I have an essay up over on the IEEE Annals of the History of Computing titled, “Production Protection to Copy(right) Protection: From the 10NES to DVDs” talking about how many copy protection schemes also have roots in controlling the ability create content. Simply put, copy protection retains an inherent interest in also controlling the means of production, which makes it particularly troublesome when you start talking about first amendment rights. Here is the abstract:
Much of what modern digital rights management (DRM) systems attempt to accomplish was actually forcefully implemented on videogame consoles beginning with the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and SEGA Genesis system in the early 1980s. Examining the links between modern DRM mechanisms and these early production and copy protection systems can help contextualize the future of media production and access.
I knew I had some additional thoughts to share post-SIEGE, but they hadn’t all percolated up yet. Nor have I had the chance to sit back and record a video of the Unity 3D demo that I did. That should be coming soon. But not yet. In the mean time, Jason Della Rocca wrote up a nice post and in usual form uploaded some photos. It was nice to see Jason again at the event, making it feel a bit more like the game industry center rather than the periphery. Georgia and Atlanta have come a long way in the last year. Even Athens has a couple of fledgling businesses attempting to get things going. Furthermore, I suspect that Osy and all the work that has been going on with recent efforts at UGA may be spun off, so all in all, things seem good, despite the economic situation.
Jason’s talk, as he says in his post, focused on 10 things that don’t suck:
For my keynote, I gave an updated version of my “10 things that don’t suck” presentation. Also, did a more niche panel on economic development type stuff, and a separate lecture on failure as the path to success/innovation.
The list I walked away with was as follows:
New Interfaces
New Players and Broadening Demographics
Usability Metrics and Metrics in General
Closer Ties to Academia and Growth of Game Studies
Production Sophistication with Agile Development and Scrum
Progress in QoL
Tools and “Democratization”
Managing Risk with Real-Time Management and Release Early/Often Models
Shifting Innovation “S” Curves
Impact – Games for Change and Serious Games
Now, of course I have to convince Jason that though my PhD says “Science and Technology Studies,” I am one of those Dr. people who “do games.” It may not say game studies, but I wrote my dissertation about work and creative practice in the game industry. Of course I don’t have any snazzy photos of me and Warren Spector, so that may ultimately be my problem. But maybe that makes sense, instead you’ll find pictures of me like this one, hanging out with developers rather than the folks at the top:
GDC 2007 Photo Jog
All-in-all, the event was a delight, save one presentation that simply rubbed me the wrong way. Typically I’m not one to get up and leave a presentation, but I was frustrated enough ten minutes into the talk that I decided having my blood pressure elevated for another 50 minutes was simply not something I was interested in. Upon returning to my notes I realized that what ticked me off was a definition of “risk” that doesn’t include human time/labor as having value (“The square root of bugger-all” to be precise). Tell that to MMOs attempting to battle World of Warcraft for the time of users. Sorry. No cookie.
There was a significant call for “internship” opportunities by students present at the end of the weekend town hall meeting. I’m actually not sure that the different definitions of “internship” are the same for what students are asking for and what industry is hearing. What many of the students seem to be asking for are unpaid internships for credit to gain experience. What industry typically has are paid internships for in-school or just-out-of-school folks hoping to demonstrate and hone skills prior to entering the workforce. There is also a significant difference in these two definitions in terms of time over head (there it is again, time, sheesh!) on the part of the internship offering company as well as expected output from the intern. What may very well be the “answer” for this is to create a kind of incubation/training system where students can work with other independent developers for free/credit, rather than asking/hoping the local industry do something time demanding and different than what they have become used to. Several times I heard students say when asked about a reel or portfolio, that they simply “don’t have time.” Make time. I did. Party less. Get lower grades. Do something different, because I don’t accept that answer. I see what you do on the weekends and weeknights. I have visited the bars and I know your WoW avatar names.
