I never got confirmation that my media badge was okay’d for the Indie MMO Game Development Conference, and despite my efforts I couldn’t get anyone to confirm that if I drove for three hours I’d have something to attend. So … I didn’t go. My bad; I tried to register much later than I should have.

Just the same, I followed over the weekend via videos and Ten Ton Hammer’s Coverage Portal, and had a lot of fun doing it. More than anything else, it made me even more resolved to attend GDC Austin this year. We shall overcome.

Lots of linkage around the tubes about the event:

• MMORPG.com’s Introduction and Keynote coverage kicks off their posting about the event. One can only assume more work will be going up this week. I’m glad to see them taking a slower approach to reporting on the event; taking their time with work to ensure that they ‘get it right’ over the course of the week.
• Gamasutra has blurb coverage of Richard Bartle’s keynote at the event. “Bartle’s message to attendees was one of encouragement and warning. He suggested that the chances for big cash windfalls were unlikely for indie game designers, pointing to the fact that most attendees of Adventure ‘89 only broke even with their undertakings. Financial considerations, while important, Bartle said, weren’t the real reason most attendees had chosen to make their games … Bartle closed by calling himself a ‘a dinosaur in virtual world history,’ and requested that the current crop of independent creators become influential and respected enough to make him him extinct.” Dr. Bartle was blogging from the event as well, and I particularly found his rumination on ‘what he’s doing’ interesting.
• Brent was, of course, recording from the event, and VirginWorlds Podcast #64 is all about the IMGDC. One of his first discussions is with Adam from the Maelstrom podcast, and they discuss the presentation from Kelly Reud about Sex in MMOGs. GamersInfo has a pre-show interview with Ms. Reud, and they touch a bit on the same topics Brent and Adam do.
• My favorite coverage is (unsurprisingly) a discussion of The ‘Verse Behind Firefly given by Ron Meiners, Manager of Developer Relations for Multiverse.
• For another attendee’s perspective, Ethic has a two day writeup of the event over on Kill Ten Rats.

The next event to follow: The Online Game Development Conference, which Grimwell is going to.

Update:  More linkage from this past weekend! Psychochild discusses his talk on Indie games going International, GamersInfo has a rundown on Josh Williams’ Keynote, and the new Virtual Cultures blog (recommended by Raph) has writeups on Richard Bartle’s roundtable, Dr. Bartle’s Keynote, and Kelly Heckman’s take on community management.