[games_access] Ideas for GDC 2008

Tue May 22 20:22:03 EDT 2007

Thank you I appreciate the input tremendously.  That's a definite good
outlook making it more worthwhile for everyone.  I will have to keep in mind
though number for me to make it not I won't be able to afford those passes.
So I'll have to try and work extra hard to win this top-secret thing.
:-)lol

Make sure I can get there.  The last three days makes sense.  That does make
sense also finding out what kind of format is best for a documentary or how
films get viewed their.

What was some of the advice that the competitors gave us?  I hope it's
juicy.

Robert
www.RobertFlorio.com   

-----Original Message-----
From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org]
On Behalf Of d. michelle hinn
Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2007 7:34 PM
To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List
Subject: Re: [games_access] Ideas for GDC 2008

Well, I think we should make sure that GDC is worthwhile for all of 
us and not fall to a couple people so that's why we're starting to 
think about it now.

With regard to your documentary, I think it will have to be done in a 
more experimental setting versus a regular session. I'm going to 
start digging around to see how films get shown at GDC and if there's 
an appropriate venue for that that we haven't thought about yet. This 
would be the session that "you own" that would be sponsored by the 
SIG. I'd say that you should probably plan to be at GDC the final 
three days rather than the first two days if you need to keep up your 
strength. So we'd propose the film session during the main part of 
GDC.

I think if we have a good variety of sessions with different people 
running different sessions then it will work out much better. And I 
think that there is a way of making a design competition fun and 
professional -- we just need to take some of the advise that our 
competitors gave us and tighten things up.

