[games_access] Game control question...

[d. michelle hinn]

>On Jan 18, 2008 2:22 AM, Barrie Ellis <barrie.ellis at oneswitch.org.uk> wrote:
>>  It is a good thought - but in the Quadcontroller instance - would obviously
>>  take some cash to do.
>
>It's going to take cash for any major awareness program to work.  I'd
>be more concerned about placing too many orders for Ken to serve his
>real clients - are there other controllers out there that might
>provide a similar experience and gadget factor?  I'm serious though -
>I'll toss in some cash if anyone wants to start a pool to send them to
>the big game companies.

We are working on getting cash to build awareness but we're at the 
point where we need even the most basic things. As of right now, I'm 
personally $5000 in the red because we showed this (and other 
controllers and games) at E4All back in October (who knew a "free 
booth" meant $5k in contracters, voltage for the booth, carpet, 
chairs -- alll required by the show). I'm having trouble paying bills 
now and have had to take out an emergency loan. And we'd probably 
need to call the person we'll be sending it to and convince them not 
to just toss it aside because they have other things on their plate.

I like the idea -- but it's a WAY down the line idea. We could 
perhaps purchase one for a few CEO and lead devs that "get it" with 
regard to accessibility (or better yet...get them to donate to the 
SIG and we'll buy it for them...). That is the work we do at GDC 
(yikes...just a few more weeks) where we make personal contact with 
these people. Things are slowly starting to change -- we have the 
attention of a few CEO and devs now. But wholesale sending out of 
these controllers to companies wouldn't do without us having that 
personal connection. Devs love toys but without understanding why 
this is even in existance is hard. Sadly, I've had devs who have 
actually laughed at it (ok, it *is* a garage hack basically) -- 
that's when I move in for the kill...and tell them WHY it exists and 
what if that was the only way THEY could game. Then it's not really 
funny...and then we get their cards. Some may not want a 
quadcontroller because they don't want to be unfair if they know that 
what they can afford to put in their dev cycle is something that 
helps out another disability group.

Anyway...I'm not AT ALL saying this is a bad idea...it's just that 
fund raising right now is for us to keep surviving as a group. None 
of us get paid and at the moment I don't even have a job while I 
finish my dissertation. So that's our reality. We've been around for 
most of this decade and it's just now that we are finally starting to 
see a little bit of money trickle in.

BTW, the IGDA just started a spin off called the IGDA foundation. 
Thanks to their help, we are now an official non-profit. So donations 
are now tax deductible (at least US donations). So now we ARE in a 
place where we can start to afford things like information packages, 
DVDs with our examples on them, etc. No, I'll never get that $5k back 
(some other members tried to raise some funds but the return on that 
was around $50) and I'm accepting some really paid speaking 
invitations (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Canada in late February anyone?) 
in the hopes that it will help me pay the bills. But hopefully the 
SIG will begin to get in a position to help defray future costs of 
things like this. Maybe not $5k but at least in the future we can 
begin to buy a booth at, say, Penny Arcade or GDC 2009/2010, etc. 
After the $5 disaster we were unable to buy a booth at GDC 2008 -- it 
would have cost $10k.

BTW, part two -- did you know that we have a grant that we are trying 
to get matching funds for? If not and you want to donate (you can 
even earmark money for a controller for company X and then we'll 
start calling them up), let me know. Not sure what your 
personal/company situation is but we will take anything we can get!)

Ok, I've talked enough. :) I really do understand and get your 
suggestion and I think it's something we should start thinking about 
every time we get a company's attention (especially the biggies!). 
But at this moment we can't afford it. But we should keep it in mind 
as a great goal to move toward!

Michelle