Barnett told Rock Paper Shotgun"s Kieron Gillen over some drinks during an interview (which originally took place a few months ago): "...Mythic wanted me to go [to GDC]. And I effectively said "Well, I don’t like GDC." Which turned out to be the wrong thing to say. Apparently I’ve now learned that if you’re in the games industry, and someone says "GDC" what you’re supposed to do is say lots and lots of lovely things about how wonderful they are."

Barnett said that all that attendees do at GDC is talk about the same thing, and many say things that he finds "ultimately stupid."

"I’m not going to GDC because it’s combative, it’s a peacock display and it’s full of people who do what I do or want to do what I do or are doing what I do and don’t want me to do it anymore. It’s not open-minded. It’s very narrow-minded."

Instead, he chose to go to the LIFT conference, a "Futurism festival."

Okay, yeah, there are some crap, filler sessions at every GDC (self-promotional garbage, presentations that are based on reading PowerPoint files thrown together the night before, mind-numbingly boring/obvious sessions, you know who you are), but there are also lots of things that I personally find really interesting and/or exciting (certain keynotes, developer roundtables, the Game Design Challenge, developer rant, etc.).

I think Barnett"s criticisms stem from the growing pains of GDC. And really, I"m almost certain that the folks who work tirelessly to organize GDC realize that the conference is not perfect and are always looking to evolve the event. I"m not saying that it"s wrong for Barnett to criticize the event (I"ve never heard the rule that you have to say how lovely GDC is no matter what). In fact, what he says is entertaining because it"s based in truth (and by the way, how is what he"s saying only applicable to GDC and not other game conferences?).

In any case, he"s entitled to his opinion, but I still like GDC quite a bit, overall. It"s lovely, in fact. LOVELY.

Pic via Wikipedia. 

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