[games_access] Beyond GDC to Documentation

Sat Dec 1 01:42:10 EST 2007

Speaking from my experience, ten years is not long enough.
I can imagine it being another thirty....

Conferences are fine for meeting and greeting, those that came to  
Brighton will know it helps to place a face. They also raise general  
awareness, in an indefinable way. And it's also possible to generate  
business, though usually this is confirmed after the event.

However as I mentioned earlier there is much useful work to be done  
in publishing white papers, standards and guidelines. These are then  
available for interested parties at any time of their choosing. They  
also provide evidence of change, and something to "Shout About".

Indeed if there is some amazing breakthrough a conference is a  
fantastic place to be. But we're not there yet. I took a group of  
adults with learning disabilities to try the pre-alpha eye toy at GDC  
Europe one year, it was way ahead of the field at the time.

My feeling is that too much time is spent chatting and commiserating,  
which could be more usefully directed at conceiving, writing, editing  
and publishing documentation. Well usually I just let it pass ~:"

I happen to be acutely aware this documentation is needed. The web is  
moving from a model of static documents to one more nearly  
identifiable with gaming environments.

regards

Jonathan Chetwynd
Accessibility Consultant on Media Literacy and the Internet

On 1 Dec 2007, at 02:14, Robert Florio wrote:

That's really pathetic the way I think about it Reid 10 years to be
implemented.  No offense I'm just stating what it is.  For those of  
us who
directly are impacted by the lack of design in this industry it is so  
damn
frustrating.  I think we need to reach to a higher power outside that  
will
interact for us.  Maybe we can call Greenpeace get their  
connections?  See
if we can get some of their senators on our side.

Robert

-----Original Message-----
From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access- 
bounces at igda.org]
On Behalf Of Reid Kimball
Sent: Friday, November 30, 2007 7:05 PM
To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List
Subject: Re: [games_access] GDC 2008: VERY Bad News

Talking to other audiences is fine and valuable but we can't abandon
the main games industry. We've made a lot of progress. You can't see
it right now, but I know we have. People have heard of us, they've
seen our work. That's step one. Steps two and three will come. It
often takes 10 years for an industry to adopt radically new ways of
thinking and unfortunately, accessibility does complicate the design
and tech requirements which requires developers to think differently.

