Scenes from GDC

Entry #7, 10:35 a.m.: Peter Molyneux AWOL

Peter Molyeux is giving a talk on fighting games for next generation systems. It's a wonderful bit of cognitive dissonance listening to Molyneux's laidback British too-cool applied to the photorealistic cartoon punching and kicking of a typical fighting game.

Oh, wait, no it isn't. Peter Molyneux has cancelled, as is evident by the people milling aimlessly around the door of the conference room, looking slightly shell-shocked. 'We were here to see Peter...' they seem to be thinking, 'Now what?' Also, a yellow sticker on the board that says 'Cancelled' seems to make the point pretty well.

I mill about aimlessly as well, as if I'm expecting someone is going to come out and take down the sticker any minute. But no one does any such thing. Instead, a woman comes out and says, "Peter had to cancel at the last minute."

She takes a beat.

"He had a conflict come up."

Another beat.

"He just couldn't make it."

Beat

"He's very apologetic."

I'm reminded of my favorite excuse, a trick I learned in college. If you come late into class and say 'I'm sorry I'm late but I couldn't get here on time' people will accept it as an excuse. It's really nothing more than a self-reflexive statement -- of course you're late if you can't get there on time -- but as long as you say something, anything, with the appropriate note of contrition, you can flake on anything.