[games_access] GDC 2008: VERY Bad News

[d. michelle hinn]

Ok...

So remember when I was writing for days straight for all the GDC 
submissions without a whole lot of help? All submissions have been 
accepted now so we have some bad, bad music to face. I never did put 
up all the final submissions on the WIKI -- I was too tired after the 
deadline and it doesn't matter as much now. I'll get them up for 
archive reasons.

Well...we've been hit by reality this year. I hate to bring this up 
again but I feel that I have to -- A lot of public word got out about 
our big post-GDC fight last year (it's archived on the net...). I'm 
not saying that it was any one person or any one comment -- I can't 
even look at the archive without beating myself up about it because I 
felt like I had really, really let everyone down. I got the proposals 
and the passes but I couldn't make our showing work in the best way 
possible. I couldn't be everywhere advertising our sessions. I was 
far from perfect, we were all far from perfect, we had big dreams but 
not enough people doing the work. I'm not saying everything goes back 
to that but we had a big year last year, had more than enough passes 
for everyone...and that was then. It's hard for me...well, it's very 
sad for me to realize that we had it so great last year and we didn't 
recognize it, we didn't have enough real help when push came to shove 
(or suitcase pulling came to suitcase pulling back and forth every 
day to the convention center). All the "should of" "would have" 
"could have" things are coming back to haunt me. I stopped flogging 
myself about this a while ago and thought that I had come to peace 
with it but I realize now that I still haven't stopped flogging 
myself about not being superhuman. I know. I know. Stop it.

So...we only had one proposal accepted. All the acceptances are in 
now. Reid's [cc] poster (downgraded from a 20 minute talk but I think 
this will get more people) submission. 
[https://www.cmpevents.com/GD08/a.asp?option=C&V=11&SessID=6456]

The other two were IGDA solicited (ie, they did not go through the 
system) -- accessibility arcade and the SIG meet and greet. That buys 
us two more passes -- one is mine since I'm SIG chair and one was for 
Eelke for the meet and greet because he helped on the proposals.

I'm going to try and talk to everyone I can think of to try and get a 
few more passes because one of those is a roundtable and was 
solicited by IGDA (that was NOT in the proposal process) and it's 
accessibility arcade. To pull that off, we need more people. I hope 
that this gets us a few more passes.

The booth is out of question unless we can get some SERIOUS money 
FAST. I am trying every angle I can think of but so far no luck. The 
booth SPACE costs $5100 for 10x10 booth -- add on about $3000 more 
for the "required" minimum of stuff we have to provide...no way. IF 
we get an expo booth it will get us more EXPO passes, which will 
restrict those with these passes to just being able to get into the 
expo area (no talks, etc). That's the reality.

I'm sorry to have to tell you this and I'm sorry for the 
anger/sadness in my tone. We are not going to be able to bring 
everyone we want to. I cannot say when or if I'll hear if we can get 
more passes. I know some of you have already made flight and hotel 
arrangements. If you are one of these people, please check with your 
airlines, etc for the last date to cancel without penalty.

So three passes...that's it. That's where we are at. I will let you 
know if the pass situation changes but for now it doesn't look great. 
We now have fifteen fewer passes so those of us in attendance are 
going to have to try and talk our asses off at GDC.

Michelle
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