Darius Kazemi 2010 Board Statement
Candidate Position Statement:
“How will the IGDA tangibly benefit me as a developer?”
Prospective members ask this question time and time again. Often, we struggle to answer. Sometimes we mention one of our excellent Special Interest Groups to convince a developer to join, or we use IGDA events like the Leadership Forum and the Global Game Jam to show what the IGDA does for its community. Unfortunately, sometimes these groups and events alone fail to persuade potential IGDA members, and we lose the opportunity to expand our organization.
As an IGDA Board member, my number one priority will be to strengthen local chapters worldwide by making them a vital part of their local game development scene.
I've been an organizer of the Boston IGDA Chapter since 2006, and I became its president in April 2009. I've worked to grow the chapter, turning it into a force in the local community. When local developers ask me to describe the benefits of IGDA membership, I can respond with a list of tangible benefits provided by our chapter:
* A place for networking, with 100-200 people at our monthly meetings, grown from 30 people in 2005
* A monthly speaker on game development topics
* A news feed for relevant local events
* An active job board
* Community coordination around large-scale events (discounts to local conferences, placing our members on panel discussions, etc.)
* Political coordination around issues of game censorship legislation, tax credits, net neutrality
* A sense of belonging to a real community of local game developers
If every IGDA chapter worldwide could provide their members with a similar list of services, individual developers would immediately see the benefits that the IGDA brings them. Furthermore, they would see opportunities to volunteer on a local level, which would lead to greater member engagement with the IGDA.
Member engagement and communication on a chapter level are the foundation of the IGDA’s ability to advocate for game developers. Imagine if all of our chapters were strong; the IGDA could respond to hot-button QoL issues as they are raised by recommending that all of its chapters participate in a theme month, where the topic of discussion would be issues surrounding QoL. We could take notes from all the meetings worldwide and compile them on the IGDA Wiki. Such notes would be of value to the IGDA's ongoing QoL efforts, giving the IGDA a better handle on where developers stand on the issue, and the meetings themselves would almost certainly cause volunteers to step forward and join our QoL initiatives.
I believe in the future of the IGDA -- I've been a member since 2003 and it is obvious that we are doing more as an organization today than ever before. Yet there is much room for improvement, not just on the chapter level, but on issues of transparency, budget, and election process and policy. I'll end this statement by encouraging you as a member to research each and every candidate on this page: it's in your hands to elect the Board you want, so don't throw away this opportunity to make a real difference.
Candidate Volunteer Credits:
* President, IGDA Boston Chapter, AKA Boston Post Mortem (2009-present)
* Coordinator, IGDA Boston Chapter, AKA Boston Post Mortem (2006-2009)
* Technology Co-Officer, Game Education SIG (2007-present)
* Member, Special Member Meeting Task Force (August 2009)
Candidate Bio:
Darius Kazemi runs Orbus Gameworks, a company that builds game play data metrics tools to help developers keep track of what their players are doing in-game. Before Orbus, Darius analyzed gameplay metrics at Turbine, Inc., for MMORPGs, including Dungeons & Dragons Online and Lord of the Rings Online. He is also a a coordinator for the Boston IGDA Chapter and a technology officer for the IGDA Education SIG. He's co-organizer of the Boston GameLoop conference and he writes about networking and how to break into the game industry on his blog, Tiny Subversions.
Board Interview Q and A:
1. What do you see as the biggest challenge facing game developers today? What should the IGDA's role be in addressing that challenge?
The biggest challenge facing game developers today is how we can bolster our status as professionals, both within our industry and within society at large. A professional is a qualified, talented worker with knowledge specific to a given field who follows a code of ethics and requires minimal supervision. That definition accurately describes most game developers. Yet often professionalism takes a back seat to profit motives. We sometimes find ourselves without professional benefits like health care, and I believe that QoL issues at their core stem from a lack of respect for employees.
The IGDA is first and foremost a professional association for game developers. Our role is twofold. First we must provide professional development and education to our members, so that they know their rights as employees, best practices, and ethical standards (when and how to blow the whistle, for example). Second, we must represent our members as professionals to the rest of the world. When the media brands us uniformly as peddlers of violence, or we are portrayed as people who play games all day instead of work, or (worse) we are portrayed as staying up all night chugging Mountain Dew and coding -- the IGDA needs to move to counter those representations.
This is not an overnight fix, but rather a long term strategy for the betterment of our industry. When the young people entering our workforce are educated as to what sort of treatment they should expect from a respectful employer, it will be that much more difficult for employers to sustain poor QoL practices.
2. How do you expect to contribute to the IGDA Board? What qualifications or skills do you possess that will enhance your contributions?
I come to the Board with years of experience operating IGDA Boston, one of our most successful chapters. I've also been running my own startup company for the last three years: in that time I've had to keep an organization running on a tight budget, pitch and solicit sponsorships (sales), and creatively solve problems with limited resources.
I'm always on the cutting edge of technology as far as communication is concerned: I can help keep the IGDA's communication initiatives current from a technical standpoint. I 'get' the web, and I work with it every day as a core part of my life. The IGDA could use my expertise here to make sure that our online presence gives our members the best possible experience.
My work takes me all over the world, both to attend conferences and to spend time on-site with companies. Even when I'm not formally representing the IGDA, I will be an ambassador for the organization wherever I go.
3. How much time do you expect to volunteer to the IGDA? How will you manage this commitment?
I currently give about 7-14 hours a week to the IGDA, which is mostly reflected in my work for the Boston Chapter. If elected, I'll be scaling back my duties with the Boston Chapter to focus more on the IGDA as a whole. As a Board member my volunteer hours would remain roughly the same, but I would essentially be a "supervolunteer" with enhanced authority and responsibility.
4. As an IGDA board member, you're often asked to get things done on a short timeframe and tight budget. What do you think a reasonable expectation of a board member's contribution is? How will you accomplish your goals as a board member?
I'm very good at getting things done quickly, cheaply, and well -- running a startup forces me to prioritize between hundreds of possible tasks on a daily basis. But if there's one thing I've learned in my years of running organizations, is that there's not enough time in the day to do everything myself. I will often delegate tasks to trusted IGDA members. When delegating a task to someone, I will give that person the autonomy needed to complete the task, my full support and backing as a Board member, and as many resources as I can possibly provide.
In short, I'll use my position as a Board member to support and empower other IGDA volunteers. As a volunteer I've done some of my best work for the IGDA with a Board member in my corner. Now I hope to be that person for other volunteers.
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