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As the IGDA's executive director, it is always great to see public discussion of the org. Kinda sad, however, to read that what we do is pretty worthless :(

In part, I'll take the blame for not spending many org resources on marketing/promotion. Ironically, for all the problems we work on, one of our biggest challengs is simply getting the attention of developers (as we all know how busy and overworked they are ;)

More seriously, many developers simply don't care, or can't look much beyond their immediate task, their impending deadline, etc, to participate in the community around them - or to help work on the problems that will effect them and the industry beyond tomorrow...

To say that the IGDA is meaningless is to demonstrate your own ignorance, or rather, unwillingness to stop and read for more than 10seconds. To name just a few "real" accomplishments:

- helped thwart several goverment efforts to regulate/censor video games http://www.igda.org/censorship/lobbying.php

- developed a curriculum framework that has been used to guide almost every school that now offers a game degree/program http://www.igda.org/academia/curriculum_framework. php

- recently started a SIG, with Stuart Roch (executive producer at Shiny) as chair to lead efforts to formalize the production process http://www.igda.org/production/

- held a Business Summit at last GDC with 150 industry leaders to work on business issues within the industry (original vs licenses, contracts, royalties, etc) http://www.igda.org/biz/summit.php

- we present the Game Developers Choice Awards (arguably the "early oscars" of the game industry) each year at GDC and host a ceremony for 2000+ developers http://www.igda.org/awards

- we're doing all that Quality of Life stuff that was already mentioned http://www.igda.org/qol/

- Our Online Games SIG just released a ~100page Persistent Worlds white paper - for FREE. This kind of content normally has to be bought from analysts for thousands of dollars... This was posted on /. earlier... http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/13/ 2112231&tid=209

- we send 25 college students to GDC each year http://www.igda.org/scholarships/


I could go on...

In terms of members, we do have a diverse representation. But, to suggest we're just a bunch of student and newbie punks is incorrect. Yes, we have many student members (who, FYI, do not get to vote on org affairs), but we also have many of the world's top developers as members. Like who? Will Wright. Warren Spector. Richard Garriot. Raph Koster. Ray Muzyka & Greg Zeschuk. Gabe Newell. I could certainly go on...

Admittedly, our online forums are not frequented by many pros/vets. That's fine, as that's not the goal of the forums, and the forums are not necessarily representative of the rest of the IGDA. The forums are just one more thing we provide to the community, for those who want to use it...

Anyway, don't mean to get ranty.

I guess we need to do more of that marketing stuff... But, if someone is just looking for free trinkets or promos from the "club", we don't have much to offer - and, quite frankly, that's all a waste of time...

Jason

As the IGDA's executive director, it is always great to see public discussion of the org. Kinda sad, however, to read that what we do is pretty worthless :(

In part, I'll take the blame for not spending many org resources on marketing/promotion. Ironically, for all the problems we work on, one of our biggest challengs is simply getting the attention of developers (as we all know how busy and overworked they are ;)

More seriously, many developers simply don't care, or can't look much beyond their immediate task, their impending deadline, etc, to participate in the community around them - or to help work on the problems that will effect them and the industry beyond tomorrow...

To say that the IGDA is meaningless is to demonstrate your own ignorance, or rather, unwillingness to stop and read for more than 10seconds. To name just a few "real" accomplishments:

- helped thwart several goverment efforts to regulate/censor video games http://www.igda.org/censorship/lobbying.php

- developed a curriculum framework that has been used to guide almost every school that now offers a game degree/program http://www.igda.org/academia/curriculum_framework. php

- recently started a SIG, with Stuart Roch (executive producer at Shiny) as chair to lead efforts to formalize the production process http://www.igda.org/production/

- held a Business Summit at last GDC with 150 industry leaders to work on business issues within the industry (original vs licenses, contracts, royalties, etc) http://www.igda.org/biz/summit.php

- we present the Game Developers Choice Awards (arguably the "early oscars" of the game industry) each year at GDC and host a ceremony for 2000+ developers http://www.igda.org/awards

- we're doing all that Quality of Life stuff that was already mentioned http://www.igda.org/qol/

- Our Online Games SIG just released a ~100page Persistent Worlds white paper - for FREE. This kind of content normally has to be bought from analysts for thousands of dollars... This was posted on /. earlier... http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/13/ 2112231&tid=209

- we send 25 college students to GDC each year http://www.igda.org/scholarships/


I could go on...

