Reality Panic

Just packing up for my trip to London for GDC Europe. Realized that I’ve not been to London for exactly two years (ie, was there for GDC Europe two years ago, but skipped out last year to attend GC-DC in Germany and TGS in Japan). Anyway, happy to be heading back. Will be interesting to see how things turn out, given last year’s industry events fallout…

Of note, my schedule includes the Serious Games Showcase event on Monday, hooking up with the IGDA scholarship recipients on Tuesday, the Develop Industry Excellence Awards on Wednesday night, my studio execs panel on quality of life Thursday morning, and then the IGDA’s members-only party on Thursday night.

Ironically, I think I’m going to come away from my busy week in London well rested ;)

I’m currently working my way through Marshall McLuhan’s Understanding Media (a truly insightful book on media, written in 1964 no less!). I’ll do up a more complete post on my thoughts when I’m done reading, but this paragraph really struck a cord in light of the recent “indie game aesthetic” thread at Terra Nova:

“Any innovation threatens the equilibrium of existing organizations. In big industry new ideas are invited to rear their heads so that they can be clobbered at once. The idea department of a big firm is a sort of lab for isolating dangerous viruses. When one is found, it is assigned to a group for neutralizing and immunizing treatment. It is comical, therefore, when anybody applies to a big corporation with a new idea that would result in a great ‘increase of production and sales’. Such an increase would be a disaster for the existing management. They would have to make way for new management. Therefore, no new idea ever starts from within a big operation. It must assail the organization from outside, through some small but competing organization.”

Damn, I just got punted from NPR! I was on a VA-based talk/call show today to discuss games, violence, addiction (ie, the usual fun stuff) and about half way through the call, after one of my responses, the host just said “ok, thanks for joining us” and kicked me off air.

Perhaps I was too verbose or they just didn’t like what I was saying. It was really awkward. Indeed, the show’s premise was coming from a place of “but what about the children” and they had extensive input by Dr. Douglas Gentile of the National Institute for Media and the Family on how games are bad, and that research demonstrates a strong impact on aggression, etc, etc.

I countered with a discussion of the decline in youth crime rates and that other research purports that in fact there is no link. Further, I talked about parental responsibility, about games needing to be a part of a balance media consumption mix, how ratings inform consumers about game content, etc. And, how much of the furor comes from a lack of understanding and respect for games and gamer culture (ie, games are not just toys for children).

What frustrated things further, was that several callers had follow-up questions on my comments and the host would just saying “wish he was still with us to answer”. Well, why did you kick me off?!

In hindsight, maybe I shouldn’t have said that I had played GTA, suggesting it was an entertaining and well designed game series. One of the callers, whom I did not get to respond to, asked if rape and murder were appropriate content for games - at any age. Ugh, this broken logic again (never mind the fact that there’s no rape in GTA). Another caller, this time a concerned mother, was asking the host (who admitted up front that she knew nothing about games) if she knew anything about a game called Runescape. She was worried because her son was playing it a lot and she knew nothing about it. Uh, why not try playing it? Sitting down with your son to check it out? Search the web for info? Etc, etc, etc.

Well, if I had had the chance, I would have responded more politely :)

I hope that industry critics weren’t watching G4’s G-Phoria awards last week, cuz they’d have a lot to be hot and bothered about (they even managed to get a few Hot Coffee jokes).

Commentary on the awards themselves aside, the most noticeable aspect of G-Phoria was the infusion of hot chicks and porn stars. B-list celebs and hot chicks way outnumbered actual game developers and industry folks. That said, to Jenna Haze’s credit, she did say she was a big gamer having played various Final Fantasy games and an obsession with Tiger Woods Golf…

It wasn’t until the post-awards “crashing the awards” show that we got to see some developers being interviewed, etc. While it is fun, to some extent, to see this attempt at bringing games into the mainstream, listening to various “famous people” proclaim their love for games and such, it all seemed a bit awkward and forced.

Doesn’t the industry itself deserve a little mainstream respect?

In related news, the IGDA has just announced the launch of the Sex SIG. I have no doubt the booth babes and hot award chicks will be part of the discussion… In further related news, G4 will be running a special on sex in games on August 23rd.

A little behind schedule, but delivered to spec. Eva Rosalie Della Rocca was born on August 6th, 2005 at 3:43pm EDT. She weighed in at 8.4 pounds and 21 inches tall. Mommy and baby are doing fine. Daddy will have to work harder to keep the first kid a little more distracted…

Nice. A whole issue of The Escapist focused on mods, user created content and player subversion. Quite timely given all the recent heat on this stuff.

As with all things, there are a lot of shades of gray, as the various articles so kindly illustrate. Too bad the critics only ever see one polar end of the issue…