20 Comments | Posted by Stephen Totilo on 2/26/08 at 6:12 pm.
My throat is sore. I blame GDC.
And I’m probably not the only one.
Some of the other members of the Multiplayer team are fighting GDC sickness too. We’re talking fever, flu-like symptoms.
Word is that 17,500 people attended GDC this year. The person who told me? He’s out sick.
Funny enough, Kotaku’s Mark Wilson and I were sitting together in a meeting area at GDC last week and overheard two attendees saying some… colorful… stuff. I started jotting some it down:
Guy #1: Half the time I ever got sick in the last 10 years was at GDC.
Guy #2: Yeah it’s all those people from around the world with all their germs and their handshaking and s–t.
Mark and I laughed last week, but now? Tell us… who else among you went to GDC healthy and came home sick?
February 26th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
Somehow I managed to avoid the deadly virus, though I fully expect this comment to jinx me. The entire office housing the 1UP Network was full of near death reports just before GDC started, though, so I’m going to blame most of the problems on my former employer.
February 26th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
I actually dodged it this year. I got sick after D.I.C.E. though, which I suspect had a less intense version of the same bug going around. My advice to you is dayquil/nyquil plus robitussin cough drops.
February 26th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
When you think about it, it is pretty logical to be sick:
1. Lack of Sleep - Lowers the immune system
2. Contact with tons of different people
3. Indoors a ton of time
4. Carbs, Soda and Coffee don’t help the body recover.
5. Parties every single night.
Is it worth it? Hell Yeah.
February 26th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
Stephen,
I got sick. I was fully healthy, and I attended this my first GDC and on Thursday I had a fever and cough. The fever went away the next day but the cough is slowly going away.
This isn’t too surprising until you consider I literally have gotten sick ONE time in the past ten years. ONCE.
February 26th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
I have been healthy for months. Then the GDC hell flu hit and these past two days I’ve had a rotten cough and today it has bloomed into a full-scale sore throat.
I’m thinking next year instead of those nasty-ass energy drinks they put in the GDC schwag bags a couple of hits of Airborne would be welcome.
February 26th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
I caught a pretty nasty flu Tuesday/Wednesday and am only now returning to normal. This is the first time I’d even so much as sniffled since moving to SF last fall.
I weep when thinking of all the missed parties and unconsumed, free alcohol. I think Peter happened upon the correct combination.
Feel better, and I hope I wasn’t the one that passed it on your way…
February 26th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
I picked up the miserable bird flu/SARS sometime last week, and it hit me hard starting on Friday morning. During an interview with Dave Mitchell, I was literally shaking and could barely speak. Needless to say, it went very, very well.
After three days in bed (being cold, and then one evening waking up drenched in sweat), I now cough a lot. But only when I breathe. GDC ruled.
February 27th, 2008 at 12:38 am
I was sicker in the past three weeks than I’ve been in the last five or so years; this sentiment seemed to be fairly common in my workplace. I also was nowhere near GDC. Could it be that it’s just that season? Regardless, I’m going to blame my sickness on intensely following the GDC coverage.
February 27th, 2008 at 8:57 am
Most of the team had the GDC (sounds like a disease, doesn’t it?), but I managed to escape somehow. I wonder if favoring orange juice-based cocktails really helps.
February 27th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
I did come home sick from GDC actually. By the end of the day on friday I had a sore throat. On saturday it got worse, now my sore throat is gone but I still have other cold symptoms (sneezing, runny nose, coughing, etc.). First time I go to GDC and see where it gets me…
February 27th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
Heh, it’s interesting because Chris Kohler from Wired’s Game|Life posted yesterday that last year he got sick at GDC and this year the other 2 members of the staff got sick and are not working… omg, GDC is cursed.
February 27th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
Count me among the plague-bearers. Good god, this week has been wretched.
I heard on the escalators (where rumors spread like wildfire!) that the illness being spread had come all the way from China, hitching a ride on a publisher representative’s GI tract or something. True to the spirit of the conference, the ailment was international, baby.
February 27th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
Multiple people from my office and my PR agency are sick from GDC. I’ve been on the couch since Friday night (today is Wednesday) and am just now starting to get better.
Sore throat - Check!
Fever - Check!
Sinus Pressure like a MF’er - Check!
Multicolored Lung Butter - Check!
This is the first time I’ve attended GDC, and now knowing that it’s a breeding ground for plague, hopefully my last.
But the PROTOTYPE party did kick some serious ass so was worth it!
February 27th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
Anyone else get a wicked case of gonorrhea? Damn gamers!
February 27th, 2008 at 10:32 pm
I have the plague for sure… Damnit Mac! I’m sure I caught it from either your party or Frary’s… Either way, what a fine welcome to my first GDC.
February 28th, 2008 at 10:25 am
Nick, I shook your hand in the press room. Could I have gotten sick from Destructoid??? It was my first GDC as well, and I exhibit all the symptoms that Mac has described. Still worth it, though…
- Tracey
February 29th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Sick as a dog over here. At least it waited until I was home to hit me. Being sick is bad enough, but sick in a hotel room? Thanks, I’ll pass. At least here I have access to all my stuff.
Seriously, yno-one should have to be sick without their fluffy blankie and a DS.
February 29th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
I got away clean this year, but I think that’s only because I caught a cold a week BEFORE shipping out to GDC.
I remember our group succumbed to the GDC Stomach Virus of ‘Aught Seven, but I don’t know if that crossed beyond company lines. For everyone else’s sake, I hope it didn’t.
March 1st, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Wow, I didn’t realize it was an epidemic. I’m just getting over a weeklong sinus infection which hit the day after I got back from GDC. This is a true public health issue!
March 5th, 2008 at 11:03 pm
Tracey,
Yes, getting you sick in an attempt to take down the Multiplayer blog was my plan all along.
Also my first GDC, and I had been warned of the plague. I thought it was some kind of industry joke, but now I know better.