According to a recent post by Matt Heston (www.mattheston.com) video gamers really do have class – for the most part. They can be a very classy bunch. At this next Penny Arcade Expo (PAX 2010) you will not find a bunch of scantilly clad women out on the exhibit floor trying to pawn the latest greatest video to unsuspecting gamers who spend more time with their virtual girlfriends than with actual women.
This was very reassuring news to the Mom of 4 video gamers. Each kid is completely different and so just when I think I have the whole video game thing figured out it turns out that I only have it figured out for one of them. One is an extreme geek, the other more of a third person shooter, the other a fashion and karoake gamer and still another plays any game with sword play.
The interesting thing to me about Matt’s article is that it really illustrated to me the evolution of the video game world. Games are changing, gamers are growing up and there are some very serious gamers out there.
If you ever get a chance to go to a video game conference I highly recommend it. Sure it is fun to see how many girls are going to show up dressed as Princess Peach and how many Mario or Luigis you can spot at the event. For me I was happy if I was able to identify the character at all. I knew that some of these folks were in costume, that was for sure, I just didn’t know which games they are representing.
But the most interesting part of the conference for me were the key note speaker and the panel discussions. Last year I was fortunate enough ( and I mean fortunate – I almost didn’t get in ) to see the Key Note speaker for the PAX 2009 conference in Seattle, Ron Gilbert. I looked at the program guide and thought it would be interesting to hear what he had to say and there wasn’t anything else at that same time that looked more interesting to me so I went to the arena where he was going to be speaking about an hour early to check it out and make sure I knew where to go for his talk. The security guys at the door were announcing that if anyone was interested in hearing the talk they should get in the queue right now because they were about to close the doors. So, I entered a room about the size of a football stadium and got into a bank teller like line that snaked back and forth up and down the length of the room over and over again. I didn’t even count how many times it snaked back and forth.
I know! Right. Who is Ron Gilbert anyway? I had never heard of him (sorry Ron). But I was in line now so I thought I would see this through. I looked around and aside from just a handful of moderately geeky looking people the room seemed to be filled with pretty normal looking folks. Nobody that I would stop and stare at if they walked past me on the street and then whisper to my friend “Obvious Gamer”.
So, after queuing up for the key note speech it was only about 20 minutes before the line started to move. It moved slowly but it was moving. I made it! Got through turn after turn to finally reach the other side of the room (near to where I had entered in the first place) and get the nod from security that there were still seats available. After leaving the football stadium sized room we entered a second room that may have been even slight larger. There were a few seats left in the very back rows and I was super glad I had brought my glasses. I picked a seat that had a clear view of the center of the stage and was not obstructed by any of the 3 rows of JumboTron televisions that had been set up for us poor shmoes in the back row so that we could still feel like we were part of the experience.
Finally, Ron Gilbert came out and gave one of the most brilliant key note speaches I had ever heard. He was completely connected with his audience and at the same time entertaining and relevant to everyone from the most knowledgeable gamer to the most neophite in the room. His powerpoint presentation was fabulous with just the right mix of pictures and key points. His pictures completely supported his presentation and his slides followed his talk beautifully.
I have been to a great number of conferences and listened to tons of key note speakers – some better than others. But some of those speakers use their slides to pull their presentation along. Ron Gilbert used his slides perfectly to provide a poignant and often comedic balance to his talk.
He talked about his background as a video game developer and where he thought the future of video game development was heading. He shared with passion his delight at developing a game and then having the gamer take that product and make it their own and turn it into something he had never even imaginged at the start.
Video game developers are really working to make better and more interesting games that will fully engage the player and provide them with an even more unique experience than they have ever had in the past.
When I was younger parents would worry about the impact of violence in movies and on television and they were concerned about how much TV we were watching. When my boys were younger (in the 90′s) parents would worry about their kids spending too much time playing video games.
And now parents worry about video games connected to the Internet where their kids can play with anyone in the world. We worry about the values and the violence being portrayed in the games. And we worry about our kids becoming good citizens in the virtual and real world.
But at least we don’t have to worry about them going to a video game conference.
PS If you have never heard of Ron Gilbert check him out online. He is a really interesting guy.