Disillusioned ken!

Don't know if anyone has had a chance to look at the scottish affairs committee meetings about the games industry, incredibly detailed debates if you have patience to watch it all (highly recommended if your interested in the politics) - video 1 and then video 2.

It contains debates about (in no order)

• - Tax Breaks
• - Violence in games (ye i know)
• - Abertay and Dundee as a hub
• - Other Development hubs in the UK
• - TIGA's financial forecasts if tax breaks were implemented, TIGA itself
• - ...my god so many more

I'm looking at this from a broad brush-stroke here but the main things I took away from these meetings were 2 MPs' obsession with the violence in games, Denial that TIGA's projected figures were accurate, changing their mind that tax breaks were "poorly targeted" and a great respect for Abertay.

Regarding the violence the basics of it was that Iain 'I want as much MP expenses I can get and more' Davidson and I believe Fiona Bruce the Conservative MP (Sorry if I have misquoted), both seemed almost loathe to be giving financial backing to games that could at all be considered violent.... is that the country we're living in? One that says: we are aware that only 8% of games (roughly) are 18+ but that is impacting on the likelihood of tax breaks being provided for the rest....

REALLY!? 8% and you probably won't let that slide?

Along with that there was an indirect dismissal of every game that was for entertainment purposes when the repetition of their respect for games that were for educational purposes, training fire-fighters etc.

NOW, don't for a moment think I don't hold this genre in high regard because I do. These types of training simulators are helping train people for jobs that can save peoples lives and educate generations but until the MP's start recognizing ALL genres then we won't be taken seriously as an art form, when film was discussed violent films weren't mentioned. Convenient. So its OK for kids to be watching violent films?

Here's some quotes from Edward Troup:

• "well im not sure i would say that it was poorly targeted" - Troup contradicting what was said by george osbourne

• "the government wasn't keen to extend the number of reliefs in the tax system unless there was strong evidence of market failure, there had to be strong evidence to support any intervention" wasn't from him fair enough but hello? Do we just hang around until and industry is dead before reviving it? Its dying now, but apparently the government isn't happy unless the industry is close to death

• "im told that the video games industry based on 2008 figures contributed £386m to GDP and based on 2009 figures the film industry contributed £4.5bn" - I would love to see how he got those figures, serious doubts they are strictly accurate, either that or they were contorted to suit the government's position.

• "im saying that the i disagree with the assumptions that the creation of a job will be helpful to the UK industry" ....

• "i dont know how the government would respond in 20 years time if every other country was offering games tax relief" - nice.

Other quotes

• Iain Davidson "They are breeding an attitude that violence is a way to solve problems" - sigh, are they actually Iain? Based on what facts can you come to that conclusion.

More of the same I am afraid but one thing I am happy with was how eloquently everyone representing our industry spoke, lets just hope now the politicians can actually take it on board. Unfortunately knowing the intrinsic lack of foresight I expect the politicians to only help the games industry when the boat for us to be a global power has long since sailed

Random Update

I'm thinking of adding the word 'eugh' to all dictionaries because i'm using it pretty often, mainly in regard to motivating myself to do work. Why is it so hard to motivate yourself sometimes? It's like you can't snap out of being lazy for weeks and then BAM you obsessed with work all over again.

So where am I at? Regular meetings with Blake and Swift about the website for are going brilliantly, the lads are working really well and I'm hoping to see the design and coding merged together tomorrow - should be great.

Regards to uni work, got a rough idea what area I'm wanting to be in but other than that there's not been much progress past that.

So can I snap out of this induced laziness and get back on the horse? A blog post for the first time in a few months might mean yes :)

Student Postmortem: Downbeat

Abstract

In just the last few decades games production has gone from modest and relatively cheap backgrounds to a multi-billion pound entertainment industry[1]. Development teams started from as little as one person now can have hundreds of workers developing one title [2]. With the games business projected to increase even more over the next few years the respective detail on new games and their production are paramount to making them commercially and critically successful. The attention to market research is important to continue providing consumers with the entertainment they know and appreciate but also being innovative and able to predict niche markets that can be broken into, this is often dictated by what new technology there is available. The attention to detail in production methodologies and development practice is paramount to successful titles. With specific detail on the various roles that are necessary for effective game development I will discuss the role I played in my team for my personal project module. Performing the role of the Producer helped me realize the practical and theoretical tasks that need to be met to complete the producer’s role in an effective manner.


