On Sunday, 4 March 2007, my particular GDC experience started with a 500-mile drive from San Diego to San Francisco. There were plenty of points of interest along the warpath, such as the quarry of Pyramid Lake, and a lots of small towns that I never knew existed, such as Lost Hills. I resisted the urge to “smell the roses” during the 8-hour trip, but as I reflect, I wish I didn’t.

After I crossed the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, which was made infamous by a single death in 1989 caused by the collapse of a 15-meter section of the upper deck, I was met with the odd traffic system of San Francisco. The city is truly a strange place with all sorts of symbols on the road everywhere, people crossing the street at any moment, and one-way streets that are named differently from block to block. I have never been beeped at so much in my life, particularly by taxi drivers; although, I believe at least two of the beeps were warranted.

I eventually found The Mosser, circled the area a few times, drove into a parking garage the wrong direction, and was told that The Mosser provides their own valet parking. When I exited the garage, I finally saw the valet parking sign. I checked into the hotel, and found that the elevator was offline for renovations. Although nothing like the steps of Clifford’s Tower, trudging up sixteen flights of stairs to the eighth floor with a backpack, guitar, laptop, and food satchel does cause fatigue. The room I reserved was a single with a shared shower and restroom down the hall. This was the first time I stayed in a room that was smaller than the bathroom at my home in San Diego, but I slept like a baby the next night.

On Monday, I slept in for a few hours and then attended the Chapter Formalization and Management Workshop produced by International Game Developers Association (IGDA) shortly after noon. The content of this workshop was what anyone would expect, but I enjoyed meeting everyone and learning about the other chapters. After several years of e-mail communication, for the first time I met Jason Della Rocca and Rudy Geronimo. Jason is the Executive Director of IGDA, and Rudy is now the former Community Manager of IGDA. I also met Joe Casey who is the new Administrative Director of IGDA.

To my surprise, I ended up sitting directly next to Dr. Michael Capps, chief executive officer at Epic Games. Epic Games is most recently known for Gears of War. I didn’t know who he was until we introduced ourselves at the end of the workshop! He’s also a director on the board of GDC and IGDA. I’ve been playing games developed by Epic for a long time, starting with ZZT, Jill of the Jungle, Solar Winds, Castle of the Winds, and Jazz Jackrabbit. Jill of the Jungle was one of the first games I ever bought, initially as shareware. Alas, Mike only recently joined Epic Games.

I was also introduced to artist Ian Stead and designer Erin Hoffman at 1st Playable Productions. They are directors on the board of the Albany chapter. When the workshop ended, the group rejoined at Buca di Beppo for dinner. I tried to introduce myself to Tom “The Game Attorney” Buscaglia, but he was on the phone with his son. I didn’t see him the rest of the night, so that was a bummer. At dinner, I sat across from Rudy and Erin, and next to Ian. The food seemed to just keep on coming… After dinner, we parted ways, and I caught up with Jason and Mike. We walked to the Marriott, I guess, looking for a group of people at the bar, but we later found that group of people went to a different Marriott. C’est la vie!

On Tuesday, I was bored. I was bored because the free expo pass I received from an unnamed source would only be useful on Wednesday, and the IGDA Members-Only Party would start later in the night. I had more than a few hours to walk around the city, but I ended up just visiting each convention center. I first looked at all the schedules trying to find Raph Koster, and then I went to Moscone North to redeem my free expo pass and then to the IGDA booth. I retrieved my free t-shirt that would never fit me, and talked with Joe for awhile. He’s a cool, interesting guy and had some good things to say about me, which I guess is always a good thing! I’m looking forward to working with him.

I headed to Moscone West to check out the GDC Bookstore. There were quite a few books on game development that I had never seen. I also saw books by people I know. The “hey, I know that guy” response is always a treat. Raph’s book was stacked higher than any other pile of books. There seemed to be a low supply of Lev Manovich’s book on new media. Julian Dibbell’s book on virtual commerce was selling. And Noah Wardrip-Fruin’s books were there, too. I retrieved a GDC 2005 pin from one of the kiosks, and collected a bag for my IGDA t-shirt.

