[game_edu] Students at GDC

[Bill Crosbie]

I originally sent this as a private message to Andy because I didn't
wish to be thought of as speaking for the SIG. I want to make it clear
that this is my personal opinion and is not intended as an official
position of the Education SIG.

Also, thank you Ian for your well thought out response.

~Bill

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I thought it best to reply off list.

The GDC is a for profit venture run by United Business media. In the
time I have been attending GDC, (I started attending as a student in 2003 and
have continued to attend as a professional. I have been to the last 8.)
I have seen the equivalent of the All Access pass go from
$695 dollars to $2000. There were no student options when I started
attending, and I would have to check my records, but I don't think
there was even an Expo only pass/Student pass.

The GDC also, is a professional conference rather than an academic
conference. The people in attendance are there to make deals for
future game titles and learn the latest low level programming
techniques, art pipeline set ups, and production methodologies. In
recent years UBM also added the Breaking in Seminar to address the
needs of the many students who want to enter the industry in a game
production capacity. Given the commercial focus of the conference I am
uncertain how attending would assist your students in the direction of
their inquiry.

I understand the concerns you have.Students are on tight budgets,
especially those at state schools.  I'm game design faculty at a
community college. My east coast students will be very hard pressed to
ever attend a GDC while students. Airfare, hotel and cost of pass are
overwhelming to them. Do I think GDC is being unfair at a $75 price
point? No, it's a remarkable bargain for those who are in the SF bay
area to get through the doors at the premiere developers conference.
---8< snip ----------------------------------
suggestions for seeking alternate funding redacted.

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bill crosbie
http://about.me/bcrosbie/bio

It is humbling almost to the point of despair to discover that 15
dozen screenfuls of ponderous commentary produced by a small
liberal-arts faculty worth of beardy gamer geeks can, with almost zero
loss of insight, be reduced to the three panels of a Penny Arcade
cartoon.
~ Julian Dibbell quoted in Wired (September 2007)




On Wed, Jan 26, 2011 at 11:01 AM, Andy <andycox at twcdc.com> wrote:

> I've been in contact with GDC trying to get a deal to get a group

> of 20 students into GDC at a good discount. In these cash-strapped

> days I only have $30 per student budget. They are unable to offer

> any discount on the $75 student expo pass (the reasoning being

> that this is only available at the do0r) and only 25% off all

> other expo passes. This seems a little ungenerous. Do others agree

> that GDC should be giving a better deal to students? Has anyone

> else managed to wring out of them a better deal for their

> students?

>

> In addition, any ideas on how my students could get industry

> exposure through e.g. visits to game development companies in San

> Francisco, would be much appreciated. The class is considering the

> social impacts of technology through the lens of video games using

> Unity 3D.

>

> Andy Cox

> Adjunct Professor

> Conceptual and Information Arts

> San Francisco Stat University

>

>

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