Introduction

The games industry is often cited as being an exciting place, in part due to the secrecy surrounding games in development and big money blockbuster titles such as Modern Warfare 2 [3]. Potentially obtaining a job in this competitive and demanding business is difficult due to the need to be highly skilled and experienced [4]. Achieving the target of being highly skilled highlights the emphasis there is on needing to be acutely aware of the detail needed for game development. Seeing as this specificity is crucial to capturing a job it influenced the aim for my project, see below...

"My aim is to learn firsthand about being a producer, the role a producer plays and what influences that this role has in a game development team."

Focussing on this aim I will detail how it underlines the objectives and the tasks I was to fulfil to achieve it. The objectives were...
1) 'to design and pitch a game concept'
2) 'to plan and schedule different assets the game needs in order for the project to be completed. Adapt the plan of the project if original plan is not working'
3) 'to work in a group project to further understand how different roles collaborate and achieve goals'.

Later these objectives will be expanded to show the detail to which they were completed and their importance to helping to accomplish the aim.

As well as the objectives there were a series of major tasks to carry out, these tasks were...
a) 'complete a detailed project plan using an appropriate project management framework'
b) 'manage group members efficiently so they can complete their assigned tasks, communicate effectively and complete tasks according to schedule'
c) 'ensure group sticks by Design Document, if changes are necessary then to make sure that they fit with the game’s style and scope'.

Like the above objectives these tasks will be extended so the detail of their importance to the overall aim can be highlighted. In addition to the role's objectives and tasks I will iterate any new tasks/objectives that had to be completed which were not previously identified (this also emphasizes that performing my role as a producer uncovered tasks that I may have formerly missed without actually undertaking the role firsthand). As well as the role and its responsibilities there is an extensive literature review which displays the reading involved in helping me understand the role I was undertaking, using books, websites and other resources I will feature relevant statements that benefitted my understanding of the producer's practical and conceptual demands. Finally, showing the progress of my comprehension for the producer's role will help me justify the choices I made throughout the project such as not choosing to not do a detailed project plan and how I learned aspects I completed were not traditionally correct thus furthering my understanding even further.

Literature Review
Ensuring that my knowledge of the Producer role was founded on the fundamental aspects of its demands I used online resources written by respected games industry members. These sources often had firsthand experience themselves; their experience was a good starting point for a true understanding of a Producer's requirements. Using these sources it assisted me in breaking down what tasks and objectives I needed to accomplish, I identified which skills and qualities link with individual tasks/objectives, I extracted these skills from an article by Jill Duffy who is a contributing editor of GameCareerGuide.com and managing editor of Game Developer magazine, see below...
• Great scheduling ability. (Objective 2, Tasks a and b)
• Exceptional organizational skills. (Objective 2, Tasks a, b and c)
• Excellent leadership consensus-building abilities. (Objective 3, Task b)
• Ability to direct development of a project from start to finish while meeting deadlines. (Objective 2 and 3, Tasks b and c)
As well as the above list of skills I used various other industry members for information on the Producer role, the below qualities are listed from Kain Shin who is an industry member working for the International Game Developers Association...

• They keep meetings short and on track
• Updates the schedule once a week or more
• Sees the big picture
• Catches problems before they happen
• Is a highly empathic people person with good social instincts
• Always trying to improve

Later these above qualities will be expanded for added detail and I will identify which qualities were applied during the project and which weren't, detailing the reasons for both respectively. Below is a very simple overall statement from Marc Mencher who is CEO of GameRecruiter.com...

• Good and frequent communication with your team will be your greatest asset

Using these skills and qualities I will discuss their level of importance in how they helped me achieve certain tasks/objectives. As well as using industry member articles I published some of my own articles online, I will discuss how writing about the games industry and the position of a Producer facilitated my knowledge even further.