Michelle

>We should all be professional.  My reasons for looking back at a bad
>experience for 2007 GDC is that I had to leave.  That totally sucked.
>
>This year I'm going to make it worthwhile.  Here are the things that I'm
>proposing for the next one.  I'm getting some really strong buzz with my
>documentary possibly a huge public relations opportunity I can't say much
>about it.  I already have Jeannie Novak, David Perry to people that want to
>see it and a potential third that is really going to help out.
>
>Somehow I think if we had an ability to show this video at the conference
>coupling that with some sort of opportunity not just to watch and be
>inspired see an incredible story and parts of it gets slightly away from
>game accessibility but not a lot of it.  The first half hour is all about
>game accessibility and then it gets into other things and then comes back
to
>the conference I spoke at the day I got out of the hospital games for
health
>conference.  So it wraps up very nicely.
>
>Saying that I need to be if I'm going to GDC 2008 there for specific times.
>Probably three may be four days at Max.
>
>I want to thank everyone for your support as well allowing me to reach out
>and away I never would have been able to without this group my story,
>ability to reach out to companies get a job somehow experience things like
>that.  If there are any concerns for my documentary not being able to serve
>our purpose please let me know if there's a way we could do it better to
>better fit our need.
>
>To Michelle.
>
>You talked briefly about " Innovation: Game Accessibility for Able Gamers"
>kind of sounds confusing.  Please hear me out.  So far we haven't exactly
>been able to grab their attention both sides of the market able and not
able
>at this event so maybe we should just give it a regular title and put a
>description in the description.  Like "innovation for all" or something.
>
>Top-secret game is an emotional highway for me.  A huge learning experience
>on a real game.  We will see what happens with the accessible controls and
>interface but if I'm there that will be a place also to get the word out.
>I'm trying my heart out to win this thing I know if I win and there's a
100%
>chance that our initiative will explode with opportunities but even if
>somehow I can get this game to be accessible unlike any other game really
>made any effort inside specially interest games in the mainstream market, I
>think that will be huge also.  So we will see how that ends up.
>
>Robert
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org]
>On Behalf Of d. michelle hinn
>Sent: Monday, May 21, 2007 8:30 PM
>To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List
>Subject: [games_access] Ideas for GDC 2008
>Importance: High
>
>Ok...so now's the time to get the write ups going for the proposed
>SIG sessions for GDC 2008 (it always takes us a bit to get things
>finalized and GDC is even earlier in 2008) and I some ideas that I
>want to run past people.
>
>We've talked a lot already about applying accessibility to how it
>would help people that don't have a disability (like curb cuts that
>help bicyclists and parents with baby strollers, etc). What if we had
>a session called "Innovation: Game Accessibility for Able Gamers"
>with the session planned around taking what we know about
>accessibility and targeted the solutions for the "abled" in order to
>help them out by taking them out of the lull of "boring, predictable
>gaming"? This would be a session for the really "out there" stuff
>like biofeedback and games like demor. When I presented at last
>year's Montreal Game Summit, I found that it was the "wow" stuff that
>got people thinking about the whole issue of accessibility being
>"cool" -- it was the carrot that got them to listen to the more basic
>design information. After that, people came up to talk to me about
>how they never thought about accessibility as NOT limiting game
>design.
>
>I'm not totally sold on the title (I just came up with it now so
>catchier titles would be greatly appreciated!) but it would give us a
>way to present accessibility information pertaining to disabled
>gamers, sell it as something that helps more than just disabled
>gamers without straying too far from the fact that we are the game
>accessibility SIG.
>
>Another thing to think about is not how gamers is with disabilities
>are limited but, instead, how maybe the increased skill in another
>area makes them even MORE competitive and so "able" gamers should
>know about these -- it's a turn around of telling them what they are
>doing RIGHT in games by pointing out that they could even the score
>with regard to accessibility by keeping these things in their games
>(I know...that last one's trickier because it could lead to a
>developer thinking that they are unbalanced in their gameplay by
>making things easier for one user group...even though they already do
>that when they are INaccessible).
>
>I've seen how easy some find it to forget the original audience that
>a design was aiming for by making changes that end up not serving
>that original audience. So that's why I remain resistant to totally
>taking the word "accessibility" out -- I'm afraid of NOT reminding
>the industry to keep gamers with disabilities in mind because it's so
>easy for them to come down with selective amnesia. We've tried a LOT
>of tactics over the years -- from serious to humorous, from
>roundtables to much more ambitious workshops. So we need to think
>about what we've learned from the four years we've presented as a SIG
>at GDC. We won't do "accessibility idol" again but I think we
>*should* do another competition (and we can again -- we got the
>tentative "thumbs up" to do an hour-long competition, rather than the
>two hour overkill). I'll write another email about ideas for a
>competition that removes us from "idol" but helps us better make
>accessibility into a challenging creative design process rather than
>this "forced, non-creative" thing that it's rumored to be (and this
>year I know to jump on the signage and web advert issue immediately).
>
>BUT...as a SIG I think we should stick to a fun competition (with the
>devs that showed interest last year but couldn't do it but can this
>year), the expo (with the fall back of another "arcade" thing, only
>not three days worth), a "wacky session" like "innovation," and some
>sort of longer session (like a tutorial) where we can have "short
>burst" info about the things that SIG members have been doing -- ie,
>Eelke might take 20-30 minutes to discuss his stuff, Dimitris taking
>the same amount of time to overview his latest, Barrie and his stuff,
>etc, etc, etc. Then if any one person wants to do a longer
>presentation on their own stuff, they can do so at their own session,
>promoting it at the SIG workshop. And if it helps, we can present the
>more solo-acts as SIG-sponsored sessions to make sure it gets on the
>schedule better -- I know Reid and others have had a really hard time
>getting onto the schedule as solo acts. But in the end the longer
>presentations would be the onus of the person who is presenting their
>work and not something that the entire SIG needs to be there to set
>up for, etc (that doesn't mean that we all wouldn't try to be there
>for them!!).
>
>We learned in March that 78.4 SIG sessions (ok, 8) isn't the way to
>go but I also think going back to the single roundtable isn't the
>answer either. So now we have to find our happy medium that allows us
>to all ATTEND other sessions and help increase the buzz about all of
>our sessions, our existance, etc but also maximize our limited
>(simply by the fact that there are just a few of us that can make it
>to any one GDC) efforts in the sessions that we do. And we have to
>find our happy medium so it's not just a couple of us pulling
>all-nighters the weeks before! So instead of me being in charge of
>every session for the organization, we can share the wealth a bit by
>having some on the committee for the competition, others on the
>tutorial/workshop committee, and so forth. I realize that we aren't a
>big lot but even NON attendees can help serve on committees to help
>share ideas!
>
>Ok that's the end of this email that had started out short and sweet.
>:) Sorry -- just feeling the GDC pressure and I realllly want to get
>as many people involved as possible so we can present a more united
>effort and help best support one another!!
>
>Thoughts? Reactions? And, yes, I'm now very removed from the emotions
>of GDC 2007. :) But please be thoughtful in your suggestions --
>underneath that black leather jacket I keep wearing to GDCs (for good
>luck?), I can get rather down sometimes (yay! depression!) and I'd
>hate for us to have a flame war. I promise I will count to 10 before
>hitting the "send" button if I find myself taking things too
>personally. Ok, deal? :)
>
>Michelle
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