Reality Panic

In an unexpected twist, the just-released annual game industry report card from the National Institute on Media & Family had some praise for the game industry and gave parents an “incomplete” grading.

GamePolitics has a nice summary of the results.

In particular:

Parents are falling behind… this year’s parental survey uncovered an alarming gap between what kids say about the role of video games in their lives and what parents are willing to admit… This much is certain: too many of us do not seem to exercise enough control.

As a father of two, I can certainly appreciate the challenges of parenting, balancing the demands of work, etc. But, it’s no excuse not to be involved in the media diet of our children.

In part, I’m guessing it comes down to a lack of “respect” and understanding of games as a significant form of contemporary art and culture (versus just being a toy)…

Finally got around to reading Built to Last, Jim Collins’ best selling book on visionary/exceptional companies. It is a dense business school oriented read, but also has a soft/conceptual side that was unexpected.

One of the main points of the book is that visionary/exceptional companies are focused on the company as the “product”. That is, it is not about a specific product or service, or key leader, or whatever. The effort is in building a company that can execute on its core purpose with consistency and effectiveness over a long period of time.

In contrast to the games biz, how many studios are started on the “big idea” approach? The vast majority, no? In my mind, BioWare is one of the few studios that is taking the “building a clock” approach of intentional company evolution. Then again, Ray and Greg both took MBA’s and are big fans of Jim Collins… Hmm, Don Daglow is probably another with his efforts to build company culture/etc with Stormfront…

Anyway, wonder what would happen if execs took a deeper look at building a great studio as the ultimate goal, making great games along the way (instead of vice versa)?

Amidst all the hoopla over Wii and PS3, I went out and (finally) got myself an Xbox 360 over the weekend. I’ve been holding out over the past while (in part due to budgetary restrictions, in part due to extensive travel and work commitments, etc). But, I suppose, also in part because I was just not patient enough to stand in line for one of the newer next-genners… (Plus, I was itching to play some Live Arcade games!)

While I was at the local tech shop, I took the opportunity to chat with the sales clerk to hear how the launches went. Turns out they only got in 12 PS3s, which were all sold out right away. They got a few dozen Wiis, but those were all briskly sold out as well. And, over the launch weekend, they sold a whopping 250+ Xbox 360s!

Not sure what effect is at play here, or if it is something isolated to this one store. But, I’m guessing some of those sales are due to xmas shopping moms not wanting to leave empty handed, or more casual gamers drawn into the store over the gaming hype in general. Or, maybe Gears of War is having an effect.

What’s having a serious effect on me right now is the burning urge to score more “G” points and attain “achievements”. Witness my pitiful 45 GamerScore. There’s something innately compelling when others can see what your playing and how well…

Anyway, feel free to invite me onto your “friends list”…

The Liverpool John Moores University held their 4th annual International Game Design and Technology Workshop and Conference, where I happily gave one of the keynote lectures (more on positive industry trends).

The event was an eclectic mix of invited speakers from industry along with juried academic papers. While several sessions were complete bombs, most talks were interesting and well delivered. And, the seeming lack of coherent thematic control made for serendipitous discoveries of academics doing interesting research (eg, use of games for your social work) and developers with smart things to say (eg, britsoft veteran Dino Dini’s rant on game design).

Sadly, it was a quick trip and I didn’t get much time to explore Liverpool. There was serious hustle and bustle about town as many rejuvenation/refurbishment efforts were underway in preparation for Liverpool’s designation as Europe’s capital of culture for 2008. Gotta wonder if games will be factored into the cultural equation at all…

Overall, despite the heavy rain, folks were generally upbeat and positive on the future of games, and the potential for game development in Liverpool and the northwest region of the UK.

Some photos from the trip:

Ken Perlin (NYU) was on hand to give his “illusion of life” keynote - just like he did the week earlier in Montreal - to great effect.
8-year-old Jake Watson, an aspiring young game designer, specially invited to attend the conference.

Jason Chown (Sony Liverpool) discusses dev efforts behind their PS3 launch game, Formula One Championship Edition.

Yanni Ellen Liu (U. of Manitoba), conference chair Abdennour El Rhalibi (John Moores) and Maddy Janse (Philips Research) at the conference gala dinner.

The famous Royal Liver Building.

…and another impressive looking old building next door that I can’t remember the name of.

Gino Yu (Polytechnic U. of Hong Kong) calls forth a MERECL. (He also showed a really cool clip of the Michael Highland movie.)

Nick Burton (Rare) and Andrew Oliver (Blitz) prep before our closing panel.