As I wandered around outside the bookstore, Jim Buck, chief executive officer at Twitchy Thumbs Entertainment, flagged me down. I knew he was going to be at GDC, but I didn’t know where or when. Jim was checking out the whole indie game development shebang. He’s on the board of the San Diego chapter. As we were chatting, Andi Smithers passed us and headed toward the elevator. Jim mentioned that “we know that guy.” I practically shouted Andi’s name, he turned abruptly, and we talked for a bit. Andi is Senior R&D at Sony Online Entertainment. He’s also on the board of the San Diego chapter.

Across the street was the Metreon, and I figured that I should check that place out while I’m here. I remember reading a case study about the brand identity of Metreon, so this was a great opportunity to experience the place. Inside the Metreon, there is a lot of room for walking. I decided to eat and drink lunch, and then see a movie. I saw Black Snake Moan featuring Samuel L. Jackson. As a guitarist who enjoys playing the blues, this film was entertaining. It’s about a bluesman who gets caught up in bad relationships. I’m not sure what the lesson of the story was, but it’s certainly all about the blues. Oh, you also get a chance to see Jackson play guitar. Whether he actually played is another matter, but the music’s good enough to feel.

After the movie ended, there was still an hour or so left until the party. I went back to my hotel, walked up the stairs, and checked out my blog statistics. Apparently, MIT Convergence Culture Consortium picked up the ethical debate that involved David Edery and me. Thank you, Sam Ford, for giving me something else to talk about at the party! Then, I left for some “influenced” schmoozing.

When I arrived at Roe Restaurant and Lounge for the IGDA Members-Only Party, I was greeted by one line that surrounded the building that became two lines that surrounded the building. One line was for members who RSVP’d while the other line was for members who did not. Around 2,000 people RSVP’d, and I think there were that many attendees or more. Once inside, moving around was difficult because there were so many people. There was a floor below and a floor above. I grabbed my name badge and went upstairs. The third floor was disco-ready with one of those balls of light twisting and turning. Not my scene, so I went underground. The first floor had a cool, dimly lit atmosphere. The first two guys I met were game academics and we talked about the ethics of the Kotaku-Sony situation. After all, I was just mentioned by an MIT group, so I figured what better way to break the ice with two academics then to relate to what they do. They had never heard of MIT Convergence Culture Consortium or David Edery, but they were aware of Henry Jenkins, who also mentioned me in the past.

Over the course of the party, a number of people were introduced to me. I’ll mention a few. Lee Wilson is Technical Director in The Sims Division at EA Redwood Shores. Dr. Darion Rapoza is President at Entertainment Science and Research Associate at Duke University involved with experimental neurosurgery. Darion is also a developer of serious games for drug addictions. Josh Levenberg is Software Engineer at Google. Olivier Jasmin is President/CEO at Fugitive Interactive. Most conversations I held were personal, thus I will not describe them here. I believe networking is all about cultivating meaningful relationships with people, so our conversations were not oriented towards doing business or anything that would merit blogging. I should describe a major embarassment though!

When I was downstairs talking with Darion, over his shoulder I spotted someone who looked exactly like a younger version of Neil Patrick Harris of Doogie Howser, M.D., fame. In fact, I thought he was NPH. Despite rational thought rejecting the notion that perhaps NPH is a member of IGDA, I believed he was NPH. Darion moved on, so I pursued the NPH lookalike, but he kept disappearing in the crowd.

I thought that perhaps the AMF drinks, the lighting, and the noise were causing hallucinations. I found Ian who introduced me to two developers from Mexico. I told them about NPH being in the building. Ian set out to solve the mystery. He left me and brought back, to my surprise, Chris Bream. Chris is Technical Director at Terminal Reality, a studio most well-known for BloodRayne. We were both laughing about the confusion, and Chris recited some quotes from Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle to lighten my embarassment. Smooth, Chris. Smooth.

Although I had a free expo pass, I had to check out of the hotel by noon on Wednesday. Of course, when I checked out, I couldn’t keep my car in valet, so I just began the journey home. I was looking forward to stumbling around the expo and picking up swag, but I guess there’s always next year.

