The 2007 Game Developer’s Conference
There’s sooooooooo much to talk about. So many pertinent things happened at this year’s GDC that I reserve the right to blog more later. I joined game developers, academics, and gamers for a roundtable discussion on addiction. One Blizzard employee impressed me with his comments on the Burning Crusade expansion. Also at the GDC, I talked with many people on game addiction, most notably a South Korean team of independent game designers. They had impressive things to say about the state of play in South Korea, and in speaking with them it became clear that we need a much larger emphasis on understanding international gaming culture. I interviewed developers for Dark Cave Production’s upcoming documentary, gave interviews for a few TV shows, hit parties; it was a very overwhelming experience.
The Addiction Roundtable
I finally met the games academic Dimitri Williams. He was in charge of the discussion on game addiction, and did well. I really wasn’t expecting Blizzard to weigh in, let alone send a representative. Still, they had a stance on excessive play which was right on target. Since my note-taking skills suck, I’m going to quote from the escapist’s article on the talk:
“I’m a developer for World of Warcraft,” said “Louie,” who had until this point kept his peace. “When we made some changes [to the game] in response to [certain problems], did the changes get executed because of concern for players or because there was an element of the game that wasn’t fun?
“What we wanted to address was that if there were players [with problems] that was less of a concern [than] a direct result of a gameplay mechanic that required them to [play for long periods of time].”
I’m quoted as both “Bill†and “Frank,†Shavaun is quoted as “Jenny.†If memory serves, the quotes presented in the escapist article aren’t necessarily in the order that they were spoken.
Blizzard used their expansion as an opportunity to make their game more fun. As I understand it, they weren’t going to remove a “game mechanic,†that everyone enjoys. No gamer wants that. What’s really intriguing is that they seem to be ferreting out certain mechanics which could be problematic for everyone.
For the bottom line of fun, this could be wonderful or devastating. From what I’ve seen and heard on Blizzard’s expansion, it’s more on the wonderful side. I applaud their willingness to self-evaluate and take an active interest in their product and players. Speaking of the industry in general, they’re still playing with fire. With the game dev industry’s history of trial and error, it’s easy to envision a situation where a dev, trying to make a game “less addictive,†actually removes a game mechanic that everybody enjoys. Worse yet, they unintentionally create game mechanics which make it even harder for gamers to balance play. I guess it’s alright if a few game developers, or their players, take some hits in the name of science. Still, I can’t shake this feeling that with the grand scale of MMO games, that perhaps science should be taking the hits for science.
The People at the GDC
I met many awesome people, each doing many awesome things. Scott Rigby, who I originally criticized in this blog, struck me as a very insightful researcher. I’m looking forward to reading more of his work, and possibly even collaborating on game addiction or game violence projects. Dimitri Williams, as I mentioned, had a familiarity with games that allowed him to play an excellent devil’s advocate in the addiction talk.
Bioware = awesome. All of the Bioware people that I talked with were highly engaging conversators, and more than once I found myself intentionally misallocating DCP’s chocolate chunk cookies at their GDC booth. If I do ever work making games, I would most want to work [where there’s ready access to both bacon and ketchup flavored potato chips].
I didn’t quite work up the gusto to poke my head in front of the cameras labeled MTV or G4, but I did have the urge.
All in all, my first GDC was action-packed, and filled with intriguing people. Perhaps the most interesting were a group of four South Korean students/game developers from handmadegame, who were finalists with their game “Rooms,†at the prestigious 2007 Independent Games Festival. I was staying with my sister Kjelene during the conference, and on Wednesday I got locked out of her place for about an hour. I played Rooms. It made the lockout seriously worthwhile.
South Korean Gaming – What’s the Real Picture?
I’m not so sure, anymore. In the few minutes that I spoke with these four independent developers, I learned things about the Korean gaming landscape that I had never heard in mainstream US-speaking media. It was an amazingly fun conversation. They would understand me perfectly, then talk amongst themselves in Korean, trying to figure out how to best answer. It rocked.
Here are the basics of what I learned. Some of this comes from DCP’s documentary, and I’m really hoping that those shots come out well.
-(These first two I had heard before)Professional, even Olympic-class gaming is well-established in Korea
-Arenas will commonly attract 5000 (Sometimes many more) people for gaming competitions, which are apparently free to attend and televised widely
-Each of these game developers had a favorite pro gamer, and there were fun moments where they each tried to decide on which gamer they liked best
-In news articles, I’ve seen mention that dozens of game addiction clinics have recently popped up. After speaking with these developers, I’m not entirely sure that they’re fully functional. One of the gamers had seen a game help program in a psychology-oriented research hospital (or possibly clinic), however they hadn’t seemed to have heard about the dozens recently reported in US news. I’m left more curious than I was before.
-Korea has shifted to a MMO-centric model, because piracy of PC games has become so rampant that there’s little profit in selling anything else. As a result, there are knock-offs of any and every successful game, with new MMOs being conceived and developed at every turn. Leading the pack are Lineage II, Warcraft, and other Korean MMO games, which I regrettably cannot remember the English pronunciation for. I’m not sure, but I think that one of those games was a dancing MMO called Audition.
-Like the USA, some youth understand “game addiction†differently than their parents. Admittedly, it might be because some kids have problems, but there’s something else. Games (especially mixed with the notion of addiction) are unique, and damned new. It’s not really anyone’s fault if they just don’t get it yet. It’s certainly not a gamer’s fault if they don’t get addiction. It’s a multi-disciplinary field loaded with vested interests and researchers that can only get published in single-discipline academic journals.
This was a very cool interview. The interview that I did for DCP’s documentary Gamer Chronicles gets more into game violence, addiction, and the general gaming landscape. Overall, it’s probably going to be a lot more engaging than my bullet points.
Overall, the Korean developers agreed that some players really do have problems with excessive play. They also agreed with the thought that Korea and the English-speaking countries (e.g. the USA, Canada, the UK) are major centers for the growth for gamer culture. If we’re going to learn to help the gamers that play too much, then it makes sense to learn together. I’m not just talking about cooperation between Korea and the USA. There are elements inside game addiction that deal with the human body; they impact gamers of any nationality. Understanding addiction benefits everyone.
The GDC was a very emotional experience for me. I grew up on games, and I have a deep respect for the potential of the form. At the same time, I’ve played like a crackhead more than once. Still, a hundred different developers acknowledged and validated my work on addiction. It was overwhelming, and I’m still not sure that I’ve wrapped my mind around everything that happened.
