Unformed Reality

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Unformed Reality

• with Seamus Blackley

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Unformed Reality

• Why Are We Here?

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Unformed Reality

• Where Are We going?

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Unformed Reality

• How Do We Know When We Get There?

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Unformed Reality

• What the Hell is going on Anyway?

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State of the industry

• NOT as big as Hollywood
• 2002 US domestic game sales 5.5 billion
• 2002 US domestic box office 9.1 billion
• 2002 US Music Sales 12.2 billion
• 2001 NAB/TVB data 54.4bn US advertising revenue
• 2002 US Leisure/Entertainment Book Sales 9.5
  billion
• We are still a niche medium
• 2002 US domestic games units 162.7MM
• 2992 US domestic movie tix 1.9 BILLION

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State of the industry

• Not creatively driven
• Technology and market driven
• Marketing people approve projects
• Programmers tell Artists what can be done
• License driven
• Becoming the marketing arm of the other media
• Only way to generate awareness
• This means were driven by Pop culture
• Not driving it

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State of the industry

• Not able to determine whats really happening
• What metrics should we use to guide the business?
• Why do certain types of games sell well?
• Why do consumer tastes change?
• Why are licenses suddenly working?
• etc.
• Classic case of knowing what but not why

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Who the Hell Am I to Say??

• Started life as a musician
• Mainly to get girls
• Theoretical High Energy Physics
• Academic dues paid in full thank you very much
• Design
• Success, failure, and purgatory
• Xbox
• 847,000 frequent flier miles
• CEG
• Bad Attitude
• Jason thought would be amusing to you

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Whats your point then?
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Its Time for Us to Get Some Tools
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Example My Philosophy of Physics

• Physics allows you to be master of your universe
• Physics allowed my professors to avoid being
  drafted for the Vietnam War
• Physics allowed the design of the 777 that
  brought me to London to be done entirely
  digitally
• Theoretical tools in aerospace are outstanding
• Allowed Boeing to be masters of their medium

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We Are Not (yet) The Masters of Our Medium

• It is our master
• This is why other media own our asses
• We have to change this

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Keeping the Industry Down?

• The lack of theoretic armaments is keeping us
  down
• Lets look at some of the ways

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Publishers are Scared

• No idea how to do Development
• Therefore must seek McValue meal deals.
• No idea how to understand the potential of new
  ideas
• And getting worse
• No idea how to even categorize new concepts
• Idea of standardized submission scares me

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Developers are Pussies

• No understanding of the business of publishing
• Yet willing supplicants of the publishers
• Not the case in other media
• Little understanding of the consumer
• This is an academic area
• No understanding of ways to systematically
  innovate
• Nor any ideas on how to train people how to do
  this

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Audience is Confused

• Look at the randomness of reviews
• Im not offended by the lack of critical press
  of the literary type.
• Though I do feel the strong need for a
  professional critical corps because
• Im worried that were not consciously training
  our audience
• This is critical for the future
• Ratings responsibility
• Cultural placement
• etc.

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Seamus is Confused

• Xbox
• CEG
• My own games

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Xbox Experience

• What are the major problems faced by games?
• From the Audience and the developer?
• That can be solved with technology?
• And what should be addressed in other ways?
• That can be solved by business practices?
• And how can you measure success?
• That can be solved by Microsoft?

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CEG Experience

• How can the production process be enhanced?
• How can the distribution process be enhanced?
• What is the real potential of Online Distribution?

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Looking Glass Experience

• Why do we find ourselves in a blissful state of
  gameplay angst?

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The Answers Exist

• One finds them in random places

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Develop Mind Your Language

• A great article by Ben Cousins of Big Blue Box
• Jump times
• Level sizes
• Interesting analogy to battlefield measurements
• Transit times
• Understood as a very valid military academic
  subject
• Randomly came across it
• Friends are using it now

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IGDA, GDC, MCV, etc.

• Busy developers browse programs
• See copies of magazines in the lobby
• Hear about panels and talks from friends
• Most developers dont get to go to shows
• Hit and Miss
• Its no good if good research and results exist
  in places only those of us who are actively
  interested can find them!

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SoThe Knowledge is There, How do You Make People
Care?

• Disconnect as usual between academic and
  commercial worlds
• This is nothing new, exists everywhere
• Must show actual benefit to the commercial world
• In an easy to understand, executive summary
  kind of way
• Must do it in a way that is easy to access from
  the real-time commercial world

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How to Show Benefit

• Increase profits
• Obvious, but do you add this analysis to your
  work?
• Increase predictability of performance of novel
  ideas
• Hits Business means innovationsuccess
• Not be freaks
• Physics personal hygiene code
• Not talk like outsiders

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Become part of the Development Culture

• If you do not work in the industry, find a way to
  live in the industry as much as possible
• Learn the realpolitik
• If you do, be careful not to go on theory rants
  that put off your peers
• At this point, you are an ambassador to an
  important new world
• But a world that most industry people dont
  understand the value of (yet)

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Lets get it together

• I dont have the answers
• The more I think about it, the more stupid I
  discover that I am
• Therefore its your problem
• So go work!
• Why are you sitting there?

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Questions

• ?