It must have been this solid composure that resulted in a subtle air of grace as we approached the registration desk, because blow me if we didn't get em! The conversation went something like this...

"Hi, we're the Q3F Team and we should be getting VIP passes."
"I don't see your names down here, are you sure?"
"Yep, positive."
"Are you really sure? All VIPs should be on this list and none of you are."
"Yep definitely sure..." (Strong English accent...) "We're from London, we're guests of id Software and we've come all the way from England!"
"Oh welcome to Texas! Here, write your names down on these VIP cards..."

Mission accomplished. Set phasers to frag, we're going in :)))))

On the way in to the Hampton Hotel (the venue for QuakeCon 2001), we met up with Relaxer and BinJuice (or SoftScoop as he prefers to be called now) who between them have proved conclusively, that all the decent aliases were already taken when they chose theirs :)

That said (and almost excusing their dreadful aliases), it should be noted that these two guys are producers for the Quake Republic show; quite possibly the coolest TV show in existence and certainly the only people broadcasting competitive online gaming across a fully converged network (via satellite and the Internet). Now to be honest I'm not the most objective person when it comes to this subject (visit gamer.now.com !!!) as I'm a commentator on their show, but it would be unfair of me (visit gamer.now.com !!!) to ridicule them in the way that the photos later (visit gamer.now.com !!!) on this page will do, were it not for this quick slip of objectivity :)

So leaving the silhouettes of Relaxer and SoftScoop setting up their cameras in the soaring heat of the car park behind us, we headed right to the exhibitors hall to check out the vendors

Exhibiting this year were Alias Wavefront showing Maya, Linksys showing off their home-networking gear, Discreet promoting Gmax, Apple demonstrating their cool-arse goodies, Nvidia with the GeForce 3 and of course Activision, our very first stop since Activision is who our animator works for!

As expected Activision had a version of Soldier of Fortune II running on a couple of machines, but either the machines were below spec or the configuration settings were a bit dodgy because SOF-II just looked white-washed. It's a shame because we were really looking forward to trying it out.

The biggy of the vendors hall then was Wolfenstein. Being an id licence, the intro to Wolfenstein now reads like a who's who of id licensees - "Activision presents id Software's Return to Castle Wolfenstein, a game Executively Produced by id Software, developed by Grey Matter with the multiplayer element developed by Nerve Software". The only people that haven't worked on it seem to be Raven, though this doesn't seem to have mattered cause it SERIOUSLY kicks arse. Trying to get access to a machine to play it was impossible - every machine was taken, and the over-the-shoulder spectators were two-people deep. Even so it was still pretty clear that it had immense potential - Grey Matter's work on the game really shines and while Nerve's multiplayer support may owe more than a nod or two to existing Quake 3 modifications for inspiration, it nevertheless featured a number of truly innovative features which I simply can't wait to get my hands on.

While at the Activision stand we got to meet Josh Jay of Nerve Software, veteran artist of Anachronox at ION Storm and Alice at Rogue, he's now working at Nerve as a level designer focused on multiplayer maps for Wolfenstein and a fine job he seems to be doing too.

We also finally met Brelan '3-Demon' Duff, Production Tester for Activision, but much more importantly, animator for the Q3F team!

Another man present and worthy of note was Wallace 'The Spanish Inquisition' Poulter - an ex-pat and now Partnership Manager for the Worldwide Developer Relations department of Apple. So-named because (in his own words) he can (on winning any gaming duel or tournament) jump up, throw his arms in the air and shout, "Nobody expects the Spanish inquisition!" Fantastic stuff. On top of that he invited us to enter the 4 versus 4 Apple tournaments, so we volunteered RR2DO2, Vorrik, BirdDawg and Shuriken for the embarrassment.

The first thing on our official agenda was the seminar being hosted by Paul Jaquays entitled "How do I get your job?" The idea behind the talk was that several people from the gaming industry would talk about how they got in, what they do now and what the pros and cons were.

We just went to meet Bobotheseal :)

Also present was the inestimably talented game designer, FMV and Mac God, veteran developer of Pole Position and 7th Guest, programmer and designer at id Software, Graeme Devine (!!!), who having completed work on Team Arena, is now working full time on Doom 3 (lucky git).

