Theescapist 086.Pdf

This week, Mur Lafferty returns to That explains the fast moving forward It’s a greedy game company’s smart discuss the rising number of game and cutting off anything left behind move to allow autonomy for the design degree programs with various tactic (“we don’t need anything that developers, since that will produce best We hear from a lot of people on a weekly industry insiders. Newcomer Blake doesn’t make us money”), as well as the games which will establish a base for basis wishing to write for the magazine. Schreurs shares the trials of an indie clinging to the Genesis system (“it made success (and thus - money) in the long Some just like the magazine’s style and game designer trying to get noticed by a us more money than any other attempt, run (think franchises), it’s too bad they want to be involved. Sometimes, they’ve publisher. Sara Grimes explores a so we must try and milk it for all it’s didn’t think of others - customers and 3d already looked at our editorial calendar potential outcome of child-focused worth”) and expensive(-ity of) add-ons. party developers - more. and have an issue in particular for which advergaming: datamining. Erin Hoffman they’d like to write. And some come jumps in to give the history and explain - shadowbird forward with fully fleshed out pitches or the importance of those in the bright T- articles, great ideas, but not at all shirts at GDC, the Conference In response to “Uwe Boll and the related to our calendar. Associates. And Kieron Gillen addresses German Tax Code” from The Escapist the oft-maligned, rarely understood Forum: The fact that game company’s It is these orphan articles that cause us Super Columbine Massacre RPG. Find continue to agree to let Boll make these the most difficulty. You see, we’re these articles and more in this week’s movies must also demonstrate the huge suckers for a great article, but we have The Escapist. amount of payoffs going on behind the designed, and love, our editorial scenes. Let’s face it: if you’re a small- calendar. It is the foundation upon which Cheers, time development studio struggling to the whole of The Escapist is built. make it, it’s got to be pretty tempting to However, we have learned in our first accept a large sum of money from Boll’s year of publishing The Escapist that company. Plus, it’s publicity for the sometimes it is best to have a little game, no matter how much the movie flexibility built into the mix. ends up sucking. I mean, does anyone actually think Postal will be anything but It is this need for flexibility that has a trainwreck? brought forth the recurring Editor’s In response to “What’s in a Name?” Choice issues you’ll find scattered from The Escapist Forum: I probably - Quintin Stone throughout the calendar. These issues know even less about marketing than are literally a mix of some of our favorite the author, but it seems to me very In response to “All Hail Sonic!” from Homeless Articles over the last few apparent that the reason of Sega’s The Escapist Forum: Sonic is odd for months – and this one is no exception. troubles is the good ol’ greed. me. I loved the fast movement that came from the Genesis games, but I was told you to use your favorite copy SNES kid back then, so I didn’t play it program to copy your characters. If your much. The first time I really got into it party wiped in the game, they were was Sonic Adventure 2: Battle for the dead. Your latest game save loaded up Gamecube. Initially, I was “is this what with a party or corpses. Now, you could Sonic turned into”? But as I played, I revive them by creating another found that it was fun, at least when I character, getting enough gold, and then was playing as Sonic(or Shadow). Alot of taking each one to the temple, but it the game, though, I got the thoughts wasn’t easy or fun. It did, however, “why did they bother with this”? With the make things much more tense during big story, I felt that they were trying to battles, especially when you realized that make things too epic. With the it had been a while since your last backup. gameplay, I felt that they were trying to do too much. It seemed like the it’s hard to say what the ‘right’ solution developers went into this trying to create is here, but something that would bring the biggest game ever, without the time that level of risk/reward/punishment or resources to pull it off. Everything felt back seems to be the place to start. like it could’ve been done better, and everything else felt like the game was - Boucaner better off without it.

When I got the game, I was assuming I was going to get a new(from my perspective) Sonic game. What I got was a half-assed attempt at something more.

- Meophist

In response to “Killjoy” from The Escapist Forum: Anyone else remember the ‘good ol days’? On the original Bard’s Tale (C64), the manual You suspect that if Danny Ledonne knew peak as 2006 turned into 2007, when it what the fallout would be from uploading was forcibly ejected from the Slamdance his 23 MB RPG Maker-constructed game Guerrilla Gamemaker Competition, after to his website in 2005 … well, he’d have being selected for the shortlist of finalists just gone ahead and done it anyway. You by the panel. This precipitated a walkout don’t make a game called Super of a sizeable proportion of other Columbine Massacre RPG! if you’re that contestants - an act of solidarity. worried about getting attention. With so many issues, it’s difficult to know In literate circles, it’s probably the most what to think about Super Columbine controversial game of recent years. To Massacre RPG! mention it is to beget an argument. In the mainstream, despite some sporadic Let’s see if we can do anything about that. coverage, it’s barely a blip for a variety of obvious reasons. As an indie game, it’s Is there any place for a subject like not popular. As a freeware game, there’s this in a videogame? no money to be had from ambulance- There’s a mass of films and books on chasing lawyers. But where a game as Columbine, whether directly about the castigated as Bully was generally events or exploring it through thinly veiled defended by gamers who knew the mass analogues. Why is one cultural form media was misunderstanding a game allowed to comment on a tragedy and built on a sound premise, SCMRPG another one not? It’s clear by the strength doesn’t have it that easy. It’s constructed of the reaction that the mere idea of a in a primitive videogame engine, taking game that places you in the shoes of the form of an old-school RPG. Its subject murderers provokes powerful emotions. matter remains a highly charged issue. It’s widely rejected on either the charge The outrage comes from a couple places. of bad taste or bad craft, often both. First, games are for children. Ergo, a game of a serious event must, by its Well over a year after its initial release, very nature, trivialize it. More it’s still being talked about, growing ever sophisticated positions argue that it’s the more