Reality Panic

As a rule, I don’t play Mature-rated games with my kids around (who are 5 and 2.5 years old). However, I bend the rule a bit if what I’m doing in the game is not mature oriented stuff.

For example, in working to get all the achievement points in Assassin’s Creed, I spent some extra time just running around the cities and climbing all the high point towers. Since that involves no violence/etc, I allowed my son to watch me play (as a side note it was actually educational as we talked about the time period and the types of houses/buildings, and the fact there were no cars, etc).

Anyway, a few weeks later, out of the blue, he drew me the below rendition of Altair at the top of a tower and the two carts of hay to jump into.

Just got back from a busy week in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, including:

attending and moderating a session during “Playing to Win: The Business and Social Frontiers of Videogames” at Penn State University
having dinner with new board chair Jen MacLean to discuss org strategy
visiting the IGDA admin office in New Jersey to work on various operational stuffs, including a finance session with IGDA treasurer Tobi Saulnier
dinner with the IGDA-Philly chapter coordinators
attending and speaking at the IGDA-Philly chapter meeting

On the whole, a very productive, albeit exhausting week. Especially given late night college-style partying that took place during the Penn conference… But, I digress.

The Playing to Win conference was a good first effort, and really got going with a bang. The first several sessions focused on the “social” element of the conference sub-title, and featured some high-powered speakers. Though, after that initial set of sessions, many of the following panels lacked the same focus and firepower - though, there was certainly many nuggets of goodness interspersed. Would be excellent to see them focus solely on these “social” elements in the future.

Also, it was a real pleasure to finally meet GamePolitics’ Dennis McCauley, who was there to speak from the gamer’s perspective.

Presenting at the IGDA-Philly night a few days later was a treat, as I always appreciate the opportunity to sample different chapter cultures and styles. The meeting was well run and there was a good ~50 person crowd on hand. My lecture was a rehash of the “at least 10 reasons the game industry doesn’t suck” lecture I’ve done a few times before.

Anyway, here are some photos from the trip:

David Bickham (Center on Media and Child Health) gives a somewhat balanced opening keynote.

An amped up Clay Calvert (Penn State) gives a legal rundown on anti-game legislation failures.

Dennis McCauley (GamePolitics.com) presents the consumer perspective.

Adam Thierer (Center for Digital Media Freedom, The Progress & Freedom Foundation) discusses the role of parents.

Stevan Mitchell (ESA) covering the ESA’s roadmap for fighting piracy.

Amusingly, a “genuine software?” warning popped up during Stevan’s talk (it was a conference system, not his).

Jen McNamara (Breakaway Games) presents Pulse! as an example of the power of games for serious applications.

Brian Smith (Penn State) talks about fantasy sports leagues, a wildly successful form of digital games.

Jen MacLean (38 Studios) does a wonderful job of wrapping together all the disparate threads of the conference into her closing keynote.

John Demos (Three Rings Design), Jen MacLean (38 Studios) and Jason Coleman (Big Huge Games) out for some college-style partying in State College, PA!