Reality Panic

Just got news of an event being organized by ELSPA in London for November, titled “Media meets Gaming“. On first pass, it sounds like standard media/PR nonsense. But, I do believe there is something more important/deeper going on here…

A few weeks back, I was impressed with commentary made by Gerhard Florin (EA’s senior VP and MD European publishing) on the need to educate the masses. In short, it was a reaction to all the negative press over games stemming from the Manhunt murder craze at the time. He rightfully noted that those ignorant of games are first to condemn them. A strong case of ignorance breeding contempt.

Well, is it no surprise then that Florin is doing the keynote speech of the day? Kudos to ELSPA for pulling this one together and making it sound all very innocent…

A more informed mass media could help avoid some of the overly sensational (and flawed) stories we are all too familiar with:

• games are deadly
• games are super addictive and a big waste of time
• games are to blame for all the bad crap in society
• and, all the crazy crap from crazy people
• etc, etc, etc

Anyway, nice to see something being done to build bridges with, and educate, the mass media. Bonus link: “Reality Bytes: Eight Myths About Video Games Debunked” by Dr. Henry Jenkins.

Piracy is bad, it’s pervasive and is not going to leave us any time soon. Certainly, the recent high profile theft/piracy of Halo2 and GTA: San Andreas only amplify the situation. Not to mention the ever-present/growing fear of BitTorrent and other evolved p2p services.

That said, I’d suggest that our fear and anger over pirates robbing us, clouds our ability (or even willingness) to more fully explore the topic of piracy. Some stuff to consider:

• Even with the ease of getting games off BitTorrent, it doesn’t make it any easier to get the game to play on your console (ie, still need to be a moderate geek to install a mod chip, etc).
• Still no real understanding of (or way to measure) what percentage of “free” copies would actually have been paid copies.
• Similar lack of understanding of the knock on effect of each “free” copy (ie, word-of-mouth buzz, convert to paid, buy the sequel, etc).
• Some p2p tech provides uses/potential to be exploited by the industry (eg, Blizzard using BitTorrent to distribute World of WarCraft content).
• Are anti-piracy efforts best directed toward the physical CD duplication factories in Asia and Eastern Europe? What’s their relation to the casual-piracy via p2p networks, etc?
• Are the hackers really smarter than us? Perhaps if contracts were re-examined, it may be that developers spend more time figuring out smarter
  ways to care about piracy (ie, short-term view is that piracy does not effect bottom line of a game for the developer (ie, myth that developers NEVER see royalties)). Contracts should be structured in such a way to motivate/reward developers to work on the problem…
• Would doing a worldwide simultaneous release help? Would getting rid of platform/hardware region encoding do away with the grey markets for illegal “imports” (many of which are purchased by otherwise lawful gamers that have no legal recourse to get the game).
• Are there better business models and design approaches that obviate piracy, if not encourage the “viral” distribution of the game content? A good case study would be the growth of MMO/online games in China. MMO subscriptions are one way, but are there others?
• More fundamentally, is the current notion of IPR dated and/or not well suited to games and/or the way netizens view digital assets as a “public good”???

Lots of questions, not a lot of answers. I just don’t buy into the panic that piracy is costing us billions and is 100% pure evil. There’s just more to it…

Just got back from Ireland. Great trip!

As noted earlier, the IGDA’s Irish chapter co-organized a 1-day conference to help “awaken” the local game development industry. Unlike the stagnating Japanese game industry, which I recently criticized for being too closed, the Irish game industry is at an embryonic stage. The wide open nature - and high potential - of the Irish scene has garnered a lot of interest from local economic development agencies, governmental bodies and academics, along with the usual business folks and creators.

The excitement and enthusiasm was clearly in the air. Even the mayor of Derry (the city that hosted the conference), welcomed everyone at a pre-event wine reception and came to dinner with the group of event organizers and VIPs. BBC Radio came to run some interviews. We were even on national television (also BBC), and on the front cover of the paper! I can’t say that I’ve seen anywhere else that excited about the games industry (did I mention that the head of the local chamber of commerce said it was the most exciting event for the local economy this past century - goodness!).

Prior to the conference itself, the chapter kept me quite busy with meetings, interviews, etc. Spending time with the North West Institute’s class of game dev students, discussing industry issues, was a real pleasure. Discussing curricular needs of the industry and potentials for collaboration with a room full of Irish academics was great. Better yet, having over twenty gov/funding folks in a room to discuss ways in which they can foster the growth of the Irish game development community was worth the trip alone.

