The world of interactive computer entertainment is growing by leaps and bounds in these early 90's and with that growth comes specific challenges as hardware platforms speed up and proliferate, operating systems revamp, and the glitzy world of Hollywood eyes Interactive Entertainment (IE) with a gleam in its eye and pockets full of cash. The 1994 Computer Games Developer Conference (CGDC), now in its 8th year, offers a tremendous opportunity for developers, both small and corporate, to meet each other and discuss these issues and to have an opportunity to share ideas and generally do a LOT of schmoozing.
Schmoozing is what its all about at the CGDC and the atmosphere is perfect. The event has its humble beginnings in Chris Crawford's house (!) 8 years ago and has now graduated to over 1400 attendees! Needless to say, Crawford's living room won't cut it anymore and the posh Westin Santa Clara hotel barely does too. The show organizers report that over 250 last-minute attendee-wanna-bees were turned away which should indicate the popularity and usefulness of this industry event. For perhaps the first time in a big way, Hollywood studios were in attendance marking the first visible sign of the merger of Silicon Valley with Hollywood. With this impending merger, a new term was coined - Sillywood! Seems to fit.
The conference took place in Santa Clara, April 23 - 26, beginning Saturday night with an opening reception hosted by Logitech with a wild variety of events, giveaways, and general (you guessed it...) schmoozing. Some of the highlights of the evening including human bowlingTM (get inside a semi- large sphere made of pipe and knock down large pins 30 feet away..), a human velcro trampoline jump (need I say more?), an interesting virtual reality simulation, and perhaps the best demo, the get-in-the-giant-sumo- wrestling-suits and bounce on your opponent. Some very compromising positions, I can assure you. Logitech put on a classy event that was a lot of fun. A nice warmup to the real action that began the next day.
The main attraction to the CGDC is the plethora of sessions on virtually every topic that would concern a developer. Here's a sample list of the over 130 sessions (!) that were available to attend:
Tricks for Designing Game Music Believeable Interactive Characters Trends in Game Software Sales Interactivity: Revolution and Pain Live Action Role Playing CD-ROM Programming for the PC Industry Overview for Wannabees Modem Game Design Multimedia Meets Game Design Sexual Themes Puzzle Game Design Wargame Design Process Simulation Violence in Interactive Entertainment Regarding the Family Game Software Ratings: Threat or Menace
and this is only a small sample of what was available.
There were sessions available for virtually everybody however, the only problem was some of the facilities were not large enough to allow everybody the opportunity to attend. Some of the rooms were large enough to hold 200 people, but other roundtables could handle only 30 or so. For hot topics like 'Violence in Interactive Entertainment' the session rooms overflowed quickly. If you got in early, you were guaranteed a lively debate with no punches pulled.
I'll run down some of the sessions I was able to attend.
In 'Trends in Game Software Sales', we were presented data from a research firm called PC Data who purported to have a good handle on the trends, statistics, and retail performances (sales 'out') of the PC entertainment category. It became clear, however, that even these so called 'expert analysts' are still far removed from the game developers and the game players. They clearly didn't understand some of the dynamics of the industry. This was evident by their lumping games like SimCity 2000 into the flight simulation category and Civilization into the fantasy RPG genre! Fantastic. How many SimCity builders out there realize you're also now a bonafide sim-pilot? Puh-leazze!! I was not impressed. Doom was marked as the best seller in February (at $7.00 a unit) and published by Formgen. This was of particular amusement to Dave Taylor of id Software who was present. Well, you win some, you lose some. As it turned out, I bet on the wrong horse. I should have attended Bob Bates' session on 'Puzzle Game Design' or Will Wright's 'Process Simulation (how things change)'.
Hoping for something better, I tried to attend the second session of day at the 'Violence in Interactive Entertainment' roundtable hosted by Computer Gaming World's own Johnny Wilson. This is apparently a hot topic as it was standing-room only from the get-go and by the time I got there, it was doors shut. As it turns out, this was a fortunate move. I was able to sit in on Ernest Adam's speech entitled 'Celluloid to Silicon: A Sermon'. This was a very enjoyable and humorous speech about the merger of Hollywood and Silicon Valley with some rather pointed directions to those from LaLaland who believe that they can just march into the world of IE and apply the same rules of T.V. and Motion Picture production and produce compelling games. Ernest maintains that the influence of Madison Avenue advertising is the equivalent to the anti-Christ and should be avoided at all cost. Another controversial point presented was that of nudity in IE products. Should we be ashamed or prevented from showing the human form in gaming products? Ernest demonstrated the ridiculous double-standard present in our world today by presenting the story of the Rape of the Sabine Women. The famous artwork of this classic story shows male and female nudity and our double standard of today's world will allow children to see this depiction in an art gallery, but not on a T.V. Go figure. Hollywood will certainly have to wrestle with this issue further as they join the IE world.
