More than 17,000 people attended GDC 2009

GDC has always been about the technologies behind the game

GDC was interesting as fuck, dude.

But I guess if *all* you care about is new game announcements, then I can see how it could be considered "boring".

It's called "Game DEVELOPERS Conference" for a reason.

I tend to find the articles that come out of GDC far more interesting and thought provoking than anything that comes out of E3.

People never seem to ever understand what GDC is about.

GDC is a conference for developers to learn new techniques and technology while allowing a forum for developers to network and talk to each other without being encumbered by the cutthroat market dynamics of the game industry. It's about learning faster algorithms for ray cast rendering particles and A* pathfinding. It's about setting up the high probability of Ciff Blezinki being in the same room as Hideo Kojima. It's about giving lowly modders trying to make a break into the industry a chance to get David Jaffe or Sid Meier's business card.

GDC can be used as a public relations tool but to ask that it come to the level of even the crappy E3s will disappoint the people that make the products that public relations is trying to sell in the first place.

I've attended GDC this year for the first time and I was told that there was a lot less people than other years. For me, the event was mainly for networking, to meet new people and to receive critiques for my own work.

Sure there was a building dedicated to new videogame announcements and other related materials that the press and fanboys would be interested in, but there was also a career pavilion, seminar rooms and even the game developer awards.

Personally I'd like to see more people attend GDC, but as long as it doesn't become E3 because that is not the proper venue for it.