Launch of IESA
So there has been much discussion of late on the forums on the future of the MGSA, the membership fees, changes to the website, when we will have our AGM. I'd like to hopefully be able to answer all of these questions, with the announcement of the launch of Interactive Entertainment South Africa (IESA). I was hoping to hold off on this until I had all my ducks in a row, but the recent discussions have necessitated that I move sooner than I would have liked.
First let me deal with what the intention behind IESA is, why we've created a separate body and how I foresee IESA and MGSA working together in the future.
What is IESA?
Interactive Entertainment South Africa is an industry body that will be primarily mandated with lobbying, policy and industry development for the Interactive Entertainment industry in South Africa. In real terms this means all the responses to legislation, research, meeting with Government, foreign bodies, investors and the like that I have been doing on behalf of MGSA will now be conducted through IESA instead (see it as IESA taking over these functions from MGSA, though if someone wants to do all this for MGSA they are welcome to, it's just I won't be doing it). IESA is not a community and will not be having a forum similar to this, nor would it be responsible for organizing the monthly community meet-ups. These are functions and roles of MGSA, and are certainly something that it excels at. IESA is not for individuals, it is for Companies (sole proprietors are welcome!). IESA is not only for game developers, in order to have weight behind our lobbying we need to broaden our net, distributors, publishers and support services to game development would all be able to join IESA. IESA is not only for "indie" game studios (Make Games was not intended, and isn't, only for indie games, but it seems to be common perception that it is). IESA has a paid membership structure, with the annual fees ranging from R400 to R60,000.00 per year. IESA will (pending on SARS) be active in February. You do not need to be a member of MGSA in order to be a member of IESA or vice-versa. IESA's work will benefit the entire community, even if they are not members (though IESA members will certainly be getting some preferential benefits). Several prominent studios have already committed to IESA.
Why a new body? MGSA is already doing a lot of what IESA is going to do
There are two primary reasons for creating a new body, first is the requirement for it (for tax, but also sustainability) to charge membership fees, which admittedly are not low. It is, I believe, unfair to suddenly change how people can join Make Games or expect the broader community to now have to pay fees. It also reduces the complexity of reporting and administering "membership" of the two entities.
I also believe that the two bodies will each have their own focus and having different "brands" will allow both to present a clear message on what they are doing and who they are for.
There is also the reality, that a lot of our professional developers have distanced themselves from Make Games, some going as far as not wanting to be associated or involved with it at all. IESA presents us with an opportunity to get them back and involved with development and growth of the industry in a unified manner.
How will MGSA and IESA interact with each other?
I hope MGSA and IESA will work together to develop and grow the industry. Practically for the vast majority of MGSA members, there will be no practical difference. The forums will continue to exist, the community meet ups and jams will continue to happen. MGSA will remain as the best place for any one interested in the game dev industry to meet other devs and share projects and works. The one noticeable difference will be the handling of "events". IESA, thanks to its budget will be attending events like rAge and EGE, it will also be able to hopefully sponsor some space to allow MGSA to curate and present the best games that the community has to offer. IESA will also be in a position to now help projects that come out of the community like the SFA or the Amber Key Collabortorium
That's all I want to say for now. I'll post links to our website, business plan and prospectus as soon as I've tidied them up and made them a bit more presentable. Please feel free to ask question below.
What does this mean for MGSA? I'll post a response in this thread shortly:
First let me deal with what the intention behind IESA is, why we've created a separate body and how I foresee IESA and MGSA working together in the future.
What is IESA?
