[arg_discuss] ARG SIG Conference

[Michelle Senderhauf]

My first thoughts were - Oh my god, no!  What will it do to ARGfest?
 Surely, all of the developers will stop coming!  Then where will the panels
be?  Then players who want to meet developers will have to choose between
the two and will surely go to ARG-SIG. Then ARGfest will slowly die...
nooooooooo!
Then I got over it.

I think ARGfest is still in its awkward preteen years.  We want more panels,
but can't add them without cutting into social time.  I'd love to have
workshops and more casual discussions (the best discussions I heard all
weekend were when 15 or so people were sitting in the hospitality room on
Sunday night), but if we add them we're again cutting into social time.
 Many of the players can't attend a conference that stretches into the week,
so we can't really add more days of panels.  So what does ARGfest want to be
when it grows up?  A serious conference or a social event (or can it be both
as it grows)?  Also, does it want to be an event for both players and
developers?

The one thing I have to ask is why not just have the conferences in the same
place and avoid separating the audience?  You could have the ARG-SIG-DEV-CON
(ha! that's a horrible name) during the week and end it with ARGfest on the
weekend.  Plenty of professional conferences are during the week, so I would
think most developers wouldn't have a problem attending.  Then they would
have the option for staying an extra day or two to hang out socially with
the players (or attend any player-focused panels).  Players who really want
to attend the professional portion of the conference could arrive a day or
two early.

Michelle






On Thu, Aug 6, 2009 at 7:41 PM, Brooke Thompson <brooke at giantmice.com>wrote:


> Oh, yeah, I got what you were saying and I do share your worry about what a

> second conference could do to ARGFest. The strange mix of an audience that

> it attracts is part of it's charm, for m. It's an environment that I'm very

> keen to nurture. Which is why I'm so sensitive to the "closed" and

> "exclusive" talk - but also why l really appreciate the feedback :)

>

> I think that's why I lean towards the ARG SIG conference being about

> reaching out to a more professional audience. Not that I'd want it to be

> stodgy or anything, but it seems to fit the "mission" of the SIG while also

> making it more distinct from ARGFest. But that does raise the concern over

> what it would do to the professional & acadmic sorts that would go to

> ARGFest but can't quite justify two ARG-centric conferences.

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

> On Aug 6, 2009, at 8:06 PM, Burcu Bakioglu wrote:

>

>  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

>> http://palefirer.com/blog/

>> Skype: PaleFireR

>> AIM: PaleFireR

>>

>> --

>> "Congratulations! You're the first human to fail the Turing test."

>> _______________________________________________

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>>

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