6:09 p.m. - 2004-04-23
buzzword bingo
As the march to E3 winds to a close, we find ourselves a little punchy.
Every Friday, we have a Studio meeting for SimCompany (even though SimCompany is now one small part of the SimParentCompany campus.)
Most of these meetings have featured our new General Manager talking about "focus" and "SimCompany 2.0" and blah de blah da doo.
Well, today VA and I had to give a demo of the SimUrban GBA game we're working on to all 400 people in the studio.
We were onstage in the company auditorium rehearsing when one of the Development Directors from SimSequel came in dragging a cooler.
"Wow, you brought your own beer?" [They provide alcohol before the company meetings, largely to keep us from throwing tomatoes and PS2 controllers at the bigwigs.]
"Better. We're playing Buzzword Bingo."
She handed us sheets with words like "Focus", "franchise", and "low-hanging fruit" on them, and opened the cooler to reveal hundreds small dixie cups containing multicolored Jello Shots.
As if things weren't silly enough, Will Wright is watching us via teleconferencing equipment and playing with the remote control camera zooming in on random parts of the stage.
Needless to say, the meeting went over particularly well. Our demo went well, and people seem to think our game is the shiznit. Woo. And my stock went up a little for participating in the demo, even though it really didn't require any sort of skill.
The other presentations were funny too, with Will's presentation featuring a decidedly bizarre Communist meets Jurassic Park theme.
After that, the producer of a new SimParentCompany title - FamousGangsterGame, we'll call it - came and gave us a preview of one of their animatics. Very cool stuff.
After the presentation, VA introduced me to the FamousGangsterGame producer. Here I am meeting new important people, and I'm worried about whether or not I've got red Jello stains on my mouth. Claaaaassssy. (Turns out I didn't, although I looked like I was wearing lipstick.)
D came by our little GBA corner after we returned from mingling and informed me that "[my] boyfriend was very drunk." Greeeeat. I saw Hunter in the front row when he found out about the shots (I was backstage). He frantically motioned to me "How are we going to get home?" I didn't think he was going to knock back 6 shots. Strangely enough, in his apparently drunken state he decided that he wanted to go play basketball with some other (presumably drunk) folk from his team.
Sometimes I don't understand that boy.
Anyway, tonight we're going to get drunk and play games with our friend Max who is visiting from out of town. Tomorrow, Hunter has to work, and I am going to San Francisco to get my headshots done. For real this time, by a real photographer.
I hope I don't have to parallel park...
