Reality Panic

Not sure how my “play less games” rant at GDC got morphed/bitesized into “read more books”. But, after seeing two comments about reading more books (especially the zinger from Kim), I thought I should clarify.

Admittedly, I didn’t prepare to give a “guest” rant during the Burning Mad panel at GDC. Essentially, EricZ came to me as things were setting up and asked if I wanted to do a guest mini rant as party of a developer “interlude”. Sounded like fun, so I said yes, and scribbled a few notes just before things got underway.

The first comment was on the need to diversify our media consumption (ie, play less games). I didn’t specifically say read more books, only. I said we should do more of everything else! And, not just media, but experience more of life. This was pretty much a direct riff off things that Irrational head Ken Levine said a while ago (and has stuck with me since).

(Ironic side note, the last few games I’ve played (like Dead Rising and Crackdown) have been so consuming that I’ve barely done anything else but play games in my spare time ;)

The other main point I brought across was a riff on earlier comments on the need for leadership, as well as Michael John’s whole freelancer market advocacy. My point was that we need to abandon the old command-and-control approach to leadership and management, and think more in terms of coordinate-and-cultivate.

(Anyway, I suppose needing a bit of clarification is way better than the sh!tstorm that Chris Hecker had to endure :(

To Kim and Ken’s points, I wonder if the majority of developers do indeed have one-dimensional media consumption diets (ie, and sources for inspiration/ideas). Or, if the general conservatism of mainstream industry output just makes it seem that way???

GDC just gets crazier and bigger every year. The IGDA specific workload was especially heavy given the move of the members-only party from E3 over to GDC. In general, I have simply given up on trying to keep pace with all the action at GDC. Rather, I spend a bit of time post-event to catch up on the extensive coverage at, for example, Gamasutra and GameSpot.

Sadly, the members-only party was too popular. We had close to 2000 RSVPs for a venue that only held about 900 folks. And, we had not scaled our entry process to accommodate that volume. Early on, we abandoned our formal check-in-for-your-name-tag process and started slapping random name tags on folks (which some enjoyed and leveraged as a humorous ice-breaker, others were understandably less thrilled). I personally felt bad/stressed over the poor experience some members had… Sorry.

As usual, there was a ton of great content at GDC. Luckily, I was able to dedicate a bit of time earlier in the week for the IGDA’s Education SIG curriculum workshop. Doug Church’s keynote was particularly insightful and it was great to see the IGDA continuing its pioneering work in building bridges with academia. The rant session was also good fun, with unique gripes/rants presented by each panelist. Though, I certainly feel bad for the fallout over Hecker’s anti-Wii comments - though largely taken out of context of the rant format. (FYI, for those interested, the three books I recommended during my mini guest rant were: Wikinomics, The World is Flat and The Future of Work.)

A major high was the Game Developers Choice Awards ceremony. Obviously, I am biased, but there was no denying that it was the best dang awards ceremony the game industry has ever had! It was fun, funny, fast, with no BS. Genuine and authentic and watchable. Tim Schafer was a great MC. The crazy Mega64 guys were funny as ever - especially with their custom developed clip with Miyamoto himself! The Maverick acceptance speech from Greg was inspiring. And, for once I didn’t fumble with the teleprompter ;) Anyway, GameSpot was there to record the whole thing (including the IGF bits) and has it ready to stream. Well worth the watch.

Anyway, here’s a rundown of kinda where I was and what I was doing during the week, “told” via photos…

Katie Salen (Parsons/gameLab) opens the sold-out Curriculum Workshop.
Super complex hands-on design/prototyping session during the workshop.
Mike Hawker (McGill University) demos is game project to other IGDA scholars.
IGDA board members Chris Crowell (A2M) and Tobi Saulnier (1st Playable) during the chapter coordinators’ dinner.
More chapter dinner action. Mmm, pizza…
Monty Clark (Art Institute), Mike Capps (Epic Games) and Liz Lehtonen (Ironstar) enjoy their meal.
New Hair: Mia Consalvo (Ohio U.) in vibrant red, David Thomas (IGJA) sporting a new mustachio.

Designers tuning during during Marc LeBlanc’s design workshop.

EA Montreal’s Vander Caballero and Hugo Dallaire, jump at the chance to say hi to Tetris legend Alexey Pajitnov (center).

Souris Hong-Porretta (EMVentures), Jane Pinckard (CMP) and Warren Currell (Sherpa Games) during the GDC Prime reception.

“Designated Boozer” Gavin Longhurst (BigWorld) and Glenn Dickins (Dolby), wait for the IGDA party doors to open…

A small glimpse at the horribly long line snaking outside of the IGDA party.

