Deus Ex Machinatio

See You in Austin!

I am thrilled, boggled, amazed, and other combinations of excited-plus-surprised to say that I'm in the first batch of speakers for SXSW this year, announced today. My topic is ARGs and Women: Moving Beyond the Hot Brunette, and I find the more I think about this subject, the more I have to say about it. 

This will also be my first time at SXSW, so I feel like I need some mentoring. Anyone have any SXSW-related advice for me?

ISMAR 2009

So hey! Next week -- specifically, next Tuesday -- I'll be at ISMAR 2009 in Orlando, Florida. (If you didn't already stands for the International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Realities.) I'll be there to present a paper on the game archetypes I expect to see when augmented reality matures and is combined with other technologies, like GPS and face recognition. Fun stuff, right?

If you're going to be there next week, I'd love to see you and say hi in person, and I'd also love for you to stop by and see what I have to say on AR and games. I might even sneak in a little bonus material on games ported to a platform vs. games native to a platform...

I'll be presenting during the 3:30 to 5om session on Tuesday in a room enigmatically named "Magnolia A&B." Wish me luck!

An Open Letter to the Person on IM Last Night

Launching a game is hard. I get it, trust me. Finding an audience of receptive players and approaching them in a novel way is lots of work. Keeping them interested is even more work. Sometimes you want to be blunt and just tell people where to look. 

And that's OK. More than OK, it's great! I am all about telling people that you have a game on.

There are a lot of ways to do this, but let me tell you what not to do: Don't randomly approach somebody on IM with a new/unfriended account and send only a URL. Because you know who does that? People who want to sell me ¢14l|$, that's who. If I get an unsolicited IM from an unfamiliar account and it's just a URL, do you know what I do? I block that account so it never bothers me again. 

You know what I absolutely don't do? Click on the link. That's because, given its dubious source, it's likely to be an eyeball-stabbing fiesta of horrific web design at the very best, and thoroughly infested with malware at worst. 

But there's another reason not to take a blanket approach to pinging people on IM that you should consider. Know your audience, dude. If you're taking the time to reach out to people one at a time -- or however many you can IM with at once -- then you have time to figure out who those people are, and whether they're receptive to what you have on offer. Let me give you a hint: if you are considering IMing me from an in-game account by way of introducing me to your game, I am not receptive to your advances.

If you are a friend or well-known colleague of mine, you will get a warm response from me if you approach me as yourself and say, "Hey, Andrea, I made this thing, take a look." I promise this is both cheap and effective.

If you don't actually know me, you probably need to rethink your approach to launching. I'm not a marketing vehicle, I'm a person. More, I'm a person who hasn't been an active or vocal player for any game in years, literally years, and who has already made my wishes regarding unsolicited trailheads very clear in the past. I've written about this exact problem with email before, and less than a year ago. (There must be something about September.)

But hey, if you want to be friends, then hop on in to the ARG SIG chat room and say hello. Once I get to know and like you, I'd probably be perfectly happy to help you launch your game.

Indy Film Wisconsin, Here I Come!

I'll be a guest on the Indy Film Wisconsin podcast tomorrow, talking about alternate reality games in general and their relationship with the film industry in specific. The live cast is at 11am Eastern time. There's even a call-in number!

I'd love it if you'd tune in to give me a little moral support. See you then!

Last-Minute SXSW 2009 Shamelessness

Just a quick reminder that if you want to see me at SXSW this year, you'll need to be voting for my presentation, "ARGs and Women: Moving Beyond the Hot Brunette." The SXSW panel picker will only be up until the end of the day on Friday Sept. 4, so vote while the polls are open!

 

I'd also like to take a second to point you to a couple of not-strictly-ARG panels of note submitted by the talented and all-around-great Ivan Askwith that I missed out on in my first SXSW thumb-begging post: "SXSW 2010: Rethinking This Year's Most-Hyped Trends" and "Does My Sh*t-Talking Really Help Your Brand?" Of which the first looks to be a welcome breath of analysis in the face of the hype cycle, while the second... well... let's just say I think it's long past time we close the book on that particular piece of conventional wisdom.

