While you're reading our thorough coverage of the Game Developer's Rant (trust us, it's worth it), be sure to check out video highlights from the session courtesy of Mahalo Daily. Unfortunately we only have the first half of the session on film, so you're going to have to read the rest. (Warning: video NSFW)

It has been one year since Chris Hecker made the headline-catching Duct Tape comment at the Developer's Rant. At GDC this year we were waiting with great anticipation for what other nuggets would come this year. Interested in vulgarity, balloons, excessive drinking and French literature? How about poignant discourse and hope? Keep reading for both!

2. Balloons!


Instead, when Eric Zimmerman announced him, Mak asked everyone to stand up. Just then, a few helpers ran to the front of the stage with black garbage bags. In seconds, the room was filling up with balloons. The entire crowd was bouncing them up and down for what seemed like a long while (actually only about 2 minutes). Each balloon had something different written on it: we noticed "pay with this," "perfect" and a smiley face.

When the crowd finally died down, Portal designer Kim Swift was at the podium in Mak's place. At request, she screamed. She said he has no idea why she's up there. "Uh, yeah, things that are on [the] slide," she said, checking the computer. "Oh, it's got absolutely nothing on the slide. At this point and time, I have absolutely nothing to complain about, so let's take a look at these balloons." She asks if anyone has anything cool written on their balloon. Someone in front shouts "Mine says I'm a misunderstood robot."

Swift smiles and quietly steps down. End of rant.

Next: Happiness

3. "Games are the ultimate happiness engine"

Jane McGonigal was up next. She's not mad at game designers; her rant is about reality. And it's broken. "We are the people who are supposed to fix it," she said.

"When I'm in games I have all the info and feedback I need, I have superhero skills ... it's just better than real life." McGonigal explains she has been spending the last year doing research on happiness, deeming it not a warm puppy. Instead, McGonigal lays out a four-point happiness list:

1. Satisfying work to do
2. The experience of being good at something
3. Time spent with people we like
4. The chance to be a part of something bigger

"What the hell does any of this better but games? Nothing," she said. "Games are the ultimate happiness engine, and you [the game industry] are in the happiness business." McGonigal noted that it took them until 1930 that soap can be used to kill germs. For depression and isolation, perhaps games can be the same fix. She quotes someone we didn't catch: "Why should we care about games? Because our life is crap."

McGonigal lists five things that game designers could fix today:

1. Running
2. Being on a plane
3. Playing fetch
4. Commuting
   
5. Annoying people

She then hypothesized about how the Nike + iPod shoes can keep track of how far you've run and how that technology could somehow be used alongside a social MMO, noting that gamers would be happy and healthy. Explaining her belief the game designers are the smartest people in the world (with Will Wright on her side, we can't blame her), she asks "Can we fix it? Hell yes. Will we fix it? I have no fucking idea."

5. "We don't need more three little pigs games, we need something like The Little Prince. Makes you try to think about your life"

Jenova Chen (flOw) took the stage next, explaining that he can't just rant as a designer but also as a gamer, one who has been playing less as the years go by and is losing interest in trying the games. Fifteen years ago, he said, he was excited to playing racing games or kill Nazis (e.g. Wolfenstein 3D). Nowadays, though, there's not much interest and what he learns now is not much more than he does from a set of wooden blocks.

"We never say its too old to read books or watch movies or play sports. so whats the difference with games?" Chen notes that books are considered intellectual, movies emotional and sports social. "As grown up gamers, I don't want to see them abandoned because I'm too old." He specifies that there's not much more mature content "for people like us who still want to play games." He notes that he doesn't mean "mature" games like DOAX2 and Manhunt 2. ("We all know who cares about that," he quips, flashing a picture of hyperactive teen gamers.)

Given the average age of gamers is 33, Chen said he wants games more emotional, social and intellectual. Focusing on intellectual, Chen said, "We don't need more three little pigs games, we need something like The Little Prince. Makes you try to think about your life"

6. "WONDERFUL!"

Daniel James (Three Rings) is up last. We're not sure his part accounts for a rant, but it's interesting nonetheless. James' accompanying slides consisted of a number of interjections.

• NICE! -- "Isn't GDC wonderful?"
• BRILLIANT! -- He used to play with LEGOs as a kid, and now you can share that love with the LEGO MMO.
  
• FANTASTIC! -- He used to played 1984's Elite on the computer, and now you can share and play together with EVE Online.
• WTF ... err ... AMAZING -- Similar to the above, the evolution from "You stood on a narrow road between land whence you came" (MUD). Now there's 10 million people that do it in World of Warcraft.
• TOTALLY. AWESOME. INCREDIBLE. -- The sea change he noted after having dinner with the creator of Facebook.

Although without a direct interjection, James told a story that he got a letter the other day from a grandmother, who said her grandchildren showed her Puzzle Pirates and now she plays it with them online every night. She used to just watch TV every night. We'll add a more subtle "sweet" to that story. Back to interjections.

• WONDERFUL! -- The domination of television and that story.

And now, he said, he's going to go get very, very, very drunk.