GDC: A Newbie's Perspective - Part 3
In part three, Erik speaks of the free swag and lack thereof that could be found at the GDC.
by Erik Zwerling
Photos from gamasutra.com

However, another indicator of the game industry's more budget-minded stance at the Game Developers Conference this year, is in the tchotchkes given out this year. T-shirts were at a premium this year; the most coveted one being the GamaNetwork t-shirt. In order to receive this coveted prize, one needed to complete an industry survey. Attendees were definitely hungry for any kind of t-shirt, because not only people (including myself) would stand in line for an hour just to have their turn completing the survey, but the survey itself took at least another 20 minutes to complete. While I confess I am also guilty, it is amazing what people will endure just to get some free stuff.

Otherwise, there were not too many winners of the 'Best Tchotchke Award' this year at GDC. Some of the nominees would be LucasArts, nVidia, and Wild Tangent. In LucasArts' Job Fair booth, every person that gave them a resume, would receive a flashing bounce ball. NVidia's Job Fair booth also had a giveaway for people submitting resumes, although not as useful. NVidia gave out glow in the dark stick-on-buttons, that for me personally has since lost its glow. Wild Tangent was very accommodating of any attendees taking the time to view their technology presentation; for learning more about how Wild Tangent can bring force feedback to online gaming, I was the proud recipient of another t-shirt.

"Otherwise, there were not too many winners of the 'Best Tchotchke Award' this year at GDC."

But the winner for 2002's Game Developers Conference's 'Best Tchotchke Award' would have to go to the fine folks at Funcom. While exiting out of a lecture at the Convention Center's Civic Auditorium, I was surprised to see Funcom representatives passing out free boxed copies of their MMORG title, Anarchy Online. What would be worth about $20 at retail, this boxed copy included the game disc, print manual, game world map, and a free month of gameplay. Anarchy Online is not a game that I would buy on my own, but I am definitely more likely to give it a shot since I received a free month's worth of gameplay. Funcom is sure to acquire some new Anarchy Online players through this marketing tactic. So congratulations to Funcom for their 'Best Tchotchke Award'.

To sum up, while this year's Game Developer's Conference was not everything that I hoped it would be, I did find some of the demonstrations, such as the new version of Renderware, to be enlightening. Maybe the slow resurgence in the game industry that seems to have been occurring over the past month will continue. Then hopefully next year, the Game Developers Conference will be bigger and better than this year.