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The Official GDC 2005 thread.

Vark

Member
Well GDC is less than a week away so I thought it'd be a good time to get tabs on who all is going. More importantly though It's sort of an open invitation for anyone who lives in / has lived in / knows the San Francisco area to chime in an kindly point an East Coaster in the right direction as far as best places to go for food and drink.
 
I'll be there covering the event on Wednesday and Thursday. As for food, I believe there is a Mel's Diner close to the Convention Center (which is also close to the Metreon) thats a good deal.
 
So who else is going? A buddy of mine is going, but he's a student and is doing the "chore boy" deal so he can get in for free.
 
I'm going - already on west coast to overcome lag. The speaker lineup this year is f'n brilliant, with great speakers from Microsoft, Nintendo, SCEE, Konami, Capcom, Bungie, Maxis, Backbone, Valve and then some.

Party is going to be good, too!
 
The Chore Boy deal rocks!

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I'm still trying to weasel my way into the MS party this year but that's between my producer and our account manager.

Ditto on the talks though. The scheduling is kind of crap though, there's so many good talks overlapping I'm going to have to start being really choosey about which ones I go to.
 
Mel's Drive-In is on the bottom floor of the Parking Garage next to the CC.

If you want something quick and tasty and not good for you, try the Buckhorn Grill in the Metreon for their tri-tip sandwiches. They have this BBQ sauce to put on them that is out of this world. (if you want completely unhealthy, they have one that is Tri-tip w/bacon and cheddar melted on top)

If you want REALLY amazing food, sometime when you're in the area one night you NEED to eat at Espetus. Preferably between Mon-Thurs (cheapest). http://www.espetus.com/
It's on Market on the other side of Van Ness. Best to go in a party of 2-4.

If you just want to eat locally and on the cheap, there's stuff like Tommy's Joint and Blondie's Pizza.

EDIT: I plan to be there most of the main days, but I might cut out early on Wednesday to go do stuff with the band while they're around (before Raj heads back to Tokyo.) If you're in town, they're playing this Sunday at Anime OD - www.animeod.com

If you guys are up for Churrasco, maybe Thursday night?
 
Monday and Tuesday are tutorial days, the expo floor and lectures are wednesday through friday.

Thursday night is the booth crawl and Choice Awards.
 
If someone see's Gabe Newell or someone from Valve there, smack them and tell them I said to fix the stutter bug. :D :lol :lol :lol
 
Actually the Booth Crawl and the GDC Award Show are on Wendesday evening, not Thursday. Thursday is when Iwata speaks, which I'll definately be attending.
Dr_Cogent said:
If someone see's Gabe Newell or someone from Valve there, smack them and tell them I said to fix the stutter bug. :D :lol :lol :lol
Well, officially, no one from Valve is scheduled to be there at this moment. Of course that could change at the last minute as there is indeed a seminar on Half Life 2 but no speaker assigned to it yet. And of course, some employees could just show up at the expo for the hell of it.
 
Actually the Booth Crawl and the GDC Award Show are on Wendesday evening, not Thursday. Thursday is when Iwata speaks, which I'll definately be attending

Is that different than last year? I remember it being the second to last day since everything was sort of winding down after the award show. Then again the Sammy party could be negatively affecting my memory.
 
Marty Chinn said:
Mel's is closed down. I passed by it the other day and it was completely shut down.
Well that sucks. :(

Maybe they'll give free lunches to the press like they do at E3.
 
lunch is included with passes, but its just a sandwhich and some chips and a can of coke. eating that every day for 5 days gets old.
 
My fave SOMA restaurants are Elroy's on Beale Street and MoMo across from PacBell park. Neither is within walking distance from the convention center though. There's really not much in the immediate vicinity other than than the places at the Metreon which aren't all that good. Hawthorne Lane is pretty close by but pricey.
 
Vark said:
Is that different than last year? I remember it being the second to last day since everything was sort of winding down after the award show. Then again the Sammy party could be negatively affecting my memory.

Both last year were on Wednesday also.
 
Both last year were on Wednesday also

Damn, guess so. Gotta watch the open bars this year.

Rhindle: proximity doesn't bother me. I'll be in town from this Saturday until next Sunday so i'm going to be traveling out from the convention center quite a bit. Thanks for the suggestions!
 
Speevy said:
Anyone think Iwata will unveil and/or announce something on the 10th?

Well, remember someone saying two days ago about a "Big Nintendo reveal" in 10 days? Well, the GDC thing falls on that date exactly.

So, we'll see. GBA2? Revolution concepts?

Dunno! Dunno! Should be interesting.

I'm still going with "nothing", though.
 
