GWSIG Monthly Meeting Minutes/Meeting28

International Game Developers Association

Steve Jacobs: Howdy all
Steve Jacobs: Shall we get this started???
Steve Jacobs: Hmm
Rhianna Pratchett: Hi guys
Steve Jacobs: Looks like we'll need to wait for wendy as she's half the meeting :-)
J.: Yes.
Steve Jacobs: Ah testing has returned :-)
Steve Jacobs: Andy, you wanna start off on formal adoption???
testing: well I would, but I`ve still not decided whether to get a boy or a girl
Steve Jacobs: (and I'm glad you are testing your typing)
Steve Jacobs: One of each works :-)
testing: Okay,
Steve Jacobs: BOth in one is possible, but problematic
testing: who would like to formally adopt or not adopt the V year plan? Any points anyone would like to raise on this?
testing: lol
Steve Jacobs: Ok, I formally move to vote on the adoption
Steve Jacobs: second?
testing: any one here? lol
J.: I'm here
testing: I can see this has everyone reallly fired up :D
J.: I have no opinion on the plan
Steve Jacobs: ANd wendy arrives
wendy despain: I'm sorry for my lateness. I'm in the middle of a crisis
testing: it's on the wiki if you,d like a look, all thoughts welcome
Steve Jacobs: Wendy do we need to postpone? You are about 1/2 the meeting
J.: I read it, I don't have an opinion on it
Steve Jacobs: ok, can someone second so we can open discussion and/or vote?? :-0
testing: (I'm not poking you with a stick) is that because it doesn't do what you think it should, or, hey, it's just prodecural? Am curious :0)
J.: I honestly don't think you want me to continue on the point.
Rhianna Pratchett: I think it looks good Andy, I'll second it.... although I don't think I actually count :)
testing: Please do, if you have feelings I'd like to hear them, that's why it was launched as a discussion doc
testing: really any thoughts -ve or +ve as we're setting out what we want to do, not point doing this if people don't agree
Steve Jacobs: You always count RHi :-)
Rhianna Pratchett: Well, I try
J.: You're welcome to vote on it, I'm abstaining
Steve Jacobs: ok J anyone else??
Kim: Sorry, I'm just skimming it right now.
Kim: I second... or third it. :)
testing: I'll vote a yah if I may, and say that it is always open for change, alteration and general development :0D
Steve Jacobs: Ok anyother discussion that Andy and J's non-discussion??? :-)
Steve Jacobs: If there is no discussion someone "calls the question" that gets seconded and then we vote
J.: I'm just here for my items, I don't want to stomp on anyone else's.
wendy despain: I'm here now
testing: well you,re part of igda, there,s no point us approving something if you have a massive issue with it
J.: I don't.
Steve Jacobs: Ok, any other discussion of the V year plan??
wendy despain: love the five year plan
wendy despain: let's vote on it and make it official
testing: if it`s a V year plan does that mean we're all lizards?
Steve Jacobs: Ok I'll take that as a "call the question" motion
Steve Jacobs: Which I second
wendy despain: yes, that's a call the question motion
Steve Jacobs: Who can officially vote??
testing: I vote yah
Rhianna Pratchett: Yes
Steve Jacobs: Yes
wendy despain: committe members can vote, or if we can't get enough of them for a quorum, the three exec can induct by fiat
Kim: I vote yes (and yes to being a lizard).
Steve Jacobs: J abstains
Steve Jacobs: Ed and Sande have asked to be I'md for anything that requires their involvement
wendy despain: IM Sande and ask if she'd like to vote on this
wendy despain: I vote yes
Steve Jacobs: just imd sande
testing: shall we moev on while we wait for sande and ed
Steve Jacobs: We can move on and add their votes as they come in
wendy despain: Beth, Coray and Ben are also committee members who aren't here, but we don't need unanimous voting
Steve Jacobs: Beth might be a little busy this week
wendy despain: John is also a committee member, but I take it he's not participating in this vote
J.: Beth isn't going to be here.
SC: can I just put in a quorum vote... sadly I haven't read the 5 year plan.
Steve Jacobs: *slaos Sande's wrist with wet noodle*
J.: http://www.igda.org/wiki/Game_Writers_SIG/five-year_plan
Steve Jacobs: slaps
J.: read
wendy despain: having any plan is better than no plan, imho
Steve Jacobs: Speaking of plans, Austin?? Booth??
wendy despain: and it is subject to change if there's a problem with it. we just want to adopt it as "real" instead of a draft
wendy despain: we have a booth in the back corner of the expo hall
wendy despain: it's going to be right next to the Austin IGDA chapter booth and the Women In Games booth
J.: It's in decent company, however.
