DICE 2011 Thursday was capped off by the 14th annual Interactive Achievement Awards. Mass Effect 2 and Red Dead Redemption cleaned up, with the former getting game of the year. Legends Bill Budge and Bing Gordon were honored, winning the Pioneer and Lifetime Achievement awards, respectively. Gordon wrapped up his acceptance speech with a 10-minute poem full of excellent videogame references — it was entertaining and inspiring…but for some reason I kept thinking about Reverend Jesse Jackson reciting Green Eggs and Ham on Saturday Night Live.
My personal highlight was watching Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk get inducted into the AIAS hall of fame. I am such a fan of these two men on several levels. After playing through Baldur’s Gate for the 18th time, I kind of became a fan. Then I got to meet these guys and was immediately impressed with how sharp they were. As I’ve gotten to know them a bit over the years — and witnessed several of Dr. Greg’s…unfortunate hairstyles — I was floored by how nice they are. Not only was I fan of their games, I was a fan of them as human beings. They’re trained physicians, brilliant game creators, and two of the nicest people I’ve ever met in this business. Watching them receive this honor from their peers was fantastic.
After the after-party, I ended up with a bunch of old G4 production friends, a dear friend from Sony, an oceanographer’s son, and some cool developer from Mexico that brought tequila that was numbered by hand. The evening ended with Fatburger. Now onto day three!!!
Kind of botched my interview with Ted Price. That's what happens when you have a man crush.
Lol.
The only oceanographer that I can think of is Cousteau and I am super perplexed as to why he was there or does he work with someone there?
Maybe the people putting together a new ECCO game want to make sure that their next installment is really, really authentic.
-M
… Or he could have been there for a symposium on why video game under water levels suck ass, since developers have a hard time learning this lesson.
-M
DICE always gets one or two people from outside gaming to share what they've learned and apply it to game design. This is actually the second year Dr. Gallo has hosted a session at the conference. He was so enthused with the industry and publishers were so impressed with him that he's going to try to make a game. Here' more information on Dr. Gallo:
http://www.dicesummit.org/dice_speakers/details.a…
As another example, the director of Kung-Fu Panda hosted a session this year.
Oceanographer's son, reporting in!
Sup Ray? Thanks for the shout out! Please say hi to Nathan for me!
Looking forward to lurking around your site for a bit.
Hi Peter! Excellent meeting you at DICE. You're probably the best thing that happened to Ted all year. Ha!
What's up dude!
Lurk away, you're in good company.
Just dropped off N8R at his security gate. We had a baggage mishap. He feels guilty about it, but it didn't bother me. Stuff happens on the road. It wasn't the first time and it won't be the last.
Aside from interviewing Ted Price like a giddy school girl, I had fun chats with Mike Capps and Chris Taylor. I think they'll turn out to be fun pieces.
DICE always leave me charged about gaming and inspired to help the world understand how awesome game creators are. It's such an honor to attend and be surrounded by great creators. I really enjoyed having N8R there and showing him what I've been lucky enough to see for years.
DICE is awesome. Game developers are awesome.
I can only imagine :)
At terminal D in LAS waiting for my flight to LA. My eyes are so dry from a combination of wearing my contacts too long, the desert, and smoky casinos/rooms. I'm SO looking forward to passing out on the airplane, but the bus/subway home is going to be tough. The reward will be sleeping in my own bed for a long, long time.
I'm still on that DICE high though. It really in inspiring to be surrounded by some of the industry's best game creators, thinking of the millions — and millions (think The Rock) — of people they've entertained. I'm looking forward to talking about this more (after I've come down a bit) in Monday's Coffee Talk.
Also, it's nice writing a long comment on an actual keyboard instead of my phone. Ha! I actually write a fair bit of comments on my phone using Swype, but the multi-paragraph ones can get challenging.
Smooth flight to LAX. Now on the bus to downtown LA. Almost to my bed!
hope you make it soon! can't wait to hear more about DICE come next week!!
THAT was some awesome sleep.
I just woke up myself.
I concur… awesome sleep.
@rpad
just saw a Leahy review on G4. is that a one time thing or is he back there???
He quit Shacknews to work at an Internet startup. He's doing some freelance writing too.
nice! good to see him still hustling like you.
Nah, he's actually making money. Ha!
Funny story. I promised to tell N8R what went down at G4. Apparently I told him on Wednesday night when I was blitzed. Totally forgot that I told him.