Happenings of meeting on 12 Jan 2010

Our numbers are growing!

It was very nice to see how we are gaining momentum.  Our little guild gathering at Gordon Biersch turned into some very helpful networking as new and existing members shared some new thoughts and ideas for our chapter and what we might be working on for this year.

A chief topic that was covered was a better venue for our meetings.  Gordon Biersch is a nice place to go with good food and good beer, but it has always been too loud to really talk to a large group of people.  We had 15 show up this time and on a long table it was very apparent that you had to go up and down the table to make sure all was heard.  An assignment was given to a  few folks for them to check out a couple of suggestions that other members made on a choice of venue.  These folks will visit these places, take pictures hopefully, talk with any managers of them, and we'll post some findings and get some votes in for next time.  We also discussed the option of having more than one normal meeting place.  An interesting aspect of the DC Metro region is that we have a plethora of places to go either by car or metro, and with our multi-cutural mixing bowl representation, there is always something to discover.  Let's see what you guys can find and remember pictures can always help us see from multiple views.

We had a summary of the recent MAGFest (Music And Games Festival) here in are region and with over 2100 attendees, it turned out quite nice.  Only a couple of us attended, so I hope they post their views on the event so that maybe next time there might be a group of us to go.  I especially would be interested in how these bands take the historical 8-bit music of games past and perform their special reimaginering (spellcheck?) takes on the subject.  MAGFest starts sign up dates in Dec of each year with the festival taking place in Jan of the following year.

The Global Game Jam is coming up, fast!  We had a sign up sheet go around for those interested and Trey is coordinating an effort to hopefully get a team together.  I can't be sure of the venue yet, and Trey can elaborate on that, but I think Pyramid is going to host the 3-day, no sleep, get something out that's cool session for this year.  There is a separate posting about Global Game Jam, so check it out!

Some other items that were discussed were the recent posting by IGDA on health insurance.  In our troubled times right now with a struggling economy and lost jobs, it comes at a good time that this form of continued coverage is now available for IGDA members.  A benefit from the organization that really pays off both in short and long term.  Do your search on IGDA and find out more.  Another neat thing is the Lifetime Membership option for IGDA.  This really caught my eye in that for $500.00 you can be a member of IGDA for life!  That's awesome because after paying my $48.00 annual fee, this seems like a worthy investment.  For you match types, it would pay for itself in 10.41 years (approximately).  For lifetime gamers who are young (or young at heart), be sure to check out this option if you can afford it.  Again, search the IGDA and find out more.  But hurry!  Time is limited on this offer from IGDA.

One last thing that we all talked about was the upcoming GDC in March.  The Game Developer's Conference is 9-13 March in San Fran and you can still save 35% off registration if you get it before 4 Feb.  Also, IGDA members I think can still get a discount, but don't quote me on that!  Last year was my first time, and I had a blast meeting all kinds of gaming folks and doing that networked thing.  For this year, I would encourage you to pay attention to the mobile and social networking markets of games.  Several sessions, tutorials, and panels are going to cover what's going to be the big thing this year.  For those of us in the DC Metro region, I believe the impact of serious and social/online summits will be especially interesting.  There's is even now an iPhone summit, so you know the mobile market is gaining ground and a leg up on the interest meter.

Well, I believe that about covers everything.  We talked about having our next meeting on 9 Feb (my birthday) @ 7:30pm again.  Venue will be TBA for now, but we should be getting back some reports soon about some other venues in our area so stay tuned.  Gordon Biersch also told us about some alternatives in their place to use some more remote areas set aside for functions that might be available to us.  So, come on out next time, buy me a beer for my birthday, and let's get some focus on things for our chapter to do for 2010!