I’ve been going to GDC most years since 1995, and the quality of the shwag (free stuff) there has fallen from mediocre (free t-shirts, decent parties with cold-plate appetizers and beer) to almost non-existent (t-shirts that you have to compete for or stand in a 20 minute line for).

Casuality is a much smaller conference, and perhaps that’s the reason the shwag there is vastly better than GDC.

Most of the vendors/publishers with tables set up (~10 or so) were pushing free t-shirts or something comparable – almost throwing them at you. Trying to control the volume of stuff I was carrying around made me pretty selective though. There were also frisbees and other goodies.

I only went to one party – the PopCap party. About 200 people were there, and it was nice – excellent appetizers, open bar (fancy drinks, not just beer), and a gift bag for each attendee with about $50 of assorted free stuff.

But I missed the party with the best shwag – by Oberon. At Oberon’s party, they gave away a free Mini-Cooper (yes, the ~$20,000 car). There were apparently about 250 people at the party, so the cost to Oberon of that one party favor was almost $100/guest.

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