ACM Sandbox Symposium
(Visited 10421 times) Game talk
Jan 272006
Yet another games conference, this one sponsored by ACM, with an eye towards a future games SIG.
Interesting that they chose to call it “sandbox,” given the turbulent opinions surrounding that tag within the gamer community itself.
The topics they are calling for papers on:
- Real-time animation and computer graphics for video games
- Distributed simulation and communication in multi-player games
- Game console hardware and software
- Psychophysics and user interfaces
- Artificial intelligence in games
- Interactive physics
- Uses of GPU for non-graphical algorithms in games
- Multi-processor techniques for games
- Speech and vision processing as user input techniques
- Development tools and techniques
- Procedural art
- Sound Design and music in games
- Mathematical Game Theory applied to video games
- Cinematography in games
- Game design and game genres
- Story structure (setting, plot, character, theme) in games
- Games (Casual, Serious, Mobile, Networked, Alternative Reality, Ubiquitous, Pervasive, etc.)
- Legal, political, and societal impacts
- Women and diversity in games
- Gamer culture and community; such as modding communities, LAN parties, creative gamer content and machinima
- Independent game developers
- Economics and business of the game industry
- Game production and labor
- Negotiating intellectual property issues in development
- Trade offs between creativity and branding in design and production
- Alternative distribution models
21 Responses to “ACM Sandbox Symposium”
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I was vice-chair (and only female) of my University’s ACM chapter, when I was there. My sister was also a member, during her years. I’d have been downright giddy if we’d had a Game Development SIG.
Ah, I have a lot of memories of my chapter. They’d wander up to me in the computer lab at 3AM, shout “Print it out!” and then drag me kicking and screaming to the Denny’s, with my paper accordion of printed code trailing after me down the street.
This new conference sounds like it’s primarily a research conference. Very interesting. My worry with research conferences is that you end up with mostly academics there, and the information doesn’t get into the hands where it will do the most good. So, I think that if this is to be an ongoing thing, one of their challenges will be to get a good blend of academia and industry.
Well, to be honest, with so many conferences trying to bridge that gap… I dunno. I realize that the academic world loves its conferences, but there’s GLS, there’s Living Game Worlds (which I will be at in just a few weeks), there’s Serious Games (both of them), there’s just so many trying to bridge that academy/industry split…
Then again, it could be a boondoggle like this one. (Why didn’t I get invited to this? Ahem. Cory Ondrejka got to go. Ken Perlin got to go. Grumble.)
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Raph, sandbox games are the best type of MMO’s, it’s the closest thing to replicating a real world for the player… creating a giant sandbox in which a player stakes out a piece of land for his very own, generating a real virtual community (SWG is a great example of this).
On a side note, I would like to hear your thoughts on the NGE. The entire industry is watching SOE and SWG to see what will happen. If it’s successful it will set a precedent for future gaming companies and allow them to dramatically change the game at any point in time.
The NGE is controversial in an infinite number of ways. As time goes on, it is becoming increasingly obvious that the greater debate has shifted ā¦ I see the NGE as a very real war between two separate ideological views on higher-level game design.
On the one side, there is preCU/CU (depth and breadth) and the other the NGE (shallow shell). The following are key elements:
-Sandbox vs Linear
-Player Based Economy vs Loot
-Autocracy vs Egalitarianism
-Open Ended Skill System vs Linear
You must cry at night when you think about what has happened to your original vision.
Time to add a big “I will not talk about SWG” banner at the top of every page on the site. =)
Is there a ban on SWG on this blog? =)
I’m sure there’s a ban on Raph making life harder on his colleagues who manage the game. š
No oneās asking Raph to violate an NDA or compromise his position at SOE (nor does anyone expect he would do so). I just wanted to make the point that the āold SWGā (pre NGE) was very much Rafās incarnation/design. The introduction of the NGE has stripped away just about everything Raph-esque from the game. This brought me to my point about it being a battle over higher-level game design (figuratively speaking of course, not actually) with Raphās version being the better one.
Film directors, often analogize the experience of creating theatrical movies to āgiving birthā. The director pours months and months of writing, planning, preparation and work into the film; nurturing it and loving it and when the time is finally right — he then releases it to theaters; in a way giving ābirthā to his project to watch it grow. I imagine this feeling holds true for videogame design as well. If it does then SWG must feel like an aborted baby to Raph. His baby lived for 2.5 years; it was then aborted and thrown away into a dumpster, replaced by the NGE.
As far as I know, he hasnāt addressed or even mentioned SWG since the NGEās release… which I find disappointing because the changes are so dramatic, so controversial, and the outcry from the community has been so loud that the New York Times actually ran an article about it. It would be nice to hear from the man who made my very first and only online world experience so enjoyable. Raph, Iām sure you can comment in a way as to not harm your fellow employeesā delicate sensibilities.
As an aside… We all assume youāre at the āSOE Seattle Skunkworksā working hard on the next top-secret SOE MMORPG; which Iāll go as far as to speculate–is being built from the ground up to utilize Smeds new āVelvet Ropeā model. I anxiously wait to see whatever your latest project is (at this years E3, maybe? Tell Smed to watch out for pie throwers).