In terms of members, we do have a diverse representation. But, to suggest we're just a bunch of student and newbie punks is incorrect. Yes, we have many student members (who, FYI, do not get to vote on org affairs), but we also have many of the world's top developers as members. Like who? Will Wright. Warren Spector. Richard Garriot. Raph Koster. Ray Muzyka & Greg Zeschuk. Gabe Newell. I could certainly go on...

Admittedly, our online forums are not frequented by many pros/vets. That's fine, as that's not the goal of the forums, and the forums are not necessarily representative of the rest of the IGDA. The forums are just one more thing we provide to the community, for those who want to use it...

Anyway, don't mean to get ranty.

I guess we need to do more of that marketing stuff... But, if someone is just looking for free trinkets or promos from the "club", we don't have much to offer - and, quite frankly, that's all a waste of time...

Jason

As the IGDA's executive director, it is always great to see public discussion of the org. Kinda sad, however, to read that what we do is pretty worthless :(

In part, I'll take the blame for not spending many org resources on marketing/promotion. Ironically, for all the problems we work on, one of our biggest challengs is simply getting the attention of developers (as we all know how busy and overworked they are ;)

More seriously, many developers simply don't care, or can't look much beyond their immediate task, their impending deadline, etc, to participate in the community around them - or to help work on the problems that will effect them and the industry beyond tomorrow...

To say that the IGDA is meaningless is to demonstrate your own ignorance, or rather, unwillingness to stop and read for more than 10seconds. To name just a few "real" accomplishments:

- helped thwart several goverment efforts to regulate/censor video games http://www.igda.org/censorship/lobbying.php

- developed a curriculum framework that has been used to guide almost every school that now offers a game degree/program http://www.igda.org/academia/curriculum_framework. php

- recently started a SIG, with Stuart Roch (executive producer at Shiny) as chair to lead efforts to formalize the production process http://www.igda.org/production/

- held a Business Summit at last GDC with 150 industry leaders to work on business issues within the industry (original vs licenses, contracts, royalties, etc) http://www.igda.org/biz/summit.php

- we present the Game Developers Choice Awards (arguably the "early oscars" of the game industry) each year at GDC and host a ceremony for 2000+ developers http://www.igda.org/awards

- we're doing all that Quality of Life stuff that was already mentioned http://www.igda.org/qol/

- Our Online Games SIG just released a ~100page Persistent Worlds white paper - for FREE. This kind of content normally has to be bought from analysts for thousands of dollars... This was posted on /. earlier... http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/13/ 2112231&tid=209

- we send 25 college students to GDC each year http://www.igda.org/scholarships/


I could go on...

In terms of members, we do have a diverse representation. But, to suggest we're just a bunch of student and newbie punks is incorrect. Yes, we have many student members (who, FYI, do not get to vote on org affairs), but we also have many of the world's top developers as members. Like who? Will Wright. Warren Spector. Richard Garriot. Raph Koster. Ray Muzyka & Greg Zeschuk. Gabe Newell. I could certainly go on...

Admittedly, our online forums are not frequented by many pros/vets. That's fine, as that's not the goal of the forums, and the forums are not necessarily representative of the rest of the IGDA. The forums are just one more thing we provide to the community, for those who want to use it...

Anyway, don't mean to get ranty.

I guess we need to do more of that marketing stuff... But, if someone is just looking for free trinkets or promos from the "club", we don't have much to offer - and, quite frankly, that's all a waste of time...

Jason

As the IGDA's executive director, it is always great to see public discussion of the org. Kinda sad, however, to read that what we do is pretty worthless :(

In part, I'll take the blame for not spending many org resources on marketing/promotion. Ironically, for all the problems we work on, one of our biggest challengs is simply getting the attention of developers (as we all know how busy and overworked they are ;)

More seriously, many developers simply don't care, or can't look much beyond their immediate task, their impending deadline, etc, to participate in the community around them - or to help work on the problems that will effect them and the industry beyond tomorrow...