Body

As stressed in the introduction finding detail in the Producer's tasks and objectives are critical in learning the optimum level the role can be performed at. Exposing myself to the role for an academic year facilitated my understanding and appreciation for the specificity of the individual demands accompanied with the position.
The first objective 1) 'to design and pitch a game concept' was not relevant to the conventional Producer role but I fulfilled it anyway. The reason for this was that I have a keen interest in design as well as production and being from a background which teaches design too gave me an opportunity to fulfil this task, fulfilling this objective did not deviate me from other objectives because it was the first step in development to create a game concept, without a game concept Producers cannot start their role. Secondly, 2) 'to plan and schedule different assets the game needs in order for the project to be completed. Adapt the plan of the project if original plan is not working'. This objective was contentious for a number of reasons. I did complete a plan for assets that would be needed but didn't go into scheduling their expected completion date. The rationale behind this was not for a lack of time or effort on my part into making the asset list but because I felt that the kind of detail expected to go into an accurate schedule is ultimately wasted.
The final objective was 3) 'to work in a group project to further understand how different roles collaborate and achieve goals'. This I felt personally was considerably the most rewarding aspect of the project. Previously not having worked with programmers it was beneficial to finally work together with them to see exactly what tasks they had to complete and at what point different tasks traverse between disciplines (often artists), without learning this aspect of production personally I feel it would be inefficient to attempt to read about all academically but help my grasp to see it practically.

To complete these objectives I needed to fulfil a range of tasks, these were 'complete a detailed project plan using an appropriate project management framework', I chosen to not do this conventionally. This is because expecting fellow students to stick to a rigid schedule plan successfully is highly dubious. The reasons I was convinced of this unreliability was because I had unsuccessfully tried to ingrain an attitude where attendance to project meetings was of the highest importance in the first semester. I potentially could have still completed a detailed project plan but was certain that the constant changes to the schedule would make it more trouble than it was worth, a group not sticking by a schedule to a degree which means it needs to be changed entirely (and in effective creates an entire new schedule) defeats the point in creating a plan in the first place. The advice from industry members (regarding schedule creation) in being an effective producer only helps if one's team is abiding by the schedule, the majority of their advice is based on certain assumptions such as having industry-level workers, these workers are paid and have this as their sole occupation. Going by that assumption; expecting fellow students to give the same dedication as industry-workers would have been incredibly naive, and it would have been entirely ineffective for me and my group had I done so. However, not creating any sort of plan whatsoever would in effect mean a producer was not contributing much towards a successful production cycle. I used a theoretical production style called 'quick and dirty prototyping', see diagram below...

Defining this framework basically calls for the group to come up with the respective game's functionality (the games features) using no art (just placeholders) and rough coding but add the art at a later point. Below is an image of my team's game without ANY final art assets but with the basic gameplay features working and then finally with the art assets...

The second task was 'manage group members efficiently so they can complete their assigned tasks, communicate effectively and complete tasks according to schedule'. Determining the successfulness of completing this task can be hard to perceive by myself alone. Communication is intrinsically between at least two people and judging your own effectiveness at this undertaking is likely to be inaccurate. At a minimum, I can say I attempted to communicate regularly over a range of methods to group members to ensure they were aware of the situation the project was in and their current respective tasks.
Thirdly I needed to 'ensure group sticks by Design Document, if changes are necessary then to make sure that they fit with the game’s style and scope'. It can be argued that this task crosses into a designers role but seeing as the design document was complete at the time this task was to be tested it would be ineffective to change my project aims to simply accommodate this task.

Since I have discussed in detail the objectives and tasks' conclusions taken from my project aim I will go onto discuss iterate any new tasks/objectives that had to be completed which were not previously identified. Then I will go onto discuss the skills and qualities highlighted by my sources, showing whether I displayed them successfully or not. I will also show the progress of my comprehension for the producer’s role using my online presence.
Firstly, there were no major tasks that I had to undertake previously missed from my project aim. I had contingency tasks if a team member was to permanently leave the group, for example if our sole artist was to leave I would have undertaken the task of completing some art assets for our game. Fortunately this did not occur so this contingency plan was never put into practice.
The following skills such as 'Great scheduling ability' I displayed by choosing a new form of production that I felt would benefit my team far more than a standard form. As well as this a quality highlighted was 'Exceptional organizational skills' which I believe I exhibited to a certain degree, it was hard to ensure fellow students correspond with all aspects of being a Producer but I don't think I could have been much more organised. 'Excellent leadership consensus-building abilities' were exhibited by my dedication to turn up to every meeting that my group had, regardless of whether I had a direct contribution to make at that point, this way I felt it encouraged my team to work because if I had not turned up then they possible would have just left the meeting without my attendance. 'Ability to direct development of a project from start to finish while meeting deadlines', as stated previously I did not make a detailed schedule but assets that were necessary for the game were completed (in fact there were no assets missing at the end of the project) such as art and code.