infamous. Its notoriety reached a act of becoming Klebold and Harris, the perpetrators of the massacre, glamorizes the art theorist Andre Breton quote, “The what they did. A book doesn’t ask you to purest surrealistic act would be to go Should SCMRPG have been kicked pull the trigger and make you complicit. into a crowd and fire at random,” out of Slamdance? The former argument can be rejected by retraces Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold’s This is a question that confuses the simply restating the truism that not all final morning. One calls the other; they issue. Of course, Slamdance can invite or games are for kids. The latter argument meet up; they record a final video. They kick out whoever they want from their makes the assumption that if you’re place two homemade propane bombs in award. It’s their award, and cries of pulling the trigger, you’ll find it a canteen and set the timer for lunch, censorship are simply misplaced. The enjoyable. In actual fact, this is simply then retire to the hill overlooking the game exists, and will continue to exist, untrue. SCMRPG is as uncomfortable as school and wait for the bombs to go off. no matter what Slamdance decided. gaming gets. They don’t. The game then proceeds into The real question is credibility. Removing In regard to Columbine, I’d actually a more combat-orientated RPG, where a selected finalist purely because of its argue to the contrary on games’ the boys tool up with weaponry from the subject, for whatever reason, makes it suitability. In fact, the computer game trunk of their car and move through the difficult to take the organization may be the most appropriate medium to school, confronting groups of student seriously. Not selecting something to explore the situation. After all, it was the stereotypes - Preppy Girl, Nerdy Girl, avoid controversy is one thing. Backing pair’s favored one. The music cited as Black Boy, Jock Boy. No one has any away from its decision in public simply influential on Harris and Klebold are cult, real chance against the boys’ automatic tarnishes the award, no matter what peripheral acts. Doom, which Harris even weaponry. Most don’t even fight back. As reason. As described in their public made levels in, was absolutely you work through the school, you statement, Slamdance argues they’d mainstream for the form. While game experience various narrative vignettes, have faced legal and commercial creators have no direct responsibility – some purely fictional but directly annihilation if they didn’t reverse course like all creators - it’s entirely natural for illustrating events leading up to the on SCMPRG, which makes you them to try and examine why they attack, others actual occurrences in the understand why they chose critical actually had this worm in their apple. school. For an example of the former, annihilation instead. It still doesn’t make Eric reminisces about his telephone the critical annihilation any less absolute. I’m clearly never going to play the confession to the 20-something Brenda bloody game. What actually happens Parker he was dating that he’s actually a As an indie game award, it’ll be fine. But in it? teenage boy. For the latter, they fire that’s all it’s going to be. As a forum for It’s basically divided into two sections. shots at police from school library games-as-art, no one will take The first half of the game, opening with window, before the final double-suicide. Slamdance’s selections seriously for the foreseeable future. The only moral here After a sequence of Eric’s fantasies – the key one is it’s trying to say so many is: Be sure of your list of finalists before from idyllic ones of Antipodean islands different things simultaneously. going public. away from the “fuckheads” to ones of mass death and violence – the scene The game’s points can be divided into two But all of this is completely irrelevant to fades to black. Fade up on tiny pixelated rough categories. First is the the merits or failings of SCMRPG. It’d be corpses. The cartoon image swaps for documentary-styled recapitulation of the just as detrimental to the festival, no real photos of the two boys, lying in the events of the day and Ledonne’s portraits matter what game was unceremoniously library with gaping head wounds. of the two killer’s motivations. The second removed from their ceremony. is a satire on the events of the day and You presume it’s over. In fact, the the mass of hypocrisies and knee-jerk second half opens. The game restarts, reactions surrounding it, as well as a more and we’re in Hell. The Doom music general satire on videogames. strikes up. The Hell they’re stuck in is The first part is arguably the most populated by the cast of that iconic, successful. Fundamentally, what happens violent game, which now you’re stuck in in the actual game is what actually a proper fight with. Exploring, you happened in the day. If you complete eventually discover an island of lost SCMPRG, you will know more about the souls equally damned – from Mario to events and the personalities of Harris Ronald Regan to John Lennon to and Klebold than you would have if you Confucius – and finally hook up with hadn’t played, in a more memorable way existentialist philosopher Nietzsche, who than the average dry news report. It is in exchange for a copy of Ecce Homo, well researched, with much dialogue gives a little lecture of how their actions lifted from actual records. Not that it’s a fit entirely into his philosophy of the pure documentary; there’s a lot of Genius. Heading on, you meet and beat convincing fiction filling the gaps in an Satan, who then accepts a tasty Devil attempt to answer the key question Cake and shows the pair what’s almost all art surrounding Columbine happening back on Earth. asks: “Why?” That is, why would some kids want to do this? Ledonne, at school That seems terribly confusing. in Colorado at a similar period, uses the Yeah, it is a bit. SCMRPG is nothing but evidence to create his take. confusing. It’s got many problems, but The satire in the game is obvious, even have actually been ok if they’d made want and be hailed ironically as “brave as nothing more import than two- in the title, recalling all things Mario and wiping out the kids more entertaining, as boys” every time you do it. All of this dimensional sprites. Why would someone the classic age of Nintendo RPGs, of if SCMRPG could have been Medal of conspires to underline the go and do something so pointless? which its graphics are strongly Honor, if only Ledonne tried harder. meaninglessness of their slaughter. And reminiscent. What could be more Nothing could be further than the truth. fundamentally, while it’s not much fun, While videogames didn’t make them do videogame than defeating hundreds of A designer chooses the mechanics the one bit of craft it gets right is the it, it’s clear the repetitive brutality of a people in combat? By its existence, it required to create the desired emotional basic Final Fantasy-esque