[arg_discuss] ARG SIG Conference

[Burcu Bakioglu]

Oh Brooke, I totally understand why you got defensive. I was referring to
the characterizations, hence i put it in quotation marks... Even Wendy kinda
mentioned in her email that ARGFest is a tight-knit community.  I heard this
remark and those like others from other people as well. But even so, you're
right, in that there was a great eclectic group there in Portland this year.
I guess my worry is that creating an alternative conference would erode this
just beginning eclectic environment. Does this make sense?

Now having said that, I have to admit, that suspecting a certain kind of a
reaction from the audience, I did refrain from voicing some opinions I had
as least publicly. Because I knew that those opinions would not have
perceived positively within the unfiction community, because they have
certain rules of engagement. They know what is acceptable and not accepable
in their community. So I didn't muddy the waters...

So your point is well taken and we should not be eager to categorize a group
that easily. But even as we throw these labels around, we don't realize that
we are falling into similar traps. That was main point.

b.

On Thu, Aug 6, 2009 at 7:54 PM, Brooke Thompson <brooke at giantmice.com>wrote:


> I'm sure y'all are expecting this seeing as I'm not all that quiet and have

> somehow found myself on the organizational committees of ARGFest and the ARG

> SIG conference (hows does this happen?! i just wanted to help moderate a

> couple threads, that is all)

>

> I, too, wonder how the conferences would effect each other - would one pull

> from the other? would they enhance each other? is there room for two? is

> there something to be gained or lost by the influence of the player

> enthusiast types? etc etc. So this discussion is really great. But...

>

> I've got to get a bit defensive over the bit about ARGFest being labelled

> as closed and exclusive.

>

> Unfiction started one night in a chat channel when two friends said "hey!

> we should meet for beers!" and a couple more said "oh hey! what about me!" -

> and a couple weeks later, 15 people showed up in Vegas. A couple months

> later, we met up again in Orlando and like 10 more people showed up - whoa.

>  Two years later, we thought it'd be cool to see if we could meet the guys

> who did AotH & PerplexCity but "hey, they probably won't know about this, so

> let's invite them and give them a reason to come". The conference was born.

> (ok, it wasn't exactly like that, but pretty darn close... it was born out

> of a desire to be anything but exclusive, it was about being inclusive and

> meeting new people!)

>

> It is still run by the community leaders at unfiction (the organizing team

> this year was the admins and a few portland locals) and, yes, our first

> thoughts always go to the community that we are a part of - but we do look

> beyond that and try to be quite welcoming. Not only because we're friendly

> folk, but because we want to get to know others and we want them to get to

> know us. We don't want to be this exclusive little club; we want to meet and

> get to know the Brian Clarks and Mike Monellos and Yomi Ayenis and Jeromy

> Barbers and Non Chalances of the world. It doesn't matter if they're on

> unfiction or, even, if they've ever heard of it. We think it's kinda cool

> that some have gone on to become fairly active on the UF forums, but the ARG

> Community is so much more than that and relationships made at ARGFest have

> continued to bloom on twitter and facebook and some have even grown into

> collaborations. Which is really kinda cool when you think that a lot of

> these people didn't know each other before ARGFest and many people were

> fairly unaware of and/or unknown by unfiction just a couple months before

> ARGFest.

>

> There may be a lot of traditions and cultural mores and whatnot, but I

> think that's just as true of any conference of this size no matter if it

> comes out of a online message board or a professional organization. And, you

> might be surprised by just how un-unfiction the conference really is. We

> haven't gotten the survey out there yet (small and exhausted volunteer

> team...  it's coming) but my guess is that it was about 60/40 on the

> attendees who would self-identify as being a part of the UF community.

>

> I think it's just at a funny size with a strange mix of players and

> designers, hobbyists and professionals - which makes it quite hard to

> describe and/or provide focus for. But it also makes for a great and unique

> event filled with all sorts of new (and old) perspectives.

>

> Defensive bit over... I'm absolutely loving this feedback (even if I

> disagree with the premise). It is awesome! I would very much like to see a

> lot more of it :)

>

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-- 
Thanks,</burcu>

Burcu S. Bakioglu, Ph.D.

http://www.palefirer.com
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Skype: PaleFireR
AIM: PaleFireR

--
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