Server hard drive suffered a catastrophic failure. Backups were corrupted as well. Total data loss. I think there will be a delay before this blog is returned to the previous state…

Update (July 7, 2008): I’m slowly and selectively importing prior posts and comments.

Even the legendary King Arthur would have been awash with humility kneeling before the porcelain god, searching for a jewel-encrusted solution to his kingdom’s problems. Were he dismissive of the company he kept at his side, perhaps Arthur would not be the legend that he is today. Continuing my comments on Steve Farber’s third-book outline.

• Choose wisely. Barry Schwartz, author of The Paradox of Choice, argues that consumers are less satisfied with making decisions when aware of other options. Jonah Berger posits that consumers perceive brands with more variety as category leaders and thus are more likely to buy from those brands. Choosing wisely means making snap, focused decisions, and only looking back to let history inform judgment.
• Tithe your time. According to research by Stanford professor Jeffrey Pfeffer, time is money when you’re paid by the hour. In fact, even when not paid by the hour, thinking about your salary in hourly terms can influence you to work more, harder, and longer hours to “make up for lost time.” Tithing your time is about ensuring that you are attending to your personal affairs, viewing your life as an investment in the future.
• Give it all away. What makes a good leader? David Thomas believes that instilling a spirit of learning in others is vital, “In today’s environment, hoarding knowledge ultimately erodes your power. If I know something very important, the way I’m going to get power is by actually sharing it.” Liberate your insight from its prison for the road to thought leadership is not paved alone.
• Celebrate dramatically. “A community is like a ship; everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm,” wrote Henrik Ibsen for his play An Enemy of the People. Communities grow around common visions, not common goals or common interests. People want a flag around which to rally, and they want to rally. When you celebrate dramatically, you are empowering people to fly your colors as their colors, proliferating passion for progress.

Steve Farber, a local bestselling author and speaker on leadership, recently announced his commitment to write a third book. Even more recently, he presented an overview of the third book, tentatively titled Greater Than Yourself. Steve wants his readers to send in their thoughts about his proposed commandments. I will oblige his request since he is practically a neighbor!

• Expand your identity. Most people talk about brochures, logos, and advertising when they talk about identity, but identity has more to do with the relationships developed with the people involved with you and your organization. Expanding your identity means cultivating meaningful relationships with people in, and beyond, your circle of friends.
• Shift your perspective. Google CEO Eric Schmidt said in an iinnovate interview, “You don’t learn very much when you yourself are talking.” Shifting your perspective is a not matter of changing your opinion. Shifting your perspective is all about empathy, or the ability to understand someone’s point of view from their perspective. What do paintings look like to the blind? What do symphonies sound like to the deaf? What do diamonds feel like to the indigent? What does food taste like to the starving?
• Elevate your intentions. A recent study (within the last two years) suggested that entrepreneurs are primarily motivated by the acquisition of wealth and the accrual of power. The most effective strategy then is one that positively effects the bottom line. But a narrow concentration on fortune and status can lead to ethical, leadership, and interpersonal disasters. Elevate your intentions by transcending material motivations and embracing your moral compass.
• Commit to your legacy. “No legacy is so rich as honesty,” wrote William Shakespeare for his comedy All’s Well That Ends Well. Indeed, relationships are founded on the wealth that is trust between people. A simple, single act of dishonesty could unseal a decades-old friendship or throw a mighty empire into chaos and ruin. When you commit to your legacy, you are not committing to being remembered after you perish and have no further thoughts on the matter; you are committing to being remembered while you live.

A competitor approaches you with a lucrative bid for your consulting services company. The advantage of the sale is clear: your shareholders get rich, and you are guaranteed a secure, cushy position as a senior vice president. You could afford that pristine, dream yacht! Your customers would benefit from the larger, integrated enterprise whose accounts are globally managed by subject-matter experts. And the only disadvantage of the deal is that your employees would have to be let go.

What’s your decision? Where are your priorities (in order from greatest to least)?