compulsiveness videogame is a good metaphor for how asks the question, Why is playing one response. If you want to make a game of improving statistics. The grind is the they viewed the world. By showing the sort of killer acceptable and the other about a massacre and capture the core key mechanic which addicts people to absolutely hollow, tedious nature of the beyond the pale? What’s the difference disgust, the last thing you want to do is RPGs. There’s only vestigial pleasure in it, pair’s fantasies, it can’t help but critique between American’s Army and Under make it fun. Starting with the RPG per se, but you can’t stop doing it. Here, them. Even for Harris and Klebold, living Ash? That it’s an obvious hypocrisy Maker’s limited combat, its mechanics it’s harnessed for more existential out their fantasy wasn’t all they hoped doesn’t make it any less poignant, but are tweaked appropriately. reasons. You’re not enjoying it, but you it’d be. Not that it can be found in the Ledonne covers his bases a little by go from one pointless fight to another, game, but the pair are reported to have avoiding glorifying the actual In the actual fights, you’re loaded with the alienation mounting along with the talked about how, near the end, shooting killings themselves. weaponry and find increasingly experience points. got too boring, and they thought about devastating firearms as you progress. You switching to knives. Seriously. You have a game where can return to your car to replenish It’s cold. It’s really cold. As cold as what you’re wiping out an entire school of ammunition whenever you want. The vast the pair of them did to the people in that As the death toll of “Preppy Girl” or kids. How can this not glorify violence? majority of the students and teachers school, and you’re struck at a profound “Nerd Girl” is inching into the hundreds, Because it’s no fun. don’t even fight back. Maybe you’ll take a level of how sad it is. Not just that you feel likewise. This is the game at its couple of hits from jocks to begin with, people would die like that, but more formalist best, in how it subverts This is where the “bad craft” arguments but soon it’s all just embarrassingly because the horror of the mindset you’d classical mechanics to make its point. fall apart. They imply that the game may perfunctory. You can kill as many as you have to enter to treat real human beings OK. I get it. But if you had to say one The game ends with the lyrics from one thing about Super Columbine Massacre of the pair’s favorite bands, KMFDM: “He RPG! what would you say? represents the problem – no, he In 1995, in the 10th anniversary book of emboldens the problem. If he is Calvin and Hobbes, creator Bill Watterson expelled, the problem will go away.” inserted little pieces of commentary onto Except not: “He is not in this alone. He is some of his favorite strips. In a Sunday not the problem.” Super Columbine one, Calvin attacks his school in an F-16 Massacre RPG! isn’t the problem. It’s “loaded with tons of every conceivable certainly not the solution – that’s society missile,” reducing it to “smoldering and the people within it - but it’s not a crater.” “I got some nasty mail about this problem. It’s something worth having an strip,” he noted. “Some readers thought it opinion on. It sits on the boundaries of was inexcusable to show a kid fantasize what videogames have become and about bombing his school off the face of could become. the Earth. Apparently, some of my readers were never kids themselves.” Five You won’t enjoy it, and for that you years later, such opinions were should be grateful. conspicuously absent, but the truth remains. Lots of people didn’t like school. Kieron Gillen has been writing about Lots of people fantasize one way or videogames for far too long now. His another about doing something about it. rock and roll dream is to form an Electro- Lots of people would love a game where band with Miss Kittin and SHODAN they’d be able to annihilate it from the pairing up on vocals. face of the Earth.

This isn’t it.

Rather than a means of acting out these fantasies, the alienated slog of SCMPRG, warns against it, while trying to argue why someone would want to do it in the first place. It’s not a celebration. It’s a lament. If you’ve been to the colossal Game and by 1992 it boasted 600 participants, Developers Conference, you’ve seen outgrowing one home after another. them around, lurking in doorways, roving the hallways, a look of busy confidence In 1995, the CGDC was purchased by transfixing tenacious features. Despite the Miller Freeman Game Group (MFI), their fluorescent T-shirts, the average which in 2000 purchased and adopted attendee’s eyes slide right over them, the CMP Game Media Group name and unless the attendee is in need. The brand that currently marks the since- catastrophe falls swiftly; Sid Meier is 1999 name-shortened Game Developers speaking in 15 minutes, and you’re lost Conference. Last year, it drew over amid the labyrinth of hallways and 12,000 attendees, and now, with the fall strangely dystopian fabric dividers. But of E3, it officially reigns as the largest nigh, a fresh-faced youth in brilliant garb industry-only videogame event. cometh, galloping at speed to your rescue! Graciously they rush you to the An event this big needs a crack support session just in time, only to vanish into crew. When the CGDC was purchased by the sunset, leaving you fleetingly to MFI, the volunteer conference staff, wonder: Who was that gallant stranger? previously thrown together by the CGDC steering committee, was formalized by They are the few, the proud – the Tim Brengle – an original attendee of the shadows of the colossus. first conference, and one of only a handful of individuals who have attended every Not So Colossal Origins conference in the organization’s history – The GDC began in 1987 as the Game into the Conference Associates program. Design Symposium, a gathering of 26 Originally publicized via word of mouth developers in Chris Crawford’s living and staffed by altruistic volunteers, the CA room. That initial meeting proved so program grew out of early management of kinetic, plans for a second conference the conference into a virtual army of started before the first had ended. By enthusiastic, capable volunteers hand- the following year, it was officially the selected from hundreds of applicants by Computer Game Developers Conference, Brengle and Ian MacKenzie. The sense of community established in as one would suspect, for its access to act smoothly, often juggling the disparity the early years of the CGDC lives on in the conference job fair, but for access to between bulging session attendance and the CA program. Joel Gonzalez, hardworking developers within the CA the fire department’s maximum programmer with 1st Playable Productions program itself. occupancy ratings, all without dropping and CA since 2002, says, “When I’m a their poise. If you meet a veteran CA, ask CA, I feel that I have an extended