I woke up one fine morning early last month and realized a startling truth: I am broke. Utterly and completely out of money, not only scraping the bottom of the barrel but wondering how many calories are in the barrel itself.

So I went to GDC for two reasons: jiggle my wares in front of some companies and, failing that, observe the bums and take some hints. But then I realized I could do both at once by interviewing with Blizzard! (oh snap >_<)

After a bunch of hours in the line for their booth at the career fair, I somehow scored an invite to their party. Sweet! A word of advice however: don't show up "casually late" to a Blizzard party, they get drunk hard and they get drunk early. Your chances of having a meaningful chat with somebody important goes to zero as the time approaches 8:00.

But with a little persistence, I did manage to talk with The Man In Charge, Brian Fitzgerald. Brian is the one of the sharpest tools in the Blizzard arsenal as far as I can tell, which is really saying a lot. Being the awesome fellow that he is, he invited me back to their booth the next day for further conversation. Great! With my goal achieved, I bailed and went in search of the best Indian food of my life.

Forward to the next day, I find myself sitting in the back of Blizzard’s booth chatting with some developers, showing off Orb, and generally having a pleasant time. Brian’s not there right away but with a few taps on an iPhone, he shows up quick enough. More chatting with Brian, more Orb demo, and I’m done! Brian tells me he’ll be getting in touch with me soon. Very cool.

And then… nothing. I emailed Brian the following week and got this:

And now… nothing. One follow-through is probably enough, I’m not going to pester them too much. Blizzard can of course afford to be as picky as they want and that’s fine by me. Definitely a better experience with Blizzard this year than last. So with a little fortitude and a solid handshake, you too can have a crazy Blizzard story from GDC!