“Treat others as you would want to be treated by them” is a moral that I learned as a child. Although philosophers call this moral the ethic of reciprocity, most people are probably more aware of the name The Golden Rule. Variations have appeared throughout history from the words of Confucius to the doctrines and traditions of every major religion. With so much coverage, I am always taken aback when someone or some organization fails to practice this ethic.

David Edery recently called my attention to a short-lived public relations debacle involving Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) and Kotaku, a popular rumor mill for interactive entertainment. The trouble brewed like so:

1. Kotaku discovered a rumor concerning new Sony technology.
2. Kotaku, after deciding to publish the story, sought information from SCEA.
3. SCEA requested that Kotaku refrain from publishing the story.
4. Kotaku questioned this request.
5. SCEA informed Kotaku that their access rights would be revoked.
6. Kotaku published the story and sent a copy to SCEA.
7. SCEA revoked the access rights previously granted to Kotaku and demanded the return of SCEA property lended to Kotaku.

David describes this incident as “public relations lunacy” and “one of the most foolish public relations moves in the history of the video game industry.” [I think the latter description is exaggerated.]

I disagree with the claim that the actions of SCEA were foolish. SCEA acted rationally, reasonably, and sensibly in the face of yellow journalism. Kotaku had already decided to publish the story prior to contacting SCEA. Kotaku did not provide SCEA a legitimate opportunity to control the story. Kotaku was going to publish the story with or without additional information, clarification, confirmation, or consent from SCEA.

Given that Kotaku denied the nondisclosure request, this incident indicates that Kotaku considers content more important than healthy relationships with their content partners. I argue that the credibility and reputation of Kotaku can and should be questioned. I would advise that people be wary of the information they provide to Kotaku as this incident suggests that the editors of Kotaku cannot be expected to stay mum about information mistakenly shared. Since Kotaku editor Brian Crecente described himself and the editors of Kotaku as journalists, not bloggers, I believe that Kotaku should be held accountable for their behavior as journalists.

Instead of civil respect for the Golden Rule, what can be observed are Kotaku readers praising the editors of Kotaku for “sticking it to the Man.” Kotaku let that image be created in the minds of their audience. In effect, their failing to satisfy standards of journalistic integrity is a direct contribution to the sphere of social problems that businesses in this industry face.

I would agree that SCEA made a mistake though. If SCEA were serious about their nondisclosure request, SCEA could have offered an alternative solution after receiving a lukewarm response to their request. SCEA could have offered other information for another story in exchange for delaying the publishing of potentially valid information about their new technology. There are always ways to maintain mutually beneficial relationships with respectable journalists. Those ways simply need to be found.

Sometime ago when I was in charge of quality for a global group of game developers, there were discussions about the future of the organization. At the time, the ambitious project in which we were involved was in early development. The group had seen more than one hundred team members over the past half-decade. We expected our team to fracture due to external constraints on their time.

To address our expectations, I proposed that we establish a channel for revenue that would be used to fund production. Among the number of suggestions, from merchandising to selling out, the most interesting was the suggestion that we form a nonprofit publisher of interactive entertainment. This organization would serve to formalize our group and retain our interests in providing a noncommercial, free real-time strategy game as promised to our community.

Due to various setbacks and creative differences, I left Wildfire Games; however, I believe we missed an extraordinary opportunity. Pursuing the opportunity would have, of course, consumed much of our time and the production schedule would have suffered. The nature of our loose, virtual team comprised entirely of volunteers insisted that we maintain our current course despite forecasts and conventions. In fact, I know we missed an incredible opportunity because someone beat me to the punch.

Martin de Ronde, cofounder of Guerilla Games, recently announced the launch of OneBigGame, the first nonprofit publisher of interactive entertainment. I’m excited about this venture, and I will be paying particularly close attention. Good luck to de Ronde and company!

In the meantime, there is a video preview of the project on which I worked. Check it out! The video demonstrates that AAA titles are possible without AAA budgets. Success can be achieved with only perseverance toward a dream of something greater.