As well as the above list of skills I used the below qualities to help be a more effective Producer. 'keep meetings short and on track' , I am a great believer of this statement, it encourages teams to focus on the issue of the meeting rather than hijack it for other purposes (other meetings can be scheduled to do this). The second quality is 'Updates the schedule once a week or more', meeting on a weekly basis covered this quality. Not only did the team meet once a week I sent an e-mail confirming the meeting's minutes and highlighting what would need to be discussed at the next meeting. This quality: 'Sees the big picture' is another quality that is hard to prove, but simply taking the team through a development cycle, completing the game and keeping deviation from the design document to a minimum are all aspects of its success. Finally, 'Always trying to improve' was additional quality I believed strongly in at this level. At every meeting I would ask my team (both programmers, artists) what improvements I can make personally (as the Producer) and how general working practices can be improved on a weekly basis. This ensured any members of the team had any issues that they could come to me in confidence with suggestions that I would take seriously and try and implement if I felt they would be beneficial to the group.
As well as these qualities there were other qualities encouraged by different games industry members such as 'Good and frequent communication with your team will be your greatest asset', as said above I believe I displayed this quality by meeting on a weekly basis and sending emails to every group member to ensure they were aware of the project's situation.
All these qualities expanded above were valuable in completing my role effectively; evidence of my progress for the Producer role was underlined when I won a blog competition on a respected gaming community's website [5] & [6]. This blog covered certain aspects of a Producer's role and the games industry collectively.


Conclusion
In conclusion I have listed the aim of my project, its supporting objectives and tasks. I used these tasks to complete my objective and thus help me achieve my project aim, as well as a range of qualities and skills identified by games industry members. In highlighting individual objectives and tasks it helped me breakdown the role of a Producer, in breaking down the role of the Producer the true reasoning behind their function can be articulated accurately. Displaying a range of skills and qualities helped to what degree of excellence I completed the role of the Producer. Although conventional choices should be applied for a Producer there are many ways in which being innovative and applying a careful thought process to the situation of the project are more beneficial to the team. Completing my position in the project firsthand rather than study it in a strictly academic stance was more valuable to my comprehension of its demands. In citing experienced industry members and putting into practice their recommendations I learned how they had come to those recommendations by applying my tasks and completing objectives.


References:

[1] Games Industry.biz. 2008. [online]. Available from: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/global-games-industry-sales-68-3-billion-by-2012-says-report [Accessed 17th May 2010]

[2] Forbes. 2006. [online]. Available from: http://www.forbes.com/2006/12/11/games-gta-options-tech-enter-cx_rr_1211taketwo.html [Accessed 17th May 2010]

[3] BBC News. 2009. [online]. Available from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8355788.stm [Accessed 17th May 2010]

[4] Electronic Arts. 2010. [online]. Available from: https://jobs.ea.com/search/view.do?id=a0z50000000JnJBAA0 [Accessed 17th May 2010]

[5] Gamsutra. 2010. [online]. Available from: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/27897/Gamasutra_Member_Blogs_From_Crunch_To_Breaking_In.php [Accessed 17th May 2010]

[6] Gamasutra. 2010. [online]. Available from: http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/FinlayThewlis/2690/ [Accessed 17th May 2010]


Sources:

Game Career Guide. 2010. [online]. Available from: http://www.gamecareerguide.com/getting_started/ [Accessed 17th May 2010]

Marc Mencher. 2006. [online]. Available from: http://www.gamecareerguide.com/features/250/so_you_want_to_be_a_producer.php [Accessed 17th May 2010]

