Where would I fit in the games development cycle?

Last week, there were several lectures and panels that I found interesting. One in particular at the OGDC stood out because it's near and dear to me: User Research.

In this panel, they talked about the interaction between User Researchers and the Users, but also the internal dynamics of the group,which includes ethnographers, social psychologists, and usability engineers. I really enjoy hearing about this type of interdisciplinary collaboration, as it closely resembles what I experienced through a "social science research cluster" interacting with other clusters while working at the New Media Innovation Centre (NewMIC) before I started graduate school. However, like many beautiful utopian creatures born out of the dotcom boom, that creature went bust--but I've been looking for places which encourage that spirit of collaboration ever since. It's encouraging to see tech companies like Microsoft see the pragmatic value in ethnographic praxis. Along with Intel and IBM, they sponsor conferences like EPIC.

The expression of an ethnographer's utility in the games development cycle was interesting to me because I have expressed similar principles in my own industry work. Reminds me of SAD (Systems Analysis and Design) projects I did way back when...

The development cycle can be thought of like this:

1. Concept
2. Prototyping
3. Production
4. Polish (Beta)
5. Post-release

Typically, ethnographers like myself have been consulted (if at all) during the last stage (Post-release) and given insights that may be incorporated into future designs.
The trend that some teams are going towards though, is bringing in ethnography to inspire at the first concept stage... and increasingly at even the fourth polishing beta stage. Involving cultural insights through ethnographic narrative at more stages of the process stands to benefit the company a LOT. I mean, bottom line kind of stuff. Imagine making a million (or more) dollar mistake, all to find it could have been avoided if someone had been on the ground. It's happened before.

Anthropologists have been studying games and play for a long time... before the world became flat, before it became digitized. While there are certain universals, game play is something that is so culturally subjective and interesting--using an ethnographer just makes cultural (and financial!) sense.

Conference April-Mayhem

I am calling the last two weeks my Conference April-Mayhem of 2007. Between Research Assistantship duties and my own dissertation research to-do's, it's been an extremely stimulating (and exhausting) time. Given the three conferences that I briefly talk about in this entry, it's hard not to be 'thinking of the world.'

Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Conference International Conference and Trade Show Vancouver

Wearing my RA hat from April 29-May 1st, I combed the trade show floor and interviewed international delegates. Primarily, I was in charge of talking to the companies from Denmark. The Danish government, as part of their CanDan initiative, sent a 25+ person delegation in order to make connections and foster deeper relationships with research institutions and industry here, as well as with delegates from around the world.

Of interest was the re-announcement of what the provincial government calls the Hydrogen Highway. Premier Gordon Campbell is working with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to make a hydrogen-friendly path from "BC to BC" (British Columbia to Baja California). During the conference I learned what people were working on in terms of hydrogen vehicles (like bicycles, cars, trucks, buses) and the challenges of implementing those technologies.

Innovation Systems Research Network ISRN 2007 Conference in Vancouver

Directly related to my participation in the H2FC conference the days before, from May 2-5th, I was a graduate research assistant for the ISRN conference, where we discussed the local contexts of innovation (like Fuel Cells). The network is at the very beginning of a very ambitious data collection endeavour that spans the country.

The Innovations Systems Research Network (ISRN) is a network of researchers examining innovation in various cities and regions across Canada. The members of the network are loosely associated with four sub-networks: in Atlantic Canada, Quebec, Ontario and Western Canada. The ISRN's goal is to better understand how economic, social, and political conditions influence innovation and hence economic development at the local, regional, and national level. The knowledge resulting from this research is intended to assist policy-makers at all three levels of government to better understand innovation dynamics and craft more effective policy.

Online Game Development Conference, Seattle

This past week I was shaking things up in Seattle at the OGDC 2007 conference. It was an information-packed two days, which included prominent speakers in the game industry and exhibitions. I felt very privileged to be there, as it gave me a chance to learn about the most current and specific struggles of people involved in the production of games. I found myself drawing tiny crowds during lunch and break times when those around me heard that I conduct research on Korean online game communities. After all, people were curious who this gal with the VIP badge was! The intimacy of the conference allowed for the making of friends, with the approach of quality versus quantity. Way cool.