The third session of the day was given by Chris "if it's not an interactive story or character, it's not a real game" Crawford on the topic of Interactivity: Revolution and Pain. I squirmed in this one as Chris began his speech by trying to present the IE industry in a major crisis and a reaching a decreasing audience. Chris maintains that in 1983 a 'hot' game would sell 100,000 units into a market of 1,000,000 home PCs. 10% market penetration, right? Today, a 'hot' game would sell 250,000 units, but to a market of 25,000,000 units, resulting in a market penetration of only 1%. "Horror of horrors!", cries Chris, "We're shrinking and we're reaching fewer potential customers!" Hogwash, I say. How many more products are on the shelves now than in 1983 and what are the aggregate sales totals today vs. 1983. I maintain this industry is in great shape producing innovative titles across all genres. The fact that there are 25 times as many home PCs as 10 years ago only bears out the fact that people are interested in these products. Besides running Quicken and connecting to Compuserve and America On-Line, what do they do with these home PCs? I say they entertain themselves. And the fact that there are many, many more developers, publishers, and producers of games supports this stance. A single product penetration statistic does NOT demonstrate the health of an industry one iota. Chris maintains that the reason more people aren't drawn to IE is the lack of truly engaging "interactive stories and characters". You'll hear a recurring theme here. It seems to be his philosophy that unless a product has the audience-capture appeal that mindless after-dinner T.V. has, we're all in real trouble. Therefore all these flight-sims, strategy games (which Crawford has written a TON of!), RPGs and sports games are just niche products and won't deliver this industry of IE into the promised land of the electronic superhighway interactivity. Horse hooey, I say. As the products of this industry continue to get better (or worsen, as the case may be) more people will be drawn to them because they truly will simulate reality and offer true human-to-human exchanges through the backdrop of a game. The revolution *WILL* come, but to survive and succeed, it won't require everybody to write a piece of interactive fiction the equivalent of L.A. Law.
Following a rousing lunch, the afternoon brought sessions about 'Pixel Envy' (developing great graphics), 'Computer Players', 'Board Games', and a real surprise, 'WinG: A DLL for Graphics'. Wow! This one caught me off-guard. Apparently Microsoft isn't turning a blind-eye to the needs of game developers looking to do something exciting in Windows. Running a fast-action, fast-animation arcade game in Windows is about the last thing one would normally expect to see. However, there is was - WinDoom! Yes, folks it true. Doom running absolutely full-blast, full-screen IN WINDOWS with a Windows interface. Microsoft has really done their homework by developing a new DLL (Dynamic Link Library) that radically speeds up the blitting of graphics to the screen. It makes possible a whole new reality of games in Windows with some distinctive advantages - device independent sound and graphics, a flat memory model, and blazingly fast graphics. I never thought I would be saying 'blazingly fast graphics' and 'Windows' in the same sentence, but hey friends, it's there! WinG is for real.
The rest of the day resulted in some less-than-stellar presentations, but no real complaints. 'The Art and Craft of Games', 'Audio Community Forum', and 'Adventure Game Design' among others were available to attend. A low point of the whole conference had to be 'Fantasy to Reality and Back Again'. The presenter was the most ill-prepared presenter I have *EVER* witnessed in any setting. At times, I truly thought that too many lunchtime martinis were consumed.
The evening of the first full-day was spent by hopping from hospitality suite (Advanced Gravis, Accolade, others) to hospitality suite (Computer Gaming World, Microsoft). Plenty of celery sticks, Doritos and cheese cubes consumed by many, with no real news to speak of.