On Nov 30, 2007 3:01 PM, Thomas Westin <thomas at pininteractive.com>  
wrote:
> Hi
>
> just want to add I've started to become a bit cynical about GDC  
> after four
> years of low number of attendees. I'm also disappointed by this,  
> but for
> other reasons than the GDC judges
>
> Let's not forget GDC is just one conference, although the biggest it's
> perhaps not the best - low numbers of attendees is really not our  
> problem,
> it's the industry's problem, that they can't see the importance of
> accessibility for the future of the industry. We're here to help, but
since
> the industry (with a few exceptions/individuals) isn't listening at  
> GDC,
> they do listen elsewhere.
>
> I'd say we should aim for other conferences where people have  
> interest and
> time to listen to us. FuturePlay was a great success; let's focus on
similar
> conferences where we can succeed rather than getting disappointed  
> at GDC.
>
> /Thomas
>
>
>
> 30 nov 2007 kl. 20.00 skrev d. michelle hinn:
>
>
>
> Well, there's lots to do, that's for sure. We also can't forget  
> that some
of
> us (you, me, Richard, others) were hit by the GDC flu and/or had to  
> go to
> hospital (my kidney nightmare) and the selection committee doesn't  
> allow
you
> to petition for that. That DRAMATICALLY impacted a lot of our  
> sessions and
> Idol went way differently than we'd planned for. So we had a lot of  
> bad
luck
> last year that isn't the fault of anyone -- but it did impact how our
> proposals were viewed.
>
>
> As a group, we just need to remember that we are a group. We are a
volunteer
> group. But we are a group and we do a lot! And every time we get a  
> chance
we
> have to remember to talk about the group. Sure, we all have individual
> goals, jobs, lives, etc -- but if we all remembered to mention that  
> we are
a
> part of this group, this movement, I think it would go a long
> way....especially when it's something good! :)
>
>
> Michelle
>
>
> Sounds like a challenge.  It's too bad there was a bad reputation now
about
> our group.  Just feels the fighter though to get the word out about  
> our
> initiatives even more.  Still baffles my mind like game  
> accessibility is
> just not excepted at all by the mainstream game design community.   
> Until
> someday, some mainstream game designers are injured and can't find  
> their
> favorite games anymore and then we'll see.  But apparently the last 20
years
> they've all been pretty invulnerable.
>
> Robert
>
>  ________________________________
>
> From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access- 
> bounces at igda.org]
> On Behalf Of d. michelle hinn
>  Sent: Friday, November 30, 2007 12:48 PM
>  To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List
>  Subject: Re: [games_access] GDC 2008: VERY Bad News
>
> Hey,
>
> The only feedback I've gotten was informal from people I know who work
there
> -- the sessions weren't judged on content as much as based on low  
> numbers
of
> attendees and a lot of bad press from GDC07 (many people on the  
> advisory
> boards for each section (audio, design, etc) gossiped, Idol  
> participants
> complained...and, yeah, that web archive was mentioned -- google,  
> etc are
> not our friends). So we live and learn. I'm not going to go into  
> specifics
> because it will hurt us to go into it and we don't need that --  
> There's
too
> much to do and we cannot spend the little time we have until GDC08  
> talking
> about what happened after GDC07. I know I brought it up because,  
> yes, I
was
> angry that morning because the low number of acceptances for this  
> year was
> what I was afraid might happen. But I was also angry because I really,
> really killed myself over the proposals for this year.
>
> Unfortunately, it's not academia so they won't ever provide us with
concrete
> comments or a feedback page about what we could have done
better/differently
> or even what they hated. And it's not a blind review either. Basically
this
> year we need to atone and re-earn respect as a group. >From what I've
heard,
> however, if you have never had a proposal accepted that you turned in,
they
> were EVEN MORE likely to not take a chance on your proposal...so I  
> guess
we
> are lucky that we got three sessions (two were solicited but even  
> those
went
> through a bit of a review as well).
>
> So when you say you can pay your own way...do you mean that you  
> want to
buy
> your own pass?
>
> We'll have accessibility arcade and the meet and greet to show some  
> stuff
at
> -- we won't have as much room but we should have stuff for people  
> to look
at
> and some of the stuff are great conversation starters. So we won't  
> need as
> much this year -- my broken controller (the Quad Controller that  
> has now
> been broken TWICE by airport security so it really looks bad) is  
> quite the
> conversation piece. I think I could have just carried that around at
> FuturePlay all day to get the word out about accessibility! :D
>
> Michelle
>
>
> Hi,
>
>
>
>
> I'm sorry to hear about the passes. I'll be driving from Reno to SF  
> so I
can
> take all my accessible hardware if need be. (If there is space to demo
> them?)
>
>
>
> Michelle, did they provide us with specific feedback on those  
> proposals?
> what were the main criteria for not accepting them?
>
>
>
>
> I can pay my own way to GDC since I have some money left from my grant
that
