[Event] rAge Game Meet
Anyone keen on doing talks and stuff? Or, at least, helping with organising?
As far as I know, Fuzzy's been in talks with @damouse about hooking up with LegionInk and doing stuff together. He's not going to be around for rAge though, so he was asking about people who're living Joburg-side who're keen to organise.
I'm hesitant to because around the time rAge is going on I'll still be teaching at least one of my game art classes while also having to do assignments for a course I'm doing on the side, in addition to whatever Luma's got.
As far as I know, Fuzzy's been in talks with @damouse about hooking up with LegionInk and doing stuff together. He's not going to be around for rAge though, so he was asking about people who're living Joburg-side who're keen to organise.
I'm hesitant to because around the time rAge is going on I'll still be teaching at least one of my game art classes while also having to do assignments for a course I'm doing on the side, in addition to whatever Luma's got.
Comments
I've been helping out for the past five years and I see no reason to stop now.
All those years running Otaku and Asus stands... Sometimes I just wanna ignore rage altogether :P
[edit] Just want to post a bit more info so we have an idea of what to expect. The room that we got last year was super lucky. It's super unlikely that we'd be able to get that again, which makes actual talks unlikely. The idea's that we'd be getting either a table with Legion Ink and @damouse, or a booth of our own.
We'd need a couple of/several (depending on space) computers there so people can play some of our locally-made games.
We'd need flyers/banners/cards/posters advertising MGSA.
And then perhaps a set time when people can meet for Q&A. Rope in folks from the industry and schools there to answer peoples' questions about making games, skills to learn, where to study, etc. And go out for coffee/supper afterwards. So, the bulk of the stuff would be on one day (the Saturday). The other two days would just be a manned booth (unless we can organise something more. I think it'd be preferable to be more focused though, rather than splitting things over three days unless we have to).
None of this is finalised, but we should know the possibilities by tomorrow. :) If you've got ideas or suggestions, shoot.
I guess I just think that a dedicated indie festival is better than trying to shout over the noise of commercial game blah that comes with rAge, but that shouldn't stop MGSA from making something happen there if people want it to :)
I for one - even if I wasn't part of this community - would have loved to see some indie games on show for real as opposed to being on two computers in the room WAY back where with no signage or indication. It wouldn't have to be a massive stand - there wouldn't even have to be booth babes. The sheer interest factor in LOCALLY PRODUCED GAMES, I thought, would be enough of a draw, given that the studio/people/whatever sent the word out in advance to look out for them in our gaming communities.
Am I missing something here?
Business-wise: What do I, as a business owner, get out of rAge? It's not my target market, most of the people there are either AAA consumers or LAN attendees, they don't care about indie games. In general, South African gamers are not my target market, those local gamers that would buy my games are going to hear about them when I advertise internationally too. I don't even really get "cool points" or press, because the local news focuses on the hand-outs from the big pubs/distros and will only write the same bloody story about "how you can actually make games in SA" if they do choose to write about my games anyway. For the cost of putting up a stand at rAge, even a minimal one, I can fly to IndieCade and get a ton of specialised games press, meet loads of friendly devs and sell more copies than South Africans have picked up since the game has been available. Plus, if I do set up a stand at rAge, I get swamped with people who want me to magically find the money to hire them because I'm a cool company and they totally know they could design amazing games if only they got the chance... None of these applicants are actually serious, or overly skilled. If they were, they'd be here already, reading this. @damousey says that we'd make a better return by signing up for the LAN and sharing a folder called "FREE GAMES!" and letting people copy a bunch of local game demos.
Personally: I like rAge. I've been involved in some capacity every single year so far, either exhibiting, helping out behind the scenes, presenting video or working setup at competitions. This is the first year that I won't be working there, I may not even go... In the past 2 years I've been to the US for E3, GDC and IndieCade to exhibit DD, which sort of killed my expectations for rAge. Not because those dwarf the expo, but because I've seen what rAge wants to be... E3 was huge, noisy, sweaty and kinda sad. The Indie Showcase stand that I was part of was the best thing there, according to hordes of people that came by to talk to us. The big, commercial scene was great if you felt like running around for 8 hours a day, picking up the PR scraps that were being handed to you and then writing them down religiously for whichever blog or publication had paid for your ticket, but apparently being able to talk to an indie dev that loves what they're doing is way more awesome. Basically, rAge doesn't feel like it's moving in the right direction to become something more like GDC or IndieCade or even PAX, which are all more indie-friendly than what rAge is right now, that's all.
TLDR: I'd love to do an Indie Megabooth, like the one that's been organised at PAX every year, but we'd need at least 10 local games for that to work. And even then we'd need herculean patience to not strangle the 1000th sweaty kid that went "Ugh, this isn't even 3D, fuck this noise" and gave your game a nasty look. We're just not big enough to assert our own presence and personality as indies yet. Maybe soon we will be.
But you're right, the right market for local isn't rAge, and who knows if it will ever be. I remember Otaku days. Same story.
On topic, what is the general feeling about this then? I have never been to rAge, so I have no idead what goes on there. My feelings are just that if we do something it should be done properly. I would rather skip this year and plan something great next year than trying to patch something up and looking silly.
Not saying that I don't want to do it mind you, just saying I don't want a communications issue to cause MGSA to look silly.
Remember the artificial constraints thing? Worrying that MGSA looks stupid is one of those: The people who see whatever it is that MGSA does at/with/around rAge will always either get it or not, those that consider it stupid would have considered it stupid no matter how many resources were injected into it, those that consider it awesome would keep thinking it was awesome if it was just two balloons on a stick - provided those balloons made games ;)
I guess it comes down to what our goals should be for the event. If we go there to raise awarness and get people involved, I would rather move among the people and get noticed. If we want to get them to play games at our booth/stand and have to intice them in then we should make sure there is something there for them to come and experience.
That being said, I'm still available to help and organize or even just haul around stuff in order get something going at rAge . :)
Wait, when's the next meet at MS?
DOUBLE WAIT. My girlfriend will be visiting from CT that weekend so I'm not so sure of my availability, but I know I'll be at rAge due to her probably possibly cosplaying (me too, maybe possibly).
No word yet. But I'm keen for just a meal or something too if that's what we do. :) Last year was at Cappuccino's or something I think, and I'm totally keen for moar board games!
@Tuism, I thought you were judging again this year? conflict of interest says you need to let Nuts know :P I'm a bit out of the loop tho' my info may be old.
To be honest I don't think I could be arsed :P tried to get someone to make me an Assassin's Creed outfit but she never got back to me, it's too soon, next time :P
MOAR Boardgames would be AWESOME :) Infiltration's tons of fun, so's almost anything else really. And I'll finally get my card sleeves for Citadels yay :)
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/53953/thunderstone
LOTS of cards, too :)
So whats the verdict on coordinating group mucking about? I have never been to rAge so I wouldn't mind having a guide. :P
I left around 5:30ish. With Netrunner in tow. But everyone seemed to be very pooped. I actually didn't seem too much of the show cos I was pooped too.
next time we need to organise this better.