This happens.

Virtually all the panelists begged out, leaving only Tom Abernathy, the writer/designer behind Destroy All Humans! (and its sequel) at Pandemic Studios. He was joined by two ad hoc panelists: John Sutherland, writer at Microsoft Game Studios; and Matt Soell, the incredible writer at Wideload Games behind Stubbs the Zombie: Rebel without a Pulse (Funny freaking game. Read my review. Buy the game. Seriously. This thing's so under-rated).

I expected the funny in the whole experience, which might not have been fair, but it wasn't quite there. Subdued panel, though some good nuggets. And the guys are witty. And Tom is animated and opinionated. I like that.

But the session title is "Writing COMEDY for Games". Where da "ha ha" funny?

Hmm ... This game writers audience has a different kind of energy than at other writer's conferences I've attended. And I've been (and managed) writers. Interesting.

I was going to go the server deployment talks for either MMOs or MMPs (to look for applicability for my duties at BigHugeCorp), but those 2 sessions turned into roundtables, and hadn't started when I went to join them (late). Not to be small, but I wonder if that would have been a livelier discussion.