[games_access] GDC 2008: VERY Bad News
Robert Florio
arthit73 at cablespeed.com
Fri Nov 30 21:12:27 EST 2007
It still is completely ignorant shows that part of humanity in the game
design industry just don't give a crap. I mean if they honest cause anyone
with a right sane mind logically thinks game accessibility should be a
no-brainer. It's so hard to believe that not one person on the voting
committee doesn't stand up and say there should at least be one great
conference table or something about this.
Robert
-----Original Message-----
From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org]
On Behalf Of d. michelle hinn
Sent: Friday, November 30, 2007 7:47 PM
To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List
Subject: Re: [games_access] GDC 2008: VERY Bad News
And, you know, if it is true that we didn't get a lot accepted due to
bad word of mouth...the fact that the selection committee was even
talking about us means they know about us. And we are still in the
game. So maybe even I can take that as a sign of progress. Hehe.
Any press is good press I guess... :) If you get talked about, that
means you've been noticed in the crowd of 10's of thousands -- many
groups don't even get that far.
Michelle
>Talking to other audiences is fine and valuable but we can't abandon
>the main games industry. We've made a lot of progress. You can't see
>it right now, but I know we have. People have heard of us, they've
>seen our work. That's step one. Steps two and three will come. It
>often takes 10 years for an industry to adopt radically new ways of
>thinking and unfortunately, accessibility does complicate the design
>and tech requirements which requires developers to think differently.
>
>On Nov 30, 2007 3:01 PM, Thomas Westin <thomas at pininteractive.com> wrote:
>> Hi
>>
>> just want to add I've started to become a bit cynical about GDC after
four
>> years of low number of attendees. I'm also disappointed by this, but for
>> other reasons than the GDC judges
>>
>> Let's not forget GDC is just one conference, although the biggest it's
>> perhaps not the best - low numbers of attendees is really not our
problem,
>> it's the industry's problem, that they can't see the importance of
>> accessibility for the future of the industry. We're here to help, but
since
>> the industry (with a few exceptions/individuals) isn't listening at GDC,
>> they do listen elsewhere.
>>
>> I'd say we should aim for other conferences where people have interest
and
>> time to listen to us. FuturePlay was a great success; let's focus on
similar
>> conferences where we can succeed rather than getting disappointed at
GDC.
>>
>> /Thomas
>>
>>
>>
>> 30 nov 2007 kl. 20.00 skrev d. michelle hinn:
>>
>>
>>
>> Well, there's lots to do, that's for sure. We also can't forget that
some of
>> us (you, me, Richard, others) were hit by the GDC flu and/or had to go
to
>> hospital (my kidney nightmare) and the selection committee doesn't allow
you
>> to petition for that. That DRAMATICALLY impacted a lot of our sessions
and
>> Idol went way differently than we'd planned for. So we had a lot of bad
luck
>> last year that isn't the fault of anyone -- but it did impact how our
>> proposals were viewed.
>>
>>
>> As a group, we just need to remember that we are a group. We are a
volunteer
>> group. But we are a group and we do a lot! And every time we get a
chance we
>> have to remember to talk about the group. Sure, we all have individual
>> goals, jobs, lives, etc -- but if we all remembered to mention that we
are a
>> part of this group, this movement, I think it would go a long
>> way....especially when it's something good! :)
>>
>>
>> Michelle
>>
>>
>> Sounds like a challenge. It's too bad there was a bad reputation now
about
>> our group. Just feels the fighter though to get the word out about our
>> initiatives even more. Still baffles my mind like game accessibility is
>> just not excepted at all by the mainstream game design community. Until
>> someday, some mainstream game designers are injured and can't find their
>> favorite games anymore and then we'll see. But apparently the last 20
years
>> they've all been pretty invulnerable.
>>
>> Robert
>>
>> ________________________________
>>
>> From: games_access-bounces at igda.org
[mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org]
>> On Behalf Of d. michelle hinn
>> Sent: Friday, November 30, 2007 12:48 PM
>> To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List
>> Subject: Re: [games_access] GDC 2008: VERY Bad News
>>
>> Hey,
>>
>> The only feedback I've gotten was informal from people I know who work
there
>> -- the sessions weren't judged on content as much as based on low
numbers of
>> attendees and a lot of bad press from GDC07 (many people on the advisory
>> boards for each section (audio, design, etc) gossiped, Idol participants
> > complained...and, yeah, that web archive was mentioned -- google, etc
are
>> not our friends). So we live and learn. I'm not going to go into
specifics
>> because it will hurt us to go into it and we don't need that -- There's
too
>> much to do and we cannot spend the little time we have until GDC08
talking
>> about what happened after GDC07. I know I brought it up because, yes, I
was
>> angry that morning because the low number of acceptances for this year
was
>> what I was afraid might happen. But I was also angry because I really,
>> really killed myself over the proposals for this year.
>>
>> Unfortunately, it's not academia so they won't ever provide us with
concrete
>> comments or a feedback page about what we could have done
better/differently
>> or even what they hated. And it's not a blind review either. Basically
this
>> year we need to atone and re-earn respect as a group. >From what I've
heard,
>> however, if you have never had a proposal accepted that you turned in,
they
>> were EVEN MORE likely to not take a chance on your proposal...so I guess
we
>> are lucky that we got three sessions (two were solicited but even those
went
>> through a bit of a review as well).
>>
>> So when you say you can pay your own way...do you mean that you want to
buy
>> your own pass?
