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The everyday blog of Richard Bartle.

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7:30am on Saturday, 1st November, 2025:

Return

Anecdote

I'm at Oviedo airport, awaiting my connecting flight to Barcelona.

Yesterday was another good one for discussions with interesting people, featuring fewer derailments but an equally lax attitude to timetables on the part of the attendees as the day before. After the event, we went to Gíjon to visit the technical university there. It has some very impressive architecture, including a 130m-hgh tower:

We got to go up it, too. The views were great!

Yes, they did have a lift; if not, I would be writing this from a hospital ward.

There was a tour of the university, which has a relatively recent past. It was build during the Franco era, and when that ended was allowed to fall into disrepair. It's reopened after a few years and is thriving once more, but some of the old facilities were preserved s a kind of museum. This is how we ended up wandering around a 1950s kitchen and looking at telephone exchanges that needed an operator. Naturally, this made us late for the art centre part of the tour, so we didn't get a full look around that. To be honest, I'd have preferred to have overrun at the art centre and cut back on the kitchen.

Afterwards, we went to eat in a restaurant on the harbour front. It was a seafood restaaurant, because this is Asturias so what else could it be? Happily, they had alternatives for people such as me who go to seafood restaurants without liking seafood.

I'm sure someone will have picked up the hotel umbrella I inadvertantly left there.

This morning, I was given a packed breakfast, which was a nice touch. It really hit the spot, and I scoffed it before going through security. The roads to the airport were almost completely empty, which I attribute to the fact that 7am in Spain is like 5am or 6am anywhere else. This being a Saturday also perhaps contributed.

Perhaps surprisingly for people who haven't been to a Games Executives Summit Europe before, but not for those of us who have, from the chaos of the two days emerged some actual conclusions:
- Gaames studios will become smaller as more work is done either by AI or by specialist teams brought in on a project-by-project basis.
- Finance will remain a problem, because what's saved in development will need to be spent on marketing.
- More people will return to working in the office, but not programmers because they're not people.

Either the students of Gíjon throw themselves into the spirit of Hallowe'en, or they're crazies who must be avoided at all costs, I took no photos, sorry, in cse they were the latter.

7:15am on Friday, 31st October, 2025:

Lastres

Anecdote

After a productive discussion yesterday morning, the afternoon was completely derailed by an impromptu trip to the nearby village of Lastres. It's quite picturesque.

Because "picturesque" basically means "hilly", it was a lot more fun walking down to the harbour than walking back up again, but fortunately people who had cars were willing to ferry us back to the hotel. That's the first time I've been in a car with no rear window, just a camera feeding a screen where the rear-view mirror should be.

Lunch was a selection of fish and seafood, which given that I like neither reminded me why I always take a bar of chocolate with me when I go abroad.

Dinner was courtesy of a *** Michelin chef. That was a different kettle of, er, fish: an 18-course taster menu with 50% of the courses involving fish or seafood. Fortunately, the wait staff notices I wasn't eating the fish parts and substituted the last three or four with non-fish. Fish aside, it was amazingly good! Lots of weird combinations of flavours, textures, temperatures and looks.

This being Spain, our 11:30pm arrival back at the hotel was 1:30am. Our 9am start has been put back to 10am.

This has confirmed by belief that Spaniards may use Central European Time on their clocks, but they act as if they were still on Greenwich Mean Time.

6:44am on Thursday, 30th October, 2025:

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4:34pm on Wednesday, 29th October, 2025:

Wi-Fi

Anecdote

I'm at the hotel now, which is very swish.

I attempted to connect my laptop to the hotel's wi-fi and it didn't show up as an option. Having had the same thing happen to me in Poznan, I cracked and uninstalled all the driver of my network adapters, in the hope that Windows would reload them from a past version that works. Amazingly, it succeeded: I now have full Internet access on y laptop, and don't have to go through my phone any more.

The hotel has model insects decorating the walls.

I hope this isn't so we fail to notice any actual 10cm-long insects that live here.

11:09am on Wednesday, 29th October, 2025:

Away Again

Anecdote

I'm at Gatwick Airport's South Terminal at the moment, waiting to take a flight to Oviedo for the Games Executive Summit Europe that's taking place tomorrow and Friday.

Gatwick is a better airport than Luton. I have a seat that hasn't had something out of a sandwich spilled onto it and doesn't back onto a man who is deaf and wants to bark a conversation with his grandson (sitting next to him) about Tottenham Hotspur's performace in European football. That said, I still had to walk through a labyrinth of perfume shops to get here.

The journey took longer than I was expecting, because Google Maps refused to acknowledge that there's such a thing as a South Terminal short-term car park at Gatwick, and I was also cautious about being fined for accidentally driving into the pick-up/set-down zone (which happened last time I was at the airport). That added 15 minutes to the journey time as I drove around the airport, doublng back and switching lanes at short notice, until I found the place. Unhelpfully, once I got parked, there was nothing to tell me where my car was located; I think maybe it was Blue something-or-other. I was obliged to take a bunch of photos to use for orientation upon my return instead.