Philip Tan (MIT/GAMBIT), Aaron Thibault (Gearbox) and Dave Edery (Microsoft) at the IGDA party.

More IGDA party action.

Frederick Brassard (Ubisoft Montreal), Aron Dunn (Portfolio Entertainment) and Frederic Gallemand (Ubisoft Shanghai) enjoy a drink at the party.

NC Connection: Darion Rapoza (Entertainment Science), Dana Cowley (ClearImage), Jerry Godwin (Themis Group) and Christian Stoy (Red Storm).

Members Lounging: Casey O’Donnell (RPI), and Chuck Homic, Mike Chrzanowski, and Christina Chera from Vicarious Visions.

Some mood lighting…

A slightly overexposed Richard Lemarchand (Naughty Dog) alongside and slightly underdressed Daniel James (Three Rings).

Rudy Geronimo (IGDA), Carrie fowler (EA Chicago), Tracey Frankcom (Microsoft Xbox) and Erin O’Neill (Microsoft Xbox) having a good time.

Mikey Wetzel taking the whole random name tagging thing to the extreme…

This Year’s Ranting Crop: Greg Costikyan (Manifesto Games), Alex St. John (Wild Tangent), Nichol Bradford (Vivendi), Lee Jacobson (Midway) and Richard Hilleman (EA).

A portion of the capacity crowd for the rant session!

Nichol inspired many audience members to pitch in for her idea of a game industry speakers bureau.

Tim Schafer (Double Fine) and Warren Spector (Junction Point) confer just before the Sony keynote.

Phil Harrison (Sony) discusses the PS3 online roadmap…

…which Media Molecule’s LittleBigPlanet is a major compenent of.

Soon to be USC graduate, Justin Hall and his splashy poster.

As expected, the career fair area was bustling.

IGDA “elite” chow down during the annual VIP Luncheon for volunteers, studio affiliates and industry partners.

Jamie Fristrom (Torpex Games) most likely discussing credit standards with John Feil (Snowblind Studios).

Backstage at the awards.

?, Jason Akel (Casual Games SIG chair) and ? during the casual game developers’ gathering at the IGDA booth.

Part of the awesome art displayed from the I am 8-bit documentary.

Invasion of the E3 booth babes… Aaaaagh!!!

In addition to the booth babes, the booths themselves were somewhat more built up than usual.

Previous Lifetime Achievement recipient Richard Garriott (NCSoft) and IGDA chairman Brian Reynolds (Big Huge Games) during the pre-ceremony nominee reception.

Those crazy Introversion guys (Mark Morris and Thomas Arundel) never shy to show off their Darwinians.

A tux’d Tim Schafer (Double Fine) and his wife.

Graeme Devine (Ensemble Studios) with buddy, and Community Contribution recipient, George “The Fat Man” Sanger.

Lots of government presence this year, particular in the way of parties/receptions. Canada was no exception.

Jesper Juul (ITU Copenhagen) chats up Heather Chaplin and ? during the Minna Mingle.

Sulka Haro (Sulake) and Alice Taylor (BBC) in deep discussion of virtual worlds.

The Sony party was as noisy as ever…

Chris Taylor (Gas Powered Games) somewhat startled by Seamus Blackley’s (CAA) affection.

Ben Sawyer (Digital Mill) was somewhat less forward.

The massive queue for Miyamoto’s keynote snaking in front of, and AROUND, the building.

Miyamoto in action.

Eric Zimmerman (gameLab) and his design challengers Harvey Smith (Midway Austin), David Jaffe (Sony Santa Monica) and Alexey Pajitnov.

Laura Fryer and Karen Wilkins-Mickey kicking off Microsoft’s annual women in gaming reception.

David Jaffe (Sony Santa Monica) gets stopped on the street by Clint Hocking (Ubisoft Montreal) to discuss the needle/thread design challenge.

Suda 51 suggested we all should punk more.

Michael John (Method Games) anchors the last conference slot with his call for a more fluid workforce…

…and a vision of freelancers playing a key role.

Ugh, the pre-GDC workload seems to get worse every year. We’ve been doing our own annual crunch to get everything set for the big week.

In part, moving our members-only party from (now shrunk) E3 over to GDC has piled a bunch of logistics work on top of the usual GDC to-do list.

And, what a party it’s gonna be. There’s close to 1800 members RSVP’d for the party. The venue only holds about half that… Let’s hope folks find other distractions and don’t show up all at once!

Also, I still need to write my opening lines for the Choice Awards ceremony. Always a challenge to say something meaningful, quickly, in front of ~3000 developers. And, how can I compete with Tim Schafer? I got a sneak peek at his lines and they are hilarious!!

OK, gotta do my packing, print my party tickets, prep my slides for the IGDA’s annual meeting, etc, etc, etc…