EA Play Forum 2007

I went down today to EA Play 2007 at SIM HQ campus. Reason for doing so? I had received the email info from SIM that EA will be hosting their EA Play event at SIM this year since it's inception last year.

Since I was still in NS last year I decided to make the trip today to find out if the people I had worked with before were still in EA. Nice to note, Christopher is still as sharp as ever and a surprising face from the past appeared. Leong from Khabal is now working for EA as well. It was a really pleasant surprise to see another familiar face in the EA crowd.

There was mention that there would be a forum today with regards to the industry pioneers of singapore and it was too hard to resist attending. To most, I suppose the whole process of the back end to the front end of the games industry would be a rather dry subject. But I kind of digress. It's a very interesting business process that has a unique flavor that isn't for the impatient and faint of heart.

If you want the whole Jist of things, perhaps I could do a minor summary of the proceedings from memory. The whole forum had speakers from 4 organizations. Game Axis, Electronic Arts, MDA and the University of Wollongong Australia in that order. Game Axis introduced the games industry and it's rate of growth. The impacts we have seen so far since games have entered the market here in Singapore.

After that EA general manager Christopher took over and went on about EA's duties as a publisher cum distributor. Covering business basics like the work processes all along the supply chain which most brick and mortar businesses have to go through today. And he also touched upon the importance and perhaps entertainment requirement of "Hype" required for all games. Thus the uniqueness of the Asian market also inflicts a rather difficult challenge to market the games successfully.

After that game MDA speaker Jason who talked about the Singapore government's stance on the exploding gaming industry here in Singapore. While he never said this officially in the forums, he did mention to me after the forums that the MDA does take a more non-intrusive stance the MDA has on the effects of gaming upon the society at the moment. He also mentioned censorship possibilities and it would allow for greater genres of games being brought in under a more Singaporean rating system. He also mentioned of several gaming grants that the government is trying to push to the aspiring developers of singapore. You can access these information by emailing the guys at MDA, catch is you must go find out the email address at the MDA website yourself.

The last speaker was Associate Professor Willy from the University of Wollongong Australia. He talks about the academic stance his university has taken to nurture a new generation of game programmers and designers. And the need to know not just about the new technology that is up and coming specifically for gaming but about the positive impact of gaming upon the way the university is educating its students.

There was a constant Q & A from the floor to the speakers. With yours truly having some queries on some of the more interesting issues of gaming. I voiced a particularly hard question about the perpetual chicken or egg issue by comparing which comes first and what is the stance that EA tries to take on this issue? A market ready for a solid game (product) that forces a good game (product)? Or a solid game (product) that creates a market all by itself.

Christopher had a good come back by saying that EA Asia Pacific understand the need for hype to have a successful launch of a good game but also noted that over hyping a mediocre game is also a sure recipe for disaster. Throughout this article, I have tried my best NOT to use the exact words that the speakers had said but rather, I expressed it in a shorter and more impactful manner.

Well, my efforts on the floor weren't completely unnoticed too however. And since this is a personal blog, I'd just say I've opened a few more doors of possibility for my future in gaming media here in Singapore. Looks like things are really starting to pick up the pace from my period of soul searching. Good things will eventually come to the patient. Alauz Out!

Idiots of today, Geniuses of tomorrow