Jill Duffy. 2007. [online]. Available from: http://www.gamecareerguide.com/features/414/game_production_an_introduction.php [Accessed 17th May 2010]

Jill Duffy. 2007. [online]. Available from; http://www.gamecareerguide.com/features/411/game_design_an_introduction.php [Accessed 17th May 2010]

Simeon Peebler. 2007. [online]. Available from: http://www.gamecareerguide.com/features/392/how_to_really_get_your_first_job_in_the_game_industry.php [Accessed 17th May 2010]

Kain Shin. 2009. [online]. Available from: http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/KainShin/20090531/1605/WTF_Do_Producers_Do_All_Day.php [Accessed 17th May 2010]

Develop. 2009. [online]. Available from: http://www.develop-online.net/features/410/How-to-get-a-job-in-Production [Accessed 17th May 2010]

International Game Developers Association. 2002. [online]. Available from: http://archives.igda.org/breakingin/path_production.htm [Accessed 17th May 2010]

International Game Developers Association. 2002. [online]. Available from: http://archives.igda.org/breakingin/career_paths.htm [Accessed 17th May 2010]


International Game Developers Association. 2002. [online]. Available from: http://archives.igda.org/breakingin/path_design.htm [Accessed 17th May 2010]

Games Industry Crunch Time

'Crunch time' is defined as a critical period of time during which it is necessary to work hard and fast. In the games industry this period of time is common at the end of a game's development cycle, sometimes even earlier such as halfway through.

Depending on the production methodology (there are a range of different development frameworks which may be used), the size of the development company/team and the demand from the publisher can all alter at what point 'crunch time' sets in. Already a common assumption has been hinted here, which is that crunch time is unavoidable.

Many games industry professionals seem to assume crunch time is inevitable but evidence points to the youth and inexperience of the games industry itself indicating it is more of 'a phase' the industry needs to grow out of rather than an obligatory part of production. "There's a bottom-line reason most industries gave up crunch mode over 75 years ago: It's the single most expensive way there is to get the work done" (Evan Robinson).

Evidence also shows that there is an unremitting reluctance to tackle the severity of crunch time for reasons such as: lack of protection for employees, manipulation of employees' high passion for their jobs and a demand to meet unmoveable deadlines. "The main worry I have is that the industry still doesn't seem to grasp the true scale of the long term effects" (A. Smith, Proper Games).

The background of crunch time...
Firstly, gauging the mood of the games industry has indicated that crunch time has built up a dreaded reputation. The reasons for this fear are that there have been high profile cases within the games industry where employees have had to work for days longer than 10 hours, weeks longer than 5 days (sometimes not even having weekends) and have any holiday requests refused outright. The vast majority of overtime listed was entirely unpaid.

It might be a fair assumption that more working hours gets more work done but research was done to find out at what point employees become counter-productive. "At 60 hours per week, the loss of productivity caused by working longer hours overwhelms the extra hours worked within a couple of months" (Evan Robinson).

It didn't take long scouring the cyber-sewers of the internet to find the much fabled Electronic Arts and Rockstar spouses articles. The article (former) is written by a wife of an EA employee voicing her concern about her husband's working conditions. In it details how staff were so stressed that spending more time on the project was becoming detrimental to the game's completion."The team is rapidly beginning to introduce as many flaws as they are removing" (EA-spouse, 2004).

There is no doubting this as genuine evidence and certainly the severity of the crunch time detailed in the article. Albeit this case was one of the most severe, it displays how little people actually voice their thoughts of crunch time even though responses to the article throughout the internet agree that it is a major problem within the games industry.

Causes of crunch time and its 'necessity'...
If people accept the current state of production the way it is then it will always be an absolute necessity. Crunch time has its reputation for a reason, there is a precedent set by nearly everyone within the production of a game that it is unavoidable. This precedent is set because of employees' previous experience (frequency of crunch time in previous projects) and a chronic unwillingness to tackle the problem due to fear of losing their job (games industry workers are renowned for enjoying their jobs despite high stress).