family And the work is hard; CAs prove their them about staffing Will Wright’s annual of 150 for a week. There’s a lot of worth to their fellows by performing lecture – you’ll get a good-natured, but camaraderie between CAs and that keeps approximately 20 hours of work across thoroughly exhausted, earful. me coming back. It’s unlike any volunteer the week-long conference. By the program I’ve been in.” numbers, this may not seem like much, Still, Link Hughes, graduate of Full Sail’s but even without considering the game development program and also a But the program is also staffed by an program’s culture – which rewards and programmer at 1st Playable Productions, array of industry veterans, Ph.D.s, IGF selects for those who will go above and calls the program the “best networking winners, and even GDC speakers. Bruce beyond the call of duty – those 20 hours tool for young up-and-comings in the Harlick, a senior designer at LucasArts, of corralling, guiding and instructing a industry.” He adds, “If you’re a positive, says of the program, “I love going to the horde of well over 10,000 game upbeat person, it’s really a way to rocket GDC, because I love working with the developers are an exhausting test of start your career.” CAs. It’s such a great group of people; personal fortitude. it’s a true pleasure to get a chance to Gonzalez agrees. “It was a decision that spend a very intense week with them But for many program veterans, they’re changed my life. I don’t mean that I every year.” worth it, even when you need to pay became a Power Ranger or found the your own way. Harlick says, “I have cure to cancer. It put me in the right From the Earth to the Moon actually taken vacation weeks to go work frame of mind to start making The GDC is also perceived by many with the CAs at the GDC, when I’ve been opportunities for myself. So I guess I hopefuls as one of the quickest and in jobs that didn’t want to give me the owe the CA program my current career surest routes into the industry, for good time off. That’s pretty crazy when you in the game industry. It put me on the reason. Access to the conference think about it; taking a week’s vacation right track to get in the industry and attendees is undoubtedly a big part of to go work harder than you do the rest gave me insight into how it ran. When I this, but due to its growth out of the of the year.” was ready for a job, I found my first in very origins of the GDC, the CA program the GDC Job Fair and my second through provides one of the best networking The personal challenges are intense. CAs another CA.” opportunities for young developers – not, must possess the ability to think fast and sponsored by His experience is neither uncommon nor financial need. But for many vets, this The fraternity atmosphere is sometimes never had to go through the program ... a coincidence. Harlick says, “The CAs in isn’t the case. necessary. Despite the now intensely people who have become important and our program are talented and fun people, competitive application process, most never had that start sometimes will look and I always view them as a valuable “Some of the CAs continue to volunteer conference attendees don’t recognize or down on CAs, consider them ‘the help.’” resource when my company is looking to even after their employers would be happy appreciate the skills and challenges It’s an easy mistake to make; most hire more people.” Program veterans to send them to the show to just attend. represented and addressed by the CAs on conferences have guides or security, and such as Harlick know that when they’re Working the GDC as a CA is too much fun, a daily basis. Let’s face it: Game most assume they’re being paid to take hiring a CA, they’re not just getting the and it’s just plain hard to stop.” Harlick, developers can be kind of surly, and when abuse. While the CA program does offer skill-set on the resume, but the vote of who has been with the program since its it comes to the GDC and the after-parties, participants a full pass to the GDC – a Brengle and MacKenzie, as well as a formal inception and with the GDC since its the atmosphere can get a little wild. value definitely not insignificant these proven track record of reliability, non- not-for-profit days, says that the culture of days; we are a long way from the $75 stop enthusiasm, social grace and the group itself, guided by Brengle and “A lot of people don’t really ‘get’ CAs,” entrance price of CGDC II – any CA could problem-solving – four things employers MacKenzie, makes it a one-of-a-kind Hughes says. “People who have been tell you that in terms of monetary are almost always searching for, but experience. And though the application and CAs know that CAs are somehow a reward, it would be far less work to pay won’t fit on a demo reel. program information are just a Google higher caliber of people. People who one’s own way. search away, few seem to know what What You Want, Baby I Got they’re getting access to when they sign “People who treat the CAs as run-of-the- up. Harlick adds, “I’ve been enjoying that mill volunteers are making a big mistake. the CAs have become more social between That person in the [conference] shirt is shows; they really are a community now.” your next stellar employee, co-worker or He’s referring, in large part, to the CA even boss,” Harlick says. As a freshman alumni mailing list, a boisterous and upbeat CA in 2004, I was astonished at the online community made available to CAs number of industry veterans after their first term. enthusiastically putting in their time with the bright shirts. This will come as a “It’s kind of a game industry fraternity great shock to many gaming starlets, but organization, in a way,” Link Hughes the industry is not always that stable; says. The sense of “family” is something the company I’d worked for had folded, many CAs will return to again and again, and, though technically a full-time and value even above the rush of the developer, I joined the program out of conference itself. has seen a series of IGF finalists and, in The CA program also continues to grow, whoever-we-could-get volunteers that 2004, winners: Savage, winner of the though not in proportion with its staff other conferences, the GDC’s Technical Excellence, Audience and popularity. Over 900 hopefuls applied for working lifeline is unique in possessing a Seamus McNally Grand Prize awards, had just under 300 CA positions this year, a history of its own, and an identity two CAs on its staff, and finalist group number up from 600 applicants in 2005. singular even within the industry itself. It Flashbang Studios was also composed of Despite its growing size and the increased is a resource and a community, a CAs that year. The following year, another challenge of a larger, busier conference, stepping stone and a friendly helping CA team made the finalist list. the CAs remain undaunted. “We know hand – and the heartbeat of the game that whatever challenge comes, we’ll rise industry’s