I had a fast-track pass to get through security. Gawd knows how long it would have taken if I hadn't, there was a shortage of trays for X-raying. Eventually, we were told not to take any trays so the chap waiting closest to the machine would get one; clearly, he hadn't read my blog about my experience in Luton. Once the trays were allowed again, we were there for an age while someone in a wheelchair was taken through security and his wheelchair was zapped with all kinds of electronics to make sure it wasn't made of platinum or something. In addition, my bag was pulled aside for failing the X-ray examination, or whatever rays they use these days. My toothpaste was tested for illegal substances, and happily passed inspection.

I was fortunate to be driving clockwise round the M25 on my journey here. The traffic in the opposite direction was at a standstill for miles and miles and miles. Ambulances and fire engines were trying to force their way through where there was no hard shoulder. I don't know what had happened, but if I'd been heading to Luton this time round I'd have had to have gone cross-country instead.

I don't have to give a presentation in Asturias, which makes the GESE an ideal conference for me. This time, we're putting together a games almanac from 2030, so it's essentially an exercise in predicting what will happen in the European games industry in the next five years. It sounds as if it'll be fun! I just hope I don't end up in a group about how business aspects will change. That would not be fun (at least for me).

Right! Time to hotspot my phone so I can upload this.

8:34am on Tuesday, 28th October, 2025:

Goats

Weird

There are statues of goats in Poznan:

You can buy plushie goats, mugs with goats on them and postcards with goats on them. Clearly, goats are a tourist attraction, but why?

Well, apparently there are two mechanical goats on the town hall clock tower, which butt their heads together at noon. There's a folk tale as to why they're there, something to do with the town hall's cook going to look at the clock tower instead of watching a leg of venison roast, then when the venison fell into the fire his assistant kidnapped two goats to use instead; these goats escaped and climbed onto the cornice, where they started butting their heads together. The event was commemorated by having mechanical goats butt heads on the clock tower.

It doesn't sound convincing to me, but Poznan seems set on having goats as its tourist-attraction mascot, so that's why they're everywhere.

I only learned the butting-goats story when I looked up why Poznan is obsessed with goats. I therefore wasn't aware of the mechanism on the town hall's clock tower, so didn't strive to see it in action.

I guess knowing where the town hall was would have helped, too.

11:20am on Monday, 27th October, 2025:

Sop

Weird

From this week's Essex Country Standard:

If it passes the spell-check, that means there are no spelling errors.

At least the ECS continued its tradition of referring to any restaurant, café or coffee shop that closes down as being "popular", even though clearly its Colchester branch isn't or it wouldn't have shut.

9:52am on Monday, 27th October, 2025:

Pass Offline

Weird

In Poznan, some of the road junctions near colleges have these signs painted onto the footpaths:

I guess several students must have come a cropper from looking at their phones instead of the road.

Back when everyone read newspapers, we didn't have such signs. You couldn't have seen them through a broadsheet.

6:50am on Sunday, 26th October, 2025:

Poz Talk

Anecdote

I gave my presentation yesterday.

It went well, I think, apart from the fact I arrived at 3pm in the belief that the time was 4pm. I should have checked my watch first. Still, I got to listen to someone else's presentation while I waited.

My talk was about what we as the creators of virtual worlds owe morally to the NPCs of our worlds, or rather what we would owe them if they were as smart as or smarter than us. It's based on a talk I gave six years ago to a group of AI-and-games experts, but now that the rest of the world has caught up with the necessary AI knowledge I was able to give it to games experts. I'll upload it when I'm home and get a chance to do so.

Immediately afterwards, I was on a panel about the history of MMOs, alongside Gordon Walton and Dan Scherlis (who are also veterans of many decades standing). That was quite fun; I just wish I'd been on it before I finished the history section of Designing Virtual Worlds, 2nd edition. There were some curious facts mentioned of which I wasn't previously aware.

Overall, this was a very enjoyable conference and I met (or remet) a bunch of interesting and enthusiastic people. The games scene in Eastern Europe is packed with knowledgeable, driven enthusiasts, rather than the jaded, overworked enthusiasts we tend to get in the UK. I'm missing the final day as I'm flying home about three hours from now, but I'd be happy to come again if invited.

Whether they'd be happy to have me is another matter, of course! My talk was Somewhat Unlike Other Presentations.

6:46am on Saturday, 25th October, 2025:

Gala

Anecdote

One my duties here in Poland was to present an award at the Central and Eastern European Game Awards Gala. The award was for best design, which is the one I'd have chosen to give if asked.