Steve Jacobs: better than none at all :-), and agreed J
SC: I can't be a quorum vote, as I exist, but don't vote.
wendy despain: i still need to find out how much it will cost for us to have "electricity"
Steve Jacobs: Couple hundred likely
testing: Sounds great, sorry I won't be there
Steve Jacobs: should be in the decorator kit
Steve Jacobs: also sorry I won't be there
J.: What did you need power for?
testing: I vote for a Fiat then and we can move on, the plan is always open to comment, but we can cross it off the agenda
wendy despain: yes, you'd think they would be organized enough to give us a decorator kit, but so far - no dice
Kim: I'm sorry I'm going to miss it.
wendy despain: i second the fiat
Steve Jacobs: agreed on the fiat
Steve Jacobs: who's the decorator, or do you know??
testing: power would be good, a laptop is a friend in quiet bits and cuts down on post Austin paperowrk for new members
testing: sounds expensive for an extension lead!
wendy despain: we have to set up electricity and wifi with the convention center directly
wendy despain: i'm working on it
J.: I thought the wifi was free for all attendees. It was last year.
wendy despain: the conference is under new management this year
J.: It was also bogged down to nothing last year because everyone was using it.
Steve Jacobs: Our Blood Sucking friends at CMP :-)
J.: Made it very difficult to file stories.
wendy despain: we're also given the opportunity to serve beer etc. for the booth crawl, but i'm assuming all our writers would rather be crawling than serving
testing: If it's like Autin year 1 they'll be crawling by the end of it for sure
J.: I'd think you'd be better off serving something other than beer if you're going to have anything.
Steve Jacobs: SHould rotate folks in and out of the booth during crawl so someone's managing it. Would love to have a budget for beer and swag at somepoint
wendy despain: i don't' think we manned it at all during previous booth crawls
wendy despain: I'm not sure there's a need for it
J.: Most booths just have branded tcotchkes and small candies/mints.
Steve Jacobs: Could have every SIG member bake brownies to take to austin to distribute during the crawl :-)
Kim: Be right back... have to answer this call.
testing: okay, we're heaing to only 20 mins left of the meeting and we're still on point 2, is there anything that needs voting on or should we move to the quarterly? :0)
wendy despain: you could be in charge of organizing that, if you like, Steve
Steve Jacobs: Quarterly
testing: J?
J.: What would you like to know about it?
Steve Jacobs: SIG Quarterly distribution at Austin
wendy despain: what's the current status?
J.: It's being printed, I'm taking it to the warehouse in Austin
J.: the deadline for printing is the 31st, I don't know if it'll be ready before then
wendy despain: everything on schedule so far?
testing: The quarterly was distributed at Develop btw, and Rhi has some spares that will go out at various events during London Games week - yay Rhi!!
wendy despain: yay Rhi!
J.: I'm in contact with the AGDC rep and have given him a sample PDF to review
Steve Jacobs: I second the Yaay
testing: Good work J
J.: officially he hasn't replied to me about that though
Rhianna Pratchett: Oh yeah, I do, the cat keeps going to sleep on them :)
wendy despain: i think they just wanted to make sure we're not distributing pr0n
J.: I've also told him that the desire was to have 2,000 inserted in gimme bags and have the remainder sent to the booth
wendy despain: i wouldn't expect an answer
J.: but officially he hasn't replied to that either
J.: I have no idea of their process on the bags.
wendy despain: why not just deliver the 2000 to the warehouse and bring the remainder with you to the conference?
J.: I could do that.
Kim: Back.
testing: Superb, good work on th Quartley everyone. Wendy - Podcasts?
J.: I'll tell the printers to separate 200 out for me.
wendy despain: that would be awesome
wendy despain: good work J.
wendy despain: there's an initiative afoot to give IGDA as a whole its own podcast
wendy despain: you can read about it here, if you like: </b>http://www.igda.org/wiki/Podcast
wendy despain: i think that's the right link. let me know if it's not.
wendy despain: I think we can get involved in that effort instead of trying to do it on our own
testing: sounds like a good idea
Steve Jacobs: Makes sense
testing: should there be any editorial constraints, if it's going out in the SIGs name, are there editorial issues?
wendy despain: it'll be officially announced in the next IGDA newsletter. I just wanted to let people know it's there since we've been talking about it, and it looks to me like a great way to do this thing with the critics
testing: we should maybe look at those next meeting, but sounds like a good initiative
wendy despain: editorial issues haven't been talked about yet, but i doubt it testing
testing: J - advancement, tropical brainstorming and leadership of newsletter ?
