[games_access] GDC 2008: VERY Bad News

d. michelle hinn hinn at uiuc.edu
Fri Nov 30 12:47:37 EST 2007


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 
><<mailto:reid at rbkdesign.com>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 <<mailto:hinn at uiuc.edu> 
>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> 
>>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
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>>
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>Department of CS&E/171
>University of Nevada              Reno, Nevada 89557
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