Online Games SIG/Conference Calls/October 4th 2006
International Game Developers Association
Table of contents |
[edit] Notes from Conference Call 10/04/2006 4pm PST / 7pm ET / 8am KST
[edit] Attendance
[edit] Present
James Hursthouse,Peter Freese,Larry Mellon,Jay Moore,Michael Welles,
[edit] Apologies
Michael Steele,Elonka Dunin,Brian Robbins,Jonathan Greechan,Daniel James,Gordon Walton,Paul Kim
[edit] Next Call
Next meeting is Wednesday, November 1st at 4pm PST / 7pm EST / 8am KST (Nov 2nd)
[edit] Problems with Yahoo Mailing List
Still persist. All need to log in to Yahoo Groups page to link the email address they wish to have group mail sent to and from with their Yahoo User ID's. For now, JH is using direct emails to communicate on SIG business.
http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/IGDAOGSC/
[edit] 2006 Whitepaper
This was the main focus of this meeting.
Action: Jay Moore will upload the skeleton document supplied by Larry Mellon to the Wiki asap. In addition, he will create a sandbox page for the committee to post comments on the skeleton in the following key areas:
- Areas missing from the skeleton - The second level (i.e. sub section headings) - Potential contributor names assigned to each section
As an example, we discussed the topic of 'MMO Middleware' which will be one of our sections. It was agreed that we want, at least for the main whitepaper, an independent expert to provide an overview of the state of the industry with regards to middleware as opposed to representatives from middleware companies providing the content. An opportunity for middleware vendors to provide information may happen when the 'bible' / industry directory phase is reached.
JM will mail the group as soon as the sandbox is ready to accept comments. The aim is to have this completed so that the next meeting can be a review of the skeleton and an approval of it for going forward.
Other comments:
We want to include comments and opinion from the industry's leading players. How can we have an MMO whitepaper without comment from Blizzard, for example? It was decided to pursue these comments after finally establishing our main skeleton and approaching these companies on specific topics. i.e. Microsoft on in game ads after their acquisition of Massive, for example.
We noted areas in the industry, such as the lack of standard terminology for and independent validation of user statistics (Game Ratings??) that might be things that the SIG can address. We agreed that the Whitepaper should not shy away from industry areas that are problematic. Brian Robbins was suggested as a person who has been interested in user metrics (at least from the Casual Games perspective) and who might be willing to write on this topic in the OG Whitepaper.
E-Zine, Podcast and new Webpages will be informed by activity on the Whitepaper so the Whitepaper remains our primary (if not sole) focus.
[edit] Mailing List / Conference Announcements
Peter Freese asked the committee to consider its policy on sending notices regarding industry events and conferences to the wider community of SIG mailing list subscribers.
As the committee knows, we sent communication regarding the Austin Game Conference on behalf of the Games Initiative prior to AGC. The basis of that deal was that IGDA members will receive 20% off their entry fee to AGC 2007 (it was too late to apply this process for 2006) and we were also noted as a sponsor on the AGC Sponsors page (JH created OG SIG logo for this purpose) and were offered the opportunity of a bag insert (I think a $500 'value'). While we were unable to take advantage of some of these offers, we will ensure that we do so for the next year's conference.
The committee agreed that until we have the regular E-Zine communication channel in which we will be able to include a 'Forthcoming Events' section, is up and running, we will allow event companies to forward us information about their event for distribution by us to the community. The criteria is that the event must be directly relevant to online game developers, and that there must be some significant discount on entry fees offered to IGDA members.
[edit] AOB
No
