Gareth – Page 146 – The Designer Monologues

August 11, 2010

SXSW Panelpicker Voting Now Open

SXSW’s panelpicker is now open — an opportunity to give your opinion on which user-generated proposals are most appropriate for daytime programming at SXSW Interactive, SXSW Music and SXSW Film. It’s a neat process, and as someone who has submitted a proposal, I would very much like your vote.

My proposal is: +5 Sword of ePublishing: Lessons from Tabletop RPGs.

Basically, I would talk about the fact that the tabletop RPG industry were early adopters of ePublishing, and have already faced the challenges that are currently causing such agita for traditional mainstream publishers. I’ll talk about the solutions we found, as well as some of the lessons we learned about electronic publishing along the way.

Voting is open until Noon CDT on August 27th.

There are quite a few very interesting proposals out there — and you’re not limited in your vote. Check them out, and give a thumbs-up to the ones you think are interesting.

August 11, 2010August 11, 2010

GenCon 2010, via Context-Free Quotes

“God bless consumer confidence.”
“Drink your Weak Lemon Drink!”
“Send the sober one for towels.”
“Why can’t geek girls wear pants? Games are about acquisition of stuff. Some of that stuff could be PANTS.”
“We’re bypassing the middle-man “books”, and selling pretension directly to the consumer.”
“I know, I know — the games aren’t more fun in his room.”
“The laser-hair-removal booth chick looks like she lost a bet.”
“…and now, for today’s exciting round of “Are You Fucking Kidding Me…””
“I heard her describe us as her ‘booth partners’ and her ‘printers.’ I’m not entirely sure she’s quite got the jist of this relationship.”
“Your father head-butts people on the internet.”
“That’s three Ennies. Are we rock stars yet?”
“Let me guess — you’ve got a portrait in an attic somewhere, don’t you….”
“I think we’ve moved on from “is wearing my Ennies medal a bit naff” to “exactly how naff is it?”
“Why was he at the line meeting?” “I thought you invited him.” “….um, NO…”
“One drink and I’m buzzing? What the hell… Oh yeah. I forgot about the Vicodin…”
“I’ll talk to you. You look sane.”

….and many, many more.

Helluva show. Now back to work. Feel free to add more context-free quotes via comments!

August 3, 2010

GenCon Bound

Off to the wilds of deepest Indianapolis for GenCon — a convention which featured in a fairly good overview article on io9 today.

I try my damnedest not to set a schedule — I like to be able to change things up as interest and opportunity strikes. Those few things that are set in stone however:

Wednesday night are the Diana Jones Awards. I’ll definitely be there, as Adamant is a sponsor for the event, and plus it always makes a great kick-off to the Con to gather with folks I haven’t seen since last year and catch up before working 48+ hours in the next four days. If you’re in the industry, you know where this event is being held. See you there.

Thursday through Sunday during exhibit hall hours, I will most likely be found at the Cubicle 7 booth (#315), and if I’m not there, somebody there will know where I am.

In the evenings– Dinner? Drinks? Who knows? We’ll see.

The best way to reach me during the show will be to @reply me on Twitter (folks who already know me can send a DM and I’ll give you my cell# for text messaging, etc.).

My first GenCon was in 1991. My first as an exhibitor was 1994. Tallying up the years that I missed, and this is my 15th year in attendance. Round 15, here we go….