GDC08: Joystiq live from Sony's Block Party

Word on the street is that Sony's Block Party, uh ... party is, well, in a word: exclusive. We spoke with several notable video game writers, developers, and others who apparently couldn't get into Mezzanine, the trendy club you're seeing in that shot above. To be honest, we hate to sound like the ungrateful twerps everyone assumes we are but, here goes.

Upon arriving at the door, having our unique bar-code invitation scanned, getting a wrist bracelet, and wandering inside, one thing was abundantly clear: There's a lot of stuff here, and none of those things are video games. There are hula-hoop girls with really short shorts; there's a breakdancing crew getting boogaloo on the dance floor; there's a DJ mashing up 70's throwbacks; there's a barber shop upstairs (no, seriously, they're actually cutting hair). We ask a group of people why they're here. "We're friends with the bartender."
Guess what we're trying to say is this is a "party" in the typical sense of the word. Think performances by Q-Tip and Guru and not, say, Phil Harrison; think "dancing" and not uh, LittleBigPlanet-ing. So, in short, we're totally out of our element; our awkward, maladroit tendencies grating harshly against the rest of the well-dressed (and overwhelmingly good looking) party-goers.But, what's that? Just as one of the evening's rappers takes the stage, and just as our spindly ankles begin lifting up and down to the rhythm, we spot MTV's Stephen Totilo and look, over there, it's Q Games' Dylan Cuthbert. We may just get the hang of this "party" thing after all ... but alas, a long night of blogging lays ahead. No rest for the wicked.