[games_access] GDC news

Tue Aug 15 11:58:07 EDT 2006

A quick update -- we won't hear about the roundtables for a while so 
maybe we'll get one or both of those. Jason pointed out yesterday 
that maybe having the short-sput roundtables will impact people more 
after seeing accessibility idol -- the problem with the tutorials is 
that they take place BEFORE the main attractions start with GDC. So 
while it's not what we'd wanted, finger's crossed that they will at 
least give us some roundtable time.

The good news is that we have a TWO hour time slot for accessibility 
idol versus a 1 hour slot. That means that there can be a lot more 
"information sharing" (ie, teaching) that occurs during the session 
and we can focus our energies on making sure that Idol gets the 
attention it needs to really be a jam packed session.

We do have a lot to discuss about this -- we need it to have some 
irreverent humor and not be a "everyone's a winner" for participating 
in the challenge session because that leaves people with the "great! 
now we've done something!" feeling when really all they've done is 
attend a session. So we need to figure out how to get a "so WHY WHY 
WHY is this not in [game title x]" kind of over-the-top attitude. So 
I'll be setting up a SIG meeting soon for us to start discussing this 
in more detail and discussing which of us can pull off the best 
"catty humor," "probably under the influence of some kind of mind 
altering substance, etc parts YET still be able to get design 
critique across. Because this is a SHOW, after all, and the best way 
to reach the "must attend" status of a "Will Wright talks about 
cattle futures" or a "Game Design Challenge: Mr. Rogers shoots up a 
bunch of Aliens" session is to bring some outragiousness to the 
session! So we need the perfect blend of people with over-the-top 
personality and ability to get important accessibility info out.

BTW -- I decided a few weeks ago that I'm not going to be a dull Ryan 
Seacrest but instead be a Tyra Banks meets Janice Dickenson loudmouth 
style host. :D

Michelle

>Well...after dealing with a ton of fun at airports the last few 
>days, I just got back to find out that the GDC people are not going 
>to allocate space for a game accessibility tutorial this year due to 
>the low turnout (especially by the end of the day when it REALLY 
>counted because people had to fill out forms about it). Also we had 
>so many different people coming in and out throughout the day that 
>they didn't get counted either. I'm trying to appeal this but we'll 
>see.
>
>So this might be the end of that idea I had that the accessibility 
>idol session would result in an increased buzz about accessibility 
>and thus increase our numbers for the tutorial. The good news is 
>that the accessibility idol session is a "go," as well as a group 
>gathering (the session where we were gathered around the IGDA 
>booth). I'm trying to find out about the status of the roundtables.
>
>What does this mean for us? Well, this will really, really cut back 
>on the amount of people we can bring from the SIG to GDC because we 
>won't have a one-day session since there will be no "breakdown by 
>disability type" sub-sessions within the tutorial day. It may also 
>mean that only the accessibility idol session will result in 
>speaker's passes and that's a 60-90 minute session (not sure yet) so 
>it won't justify the larger amount of passes that the tutorial did.
>
>So...sigh...this was not the best news that I wanted to return to -- 
>I should have guessed -- my Monday started with a rental car drive 
>from Detroit to Champaign in the middle of the night thanks to 
>airport messes. No airport has the same rules right now and I don't 
>even want to go into why I wasn't allowed to board a plane...that UK 
>trip looked "weird" to the Detroit airport team...
>
>Ok, so we're waiting on an appeal but the space at the Moscone 
>center in San Fran is not very friendly for GDC so I'm thinking that 
>we're not going to get the tutorial but you never know!?!
>
>Michelle (who is trying to catch up on the latest list stuff because 
>I've been without internet connection since Thursday)
>
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