The conference itself ran very smooth, and welcomed some 200+ attendees from all over the island. The handful of sessions were themed on mostly business/industry topics and served as a nice platform for further discussions. While everyone enjoyed the content, the fact that they were all in the same room, connecting with each other, was the most important part of the whole endeavor.

(Special thanks to Tony Kelly, Robbie Hegarty and Wendy Gibbons for going beyond the call of duty in making myself - and all the speakers - feel like royalty!)

Here are some photos from my visit (people listed left-to-right):

Game Educators at Work: North West Institute’s game program is called ICE (Interactive Computer Entertainment). Not pictured are their PURE and CREAM programs (I’m not kidding)…

Councillor Gearóid Ó hEára, mayor of Derry, welcomes guests to the Guildhall for the pre-conference wine reception.

Mark Riordan (Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology), Graeme Devine (Ensemble), Robbie Hegarty (NWIFHE), Joe Kehoe (Carlow IT), Steve Collins (Havok) and Phil Bourke (Tipperary IT) enjoy the pre-conference dinner.

Tony Kelly (Torc Interactive) opens the conference.

Chris Van Der Kuyl (VIS Entertainment) talks about the ins and outs of outsourcing.

Mike Griffin (Kapooki), Graeme and Markus Maki (Remedy) doing some serious preparation for their closing panel.

Celebrating Risk: The first game graduates of NWIFHE are entering their 1.5 year incubator program, and plan to gamble big on innovation…

Mark Cullen (Torc Interactive) discussing sensitive matters with Graeme - (insert witty caption here).

The great ~500 year old stone wall that surrounds the city of Derry. Graeme and I went for a stroll along the top. It was great vantage point to see many of the city’s sites and landmarks. The city has such a rich and fascinating history…

Graeme on the wall in front of the Guildhall. Not to be mistaken with “his” Guildhall.

“…I can’t believe the news today
Oh, I can’t close my eyes and make it go away
How long…
How long must we sing this song?
How long? how long…
’cause tonight…we can be as one
Tonight…
Broken bottles under children’s feet
Bodies strewn across the dead end street
But I won’t heed the battle call
It puts my back up
Puts my back up against the wall
Sunday, bloody sunday…”
- U2

A Toast to Eire: Myself, Tony and Robbie on the final night of the trip (and my first Guinness ever!).

Following on from my previous “Gov to the Rescue” post, there’s a bunch more governmental support/action to quickly mention…

European bodies are really getting into the kick of things, with several events and initiatives. For one, I’m heading to Ireland tonight to speak at the Irish gov-funded and IGDA chapter driven event to “awaken” the local industry. Additionally, I’ll be spending some one-on-one time with gov officials on how they can best support and foster a games industry in Ireland. And, there’s a very similar event going on in Sweden in November called “Nordic Potential“. Also, the upcoming Montreal Game Summit is heavily supported by the provincial and federal governments. And, of course, the upcoming Serious Game Summit in DC that will have American gov officials crawling all over it. Very exciting stuff!

This follows on from last year’s announcement that the French government’s Ministry of Culture would offer development grants, etc. Not to mention Tony Blair’s recent thumbs up for the UK games industry.

Sadly, not all gov types are on board with games (eg, Schwarzenegger approving anti-game legislation, Chinese gov “rating” online games, Oz banning Leisure Suit Larry, etc).

Still, it is nice to see the rising trend of governmental interest and respect in our creative endeavors.

I’m almost finished Burnout 3: Takedown. What a great game! All told, I’ll probably play it a total of about 40 hours. Now, it should be noted that I’ve been a big proponent of the “short games are a good trend” crowd. In fact, I’ve been specifically seeking out those games which are being criticized for shortness. Simply put, my overloaded work/home life just does not allow for a great deal of game playing - as is the case for many adult gamers.

The difference with Burnout, in my case, is that I’ve playing in very small chunks. I could sit down, play for just 30 minutes and get a sense of satisfaction, accomplishment and fun. The nature of the quick races and reward ramping are well tuned to quick pick-up play sessions. So, I end up play many, many short sessions of the game that all add up in the end.

Conversely, with other games I’ve played recently (eg, Deus Ex 2, Prince of Persia, Splinter Cell, etc), there’s this subconscious sense that I’ll need to commit a sizable block of time (say 2-3 hours per session) to get any sense of accomplishment. But, in reality, I’d only need to commit of few of those chunks since the games all last in the 10-20 hour range.

But enough rambling, I could be playing more Burnout right now…