"Getting a job in the game business is not easy" (Simeon Peebler, 2007), it is always moving and needing new ideas, it is still a young industry and hasn't 'found its feet' yet and because of the competition for job vacancies; once an employee has gained a full time job within the industry he/she is afraid to lose it, as well as that employees in the games industry are renowned for loving their jobs. It is the exploitation of this passion that seems to be one of the most unsettling themes of crunch time.

Games industry workers, when people start assuming that crunch time is inevitable then it always will be. That pattern will not change until employees, governing bodies such as IGDA (International Games Developers Association) and developers voice their thoughts strongly calling for a genuine need for change.

Publishers strong demand for a return on their investment sees them push developers harder for products on time. Although when saying a product must be on time for the publisher, it means that at some point of the pre-production stage a producer has agreed between the publisher and the developer when a game must be completed by. This agreement also puts some blame at the feet of the producer if the schedule is flawed.

Another reason for crunch time's severity is feature creep. This is when design alterations are made out with the original game design and it in effect adds to the length of production. Adding more game features adds more time. This is a common concern voiced by employees; "crunch results from bad planning earlier in the project" (Kevin Hassal).

It is also important to highlight the fact that crunch time can be caused by simple pipeline problems, if a developer is using a new engine then employees will need to learn how to use it, importing an asset into another piece of software may not work correctly or even solving difficult bugs can all add time to production and thus increasing the chance for crunch time.

"When a team is already in production without a compelling, fun gameplay experience, it's in trouble" (Spark Unlimited co-founder Dave Prout). This quote highlights a common problem faced by developers, if the initial design is poor then the game will be poor. When a game is in production there is no certainty it will be a success financially or critically, sometimes developers realise halfway through production that their game is not fun, and this spells almost certainty for feature creep as the developer spirals into a desperate bid to rescue the project.

Stopping crunch time and the producer's influence...
Unfortunately once crunch time sets in it is near impossible to get out of, it can be eased but once it starts it can't be fully stopped. Currently there are two main ways to solve crunch time

One is to simply effectively schedule the project from the beginning or to throw more resources at the project; such as hiring more staff or outsourcing part of the project to 3rd party developer. All this costs more money, and depending on the relationship the developer has with the producer it defines whether the publisher will provide financial help to the developer. Sometimes the developer will have to cover the costs that have arisen outside of the publisher's agreement.

If they can't afford to do this then the project is likely to fold unless external financial help can be gained. It is important to point out here that developers can often agree to deadlines that can't be met (thus in effect agreeing crunch time before development has even begun) to ensure the developer has a future.
Ironically, if both parties agree to a schedule and the developer fails to complete the project then its reputation can be damaged which can lead to the publisher refusing to use that particular developer again.
A producer agrees a range of aspects prior to a game's development, such as creating and maintaining schedules and budgets, ensuring timely delivery of milestones (which he/she has likely agreed) and acting as a liaison between development staff and the publisher. Agreeing a schedule that is realistic is a producer's most critical concern, if the schedule is accurate from day one then the more severe crunch time is avoidable.

Crunch time is not a necessity of video game development but is certainly perceived that it is, crunch time ceases to be 'crunch time' when its severity is nullified, thus it can't be a necessity if it can be avoided. Other industries stopped their respective crunch decades ago when it was realised how it doesn't help production at all, it is time the games industry learned to shed its harmful affiliation with crunch time so managers can plan more accurately and employees can work without the fear of it arriving later in production.
It is clear that employees' work diminishes in quality and certainly in speed when hours are vastly increased and their sleeping patterns are disrupted. Currently, as a producer crunch time can be avoided with careful and accurate planning but without public pressure to do so the current cycle of its inevitability will continue.

Publishers V Developers

I was saddened to hear the news about Denki this week, http://www.denki.co.uk/2010/04/05/black-easter-monday-at-denki-towers/. The difficulty in finding a publisher for their new game Quarrel has meant Denki has had to lay off a lot of their staff.

