“Video games are nerd poetry,” said Ernest Adams during his speech about the philosophical roots of video games.

What follows is a tour of GDC in quotes. The selection is surreal, whatever I wrote down that I feel confident I got down correctly.

“All games are serious.”
-- Ben Sawyer at the opening of the Serious Games Summit

“I’ve always said, reality is not any fun.”
-- Glyn Anderson, a producer of simulation for the military about the notion of “serious games.”

“When I started, you could walk into the women’s bathroom and be sure no one was in there.”
-- Alan Yu, GDC conference director on the biggest changes to the event during his nine year tenure.

“It’s sort of return to roots.”
-- Game analyst Billy Pidgeon on the flow of games technology into the military.

“A 100 hour crappy game is still a crappy game.”
-- EA Canada General Manager John Schappert on quantity over quality in games.

“When we are focused on boilerplate code, we are not focused on magic. When we are not focused on magic, we are not focused on the customer. And when we are not focused on the customer, we are not making money.”
-- Xbox vice president, J Allard

“We are overwhelmed by criticism.”
– Matteo Bitanti on the quantity of game journalism during his presentation on the need for quality criticism.

“I feel completely out of my weight class”
– Sony’s Raph Koster prior to presenting at the “Game Design Challenge: The Love Story”, where he squared off against Will Wright and Warren Spector.

“I have trouble thinking of games that don’t have guns in the them”
– Warren Spector at the “Game Designers Challenge”

“They hack they crack they appropriate they misuse.”
-- Robert Nideffer at the Art Mod Jam on how arists intersect the game space.

“We don’t read Don Dellilo and we don’t draw inspiration from him.”
– Ernest Adams pointedly describing the difference between the classical, rationalist basis of game design and the romantic, literary aspirations of the designers.

“Anybody who wears sunglasses indoors and is not blind is a wanker and anyone who does kung fu in a raincoat is a moron.”
– Ernest describing why he doesn’t care for “The Matrix”

And finally, a collection of Chris Crawford bon mots from the Serious Games Summit:

“I think that transgression is really an important part of games. Even educational games.”

“There is no such thing as an accurate simulation.”

“Fun is the original educational technology.”

“Fun is the emotional response to learning.”