I had the time of my life presenting at SXSW today. I was pretty nervous about the talk -- it was a keynote, so I really wanted to say something new and interesting and engaging for the awesome (and intimidating!) SXSW crowds. Plus, I was following on the heels of the High Drama of keynote #1 (including an audience revolt) and keynote #2 (including an on-stage marriage proposal), so the bar was set pretty high.
Somehow, it all went wonderfully well. I had such a fun time speaking as honestly and as openly as I ever had about why I make alternate realities. And I was able to include all of my super-favorite research behind my "game designer's perspective on the future of happiness", not to mention my admittedly strange analogy "games in 2008 are like soap in 1931" analogy.
Of course, what you really need to know about my talk is that oddly enough I wound up doing the soulja boy dance on stage at the end of my Q &A, which is a long story, and I'm still surprised I actually did that. Anyway, it's on youtube and flickr and a bunch of blogs and apparently was a highly twittered moment, all of which is pretty awesomely silly. I have to thank my twin sister Kelly for helping me learn it. She looks a lot better doing it than I do. ^_^
Here are my Slideshare slides for the talk: "SXSW 2008 Interactive Keynote: Alternate Realities - A Game Designer's Perspective on the Future of Happiness"
P.S. If you saw the talk, and if you're curious about the SF0 game mission that led to my learning the Soulja Boy dance, here's a link to our documentation the original Something Very Good mission!
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9 comments:
I am 35 years old, and I never cared for video-games (I spent most of my youth chasing girls,) but your talk at SXSW was tremendously inspiring: "Games will change the world!" I hope YOU get the Nobel peace prize, by 2032...
You;d be glad to know that i heard quite a few people saying your keynote was the one where they learnt the most. Thanks for it, it was wonderful
Haha, that video is hilarious. You are awesome as always!
Hilariously awesome. I'm glad you had a good time, and I wish I could've been there.
i would love to see the keynote. did anyone record it?
talk was totally awesome and one of the best panels at SXSW08, and i saw a lot of great panels this year. totally awarding at *least* 1 speaking point. plus, the inspiration buff i received hasn't yet been dispelled, w00t!
Oh wow..what a video!!
Jane,
Going into Tuesday some friends and I had discussed that the panels/talks so far weren't that impressive. They had all landed between "mildly interesting" to "I fell asleep." Well, except for the Zuckerberg revolt, but that was awesome in the wrong way.
Yours was fantastic. We all walked out just saying "Wow." It was funny watching people try to keep pace with your URLs and references. For many of us it opened the door to a new hobby/world/obsession. Very, very cool.
Amazon.com likes you too since I've ordered a host of gadgets referenced in your talk, hah!
Thank you,
Jeff
This was a fabulous session, so glad I was able to attend. I live with a gamer and I walked away with a totally different perspective than when I arrived (and more respect). My boyfriend thanks you too. Cheers to happiness. :)
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