[games_access] GDC 2008 Update + Non-Profit Status

[Barrie Ellis]

That's somewhat fantastic news! Good 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: Thursday, January 31, 2008 2:43 AM
Subject: [games_access] GDC 2008 Update + Non-Profit Status


> Hi everyone,
>
> I'll try to keep this brief (but you know I get carried away at times) ;)
>
> Just to keep everyone in the loop about GDC 2008 since so few of us are 
> able to attend this year, we have quite a few exciting developments!
>
> First, a few thank you's are in order!
>
> * Thanks to Mark from AbleGamers, we have a sponsor for our fliers through 
> his employer Parature who is sponsoring his trip costs as well!
>
> * Thanks to the hard work of Thomas and Reid, we'll have a limited edition 
> (ie, number) of DVDs with tons of accessible games, demos, and more to 
> give out to influential developers who we will walk amongst the week of 
> Feb 18th!
>
> * Thanks to Eelke's generosity, we were able to squeeze in one more person 
> with a pass -- so this year we will have both Mark Bartlet and Stephanie 
> Walker, both of AbleGamers, with us and I look forward to their amazing 
> energy, passion about games, and excitement about being able to attend GDC 
> for the first time! The weird timing of GDC this year prevented many of 
> you from attending but I think this will be a great year, although we will 
> miss those of you who were unable to attend this year!
>
> (I know many more thank you's will be in order as we get closer to GDC and 
> after!)
>
> Second, we have some exciting guests for Accessibility Arcade!
>
> * Natural Point/SmartNav will be donating their LATEST controller 
> prototype (along with a representative to explain what's going on) plus 
> some video and/or a prototype of their full body motion sensor work (which 
> includes remapping to partial body motion that translates to full body 
> movement in the player's avatar).
>
> * Emotiv will be presenting their highly publicized brain-based controller 
> along with a representative from their company. Ed Fries (my boss's boss 
> from the old Microsoft days) is one of their advisors and I was able to 
> get in touch with their CTO who is working all the details out.
>
> * I'm in talks with Belkin to also present some of their new controllers, 
> including a one-handed controller they showed at E4All
>
> What does all the above really mean? We now have some major companies 
> (with booths who will let us leave our fliers at!) who will help us 
> promote accessibility, are PROUD to show that their products can help 
> gamers with disabilities (in addition to bringing games to so many more 
> people, with and without disabilities), and may soon be financially 
> assisting us as we continue to raise matching funds for our grant. 
> AND...we'll be getting a MUCH bigger presentation room. :)
>
> Speaking of the grant...
>
> * The SIG is now officially a US Non-Profit through the newly established 
> IGDA Foundation. I didn't want to say much until I had more details but we 
> are now able to accept donations and provide tax deduction receipts to 
> donors -- I'll post more specific details soon but I didn't want to sit on 
> that any longer!
>
> * Ben and I are working hard to get more matching funds to help fund 
> delegates to more conferences, equipment purchases, flashy brochures, a 
> donor package explaining who we are and what we do, and more. The press 
> release for "phase one" of this will come out right before GDC so my BIG 
> job at GDC is acquiring as many additional funds as possible.
>
> And finally, a word about the IGDA Diversity Committee:
>
> * (ok more than "a" word) I've been gathering together the leaders of all 
> the diversity SIGs in the IGDA (we are in the "diversity" committee, btw) 
> in the hopes that we can sponsor a "diversity day" at next year's GDC and 
> to raise awareness that gamers are no longer "just" 26 year old white 
> males with no disabilities and neither are all game developers. We all 
> know this is not true and it's time that we start to band together and 
> learn from one another's groups in the hopes that ALL of our groups can 
> continue to grow. There is a meeting planned for Tuesday afternoon for all 
> (not just SIG leaders) those interested in working to make diversity a 
> MAJOR issue within the IGDA!!!
>
> Ok. That's it. I know. That was long. But I used bullet points for a 
> change. ;)
>
> Michelle
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