SIEGE Report, part I.

This weekend, I took a break from Scylla and Charbidis (aka "my current projects") to check out the second SIEGECon, a nascent gaming development conference. While it's currently a big networking/hobnob/recruitment meeting, it has a ton of potential. Here are some notes from my brief visit. (Graphics) Engines and Open Source This was very much an IT vs. IS meeting, both within the panel and between audience and panel. The main software guy on the panel (and one of four identifiable IS people in the room) was a former Dynamix developer, who was highly involved with the Tribes 2 engine. He's currently driving development on an open source framework for developing games (taking Eclipse as inspiration), the basic description of which places it on my list of projects to investigate. The other interesting thing I noted was the large presence of "Game Programming" students, and that most of them were actually there to find out (a) which open source library to use, and (b) in 2008, the effects of including open source libraries in their work. The audience didn't seem impressed when "do your homework" was the answer. :-) IT mentality was also present on the panel, as the DBA of the group kept resetting the focus when he felt the conversation was getting too deep. One of the speakers put integration problems of the various game engines in context, by stating that software written for one purpose (e.g., First-person shooter) probably won't be suitable for another purpose (e.g., strategy board game). This point is fundamental. Software, as crystalline thought, is built with the constraints and contexts of the time. Had I been thinking on my feet, I'd have asked the students in the group if they understood. Into the Den of Snakes I view advertising (and similar marketing disciplines) as a practice of devaluing experiences. That's as nice a term as I can use, actually. So, I had to think carefully before attending the "Advergames" panel. Since this was held in a large suite, I would be unable to hide any open disgust or contempt. As it turns out, the panel went very well: there was a serious (if futile) attempt to explain games' role in the context of marketing. The most impressive (not necessarily in a good way) aspect of this panel was that the conversation was mostly held within context of embedded, Flash games. There were mentions of other games, it was all Flash. The first highlight of this panel was the local entrepreneur throwing down the gauntlet to a (small) room full of marketers: "Don't make the games crappy {by using your ads}." More on that, later. The second highlight was the extemporaneous design given by one of the game designers, when asked to give an example of a (website) traffic-driver game. When SIEGE posts the audio, I'll revisit this topic with a link. The third highlight was the Flash "developer" in the audience, who bemoaned the lack of ability to capture users' changing of focus to another app, and even walking away from the computer to do something else. I had to resist the urge to openly mock him. And yes, advertisers are still asking about ROI, as if it's even relevant. That question was correctly swept under the rug.

posted at: 22:33 | permanent link to this entry

Today's topic for discussion is:

The heels are on, and the gloves are off. The latter exercise seems to miss the point.

posted at: 21:53 | permanent link to this entry