J.: Right. As you might or might not know, I'm in charge of producing the newsletter basically because the guys who started it got jobs and ran out of time to pay attention to it.
J.: It has never been my intention to just run it as I please. I've been able to do so only with the help of a very cherished few, but I've really chafed at the idea of possibly being in charge indefinitely.
wendy despain: just for the record, they had jobs when they started the Quarterly. They just hit crunch as we all do now and then.
J.: That said, Beth Dillon has shed a number of her obligations and has expressed interest in helping in that regard. She may take over as editor in chief, possibly the next issue.
J.: Besides that, however, I think most people just treat the quarterly as something that just kind of happens and thus have little if any real ownership of it.
J.: I regret anything I've failed to do to stop that attitude, because frankly it's poisonous.
testing: It's not that people have such a negative view of it, it's a case of everyone having time management rpoblems, this being a voluntary organisation
wendy despain: certain attitudes are poisonous, yes
J.: In any case, I'd like to hear more from people about why they want a newsletter and what should be in it.
testing: you'll never stop time issues, particularly if people are working and have to balanace family and social lives plus commitment
wendy despain: well, first of all I'm going to object - again - to calling it a newsletter
J.: Time issues aren't what I mean. We have people who can produce the thing.
testing: Thanks for your work on he quarterly, it has been and is appreciated :0)
wendy despain: it's a Quarterly
J.: actually, it's a biannual. :)
testing: It`s a thingy :0)
wendy despain: Quarterly has nothing to do with timing
J.: really?
wendy despain: in this case, absolutely
J.: It's a publication, it doesn't have a lot in the way of news, certainly
testing: Anyways, the content is a sort of editorial thing, unless anyone has any suggestions of themes - script to voice, writing for action games? developing interactive narratives?
J.: I've never heard of the term "quarterly" used to describe a publication that didn't come out four times a year
wendy despain: We very much appreciate J handling the quarterly through this transition period, and look forward to seeing it take a new direction under Beth's stewardship. Thank you, J.
testing: any thoughts
wendy despain: maybe if Beth is taking it over in the future, she can address these concerns you have
J.: well.
J.: ok.
Steve Jacobs: Guys I'm sorry to bail at this critical juncture but I've got a 1:00 that requires turning off my computer and moving locations
dansky: See you, Steve
wendy despain: thanks for getting the ball rolling Steve
Steve Jacobs: THe quick note from me is that the script/doc library discussions with ed sig are under way and there interest on their part
testing: see ya steve, have a great one
Steve Jacobs: ciao for now
Steve Jacobs: ...poof
wendy despain: yay Steve, thanks
testing: Books, wendy?
wendy despain: I've signed a contract with AK Peters
wendy despain: it's all official and everything
wendy despain: we're working out getting the IGDA logo to the front of the book
wendy despain: shouldn't be a problem, but you know - gotta make sure all the copyright holders are happy :-)
wendy despain: also we've set official deadlines and I've contacted all the volunteer contributors
wendy despain: I haven't heard back from all of them yet, which worries me, but the project is moving ahead
wendy despain: outlines are coming in, and I'm thinking of using Google Docs to keep everything organized
testing: Grand :0)
testing: It,s great to see the book up and running
wendy despain: hmm. what else? The publisher now needs to contact all the contributors and have them sign a contract
wendy despain: we're working on that
wendy despain: yeah, it's gonna happen. :-) and the publishers are excited about the project
dansky: Are we going to have to sign this one in blood, too?
testing: is there any time for slippage in the chapters, in case of anyonr being late with delivery, or squeezed in crunch times?
wendy despain: we're also hashing out titles right now. let me look up the current frontrunners
wendy despain: I'd love to hear your opinion of using google docs
Rhianna Pratchett: Was really put off by Google docs because I had to install stuff just to look at it
testing: free with every copy - an established game writer's soul!
wendy despain: hmm. i didn't remember ever having to install stuff to use google docs, but it's been a while since i signed up
wendy despain: I was just seeing the advantages of a central location with version control and now conversion to wiki format
Rhianna Pratchett: I feel very out of the loop on this book thing... I didn't even know what publishers were in the look what kind of rates were being offered etc
Rhianna Pratchett: And suddenly it's been signed
Rhianna Pratchett: I don't know if that's because I was just left off the list until now
wendy despain: are you subscribed to the general mailing list?
