[games_access] GDC 2008 Debrief

[Thomas Westin]

Fantastic news,

I take back my previous doubts about reaching out at GDC.

Very nice to hear you guys got through all the noise, well done!

/Thomas



On 27 feb 2008, at 02.29, d. michelle hinn wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> I don't have a lot of energy at the moment but I wanted to let  
> everyone know how well things went at this year's GDC! We/I  
> definitely missed having the whole gang around this year (or as much  
> of the gang as we have had before) but it's definitely not the only  
> conference and, in fact, some of the new smaller GDCs are definitely  
> worth looking into -- they have them all of the world right now! So  
> we might start sponsoring some SIG members to go to conferences that  
> are just a train ride away (ie, the european conferences). More on  
> that later when I figure out when the next batch of deadlines are!
>
> So our big session was Accessibility Arcade: Or How to Do the Jedi  
> Mind Trick, which was repeated twice unlike the 3 times from last  
> year. So some overall comments:
>
> A/V Stuff: Of course the annual "where are the TVs?" "will they be  
> arriving -- during or after our session" kinds of things came up but  
> thanks to the conference associates that got worked out relatively  
> quickly and I didn't have to run all over the expo looking for the  
> GES (A/V) contractors. The funny thing was this year they set them  
> up in the room next door so it wasn't a big deal once they knew  
> where to move them to -- and it wasn't very far to move them! But  
> honestly? That was the worst thing that happened and it was resolved  
> in time for our session -- sure I did have a few moments of panic  
> remembering last year but with everything getting solved and  
> everyone just going ahead and setting up their stations and not  
> waiting for the TVs before starting helped a lot. So that's not much  
> of a "worst part," eh? :D Yay!
>
> Attendees: This blew me away...and I'm know it blew away Eelke and  
> Reid too who have seen way too many empty rooms we've presented to.  
> It's always hard to gauge exact numbers with a session like "arcade"  
> that allows people to come in late, wander in and out, etc. But  
> basically...we went from having an average of 2 attendees...to about  
> 60-70 (The CAs gave me a better count since they were watching the  
> traffic moving in and out) for the 4pm Wednesday session and about  
> 30 for the 9am Thursday session (not bad for early morning!!). And  
> they weren't just our usual fans (yes, the cool people from "games  
> for grandma and grandpa" were there -- cool as ever and always  
> welcome!). We had people from Sony, Microsoft (and not one of my  
> friends -- a producer of a new racing game who could use Barrie's  
> help actually!), EA, and much more. Yes...the big leagues! And yes,  
> I cried after the first session -- I couldn't believe that the  
> months put into this, negotiating with Natural Point and Emotive and  
> all the individually sent press releases helped get people in the  
> room. It was just a half a year worth of stuff and to see people  
> there who were interested and involved...wow...you really can't ask  
> for much more!
>
> Presenters:
>
> Emotiv and Natural Point kept their deal and brought their stuff  
> (although I was a wee bit scared when they said they'd show up five  
> minutes ahead of the session -- and after all I went through getting  
> them single session passes -- yes, I invoked my crying spell on  
> them...it wasn't hard given that I was in a pain cycle and felt like  
> collapsing. But I had my game face on! :) And having them come to  
> the session? Golden. So that gamble I made to ask them to join us  
> paid off -- it got people in the room to see and do the "jedi mind  
> trick" and then they stayed to check out the SIG stuff. So next  
> year? We do an all out sponsored session. Thanks to our numbers --  
> and the percentage increase over last year -- we're going to look  
> like "wow, ok! they figured out how to make this accessibility thing  
> work!" So I imagine that there will be no argument about our getting  
> another session like this for next year and maybe even make it a  
> little slicker.
>
> Mark and Stephanie from AbleGamers rocked -- they helped pass out  
> tons of our session fliers (they were combing the expo and helped me  
> out a ton because I could hardly move and this undoubtedly helped  
> with getting even more people in the room) and brought their  
> enthusiasm and passion for helping the disabled gamer community!  
> Without them I don't think I would have survived the show this year  
> -- all three of us have our own disabilities and I think we did a  
> pretty good job helping each other stay alive! :)
>
> Reid and Eelke -- Amazing as usual. Reid found a SUPER place to  
> print and burn the DVDs and they looked great and so professional!  
> And Eelke's new Blind Hero is something to behold. That haptic glove  
> -- awesome! Reid's poster looked awesome -- I'll let him talk about  
> his poster session in another email! And thanks again, Eelke for  
> bringing all your equipment!
>
> Eitan -- again, always steals the spotlight with his wiimote music  
> game -- I'm so glad you could join us!
>
> Barrie, Dimitris -- you were with us in spirit as we showed "Game  
> Over" and all of the cool controllers -- and we passed out your  
> cards and the leftover FuturePlay fliers! :)
>
> All -- Wow, all I can say is that this SIG really rocks -- we  
> finally did it! We had a great show at GDC and with funding that we  
> are getting sorted out...I'm on cloud 9. What a great achievement  
> for all of us! This IS going to be our year! We have tons of  
> developers asking us where they should start with accessibility (ie,  
> which groups are asking for what in which game? Sure, the numbers  
> and financial stuff will always be there but what a great feeling  
> that now we are in a position to start talking directly to CEOs to  
> help them make their first steps toward adding in even just ONE  
> accessibility feature in future games.
>
> So, hey, let's pat ourselves on the backs for a show well done --  
> sure we could have all felt a little better but that's how it goes  
> sometimes. It was nice to know that we all had each other's backs  
> and the passion for game accessibility was showing through and  
> through!
>
> Well done, everyone -- and everyone includes everyone who added to  
> the DVD, helped with fliers, presenters, and just all of you who  
> gave us good thoughts all week! :)
>
> Ok...need to rest a little now. But I had to give the post mort to  
> the SIG. I'm working on a posting about how much better this GDC was  
> for game accessibility to be published on ablegamers too. It was a  
> long year between this year's GDC and last year's but we've learned  
> a lot and we keep fighting the good fight!
>
> Michelle
>
> _______________________________________________
> games_access mailing list
> games_access at igda.org
> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://pairlist7.pair.net/pipermail/games_access/attachments/20080228/fb89421d/attachment.htm>