Week 9 (Research & Activity) - The subject of this week’s Spark forum is Conferences. We’d love to hear about the types of conferences you are interested in or have attended.
Is there any part of the conference experience that you love or loathe?
Have you had any success with networking at conferences, or do you prefer to use them as an opportunity to learn?
What conferences have you attended? What conferences would you like to attend?
Being an indie game developer, I love to surround myself with people who share similar interests and ambitions as they tend to inspire and motivate me. Therefore, I invest my time watching/participating in annual gaming conferences such as EGX, E3, and GDC Talks. However, I have only ever been to one event in person before - I wouldn’t say I loathed anything about the experience, although popular conferences (such as the ones I listed) can get quite busy! Many people attend including industry heads, fans, solo developers, and small teams, to either promote work, offer lectures or test concepts and systems to the wider public.
I do not tend to network (because I’m quite shy), and so I use these events as an opportunity to learn from industry veterans and developers just starting out. I believe there is so much to learn by listening to people within the industry, and if I had the opportunity to attend these events every year, I would!
The conference I attended was EGX London in 2018 as a part of a field trip during my undergrad at Solent University. Long story short, it was amazing! There were games to play and lectures to attend. In addition, there were so many unique concepts to be shared. As a game developer, I hope to one-day showcase work at EGX and talk on-stage at GDC or E3 (I just need to get over my crippling fear of public speaking). Below I have uploaded a couple of images from my time at EGX London 2018.
Figure 1: Phoenix Point (Snapshot Games)
Figure 2: Warhammer: Vermintide 2 (Playtest)
Active Communities in Gaming
Surrounding yourself with like-minded people who share similar interests can help inspire and motivate you as a practitioner. The Editors at Ritual Motion reinforce this notion by stating "[that] being part of a community is amazing for your sense of wellbeing and a great way to enrich your confidence" (Editors, 2021). Communities in gaming are vast and ever-growing, from programmers who seek solutions for their development problems to those who wish to discuss games on a more general basis. The Editors go on to list their top 10 online and active communities in gaming (see some suggested communities below in addition to others).
Personally, I love being a part of a community and having a sense of belonging - the ability to share ideas, socialise on topics that interest you and quickly find solutions are just a few benefits that could happen if you were to join a group of like-minded people. Knowledge Management Author and Speaker, and Founder of SIKM Leaders Community, Stan Garfield, states, "[that] communities are groups of people who, for a specific subject, share a speciality, role, passion, interest, concern, or a set of problems" (Garfield, 2017). I believe there is a higher chance of succeeding as a practitioner by being an active member in a community relevant to my career and studies than by isolating myself. I feel like my rapid ideation events were proof of this notion, as I frequently visited sites such as Unity Forums to help find solutions to programming issues.
Agile, Maker and Open-Source Communities
Many established communities form around different movements, including The Agile movement, the Maker movement and the Hacker movement - I would say my preferred movement out of the three is agile, as it allows for iteration and focuses on staff welfare.
Ethnography Report (IndieGamer.com)
Chosen Group of Practitioners:
Such as some of my peers, I wanted to find an online community specific to the industry I am currently interested in, with no prior knowledge about the community in question. The weekly material highlighted ‘Maker’ and ‘Open-Source’ communities such as GitHub and StackOverflow. Although, I have decided not to investigate either community based on my regular affiliation with both sites. However, I am leaning towards these groups as opposed to reporting on agile communities. I believe ‘Maker’ and ‘Open-Source’ communities appeal to my direct interest in design and programming.
Moreover, I ruled out communities like GameDev.Tv, Unity Forum and GameFAQs because of having prior knowledge of their sites. I have decided to do this because I believe my findings will be unbiased when investigating a new community. Therefore, I have chosen to report on IndieGamer.com (Figure 3).
Figure 3: IndieGamer.com
Patterns and rules of the community:
IndieGamer has strict “Terms of Service” that community members must follow if they wish to use their site. For example, community members are prohibited from submitting or linking any content that is considered hateful, threatening, spam-like and likely to offend, with staff members reserving the right to review and modify content. Furthermore, staff members encourage community members to discuss forum rules (via a sub-forum) and offer suggestions on how they could improve the community.
