GDC 06 So Far

It's the second day of the Game Developer's Conference 2006, and so far there isn't much to relate. Yesterday saw some interesting talks, with Linden Labs CEO Philip Rosedale offering up a discussion on serious games entitled You Can (Not) Be Serious. There was also some Talk of Mobile gaming with Nokia offering up some views on that part of the industry. Earlier today Jesper Juul gave another view of serious gaming, A New Kind of Game. He discussed how games have evolved, and where they're going now that they've begun to gain broad cultural acceptance. I got into San Jose earlier today, and so should have a rundown on the press preview event later tonight. Things to look forward to during the rest of the week include the Sony (Wednesday) and Nintendo (Thursday) keynotes, a talk by Battlestar creator Ronald Moore (Wednesday), and Will Wright's talk about the future of Game Design (Thursday).

Comments

International?

[Eightyford]

From the link:

43% of all users in Second Life are female, with a median age of all Second Life users of 32, and 25% of all users are international.

What the hell does international mean?

Re:International?

[Nafai7]

I'm pretty sure he means "not in the same country as Linden Labs". In other words, outside the U.S.

For the record, I thought the usage was a bit strange too.

Re:International?

[ClamIAm]

They only play on airplanes that are over oceans.

Re:International?

[cliffski]

it makes sense to the same kind of person that thinks its beneath them to not place an interntaional dialing code on their business phone number. Happily, the majority of us in the 'rest of the world' have learned that its usually only american companies that have this particular arrogant habit :D

Re:International?

[Anonymous Coward]

Worst... When they do include the international code, it's the number one. :P

Re:International?

[Anonymous Coward]

Most Americans don't even know what the international dialing code is for the US. If you tell them "dial a 1 before the number" they'll look at you with a funny "confused" look and say "No, that's how you dial long distance."

Re:International?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not that it's beneath us, we're just tired of snooty Europeans always calling us to remind us how provincial we are.

Re:International?

[spagetti_code]

43% of all users in Second Life are female

Or claim to be... How many of the females playing are "voluptuous 18 year olds" :-)

Re:International?

[OldeTimeGeek]

Maybe because the majority of American companies don't see themselves as doing business outisde of the US and probably will never have to? It's not because it's beneath them, it merely serves no purpose.

Besides, as was stated in another post, most Americans don't know what their country code is. It's not because we're stupid, it's because most people don't make or receive calls from people outside of the US.

Re:International?

[Karma Farmer]

Maybe they look at you with a funny confused look because it's impossible to dial any international call just by "dial(ing) a 1 before the number."

Every country's telephone system has an International Direct Dial prefix you need to dial before the country code. It's usually 00 or 011. If you try to dial North America by just "dial(ing) a 1 before the number" it's almost certainly never going to work.

Re:International?

[macshit]

that thinks its beneath them to not place an interntaional dialing code on their business phone number. Happily, the majority of us in the 'rest of the world' have learned that its usually only american companies that have this particular arrogant habit

Er, OK, well you have the smiley, but ... that's definitely not true.

If anything, it's rather unusual to have an "international" number (with country-code) on a business-card in the non-US countries I'm familiar with (Japan, UK). It seems to basically be only large companies with significant international dealings that do it by default (I suppose small companies with significant international dealings must do it too).

In very small countries where a large proportion of business is done across borders, it may be more common of course.

[In practice it may actually be more common for a US number to be "internationally usable" (though by accident), because the initial 1- prefix used to dial a non-local US number happens to also be the proper country code for the US/Canada (and I think mexico too)... :-]

Re:International?

[Anonymous Coward]

What the hell does international mean?

In the US, 'international' -- when applied to a person -- really means 'foreign'. I.e., not a US citizen.

I guess the idea is that 'international' sounds more elite and urbane. Also, some people perceive a negative connotation to the word 'foreign'. But really this is just being hypersensitive, like the people who want to replace 'woman' with 'womyn' and 'history' with 'herstory'.

Any Spore Booths?

[WillAffleckUW]

It's all the buzz in my neighborhood in Seattle, and I notice Will Wright is doing the talk on Thursday.

Failing that, are there any rumors about it at GDC?

Nokia?!

[SheeEttin]

There was also some Talk of Mobile gaming with Nokia offering up some views

OH GOD NO.
Nokia's offering advice on handhelds? Someone get me my shotgun!

Re:Nokia?!