Everyone was thoroughly impressed with Caitlin Kelleher’s demo of the Alice programming/storytelling environment.

Closing reception hosted by the IGDA’s Northwest UK chapter.

Richard Boon (iHobo) and Alger Lee (U. of Manchester) welcome attendees to the reception.

Ben Kirman (U. of Lincoln) and Matthew Southern (Evolution Studios) chatting at the chapter reception.

Was reading the recent interview with John Baez on “indie freedom” at Gamasutra (originally in podcast form). Overall a great read on the trials and tribulations of The Behemoth’s indie dev efforts.

Was happy to read the following pitching tip:

You need to go to the IGDA and go through their white paper list of what to do in a pitch situation, and really look at those documents, because the people on the publishers’ side know that the IGDA documents exist. Any developer showing up at their doorstep who doesn’t have all those things in the document, it’s like, “Well, you guys aren’t doing your homework. Why should I even talk to you guys?”

Admittedly, the Game Submission Guide referred to is one of our older papers that could use some refreshing. Still, it remains one of our most popular downloads and it largely maintains its usefulness.

That said, gotta wonder how many publishers truly do know about it…

It wasn’t planned intentionally so, but the main theme coming out of the recent Montreal International Game Summit was the need to make games more emotionally engaging. Nearly all of the keynotes and many of the regular sessions touched on emotions in some manner - from increasing the fidelity of character movements to pushing for an impulse casual game purchase.

Gamasutra was there to cover several of the sessions in detail… Ditto for Michael Mateas’ live-blogging coverage of the day-1 and day-2 sessions that he attended. Scott Jon Siegel also has a ton of coverage up at Joystiq.

In its third year, the Summit is shaping up nicely as a robust developer focused event, with conference content quality easily on par with GDC. This year, the action on the periphery was quite evident, with hoards of government economic development officials on hand and seemingly many publisher bizdev types meeting behind closed doors. Canadian media funding agency TeleFilm took advantage of the Summit to launch their new “Great Canadian Game Competition” to much enthusiasm.

And, it was an honor to have Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime as a keynote speaker (it was pure corporate propaganda, but it was yummy delightful propaganda), also bringing along several playable Wii’s for everyone to enjoy in the expo area.

Kudos to the Alliance NumeriQC for putting together a great event, and most importantly, allowing the advisory board to drive the content (ie, ensuring relevance and focus). In particular, it was nice that we were able to get in some more niche topics (eg, Laban movement analysis, academic bridge building, voice acting, accessibility, ARGs, sex, etc).

Personally, was great that I didn’t have many on-site duties other than moderating the closing panel of studio heads - which, interesting enough, has sparked some controversy for EA exec Alain Tascan dissing Gears of War for a lack of innovation.

Here are some photos of the fun:

Brenda Brathwaite (SCAD) chats up Tracy Rosenthal-Newsom (Harmonix) on the eve of the Summit.

Jean-Pierre Faucher (Alliance NumeriQC) enjoys a drink with Greg Costikyan (Manifesto Games).

Ken Perlin (NYU) gets some help from Tobi Saulnier (1st Playable) while prepping for his keynote.

Killing Monsters author Gerard Jones discusses culture and violence.

Attendees get hands-on time with the Wii.

Ken Perlin showing off one of many research demos during his keynote.

Maxis master prototypers Chris Hecker and Chaim Gingold…

…with fancy diagrams.

A crew of speakers departing the Palais des Congres and heading towards the VIP party. (Hmm, I think I see Brenda, Nicole Lazzaro, Tobi, James Everett, Randy Smith, Heather Kelley, Gilles Monteil.)

Jane Pinkard (CMP Game Group) in deep thought.

Edith ? (Ubisoft Campus) with Warren Currell (Sherpa Games) at the developers’ party.

They packed in to hear Andrew Eades (Relentless Software) discuss team motivation and quality of life.

Dan Black (Xbox) and Julien Merceron (Eidos) discussing Montreal’s chilly weather.

At the closing party, Heather Kelley and Phil Fish welcome developers to Kokoromi’s first game event, Gamma 01: Audio Feed. Their own experimental art game, Glee, can be seen projected behind them. Tons of extra photos at Flickr.

Chris Crowell (A2M), Genevieve Lord (A2M) and Chris Bateman (International Hobo) enjoy another of the Gamma games.

Fellow researchers Michael Mateas (UC Santa Cruz) and Mary Flanagan (Tiltfactor Lab) at the closing party.