largest event. The persistent performance of CAs as to meet it,” Hughes says. independent developers is, again, no Erin Hoffman is a professional game coincidence. The program’s open This sense of positive energy, which for designer, freelance writer, and hobbyist Free Range Game Development atmosphere, spirit of kinship and intense many embraces the core of gaming and troublemaker. She moderates The alchemy of youthful energy, can-do pursuit of excellence all lend themselves to game development culture, makes the CA Gamewatch.org and fights crime on the attitude and passion for game a homegrown attitude toward gaming and program far more than a bunch of streets by night. development also makes the CA program game development that arguably preserves volunteers in neon T-shirts; they are a a breeding ground for game innovation. a piece of the soul of the industry. team, and, through careful cultivation over “I’ve gotten in the best discussions about the years that the program has been in games, game design, making games, Scaling the Colossus operation, a perfect ecosystem blending etc. It’s a group charged with creativity, Every year the GDC continues to grow, youth energy and veteran wisdom. who all are there because they want to and now, as in its early days, it has once be in the industry (or are already more outgrown its home. There are In the history of the GDC, not much has there),” Harlick says. mixed responses from long-time remained consistent: Boards have come conference attendees to the move from and gone, the entire conference has Maurine Starkey, a veteran industry artist the San Jose Convention Center to the been sold and then had its parent and longtime friend of the CA program, Moscone in San Francisco, but the simple company sold again. Though its adds, “From as far back as the Westwood fact was the conference had grown too coordination has changed, its support in days, I’ve always liked being big for the SJCC to handle. And now, the trenches hasn’t; as an organization, around energetic and creative minds. with the Expo floor more than doubling the CA program is perhaps the only Being a CA puts me into a type of in size, some are calling it “G3.” aspect of the conference with a memory incubator.” And that incubator, whether it that goes back to the very beginning. Far created or simply drew excellence to it, from being the chaotic group of With industry analysts heralding include its less obvious implications, as advergaming as the revenue model of well. Namely, once marketing is merged the future, and success stories like last with the interactivity inherent to gaming, fall’s Burger King Xbox promotion we’re suddenly dealing with something capturing headlines left and right (and much more complex than what we’re selling two million units in four weeks), used to. the hype around advergaming is becoming all but unavoidable … whether Just as adware often incorporates you buy it or not. As this industry spyware, games can also be used to segment matures, the questions it raises gather various types of user information. about commercialization and the future Through data-mining, chat analysis and of regulation in digital gaming could fuel other forms of automated surveillance, debate for years to come. And yet, player input can be turned into valuable despite all the fuss, the hubbub, the market research data. This can range unresolved tension between players and from statistics on player demographics advertisers, I’m already feeling done and in-game activities to more nuanced with all this advergame talk. findings about the ideas and opinions players communicate while gaming or The root of my ennui has a lot to do with participating in related forums. With the way the term has been used by both advergames, this transformation can the press and academics in discussing also lead to direct and detailed feedback what should be seen as the slow-but- on the effectiveness of particular ads and steady integration of marketing tactics techniques. The feedback loop between into videogames. But instead, we seem advertiser and player is thereby brought to be stuck scratching at the surface, full circle, from market research to focusing on how advertising will affect reception analysis and back again. gaming instead of questioning how gaming might transform the twin fields I spend a lot of time thinking about this of advertising and marketing. While it’s stuff as a result of a professional interest important the “adver” part of in kids’ online game culture, which advergaming is getting attention, we seems to have become somewhat of a now need to expand our thinking to safe haven for marketers to experiment with new techniques. Here, the analysts’ possibly wallets) of an otherwise hard- the moral panic du jour. Most recently, contributions they’ve made on the predictions have, in many ways, already to-reach demographic. While most sites politicians in the U.S. and Europe have game’s site — everything from direct come true. For the past five years, are likely to keep the results of their data- begun targeting junk food-themed feedback and avatar customization to advergames (and websites featuring mining activities in-house, the information advergames for their possible uploaded materials and forum replies. If advergames) like Neopets, gathered can nonetheless be tremendously contribution to the growing childhood these items are to be data-mined and CartoonNetwork.com and Barbie.com, valuable for future advertising design and obesity problem. As with similar used for business purposes, it’s better to have dominated both Hitwise and product development. campaigns against violent and sexual secure ownership first, right? Nielsen//Netratings’ listings of sites most content, the focus always seems to stay frequently visited by kids. They also Kids’ online games present a particularly fixed on the possible effects of exposure feature prominently among children’s rich case study for understanding the to said content while ignoring the two- own top-rated online destinations. Kids mechanisms of advergaming because — way dynamics of interaction. This are spending a lot of their time online for the most part — they have been oversight reflects a deeper dependency playing advergames, and the children’s allowed to flourish there unchallenged. on portraying children as “helpless industries have certainly taken notice. Even though children’s personally victims,” which comes up whenever identifiable information, like their names conflicts arise (as seen repeatedly in the The most overt example of data-mining and addresses, is protected in many game-ratings cases). Meanwhile, kids in advergames can be found in one of regions under national privacy are left to fend for themselves in regard the most popular sites on the internet, legislation, there is currently no legal to their potential rights as the Neopets.com. Neopets constructs and framework in place that regulates the collaborative producers of game content. sells