Sunday Thoughts: EGX

Two weeks ago Al stepped into his blogging shoes and told us all why EGX mattered so much to us. He was right about everything; he normally is. There was no awkwardness at the house, everyone got along swimmingly and it was like we’d been hanging out for years; I suppose in a way we have. In-jokes were formed almost instantly (if you look around you’ll find some have cropped up in custom tags), and at one point a mutiny was staged when it was decided I was working too hard (in their defence I almost certainly was).

[drop]I’ll go out on a limb here and say that not all of you will find this article all that interesting, but it’s a chance for me to decompress and look back on what happened, think about just how everything went for me and for TSA as a whole. The first, and most important thing, was I had an awful lot of fun. I was exceptionally stressed and it was four of the most exhausting days I’ve ever put myself through, but I had an awful lot of fun.

That might be a bit of a shock to anyone who saw me over those days, particularly if you saw me on the Friday, locked away in the press area and furiously scribbling interview notes for six or seven hours. Even that was fun, which was sort of a surprise to me. This was the second biggest lesson I picked up from the show, the extent to which I enjoy working. I’ve always known I love writing for TSA, and I know far too well that I do my best work under pressure. However, it’s very rare that those two attributes mix.

EGX provided the right mixing pot of the two and, in my opinion at least, I thrived. I have no idea how I kept going or what I was running on most of the time (sheer force of will is a good bet) but I loved every moment of it. There is the possibility that I was just so tired that I was hallucinating enjoying myself, whereas in reality I had an awful time. It was good in my head at least.

I said that was the second biggest lesson, so presumably there was something that was more significant. There was one thing and, to be honest, it probably seems fairly stupid to anyone but me. See since I was very, very small I have had a pretty huge fear of any sort of performing. Put me on a stage and I’m useless. In my first year of uni we had to do a presentation to camera using a green screen; I spent the entire thing shaking like a leaf.

During EGX I was on camera at least a dozen times, in fact it was probably closer to twenty. There was not a single time I was nervous, not even for a second. In fact I was pushing for us to shoot more video, to bring you guys even more video interviews and diaries of us being completely, utterly ridiculous. I hope we delivered on both of those, and there’s still interviews to come. Dancing too.

[drop2]This has been a lot about me, about my experience at the show so lets bring this back round to something actually important, TSA as a collective. Firstly the staff. The staff can do pretty much anything we put our minds to. This was something I’d always suspected but had never had the chance to appreciate first hand. Need a video edited at 1am? Then it’ll happen. Need someone to cover a game without you really having to ask? It’s done. Want to accommodate ten people on one podcast with a week’s notice? Some how we’ll find a way to work (although I’ll admit that was a toughy).

However the important thing to me about TSA, the thing that helps separate us, is you guys. All of you, every single one of you I met, was friendly, fun and generally cool. I remembered none of your names for which I humbly apologise (I’m terrible with names at the best of times), and even though I only saw most of you for a few moments you all seemed lovely and, for some peculiar reason, pleased to see me.

So that’s what the show was like for me. Now I’m off to write up some of the games I saw, talk amongst yourselves.