FuturePlay Flashback

In a town more focused on Spartan football, it was nice to discuss the future of digital games (and, ironically, football video games often came up as a point of discussion).

More of a boutique academic(+some industry) event, FuturePlay did a nice job of pulling together some notable speakers. Admittedly, I was expecting a bigger turn out than the sub-200 who showed, but I guess Lansign is not a major attraction for most developers (well, despite Mark LeBlanc's obsession with the Apple Butter Festival also in town that week).

I came in mainly to speak on the big censorship panel, which was really exciting and insightful. It was one of the few times when, at a game conference, you actually have speakers from "the other side" there to bash games. I could see attendees boiling in their seats. It was a 2-hour session that others have already commented on: see the notes from litagemini and Gregg Seelhoff.

The conference folks have kindly put up some videos from the censorship, and other key panels.

I also participated on panels covering quality of life issues and academic/industry research collaboration.

Anyway, was a fun event that I am sure will get even better over time.