Mundinator

SXSW: No Really, It Is Spring Break for Web Developers

Yeah, I know I was going to post a bunch of things from SXSW Interactive, but as you can see from the list of posts from March...I didn't give two flying fucks about posting each day.  One part is that I was really tired for all of the trip.  The other part is that I honestly was really fed up with the conference.

So, many many people all around me appeared to have a great time at SXSW.  Don't get me wrong, I also enjoyed my time there, but from how I started this post you can tell that something at the conference did not sit right with me.  True.  True.  Basically, SXSW was void of content.  Let me repeat that.  SXSW did not teach me a damn thing because it was void of content.  Just about every panel I attended seemed disorganized and/or seemed like the presenter was just there to get a free gold badge.  Ok, I really enjoyed the panel about the 10 Worst Websites (fake ones made up and judged), but come the fuck on.  How am I, a game developer, supposed to take you web folks seriously with all these panels that are just for shits and giggles.  Holy crap will you please get some real info into the place.

Aight, so there must be some reason that SXSW Interactive was not canceled on year 1.  Well, yes there is a reason.  SXSW is a networking orgy clusterfuck for all those people who are intardnet famous or just think they are.  So...if you want to rub shoulders with the people who run your favorite website just to say you met the person who invented Ceiling Cat or Rickrolling, then come to this conference and act like your an anime nut at your first Sakura-Con.  Fuck, I'm surprised no one has invented internet cos-play for SXSW.

I will step back for a second and say that I really did meet a number of awesome people.  No joke, I really did meet some great people, but I didn't want to go to SXSW to just meet some people.  I wanted to learn.  I am eager to learn about design and I came away with nothing.  It also didn't help that I wasn't really in the mood to network.  Gah...oh well, I had a few great conversations over free drinks, so I can't complain about the parties (cept that shitty event at Pure Volume Lounge).

Additional good things to the trip, I was able to do some recon on some games that we at Snowblind wanted to get some info on.  Recon mission was a total success.

Oh yeah, and Noelle and I got to meet the ninja from http://askaninja.com/. Wow that was so damn cool.  He is a very nice ninja.  Funny story is that Noelle and I were introduced to him the night before (yes, he was not in character) and had no idea that he was THE ninja.  We wandered back stage after the web awards thing and tried to see if we could meet the ninja and low and behold he remembered us from the night before!  You rule Mr. Ninja man...please look forward to killing us AFTER we watch a bunch more episodes.

Enough about that silly conference.  I am leaning on not attending next year.

SXSW Day 3

UPDATE: Wow is this conference void of content.  Lots of hollow people and panels.  If you want to network, this is the place to be.  If you want to learn something and improve skills, I am just not seeing how to do it.

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Gah...I missed yesterday's posting because when I got back to my room, I had zero motivation.  Didn't party hard or anything like that, but I think I was in full "zone out" mode.

I am now sitting next to a giant pile of legos that have been dumped out on the floor for people to play with.  While a fun idea, I think there are more people taking pictures of it then using it.

Friday was a fun day.  Not a lot happened, but that is to be expected on the opening day.  We waited in line for a long long time for badges.  It was a bit of Chaos.  With all the design talent here, you would think that they could have figured out a better way to get people their badges.  I commend GDC for being much better.  Wasn't there this year, but past years have been a breeze.

Grabbed some great BBQ at Iron Works.  It was great.  I am all for more BBQ today if that is where I end up.

Noelle and I tried to check out a few panels in the afternoon, but they all seemed a bit on the boring side.  How to Rawk SXSW and Battle Decks were what we checked out.  Heard good things about them from peeps after, but they really were "just for fun" type panels.  Icebreaker panels, if you will.

Not to long after that we gathered with about 20 people to participate in a trip to the local climbing gym for some bouldering.  Check out http://geeksloveclimbing.pbwiki.com/.  I believe Tantek is the instigator on this particular adventure.

At the end of the climbing, we unfortunately were having some trouble finding cabs (we were in what felt like the middle of no where).  Sans cab, somehow Tantek makes a phone call and an RV shows up to take everyone back to the hotel district.  Noelle and I opted out as there was one cab waiting and our hotel is a bit away from the rest of the crew.

So today, I just got out of my first ScreenBurn panel.  It was a snore, sadly.  I had no desire to look at code examples of how to build an entity in Ruby at 10am.

More to come soon...

Thursday, March 6th: SxSW Day 1

Well a short few min ago Noelle and I arrived at our Austin hotel room.  I know I have not taken the proper time in the last few weeks to post, so I figured I would kick it back off by blogging as I am here at SXSW.

First strange point, is it SXSW or SxSW?  Strange, but it is something I have pondered just about every time I type it out.  Technically, it means the same thing so whatever.

Second thing...GAH!  It is raining here.  Raining hard, actually.  The cabbie over to the hotel told us that Dallas is experiencing something called snow thunder.  He didn't really know even what it was, other than that he wanted nothing to do with it.  My guess is that it is exactly what it sounds like...snow with thunder and lightning.  Sad for a bunch of people trying to get here tonight because ALL flights in and out of Dallas are canceled.  Doh!  Rain should make the walk to the convention center a bit unpleasant if pouring, but in the end it IS just a little water here in Austin...as opposed to the frigid hell that Dallas sounds like.

Not sure what the plan is for tonight.  Need to grab some food and then we might hit up the Yelp.com party.

Tomorrow starts with check in, obviously, and then let the fun begin!