Decisions, Decisions

I have two big decisions I've facing at the moment.

Firstly, GDC doesn't want me as a speaker next year, so I am weighing up whether to attend. I don't particularly want to go to San Francisco in February, but on the other hand it's still the most important networking engagement in my calender.

While I don't mind not being chosen as a speaker this year - GDC favours those in the direct employ of the big corporations, those connected to the big videogame brand names that draw in the punters - I was offended last year that certain people on the advisory board awarded themselves sessions that in my opinion offered very little of interest, while they themselves could claim no better "name draw" than I myself can offer.

Secondly, I'm very honoured to have been asked to join a newly established IEEE Task Force on Player Satisfaction Modelling. It's a voluntary gig, so I have to weigh up the commitment against the benefits of accepting (and also think ahead to what my next contribution to the IGDA will be...)

I'm swaying towards accepting at the moment. It's a field that I have become well established within - or alternatively, that has established itself around where I happened to be working - and anything that draws attention to it has benefit.

Thoughts welcome.

Comments

[Corvus]

They didn't want my talk either. I've got my hat in the ring for volunteering again. I'd rather donate my talents to the success of GDC than my money. In all modesty, I have more of the former than the latter.

[Matt Mower]

If the networking at the GDC is useful then I would be inclined to go, but not register. Hang out, arrange a few meetings, do as much networking as possible - but don't give them financial support.

[Patrick]

I pitched 5 talks - nada.

I'm still angling for an EGW session, which I think I've got a shot at considering the evolution of Loot fits the criteria perfectly, and Jon knows me. I'm really crossing my fingers on it, because I need to be there for some meetings, but I'd rather not pay.

[Darius K.]

My metrics panel was turned down, too. We even had name draw and big corporate folks who would be on the panel, not just little ol' me. Ah, well.

[Borut]

The GDC has seemed that way to me for several years now, granting repeat lectures for "big names" or friends of big names, which are used solely to demo their latest game, or the pedantic philosophies of designers who don't actually follow those philosophies in their own games.

Granted, it could be simply because conference-goers rate them all as excellent speakers, or you could view it the more insidious way, take your pick. But for me it's become a over-priced vacation where I can go drinking with old friends/coworkers. :)

[Chris]

The first year I went to GDC, it blew me away. But since then, I have found fewer and fewer exceptional sessions.

I usually submit 2-3 talks, but this year the deadline for submission passed before I had time to field more than 1.

I'm inclined to follow Matt's advice - I could go to San Francisco, visit some friends, and get in my networking without forking out the cost of the convention pass. I just don't believe I'd get a $1,000 worth of value.

I take it no-one has any comment on whether joining an IEEE task force would be a sensible or foolish idea? :)

[Matt Mower]

I wasn't going to comment because I have no personal experience (never having been invited to join an IEEE task force on anything!) but since you repeated the call what follows is my usual ill-informed ramblings (jaundiced by 5 years of working in an institution that loved to form "task forces" for everything).

My concern would about being sucked into a group that is either (a) a talking shop, or (b) a rubber stamp for vendors, or (c) both. I'm not sure if the IEEE suffers as badly with as the IETF and W3C in this regard (you hear a fair amount of complaining about this sort of thing, especially vendor stuffing).

Some questions I might ask before joining are:

Is there a clear focus?
Are there (or are there likely to be) a few, well understood and agreed, objectives?
Is there anyone good on it that I would like to hob-knob with?
How many vendors will be on this task force?
Is there an elephant in the room?
What is the voting procedure for anything to be approved or certified by the task force?
Who will do the actual work?
What will I achieve by being here?

and the all important question:

What else could I have achieved by not being here?

M.

[Chris]

Thanks for the advice, Matt; I have answers to many of these questions already, I think.

I suspect what I might achieve by being involved is furthering my own goals of propagating awareness that players have diverse needs, and cannot be treated as a single invariant pattern.

It also sounds like my obligations would be relatively light, which is my primary concern about getting involved.

Thanks again for the input!

[zenBen]

All:
The IEEE task force is thus far mostly full of academics, and was set up by one of the more principled and dedicated researchers into player satisfaction. So I don't forsee problems with untoward industry influence. The bigger problem is usually getting any recognition or hope of collaboration with anybody in industry.

Invitations have gone out mainly to people with whom the task-force founders have had previous contact, so plenty of others will have been unintentionally overlooked. Look up the website and get in touch with the chair Georgios Yannakakis, he'll be delighted people are showing interest.

Workload and focus-wise, this whole area is quite neotenous and so this is a definite attempt to draw the borders around the area. Previous workshops we've held on the topic have been successful but slightly divergent, and I'd imagine one of the first things to do will be to define the area. After that, well next year I'll probably be holed up in my mountain-top cave writing my thesis in guano on scraps of bark, so it's not for me to say!

I'd encourage the curious to engage with it though - after all, one can always 'unvolunteer'...

ps I have a question - is it worth applying for a student pass scholarship for GDC? I doubt I'd be applying anything I learn to my PhD, its too late in the day for that. So what are the benefits (apart from maybe meeting Jade Raymond :D )?

[Chris]

zenBen: thanks for the input on this. I think I will accept Georgios' invite.

As for a student pass scholarship, I know nothing about this, per se, but if the question is: would you gain any benefit from attending, I'd say most of the benefit would be in meeting people. There will be a few interesting sessions for you, but probably not so many as to make it a 'must attend' event.

Best wishes!