I just got back from
ltue.net
in Provo, Utah, and attended a session on board game design. The panelists had really good suggestions for multiple iterations of testing, creating prototypes and being realistic. It was actually kind of inspiring. Someone asked them about the difference between Ameritrash and Eurogames, and one of them went in to the history of games in Germany and the historical reasons for the lack of conflict, even. So they didn't come off as slouches. One of them worked on the Schlock Mercenary game and said he consulted on other designs. Surprisingly, many of the audience hadn't heard of boardgamegeek. I sometimes forget what a tiny world we inhabit. When I got home I tried looking them up under the designer's search box on BGG, and I couldn't find any of them, although one had a broken website with a picture of his game. He was the most inspiring. At the end of the panel he said, very earnestly, "This is worth doing. It is worth doing well."
The other panel I attended was about finding time to write. It was so depressing to hear them talk about being torn between their families and their writing while they tried to leave semi-pro hell. I lost all desire to ever write a book.
Any of those presentations on "making it" as a writer are usually depressing as hell for me, mostly because a lot of it amounts to "you need to make some sacrifices and you need to have your shit together."