Perhaps the coolest part (besides the parties, which in GDC style were “off the hook”) was that The University of Georgia was graciously provided a space at the job and education hall for having rounded up so many attendees. Having never done this before, and not really asked permission, things were a bit sparse, but I feel we did well with a budget of $0.00 and the impressive efforts of folks like Josh Marsh who posted our running trailer, available for your viewing pleasure here:
So I feel compelled to blog it when it happens, but Georgia Trend recently published an article about the growing industry in Georgia. You can read the particular quote from me after the break. But what I’ve been screaming about since arriving here is that the real opportunity for Georgia is the opportunity to make a different kind of industry. This is why I’m so interested in independent game development. Rather than importing existing large companies, Georgia has an opportunity to really forge their own industry. Ian Bogost’s comments seem to capture this far better than mine did, but at their heart are close to my own:
“Most graduates go off to California or Seattle or wherever the industry is thriving. A lot of them would happily stay here if there was more of an industry to graduate into,” says Georgia Tech professor Ian Bogost, researcher, critic, designer and author of the recently published Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System. “We’re not going to be viewed as a serious player in the industry until we see some successful products released, with critical acclaim and all that stuff.”
…
“Georgia doesn’t need to create an industry. It needs to create a unique industry,” he says. “We should be looking at what a regional games industry would look like. Every state is looking for ways to capitalize on this new form of entertainment, but the opportunity we haven’t cashed in on is the specific voice of Atlanta or Georgia or the Southeast.
I decided over the weekend that it was high-time to move my old essay from Flow TV, “The Wii-volution will not be Televised” into the academic arena. In particular it was several recent (not so recent now) articles about Sony “opening” up the PS2 that seemed to push me over the edge. While I have not decided upon a particular venue for this essay yet, though my initial estimation is with New Media and Society.
In part this was due to watching several people at conferences in my relatively recent past talk about precisely what I had written, as if it hadn’t ever been mentioned before. I have actually written about it twice now, once in Flow TV and once in my dissertation, but if my words fall in the forest and no one is listening, apparently it doesn’t really make a sound or matter.Continue reading »
The unfortunate thing about my first semester teaching was that I felt as if I was never going to come up for air. The fortunate thing about that process is that it means I’ve been sitting on a pile of thoughts on a variety of videogame development and game industry issues that I’ve been following for quite a while now. Thus, the next several posts are ones which have remained, have persevered, as tabs in Firefox for nearly two months.
The first series of tabs are perhaps critically linked to the second post I’ll be making, but fundamentally about different issues. In my dissertation, especially in the “MOD(ify)-ing Game Development Worlds” sections I talked about some of the critical issues facing the videogame industry. I also talk specifically about how those practices which are hurting the videogame industry are actually many of the practices which are being imported into other “industries,” but most directly in other New Media industries. Those two particular chapters are titled:
“Game Development Practice: A Postmortem”
“The Game Industry Galaxy: A Postmortem”
Though I tease the Phil Harrison of 2007s Game Developers Conference and his “Game 3.0” slide from the Sony keynote, recent news reports have me wondering if he was really commited to the concept and his job at Atari has created an opportunity for him to pursue Game 3.0. The other possibility is that his experiences at Atari thus far have convinced him that Game 3.0 as the industry is currently structured will never be the lively world of Web 2.0 they wish it to be.
Last night’s plenary session seemed to set the benchmark for talking about the state of the videogame industry more broadly, but also in the state of GA. In part, that is what has made the conference so far a particularly interesting one it demonstrates the kinds of intersections that occur between local activity and creative industries more broadly. But back to the Friday night plenary…
Andrea and I will be heading down to Atlanta tomorrow for SEIGE at the Marrietta Hyatt. It should be a great introduction for me (and those students of mine in NMIX 4200 who are planning to head down for the event) to the GA game development scene. What I’m hoping to find is a new fieldsite or three willing to accomodate me over the next few months (years). I’ll of course be hard pressed to find any studio as accomodating as Vicarious Visions was during my dissertation research, but I’ll try.