The second full day of the show was conducted very like the first. There were far too many good sessions to try to attend all, but by picking and choosing carefully, lots of very useful information could be had. The first two sessions of the day concerned the same topic - software ratings. The first session was more of a 3 person panel presentation consisting of Jack Heistand of Electronic Arts who represents the game industry on a ratings board, Dr. Barbara Simons, chairperson of the U.S. Public Policy Committee of ACM and active supporter of the ACLU, and Johnny Wilson, Executive Editor of Computer Gaming World. This session moved into a full roundtable discussion the following hour. Several very controversial points were made. Mr. Heistand briefed the audience about the current status of the industry committee that was organized to develop a self- regulated ratings policy. As it stands now, the committee is moving towards standards that would require that any product sold through retail channel to carry an approved ratings sticker. This rating would not communicate content or give information to parents about the type of controversial gaming images presented, but rather would only designate the age category the game is "appropriate" for. In my opinion, this is a dangerous direction. The concern among Senators Lieberman(D) and Kohl(D) have been purely on content that that innappropriate images and games are being played by children. The Senators also make NO distinction whatsoever between a video game and it's obvious target market and the computer game market. It is our distinct position that there ARE two distinct markets. Mario doesn't play well to computer gamers, and Civilization, Doom, or Flight Sim won't cut it among 8 year olds. Yet the senators bundle them all together. Dr. Simons definitely got the ire of the audience. She began her remarks by saying that she's "not a gamer" and never has played any of these titles, yet only a few sentences later said that she found these "games to be awful, sexist, and pathetic." How can one judge something that one does not experience? She presented a statistic that there are less women in computer science curriculums around the country now than in earlier years and the cause for this was young girls don't play video games! Dr. Simon states the reason they don't play video games is the games are all created by sexist males who create programs that only appeal to boys. I'll let you judge further. The open roundtable was even more lively. More open and frank discussion was offered by all in attendance. While the issue and debate of whether game violence causes behavior alteration in children rages on, it seems a moot point. There *WILL* be a ratings system on games of all kinds installed in the U.S. What is left to be determined is will this system be self- imposed by the industry or will it be a government imposed system? I think we all know what is the lesser of the two evils.
In the afternoon and final sessions, there were more interesting choices to make. I spent a few minutes at the "Meet the Press" session where game developers, publishers, and programmers get to hurl epithets at the press at large (though only 3 magazines were on the hot seat) about why we publish negative reviews, do we play the games we review?, and does advertising dollars ever influence a review. Answer? Because we can, yes, and no. This session was fairly lively, but as a non-hotseat- magazine editor, I laid low.
The final session of the day was an interesting, though slightly jump- started, Jaguar game machine overview. The hardware was certainly interesting and plenty powerful for a home game machine, but the two biggest question mark remains - marketing and game development. In today's highly competitive marketplace, you must have both. The 64-bit Jaguar boasts some very impressive specs and the early games that have come out on the market so far are reasonably impressive, but one is always left wondering if Atari can deliver the goods on the rest of the business puzzle. The demo of Tempest 2000 was impressive, yet I always wonder why someone would choose a remake of a mid '80s game to show off new hardware.
The final main event of the conference was the evening banquet. Over 1400 game developers in one big ballroom can consume a lot of food and drink, generate a lot of news and information, and the schmooze till the cows come home. After either "dead cow, dead bird, or dead vegetables", recognition was given to the products that earned a "Spotlight" nomination from all the attendees at large. Among the winners: Doom (was there any doubt!) which brought a rousing ovation to the mild surprise of Dave Taylor in attendance, Day of the Tentacle, 7th Guest, Rebel Assault, Aladdin (Sega), Master of Orion, Myst, X-Wing, and one other whose name escapes me for the moment. Following some freebie giveaways (including a PowerPC Mac!!!!), we enjoyed a motivational speech from Roger van Oech, author of 'A Whack on the Side of the Head' and 'A Kick in the Seat of the Pants'. Through the use of humorous video clips of old commercials, Roger got us thinking and practicing our creative side and bringing out the Explorer, the Artist, the Judge, and the Warrior in our efforts to stimulate new and creative processes in our work - be it creating a games magazine or writing the next Doom.
The following morning brought to a close my virgin exposure to the CGDC and I can say unequivocably that it is and will be a highlight of the year. C.E.S. is a great opportunity to see and hear what's coming soon, but to be able to sit down and really discuss at length the creative process that drives Steve Meretzky to write gems like Planetfall, or to sit back and listen to Will Wright or Sid Meier discuss process and game design is a complete treat. The conference is open to all (who are willing to pay!) and given the popularity of the event, I would expect to see close to 2000 attendees next year. I know I'll be there again.
This article is Copyright (C) 1994 by Ross Erickson for Game Bytes Magazine. All rights reserved.