GDC Considers Invite-Only Press Access
CMP, which organizes GDC and DICE, is considering switching to a press-by-invite-only system for the 2009 events. And while that may mean we don't get to attend next year, it sums up what I was whispering to Fruit Brute all week: "I feel like I'm intruding." Partially that's because press attendance has swelled in recent years - 2006 saw 1,000 of the 16,000 attendees number themselves among the press corps, at an event that is, ideally, supposed to be about game designers talking to and learning from themselves.
There was some disgruntlement among journalists when E3 turned to a similar invite-only process, but so far the threat of favoritism and blackmailing editorial content hasn't caused the sky to fall. There were times during this year's GDC that I felt the press presence, of which I was a part, was intrusive or simply not helpful - at the LGBT roundtable, for instance, which was an admirable effort and which I greatly support, I realized that I didn't belong there. Not as a member of the press, anyway. It was a forum for LGBT members of the game industry to discuss internal goals and problems just like any other special interest group in any other industry. But with sensitive issues being discussed, not to mention the fact that not everybody in the room was out, there was really nothing we could do but provide a URL and say, "We're here if you need us." To have made a story out of the discussion would have been disingenuous and possibly counterproductive.
That feeling was even more pronounced at some of the less personal sessions. We'd sent ourselves to sessions clearly meant for designers and programmers and then scratched our heads wondering why we couldn't translate an hour's talk about programming middleware into an interesting post. It wasn't that I felt the press was unwanted, necessarily - but there was a lot of effort put into covering events that weren't always appropriate to cover. Do you want to read about how many forms an independent developer needs to fill out to submit their game to Xbox Live Arcarde? Maybe, but it isn't exactly a story you'd fly around the world to catch.
Check out the full story and let us know what you think - is there enough popular hunger for internecine game designer dialog to justify such a heavy-handed press presence at an event that touts itself as being the moment for game designers to turn introspective? Or is the dilution of the event with more time and money spent on journalists simply too counterproductive?
tiny dancer
Posted to GDC, Hot Stuff, Miscellany on 28 February 2008
· Comments (4)
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Even though my GDC access this year came from a friend and I was definitely intruding (so not even close to a developer), I can completely understand where they're coming from.
While this is a hobby and interest to us, this is their work and business. I would be completely ticked off if people who didn't work in my field of chemistry kept asking me when I'd be done with my project when I'm just trying to talk to a colleague about techniques and problems we're both having.
I guess your job is to try and figure out how what the designers are talking about is going to affect our game play. As a gamer we just need to know how the tools they are working with will influence our game experience and how quickly they can produce titles.
I would think that they are experiencing the same kinds of things that all software niche industries are experiencing right now. The commoditization of tools and the tightening up of project times and cost.
I may be going against the grain here, but I'm going to have to agree with those who say these events should be by invitation only.
The balance of press presence at these events is extremely important and difficult to manage. Last year when I couldn't go to GDC, online press was the only way to really get any of the info. But I can understand that the lack of an E3-like event leaves press few chances to meet pubs and devs in a centralized place and this could lead to even bigger crowds at remaining events that are not designed with the press in mind. As soon as these events become difficult for "real people" to do "real work," they become less worthwhile for everyone involved.
GDC, in particular, faces other challenges as well. While I found all the production and design sessions extremely useful, many of our artists and programmers were left out in the cold. A greater focus on *all* aspects of game development would make the event that much more useful (especially art workshops /code driven sessions/ business and marketing sessions).
In the most longwinded way of saying it, I think that press plays an important role there (maybe not in sessions themselves), but left unchecked or unmanaged it could become an issue.