine about it over Ventrilo is a great temporary high. However, it’s not quite as satisfying as finding a perfect ethereal Death Cleaver Berserker Axe off of a Baal run in Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction. I played Diablo 2 for most of my childhood. Back in the day when I had little homework and no desire to do anything productive I powered up my computer and played Diablo with my friends. In fact, I just quit playing this past summer. Coincidentally, Hellgate: London, a game made by Diablo’s creators, was just released. Before Diablo, I played mostly action and fighting games on the Nintendo 64. My friends met with a swift defeat when we played Killer Instinct Gold. Sadly, my button-mashing induced blisters and my mother told me to seek pleasure in other games.