extensive youth trend reports based online collection of other types of data — on information gathered through the even though consumer trends and As a result, norms are being established games, polls and forums featured on its opinions are often what interest within these sites that are extremely site. By “immersing” clients’ marketers the most. And unlike the industry biased. I decided to take a look advertisements and product placements realm of adult MMOGs, where intellectual at the games’ terms of service (TOS) into the very fabric of Neopets’ property (IP) ownership has become the contracts and end-user license gameplay, the site is also able to track issue of heated debate as a result of real agreements (EULAs), since these have players’ exposure to specific ads and money trade, children’s advergames are been so central to the IP conflicts with then solicit their opinions about them. very rarely thought of in terms of IP and MMOGs. What I discovered was most With over 30 million members, 39 authorship issues. kids’ advergames require their players to percent of which are under the age of agree to many of the same clauses in 13, Neopets offers its clients Instead, public attention to children and adult-oriented MMOGs’ EULAs, including unprecedented access to the minds (and online games is usually concentrated on transferring ownership of any and all The agreements themselves are long and was being collected or how it might be spyware have prompted California complicated, written in a mix of legalese used. And yet these contracts are clearly Assemblywoman Lori Saldana to and hyperbole, with sentences like: “We supposed to stand in for the informed announce plans to draft a new bill exclusively own all now-known or consent procedures that are normally making it illegal for companies to embed hereafter existing rights to Submissions required when enlisting a child to spyware in their games. of every kind and nature throughout the participate in research activities. universe until the end of time, and are The irony here is this time around it entitled to unlimited use of your It doesn’t seem to matter that contracts might actually take some adult “victims” Submissions for any purpose we can made with minors are legally void. Nor for these gaming practices to attract think of.” If it’s difficult for a layperson to has the issue of unconscionability — a public scrutiny. While it’s nice to see a make sense of TOS contracts, you can legal defense used when unfair contracts game-related debate that doesn’t imagine how impossible it is for a kid — place one party at a disproportionate revolve around the old “kids-in-peril” assuming he reads the thing in the first advantage over another — come up in trope, it does seem like a bit of a lost place (which, let’s be honest, hardly any significant way, even though opportunity for a long overdue validation anyone does). sweeping claims like “for eternity” and of kids’ contribution to game culture. The “throughout the universe” are idea of children as content producers Admittedly, a number of the contracts I undoubtedly susceptible to such a also challenges many of the underlying reviewed did list the parent as an challenge. Thus, while it’s highly unlikely assumptions of political campaigns that assumed agreeing party, but none of that the TOS agreements found in seek to “protect” kids from videogames. them did any follow-up to ensure the children’s advergames are valid, the lack The omission of child players when it parent actually read and agreed to the of opposition seems to have given the comes to IP issues reveals an important terms. In the one case where written writers of the agreements carte blanche. contradiction: Despite their prominence parental consent was mandatory within videogame debates, kids’ own (Neopets!), very few details were But all this may soon change. A small interests are actually rarely considered. provided about why kids’ information controversy has now erupted around Battlefield 2142, a “T”-rated futuristic wargame that not only features dynamic Sara M. Grimes is a doctoral student in in-game advertisements (i.e. ads that communication at Simon Fraser can be updated and changed over time) University in Vancouver, Canada. She but also data-mines its players. researches children’s culture, digital Allegations that the game contains games and the role of play in society. cartoon from 20 or so years ago, the one have no degree at all. And so, academic with the parents dreaming of all the institutions have been established in recent money their son would make in decades to address this need. computer games. These programs look to be answers to Tell people game design is a regular job, everyone’s prayers. First, you have with the usual problems on the corporate professors who will tell you exactly what level, and they’ll scoff. Remind them that skills you need to pursue your desired “playing games all day” consists of playing career. Second, you’ll be among peers a broken game over and over again to who have the same ambitions you do. find and replicate bugs, and they’ll call you What’s more, some schools offer degrees a killjoy. Fact is, and we all know it, a in two years, allowing you to save the videogame career is pretty damn cool. time – and expense – you would normally spend at a traditional four-year college. One of the most popular questions gaming industry professionals receive is, Industry veterans see the value in such “How can I get into the gaming programs. Having someone enter a industry?” And in the last few decades, company with experience in how a game some institutions have come forward to gets put together is important; most job answer that question. listings require some sort of experience. For most geeks, there’s no greater Richard Dansky, Design Manager at Red career aspiration than being a Many people simply don’t know what skills Storm Entertainment as well as Central professional in the gaming industry – you need to get into the industry. What do Clancy Writer for UbiSoft, thinks degrees unless you count getting rich off stock the engineers need? Artists? What if you are a positive thing. “It gives [students] options and living off interest for the rest just want to design, or produce? Until context and an understanding of what of your life (but who doesn’t have that recently, traditional colleges didn’t typically some of the expectations are. They’ve dream?). Who can blame them? focus their degrees toward videogames, so been through a form of game Professional conferences are like it can be confusing. And heck, when development process and have a better Disneyland for adults, meetings with perusing the job postings for the industry, idea of what it actually takes to make a vendors brings T-shirts that you’d college degrees are often mentioned as game as a result,” he said. “It’s a great actually like to wear, and we all get to “preferred” instead of “required,” if they’re thing there are programs