GDC Losing Focus?
From Slashdot:
In the wake of E3′s breakup, developers and attendees going to the annual Game Developer’s Conference this week are wondering out loud: is the event losing its focus? As GDC expands, what was once (even just a few years ago) a somewhat quiet and intimate affair is taking on the airs of the now-deceased videogame extravaganza. The key for the Conference this year, the first post-E3, is going to be to make sure that the community aspect of the event remains intact in the face of over 12,000 attendees. As conference director Jamil Moledina points out, “The main lesson from (the transition of E3) is that we have to stick to what we do best: providing learning and inspiration to independent developers.” Here’s hoping the coming week bears that out.
Actually…the reference to E3 is fairly unimportant…but that’s what most of the Slashdot discussion revolves around. The problem is that GDC is becoming absolutely huge and they’re concerned about losing focus as that happens… There’s little discussion of having booth babes and devolving into the media frenzy that E3 was.
Actually though, I’m not sure if that’d be a bad thing. Well, bad for GDC maybe, but not necessarily bad for the gaming industry in general. I, as a gamer, miss E3. Yeah, I know it didn’t really accomlish much…but it wasn’t supposed to. It was a showcase. All the assorted companies rolled out their shiniest offerings to show us what the coming year had to offer. You could always look forward to E3 to see the newest, coolest offerings. All the best new toys coming out.
One of the comlaints was that developers were developing towards E3, and not towards a finished product… That too much effort was put into making a demo ready for E3 and not enough time simply getting the product done… But there will always be deadlines like that. There’ll always be some manager trying to get something out the door…a demo in time for a special edition of some magazine…a title that has to be ready for a new system’s launch…the usual holiday rush… The industry is full of unreasonable deadlines.
I’d love to see a replacement for E3. Maybe not quite as carnal a carnival as it had become – the booth babes were becoming more of the focus than gaming was – but I’d love to see a consumer/media oriented showcase full of sound and noise again, even if it signified nothing.