[9mm Censor]

I think Nokia has valuable input, such as: - Sidetalking = bad - dont do what we did

A New Kind of Game - Sims 2 and GTA

[WillAffleckUW]

so, based on this article, can we expect a new version of GTA: Sims 2 to come out, in which we can roar down the streets of our Sims 2 Nightlife neighborhoods in our hot cars, and cap the capo who lives on the block?

Or is it just that people worldwide find FPS really boring (except Black, that really rox my sox).

Of course not

[shoptroll]

Of course there's nothing much to relate... The first two days are the Mobile Conference and Workshop days. At least that's how it was last year.

I don't expect any real big news to come out of the Keynotes from Sony, Nintendo and Wright. At least nothing that will affect consumers directly. Keep in mind this is the DEVELOPER'S Conference, so any big announcements are gonna be more developer related... like Nintendo's unveiling of the WiFi service at last year's keynote.... Although Spore was kindof the oddity... albeit thought-provoking to developers I think.

Re:Of course not

[Anonymous Coward]

Nintendo's Keynote may not be all that important to the typical end user but it should be interesting none the less. Iwata will probably have a standard (for Nintendo as of late) speech based on their "Blue Ocean" strategy, demonstrating how less expensive (yet more unique) games like Animal Crossing, Nintendogs and Brain Training have sold so well even though they are not that graphically impressive, are not the hundredth installment of a series, and did not have a massive budget. From there they will probably move onto a discussion on how the Revolution and DS empower developers to produce unique games (at a lower cost) that will sell well. Finally Nintendo will (may) release technical specifications for the Revolution which will both ease developer's fears and at the same time highlight their (conceptual) difference from both Sony and Microsoft; that is the system won't be able to produce the 'killzone trailer' but it should handle games at a similar graphical level (possibly with [slightly] lower mesh/texture detail as well as at a lower resolution) as both the PS3 and XBox 360. Potentially you may even hear about launch price or even launch date estimates.

Re:Of course not

[shoptroll]

I don't doubt that given the talk is "Disruptive Development" or something like that. I'm not expecting release date or technical details since a) developers have already gotten 2nd gen dev kits so tech specs seem somewhat pointless (unless they're trying to attract new devs or those sitting on the fence) and b) release date is something more geared to the e3 presentation.

Re:Of course not

[Anonymous Coward]

Iwata will be revealing the final product name of the Revolution on Thursday.

Second Life...

[AdamTrace]

The thought of doing any realistic simulation on Second Life cracks me up. Simulating emergencies and distributing medical supplies?! Give me a break.

I'm pretty new to the game, but 99% of what I've seen are casinos, shopping malls, people idling in chairs earning about $0.01 every 5 minutes, and furries.

Or maybe I'm just hanging out in the wrong places...?

Re:Second Life...

[6ame633k]

I think he was steering clear of some of the weirdness that can be found in second life (kinky sex for example) and focusing on education - perhaps he should merge the two and discuss second lifes role in (virtual) sex education!!

Re:Second Life...

[Anonymous Coward]

Discussion of sex in second life on Gamasutra just last week:

http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20060317/zelfden _01.shtml

GDC doesn't really start till tomorrow...

[Castar]

Well, I might be wrong, since I've never gone on Monday or Tuesday. But the Expo starts Wednesday, and that's when the mainstream conference starts (Monday and Tuesday are Mobile and Serious gaming, not mainstream console/PC games).

Also, as Zonk noted, that's when the keynotes start, which are the interesting part for journalists.

I'll be there tomorrow!

possible spiritual successor to TRIBES?

[pjp6259]

What I'm really excited about this GDC is a possible spiritual successor to TRIBES. Garage Games has a booth there, and they employ many of the people who created the original TRIBES game, which most of you probably remember as one of the most innovative FPSs of its time (vehicles, jet packs, skiing, command map, etc.).

There have been lots of hints lately that GG will be unveiling something similar to TRIBES to show off their new Torque Shader Engine, but they are being very coy about the whole thing. Speculation is that they don't own the IP to TRIBES, so they need to be very carefull about comparing what they are doing to TRIBES.

here are some details.

a quote from an employee at GG:
"The only scary thing is that, while the GDC demo is expected to turn more than a few heads, unrealistic expectations are dangerous. Yes, you guys would probably flip your shit if you saw the demo, but I don't think GarageGames wants to be known for crushing hopes and dreams. I don't want to dampen the speculation, just temper it a bit.

Keep the hopes and dreams. We've still got them."