For those of you that aren't already aware, Brian 'Bobotheseal' Jones is the artist behind the concept art that prompted Fluffy's quest to spend more time on player models, skins and animations, than anything else in his life. It's an immense task, and one, which we hope never to repeat. Fluffy especially as he's failed most of his exams :)

They do look lovely though (the player models, not the failed exams), and while I'd love to take personal credit for this (actually I can take partial credit for him failing his exams hehe), I've had very little to do with them (the player models - keep up!). I honestly believe the real reason we have such great looking player models is because they were conceptualised so beautifully by Bobotheseal. What this meant was that as Lead Artist, Fluffy could hand out the concept pictures to both modellers and 2d artists alike, and remain reasonably sure that everyone would be on the same page in terms of cohesive theme - all that was left for him to do was the usual 50 hour clean-up on each piece of art we get back :). Now while it might be true that this went wildly wrong for the Agent, I'm sure everyone agrees the rest of the classes look like they've just walked off the same post-contemporary/near-future film set. It's certainly a process I'd recommend to other mod teams if they can find a suitably talented pencil artist.

The reason I'm rambling here is because I hold Bobotheseal in such awe. He's not the least pretentious, condescending or arrogant, quite the opposite in fact (nothing like me!) and his presence at this short seminar was certainly humbling for us. In his deliberations about getting in to the industry, he cited his work for Q3F as an excellent stepping-stone, one where you can sharpen your own skills while building up your vocational portfolio and online image.

Knowing that the Q3F project had played any part in helping Bobotheseal to secure his job at Ritual leaves us with a great feeling.

In fact if Q3F counted for little other than helping to get him a job, I'd still be a happy man. Blowing our own trumpets for a moment, team members from our project have gone on to work at Bullfrog, Electronic Arts, Ritual Entertainment, Valve Software and Network of the World so what Bobotheseal says is true - if you want a job in the games industry, it's unlikely you'll find a better entry point than the mod or demo scene. I personally had no plans to work in the games industry when I started on Q3F, yet even I have a games company now :).

An interesting point raised by most of those presenting was that of your online image. Everyone present agreed that 'Don't be an arsehole!' was easily the best single piece of advice for anyone wanting to get in to the games industry because ultimately, your online persona could count for as much, if not more, than your actual portfolio.

I certainly agree that's true of our recruitment process. Without doubt, the non-arseholes online seem to magnetize to each other, so even if you feel you lack the raw talent or experience, you'll still find most people, regardless of how senior they are, will still be eager to help anyone who shows them reasonable courtesy and respect. Most mod teams are a bit clique, especially because there are so many dickheads about, so just being a 'good bloke' will certainly help a lot. I know that with the Q3F team it's taken us eons and a lot of fleecing to get to a comfortable point where we feel everyone present is a really decent guy.

The session ended with Paul Jaquays summarising the points made and adding his own 10-point plan, one of which was that we should all get haircuts too. I suspect this was more of a metaphor for sorting your personal life out, than it was a real request for everyone who wanted a job to get their hair shaved, though Graeme Devine was seen to visibly shudder at the idea :)

That's me sorted then, I have a French crop :). Where's my job id!! :)

Next on the agenda was Raven Software's "Game Demo TBA" which everyone KNEW was going to be Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, though nobody wanted to admit it.

While queuing outside we finally caught up with our mentor Robert Duffy, appointed 'Centre of the Universe' as far as mod teams are concerned and certainly deserving of the title. He didn't have long to chat but arranged for an appointment the following day so we could show off our stuff.

Within minutes we were back in the Jedi Knight II hall and well... it was simply mind-blowing. I'm sure it's been written about on every news site by now so there's little point me documenting it here. The only possible point I can make is that it proves that even ultra-productive development houses owned by Publishers are capable of avoiding the soulless incarnations that many independent games studios seem to push out these days.

Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast was spurgeful, and I've invented that word just for this game so that's a big thing! It's a compliment too, which is even better.

What seemed liked minutes later we were back out on the exhibitor's floor again...

Hellchick...

Caryn 'Hellchick' Law...

Caryn 'Hellchick' Law, ex-GameSpy news-magnet, talented voice-actress and now Public Relations for Activision and id Software!

The Wolfenstein stand loses power and so RR2DO2 takes the opportunity to show off Q3F Beta 2 with a laptop

As we all fell in love with her last year (see last year's diary for details), we'd planned on telephoning Hellchick as soon as we got in to town, though we actually found her at the Activision stand right after their game demo. We were in a huge rush though and had little time for anything other than a quick hug and a hello before we were on our way again.. Rollin' Rollin' Rollin :)

Caryn 'Hellchick' Law!!!