Hot Brunettes at SXSW

It should come as no surprise to any of you that gender in gaming is something a spend a lot of time and thought on. And in fact it's the topic of my proposed talk at SXSW this year: ARGs and Women: Moving Beyond the Hot Brunette.

Let's cut and paste my description, shall we?

ARGs are often trotted out as a shining example of woman-friendly games. They boast unusually high rates of female developers and players, and a slew of kick-ass female leads. But if you dig a little deeper, are they just the post-Buffy version of Princess Peach, always needing to be saved?

If that sounds like something you'd be interested in hearing, then please, go to the SXSW panel picker and give me a big ol' thumbs up.  

 

I'm by no means the only interesting panel submitted, of course. My friends at Six to Start have some proposals in, and Brooke Thompson has a fantastic and selfless write-up of several panels beyond her own submissions.

It's going to be a great conference this year, any way you slice it. Hope to see you there!

The Institute for Human Continuity

Several weeks ago, I was given the opportunity to join a truly amazing project. I'm incredibly excited to tell you that I've begun consulting with the Institute for Human Continuity.

This tremendous responsibility began with a bang -- as some of you may already know, the IHC is conducting a search to find the Leader of the Post-2012 World. The entry phase of the election isn't that far away, so if you hope to be the Leader of the Post-2012 World, sign up now, before time runs out. 

Meanwhile, my work at the IHC is only just beginning. I'm tremendously proud of the plans I've made with the IHC. I do hope you'll join me on this journey.

Of Writing and Rabbits

Some random musing from me on IM this evening, and with thanks to Naomi Alderman, who first made the magic trick analogy and let me run with it:

Well, and you know, you're right, that writing is something of a magic trick

You're pulling a rabbit out of a hat each time you sit down

And sometimes you know how the trick is done and you already knew you'd put the rabbit there

And sometimes you pull out a squirrel instead and it surprises you as much as anyone

But there's always SOMETHING in the hat, if you go through the motions of pulling something out of it

Minutes of the IGDA Voter Guidance Committee Meeting #1

For those of you who are interested, here is a log of the proceedings at tonight's meeting of the IGDA Voter Guidance Committee. A summary of the ideas and our conclusions follows, and apologies if I've misrepresented anything. It's been a long day.

As an introductory sidebar, we discussed creating a barrier to entry for candidates to cut down on the number of people on the slate -- for example, by requiring candidates to get signatures from supporters. The idea was reasonably popular, though the number of signatures various parties felt was appropriate varied from 10-100.

The core problem, though, is getting information to voters on who the candidates are and what they represent. The current statements by candidates doesn't provide sufficient information, and voters don't seek out additional information on their own.  

We could create a base set of questions (perhaps 10-15) that all candidates must answer. These could either be the same set every year, or solicited from membership annually, perhaps in the newsletter. This idea met with wide approval.

We could have a forum for conversation with candidates, though there were concerns that this could require too much of a time investment from candidates; so perhaps with one thread per candidate. Concerns the forum would be high-volume or populated with trolls; this would require even-handed moderation. Another possibility is creating specific panels on these forums.

The Writer's SIG is starting a journalism initiative that could research/vet candidates and report on their findings. This would solve the problem of getting information from candidates that is not mere self-representation, but there is concern that an internal effort along those lines from the IGDA could be a matter of legal liability. A summary of how this would work will be presented to the Board, who will look at it from the legal perspective.

We could do a real-time Town Meeting, as a group or per candidate, in which candidates answer questions from members. This could be recorded on something like ustream. Concerns that this presents a participation barrier to members in disparate time zones and might be difficult to implement.

We could do a press conference, through forums or a podcast, in which we offer game-industry publications the chance to ask the candidates tough questions. Concerns this would be logistically difficult to implement and appears inaccessible to voters.

We could also do a roundtable or real-time debate of all or several candidates on a podcast, or record video statements from each candidate to post online. 

Suggestion that we could get the Localization SIG involved in translating election materials.

Sheri Rubin very helpfully summarized our next steps and solicited volunteers.