To say that the IGDA is meaningless is to demonstrate your own ignorance, or rather, unwillingness to stop and read for more than 10seconds. To name just a few "real" accomplishments:

- helped thwart several goverment efforts to regulate/censor video games http://www.igda.org/censorship/lobbying.php

- developed a curriculum framework that has been used to guide almost every school that now offers a game degree/program http://www.igda.org/academia/curriculum_framework. php

- recently started a SIG, with Stuart Roch (executive producer at Shiny) as chair to lead efforts to formalize the production process http://www.igda.org/production/

- held a Business Summit at last GDC with 150 industry leaders to work on business issues within the industry (original vs licenses, contracts, royalties, etc) http://www.igda.org/biz/summit.php

- we present the Game Developers Choice Awards (arguably the "early oscars" of the game industry) each year at GDC and host a ceremony for 2000+ developers http://www.igda.org/awards

- we're doing all that Quality of Life stuff that was already mentioned http://www.igda.org/qol/

- Our Online Games SIG just released a ~100page Persistent Worlds white paper - for FREE. This kind of content normally has to be bought from analysts for thousands of dollars... This was posted on /. earlier... http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/13/ 2112231&tid=209

- we send 25 college students to GDC each year http://www.igda.org/scholarships/


I could go on...

In terms of members, we do have a diverse representation. But, to suggest we're just a bunch of student and newbie punks is incorrect. Yes, we have many student members (who, FYI, do not get to vote on org affairs), but we also have many of the world's top developers as members. Like who? Will Wright. Warren Spector. Richard Garriot. Raph Koster. Ray Muzyka & Greg Zeschuk. Gabe Newell. I could certainly go on...

Admittedly, our online forums are not frequented by many pros/vets. That's fine, as that's not the goal of the forums, and the forums are not necessarily representative of the rest of the IGDA. The forums are just one more thing we provide to the community, for those who want to use it...

Anyway, don't mean to get ranty.

I guess we need to do more of that marketing stuff... But, if someone is just looking for free trinkets or promos from the "club", we don't have much to offer - and, quite frankly, that's all a waste of time...

Jason

As the IGDA's executive director, it is always great to see public discussion of the org. Kinda sad, however, to read that what we do is pretty worthless :(

In part, I'll take the blame for not spending many org resources on marketing/promotion. Ironically, for all the problems we work on, one of our biggest challengs is simply getting the attention of developers (as we all know how busy and overworked they are ;)

More seriously, many developers simply don't care, or can't look much beyond their immediate task, their impending deadline, etc, to participate in the community around them - or to help work on the problems that will effect them and the industry beyond tomorrow...

To say that the IGDA is meaningless is to demonstrate your own ignorance, or rather, unwillingness to stop and read for more than 10seconds. To name just a few "real" accomplishments:

- helped thwart several goverment efforts to regulate/censor video games http://www.igda.org/censorship/lobbying.php

- developed a curriculum framework that has been used to guide almost every school that now offers a game degree/program http://www.igda.org/academia/curriculum_framework. php

- recently started a SIG, with Stuart Roch (executive producer at Shiny) as chair to lead efforts to formalize the production process http://www.igda.org/production/

- held a Business Summit at last GDC with 150 industry leaders to work on business issues within the industry (original vs licenses, contracts, royalties, etc) http://www.igda.org/biz/summit.php

- we present the Game Developers Choice Awards (arguably the "early oscars" of the game industry) each year at GDC and host a ceremony for 2000+ developers http://www.igda.org/awards

- we're doing all that Quality of Life stuff that was already mentioned http://www.igda.org/qol/

- Our Online Games SIG just released a ~100page Persistent Worlds white paper - for FREE. This kind of content normally has to be bought from analysts for thousands of dollars... This was posted on /. earlier... http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/13/ 2112231&tid=209

- we send 25 college students to GDC each year http://www.igda.org/scholarships/


I could go on...