The types and modes of interaction:
IndieGamer has two concrete categories that contain a wide variety of sub-forums. The first category is "Indie Game Development", where community members can discuss topics related to game development. The second category is called "Indie Classifieds" - this is where community members can post links to paid/unpaid work and offer other services. Community members are free to post content and create threads related to game development with over 35,000 discussions taking place. Moreover, members can earn badges and "trophy points" depending on how active they are and their outstanding reputation within the community. Finally, members are encouraged to sign-up to become official (as opposed to being a guest). Members are free to reply, like, comment and share discussions (via Twitter).
Activities and behaviours such as social gatherings and events:
Owned by the Creator of Bantam City Games, Bruno Campolo, and as such, acting as the overriding community moderator. It appears that there are no formal meet-ups or events, however, members have the option to visit one another if they so desire. There is an "Announcement" thread, although it appears to be open to a variety of discussions. With over 34,000 members and 280,000 messages, IndieGamer proves to be a dominant social hub in the field of game development.
The tone and language used by members of the community:
The language used by the community is notably informal while being friendly and respectful. The site is extremely transparent, as it goes as far as to state the latest member who joined, the most recent member to create a discussion/thread, and when members were last seen/active. Language appears to be formal when discussing job opportunities.
Conclusion:
IndieGamer appears to be a great social hub where community members can get together, solve problems, promote work and chat about anything game related. It does feel quite reserved, and it's clear Bruno Campolo is maintaining a strong online presence with the lack of face-to-face events and social gatherings. The community is welcoming and friendly, with rules set in place to deter any hate speech. Finally, the user interface is simple and easy to navigate, although threads can sometimes take a long time to load.
Conclusion & Reflection
In this week's spark forum, we were encouraged to discuss our experiences with conferences related to our studies. This topic then transitioned into winder online communities. I was fascinated to read what my peers had experienced, as some shared similar occurrences while others had goals to attend certain events in the future. It was uplifting to see my peers share the same interests. I believe this notion further reinforces how beneficial it is to surround yourself with like-minded people.
The lectures by Alcwyn Parker, Belinda Waldock, Andy Smith and Heidi Ellis were incredibly insightful on communities that form around particular movements. I believe each movement offers something unique that I find appealing as an academic and developer.
I was initially apprehensive about this week's challenge because I wondered how effective my findings would be after the brief stated that I must "[spend] a long period (a year or more) living as closely as possible with the community being studied". However, after my brief account of IndieGamer, I can say it is a well-respected community open to newcomers. I will consider becoming a full-time member myself as this could benefit me as a game developer.
References
Egx.net. 2022. EGX. [online] Available at: <https://www.egx.net/global/en-gb.html> [Accessed 1 April 2022].
e3expo.com. 2022. Electronic Entertainment Experience. [online] Available at: <https://e3expo.com/> [Accessed 1 April 2022].
gdconf.com. 2022. Game Developer Conference. [online] Available at: <https://gdconf.com/> [Accessed 1 April 2022].
Campolo, B., 2022. Indie Gamer. [online] indiegamer.com. Available at: <http://forums.indiegamer.com/> [Accessed 4 April 2022].
Editors, T., 2021. Social Gaming Communities: 10 Online Communities to Join in 2021. [online] Ritual Motion. Available at: <https://ritualmotion.com/articles/social-gaming-communities-10-online-communities-to-join-in-2020/> [Accessed 7 April 2022].
Garfield, S., 2017. Why do people join communities?. [online] Medium. Available at: <https://stangarfield.medium.com/why-do-people-join-communities-4ac1d9418e95> [Accessed 7 April 2022].
Cole, B., 2014. What is maker movement?. [online] SearchERP. Available at: <https://www.techtarget.com/searcherp/definition/maker-movement#:~:text=The%20maker%20movement%20is%20a,diverse%20skill%20sets%20and%20interests.> [Accessed 8 April 2022].
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