[arg_discuss] ARG SIG Conference

[Burcu Bakioglu]

Ah, this puts things in perspective a bit. The question being: does ARGFest
have as big of a following as ComicCon or other sci-fi gatherings? I am not
sure how ComicCon is set up, but I bet there's talking shop in there too.
And some cross-pollination is bound to happen, which in my book, is a good
thing. And if ARGFest doesn't want to expand and change and keep it as it
is, that is understandable. I am not sure that i agree with it, but fair
enough.

As far as I can tell, ArgFest accomplished a tremendous job in building the
community/festival and created a recognized brand for itself. But I also
sense, because of the concerns that were voiced during happy hour drinks at
a local venue in Portland, that they may need help. And, if they are
amenable to change, we need to reach over and work on making this a
colloborative project. In other words, we shouldn't be asking them "Hey
would you mind if we created another conference and played in your back
porch?" We should be asking "How can we unite our efforts and present a
stronger front. Take ARG to its future instead of subdividing it. Make it a
legitimate initiative"

I whole-heartedly agree with what Mike is saying, just that SxSW and other
gatherings are a bit larger in scope and not sure if they present an
effective model for ARGFest (which is by far smaller and niche), that is why
I showed SLCC, it began just like this, six years ago... Hey, if you can get
traditional universities and departments to appreciate the educational value
in investing in virtual environments, ARGs shouldn't be that difficult.

What I noticed in my experience is this: I interview players, users,
puppetmasters, Linden Lab employees, project managers etc. And they give me
their own time, they help me out, they make connections for me. And giving
presentations on the research I have done as a result of their help is my
way of giving back to the community. Don't I do this in other conferences
recognized by in my field? Sure, I am scheduled to present in AotH at MLA
this December. But the people associated with that project won't be there.

>From what I've seen, community likes that, they like to be appreciated,

ackowledged. Besides the SL/griefer example I gave in an earlier e-mail, I
had a similar experience in LG15. I was going through the LG15 threads on
Anchor Cove and I saw that my name was being tossed around. One of the
players mentioned my MIT presentation about LG15 and its ARGs, another said
that she interviewed with me and we became good friends later on (which we
did, met up in SF later), the other said (linking my dissertation to the
forums) "And this goes to show that you can actually make a career out of
watching these videos and talking to us." It is this kind on interaction
that I do not want to lose by creating a separate conference.


>From what I've seen in SLCC:


1) You get as much social time as you need even if you have concurrent
tracks. Don't attend any panels and just interact with people if you like,
and you're allowed to go to bed when you feel like it.
2) Tracks are fundable. Set a deadline for track proposals and have the
people who are proposing find the finding. SL people are finding funding
from virtual companies like Rivers Run Red, Strokerz, and other SL-based
companies which are seeking the most efficient way of advertising their
brand. And ARGs are entrenched in marketing through and through, and we
can't find funding? Whichever commercial ARG is running that year, we need
to knock on their door for ARGFest or other conference we are thinking about
doing.
3) Players won't get drowned in shop talk. There are a lot of SL users
(called residents) who have nothing to do with the
educator/researcher/business group. They know me through the parties, bar
gatherings and social events and such. But the beauty is that that community
actually has a lot to talk about when they meet one another in these
gatherings, i.e. I saw a lot of Linden Lab employees and owners of virtual
businesses in that Griefer Appreciation Gala that i was talking about
earlier.

Here's the SLCC blog: http://www.slconvention.org/ (the site is not working
currently, but look at it when it comes back)
Here's the link for the SLEDcc 2008 page:
http://sledcc.wikispaces.com/(this is for the educator's group)

And here's what we really should be thinking about doing: a colloborative
blog co-authored by important people in the field. A repository for ARG
industry/research/and whatever else that is related to ARGs. This list is
called Terra Nova and is kept up by 20-30 big names in the virtual worlds
field. These guys also have a guild in WoW called Terror Nova in which they
engage in nightly raids and stuff. One of them hosted a conference at the
NYU shool of Law earlier this year. This is the power of commumity-->
http://terranova.blogs.com/

And with that, I am taking off the evil moustache bestowed upon me from a
retired Grand Inquisitor. I now actually have to work...

Stay classy, ARGlist, and I do apologize for muddying the waters :P

b.

Whatever we are going

On Fri, Aug 7, 2009 at 1:26 AM, Wendy Despain <wendeth at wendydespain.com>wrote:


> I guess I always saw ARGfest as more like the sci-fi (book) con scene.

> It's a very vibrant scene - cons put on by fans, for fans, inviting

> "pros" (using their terms here) to give panels and generally hang out

> with their fans. The pros love to go to those cons, and love to

> schmooze with the fen.

>

> Some of these cons are huge - Worldcon (World Science Fiction

> Convention) for instance: http://www.anticipationsf.ca/

>

> I guess I just assumed that was the kind of thing ARGfest wanted to

> grow into. They have serious parties with live bands, tons of panels,

> all kinds of banquets, even awards.

>

> But this is definitely about the fan community. That's where the focus

> is.

> And I think the fan community completely deserves every minute of it.

>

> In contrast, there's Book Expo America: http://bookweb.org/events/bea

> It has a different focus - it's about the business of making books.

> Many of the same people attend (authors, agents) but it's a completely

> different conference.

>

> I was thinking we would shape the ARG SIG conference (whatever it gets

> called) like Book Expo, not Worldcon - inviting the pervasive games

> crowd, the book publishers, television producers - every kind of thing

> that ARGs touch. A place to talk shop.

>

> I guess I just don't see it changing ARGfest at all. I mean, the

> developers I know really love to interact with fans and would continue

> going to ARGfest and loving to give presentations and hanging out at

> parties.

>

> I'm all for helping ARGfest grow into its full potential. But I don't

> want to squash it by making players feel unwelcome because of a

> businessy atmosphere.

>

> I hope this makes sense. I'm definitely not going to push this in a

> direction nobody else wants to go, I just wanted to make sure I

> explained what I was thinking. It's great that we're talking about

> options.

>

> I guess I'm just tired of taking the message to other conferences. I

> feel like we're already doing that. But that means we're always

> talking to some group other than ourselves (the videogame developers,

> the indie film group etc.) and I think if we look at all the things

> that *could* be included under the ARG-like umbrella, we've got a

> large enough trade group we can start talking amongst ourselves.

>

> GDC is scaling back and refocusing this year, so I doubt we'll be able

> to convince them to expand. But there are a lot of people (indie film

> makers) who just wouldn't even consider going to GDC. ARGs are (pretty

> much by definition?) relevant to multiple media practitioners. I think

> we could push the state of the art forward to the next level by

> getting us all together in one place.

>

> Wendy Despain

> quantumcontent.com

>

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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."