Words Worth Knowing: GDC
Words Worth Knowing was a vertical I wrote weekly explaining key pieces of gaming jargon to parents, guardians and teachers, as part of the larger overall GameHub outreach effort. The column ran for nearly two years and resulted in around 60 WWK articles. GameHubHQ.com closed in late 2017. This piece originally appeared on Aug 22 , 2016.
What It Is: GDC = GDC is the "Games Developers Conference."
What It Means: GDC is a brand, with multiple GDC events happening throughout the year.The European event and Chinese event are properly referred to as "GDC EU" and "GDC China" respectively, with the original American event simply named "GDC," but colloquially, a person's GDC is the one relevant to their geographic region.
Why You Care: GDC is a major moment in the year's gaming event calendar. It is not open to the public, but is a closed event accessible only to games industry professionals to meet, network and exchange information and ideas. Many important announcements and deals will take place around GDC events. In Europe, GDC(EU) is [was] held annually in Cologne, with the entire city going games-themed for the month, with satellite events including the Respawn speaking circuit and the large public event GamesCon.
