Reality Panic

Who says game developers are all anti-social nerds?

My buddy Mark DeLoura was in town for some developer meetings on behalf of Sony. Earlier in the week, we had started to form plans for some Friday night dinner. Around the same time, I got an email from Heather Kelley (who was just in the process of moving up to Montreal (from Austin)). I had promised her that I’d take her out to meet some “locals” when she got to town. She suggested that Friday would be a good night to hook up. And finally, I had just discovered that Troy Dunniway had recently moved to town as well and had not had much chance to meet industry people, other than his colleagues at Ubi.

So, rather than bail on any one of them, I opted to combine the them and invite along a few other local industry buddies… From a small invite to “grab some sushi Friday night”, it quickly turned into a full blown date for 20 developers from various studios from the Montreal game dev scene.

While I help with the local IGDA Montreal chapter, which pulls together 200+ developers every month, this social night was a nice change of pace and provided a more intimate setting to connect. Oh, and the sushi was great too!

Here are some pics from the night, courtesy of Mark.

A bunch of sushi for a few of the guests.

Julie (FDL’s significant other), Francois Dominic Laramee (freelance designer) and Dominique Roussy (A2M).

Vander Caballero (EA) and Mark DeLoura (Sony).

Stephanie Marchand (DC Studios) and Troy Dunniway (Ubisoft).

Elspeth Tory (Microids), Martine Quesnel (Microids) and Chris Rorl (Ubisoft).

Ken Schachter (GameLoft).

Damien (Heather’s significant other), Heather Kelley (Ubisoft) and Mike Drummelsmith (Quazal).

Elspeth Tory (Microids) and Martine Quesnel (Microids), etc.

Just got back from an enjoyable quick trip to Germany for the Games Convention in Leipzig. The GC is an E3-like game expo catering to the German/Euro market - with the major exception that it is open to the public. The event saw upwards of 100,000 German consumers running like crazed game fans throughout the massive convention center. I must say that I was thoroughly impressed with the scope and energy behind GC.

Attached to the GC was a small developers conference that attracted some 300+ (mainly) German developers over two days. I gave one of the keynote speeches, covering the debate over licensed IP and original content. Admittedly, it was tough to deliver the lecture having just arrived at the conference directly off an overnight flight… Thankfully, the event staff were very courteous and made all their speakers feel like true VIPs. Sadly, I did not get the chance to take in much of the conference, but it seemed like a good mix of content/speakers for only their second outing. I expect things will grow/improve dramatically over the next few years…

Much like in China, there was a funky undertone of tension - a feeling of legitimacy of games as an art form and a serious business, versus games as a corruptor of youth and a frivolous waster of time among Germany’s customarily industrious populace. This tension could not have been more evident than during the GC’s opening ceremony: An extremely enjoyable symphony orchestra playing great game compositions mired by official speeches, one of which stressed on game violence and the need to regulate content, etc… Oh well - one step forward, two steps back.

In terms of IGDA business, it was great to build up some developers contacts in Germany, where we only just started our first chapter in Frankfurt am Main. Jochen Hamma did a great job of organizing a special dinner for German developers interested in starting chapters. Even Jeferson Valadares from the Brazil chapter popped in to provide some words of encouragement. It was a great evening!

Overall it was a great trip and gave me new insight into the German game dev scene. As Bob Bates noted several times, he sees a bright future for German developers - Crytek being just one recent example of this sentiment…

While in town a got the chance to snap the following photos (people listed left-to-right):

The small expo section of the developer conference…

A great panel on how to get international PR for your game by Simon Byron (Barrington Harvey) and Erica Kohnke Kain (Kohnke Communications).

Bob Bates, Stefan Blanck (Chromatrix), Jochen Hamma (Fantastic Realms) and I on the way to the Gewandhaus for the opening concert.

The Prague FILMHarmonic Orchestra conducted by Andy Brick.

Several of the games’ music composers were on hand and received a standing ovation.

Sony had a decent sized booth, but nothing compared to its E3 behomoth…

Given the public nature of the expo, several booths had areas that were age-rated/restricted.

GC was truly a “fun fair”, with go karts, ball games and other such fair-like activities.

I couldn’t help but snap this shot of Koch Media’s booth showing off their Miami Vice and Knight Rider licensed games… Perhaps they should have been at by lecture ;)

A totally unexpected find - there was a whole “family” section, a day care, a learning center, etc, etc. Nice.

Gustaf Stechmann and Falko L�ffler chill during the North Stars reception.

Olaf Wolters, head of the North Star org, welcomes developers to his reception with a big smile!

Sony had a huge crowd out to their party/concert. The band was Die Fantastischen Vier (translates to The Fantastic Four), who could be likened to a German Beastie Boys.

Here I am (in blue striped shirt) attempting to share some inspiring words on the value of building local/global developer communities.

Malte Behrmann (G.A.M.E.) and Bernd Diemer (Games Academy) tunnel their way through the maze-like Moritz Bastie during the exhibitors party.

Luckily, I had a bit of free time to wander the small town of Leipzig. It is a nice town, with a rich history but is still struggling to recover from post-war/wall change…

A shot of the Leipzig main promenade and train/tram station in the city center.

A quiet pond in front of the opera house.

Despite some of the nicer buildings, much of Leipzig is still scarred and in disrepair…

Wow, the colossal Monument to the Battle of Nations (one of the largest monuments in Europe) was truly impressive.

A closer shot of the front of the monument.

The city center had a bustling market and busy side streets.

