Austin Four

My last full day in Austin and the last day of the Austin Games Conference is today and I'm not too sad to see it be done and over with. I took the shots with the camera on my phone, so they didn't turn out very well. Although I had some interesting moments worth remembering:

• Having some yipping bastich of a dog barking most of the night in the hotel. Apparently, they allow pets for an extra fee - how nice for them.
• Discovering a locally branded bottled water - Ozarka.  It must be a regional thing down here, because when I first saw that all I could think of was hillbillies marrying their sisters. I was actually hesitant to drink it at first, but it was the only cold bottled water they gave us in the booth.
• Having more goth and stoned people than I care to count come up and say "Hey, I'm making a game, when can I get it published?".  I wanted to respond, "Hey, have you ever published a game before or did you just come up with an idea between layers of mascara and expect us to give you cash today?" (which I didn't, of course).

• Survey Boy - I got roped into a focus group for a potential product from Seagate, the hard-drive manufacturer. They apparently are investigating becoming some sort of service for digital objects and characters. It sounded like a mediocre bordering on bad idea. And they paid me, and a bunch of others, $200 to tell them so.

• Ozone Days - While this may sound like some sort of Eco-event, it's actually a warning to the city of Austin to stay indoors whenever possible because the pollution is considerably higher than normal.  When this happens they run the city buses for free. Apparently the buses have been running free for a couple of weeks. Combine this with 90 degree weather and it's more fun than any one person deserves.

I have to admit that this is one the most laid back conferences I've ever been to in terms of number of attendees, general attitude and shock and awe.  The entire exhibition floor was the size of just the Microsoft or Sony booth at E3. The noise level was next to nothing, I could actually hear people talking in a normal tone of voice, which is virtually unheard of at these shows.

My biggest regret is not making it to the County Line BBQ place with my friend.  Through a comedy of errors (and a miscommunication between the words lunch and dinner), I bailed on my team dinner to go to County Line BBQ only to have my friend cancel with me and make it his "company" event. I got to see him later that night to catch up and he had the audacity to tell me how good the food was at the restaurant. Bastard.

I catch my flight home tomorrow and after a brief layover in Las Vegas (with just enough time to lose some money in the slot machines), I'll be home again, home again jiggity jigg.

Comments

[slapdummy]

1. Basitch = Bitch and Bastard
2. Probably, but I'm a busy professional and didn't care that much. Besides, it was funny grinding that Momar doesn't have an opportunity to do all that often.

[Tom]

1. What is a "bastich"?

2. You should have either gone to get BBQ on your own, or shot your "friend", or both. The fact that you did neither shows that you suck.