CONFERENCE

ADVOCACY

The Game Developers Conference has partnered with the IGDA to present a number of topics that address new and existing issues within the realm of social advocacy. Topics covered range from diversity to censorship to quality of life. With these sessions, we hope to offer a forum for discussion and ultimately a place to effect change for the development community.

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#1ReasonToBe

Leigh Alexander (Gamasutra)
Mattie Brice (San Francisco State University)
Robin Hunicke (Funomena)
Kim McAuliffe (Microsoft Studios)
Brenda Romero (UC Santa Cruz)
Elizabeth Sampat (Storm8)

Inspired by the #1ReasonWhy and #1ReasonToBe hashtag discussion, join us for a rapid, fun microtalk-style celebration and exploration of what it means to be a woman in games. Each panelist will share her experience, its highs and lows, and explore a vision for a future industry that is inclusive for all. Panelists include Brenda Romero (Game Designer in Residence, University of California at Santa Cruz), Robin Hunicke (Co-Founder, Funomena!), Leigh Alexander (Editor at Large, Gamasutra), Elizabeth Sampat (Game Designer, Storm 8), Kim McAuliffe (Microsoft Studios) and Mattie Brice (MA Student, Creative Writing, San Francisco State University).

Diverse Game Characters: Write Them Now!

Jill Murray (Ubisoft)

Variety is the spice of life. Games are a playful exploration of life. Clearly the two are made for each other. For writers and narrative designers, this means building diversity into the cast of characters with whom we populate game worlds. This requires research, imagination, consideration, and yes, the risk of getting it wrong. But attention paid to diversity strengthens every aspect of writing, and opens us to new narrative possibilities and gameplay paradigms. This session is a diversity bootcamp covering everything from "sensitive topics" to finding the nugget of commonality we share with each character we invent.

Scapegoats No More: Improving the Public Image of Games (Presented by IGDA)

Ian Bogost (Georgia Institute of Technology)
Michael Capps (formerly of Epic Games)
Daniel Greenberg (Freelance)

Every new medium seems to invite a moral panic. The case of comic books in the 1950s is well known, but it was hardly the first. In the 18th century, the popularization of the novel was met with fear and derision ("depraved, foolish, yet dangerous books," one critic wrote of them). In the 1920s, the popularization of the crossword puzzle lit up the same embers of fear: idle wastes of time keeping citizens from work and family duties. Some game developers and players seem to believe that this problem will just go away on its own over time. But recent events should remind us that we can't just wait around for games to improve their own reputation in public life, because it won't happen. In this session, three experienced and opinionated public advocates for videogames will characterize the true nature of games' public image problem and offer concrete, short- and long-term strategies and tactics for improving the public image of games, useful to game developers no matter their role, project, or experience.

CONFERENCE

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2013 HIGHLIGHTED SESSIONS

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