Volunteering at the GDC Online 2011 event

What a great time I had. Five days of meeting people from coast to coast. North and south (that is, North America). From all over the world (China, Russia, Germany). Not just attendees, but volunteers like myself. Volunteers who paid their own way across continents and country to work and be a part of this event.

Their reasons for attending were simple. They came out of a creative hunger; a passion to create. They came to network and find jobs. They came to be dazzled by the latest multi-million dollar games. Listen to honored trailblazers who've blazed the trail they themselves long to blaze. To acquire new arcane magics and knowledges and skills of the acolyte. Keep abreast of emerging trends, future trends and what's yesterday's trends. And to shake hands. Lots of them.

They came for four days of festive ritual. Four days of speakers and sessions. Video games and video game-makers. Creative artists and passionate players. Titans of industry and lowly minions seeking admittance into the kingdom. Private parties and after parties. Sales pitches and job pitches. And everywhere groups of twos and threes and milling throngs. In hallways and around tables. Huddled in corners and along stairwells. Lounging on couches and wide leather chairs. All to the constant buzz and hum of people mingling and intermingling. Tirelessly networking and hobnobbing and working their field. With drinks in hand and drinks near of hand. Forever ready to make that ubiquitous exchange of professional cards.

As for me, I came into this arena uncertain of what I would find. Hoping that I might find that I could belong amidst such a pantheon. Whether I could translate my skills as a writer into the gaming world. What I found were two things: how much impact the enthusiasm of those attending had on me. And how unready I was for this technically challenging and excitingly creative world. It was a Lazarus moment. A wake up call. I could feel the spark, but it needed to be plugged in. Needed to go the next step. That meant I had to do. Reach out to people I had met at the conference. Get advice. Join local industry groups. Attend meetings. Call companies. Learn. If I wanted to continue this great experience---what I had gotten out of the GDC, I had to take action. Live my passion. Surround myself with others who felt the same. And enjoy the journey.

Can't wait to volunteer again next year!

A Pivotal Moment

A number of you know that I wrote a screenplay a few years back. What a great experience that was! At some point I'll elaborate more on that. But for today, I thought I'd share a pivotal moment from that story. A moment, where the main character, is confronted by his phobia of running water (a result of being waterboarded). It's overcoming this crippling phobia that will lead him into a final showdown with the government/military forces bent on capturing him as a great totemic prize.

HIKING TRAIL

Skylar is once again on his own--and more alone than ever. He doesn't know where he's going. He's just following the trail.

AFTERNOON

Skylar stares ahead, eyes unfocused, shivering underneath a large Ponderosa pine. IT'S RAINING. Sheets and sheets of endless water pouring down as if nature were intent on drowning the whole world in a single hour.

He pays no attention to the cold dampness soaking into his skin. His shivering is a product of memories, not moisture. Memories that lock his lungs and his muscles and his mind in a replay of drowning.

FLASHBACK - THE INTERROGATION CELL

As before, Skylar is strapped to the table, looking up at the faucet through the mask of cellophane and running water. His terror is muted by the water drowning him.

PRESENT TIME

A bright flash of lightning precedes a DEAFENING PEAL of thunder. The resulting salvo triggers a synaptic thaw in his brain. More lightning/thunder. More thaw. And so his eyes slowly regain awareness. An awareness of the raging storm, and the violence of its present and past metaphors.

Then by some internal decision, he stiffly steps away from the umbrella of the pine and crosses over into a realm of furious wind and rain. He stops. Lets it cleanse him of past oppression. The weight of so many incubi. Then he begins his journey anew and is lost in the grey downpour.