After the conference, Lisa Galarneau and I hung out (she and her Microsoft Games Studio User Research panel got some press coverage). Being kindred spirits as well as ethnographers interested in games research, we had lots to talk about. She was kind enough to give me a tour of her workplace at the MGS Millennium campus, along with showing me the not so touristy areas of I-5 Microsoft land. Btw, I'm way better at MMOGs than driving games :P

So that was the coles notes of what went on... And now I'm back in Vancouver, defragging, working on papers, getting my shiat together for comprehensive exams so life can move on...
Photos of the conference April-Mayhem can be found in order of activity on my flickr set.

OGDC Conference 2007

Today I'm on my way to construct some amusement at the Online Game Development Conference in Seattle, Washington. The Chair, Peter Freese, has been kind enough to invite me, and it looks like they've got an exciting program of speakers lined up. It's a mix of industry and academia dialogue in which I am looking forward to participating.

For those not on FB or Flickr (and have therefore have not seen some of what I've been up to), I'll be posting the coles notes of the previous week's nuttiness for the Vancouver conferences here soon. Being the host city for a conference means that you're mostly working on the back end/graciously hosting/still relatively attached to home obligations/not staying in a hotel in the middle of the action. Maybe being out of town will give me a much needed chance to reflect and catch up. One can hope!

Writing blitz, and conferences

For the next few weeks, I'll be constructing paragraphs, rather than amusement (though, they might be amusing in the end).

My stint on Terra Nova (especially the last entry) has been vastly educational. Watching the comments take on their own life, independent of my post was a social study in itself. Reminds me of the 'telephone' game I used to play where one kid would whisper something, and to the next kid, next, and so on.... and by the time it reached the end everyone laughed as the last kid said something completely unrelated. Well... as anyone who has lived on listservs knows, when anything reaches 50+ comments, it's usually a flame war. :P The choice was ultimately mine to 'moderate' (read: delete offensive comments), but really... if it wasn't spam I didn't feel right in deleting because I felt it was important to see where people were headed with it sans my interference (censorship). And, because the discussion was taking on its own life, I wasn't really sure where I -could- interject in any case. Kind of like going to a conference to present your work, and then being asked 'questions' where the person asking just talks about themselves anyway and then maybe ends with "I guess that was more of a comment than a question." (me thud on ground).

The important thing arising from all of that was the dialogue I suppose. I suppose that even though TN didn't have a thread directly addressing the Virginia Tech massacre (and what we now know as a BUNK link to video games), people needed a venue to discuss it. I got that. My entry just happened to be there and conveniently used as a point of entry. For the record, I'm ok with that, even if the link at that time was in poor taste. Such is the state of the internetz, and I think there was an adequate balance in realism versus "ok, where the heck are you going with this?"

In any case, I was glad to have the opportunity to contribute. Very glad. Most of the feedback actually pertinent to my entry was very positive, and some dare I say it found it helpful. I'm an ethnographer because I write ethnographies, I'm an anthropologist because I look at the world through those eyes with the training I have received and continue to pursue (and the resultant products from that worldview don't necessarily imply an ethnography as my last entry illustrates but it does permeate everything I do, say, make, write... etc). Through training in both anthropology and communication (both as my professor once said are "dog's breakfast disciplines anyway") I inform design, I employ a multitude of methods, I help people question their epistemologies and see technology as inextricably linked to culture. Eh, you do what you can.

I just finished digesting Silverstone's "Television and Everyday Life." He cites an interesting study from Winnicott's psychoanalysis of a child who used string (yes, string) in a pathological manner. With the string, the boy was tying everything including the legs of tables and chairs together. Winnicott interpreted this as the child's need to feel secure, and when he counseled the mother to have a talk with the boy and ease his anxieties the string, after a while, was let go. Silverstone goes on to compare the use of a relatively innocuous medium like string, to television as something people use to feel secure. The boy later on in life went to drugs and other forms of unsavoury behaviour. An interesting read. What I got from this, having read on, is that people can use anything in a pathological way.

Well, life doesn't stop for the blogging, and I must continue to work through my repetitive mouseing injury (totally pathetic) and crank out those paragraphs.
On a happy note, I've been invited to attend the Online Game Development Conference in Seattle, May 10-11th.
The Online Game Development Conference is the first conference with a razor-sharp focus on the technology, art, design, production, and business of games delivered over the internet....
OGDC offers over 50 unique sessions during two information-packed days given by some of the most influential speakers in the industry.
They've got academic game researchers speaking in sessions as well, which is really cool. At the last DiGRA 2005, I remember lack of cross-pollination between academia and industry being brought up as something to improve. I look forward to contributing to exactly that improvement. Well, I'll be buzzing down there in May so ping me if you'll be around.