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Biden talks video game violence with industry representatives today
US vice-president Joe Biden is meeting with games industry representatives today to discuss the role of violent video games with regards to gun violence, as part of a response to last month's massacre at a Connecticut elementary school. As the Associated Press reports, today's meeting in Washington is the latest in a series of discussions Biden's task force is undertaking before presenting recommendations on how to suppress gun violence to President Barack Obama on Tuesday, January 15.Meetings with film industry representatives and the National Rifle Association took place yesterday, with the NRA emerging "disappointed" from what it felt was an attack on the Second Amendment, objecting to a number of proposals including limits on high-capacity ammunition magazines and bans on assault weapons.The Entertainment Software Association confirmed to Polygon that it's being represented at today's meeting by president Michael Gallagher. Sources involved with the meeting told Polygon other attendees include representatives for game publishers, research on the impact of video games on children, and the retail sector.Several industry organizations, such as the International Game Developers Association and the Electronic Consumer Association, issued open letters to the vice president ahead of today's meeting. The IGDA calls on the government to consider the "totality" of research into video game violence, and to avoid causing the games industry similar damage to that suffered by the comic book industry because of the censorship laws of the 1950s. Similarly, the ECA notes a negative correlation between the growth of the games industry and the decrease in violent crime across the last decade.As Polygon learned this week, there are plans to reintroduce a bill to Congress calling for a Federal Trade Commission study into connections between violent video games and harmful effects on children. The bill, originally brought to Congress last month following the Connecticut shooting, failed to make it through the 112th session on January 2. Its author, West Virginia senator Jay Rockefeller, is likely to reintroduce the bill before the end of the month. Previous FTC studies failed to establish any causal connections between violent video games and violent behavior.
Kate Edwards named IGDA's new executive director
Gordon Bellamy stepped down as the director of the Interational Game Developers' Association last July, and the organization has finally named his successor. Kate Edwards will serve as the group's new executive director, after being an IGDA member for 16 years, and founding and chairing the IGDA's Localization Special Interest Group.Global cultural strategy is Edwards' specialty: She worked for Microsoft as a geopolitical strategist in the '90s, and more recently worked at her own company, Englobe, since 2005. In addition to her other experience with the IGDA, Edwards also helped co-organize the Game Developers' Conference Localization Summit. The IGDA's chairman, Dustin Clingman, says he hopes Edwards will use her talents to help the group "lay a foundation for ongoing international growth."
IGDA executive director resigns, joins China's Tencent
Gordon Bellamy, the (now former) executive director of the International Game Developers Association, has stepped away from the post to join Tencent, the popular Chinese online social service. Bellamy will remain on the IGDA's board (where he was before he took the executive director post), but will step away from day-to-day operations. Dustin Clingman, the current board chair, will take over in the interim until a new director can be found.Tencent runs a number of popular online social and gaming services in China (including the world's largest online community, QQ), and has recently been putting together a collection of ties to major Western gaming companies. Bellamy's Twitter account now lists him as the Director of Business Development and Industry Relations at Tencent. According to his recent tweets, he's "excited for Tencent" and is "looking forward to working with the world."
BioWare plans to grow community with cross-platform offerings
On stage at the 2011 International Game Developers Association Leadership Forum here in LA, BioWare's Senior Director of Business Planning Development Richard Iwaniuk took the stage to chat about how the company has built up its online community into the 3.2 million-strong registered users it is today, and what it plans to do next to keep that growth going. Iwaniuk's main point was taking BioWare's franchises, which of course include Dragon Age and Mass Effect, and spinning them out to cover as many platforms as possible -- not just the HD consoles, but mobile platforms, online social networks, and even into areas like films and television. Iwaniuk said quality was a big part of that push, but "quality," according to Iwaniuk, "is becoming more relative as opposed to absolute." He added that "it's going to be defined as much by the consumer as it is by the product. It's relative to the genre or the platform that that product is being served on." Iwaniuk said that while sales or ratings might have been indicators of game quality in the past, these new platforms call for other "key performance indicators," like player engagement or just simple awareness. "If [players are] promoting your game," said Iwaniuk, "that's success in some of these genres." Iwaniuk cited Felicia Day and her Dragon Age work as a great example of a cross-platform push on BioWare's end, and said that even BioWare was learning -- originally, the company was using social networks like Facebook simply to push out information and promote its products, but "in actuality, it should be more of a pull" in those places, where BioWare pulls in player feedback and making use of it rather than simply trying to raise social awareness. And how soon will we see this player feedback put into practice, and all of these cross-platform offerings revealed? "Stay tuned," teased Iwaniuk. "I think that might be as short as three or four weeks, and you'll know more."
IGDA looking for feedback on L.A. Noire development conditions
The International Game Developers Association, a game industry non-profit organization, is responding to this past weekend's report of continuous "crunch" and dictatorial working conditions at LA Noire development studio Team Bondi by launching a full investigation. According to IGDA chair Brian Robbins, the organization will be soliciting reports, "positive or negative," from "any Team Bondi employee and/or family member." Robbins told Develop, "Reports of 12-hour a day, lengthy crunch time, if true, are absolutely unacceptable and harmful to the individuals involved, the final product, and the industry as a whole," echoing sentiments made in the past by a variety of game industry leaders. He also encouraged the aforementioned folks tied to Team Bondi to shoot an email to "qol@igda.org," before he added, "But no lolcats please ... okay, maybe a few."