In terms of members, we do have a diverse representation. But, to suggest we're just a bunch of student and newbie punks is incorrect. Yes, we have many student members (who, FYI, do not get to vote on org affairs), but we also have many of the world's top developers as members. Like who? Will Wright. Warren Spector. Richard Garriot. Raph Koster. Ray Muzyka & Greg Zeschuk. Gabe Newell. I could certainly go on...

Admittedly, our online forums are not frequented by many pros/vets. That's fine, as that's not the goal of the forums, and the forums are not necessarily representative of the rest of the IGDA. The forums are just one more thing we provide to the community, for those who want to use it...

Anyway, don't mean to get ranty.

I guess we need to do more of that marketing stuff... But, if someone is just looking for free trinkets or promos from the "club", we don't have much to offer - and, quite frankly, that's all a waste of time...

Jason

Anybody in the game industry (in the US anyway) can get Game Developer Magazine for free anyway, so that was never much of an incentive.

The local IGDA chapters can be great, but it's hit and miss depending on your local one.

To me, the thing that made me join a few months ago, was seeing that they're continuing to push the issue of quality of life in the game industry.

Last year they put out the Quality of Life Whitepaper, and now they're following it up with a summit at this year's GDC. All of which is much more relevant every since ea_spouse stirred the hornet's nest.

I for one, I'm very glad they're around and pushing the issue, and will gladly give them some support so they can continue doing so.

Anybody in the game industry (in the US anyway) can get Game Developer Magazine for free anyway, so that was never much of an incentive.

The local IGDA chapters can be great, but it's hit and miss depending on your local one.

To me, the thing that made me join a few months ago, was seeing that they're continuing to push the issue of quality of life in the game industry.

Last year they put out the Quality of Life Whitepaper, and now they're following it up with a summit at this year's GDC. All of which is much more relevant every since ea_spouse stirred the hornet's nest.

I for one, I'm very glad they're around and pushing the issue, and will gladly give them some support so they can continue doing so.

...their "membership benefits" are pretty non-existent.

I disagree. They host special interest groups on:

Artificial Intelligence
Game Accessibility
Game Preservation
Human Resources
Indies
Online Games
Production
Quality Assurance
Students
Women in Game Development
Writing

They fund local chapters in dozens of cities. These, in turn, often provide members with monthly talks given by members of industry.

They provide discounts on:

Gamasutra merchandise - 30% discount
Game Institute classes - 10% discount
E3 Conference & Workshops - 20% discount
Game Developers Conference - $50 discount
Independent Games Festival entry fee - $50 discount
A. K. Peters books - 20% discount
Charles River Media books - 30% discount
Elsevier Science books - up to 40% discount
Game Developers Conference Proceedings - 30% discount
Game Developer Magazine back-issue CDs - 30% discount
Journal of Graphics Tools - 20% discount
New Riders books - 20% discount
O'Reilly & Associates books - 20% discount

It looks like they have about 5,700 members, but that's a tiny fraction of the total game industry.

Hundreds of CEOs, project leads, and so forth are members; I think it's more important to consider who's part of the organization than merely how many are part of it.

I worked in the game industry for 5 years (and I don't mean as a clerk at EB, I mean for a major game publisher) and I can honestly say I don't think I've ever heard of the IGDA.

This reflects more on you than the IGDA; most of those who are active in the community have had more than 5 years experience. Those higher up in an organization are more likely to seek out other members of the industry.

According to the FAQ on their website, the membership benefits are pretty much nonexistent. Now that the price is lower, you don't get the magazine any more.

The serious award for games is the GDC Award. It's given each year at the Game Developers' Conference, and the decision is made by people actually within the industry - respectful recognition from one professional to another. They give awards for all aspects of game development, as well as things like innovation. They also recognize independent games.

Here's a http://www.igda.org/awards/link

This didn't even start as a decent awards show because it was put together by a cable network for the sole purpose of being an advertising laden extravaganza.