Sony had a mobile game station set up in one of the central parks. The EyeToy and SingStar pods were jammed with teens girls…

The night before heading to Germany for GCDC, I was lucky enough to attend the Sarah McLachlan concert that was in town. My wife is a huge fan, and we thoroughly enjoyed the show (as did about 12000 other fans)!

What I thought was interesting was the opening act, Butterfly Boucher. Standard strong chic singing stuff, but she’s a relatively unknown artist hailing from Australia. She was spotted by Sarah a while back in a New York club and was asked to come on tour to be the opening act. Lucky her. It was an true contrast to see her egging on the audience to beat the post-show CDs sales of 520 units she did at the Philadelphia show - versus Sarah, the multimillion record selling big league artist.

And yet, here she was, enjoying the same audience/exposure as Sarah was… Now, I have no clue to what extent Butterfly is operating in “starving artist mode”, but this all relates directly to my previous comments on the game industry being all center with no margins… Then again, Sarah is somewhat more progressive in fostering new (female) talent, having started Lilith Fair a few years back.

The only thing that comes to mind that is somewhat reflective of this in the games biz, is Valve shipping the Counter-Strike Source mod/game with Half-Life 2. But, Counter-Strike is such a successful mod/game that I don’t think it would count in this sense.

So, where is gaming’s opening act? Or, better yet, where is gaming’s Sarah?

(Ironically, my keynote lecture for GCDC will be about the economies of IP, licenses vs original content and how to support innovation.)

I just finished reading Scott McCloud’s seminal book, “Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art“. It is a very powerful/deep book, and I am now kicking myself for never going to see him lecture at GDC…

While I was never big into comics growing up (I think I spent all my loose change on coin-op games), I was interested in the book as a means to understand some of the parallels between comics and digital games. That is, they are both seen by many as useless, purient, artless and with no socially redeeming value (all things I obviously disagree with). Also, in the sense that they are both realtively new forms of expression that are constructed from other bits of expression (ie, words, pictures, etc), but that require their own unique understanding.

As the book has been out for over a decade, I am sure you can google for a much more in-depth summary and analysis of what McCloud is positing.

What I found particularly smart is that the book is actually a comic itself. A really ingenious move to help the reader better understand the points he’s making… While there are some great books that are just now scratching the surface of what digital games are (eg, “Rules of Play“), it would be truly insightful if someone was able to build an actual video game the would explore the meaning of games ;-)

Is it just me, or does every celebrity love Halo? Comic/actor/model Aisha Tyler certainly seems to promote the fact that she’s got some mad Halo skilz…

So ya, I watched G4’s G-Phoria Awards. As young-male entertainment I’d say it was pretty compelling. From an industry awards point of view, it was horrendously embarrassing.

We’ve all heard how TV viewing is dwindling among young males, a key marketing demographic. And, more and more, networks are creating content to specifically to appeal to this demographic - in many cases, to great effect. As a marketing tool and means to reach that audience, I’d say that G-Phoria (and other “awards” shows like the SpikeTV Game Awards) was a smashing success. I’m sure Microsoft is especially pleased as nearly every celebrity that was interviewed on the red carpet was like, “Hey man, do you know where the Halo2 game pods are? That’s the only reason I came.” Seriously, the stars were there to play Halo2.

On an industry level, G-Phoria is a joke. There were only two developers to hit the stage. One was Hideo Kojima, who was there to receive a the game legend award. The other was the lead “encoder” from EA who got booed off stage and nailed with footballs from audience (ya, it was a joke). Other than that, doe-eyed CliffyB was doing some backstage action to intro the various game of the year nominees.

It wasn’t until the post-ceremony behind-the-scenes show that they actually talked to developers and interviewed other industry folks.

Obviously, I am biased, but it is just embarrassing that they have to rely on a bumbling Anna Nicole to convince themselves that they’ve got something entertaining. I forget who said it, but one of the invited celebs noted “I love games, the developers are my rockstars”.

Hmm, I think that celeb is on to something…

I wasn’t going to bother to comment on the whole “murder by PlayStation” Manhunt story as it has been well trodden on over the past few weeks. But, the unfolding of the story demonstrates how things can build into such a moral panic… Here’s a play-by-play:

- Stories hit the BCC and DailyMail about the horrific and sad murder of Stefan Pakeerah by older friend Warren Leblanc. The victim’s parents suggest that Manhunt was to blame. Media frenzy ensues. Some retailers pull the game from their shelves.

- Most people don’t pick on, or care, that the police said the motive was robbery and that Warren was out to repay a drug debt…

- News coverage abounds on the merits of the accusation, the corruption of youth, the evil nature of the games industry, etc (here’s a bunch of links on it). Even the game industry itself questions the need for games like Manhunt…

- Ambulance chaser Jack Thomson mouth’s off and swears he will make Rock Star pay for their pact with the devil.

- New info in the case in revealed: It was the victim who had a copy of Manhunt, not the murderer. Media frenzy starts to cool…

- UK trade body ELSPA issues an open letter to the UK government, asking for common sense and respect to prevail.

- With all the attention, sales of Manhunt pick up.

I’m overly simplifying, but that’s the general gist of it. Manhunt took ~2 weeks to go through the same moral panic cycle that GTA was under for 2+ years (and to some extent is still under).

What’s sad from all this is that someone’s life was lost and that in the search for a scapegoat (ie, Manhunt/violent games), attention has not be given to some of the true causes of real-world violence (ie, drugs, gangs, bad parents, etc).

One of the challenges in defending our creative freedoms is that we just look bad when we’re talking across a grieving mother looking for answers. The general media’s slap-shod coverage and usual ignorance toward games really doesn’t help any either.

Oh well. Rinse, repeat.