3-Demon had invited us out for a Beer with Activision, Nerve Software and Gamespot and as if that wasn't enough, the bar was rumoured to sell over 400 beers! Enough to get us dribbling! He was still busy trying to get power back on for the Activision stand, so we nabbed his space for a bit to show off Q3F Beta 2 and then agreed to come back at 6pm to collect him before heading out.

Fluffy shows that artists really ARE useful by holding the Q3F media CD.

Dinner at El Fenix was ok, but not one of the hi-points of my experience in Texas. It's weird too because while I'm truly enamoured by Texans and America (woohoo!), in general I just can't seem to get on with the food. Ok I know I'm a vegetarian and that's not a good point to start from when being somewhere like Texas where steak is king, but you would expect the Tex-Mex to be good right! Well sadly it wasn't - even my stateside co-horts agreed that the food was simply 'ok' in El Fenix, which was a shame as I'm a mega-fan of Tex-Mex here in the UK. Still the fire-bites and fried-cheese at Friday's more than make up for the bad Mexican meal :)

Still, I do LOVE pancakes and waffles!!!

Soon enough we were out of El Fenix and on our way back to the Hampton. In minutes we'd grabbed 3-Demon, and dived back over to the Hotel to scrub up.

Vorrik, RR2DO2 and I got a chance to catch up on things and with Vorrik's current focus on getting a games company off the ground, we all signed NDAs and chatted about our various ideas. Vorrik has a very clear head and some sound ideas. I'm sure he'll be heading up his own venture very shortly.

Vorrik and RR2DO2 discuss my poor writing skills in my latest game concept :)

As an odd coincidence worth mentioning; Shuriken bumped in to Kharybdis (the Gamespot guy) in the hallway of our Hotel, and they are in the same Q3F clan! Hat's off to Braveheart for the weirdest moment of the event.

Arrangements for the evening took a little while - the phone number list I had for those I should invite when we went for a beer was huge, but soon enough (within 3 hours hehe) we were suitably clean, attired and heading up the freeway en-masse on our way to The Flying Saucer, reportedly a suave and chic hangout in central Dallas.

Vorrik and Fluffy at The Flying Saucer

As it turns out it wasn't particularly suave or chic, though it did indeed sell over 400 different types of beer, so who the hell cared!

Now of course I wouldn't purposely endorse the consumption of alcohol, but I had downed two bottles of Old Peculiar (a fantastic real ale from limey country) before I'd even started networking :)

From left to right: Vorrik, a waitress he picked up, Fluffy, RR2DO2 and (front, drinking) Relaxer from NOW.

Amongst the interesting chats that I can remember, I talked at length to Graham Fuchs (Activision's Producer on Jedi Knight II) and Brandon James, (President and Game Director of Nerve Software). It was certainly an enlightening evening and interesting to hear both Activision and Nerve's angle on the FPS industry. Graham seemed like a solid force in that respect. Brandon James and his team all seemed to demonstrate suitably qualified opinions on the industry too, even if they were (deliberately) a little hazy on the political side of Rogue's split :)

3 bottles of Old Peculiar later and with little apparent affect, Vorrik suggested I try a double "Fuck U Too!" Now those of you that read last year's diary will already be aware of my exploits in "Locki's search for a buzz", and probably know me well enough that I never turn a cocktail down after 6pm, especially when someone else is driving!

From left to right: BirdDawg, Jim (from Gamespot), 3-Demon, Kharybdis, Shuriken

So I went for it. Downed it in one. About ½ a pint of Midori, Rumpleminze, and Jagermeister whatever the hell they are :) Showing support for the fellow man, Fluffy drank one too - wotta guy!

So I'd sunk 4, maybe 5, bottles of Old Peculiar and a double "Fuck U Too!" and I was still standing! Nothing to boast about I know, it's not special and it's not clever! (I can hear my mum telling me off now) but nevertheless it is an achievement - I'd fall flat on my face after 2 pints of Old Peculiar over here :)

Nerve Software kidnap an Activision producer.

Then again... I did spend at least an hour explaining to Relaxer and SoftScoop (what a stupid feckin name for gods sake!) that I wasn't drunk so I must have been a little affected. Ok maybe I was a little bit tipsy - not quite as bad as 3-Demon though - I hear they had to let him out of the car several times on the way back to the Hotel just so he could decorate the pavement:)

All in all a great night, the only downside to which was waking up at 4am to find out that my uvula (the little dangly bit at the back of my throat) had swollen up horribly. Seems the double "Fuck-U-Too!" had an effect after all :)