The reason people give some sort of credence to the Oscars is because they are for and by the film industry. They were giving out Oscars before the average member of the public knew what an Oscar was.

If we want a real TV awards show for video games we need one that comes from the industry itself and is then televised by some network.

If we have to have a TV award show for video games, then I'd want them to simply televise this : The IGDA's "Game Developer's Choice Awards"

This problem isn't unique to EA, the entire industry is strugglig with it. Companies who treat their employees as expandable cannon fodder will start limping in the future. Their senior and talented employees are burnt out and retiring at 30 - 35!

The International Game Developer's Association has released a Quality of Life white paper that presents results of industry wide surveys and interviews.

http://www.igda.org/qol/whitepaper.php

A group of grad students at the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University did a somewhat similar project last semester called AugCog (Augmented Cognition). The main purpose was for military applications, as it was funded by DARPA, but they also did a bunch of mini-projects on the side that had Entertainment Applications. An interesting note about this project also is that the faculty advisor for this project was Jesse Schell, the new head of the International Game Developers Association.

It is very sad, and it will eventually change, but not immediately by any means. Personally, I think there needs to be a union for video game professionals.

You mean like IGDA? JOIN.

Unfortunately, too many college kids are happy to "live the dream" of working in video games

True.. a lot of places hire graduates because "they have more to prove,".. e.g., they're willing to work a lot for nothing. But what those zillion kids don't have is release titles.. hang in there a while, get some good titles under your belt, and you'll find it a lot easier to get into positions at good studios (who put out bestselling titles, retain their workforce, and know how to (gasp) schedule.) Good studios don't want to risk their AAA titles (god, I hate that term) on a bunch of noobs. It's just how it is.

Unless you're lucky enough to land a job at a sweet place right out of school, you're going to hop around a bit as you find a place that works for you (and pays what you're worth.) If you're staying at the same place for 3 years working 80+ hour weeks, you're doing yourself a huge disservice.

Lots of programmers spend insanely large amounts of time in the office with the team working on a project and not enough time with their family. Sometimes during project phases, such as crunch-time, programmers see their team more then they see their family because things like overnight coding sessions are not uncommon.

Take a look at the International Game Developers Association: Quality of Life for good information about this kind of work. Game development is a career that is notorious for splitting social groups apart.

I take solace in IGDA.org

Its art! By all means, stop your kids from doing things that you dont approve of, but it'll be hard to condemn the statue of David as an evil pornographic thing, considering its based on the bible, of all things. Please, as is noted, religion isn't the best justification for protecting your kids from awful, violent, pornographic videogames.

Also, this is not an American liberal, as liberal is a four-letter word in America. He's a cheap-labor conservative =]

I take solace in IGDA.org

Its art! By all means, stop your kids from doing things that you dont approve of, but it'll be hard to condemn the statue of David as an evil pornographic thing, considering its based on the bible, of all things. Please, as is noted, religion isn't the best justification for protecting your kids from awful, violent, pornographic videogames.

Also, this is not an American liberal, as liberal is a four-letter word in America. He's a cheap-labor conservative =]

Sure, we get compared a lot to the movie industry, but we don't get much credit for our work.

We still have a long way to go before we're really like Hollywood, and not just for recognition. There's also the model used for game development and marketing. But I've not the time to go on a complete diatribe, so you can Google about it.

The guy who wrote that MUD-Dev list posting, Randy Farmer, was one of the founding coders of Habitat/Club Caribe. He claims in that posting to have originated use of the term, although he credits the _concept_ to at least two other fictional works, Vernor Vinge's "True Names" and John Brunner's "Shockwave Rider".

The tension between the two approaches - academic distance from the object of study vs. academic involvement with it - is very healthy, I think. "A blessing on both your houses."

But I think (Ga Tech MA program grad) Chaim Gingold's essay on academia and gaming for an overview of the benefits that would accrue to the gaming industry for a vigorous, independent and serious academic interest in gaming. The framing of a media - whether it's perceived as "mere" entertainment, as a speech form, as an art form, as advertisement, or as a sport/activity - is going to affect how the markets relate to it, how it gets regulated, how it gets covered (the more we talk about Heidegger, Althusser and Civ III, the harder it is to talk about "the menace to our children" unproblematically.)

