GME has been pretty awful. If it wasn’t for the fact that I had a couple of interesting meetings the whole trip would have been a complete waste of time. I really don’t know what the organisers were thinking of when they put this event together, but it really wasn’t planned at all well.
It seems to me that they must have had a small event in mind from the beginning because the Business Design Centre is not the largest of places to hold an event of this nature. If they had gotten a good response and had lots of companies requesting stands, then I don’t know what they would have done.
The bar area was the only place to hold meetings and this was a very public place for people to discuss business. Not really an ideal situation if you ask me.
GME has completely failed to put London back on the map as far as game events go and unless they can really shake things up for next year I’m afraid that I won’t be attending. I shall endeavour to make the effort to visit the Leipzig GC and take Martin Ganteföhr up on his longstanding offer to buy me a beer. 🙂
My first meeting was a discussion that continued for about four hours and which could be very beneficial to all concerned if we can turn those ideas into concrete projects.
The second meeting involved a get-together with a number of other game writers. Because the whole writing process can feel very isolated at times, it’s always good to take advantage of the chance to get together and bolster one-another, particularly when the writers involved are such a friendly group.
Because GME was so poor, I went around all the stands in less than an hour, even with a few conversations along the way. So, after a pub lunch I decided to visit the British Museum, some that, to my shame, I’ve never done before. So, again, I managed to find something to do that didn’t make my time in London a complete waste.
The hotel is a bit basic, but I guess that’s what comes of booking something cheap online. Everything is clean, but it all has a very worn look to it. There is also no en-suite bathroom or shower, so it’s been a case of traipsing down the corridor to the bathroom. One thing I must give them credit for is the breakfast – it was excellent.