developing. It’s make true the Gary Larson’s Far Side mentioned at all. Several industry veterans a young field and there’s a lot of making it up as we go along, and training people throughout the game industry. The third When you are looking for an entry-level into a job in the industry than a degree in what is expected and needed is a real thing the schools offer is a credential. It job, the two things that are important are in any other industry. It’s just one more positive in terms of integrating new is a loan of reputation from the school to the light behind the eyes, and how well thing you can put in your toolkit. … At developers into the workforce smoothly.” the graduate.” you work with others.” this point, experience still trumps any sort of formal degree.” Jim Van Verth, Senior Engineer at Red On the downside, there is some concern Not all gaming programs are two-year Storm, echoes the pros. “If [game design that these colleges are too narrow in their degrees. The Nintendo-affiliated DigiPen Van Verth worries about the long-term programs] are designed properly, they focus. The Full Sail program offers two- Institute of Technology, in Redmond, value of the degrees. “The big problem, give you lots of good experience in year degrees in recording arts and film as offers a rigorous four-year degree, along as I see it, is that the game industry can working on game projects and working on well as game design. While their website with a Master’s degree in computer be a rough place to work. Turnover can a team, which is not always something boasts many success stories of their science. They are working on a Ph.D. be high. Some people just drop out. At you get in a normal academic course. So students going on to succeed in their program, as well. DigiPen is one of the one point, you were a veteran if you had you definitely get a good sense of what chosen career, the credits students have most popular schools in the field, and worked in the industry for five years. So it’s like to work in that sort of gained toward their degree are non- the top students have an excellent by signing up for a program that focuses environment. And of course, [students] transferable to most four-year universities. chance finding a career in gaming. entirely on game development, you’re are going to work on skills that are going This means any attempt to build on their banking your future that that is what you to be useful in that environment.” education may place them squarely at the Dansky cautions, however, that while the want to do for the rest of your life. If you freshman level of most colleges. degrees may teach you much about decide you want to do something more Self-described “recovering game game development, the degrees are not lucrative [in engineering], like write developer” David Weinstein says, “Any “I would still strongly advise that you get a magic bullet into a job in gaming. “A financial or database software, it’s going degree-focused education gets you three a traditional CS [computer science] game design degree is no more a pass to be tough.” things. It gets you the opportunity to degree from the best school you can get learn; how much of that you take into, and work your ass off,” Weinstein advantage of is up to you. … It provides says. “Learn everything you can (and not networking opportunities. A theater just CS - that makes you one-dimensional program in Manhattan offers a lot more and boring). This is your chance to learn networking opportunities than one in from world experts in a whole range of Dubuque. Here is where the better fields; take advantage of it. Get a strong, game-oriented degree programs (for balanced education, and work on game example, Digipen, Full Sail and the Guild development skills in class projects when Hall) have a great deal to offer - all three you can, and outside of them when you of those schools have superb contacts cannot. And work on those people skills. But traditional universities are getting in College of Computing & Information with a degree and more what the degree a good chance someone can give you on the business, too. The Global Gaming Sciences. He also emphasizes the represents. You’ve been through a some information on it. League, a worldwide leader in live importance of a well-rounded education. version of the process, and you can give videogame events, listed the top 10 “Several of our students that have opted me samples, and I can evaluate you in “As this goes along, I would hope that gaming colleges. Established schools filled not to work in the game industry have that context.” the programs will continue to get better out eight of the 10 spots, with University successful careers in fields like military and better and will do a better job of of Texas topping the list, followed by Penn simulation, edutainment and The future looks bright for more training people in what’s actually State University and Rochester Institute visualization. Others have gone on to academic institutions focusing on needed,” Dansky says. “Each side will of Technology. Full Sail came in at No. 10 successful [gaming] careers.” gaming, however. As students demand get an improved sense of what the other and DigiPen at No. 5. needs, which can only help both the programs and the developers. We’ve had Steven Jacobs, a faculty member of RIT, folks come straight out of various says they offer a standard programs and do good things for us, and undergraduate degree, requiring the it’s something I would like to see liberal arts classes and other courses continue. Applicable education is always that round out a full degree. Marq a good thing.” Singer, an eight-year industry veteran in game engineering, lectures occasionally Mur Lafferty is a freelance writer and at RIT. He says the four-year (or more, podcast producer. She has dabbled in as as RIT offers a Master’s degree in much gaming as possible while working gaming, as well) programs offer a strong with Red Storm Entertainment and White foundation for those who wish to go into Wolf Publishing. Currently she writes gaming. “I know it’s cliché as hell, but I freelance for several gaming publications say get in the fundamentals. The and produces three podcasts. She lives industry changes so rapidly, you need to in Durham, NC. be able to adapt. … You come out of a The academic focus on gaming is more access, and game companies university/college program knowing how something new, and it’s still evolving, demand more experience out of new to be a good engineer/artist and know a says Dansky. Red Storm Entertainment employees, the academic institutions will thing or two about games.” has employed people from both DigiPen have to step up. These days, you can and Full Sail, and he says he’s happy ask your college of choice if they offer Andrew Phelps is the Director of Game with their work. “[The question of value any degrees in game design, and there’s Design and Development at the RIT is] less that the program stamps you out budgets and the desire for