Finally got around to watching Jane McGonigal’s awesome TED talk. It’s an expansion on some of the key ideas she presented during the GDC’08 rant session, essentially leveraging the problem solving power of games/gamers to make progress on real-world issues.
The second best part of the talk is when, at 1 minute 38 seconds, an audience member let’s out a nervous laugh of disbelief (ok, more like a cackle), when Jane proposes we have to collectively play 21 billions hours of online games (a dramatic increase over the current 3 billion). The best part is the standing ovation she receives at the end. Check it out:
I’ve been to Raleigh a couple times before, but never actually stayed in the city (the previous time was actually in Cary, the neighboring town and home of Epic). So, was nice that this year’s Triangle Game Conference was smack dab in the center of town. And, short of the massive explosion of pollen, it was an enjoyable visit.
For a mostly regionally focused event, the speaker line-up and range of topics was impressive. Well, given all the great studios in town, it must not have been hard to fill up the grid with local talent. And, the attention to detail was great, like the complimentary snack at the Krispy Kreme next door!
I did a lecture on positive trends in the game industry (eg, process maturity, risk shift with online business models, better understanding of players via user research/usability testing, etc). And, despite being scheduled first thing on day 2 (ie, after the conference party), the room was packed.
Of all the talks, the most impressive was from Chris Gregorio (XDragonX10 Productions), who started his presentation on monetization with three numbers about himself: 15 (his age!), 35 (the millions of plays/views his Flash games have gotten), 45 (the thousands of dollars he’s made).
Some quick photos:
In the dark: Dana Cowley (Epic) and the dude from Havok welcome folks to the pre-TGC IGDA-Triangle chapter party.
The impressive (for a regional conference) expo area.
Chad Dezern tells the story of Insomniac’s expansion to Raleigh.
Day2 keynote John Zuur Platten (The Bureau of Film & Games) discusses his start as a Universal Studios tour guide.
Conference director Alexander Macris (Themis Group) leads the final panel on the ubiquity of games. Adam Blumenthal (Curious Sense), John Gaudiosi and Juan Benito (Cooperative Entertainment) discuss.
I’ve got a drawer full of USB thumb drives. Some are really oldschool (big and clunky and only have 32MB of memory) others are more recent, pretty much given away as freebies/swag (slim ones with upwards of a gig or two), used as a cooler alternative to handing out printed brochures at a tradeshow. To say that these little storage devices have become a commodity is an understatement.
Then, my Mimobot drive arrives in the mail, and I’m all googoogaga for it. There are a ton of cool designs, and I chose the “Holybot”:
Of course, the concept of turning a commodity into a luxury via design is not new. Hmm, I seem to recall the classic story of some famed designer holding up a toilet plunger or scrubber from Target as the prime example - anyone got a reference to that?
Reality Panic hosts the musings and ramblings of Jason Della Rocca. Posts focus on game industry issues and economics, and Jason's travels around the globe.