1. Andrea will create the edits for the procedures manual to incorporate they'll have a base set of questions to answer along with their statement
2. Brian (maybe) will take the initiative on determining what those questions are (either by committee or polling the igda membership via the forums or survey with notice in the newsletter)
3. Corvus is going to work on a proposal for the journalism initiative to do research on the candidates
4. Andrea will create the edits for the manual to state that they will be getting researched
5. TBD, someone needs to take on the task of determining the best ways to get the info Corvus's group digs up out to the voting membership (pending BoD review of legal question)
6. TBD, someone needs to take on the task of creating the forums for the candidates with Joda and looking into the online transcripted chat/video sessions with each candidate (pending feedback on these ideas from BoD and interested members)
7. Sheri will go talk to Tom with the Loc sig about getting things translated

And that's a wrap, folks. Have a great night!

Booyah: My Review

Have you seen the buzz around Booyah? I was intrigued by a particular Tweet from Jane McGonigal. A social reality game! Earn achievements for doing the stuff you want to do with your life! Awesome.

And then I downloaded the app to give it a whirl. Unfortunately, it's not the app I thought it would be, which means I still want the app I thought it was going to be. Booyah start with a cute little robot-looking avatar which you can customize with various colors and patterns. And then it pops you into a screen where you can browse categories of achievements to unlock, or the robot can give you ideas for "Booyah moments" to go after.

The problem, though, is that the process of recording those achievements wasn't what I had assumed. You don't just check a box saying "I did this today!" Instead, the social network component is all but forced on you. So if I want Booyah to help me record and celebrate that I went to the gym every day this week, or that I tried a new dish at dinner, or that I finished Chapter 5 of my novel-in-progress... I'm supposed to Tweet it, or put it on my Facebook status, and broadcast it to all of my friends. Why the heck should I spam my friends every time I go to the gym or hit my writing quota? Why can't I be quietly proud of myself, eh, Booyah?

I briefly flirted with the idea of setting up a separate Facebook account to keep private, for Booyah. And then I recovered my sanity.

Worse, half the achievements available in Booyah aren't even under your immediate power to achieve. If you get a certain number of Likes or comments on one of your Booyah updates, that can earn you even more achievements. This is irritating at best, and counterproductive at worst. If I'm going for a particular achievement -- say, getting five friends to comment on a fitness Booyah -- and I don't hit it, then I'm going to be disappointed. And maybe even discouraged. And then I just might give up. You just can't control other people, and it's ridiculous to make that a component of a validation system intended to make you feel good about yourself.

Now, the overall concept is still spectacular: Earn achievements for stuff you do in real life. I still want that app. Booyah, if you happen to read this, here's what you can do to turn me from a grouchy crank on the internet into an evangelist:

1. Don't give me a uniform set of achievements to go after. Let me pick and choose, so I don't have to even look at the ones I don't care about (like getting people to Like my gym workouts). 
2. Let me define my own achievements, and let me browse achievements defined by my friends or the Booyah community as a whole.
3. Let me keep my Booyah moments all to myself (unless I'm specifically in the mood for sharing.)
4. And let me choose a small group of friends to share Booyah with when I do feel like sharing; one cell who are my writing friends, another who are my gym buddies, and so on.

It really is a great concept; it's just that the implementation hasn't gone in the right direction for me. What I'm envisioning is probably a combination between 43 Things and earning Girl Scout or Boy Scout merit badges. For now, I'll keep waiting for the achievement app of my dreams. And who knows? Maybe when Booyah grows up a little more, it'll be exactly that. 

Updated to add: A friend has rightly pointed out that some of my criticism is unjust -- it's possible to keep your posts private, just in your Booyah journal, and share only some things with Twitter or with Facebook. Still, the whole philosophic focus of the game is around that sharing concept, and fully 2/3 of the available achievements are getting your updates Liked or commented upon. As a gamer, I'm a completist; but as a social person, I hate spamming my friends with stuff I don't think they'll find very interesting (like when I've gone to the gym). So the combination of achievements based on the reactions of my friends plus my drive to earn all available achievements makes Booyah particularly ill-suited to me. And probably others like me.