Nonetheless, I think that at least cursory familiarity with not just programming, but even more importantly the game development process, would be good for any videogame researcher to have. When analyzing film, the Frankfurt school practitioners made themselves familiar with the structure of the culture industry; the production of videogames is a special case, ultimately, of software engineering and production; any institutionally-aware analysis of games should be informed by how those processes work in the real world.

Check out the Game Developers Choice Awards. Their full nominations aren't up yet, but they did announce Mark Cerny (Jak, Spyro, Sonic2, Crash Bandicoot, Marble Madness!) as their hall of famer for this year...

Also, there are only a few categories (no genre/platform specifics). From their rules page, voting process looks interesting - no membership/money required... Also, if you look at the "archives" section, you'll notice that almost all of the awards go to (you would assume) the specific people who did the work (need to cross check at MobyGames ;)

PS: Also, not sure on this but I remember some noise last year about the AIAS charging publishers money to be allowed in for nominations - or something like that - google might turn something up on that...

Just FYI.

It can also be quite rewarding. I started in the game industry about 10 years ago and left due to the stress. Since then most of the jobs I've had have only been slightly less stressful, but not nearly as enjoyable. I've recently come back to games and I'm happier than I've been in a long time. It's all a matter of doing what you love.

A note to our original poster: You need to take a closer look at how the game industry actually works. Trying to get in based on your skill with designing levels for a particular game is probably not going to pay off as well as you hope. A lot of companies frown on hiring people from what they call the "mod community". Also your first job will almost certainly not be doing what you want to do. Check out the career advice from professional game developer organizations like GDC (www.gamasutra.com) and IGDA (www.igda.org).

If you're looking for something entry level check out my current employeer (www.globalvr.com) We're hiring for a few positions, mostly in QA.

...don't listen to the whiners talking about how hard and boring it is. You'll know whether you like it long before you have a decent portfolio put together.

Take your favorite game with level-editing tools available for it: NWN and Starcraft or Warcraft spring immediately to mind, but remember it should be a game you know and understand. You have to know the game well enough to have a good feel for what makes a good level.

Another thing to consider is to contact your local IDGA chapter. Their website has a page which lists all the local chapters. I found a very active group in my local area, which turned out to have monthly meetings which are very useful.

Another thing to look for is groups working on mods. Most of the top mods were created by a bunch of "guys like you" who got together on the Internet and need lots of help and are willing to teach you what you need to know.

...don't listen to the whiners talking about how hard and boring it is. You'll know whether you like it long before you have a decent portfolio put together.

Take your favorite game with level-editing tools available for it: NWN and Starcraft or Warcraft spring immediately to mind, but remember it should be a game you know and understand. You have to know the game well enough to have a good feel for what makes a good level.

Another thing to consider is to contact your local IDGA chapter. Their website has a page which lists all the local chapters. I found a very active group in my local area, which turned out to have monthly meetings which are very useful.

Another thing to look for is groups working on mods. Most of the top mods were created by a bunch of "guys like you" who got together on the Internet and need lots of help and are willing to teach you what you need to know.

Case and Point:

In Japan today, their comics (manga) are a multi-billion doallar industry. There are manga cookbooks, manga textbooks, all genres of entertainment and reference material; everything that in the US might be done as a movie or text (they have normal books etc. too).

In the US, comic books and graphic novels are marginalized in the mainstream. Many of the few profitable companies (those that make mainstream fare) left make all their money on merchandising, and have been run completely into the ground several times each. Why is this so?

In 1954, the Comics Code Authority was created as an "Industry Association" in response to congressional coercion. Check out their standards. This quashed much of the creativity present the in the mainstreaim industry, which was about 40 years old. Many of the true creative geniuses were forced underground for nearly a decade, and the mainstream companies that followed the code rotted from within.

In the mid-fifties, the manga industry essentially sprung from nowhere, blossoming into a huge industry over a decade. The average age for a consumer buying manga in Japan is just barely below the average age of the population there, whereas in the US the average age of the comic book consumer grows older by one year every year.

