[games_access] E for All -- Let the Post Mortem Begin!

[Barrie Ellis]

Thanks for the write up Michelle. Apparantly 18,000 people attended - 
hopefully many of which took a look at the GASIG booth. I see there was a 
black out at the show too - was this a stunt from you lot to make the whole 
show inaccessible? http://kotaku.com/gaming/e-for-all/e-for-18000-313476.php

Barrie


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <hinn at uiuc.edu>
To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" <games_access at igda.org>
Sent: Monday, October 22, 2007 4:06 AM
Subject: [games_access] E for All -- Let the Post Mortem Begin!


> Hi everyone!
>
> E for All was very successful in the eyes of those of us who were there at 
> the show. No, we weren't the "sexy" booth because we didn't have money for 
> giant flashing songs, etc but that didn't matter and I think worked in our 
> favor at this show.
>
> Yes, it was smaller than the old E3 but what helped us was the number of 
> press attention, other game company attention, and consumer awareness 
> raising that our booth got because, hey, they took a look at our table 
> with controllers that looked like bombs, etc and the second they 
> approached we were there to tell them what on earth they were looking at.
>
> Media that talked to us include such diverse news outlets -- from "stars 
> and stripes" magazine (US military magazine -- they were excited to learn 
> about how our stuff can help soldiers who are coming back terribly hurt 
> learn to help with rehab and get back to psychologically feeling like 
> there are ways to enjoy life and that all the work ahead of them does also 
> come with the things that make life worth wanting to live again) to the 
> satire mag "the onion" (he worried me for a sec but he worked for the more 
> serious "a/v geeks" area).
>
> Many of us had so much trouble getting to LA due to storms in the midwest 
> and others (me) wound up in the ER TWICE during the show -- it seems like 
> i have a nasty pneumonia and i also tested positive for the "superbug" 
> that is going all around the US. I've learned that some of us are just 
> lucky carriers. So no way to know what was actually what but I think it 
> was mainly exhaustion that cause it all to implode.
>
> On that note...if we, as a SIG, are going to have a booth at GDC this 
> year, we need to REALLY think about whether people will be willing to do 
> the shifts to make this work. Since our   schedules were so bad due to 
> flights, we just went with "are you exhausted? i'll take over -- you leave 
> for an hour....leave the building." I doubt any of us can say that this 
> show wasn't pretty damn tiring. I have been schooled in all things expo 
> for major shows -- contracts with five vendors, five unions, etc...whew.
>
> And all of us there have a legit post traumatic stress case against 
> rockband (blackhole sun...black hole sun...blackholesun....)
>
> More later and I'm sure others will add their comments too as we go. I 
> think it was a really cool thing to give it a shot and I think we did 
> well. Thanks everyone for helping us get equipment ect before the show and 
> thanks to everyone who helped with booth shift duty!!!
>
> Funny story before I close...namco? they were two booths down. 30 minutes 
> before show close today, they came over -- seems that they have a lot of 
> one button games so I told them about what 1 button meant in our world and 
> they were like "wow, VERY cool." then...they saw our pac-man 
> ghosts....they laughed and said that they liked them and said that they 
> wouldn't turn us in but did say that we should talk to their legal before 
> the next time -- and that they'd help see if namco can loan out the ghost 
> intellectual property as a contribution to the cause.
>
> Hehe...always dealing with some kind of legal stuff but at least these 
> guys were cool. one was the dev on the popeye one button game.
>
> Now...I must go to sleeppppppp...
>
> zzzzzzz
>
> Michelle
> .......................................
> these are mediocre times and people are
> losing hope. it's hard for many people
> to believe that there are extraordinary
> things inside themselves, as well as
> others. i hope you can keep an open
> mind.
> -- "unbreakable"
> .......................................
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