The world persists in being small

The other day we found out about an interesting-sounding Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy event via Grocible. The BBC's revamped graphical version of the original adventure game just won a BAFTA, and Steve Meretzky and Michael Bywater were going to talk about this. Meretzky co-wrote the HHG game with Adams, and Bywater collaborated with Adams on some other stuff like Starship Titanic. But Grocible is sadly crippled by flu, so we had to go without him. Groc, I hope you get well soon, and I'm sorry to say that you missed a really great evening!

The venue was a weird little university hall in Bloomsbury. When the place eventually filled up—couple of dozen people in all, I guess—we inevitably met a bunch of people we already knew, since the world is a scarily small place. Jonny Ingold and Cedric Knight of r*if were there, plus some other r*if people who I didn't get to meet. And James Wallis, who I still think of as the Nobilis publisher although he's long since moved on to other stuff. And somebody who turned out to be Nick Montfort's girlfriend. And hey, Steve Meretzky and Michael Bywater, plus a bunch of other Adams cronies. When the crowd warmed up we got a lively little discussion going on the future of interactive fiction. I didn't feel the need to say anything, but my chair spontaneously collapsed under me, so I dunno, maybe that was memorable for people. It'll be on the recordings, anyway.

Afterwards there was the usual British indecision and faffing about. Since by this time we're highly experienced at steering faffing geek-herds, we managed to direct a fair portion of the group towards a pub. Similarly educated by experience, I headed straight to the bar to buy a round for the people I knew directly (as opposed to the ones I'd suddenly discovered I was only one or two hops away from). When I got back to my group and carefully put my trio of pints on the table, Steve Meretzky picked one up (after a gesture of encouragement from Storme, I correctly suspected). Luckily nm's girlfriend wanted to buy Jon a pint so I don't think Jon minded giving his first one away to the BAFTA-winning ex-Infocom guy.

At this point Storme and Steve and I were snugly ensconced in a corner next to a roaring fake fire. The highbrow IF discussion was still raging away at the other side of the table but none of us felt like getting involved. I think Steve was happy to talk about London geography and funny pub names and bad jokes instead. Quite apart from writing a bunch of excellent games, he's a really pleasant guy, so it was great to get the chance to chat with him. So there you go, Steve Meretzky is a dude.

After the pub we walked him back to the Tube and saw him safely onto the Central line. I wonder how many of the hardcore IF nuts there figured we must have been members of the elite IF cabal in order to win this privilege? If any of you are reading this, here's the real trick: we knew where we were going. Plus Holborn was on our way home anyway. All in all, a really nice evening.