[games_access] Austin Game Developers Conference (AGDC)

[Barrie Ellis]

Brilliant! Nice work!

Barrie

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "d. michelle hinn" <hinn at uiuc.edu>
To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" <games_access at igda.org>
Sent: Sunday, September 16, 2007 12:59 AM
Subject: [games_access] Austin Game Developers Conference (AGDC)


> Hi all,
> 
> So my promised debrief on AGDC two weeks ago. Richard will no doubt 
> have more to say about reactions to the presentation outside the 
> hours after the presentation, as I was confined to my bed from very 
> early that evening and until I left (early) for home with that nice 
> little pneumonia that followed the kidney infection (and they think I 
> got it in hospital...which is common...but still a little strange to 
> hear).
> 
> Richard and I had worked separately on our halves of the presentation 
> until we arrived in Austin. Richard concentrated on examples of audio 
> games and I worked on the game accessibility bits -- the need for, 
> introducing the issues of audio for the hearing impaired (had to give 
> them the other side of the audio issue). The presentation was titled 
> "When Audio IS the Experience: Games for the Visually Impaired" and 
> should be available on the web for download soon. I'll post news when 
> I learn about it.
> 
> We weren't sure how it would be received given how few people show 
> for our sessions at GDC San Fran AND the fact we were in the audio 
> track, which isn't the usual track for us (although it made perfect 
> sense once we were there). We'd been invited by the conference chairs 
> -- they tried to get us last year but they asked too late and we 
> couldn't make it but we could this year. So first of all...they 
> wanted the session so badly that they contacted us at the earliest 
> possible time to try to get the session this year. Impressive!
> 
> So the audience...wow. The head count according to our session 
> coordinator was about 60 and only about 3-4 people walked out and 
> that was near the end when it was getting close to the time that some 
> people needed to start setting up the Game Audio reception. So I 
> don't see them as "losses" -- they just stayed as long as they could. 
> GDC Austin is a LOT smaller than GDC San Fran -- so an audience of 
> apx 60 people was pretty huge considering all the multiple tracks 
> going on simultaneously.
> 
> Richard and I argued a bit about my "closer" for the talk, which 
> referenced social justice as a reason to care about game 
> accessibility, as we were afraid that might turn off a dev audience 
> who is concerned with the bottom line and not social messages. What 
> was interesting was that we talked about game accessibility "why's" 
> at the END of the presentation so that they got to hear the audio 
> games, get a taste of what we were talking about and then I did my 
> evangelist work. :) But taking the social justice chance worked and I 
> think it was probably because we were talking to an audience of 
> people who are already "right on" with the audio message and the idea 
> that their work could serve another important purpose really sank in. 
> We got wild applause at the end of the talk and we had people talking 
> to us for about an hour AFTER the talk (we went ten minutes OVER time 
> with audience questions alone (20 minutes total), which made the 
> audio guy really anxious, as it was the end of the day and he 
> probably wanted to take off! ).
> 
> In the week after I've received some great emails and I'm hoping 
> we'll get more audio designers on the list very soon. Our talk was 
> also sponsored by an anonymous donator -- I'll tell you who it is if 
> I can get his permission (I know who it is now). He's an audio 
> designer who first got interested in the idea of gamers with 
> disabilities after DJ-ing a dance for a school for the deaf. He was 
> perplexed as to why they wanted a DJ. The students showed up with 
> balloons in their hands and, of course, he was now really interested 
> in what the deal was. Turns out that as the music started, the 
> students put the balloons up to the side of their faces and danced to 
> the rhythms that they felt through the balloons. Wow. I'd heard some 
> things like facing the speakers down to try and pipe the beat into 
> the floor but with so many students, this was the better option.
> 
> Anyway, Richard and I both agreed that diversifying our talks more 
> into different tracks at GDC is definitely the way to go -- we seem 
> to have found a friendly audience amongst audio designers, further 
> supporting Reid's comments about his colleague. So let's push it 
> further! :)
> 
> Finally...preaching to the audio choir on a topic that they weren't 
> already interested in! Very different from having the same people in 
> every audience at every GDC!
> 
> Michelle
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