1. Shareholders. Customers. Employees.
   "It’s a great deal! Two out of three ain’t bad."
2. Customers. Shareholders. Employees.
   "I think my customers would benefit more if I were a group executive."
3. Shareholders. Employees. Customers.
   "My shareholders appreciate that we care for our employees, but I have bills to pay and kids to feed. I think our shareholders know best."
4. Employees. Shareholders. Customers.
   "My employees are not fans of unemployment, but our shareholders think we should lay off the lot to provide the most value to our customers. I agree."
5. Customers. Employees. Shareholders.
   "I’ll consider the offer. My customers love the idea, but our employees have been with us for years. I need to know they’ll be safe when they hit the streets."
6. Employees. Customers. Shareholders.
   "Never! My employees are best-of-breed. I handpicked them myself. Over the years, they have formed close relationships with our customers. Our customers would not trust anyone else with their accounts. And our shareholders? They’re fat cats living large on our success. I doubt they would see value in change."

Steve Danuser commented on Raph Koster’s Signs of the Time, “Cable news is a joke. The FCC only cares about censoring smut, not monitoring fairness.” I could not agree more. I watch comedy shows — The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Colbert Report, and Real Time with Bill Maher — to get my daily dose of news and commentary. I think there was a recent poll that suggested most people do the same.

I believe the redesign and new direction of Time Magazine does signal a shift from simply reporting the news to increasing reader and viewer participation through discussion. After all, when I watch comedy shows, I expect a fair degree of bias, generalizations, and distortions of the truth. These shows amply bait the audience to delve deeper into their topics of interest on their dime. If you watched the film 300, chances are that when you returned home from the theaters, you jumped onto the Web and surfed to Wikipedia to learn more about the history of Leonidas I and Sparta. That is the power of entertainment.

This transformation, however, does not indicate the end of news reporting. Worthwhile commentary is driven by facts. If publishers of information were to engage in providing commentary on commentary, they would be relegated to blogs. News wires will continue to thrive and exist, but I think they will move deeper behind the scenes than usual.

With regards to Danuser’s statement about Federal Communications Commission and fairness, I wrote an editorial shortly after Superbowl 38 on that same issue. I have included the full text below.

Superbowl Sunday was a great day for TiVo whose viewership increased 180% in reaction to the stunt where Justin Timberlake was to pull away Janet Jackson’s bustier to reveal her red-lace brazier. As we know now, Timberlake pulled away too much. TiVo announced that hundreds of thousands of households used its unique capability to pause and replay live television to repeatedly view the incident. Also reported was a 12% increase of halftime viewership from last year.

While media and technology companies continue to profit, an intelligence failure in FCC prompted Chairman Michael Powell to launch an “investigation” into the Jackson-Timberlake stunt, and the entire halftime show. Powell cited “thousands” of complaints about the segment and commented, “I knew immediately it would cause great outrage among the American people which it did. We have a very angry public on our hands.”

Powell expressed his “great displeasure” of the incident in a telephone call to CBS President and CEO Mel Karmazin, who buckled under to FCC pressure. “Clearly somebody had knowledge of it. Clearly it was something that was planned by someone.” Powell appealed to parents claiming he was watching the game with his two children, and found the incident “outrageous” calling it “a classless, crass, and deplorable stunt.”

Powell added, “I don’t think that’s being moralistic, and I don’t think that’s government trying to tell people how to run their businesses. I don’t think you need to be a lawyer to understand the basic concepts of common decency here.”

Common decency should be a set of culture-specific moral principles for what is “right and appropriate” for consumption. If requiring empathy with the FCC edition of common decency is not being moralistic, then Plato and Socrates were not philosophers. Respecting hopes that children will develop in a safe and friendly environment is not unreasonable; however, the same is untrue of ignoring the silliness, as Presidential Candidate Howard Dean would say, of such a wasteful and clearly prejudicial “investigation.”

The authority on broadcasting ethics lacks the intelligence to make an informed decision to the exclusion of executive subjectivity. Superbowl halftime viewers were undeniably entertained and the American public is likely to care less about Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction than the more vociferous advocates of a “common decency” that disregards the complete viewership. FCC endeavors to appease minority demands instead of majority desires. Describing FCC as undemocratic and its moral prescriptions as detrimental to civil liberties would not be far from the truth.

FCC common-decency regulations are moral prescriptions forcibly imposed on public media organizations that provide entertainment and news. Due to hefty penalties associated with violations of FCC laws, media providers are bullied into conforming to what FCC thinks is “right and appropriate” for Americans regardless of actual culture and sensibilities.

In this sense, governmental morality is an artificial mechanism for limiting progress and freedom. Through these restrictions on citizens, the government gains power that the Founding Fathers had never intended or wanted the government to possess. This is not an advocacy of anarchy, however. This is a call to the public to realize that FCC severely endangers First Amendment liberties.

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.