Speevy said:
Anyone think Iwata will unveil and/or announce something on the 10th?
I have the feeling that Mr Iwata and Mr Allard are going to make the forum crash next week
 
Kobun Heat said:
Some of you aren't drinking your RDA of Night Train.

Yeah, I'm going, by the way. If anybody wants to meet up for some sort of bizarre GAF party, email me at retrogaminghacks@gmail.com.

I know you know what I want to know even though I don't know what it is that I want to know. I just know you know it! So tell me what you know, so that I can know it. Even though I think I know.
 
Man, I cant wait to attend this. My first GDC (and first trade event I attended) was last years, which was a good introduction for me on how these kinds of shows work. Now, especially with the convention being held in a place much more convinient than last year (all I gotta do is take BART to Powell St., rather than drive all the way down to San Jose and spend forever looking for parking), I'm gonna be doing a lot more interacting with people there, especially making networking contacts and such.

Not to mention a lot more interesting seminars this year than there were last year. Last year all I saw was Eiji Aonuma and a presentation on Half Life 2's XSI tools.
 
If you're going to GDC, are going to be covering the event and you have the time, and if it's happening this year and being held at GDC, it'd be neat if you could check out the Indie Game Jam.
 
I'm working for the biggest game developer in the world and I can't attend GDC :(

But if you guys are having a GAF party night or something like that I could go...
 
give me an idea of where you're planning to stay and I should be able to give you convenient places to go drink, including names of people who work there.
 
I'm holed up in the Marriot Courtyard not sure the street but its downtown and 3 blocks from the convention center.
 
I was going to go this year, but I'd have to pony up the reg fee on my own and I guess I felt like spending 900 bucks on games and stuff instead of a few days of classes. Not to mention the airfare/hotel too.

I'll miss the parties and hanging out with old friends and coworkers thing. It's just so friggen pricey. I remember the days when you could attend all the classes for under 500 bucks :(. What a racket.

I bet it's gonna be a lot more fun being in SF rather than Party Central (SJ).
 
Vark said:
I'm holed up in the Marriot Courtyard not sure the street but its downtown and 3 blocks from the convention center.

Booze

Ah, 2nd and Harrison. Run down 2nd (going North towards Market) to Minna and there's two bars, Eddie Rickenbachers <sp?> and Steff's. Steff's is a sports themed bad with a pretty hot owner, and a real sweetheart. The owner of Eddie's is HILARIOUS, nice guy, smokes huge stogies, wears a world war II pilot's cap with goggles, and has an awesome Harley. The last of the old schoolers... You can also go South for about 3 blocks and you're at SBC Park. You'll pass by 21st Amendment, an awesome micro brew. They brew their own root beer if you're not an alcoholic.

Walk further north and you'll hit Union Square. Tourist area, lots of crap, including EB Games and the Apple Store, but on the 8th floor of Macy's is a Cheesecake Factory. Always packed, but you can dine at the bar. But too be quite honest, there aren't a lot of great places downtown, but since I work and play in the city quite a lot, I'm a bit biased.

Food

Not far from Eddie's and Steff's is Henry's Hunan, which is a great place for some great Chinese food, but it's served family style. If you go solo, get the combination fried rice, you won't regret it.

Not far from Moscone is 4th Street Bar and Grill, which is a part of the Marriott Hotel on 4th and Mission. (It has a green bannister) Decent late night eats, but the kitchen closes promptly at 10:30 during the week. Metreon has some decent eats, but skip past the food court and go to Sanruku, which is next to the food court. It's been a year since I've been there, so hopefully it's still there, but the sushi is decent for a decent price.

BTW, avoid going past 6th Street on foot. The differences are night and day, believe me.
 
Oh shit.

I just arrived to SF tonight. Nikko was fully booked a way ago, so my agent booked Radisson at Fishermans Wharf for me. What a fucking dump this place is. Horrible rooms, no minibar, everything smells like cigarette smoke and the scenery from my room window is to a ghetto alley. This is the actual scenery I see right now, with my camera phone:

040320050015kl.jpg


Luckily we found decent rooms in the Marriott close by - it is almost on the edge of this hood.

As I have paid already this night, I'll need to stay here until tomorrow, but then I'll move to the other hotel. Luckily I have WLAN here, so I'll use it, listen to my new Thievery Corporation album and maybe check out an episode of Little Britain from DVD. It's only one night.
 
oh, you poor bastard...

Well, you can always stop by Hooters a few blocks from where you are at. Or go next door to In-N-Out... Knuckles Sports Bar is not far, and it's inside a Hyatt, which is way nicer than the Radisson. Get the crab and corn chowder while you're there... served in a wonderful sourdough bread bowl...
 
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