Casual Games SIG/Conference Calls/August 2007

International Game Developers Association

Table of contents 1 Role Call 1.1 Who's Here 1.2 Who's Not 2 Next Call 3 Initiatives Overview 3.1 Introductions 3.2 Quarterly 3.3 Data Royalty Reporting Standards Initiative 3.4 Webinar/Roundtable Broadcasts 3.5 White Paper 3.6 New Ideas 4 Other Business

[edit] Role Call

[edit] Who's Here

Jason Akel, Cherie Lutz, Charles Merrin, Jared Nieuwenhuis, Brian Robbins, Dave Rohrl, James C Smith, Wade Tinney, Margaret Wallace

[edit] Who's Not

Rex Sikora (at offsite)

[edit] Next Call

• Tuesday, September 4th at 2pm ET / 11am PT

--Confirmed by everyone.

[edit] Initiatives Overview

[edit] Introductions

• Each member introduced themselves and provided a very quick background
  
• People can email each other if they want to share more about themselves
  

[edit] Quarterly

• Wade

-- Post-mordem on Casual Connect printing
-- Summer issue

--Wade will continue to lead, everyone else must contribute ideas

[edit] Data Royalty Reporting Standards Initiative

• formerly James G.; new owner?

--Playfirst found some issues with Adjustments, COGS, prepaid royalties. James will send out an updated schema to active partners.
--Real will be delayed in its deployment of the XLM standard due to a larger, company-wide royalty system overhaul.

--James S will lead, Cherie is second chair

[edit] Webinar/Roundtable Broadcasts

• Dave Rohrl interested in leading
• Ideas include:
  • Audio - Kane Minkus
  • International Opportunities for Casual Games - James G
  • Technology Roundup - Brian
  • Consumer Marketing Techniques and Sales - Jason
  • Other developer-focused talks?
  • Business models (e.g., subs, clients, etc.) - Charles

--Jason will lead

[edit] White Paper

--Everyone agreed that the white paper is a critical industry resource and that we need to continue publishing it
--Dave R will lead, everyone else must contribute ideas

[edit] New Ideas

• New intiatives to be determined and publicized to mailing list?
• Survey to solicit ideas or will fall on deaf ears?

--Many ideas were discussed, but the notes were lost due to technology issues (editing timed out).

--SIG communication: We need to improve our communications with our members and the IGDA in general. This will take many forms, including mail list, PR, at show elements (t-shirts, ribbons), etc. Messaging will need to be refined for consistency and format. Cherie will lead, Brian will be second chair.

--Developer / Publisher Acknowledgement: Portals are inconsistent about how they list information about the games they sell. In particular, they frequently list partial or no information about the actual developers and publishers. The ideas is to create a standard for how this information is listed. Jared will lead.

--Advertising Standards: In-game and HTML advertising is becoming more important to casual games. THere are currently a number of standards / initiatives underway, including CAST, Google, and real. It is important to try to guide them all towards as much standardization as possible. And in the short run, to facilitate communication to the group about what is happening. Charles will lead.

--Business model education: It is important for the entire industry to understand what models are being used, and what they mean to the developers. For example, what are the implications of clients, subscription models, advertising, etc. IT was agreed that this probably wasn't a separate initiative, but will be woven into many of the other initiatives, such as the webinars, quarterly, and white paper.

--developer showcase: This would be an independent destination (probably a website) where all developers can have a profile and information about their games. It will likely be most valuable for smaller, independent developers. The initial goal is to determine what format the showcase will take, then to determine how to implement it. Jason will lead.

• Other initiatives that were discussed but not assigned an owner:

--surveys: survey SIG members to see what they want from the SIG and from the SC. Survey actual end users to gather information to help everyone in the SIG. Unlike Real, MSFT, and other larger companies, the smaller developers don't have the means or the reach to do this for themselves. --[N.B. please add the others I have forgetten. Thanks. CSM]

• DRM Standardization - Rex volunteers; suggested by Rex and James G. (Emeritus member)
  

-- Come up with a standard way for games and DRM to talk to each other. Advantages include:
-- Allow for content limited trials instead of time limited trials. On PopCap.com we’ve found over a series of tests that giving users unlimited play, but cutting them off at a certain level until they buy the game, results in the highest conversion rate. But this can’t happen until the game can ask the DRM in a standard way “should I stop yet?”
-- Allow games to do things like show trailers when they are cut off instead of simply shutting down. Again, in our own trials, showing an attractive in-game “trailer” had a higher conversion rate.
-- Prevent “one hour hopping” where savvy users hop around from site to site getting another free hour from each.
-- Better anti-piracy protection. Wrappers have some inherent problems, but a clean API between the game and the DRM may be more reliable.

--Rex will lead, James S will be second chair

[edit] Other Business

• Secretary and backup secretary to be selected (Charles, Brian previously)

--Charles will remain Sectretary, Brian will remain as backup

• Sandlot press release

--there was much discussion on the topic.
--The concensus was that the IGDA should do a release first. It would announce the formation of the new 2007 - 2008 Steering Committee.
--Cherie will create a first draft as lead on communication.

• HTML emails

--Reminder that we have this format to send notices, distribute materials (quarterly), run surveys, etc.