In Japan, their "industrial" complex for producing games is just as developed as that in the US. If creativity is stifled by lawmakers, it will cost the US Billions in lost revenue. If any country passes laws that restrict its entertainers or artists, it will cost that country a chance for the revenues or prestige generated by those creators.

I think the IGDA is more organized and is better capable (with benefit of hindsight) to combat these sons and daughters of those who created the Comic Code than the naive comic industry of the 1950s. I don't believe that there is any less general paranoia (Red Scare vs. Terrorist Scare, same thing) than then, and its got the populace running scared and not paying attention to their freedoms (why is it times like this that would-be censors always choose to strike?).

I encourage everyone to check out the link to the Comics Code. Its stipulations are eerily similar to many proposed restrictions on interactive software today, and as such its a very relevant piece of history.

There is little doubt that we are coming closer and closer to a "market correction" (and not just in the US, see the "What's Wrong with the Japanese Gaming Industry" series at tokyopia.com). The hows, whens, and whats of the issue, however, are really rather hard to predict. There are a few developments I predict for the future of the "gaming industry", which may or may not directly result from said market correction:

1) Shorter games at cheaper prices - This has already been brought up several times, but I think this will be one of the major themes in the future. If gamers truly are searching for "cinematic experiences", then why do many modern games promising to deliver on this account run 40 hours, when the average movie runs around 2? Shorter games will be the perfect forum for testing the new ways of telling stories that have yet to be developed (and which will most likely be pioneered from smaller and/or open-source independent development houses).

2) A resurgence of older games - Say a big industry powerhouse suddenly finds itself publishing games for a market that is no longer investing in the big-budget rehashes that said powerhouse has been investing, well, big-budgets in. It won't take too many $20 million dollar investments to flop before the company starts hemmorhaging. The answer? Tapping into the incredible backlogs of intellectual property that the company has at its fingertips, possibly stretching all the way back to the 8th bit generation. What better way to recoup on failed development investments than by re-releasing older products with little development investment required? This would mean that we finally see legal emulators released on new-generation consoles (what a major coup for Nintendo, if they were to suddenly to gain a huge chunk of Sony's marketshare simply by releasing an official SNES emulator and working with developers to ensure quality re-releases!)

3) Gaming will find its Voice - Maybe not directly related to the Crash, one development that is certain will be a rising interest in looking at video games from an "academic" perspective. Institutions such as the IGDA and publications such as Game Studies are heralding a new age of vdeo gaming discussion, criticism, and theory. And as we well know there have been several calls-to-arms among the video game journalism crowd (which the quality members of will also help to fuel the desire among gamers to get their hands on some of the older games through their nostalgic advocacy of previous classics). It is only a matter of time before a common language for game theory is developed. After that, the sky won't even be a limit!

4. Innovation based on older technologies - If you were thinking this category is just an excuse to throw out some links to Tenebrae screenshots, well, you were right (and stop reading my mind already!). Do yourself a favor and feast your eyes on some of these (Tenebrae) and these (Tenebrae2). These engines are based off the GPL'ed Quake 1 source, people! I mean, OMFG! T2 could be on par with Doom3 (in terms of capability, if not performance...yet), and it is _open-source_! Under the _GPL_! Which means it can only keep getting better! Alright, I better stop here or else I'll exceed my quota of exclamation points...

5) Convergence of Media - Check out this excellent article from gamesindustry.biz that contains speculations about Sony's long-term plans. Better believe the PSP will be my "Walkman" once it's released!

Okay, I think that is all I have to say for the moment. I am very excited fo

I was at an IGDA meet a few weeks ago, and the discussion was on Women in Gaming (which the IGDA have a forum on).
The idea of "female games" and "male games" was not taken very well. Most women gamers actually play action games, while it is the men (males 18+) who play the "female games" (The Sims[1], EyeToy, Pokemon etc). While the games played by kids did was the same regardless of gender.