novel games I could find was conceptually related to allow for more experimental titles. I Pictionary, where stick figures are visited a few publishers’ websites to rewarded over drawings which involve learn what they were looking for in a more thought and realism. I wanted to game submission. In most cases, the make a game that helped expose the tips they provided merely discussed the underlying rules of drawing in a quality of submissions, but didn’t provide challenging and non-embarrassing way. anything substantial about the game In effect, I wanted to make a game that design or style. But I kept getting one would help people draw better by playing vibe from everyone: They wanted to see it. After some intensive programming, something new. that’s precisely what I had. The next step: Find a publisher to unleash my With the publishers’ guidance in mind, I creation on unsuspecting artists-to-be. began developing my game. My experience in the field of software Though not a member of the industry engineering provided me most of the yet, I was familiar with the four-step tools I needed. My aesthetic ensured this publication process: Go to a publisher, was not some garish result of a free-time submit your game, get rejected, repeat. Entrepreneurship and creativity have whimsy. My eye for quality kept it from It’s a fairly simple cycle, and honestly, been passed down in my family like becoming shambling machination, like isn’t that bad if you don’t take the heirlooms. If there is genetic code for those often created by energetic rejection personally. I steeled myself and that sort of thing, the desire to build students. My drive to create something tried to open a dialog with the publishers novel things is a festoon on my DNA. new flared, eschewing clones and whose sites had offered me submission Just as a male praying mantis finds its derivatives of existing games. When I advice months before. I went through mate and lemmings leave to explore the created the final build, I was ecstatic. website after website, filling out contact coastline, my notebooks fill with arcane I had simultaneously written a game by forms and sending e-mails. The drawings of games never played before. myself and invented a new type of game. sites often said to wait a week to a month for a response. I was familiar with commercial software My game concept was fairly simple: I development, but new to the commercial wanted to make a drawing game that The response (well, the lack thereof) I gaming industry. I decided to focus on graded players on the technical aspects received was unexpected. Weeks passed, the casual game market, where smaller of their drawings. Every single art game and my inbox was as barren as a desert. In most cases, the publishers I contacted I pondered the situation for a few days. I fruits of my labor as an invention. A new people have fun playing my game, my didn’t even send an automated reply e- thought about my interactions with these invention has to be guarded closely, genetic imperative to create will be mail. I couldn’t even tell if my missive firms and their employees over the past protected by an assortment of fulfilled. had been received. months. Up until the point I wanted to get complicated legal agreements. From a a game published they were polite, friendly publisher’s perspective, any legal Blake Schreurs is a web applications guru A touch put-off, I decided to look a little and helpful. These weren’t some executive agreement, even one as innocuous as a who starts projects outside of his area of deeper into this phenomenon. What I big-wigs who were dismissive of game non-disclosure agreement, is a expertise, because he hasn’t learned to found was alarming: I quickly learned I studios. Something had gone awry. liability. God forbid there’s a patent fear failure yet. He writes in loving wasn’t alone. On a few developer- involved. Patents can be risky for game memory of his older brother, Brian. focused sites, I started reading how I decided it was time to make some publishers. Some publishers even fear a other submissions went phone calls. In every case, the publisher patent arms race, the hoarding of unacknowledged, too. “If after a month hadn’t made its phone number available intellectual property over any minor you haven’t heard anything ... assume - unsurprising, given the types of calls invention, which could stifle creativity that we aren’t going to publish the title,” they’d receive with a public number. But and destroy innovative game design. wrote one employee. without industry contacts, I had to get technical. After a bit of computer And, since seeking a legal agreement It’s strange, from my viewpoint. wizardry, I managed to snatch a couple delays the submission process and Independent studios spend months of numbers from the internet. introduces risk for the publisher, they’re writing games based on publishers’ definitely not going to look at you if it’s suggestions. They submit the game on It took some convincing, but I was able your first pitch to them. But it’s a catch-22, the publisher’s terms. In many cases, to finally speak with a few producers. It because you have to be mindful of your though not all, they are told to expect a turns out I had done some things very intellectual property, and make sure the full response and feedback in a short well from the beginning of the game is not leaked to the public at large. amount of time. Instead, the majority of development process; my game was publishers opt to ignore developers they innovative and unique. Unfortunately, I remain bemused that an industry which don’t know completely. That kind of some of my mistakes during game eagerly seeks innovation cannot response isn’t just unprofessional or submission prevented my game from fully protect creativity early in the rude, it’s insulting. Considering what coming to light. publication process. At this point, I am some people do to create these resigned to being treated less like an submissions, it’s almost cruel. And this is My folly wasn’t that I had invented inventor and more like an author. But I an industry-wide phenomenon. something new, but that I treated the find comfort knowing that so long as EDITORIAL PRODUCTION BUSINESS Executive Editor Producer Publisher Julianne Greer Jonathan Hayter Alexander Macris

Content Editors Lead Artist Account Executive Joseph Blancato Jessica Fielhauer Rebecca Sanders Russ Pitts Layout Artist Chairman of Themis Group Contributing Editors Jason Haile Thomas S. Kurz JR Sutich Shannon Drake Lead Web Developer Whitney Butts Research Manager Nova Barlow Web Developers Erik Jacobson Contributors Tim Turner Kieron Gillen Sara Grimer IT Director Erin Hoffman Jason Smith Mur Lafferty Blake Schreurs

Issue 86 © 2007. The Escapist is published weekly by Themis Group, Inc. Produced in the United States of America. To contact the editors please email [email protected]. For a free subscription to The Escapist in PDF format please view www.escapistmagazine.com