I've never presented an award before, and it turns out I'm pretty good at it: I watched a showreel announcing the nominees, then opened an unsealed envelope and read what was written on the card inside. I waited for the recipient to walk onto the stage, handed them the award itself , listened to their speed and walked of the stage when they did.

I had no training, but managed to pull off this onerous task with aplomb. I think I was maybe supposed to say some uplifting words before opening the envelope, but I don't think anyone noticed that I didn't.

I wasn't expecting that 40+ team members from 11 Bit would want to go onto the stage to receive the award, but fortunately only one of them had a speech to make.

The Best Gaame award was presented by the Polish Minister of Culture, which was impressive. I don't know that Sir Chris Bryant MP would show up to an award ceremony like that in the UK.

The gala was in the afternoon. In the morning, I went on a tour of sights around Poznan with some other speakers. We missed one sight, a palace, because it was closed due to a plumbing fault. The grounds were closed, too, so I guess sewage was involved. This is what comes of exporting all your plumbers to the UK, Poland.

We visited Poznan Cathedral instead, which was worth a visit so I'm not complaining.

6:57am on Friday, 24th October, 2025:

Old Poznan

Anecdote

Because they wouldn't let me check in to the hotel for three hours yesterday, I wandered round old Poznan (which I won't be calling Poznań now because I can't be faffed adding that awkward accent on the final n any more).

The old town's square reminded me of the one in Kraków, in that it's not so much a square as a four-sided torus. Basically, it's a rectangular space with buildings in the middle.

Poznan's old town square is quite pretty:

All except for this part, which isn't pretty:

I'm sure that the people back in old-town times were of the opinion that the buidings I think are pretty now weren't pretty then, so perhaps people of the future will like this sore thumb sticking out in an otherwise historical setting.

Well, people of the future, you're wrong and I'm right.

5:56am on Thursday, 23rd October, 2025:

Luton Airport

Anecdote

The reason I bought some zloties the other day is because I'm speaking at the Games Industry Conference in Poznań on Saturday. My flight is this morning at 7:40, so I had to be at the airport by 5:40. This entailed getting up at 3am and taking a circuitous route to avoid overnight roadworks.

Not only was I driving, but so was the rain. It wasn't a pleasant experience. I followed the satnav directions to the postocde it assured me was Terminal Car Park 1. It was no such thing. It was a dead end single carriageway in an industrial site. I had to do a 7-point turn on a narrow road then drive off looking for signs. I eventually saw one for the medium-term car park, so followed that. After a while, the signage added the short-term car parks, which took me to what would have been Terminal Car Park 1 had the road not been closed off after the car park burned down a few years ago. I continued to Terminal Car Park 2, then saw a P1 painted on the road and followed that. It took me to the part of Terminal Car Park 2 that's now designated Terminal Car Park 1.

Luton is my least-favourite London airport. The security checks have trays you put your stuff in, but they work like a stack. They come in on a conveyor belt, but if you're the closest to the body scanner you won't get a tray until everyone upstream has one. If the person four slots up gets a tray and fills it, they'll get a second tray before you get your first. Fate put me nearest to the body scanner. I eventually got my trays by whisking them off the conveyor belt before they stopped and before the security officer could stop me.

I then had to wait an age for them to come through the X-ray machine, because trays are only pushed onto the scanner's conveyor belt when there's a gap, whch means everyone upstream gets their bags through before you do — including people who arrived much later than you did.

As is common for London airports, there's not enough seating. I only got the spot I'm typing this from because it's beneath a fierce air-conditioning fan that's probably going to give me COVID-19.

Only another hour to go and they'll tell me which gate my flight departs from. I bet they know which it will be already.

Maybe I should stop arriving at airports stupidly early.

8:28am on Wednesday, 22nd October, 2025:

Home Phone

Anecdote

Recently, I had cause to dig out my personal pension plan from 1988, because it turned into money in January and the pension providers, Phoenix Life, want me to prove it's mine. I don't have any documents for Phoenix Life, but found ones for Sun Alliance; it seems that Sun Alliance became part of Phoenix Life after a series of mergers and acquisitions.

Anyway, along with the document I managed to recover, I found this enticement:

If we look on the back, the wealth of features it possesses are revealed:

We did actually go with Sun Alliance, and duly received our free telephone. We used for many years; it even changed houses with us when we moved.

I must have kept the flier in case Sun Alliance reneged on the deal.

12:21pm on Tuesday, 21st October, 2025:

Brambles

Anecdote

The brambles down one of the local lanes are making a real effort this year.

There's a curtain of three-metre spars there. I don't know what their plans are, but it can't be good.

11:36am on Monday, 20th October, 2025:

Sizing Up

Weird

Next door's cat, wondering if it can take the pheasant:

Don't worry, pheasant admirers, it decided against it.

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Copyright © 2025 Richard Bartle (richard@mud.co.uk).