I personally believe the āVelvet Ropeā system will find it hard to succeed because a model like this doesnāt inherently lend itself to brilliant/innovative gameplay or design, instead it restricts it. But, thatās another discussion for another dayā¦
I’ve mentioned SWG plenty, including in sveeral posts on this blog (I suggest digging up “Forcing interaction,” for example). (I’ve also mentioned that I am in San Diego š ).
But yes, I refrain from commenting on SWG. I haven’t been involved with SWG since shortly before Holocrons started dropping, right around when vehicles went in. That was a long time ago. There’s very little I’d be able to say that was relevant, really; the game has been in other hands for a very long time, and it’s been in the hands of people I worked with and respect.
Come on Raph, are you telling us your happy with what SWG has become.
I don’t buy that for a second.
Youāre lying.
Youāre always very opinionated about other games and what brad M has said this week about instancing or whatever.
But we hear nothing about what your own SWG which, by the way, is the talk of the MMO world for the cack handed way itās being handled.
..And yet we hear nothing from you! Your silence speaks volumes…
Ridiculous. Go find another site to troll about your NGE whining. Raph will not feed you.
Show the man some respect while you’re in his home.
You helped create the game from the very beginning, regardless of whether or not you have worked on it recently (I know you havenāt, as you said its been a very long time), your opinion remains relevant.
Take the human element out of itā¦.overall (im not asking for specifics); does your current design philosophy (whatever that may be) harmonize with that which was introduced in the NGE?
The only reason I ask is, as I mentioned before, the NGE is a clash over two very different game design ideologies. Your answer will provide some insight as to whether or not your design ideology has changed during the last 2.5 years, and how this might affect games weāll be seeing from you in the future.
Well, I think I’ve been writing plenty on my design philosophies here on the blog. I think they’ve been pretty consistent.
Boy, talk about being left out! That’s no fair.
And yeah, I agree that there are a lot of small conferences trying to bridge the gap. (Heck, there’s even one here in Sydney, hosted by UTS. I was invited to talk, but was way too busy to put anything together in time for that particular one.) That only increases my concerns, though, since we industry folks obviously can’t go to all of these, so how do we decide which ones to go to?
Heh, I probably wouldn’t have gone even had I been invited. And seriously, I am trying to cut back — the trips get kind of exhausting, and you can’t have your family along, particularly with kids in school…
Yeah, you have been doing a hell of a lot of traveling this year, for certain. I love traveling, but I’m the first one to admit that it can take a toll!
NGE is good from one point of view, moving SWG to be -> Battlefront online.
From the original sandbox where: – I matter, you matter, I can be famous in my galaxy for the goods I can create, I saw a Jedi!
Itās a disaster.
Cookie cutter professions wearing cookie cutter amour clicking cookie cutter weapons that fire cookie cutter specials.
The game where everyone is no one.
And as recently posted on the main forums, the true success of SWG, the thing it had that no other MMO had come close to (even now).
The crafter based economy
Is being cut out in favor of the kill/loot economy
When I was on Corbantis, there was a weaponsmith called Smokeyās, he was usually brash, sometimes down right rude and a ruthless business man.
But he was known the server over for providing the best damn weapons the galaxy had to offer, everyone knew him or had heard about him, bought from him, wowed in public about his latest uber flamethrower, moaned in tells about his prices
Tell me
If smokeys was rolled in a Galaxy today, who in 3 months would know his name that he didnāt directly engage with?
Hi Raph,
I know you can’t get specific like some of the posters here are asking you to be regarding SWG – understandably.
On behalf of thousands of ex-SWG players I’d simply like to say thank you pal. For many, myself included, it was our first MMO and possibly our last considering no other game will match up to it’s original greatness. Thousands wish for the return of the Pre-CU game (the game you designed) but their voices have fell upon deaf ears as I’m sure you know the whole deal. Once you have driven a Porshe, how could you appreciate the Lada? That’s how many feel and only continue to play MMO’s such as WoW because their SWG friends went there, nothing more.
Anyway, good luck in the future and whatever projects you are working on, I thank you for having the vision to create such a great game and giving me and thousands 2+ years of incredible gaming.
Sincerely,
Paul a.k.a.
SunZU of Bloodfin
agreed. I’m pi$$ed at you Raph for steping away from SWG and what has happened since even though deep down I know it’s not your fault..
When I first joined the game (just after vehicles) it was the best thing ever, I loved it, then I saw the cracks start to appear.
The 10 min shuttle wait was cut, but, it’s while waiting for shuttles that I made alot of my friends and got into alot of pick up groups.
BF was removed, but, it’s while healing BF I met alot of my friends and got into a lot of pick up groups.
decay was removed, but, it’s while driving around looking for a replacement weapon I made alot of friends and got into pickup groups…
you get the idea
so I quit somewhere around the village and only came back to check out the NGE
3 hours later I quit again…
gotta love this NGE comment on Computer gaming world..
http://www.gotz.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=1481
Ahem.