Viva La Resolution

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VIVA LA RESOLUTION

This is a beautiful story--I'm proud to tell it.

When we found out a few weeks before GDC (the Game Developers' Conference) that Microsoft (X-Box specifically) was going to give the keynote address this year, my friends and I put out kind of a collective eye-rolling via e-mail. Predicting that the take-home ideas of this presentation would likely once again be the relationship between technology and profits, I suggested an alternative keynote, and Linda suggested a fringe (or "fridge") conference based on it. Here's the proposed topic:

> "If the primary point of your gaming career or even your trip to GDC is to maximize profits, then you haven't spent nearly enough time in a near-death situation. I assure you that your problem will someday solve itself, and you will be embarrassed at all the great gaming opportunities that you threw away."
>
> --fat

This topic resonated well within our circle of friends. It even went so far that one person who had acted as an advisor to the GDC committee promised to suggest the idea of the Fridge to them.

A few days later, my good friend Mark Terrano called me. Mark is pretty much as high-up at X-box as you can get and still be a gamer. Not only that, he's a champion of risk-taking over stagnation, of art over ignorance, of gameplay over technology. For gamers, this translates to "Love Over Money." Mark even gave a speech that ended with a two page rant on "spirituality in gaming." He was for it. Eloquently.

Mark had called me because he was involved in planning the dreaded X-Box Keynote. He was charged with creating a 4-8 minute slideshow of screenshots of games through history, from the '70's to the present. The idea was that Microsoft would introduce High Definition (HD) at this GDC. The slideshow would set this up by implying that first there were 2-D games, then 3-D games, and now, HD. I was asked to make the music for this slideshow. Something that started sounding like the '70's, then the '80's, then the '90's, etc.

In my mind, the mission for me was to work the message of the "fridge keynote" into the Microsoft presentation in a way that would elevate Microsoft's standing in the developer community. Maybe even provide a little cultural icon for the Microsoft workers to be proud of. Mark was willing to support me in this. I was optimistic.

While I was laying down tracks, Verin Lewis called. Verin is the custodian of Josh's World and a longtime GDC regular. He had called in the middle of my session to tell me he was reading my book, and that he wished he'd been in it. He had no idea what project I was working on, and for whom. I asked him why I should put him in a book, and he said he had lots of "myths and legends." So I told him I was taping, I hit the record button, and what you hear is what I got. Exactly where it landed on the track. I didn't even scoot it to the left or right.

-Man!-

Then Fortune smiled upon me, and the hook "Viva La Resolution" came to me, so the song wrote itself.
I didn't hear back from Mark for a while after I sent him the first version of the tune. I figured I'd have to scrap it and start over. Then he called me with "bad news."

He had been directed to ask me to remove the line about the boobs.

That's it? There's no problem with "up against the wall" and that?

"Nope! Just the boobs!"

Well, I've done harder things than taking out my boobs. I wrote "Will you use it to make smarter troops/or will it be the perfect robot girlfriend for you?" Got it recorded, got ready to ship and...

PROJECT CANCELLED! But we're willing to pay you in full anyway. And the Direct X team decided they really don't like the spoken introduction, they'd like to forget that day ever happened. And since we're paying for it, we still need the boobs out of there.

Well...

I _really_ wanted this song to get heard, and if I sold it, there wasn't anybody at MS who was hot to use it, modified or not. But just in case, it had to be modified.. After much deliberation, and after listening over and over to the line, "Did we do it for the dollar bills? NO!!!" I decided to buy the song back and just cancel the contract.

The punch line:

An email was sent to Mark saying, more-or-less, "Let's let The Fat Man cancel the contract on the condition that he take out the intro and the boobs."

!!!!!!!
No worries. I felt bad for about a day, and then figured out how to say it: "Hey, it's your choice. You can pay me, and own the song if you want it. You can not pay me and not own the song if you want it. But to not pay me and still control the song, well, that's just silly."

They saw the light, I got my song back, and, among a few of the great game developers, it became the unofficial theme song of the GDC this year.

Once again, here it is. Enjoy!!

Viva La Resolution

Oh, and...do you need a song? It's available!

--FAT

What will YOU do when the Resolution comes? Will you use it to be Hollywood? Or will you use it for the Ultimate Good?