DICE Day 0

Well, so far DICE has been a good experience. That is, except for the part about arriving here at the Green Valley Ranch and them not having my reservation for a room. That was pretty frustrating, but the AIAS staff here decided to bunk up together so that they could squeeze a few more of the participants in (it looked like about 10 people’s rooms had dropped off the map). So that was really nice of them, and these rooms are frickin’ NICE.
Upon check-in, they gave us a bag of stuff. That was pretty cool. I don’t get a bag of stuff at GDC.

The opening event was a mixer last night at the Whiskey Bar downstairs. Which is good, cuz seeing as we’re in the middle of nowhere (actually, we’re in the middle of a giant parking lot in the middle of nowhere), there weren’t a lot of other places we were going to go to get drinks! But it was rather impressive – a very stylish bar with a large outdoor area, free drinks, pastas and sliced meats, and so on. TONS of people there, many of whom I knew, which made holding any sort of conversation nearly hopeless – “oh hey, hi!” “How’s it going?” “Long time no see!” I did run into the two guys who are MC’ing the awards ceremony Tuesday night, and they were pretty cool fellows. Definitely up on games and excited to be here. The slut that I am, I showed off the PSP to them. 🙂
This morning I awoke with a voicemail from Captain Quark on my phone, welcoming me to the show and inviting me downstairs to have a coffee or tea to get my juices flowing. Nice touch! I tried to record it but my powered headphones apparently down have a straight line from earbud to connector, so using them as microphones didn’t really work.
So far I’ve been impressed by the conf. It actually starts in about 45 minutes, but the event last night and the helpfulness of the staff have been great. I’m hopeful for the rest of the conference.