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:
- 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
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...
Slashdot Mirror
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 :(
;)
. php
/. earlier...
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/13/ 2112231&tid=209
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
- 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
- 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