Turbine's Fernando Paiz to keynote PAX East IGDA conference
PAX East is less than half a month away, promising to be a good time for fans and developers alike. Considering that it's one of the only major gaming conventions in the northeast, we're not surprised that the International Game Developer's Association would have a presence, hosting both a series of panels on breaking into game design and a developer summit. It's the latter that's of the greatest interest to MMO fans, as the summit's keynote speaker is Fernando Paiz of Dungeons and Dragons Online fame. Taking place on Saturday, March 12th at 10:00 a.m. EST, Paiz's keynote speech is titled "The Game Monetization Revolution: Embracing new business models that are good for both players and developers." While the content of the speech is not known, odds are good that it will cover the successful Dungeons and Dragons Online free-to-play switch as well as what it means for the future of games in general. It's an interesting kickoff to the summit, and it shows just how much impact MMOs are having on the larger game industry.
IGDA executive editor resigns after first year
International Game Developers Association head Joshua Caulfield has resigned from his position after approximately one year and three months on the job, reports the organization's blog. This follows the recent departure of chairperson Brenda Brathwaite, and just before another rumored loss from the board of directors. For its part, the IGDA has said it's "not falling apart, though it may appear to be." According to the IGDA spokesperson, the resignations are reflective of changes at the organization on the whole. "The 'old' IGDA served a smaller industry in a different time, and some of the 'old' things have to fall away for real change and growth." After leaving the organization, Caulfield will head up the executive editor position on an architectural board. He characterizes the split as mutual and amicable. "It's just time for the next step in my career. I think the IGDA is headed in a great direction, and I look forward to helping to make this a smooth transition." Caulfield's last day with the IGDA will be sometime in August, though the organization has already begun seeking a new leader.
California AG and developers sound off over bill facing Supreme Court
In a statement released by the International Game Developer's Association recently, the group called California's controversial game bill "oppressive censorship, singling out one form of expression based only on popular myth and biased research." The response came just days after the US Supreme Court decided to allow California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's appeal to review the bill on a federal scale, though it's been ruled unconstitutional multiple times in his state (not to mention the similar bills in other states that have also been shot down repeatedly). We reached out to the California Attorney General's office to find out why it's pursuing a bill that's been plagued by overrulings, and were told, "All of those courts held that it is up to the US Supreme Court to decide whether extremely violent material can be treated the same as sexually explicit material under the First Amendment when it comes to minors. This means that we had to ask the Supreme Court to extend the law, something the lower courts were not willing to do." We further pressed for why it's targeting video games over films, television, and other entertainment mediums. A representative responded, "There is a growing body of social science that has identified violent video games as being especially harmful to children given the interactive nature of video games, and the FTC conducted investigations that showed it was easier for minors to buy Mature-rated video games than it was to get into R-rated movies." However, the IGDA's statement contends "Violence is conveyed in explicit ways on television, in print media, via the Internet, and in film. All of these platforms constitute speech protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution." The piece also states the association's position that it remains staunchly against "censorship of expressive media in all forms" but points out that it's especially against politicians using that censorship "for political gain." The appeal could see its first hearing as early as this October, when the Supreme Court begins its next term. [Via GamePolitics]
IGDA issues statement regarding 'Rockstar spouse' accusations
While we've yet to hear anything from Rockstar Games surrounding the repeated allegations of mismanagement and overwork of employees at its San Diego, Vancouver, and New York City studios, the International Game Developers Association has issued a statement denouncing the claimed actions by Rockstar. "In any studio, the IGDA finds the practice of undisclosed and constant overtime to be deceptive, exploitative, and ultimately harmful not only to developers but to their final product and the industry as a whole," it reads. Moreover, it highlights the importance of "events like these" for raising visibility of "quality of life issues in the industry and among the public." It goes on to point out the December 2009 "IGDA Quality of Life survey" that found "over half of the developers surveyed felt that they needed more time for themselves and their families." Perhaps unsurprisingly, nearly every email we've received from Rockstar employees regarding the recent claims has mentioned this exact problem.
Idea pitch-to-publish ratio low in gaming industry
Jason Della Rocca, former executive director of the International Game Developers Association just put out an interesting editorial at GamesIndustry.biz. He talks about the importance of having great ideas for games versus the ability to actually execute them. This piece is written about the gaming industry as a whole but it sounds all too familiar for MMOs specifically.One thing in particular that caught our eye is the concept of idea pitch-to-publish ratios. In most businesses, many ideas are tossed around before anything is ever acted upon. Based on Jason's experiences, he feels that game developers can become way too attached to their ideas and as a result, the gaming industry has a much lower pitch-to-publish ratio. This can lead to bad situations for both the game studio and to an extent, the players. From a business point of view, investors care much less about your ideas than they do about how the implementation of your ideas can make them money. As for players of MMOs and beta testers especially, when an idea has become too precious to the developers, does your feedback even matter?
IGDA calls Mythic 'disrespectful' for not crediting all Warhammer devs
In a turn of events that doesn't really surprise us given its source, IDGA chairperson Jen MacLean has said in the group's recent newsletter that Mythic's choice to not credit all those who worked on Warhammer Online is, "disrespectful of the effort of the game developers who worked on the game, and misleads both consumers and game industry peers," While the choice doesn't particularly sit well with us either, the IDGA is taking the news very gravely. And so they should, seeing as they represent game developers around the world. "Some people claim that providing complete credit information...encourages people to leave their job before a game is complete," continued Chairperson MacLean. "These reasons are simple window dressing for policies that are arbitrary, unfair, and in some cases even vindictive, and they simply don't hold up." Finally, she made her case against those who would call credits unimportant because nobody reads them by saying, "The number of people who read a game's credits is irrelevant. Even if only one person reads the credits of a game, integrity demands that all work be accurately and honestly represented." Our stance on the issue is the same as it was before. If Jon Doe worked on a game for eight months before leaving a development team for whatever reason, that should not suddenly make his hard work null and void.
