Meet the Blahggers

So this GDC thing is coming up in March. That’s the Game Developers Conference, and although the name suggests this is for insiders only, money talks — $1625 for an all-access pass, prices good until tomorrow.

I don’t think that includes an open bar. Trust me, I looked.

I read over on Schubert’s Zen of Design that he’s hosting a Game Blogger Meet N Greet in connection with the GDC, which sounds interesting and all, but there is no way in hell I can sell a gaming conference to my boss. He’s not a visionary like me. He’s good for signing paychecks, however, and providing unrestricted net access. (Meet N Greet details)

Some of the issues up for discussion, which I can answer right now because I’m good at explaining things:

Privacy issues — stay anonymous, guard it with your life. You do like to get paid, don’t you? (and, for us outsiders, you don’t want your account mysteriously banned, do you?)

Troublesome posters and/or spam — Posters, edit their crap to something more … syco-fancy. Some dude thinks he can come into my house (here) where I pay the bills and take a shit, he’s got another thing coming. (Way more fun than a blanket IP ban, too.) Spam, Akismet and Bad Behavior for the win. No auto-moderation necessary.

Best blog software — It begins and ends with WordPress.

The bar tab — Invite one of the IGE guys, they’re rich.

Probably the best piece of advice I could offer to wannabes, startups and blogger hags alike would be this, (not that I was asked): Take a stand on something. Fanbois, suckups and company mouthpieces we have aplenty.

Your best work will always start off with “I just had a crazy idea”.

Conversely, not every crazy idea will be good work. We want to read that too.

Whole Lotta Upgrading Going On

Upgrading to WordPress 2.0.1 and K2 r167. This assumes that the server will cooperate, which is a mighty big assumption.

Also, I will be updating some plugins (ELA, BLC and UTW — that’s a note to me so I don’t fergit) AND changing breaking the site design, so expect a brave new world on Monday.

That is all, citizens.

Hey. By the way. What are you doing hanging out here on a weekend? Jeez, go play a game.

UPDATE: Finished, except for a few minor hacks, subpage edits and a resolution never to overhaul the layout again. I was looking forward to a little Warcraft tonight — Sunday is raid-free and minty fresh! — HOWEVER, I’m stuck in an hour+ queue. Wish I would have remembered to start the login a couple of hours ago while I was still hacking CSS files.

Best incidental effect of World of Warcraft on the entire entertainment industry: improved primetime television viewership by queued WoW players.

A Christmas Party

While hiding from the Warcraft guild, on one of my dozen “hiding from the guild” alts, I passed through Stormwind and overheard this noob begging for a mage portal to Darnassassass:

Christmas

Now c’mon! If you’re going to name your character Christmas, you’ve got to expect joke responses to EVERYTHING. Christmas shouts, “LFM for a party.” Punchlines: Will there be presents? Did you invite Santa? Can I grope the receptionist?

How about the priest rezz macros? “Resurrecting Christmas” Sounds like a Hallmark Holiday Special starring Wilford Brimley, which is probably just the sort of television programming that would appeal to a humorless Warcraft character named Christmas.

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