GDC 2010 Review Part 2

I forgot to mention Day 1 ended with the Indie Game's Festival and The Game Developers' Awards or something where everyone ejaculated how amazing Uncharted 2 was. The IGF kind of inspired me to want to be a bigger part in the Indie Game's Community, but the hosts were not funny, but they aren't actors or performers, so I should cut them some slack, but alas, I have no slack to give. I do, however, have a greater appreciation for Mega 64 now though.

Anyway, I woke up the next day with low hopes, but fortunately this day multiplied a lot of my negativity by -1.

GDC Day 2

1st Talk: GDC Microtalks 2010: Ten Speakers, 200 Slides, Limitless Ideas!

I went to this talk with a lot of my co-workers, since my boss, Jesse Schell, was going to be speaking. His was a good follow-up to his DICE talk and humorous. Some of the other talks were good, some were fogettable, and some were just stupid. I don't feel like going everyone because quite frankly I can't remember. I liked the one after Jesse's about Games for Change though and remember this one and I remember not liking the Ian Bogost's and with its poetry. The Red Wheelbarrow? Really? Maybe I'm just not a good -- or pretentious -- enough of designer to have gotten it. Anyway, I liked the microtalks overall, so Day 2 was off to a good start.

I skipped the Sid Meier's Main Keynote to meet some XNA people. Fortunately I was able to this time. I only met two, but it was better than zero. ZMan or Andy or whatever he goes by, plays a big part in the XBLIG community and gave me some tips so I don't become a deadbeat developer, which right now, I would say I am.

2nd Talk: What Color Is Your Hero?
This was more of a panel discussing diversity in game characters and I really liked it. It wasn't the most exciting and just threw some numbers around, but I like what the diverse panel had to say. I've always been a fan of games that have non-stereotypical but diverse characters. Even though I'm white, I would like to design more Hispanic, black, and Asian characters that aren't just stereotypes, and though this may require a good amount of research, I think I'll be happy with the results.

3rd Talk: The Next Generation of Fighting Games ~Physics & Animation in UFC 2009 Undisputed~
What I liked about this translated talk was the fact it lived up to the title, word-for-word. Anyway, it was a very technical talk, all of which is now in the back of my head, but the speaker kept saying that this is the new standard. They did a UFC game though, which to me, a huge fan of fighting games, isn't quite a fighting game. It is, but it's more of a sports game in my opinion because of the realism achieved in it. I didn't have the courage to ask, but I wanted to ask the following: "You say that this will be the new standard for fighting games, however, do you believe that these techniques are still applicable for fighting games where the animation is more theatrical and the physics are less realistic?" I'm curious to what he would have responded with, however, he answers to any English questions didn't seem that great and were more confusing the the talk as a whole. Again, despite some discrepancies, I enjoyed this talk.

4th Talk: The Game Design Challenge 2010: Real-World Permadeath
This was the game design challenge in which three game designers are given a theme and must design a game around it. This theme was permanent death, making a statement that game's have devalued life as a whole. The first game, Last Game and Testament, was delivered by last year's winners, Erin Robinson and Heather Kelley. It was a game that would replace will reading. It was okay, but one of their goals was to take the morose and stress out of will reading, but to me, a scavenger hunt and guessing game, though it may remove some of the morose nature, adds even more stress. I know that if my mom had to do something like that after her parents died, she'd be extraordinary upset and unable to do such a thing well unless it was done a month or two after the funeral.
The second, delivered by Flower's Genova Chen was called, Heavenville. Essentially it was a Farmville knock-off involving dead loved ones on Facebook. This concept appalled me actually. He said it gave more value to human life, but it just gave human life a monetary value, which to me doesn't progress from the current state of games where enemies are killed for points. Not only that, but deceased friends and loved ones become similar to stock and are traded similarly. A co-worker of mine said it would be interesting for people when they are still alive, but regardless, I didn't find his game amusing at all.
Third was Karma, presented by Kim Swift from Portal. This was my favorite, but it essentially was a grief counseling game. It was very safe, but I thought it was the most useful, which may not have been what the challenge was about.
Anyway, Kim got 3rd, Erin and Heather 2nd, and to my dismay Genova got 1st. Genova is Chinese -- I believe -- and his English is not perfect, and a part of me sometimes wonders if his lack in English speaking skills is what gave him the extra humor needed to make Heavenville appear funnier than it was. It sounds strange to say, but I just think if someone else had delivered that, it wouldn't have went over as well, but maybe I'm just trying to rationalize why such a disturbing idea won. I still liked the challenge as a whole, but am now flabbergasted a reality show doesn't exist that is just like this challenge.

So the day ended, and I was quite pleased with Day 2 and was no longer regretting my decision to go to GDC. Next post will be about Day 3.