For all those interested in the industry.

[MetKiller Joe]

Games & Interactive Entertainment SIG (http://www.mitforumcambridge.org/imedia/events/2009-4/index.html)

If you have the time, and I know its short notice (its tomorrow), but I'll try to be there* (very confusing if you can get a spot if you aren't a member already or not, but I'm bring 100 in 20s just in case).

Anyway, if you need a job, are in the Boston or Greater Boston area, I'd swing on by. You never know. Last time I went to an MIT lecture I listened to the head guy over at Silicon Knights talk about Too Human (before it was released).

Lastly, check out the this site (http://www.bostonpostmortem.org/) (if you're in the areas, I think you'd already know about it, but for those who don't it is quite useful).

*if you catch a guy wearing "Marko" as his tag that'll probably be me ;).

[Limited]

Sadly I'm in the wrong continent for this, if I was I'd have gone =\.

[Pyong Kawaguchi]

I live right nearby there, so what exactly is this?

[MetKiller Joe]

I live right nearby there, so what exactly is this?

Its a gathering of the people in the game industry to listen to a guy talk (Henry Jenkins) and about the economic situation and such. I'm going there simply to see if I can market my skills.

Also, link I posted was wrong. Here (http://www.mitforumcambridge.org/imedia/events/2009-4/index.html) is the correct one.

[MetKiller Joe]

Sorry for the double post. Thought this was worth posting.


Games & Interactive Entertainment Meet @ MIT


I was there. Free food, free soda, and free beer... did I mention they also had about 30+ prominent people from the game industry in Boston?

My journey started where I had parked my car right at MIT... I needed to find One Memorial drive and I was at about 150 :). So, after about a 10 minute walk, I get to the building. I had registered two days before the event, and I was worried that since I didn't actually have membership status with the MIT Enterprise forum, I either would have to pay a 20 entrance fee (I was willing to nudge in 100 if that got me in) or even worse I wouldn't be able to enter period.

No, I encountered just the opposite. After I got in, I was greeted by a guy at the front counter who told me to go upstairs. He read my name off a printed list, so I guess I was in the clear.

I took the elevator one floor up, and then went to the glass doors that seemed to be the gateway of a massive gathering of people.

*pull* *shudder*....

*push* *shudder*....

The door was locked, and I realized I needed a keycard. Damnit, I guess my adventures were going to end there (be fully aware that I was 100% willing to leave anytime they deemed necessary. As far as I was concerned, I was crashing the party).

Then, out of the corner of my eye, I see a women in a brown jacket come to the door with a half worry half oh-crap look on her face. She smiled, tapped the keycard reader, and I then I heard a loud *klink!*. I pushed the door open, and I was in.


People can blog about it, review it, talk about it, and interview about it, but no matter how many times it is said, you really can't emphasize enough how great it feels to be around these people. Within 10 minutes of being there, I was already approached by two people about their companies and my interests. It was great.

The meeting was mainly the networking, although, mainly, it was a salute and farewell to a guy, Henry Jenkins, for all of the work he had done in interactive media. I felt a pang of guilt that this was the first time I had heard of him, but that soon melted in the feelings of holy crap there is a guy from 2K sitting 5 seats back from me???

There were many startups there, and, in fact, that was the majority of the crowd. There were only a couple of people that were from IBM, 2K, and other big developers.

Lastly, I'd like to note that, over the past few weeks, I have e-mailed a good 15 or so companies asking for a volunteer position. Well, at this meeting I got an interview with a guy from People Operating Technology. It was a startup that concentrated on iPhone development and educational games.

Anyway, some pictures:


http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_u7BzYIbyDhk/SjhXzltz6VI/AAAAAAAAABs/u1jtEdlZACg/s400/IMG_0256.JPG (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_u7BzYIbyDhk/SjhXzltz6VI/AAAAAAAAABs/u1jtEdlZACg/s1600-h/IMG_0256.JPG)
gamerDNA.com is a social networking site made specifically for gamers.


http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_u7BzYIbyDhk/SjhXzfJY11I/AAAAAAAAABk/ZSH6Gmk90C8/s400/MS_FreeLunch.jpg (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_u7BzYIbyDhk/SjhXzfJY11I/AAAAAAAAABk/ZSH6Gmk90C8/s1600-h/MS_FreeLunch.jpg)
I think Microsoft provided free food. Or maybe it was IBM. Meh, 2K provided the cola and beer. Ziggy Zaggy Ziggy Zaggy Oi Oi Oi!


http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_u7BzYIbyDhk/SjhXzPPdK4I/AAAAAAAAABc/G-8FnvFH09A/s400/Alex+Netbook03.jpg (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_u7BzYIbyDhk/SjhXzPPdK4I/AAAAAAAAABc/G-8FnvFH09A/s1600-h/Alex+Netbook03.jpg)
One of the guys I met there had bought this Dell netbook Hackintosh off eBay for some ridiculously small sum. Later, he told me he had been corrected by the IBM rep there, "That is not a netbook. Netbooks are PCs which need the internet to access all of the features they offer." I thought it was awesome. He did his iPhone development and building on it, and apparently, was going to use it to showcase off something at a conference in a couple of days with it.


http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_u7BzYIbyDhk/SjhXy0QV2vI/AAAAAAAAABU/Pqh-qnNBoL0/s400/Cool+MS+Game.jpg (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_u7BzYIbyDhk/SjhXy0QV2vI/AAAAAAAAABU/Pqh-qnNBoL0/s1600-h/Cool+MS+Game.jpg)
The Microsoft Touch Screen Table. I played around with it. It was pretty neat. The demo was pretty limited (we had that game you see up there and some vids and pics to edit). There might be a future for this product, but they need to get the response time faster (my iPhone has less latency tracking motion than this thing). Considering you have a freakin' table to put everthing in and the price tag is already ridiculous, why not actually make the thing crisp and more intuitive (that was another thing I didn't like; it wasn't obvious at any give moment whether you were in move mode, paint mode, or resize mode (and often the software guessed)). What I saw felt like a iPhone stripped of its proper design and flow as well as response.

Also, the thing seemingly died while myself and a couple of others were stress-testing the motion tracking system (the screen shut off). It almost seemed like the touch screen had hit a dead end in the development cycle, which was sad to see. It would have made an excellent coffee table.




Note: the pictures were taken on my iPhone which should explain the aweful picture quality and grainyness. Hopefully, it gives you some idea of the scene, though.
-G-Blog (http://mark-gblog.blogspot.com)
Side note. Met a guy from HaloMods from way way back when (he was active from 2001-2005 and said he knew a guy named Poll I think; his nick had a gt in it I think).

[Masterz1337]

LoL. That's the same Hackintosh netbook I have.

[Cortexian]

LoL. That's the same Hackintosh netbook I have.
That is not a netbook. Netbooks are PCs which need the internet to access all of the features they offer.

[Kornman00]

That is not a netbook. Netbooks are PCs which need the internet to access all of the features they offer.
So, do you download the power and gigahertz from the internet then too :downs:?

Neeeeeeeetbook (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netbook#Gallery). So there (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dell_Inspiron_Mini_9#Mini_9_Series), still fits the category.

[Limited]

That is not a netbook. Netbooks are PCs which need the internet to access all of the features they offer.
Lol no.

Sick stuff, which I would have gone. I've met with a game studio and had a tour.

The HM guy had pole in his name?

[MetKiller Joe]

The HM guy had pole in his name?

No, he told me that one of the guys that originally modded Halo 1 was named "Poll" or something like that.

It was great. Best part is, Boston area companies do this all of the time.