Rhianna Pratchett: yes
Rhianna Pratchett: But there's been veyr little talk on there compared to the first bool
Rhianna Pratchett: book
SC: Yeah, what rates are we offered?
SC: Only heard that it would be less than 1% b/c of so many contribs
wendy despain: I appologize for not being better at communicating this stuff
wendy despain: I started talking with CRM, who published our first book
wendy despain: we started talking to them about it at GDC this year
wendy despain: they were very, very slow to get back to me about it
wendy despain: back then, I asked on the main mailing list if anyone had other publishers they thought we should investigate
wendy despain: someone suggested AK Peters. Dansky, I think.
wendy despain: so I emailed them with our preliminary outlines and they jumped on it - very excited about the project
wendy despain: I prodded CRM many, many times
wendy despain: I filled out their many pages of official "proposal" paperwork, which they couldn't discuss details until that was filled out
wendy despain: but they didn't tell me they needed the 10-page proposal done until July
Rhianna Pratchett: Oh, I don't have a problem with us not going with CRM
Rhianna Pratchett: I would have just felt more comfortable with knowing more about what was happening with the whole process.
wendy despain: they weren't even beginning to talk about rates when I told them this wasn't working out. I saw no need for the process of talking to a publisher to go on for a year when we had one that was excited
SC: It's bec/ most give an advance and royalties
SC: but AKPeters only gives out royalties
wendy despain: sorry, I just didn't see any point in emailing the whole list and saying, "CRM said they'd get back to me a week ago. I still haven't heard anything from them. I'm keeping AK Peters as interested as I can until we can find out what CRM will offer."
SC: If it's signed, it's signed.
wendy despain: well, CRM only gave out an advance - and no royalties to contributors for the first book
wendy despain: it was $300/chapter as I recall
Rhianna Pratchett: No but I would have liked to have known more about AK Peters before it became signed and sealed
SC: royalties toe ditor, prob
wendy despain: I emailed the whole mailing list and asked contributors to vote on their preference and the overwhelming majority said they would prefer royalties
testing: Thanks for all the hardwork Wendy, it's obviously been a hell of a lot of work
testing: Is there someway we can look at streamlining the communication, it's obvious that for some reason people have been out of the loop on some of these developments
wendy despain: sorry Rhianna. A lot of talk about AK Peters happened here in the monthly meetings
Rhianna Pratchett: Yes that would be appreciated, like I said I may have missed stuff, by not being on the author list
Rhianna Pratchett: Sure but a lot of authors aren't in these meetings
Ed: *nods*
testing: It does feel like we need an authros cc list, or anohter active way of alerting everyone
wendy despain: I only created an author list last week
testing: that way you won't need to repeat yourself and everyone can feel included
Rhianna Pratchett: That would be good, but I thought there was one, or one being created?
testing: cool
testing: hopefully that should help :0)
Rhianna Pratchett: Oh ok... thought it had been going for a while and I'd been missed off, sorry
wendy despain: sorry, no. I've been beating my head against the publishers too much
Rhianna Pratchett: Anyway don't let me hold up things any more, sorry
testing: Credits?
dansky: For the next book, we should take a cue from this discussion and look at getting more information out up-front. That being said, for this one I'm very glad we're with a publisher who is excited about working with us, and who actively pursued us.
wendy despain: I think everything is moving in the right direction for this book now. I apologize for the problems up till this point. I'll try to do better.
testing: Yeah, in terms of time, we're looking to have a breather between this one and the next aren't we?
dansky: Wendy, I think we all very much appreciate the hard work you've put in on this one.
Ed: yeah, absolutely
Rhianna Pratchett: Great, thanks Wendy, and thanks for your hard work.
testing: Definitely, thanks for all the paperwork you've waded through!!!!
testing: I`m looking forward to the finished thing! :0)
testing: Any thoughts on credits, and the imdb letter?
SC: have we gone through most of the agenda?
wendy despain: i think it will all turn out okay in the end
wendy despain: have you contacted the IGDA credits committee?
testing: haven`t as yet, was waiting for any feedback from here first
wendy despain: or thought about rewriting the letter so it focuses on writing credits instead of all game credits?
