Thursday, November 10, 2011

Metatopia, Part 2

I have some more thoughts on Metatopia.

Attending as a non-primary-gamer (that's my term, it means that gaming isn't my bread-and-butter career path, passion or money maker), really gave me the ability to see holes and opportunities, places where in non-gaming contexts the void is already full. Like what you ask? Like these:

  • Marketing - Yes, I was part of a totally amazing marketing panel (led by Josh Seideman, who totally knows what he's talking about, and you really should be following him on Twitter if you're not already. And while his presentation was good, it honestly wasn't anything I haven't already done or heard about -- which is to be expected, part of my business involves marketing strategies.

    But in a gaming context, marketing seemed to be somewhat of a mythical activity, something shrouded in confusion and spoken about with a lot of "Uhhs" and "Ums".

    And here lies the opportunity.

    I make marketing easy. I mean it is easy already, but how I teach authors to market is simple, effective and in the words of one guy "surprisingly fun". So consider this my note to talk about marketing strategies across all my social networks.
  • Presentation Skills - How many great presentations did I see? At least a dozen. How many presentations could have been made great by simple tips? Bazillions. I know, it's scary and tough to stand/sit in front of a room and hold court, especially if you're talking about something that's been your creative baby for a long time and this is the first time you're bringing it out for humans to consume. Good for you for doing that. That's step 1. Step 2 is, "Kick ass with it."

    So consider this my note to the universe that I'm sneaking in some presentation tips into my next workshops.
  • Where were the ladies? Yes I met some fantastic women (Jenn, Terry and Shoshanna immediately spring to mind) And surprisingly women made up a decent percentage of the people attending, but this wasn't really lady-friendly. Now maybe that's the community, maybe that's got something to do with either the perceived or real awkwardness some people have around lady-people (I know, they have cooties, right?), but I think if the community as a whole was a little more pro-fem (not like I'm-going-to-hack-off-your-dangling-oppressive-genitals pro-fem, I mean more like "Girls-are-welcome-in-our-clubhouse"), the number of potential consumers and contributors goes up, and everyone wins.
What blew my mind is that game designers are just like writers and I could/can/did slot myself in and among them the same ways. There is somewhat of a myth that gamers are mega-nerds and entirely insular, but on the whole, I found these people to be among the nicest humans I've ever spent time with, and certainly some of the smartest.

So, to the game people reading this, so many of you have my business card. Flip it over and take a look at the back.

Find this line: Creative and Professional Solutions for Any Situation

I mean it. Much like Vanilla Ice - if you have a problem, yo, I'll solve it. (And yes, word to your mother.)

Another post shall later this afternoon.....and I'll talk about the magic that is the conversation with a writer.

5 comments:

  1. What specific behaviors did you see there that were not female-friendly? (I'm asking because I tend not to see those behaviors and I want to get better about seeing them.) From inside the community it's seemed to be a fairly friendly place, friendlier by far than others in gaming, but that's easily my male brain making assumptions it shouldn't.

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  2. It wasn't that I saw sexual assaults or anything physically aggressive, but I did notice a lot (nearly the majority) of awkward exchanges between players and women (not designers, not "named people", just the attendees/crowd) that seemed to create an atmosphere of "a girl? what's she doing here?" or "Egads! A girl! I know not what to do!" or worse "She's a girl and therefore knows less than I do." This was particularly true in one of the focus groups I was in, where a female designer was just bum-rushed by a guy who had to assert his "I've been doing this longer than you, and I'm a guy, and I'm used to getting my way" attitude and practically brought the group to a halt in order to express himself, which led to the woman feeling like she had to cow to him, rather than stand with confidence over her game and her session.

    The other major behavior was that given the lack of confidence I saw (particularly with some of the female attendees), and I think it was more just the fact that humans are somewhat socially awkward or self-conscious at times, that very little was done to disprove or dispel the negativity. Like this:

    Girl: "Uhh, yeah, I'm not sure how this is going to go."
    (Enter "named people" into the room, girl goes into panic mode)
    Player 1: I don't think X-mechanic works.
    Girl: You're right, I suck, this is awful, thank you though for pointing it out, why didn't I see it sooner etc etc (and so continues the flagellation...)

    The group as a whole, the whole convention in fact was incredibly nice and friendly, but it wasn't equally supportive. There was very clearly a hierarchy and very little was done to demonstrate a level playing field....except at the roundtables where I was quite happy to see everyone getting fair time and weight, whether they were the new guy in the corner or publisher extraordinaire.

    I saw this friendly but not proactively supportive environment and said to myself, "This is going to chase off people, starting with the minority (women) and then trickle out in the new people, both of whom are the lifeblood needed to give this convention legs." so that motivated me to push support and positivity all the further.

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  3. So, noting that I don't usually do presentations (this was really my first, and only because Vinnie needed someone to fill the slot) I certainly will be curious to hear any and all presentation tips.

    -Rob D.

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  4. Rob, for you I have two immediate tips, and then one to file away for later:

    1. Use the space in front of you - I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but you make a tremendous impression in space. (No that is not a comment on your size, I mean that you have a particularly potent speaking style and sense of authority). Use it to your advantage. I wouldn't say "be all over the 'stage' and move around, but I would say get your hands up around your chin and about half a foot out ahead of you (about where the top of the steering wheel is) and use that "box" to gesture. Combined with your natural speaking voice (pitch and cadence), everyone in the room will hang on everything you say, slight or otherwise.

    2. Roll your shoulders before you start speaking. You tended to come forward while speaking, which is usually a sign of nerves, or tiredness, neither of which you ever want to convey to an audience. However, when you were at the back of the room (as during Ken's presentation), your shoulders naturally came back and you dropped them, giving your throat and chest room to expand so that you could comfortably speak at length. Rolling your shoulders a few times before you get started should duplicate this and ease what I saw as tension. Partner this with looking more at the middle of the back row (where the door knob on a rear wall door would be), and you'll make every presentation look like you've been doing that since preschool.

    3. One to think about - Be kind to yourself. The worst critic is not the consultant who nitpicks presentations on his blog, but rather the speaker who tempers every success with self-developed lukewarm feedback "it was okay" "I did alright" because there's something internal that says, "Yes it could have gone better, and here are reasons X Y and Z about why it didn't"

    For every X Y Z there's also an A B and C about how it could have gone totally worse, but due to conditioning, most people won't acknowledge that until after the fact.

    The solution, since habituation is a bitch to overcome immediately, is to make a new habit. Don't let the first response be the critical one. (I liken this to your idea that your game-baby should not be your first publication).

    Do something, look only at the response for what it is (three people thanked you, whatever) and draw a positive conclusion about yourself (I did the task in a pinch because I was asked)...let the combined positive you add to the objective reception before you draw that "this is how I did" conclusion, and then let the negative back in. (Think of this as housebreaking a puppy of positivity. It will take time and you might stain the carpet, but it will get better.)

    It was a great presentation, your notes are way more intelligible and clear than you realize, and while I've not heard the Fred audio yet (the little box won't load for me...) I'm sure the whole package is quite good.

    You kicked ass.

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  5. I am far too much a New Englander to ever get too excited about my own performance, so I may be hosed on that. :) But super useful suggestions, thank you!

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