ION 2008- Final Day

Okay, so I missed yesterday. I couldn't fall asleep easily and I ended up oversleeping...by...a lot of hours, but I was under no obligation to work that day. Hmm. Didn't see any interesting things either yesterday either.

So, today is the last day. A lot of interesting things. I went to a session in the morning (after sitting in the VIP/Speaker lounge as the door guard and listening to people talk about marketing and then Microsoft nerds talk about software archetecture and the ASUS EEE (I never saw that keyboard in person...damn.....its small....)...

However, there was a workshop from a guy who worked at Disney Online in LA concerning Free Will vs Narrative, that was really interesting. It was great, alongside all this tech stuff I've heard EVERYWHERE in the conference, to get something I actually understood. The concept of using the structure of story to drive the player towards goals, to give them goals in what they want to do, but at the same time allow them free will so as not to overwhelm them or make the story seem stale and "stuck there". Or if you give them not enough control, of course, it goes from being a game, to being an animated film, somewhat.

They used an example of the latest game they've made, Pirates of the Carribean online. I do admit, at first I wrote this game off as another horrid excuse for an online game, but look at the clips the man showed during the presentation, and I'm actually somewhat interested in downloading it in playing....it is free after all.

Anyways, eh, I need to go get ready to go home and stuff. See you in Spokane I suppose. It was an interesting conference, and what I wrote here probably isn't as crazy as experencing a game conference for real. Like I imagine...if I thought this place was insane....GDC must have be ZOMG SOOOOO INSANE! =D