Interactive Entertainment South Africa is an industry body that will be primarily mandated with lobbying, policy and industry development for the Interactive Entertainment industry in South Africa. In real terms this means all the responses to legislation, research, meeting with Government, foreign bodies, investors and the like that I have been doing on behalf of MGSA will now be conducted through IESA instead (see it as IESA taking over these functions from MGSA, though if someone wants to do all this for MGSA they are welcome to, it's just I won't be doing it). IESA is not a community and will not be having a forum similar to this, nor would it be responsible for organizing the monthly community meet-ups. These are functions and roles of MGSA, and are certainly something that it excels at. IESA is not for individuals, it is for Companies (sole proprietors are welcome!). IESA is not only for game developers, in order to have weight behind our lobbying we need to broaden our net, distributors, publishers and support services to game development would all be able to join IESA. IESA is not only for "indie" game studios (Make Games was not intended, and isn't, only for indie games, but it seems to be common perception that it is). IESA has a paid membership structure, with the annual fees ranging from R400 to R60,000.00 per year. IESA will (pending on SARS) be active in February. You do not need to be a member of MGSA in order to be a member of IESA or vice-versa. IESA's work will benefit the entire community, even if they are not members (though IESA members will certainly be getting some preferential benefits). Several prominent studios have already committed to IESA.
Why a new body? MGSA is already doing a lot of what IESA is going to do
There are two primary reasons for creating a new body, first is the requirement for it (for tax, but also sustainability) to charge membership fees, which admittedly are not low. It is, I believe, unfair to suddenly change how people can join Make Games or expect the broader community to now have to pay fees. It also reduces the complexity of reporting and administering "membership" of the two entities.
I also believe that the two bodies will each have their own focus and having different "brands" will allow both to present a clear message on what they are doing and who they are for.
There is also the reality, that a lot of our professional developers have distanced themselves from Make Games, some going as far as not wanting to be associated or involved with it at all. IESA presents us with an opportunity to get them back and involved with development and growth of the industry in a unified manner.
How will MGSA and IESA interact with each other?
I hope MGSA and IESA will work together to develop and grow the industry. Practically for the vast majority of MGSA members, there will be no practical difference. The forums will continue to exist, the community meet ups and jams will continue to happen. MGSA will remain as the best place for any one interested in the game dev industry to meet other devs and share projects and works. The one noticeable difference will be the handling of "events". IESA, thanks to its budget will be attending events like rAge and EGE, it will also be able to hopefully sponsor some space to allow MGSA to curate and present the best games that the community has to offer. IESA will also be in a position to now help projects that come out of the community like the SFA or the Amber Key Collabortorium
That's all I want to say for now. I'll post links to our website, business plan and prospectus as soon as I've tidied them up and made them a bit more presentable. Please feel free to ask question below.
What does this mean for MGSA? I'll post a response in this thread shortly:
Comments
Answering hard questions gets IESA points :)
I think this should be clarified to be "for the vast majority of MGSA members"
Can anybody point me in the right direction?
This is a milestone for Video Games in South Africa, and you can count on my full support :)
http://www.iesa.org.za/
https://twitter.com/IESAorg
@quintond:
The core sectors in the industry that would be covered by "interactive entertainment" are: Games for Entertainment (across all platforms), Serious Games, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Simulators. Companies directly involved in the development, distribution and publishing of these types of media would be our target "members". For now IESA will be an umbrella organisation for all these sectors, but in time as numbers grow we will look at the feasibility of opening different chapters or committees to deal with these different focus areas.
I've been approached by a number of YouTubers and Let's Players who have expressed an interest in joining IESA and I don't see why they should not be able to join in some capacity. I'm not sure that full membership as described in our prospectus would be appropriate, but I will definitely investigate the possibility of a specific tier for these sort of content creators if there is sufficient demand.
The reason I ask is that I want to make Gobbo Games a member but our primary focus at the moment is Board Games and Tabletop Games with our apps as value adds for those products ... so I am not sure I will fall in to the category. 8-{
I don't see why board games wouldn't qualify, it certainly meets the requirement of being interactive entertainment. I'll ask the founding board and get back to you
Can anyone give me some information regarding the "Access to IESA research and reports"?
Will official research be done, is there any plans etc?
@Critc the intention is to have all the positions at IESA as full time, but that will require sufficient membership and fees to do so. For now it is part-time until we get our numbers up to sustain the different posts