>>
>> We'll have accessibility arcade and the meet and greet to show some
stuff at
>> -- we won't have as much room but we should have stuff for people to
look at
>> and some of the stuff are great conversation starters. So we won't need
as
>> much this year -- my broken controller (the Quad Controller that has now
>> been broken TWICE by airport security so it really looks bad) is quite
the
>> conversation piece. I think I could have just carried that around at
>> FuturePlay all day to get the word out about accessibility! :D
>>
>> Michelle
>>
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> I'm sorry to hear about the passes. I'll be driving from Reno to SF so I
can
>> take all my accessible hardware if need be. (If there is space to demo
>> them?)
>>
>>
>>
>> Michelle, did they provide us with specific feedback on those proposals?
>> what were the main criteria for not accepting them?
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> I can pay my own way to GDC since I have some money left from my grant
that
>> I need to spend before august, after UNR decided not to approve my
travel
>> request to Futureplay. Besides it's cheap for me to go there anyway.
>>
>>
>>
>> Cheers Eelke
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On 27/11/2007, Reid Kimball <reid at rbkdesign.com> wrote:
>> While this is isn't the ideal situation it's not a total loss for the
>> group and we have to work within our resources to do the best we can.
>>
>> If only three of us can come, then I suggest we don't bring any
>> hardware accessories. Instead, let's create flyer's and brochures
>> about the accessories. Maybe even produce videos of people using them.
>>
>> I also recommend that because we are a smaller group this year, we try
>> to have personal meetings with game developers to talk about how we
>> can help them.
>>
>> -Reid
>>
>> On Nov 27, 2007 12:25 PM, d. michelle hinn < hinn at uiuc.edu> wrote:
>> >
>> >
>> > Ok...
>> >
>> >
>> > So remember when I was writing for days straight for all the GDC
>> submissions
>> > without a whole lot of help? All submissions have been accepted now
so we
>> > have some bad, bad music to face. I never did put up all the final
>> > submissions on the WIKI -- I was too tired after the deadline and it
>> doesn't
>> > matter as much now. I'll get them up for archive reasons.
>> >
>> >
>> > Well...we've been hit by reality this year. I hate to bring this up
again
>> > but I feel that I have to -- A lot of public word got out about our
big
>> > post-GDC fight last year (it's archived on the net...). I'm not
saying
>> that
>> > it was any one person or any one comment -- I can't even look at the
>> archive
>>
>> > without beating myself up about it because I felt like I had really,
>> really
>> > let everyone down. I got the proposals and the passes but I couldn't
make
>> > our showing work in the best way possible. I couldn't be everywhere
>> > advertising our sessions. I was far from perfect, we were all far
from
> > > perfect, we had big dreams but not enough people doing the work. I'm
not
>> > saying everything goes back to that but we had a big year last year,
had
>> > more than enough passes for everyone...and that was then. It's hard
for
>> > me...well, it's very sad for me to realize that we had it so great
last
>> year
>> > and we didn't recognize it, we didn't have enough real help when push
>> came
>> > to shove (or suitcase pulling came to suitcase pulling back and forth
>> every
>> > day to the convention center). All the "should of" "would have"
"could
>> have"
>> > things are coming back to haunt me. I stopped flogging myself about
this
>> a
>> > while ago and thought that I had come to peace with it but I realize
now
>> > that I still haven't stopped flogging myself about not being
superhuman.
>> I
>> > know. I know. Stop it.
>> >
>> >
>> > So...we only had one proposal accepted. All the acceptances are in
now.
>> > Reid's [cc] poster (downgraded from a 20 minute talk but I think this
>> will
>> > get more people) submission.
>> > [ https://www.cmpevents.com/GD08/a.asp?option=C&V=11&SessID=6456 ]
>> >
>> >
>> > The other two were IGDA solicited (ie, they did not go through the
>> system)
>> > -- accessibility arcade and the SIG meet and greet. That buys us two
more
>> > passes -- one is mine since I'm SIG chair and one was for Eelke for
the
>> meet
>> > and greet because he helped on the proposals.
>> >
>> >
>> > I'm going to try and talk to everyone I can think of to try and get a
few
>> > more passes because one of those is a roundtable and was solicited by
>> IGDA
>> > (that was NOT in the proposal process) and it's accessibility arcade.
To
>> > pull that off, we need more people. I hope that this gets us a few
more
>> > passes.
>> >
>> >
>> > The booth is out of question unless we can get some SERIOUS money
FAST. I
>> am
>> > trying every angle I can think of but so far no luck. The booth SPACE
>> costs
>> > $5100 for 10x10 booth -- add on about $3000 more for the "required"
>> minimum
>> > of stuff we have to provide...no way. IF we get an expo booth it will
get
>> us
>> > more EXPO passes, which will restrict those with these passes to just
>> being
>> > able to get into the expo area (no talks, etc). That's the reality.
>> >
>> >
>> > I'm sorry to have to tell you this and I'm sorry for the
anger/sadness in
>> my
>> > tone. We are not going to be able to bring everyone we want to. I
cannot
>> say
>> > when or if I'll hear if we can get more passes. I know some of you
have
>> > already made flight and hotel arrangements. If you are one of these
>> people,
>> > please check with your airlines, etc for the last date to cancel
without
>> > penalty.
>> >
>> >
>> > So three passes...that's it. That's where we are at. I will let you
know
>> if
>> > the pass situation changes but for now it doesn't look great. We now
have
>> > fifteen fewer passes so those of us in attendance are going to have
to
>> try
>> > and talk our asses off at GDC.
>> >
>> >
>> > Michelle
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > games_access mailing list
>> > games_access at igda.org
>> > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access
>> >
>> >
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> Eelke Folmer Assistant Professor
>> Department of CS&E/171
>> University of Nevada Reno, Nevada 89557
>> Game interaction design www.helpyouplay.com
>>
>>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>
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