> I need to spend before august, after UNR decided not to approve my  
> travel
> request to Futureplay. Besides it's cheap for me to go there anyway.
>
>
>
> Cheers Eelke
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On 27/11/2007, Reid Kimball <reid at rbkdesign.com> wrote:
> While this is isn't the ideal situation it's not a total loss for the
>  group and we have to work within our resources to do the best we can.
>
>  If only three of us can come, then I suggest we don't bring any
>  hardware accessories. Instead, let's create flyer's and brochures
>  about the accessories. Maybe even produce videos of people using  
> them.
>
>  I also recommend that because we are a smaller group this year, we  
> try
>  to have personal meetings with game developers to talk about how we
>  can help them.
>
>  -Reid
>
>  On Nov 27, 2007 12:25 PM, d. michelle hinn < hinn at uiuc.edu> wrote:
>>
>>
>> Ok...
>>
>>
>> So remember when I was writing for days straight for all the GDC
> submissions
>> without a whole lot of help? All submissions have been accepted  
>> now so
we
>> have some bad, bad music to face. I never did put up all the final
>> submissions on the WIKI -- I was too tired after the deadline and it
> doesn't
>> matter as much now. I'll get them up for archive reasons.
>>
>>
>> Well...we've been hit by reality this year. I hate to bring this up
again
>> but I feel that I have to -- A lot of public word got out about  
>> our big
>> post-GDC fight last year (it's archived on the net...). I'm not  
>> saying
> that
>> it was any one person or any one comment -- I can't even look at the
> archive
>
>> without beating myself up about it because I felt like I had really,
> really
>> let everyone down. I got the proposals and the passes but I couldn't
make
>> our showing work in the best way possible. I couldn't be everywhere
>> advertising our sessions. I was far from perfect, we were all far  
>> from
>> perfect, we had big dreams but not enough people doing the work. I'm
not
>> saying everything goes back to that but we had a big year last year,
had
>> more than enough passes for everyone...and that was then. It's  
>> hard for
>> me...well, it's very sad for me to realize that we had it so great  
>> last
> year
>> and we didn't recognize it, we didn't have enough real help when push
> came
>> to shove (or suitcase pulling came to suitcase pulling back and forth
> every
>> day to the convention center). All the "should of" "would have"  
>> "could
> have"
>> things are coming back to haunt me. I stopped flogging myself about
this
> a
>> while ago and thought that I had come to peace with it but I realize
now
>> that I still haven't stopped flogging myself about not being
superhuman.
> I
>> know. I know. Stop it.
>>
>>
>> So...we only had one proposal accepted. All the acceptances are in  
>> now.
>> Reid's [cc] poster (downgraded from a 20 minute talk but I think this
> will
>> get more people) submission.
>> [ https://www.cmpevents.com/GD08/a.asp?option=C&V=11&SessID=6456 ]
>>
>>
>> The other two were IGDA solicited (ie, they did not go through the
> system)
>> -- accessibility arcade and the SIG meet and greet. That buys us two
more
>> passes -- one is mine since I'm SIG chair and one was for Eelke  
>> for the
> meet
>> and greet because he helped on the proposals.
>>
>>
>> I'm going to try and talk to everyone I can think of to try and get a
few
>> more passes because one of those is a roundtable and was solicited by
> IGDA
>> (that was NOT in the proposal process) and it's accessibility arcade.
To
>> pull that off, we need more people. I hope that this gets us a few  
>> more
>> passes.
>>
>>
>> The booth is out of question unless we can get some SERIOUS money  
>> FAST.
I
> am
>> trying every angle I can think of but so far no luck. The booth SPACE
> costs
>> $5100 for 10x10 booth -- add on about $3000 more for the "required"
> minimum
>> of stuff we have to provide...no way. IF we get an expo booth it will
get
> us
>> more EXPO passes, which will restrict those with these passes to just
> being
>> able to get into the expo area (no talks, etc). That's the reality.
>>
>>
>> I'm sorry to have to tell you this and I'm sorry for the anger/ 
>> sadness
in
> my
>> tone. We are not going to be able to bring everyone we want to. I  
>> cannot
> say
>> when or if I'll hear if we can get more passes. I know some of you  
>> have
>> already made flight and hotel arrangements. If you are one of these
> people,
>> please check with your airlines, etc for the last date to cancel
without
>> penalty.
>>
>>
>> So three passes...that's it. That's where we are at. I will let you
know
> if
>> the pass situation changes but for now it doesn't look great. We now
have
>> fifteen fewer passes so those of us in attendance are going to  
>> have to
> try
>> and talk our asses off at GDC.
>>
>>
>> Michelle
>> _______________________________________________
>> games_access mailing list
>> games_access at igda.org
>> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access
>>
>>
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>
>  --
>
>
------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
----
>  Eelke Folmer                           Assistant Professor
>  Department of CS&E/171
>  University of Nevada              Reno, Nevada 89557
>  Game interaction design        www.helpyouplay.com
>
>
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