[1] I'd argue that this has more to do with the Naked Patch than anything else ;-)

It's a tough time in the games industry, and anyone contemplating getting in should do the research thoroughly. While the risks are high, I believe game development could be refined into long term sustainable, profitable business by re-thinking the process of game creation.

Meanwhile, even government organizations like TEKES in Finland have started to seriously support the development of games and related technology and IGDA has already networked thousands of game developers together. Individual developers may fall, but game development is still a growing industry.

And we all heard about the return of shareware. PopCap's Bejeweled may not turn the heads of VCs with it's content, but a million copies sold is no peanuts.

Maybe if I finally updated my Palm games (/shameless plug) I could get rich quick, too. :-)

Jouni

The International Game Developers Association has a PDF Game Submission Guide that gives you ''publisher feedback on submission checklist items, and information on what to expect before, during and after the pitch, along with insight into the publisher decision-making process.'' You have to fill out a free registration before download but it may be worth it to you.

The International Game Developers Association has a PDF Game Submission Guide that gives you ''publisher feedback on submission checklist items, and information on what to expect before, during and after the pitch, along with insight into the publisher decision-making process.'' You have to fill out a free registration before download but it may be worth it to you.

Heya Mike, thanks for the compliment! I'm one of two software developers that are working on the Cyberlink Brainfingers technology. In early May we were featured in a special on the Discovery channel called "KAPOW! Superhero Science" where I demonstrated playing the videogame "Oni" using our Cyberlink product and our latest game-enabled software. We've developed software that, using the Cyberlink, can emulate mouse and keyboard macros to allow you to play off-the-shelf games in a novel way. The program is supposed to air again either in June or July. Is that how you found out about us?

I had a couple points I wanted to address regarding your post:

1) We are working on providing a more cost effective version of the Cyberlink that would appeal to the mainstream market. Right now the technology is used primarily for people with physical disabilities but we are currently working on allowing it to be used with games. You can actually fire weapons more quickly using a Cyberlink headband than you can by clicking a mouse button in some cases. Its pretty trippy to use it with a game like Unreal Tournament because as soon as you think about pulling the trigger, you probably already have. :) I can fire 100 milliseconds faster than I normally can using a mouse button. An average person takes about 300 ms to react to something. Using the Cyberlink I can react in 200 ms, sometimes even faster if I'm really "in the zone". It doesn't seem like much, but it can make a significant difference in fast paced games, especially with instant-fire type weapons.

2) We are also taking part in a newly forming "Game Accessibility" committee being headed up by Thomas Weston of Pin Interactive. Our charter involves helping to make games easier to use for people with disabilities. An article about the subject can be found under the title Game Accessibility on the International Game Developers Association website.

How does that apply to you? Well, a lot of very good technology that is designed for people with disabilities ends up in the mainstream consumer market before long. The television remote control is a fine example of such a technology. The Cyberlink (brainfingers) technology originally was part of military research to allow pilots to fly and otherwise control aircraft using brainwaves at the Wright Patterson Airforce base. A scientist working on the project eventually left to form the company Brain Actuated Technologies which I found out about and then went to work with them due to the work that was done at Patterson. :)

Out of curiousity, if a device was available to the general public that allowed people to play video games using brain control, how much would people be willing to spend for something like that? Does the idea of such a thing freak people out?

Take care all. :)

Michael McIntosh
Senior Software Developer
Brain Actuated Technologies, Inc.
http://www.brainfingers.com

Resource links for people interested in getting into the game industry

I found it to be very helpful.

I'm gonna plug the Independent Game Developer's Association

The true RTS pioneer was Dan Bunten. I was absoultly astounded after reading the article on gamespot that Dan Bunten's games Modem Wars (1986), Command HQ (1988), and Global Conquest (1990) were not even mentioned. Dan Bunten was awarded a lifetime achievement award by the Internation Game Developers Association in 1998.

Tragically Dan Bunten abandoned the field and changed his pronoun to her (and his name from Dan to Danielle) in 1991. Dani Bunten passed away in 1998 of metastatic lung cancer at the young age of 49.

A good history of Dani Bunten's accomplishments is available from The Underdogs. Also here in Google cache