Co-founder Colin Anderson said in the article: "Players do [value good games], but the games industry doesn’t. Instead it values low risk games – not even “calculated” risk games, just low risk”

It seems to make sense for publishers now to just go for a ‘safe bet’ rather than something innovative. How many Modern Warfare games are there? 7? It seems that publisher’s pump money into games already proven to sell, in return they might take a chance on one new IP and all of a sudden they say ‘we reward innovation’. New IP walks hand-in-hand with high risk; high risk walks hand-in-hand with uncertainty. I can understand publisher’s need to invest in games that are on their 5th instalment as they know will fly off the shelves, reading a lot of fans comments on sequels the feeling that comes over is that gamers want to love something new as well…

Lately there has also been a lot of coverage of Jason West and Vince Zampella (Ex-Infinity Ward bosses) in the news about their legal battle with Activision. These two pieces of news have made me think a lot about publishers and their relationship with developers.

The ex-IW bosses’ lawyer said: "None of the false claims of insubordination or breach of duties had any negative affect on Activision — none.” If this is true then it paints publishers like EA and Activision as soulless companies who just want everyone to have a perfect perception of them. CEO of Activision Bobby Kotick said (after speaking about Activision’s ethos) “It’s almost the opposite of Electronic Arts, which has commoditized development. It did a very good job of taking the soul out of a lot of the studios it acquired."
This just gives me a vibe of a politician, trying to portray a perfect veneer for their own ends and to use any opportunity to tar a rival with a negative slant.

Regarding the legal battle with Messrs West and Zampella “In fact, Activision said the whole sorry situation has cost it dearly, with extra resource assigned to MW3's development, plus a stack of legal fees, not to mention the overall controversy.” Surely then just drop the whole saga and you want have any more legal fees, other than the ones originally incurred? I would like to know the truth of the whole situation but I don’t think anyone except those involved ever will…

Computer Games' Association with Violence

Firstly, I am at the very beginning of a career in the games industry (at least I hope it's the beginning) but I felt compelled to write about how the public appear to perceive computer games.

I don't know if anyone else has watched the very short and very crude debate about violent games on the Alan Titchmarsh (link) show, a friend told me about it so I decided to give it a watch to see what people's, from a different social circle to myself, perspective on games were. The show was hosted by Alan Titchmarsh, the 3 guests were Tim Ingham (computer & video games.com editor), Julie Peasgood (Actress) and Kelvin MacKenzie (Former Sun Editor).

What genuinely shocked me was the sheer hostility towards games shown by the two other guests.
There didn't even seem to be the slightest bit of flexibility shown by either of the two panellists to appreciate points from the games industry's view, Tim Ingham who was arguing for the games industry was superb but even with his patience, well-researched facts and ability to respond to questions there didn't seem to be much point.
Tim could have been there all day but the 2 guests, the host and indeed, what sounded like the vast majority of the audience wouldn't haven't even recognized the value of his points and it's this close-mindedness that really disappoints me.

The female panellist said 'video games are addictive', that in itself is a debate in its own right and a sweeping statement at best anyway. This was met with applaud from the crowd which had taken no note of the fact that she had no evidence to prove that games are addictive, she went on to say 'they (games) promote hatred, racism and sexism'!

I find it incredible that someone today can still come out with something like that. Tim also responded to a point she made about a link between games and violence then the crowd met his perfectly legitimate response with an indignant mockery.

One part to this made me quite angry, Tim was asked whether he had kids. He replied 'I haven't', the crowd re-ignited their derisive sneering as if because he didn't have children that he doesn't understand what it's like...
Why is it that some parents seem to have a moral highchair when debating a topic with a person without kids. Ironically Tim gave the answer 'I would not let my kids play violent video games', which is more than can be said for the other guests.
Julie Peasgood went onto interrupt Tim in a perfectly good answer he was giving to one of her questions to say 'I'm categorically against violence for entertainment, it is just wrong' which in itself is a perfectly adequate perspective but the crowd cheered as if she has just trumped Tim with an irrefutable fact.

It was a shame to see what could have been a level and fair discussion become a biased and twisted perspective of the games industry.

I don't want to be sitting here at the tender age of 20 posturing on my, very low, games industry experience but it just seems that the games industry is fighting before it even starts; 'games cause people to kill themselves and others', 'people get fat playing games' and so it goes on. If these genuinely are the opinion the older generation (didn't want to use this term but I did) e.g. Parents have of games then fixed shows like this do no help at all to these assumptions.