Words You Can Use: The BAVC BLOG

by Connie Hwong, BAVC Grants Manager

I firmly believe that the Nintendo Wii is primarily designed to make game players look like flailing idiots. This suspicion was confirmed at the annual Game Developer’s Conference, which filled the Moscone Center this past February 18 -21 with summits, panels, tutorials, and lectures, as well as a career pavilion and an expo that allowed gaming companies to show off the latest and greatest in technophile gadgetry. There was, of course, heavy representation from large and small game companies and dot-coms from Silicon Valley and SF, as well as a surprisingly strong Canadian presence; Manitoba is heavily marketing itself as the next new Northern hub for game development studios, following in the footsteps of Quebec and British Columbia. Flashy video footage glorifying Winnipeg’s charming riverfront district, packed with grinning rollerbladers and hip café-goers (and surely shot during the only 2 weeks of the year when it’s not freezing cold) were projected everywhere. Nice try, Manitoba, but you’re not fooling me – I know my Canadian geography, and your province is the North Dakota of your country. But maybe the US’s game developers don’t know that . . .

My reasons for attending the GDC were mostly job-related: I attended part of the Serious Games Summit, a two-day mini conference that featured speakers from various universities, think tanks, government agencies, and private game development companies discussing games created around a social cause or an academic/learning environments. There was also a heated debate between academia (researchers USC and U Wisconsin-Madison) and the industry (Stormfront Studios and area/code) over whether there is an actual way to measure or evaluate what or how much people can learn from games. I saw many things and took pages and pages of notes, but for the sake of you, dear reader, I’ll spare you the full regurgitation and instead focus on a few key moments that arose during the week.

The serious stuff . . . I got to be something of a fly on the wall during a panel entitled “The Games Industry Giving Back,” about the relatively nascent trend of corporate philanthropy in the gaming industry, and how to address the industry’s occasionally controversial products (ie, very violent games) in connection with corporate/social responsibility. Panelists included reps from Child’s Play (the philanthropic organization started by the very excellent Penny Arcade web comic and gamer blog), the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), One Big Game, and the Starlight Starbright Children’s Foundation, each of whom approach grantmaking and fundraising in different ways.

Penny Arcade’s founders realized that their heavily-trafficked site could be used to steer readers towards a donations website, while One Big Game works with developers and designers from across the industry to create new casual games that are sold through an online portal, with proceeds directed towards a menu of charities. The ESA used to raise the majority of its funds through an annual industry gala dinner, but have recently started to partner with console makers and game publishing companies to sell three-packs of popular titles, with all proceeds going towards the ESA’s grantmaking efforts. Starlight Starbright was once a relatively traditional supporter of supplemental services for seriously ill children in hospitals, but recently started developing and marketing its own casual video game to raise funds to supports its programs in hospitals around the country.

The panel was attended largely by game developers, programmers, and industry types who were interested in learning about how they could help, and the ways that various companies and trade associations are already giving back. Based on the discussion and the Q&A period that followed, it appears that game developers have good intentions and a desire to donate their time or money to charitable causes, but are largely unaware of the existing opportunities in the industry, or of how to initiate their own program of providing services or funding to their community. Jenny Lai from the ESA noted that the gaming industry is a relatively new one, especially compared to Hollywood and other entertainment-based industries, and therefore lacks a tradition of giving or industry-specific protocol for philanthropy. However, as the industry matures, the idea of “giving back” is also developing and gaining traction – both in the traditional sense (ie, companies donating a portion of their profits to charities under the guise of “social and corporate responsibility”) as well as in newer, more innovative ways, such as developers creative games to raise awareness of a given cause, such as the Free Rice game (a vocabulary game that rewards correct answers with donations to the UN’s World Food Program). Additionally, Jenny mentioned that there are few high profile “stars” in the gaming world (as opposed to Hollywood) who could easily attach their fame or name recognition to a given cause or specific charity. She noted that even a small donation of time – such as a developer or programmer lending a few hours of tech support or advice to a local organization – could have a great impact on a local level.

Essentially, all excellent points that are well known to me as a development type, but not entirely evident to the majority of gaming industry types. Still, there was a lot of positive energy in the room, and you could almost sense the ideas percolating in the brains of my fellow panel attendees – hopefully, the drive and desire to contribute time, money, and resources to the greater good did not stop at Moscone’s entryway, but instead is seeping its way into all levels of the gaming and tech worlds – next year’s version of this panel, if they have another one, should provide some interesting context.

Anyway, back to the Wii and the flailing idiot theory: Nintendo was using its ample Expo booth to showcase its Next Big Thing: the Wii Fit. Already a hit in Japan, the Fit is a small rubber and plastic platform that you stand on while you play a series of fitness-related games (yoga poses, hula hoping, slalom skiing. I think its main purpose is to make you look like a wobbling moron in front of your friends (much in the same way that karaoke operates). The most dubious Fit game is a running exercise: apparently, the player holds the Wii-mote in one hand and jogs in place on the platform, which sounds like a dubious version of step aerobics. I asked the booth attendant if the Fit could withstand such rigorous use during the conference: he seemed skeptical. “We aren’t demo-ing that game today,” he said.Well, then.Despite this media blackout, the Wii Fit games (or variants thereof) are being used in Japanese rehab clinics and senior centers to promote movement and exercise, and the hope is that it’ll take off (much like Dance Dance Revolution did) over here in the US, as well. It’s being released domestically in May, so irony-watchers beware: ER doctors and EMTs may experience an uptick of business later this spring, due to a spate of drunken Wii Fit-related accidents.