Ed: gak, I have to dash - office closing. I'll have to write something in the list at some point soon, but just to quickly say that Develop is really keen on running more writing related things if people are willing to write them. But I'll say more on-list. Take care everyone! :)
testing: I think part of the problem is that they don't take GAMES seriously, so we need to tackle it at that level
wendy despain: thanks Ed!
testing: maybe the moby letter could be more writing orientated, but some of the progblems are global in terms of accessing credits
testing: got to go!
wendy despain: woops, we lost testing
wendy despain: i guess we'll talk about it onlist
wendy despain: let's see, next on the agenda is the Game Writing Contest Update - Dean isn't here
wendy despain: we'll get an update next time
wendy despain: does anyone have any comments about it?
wendy despain: ok then, moving on...
wendy despain: Sande, how goes the hiring hall?
wendy despain: hmm. I don't have her IM to ping her
SC: Kim just IM'ed me.
SC: Otherwise, I hadn't heard from her before.
wendy despain: yay
SC: Anyway, currently in crunch.
Kim: Hmm... that's weird. I didn't IM.
SC: So haven't been able to move forward except for incrementally.
SC: IM'edme before.
wendy despain: understandable, Sande
Kim: Oh, sorry. Yes, private message from before.
wendy despain: we all know how crunch goes
Kim: I told Sande that I was working on a list of companies (culled from IGDA chapter lists and Moby Games, etc.). From there I was going to find appropriate contacts - Head of HR, Content, etc.
wendy despain: excellent!
Kim: I'll have some of my students helping, too.
wendy despain: way to go
wendy despain: sounds like it's moving in the right direction
wendy despain: Rich, how goes the whitepaper?
wendy despain: Rich?
Kim: Can I jump in about Write Club until Rich joins is?
Kim: in?
wendy despain: go for it :-)
Kim: The organisers of FuturePlay aren't including us in the actual conference, but will promote us with their material. We'll have the Write Club on the Thursday night, the first night of the conference.
Kim: It will be in the same hotel, so people won't have to go far.
testing: called to meeting, meeting postponed, am back brifly :)
wendy despain: ah, hello testing :-)
Kim: I will be putting out a call for writing challenges soon.
Kim: Also, the organiser is looking for pictures of previous Write Club events, so I'm asking if anybody has any of those. I don't have anything like that.
wendy despain: hrm. i don't think anyone took pictures at the first one.
dansky: I don't think we showed up on film.
Kim: I will be contacting CRM for a copy of the book to give away as a prize, and I believe I can get a copy or two of Inspiration software to give out as prizes as well.
wendy despain: we could do a dramatic recreation with actors
Kim: Awesome!
Kim: Okay, I'll tell him that we have no pictures, but I'll make sure to take some this time for future.
wendy despain: very cool. sounds like you have this all under control
Kim: Thanks.
wendy despain: so dansky - whitepaper?
dansky: Short version: </b>I suck.
dansky: Long version - between travel for work, Austin, and a few unexpected surprises, my summer bandwidth got devoured. With any luck, I will be able to get the project back up to speed in the weeks following AGDC.
wendy despain: good enough for me
dansky: Mea culpa on this one.
testing: time's always running short, cheers for putting yourself up to do it in the first place
Rhianna Pratchett: Sorry to add in another book related question - was away making the other half a Lemsip - but when is it due to be published?
wendy despain: as long as these projects have someone looking out for them, I figure the work will get done eventually
SC: gotta go
wendy despain: we'd like to get the first one out in time for selling it at GDC
wendy despain: the second one may also come out then, but definitely before summer so it can get on professors' book lists
wendy despain: in time for the 2008 semester
Rhianna Pratchett: Er what's that in UK dates please? March
wendy despain: February
wendy despain: and April
wendy despain: they're giving it a really quick turnaround, which i appreciate
wendy despain: they see a lot of value in promoting and selling it at GDC
wendy despain: and I think they're right
wendy despain: ok, any other any other business?
Rhianna Pratchett: Ok thanks
wendy despain: yay! I declare this meeting adjourned
Kim: Thanks, Wendy.
Kim: Have to run. Have a great day, everyone. :) Bye.
wendy despain: I'll post the minutes to the wiki and send out the usual stuff to the mailing list to let people know it's here
dansky: Later, Kim