What Happened at GAME_JAM?

[Shamus Young]

What Happened at GAME_JAM?

Despite the potential for a lot of bad press, the GAME_Jam debacle seems to have closed out with a sufficiently happy ending.

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[TiberiusEsuriens]

While GAME_JAM ended up being a pretty massive failure, there is hope! Last year Penny Arcade funded their own geek reality show searching for the next big webcomic artist, Strip Search.

It has the standard premise of people living in one house, with cameras listening in on conversations, but it showcased the talent of individual artists and the respect they give each others' craft. Better yet, it was hosted and camera'd by the much beloved LoadingReadyRun. If they want to give a GAME_JAM show a second try, someone should hook these guys up.

For those who haven't heard of it before or are too lazy to click a link, here's the first episode!

<youtube=zUScIuxZE90>

 

[Legion]

I had never head of GAME_Jam before this, but it was a very interesting article. I am glad to see the developers didn't fall for such low tactics, because given the tension that is had whenever sexism is mentioned in gaming, it would have been the latest controversy.

It's kind of saddening to see how desperate people are that they'd actively try and create it for the sake of publicity though. I am not keen on reality television in general for many of the reasons that you gave, so to see people try and do the same thing with gaming by stirring up unnecessary controversy is extremely irritating.

Although this is the sad state of things when it comes to modern media. It's all about getting the viewers/clicks at whatever the cost.

 

[Splitzi]

After reading one of the articles you mentioned, I'm kind of disappointed in this article. Half of it was your take on standard reality t.v. and the other page just skimmed the surface of ONE of the mistakes Game_Jam made. I guess that I was just expecting more from you based on how great your articles usually are.

OT: So much egg on Maker/Disney's face after this. First they can't even buy mediocre equipment for the Jam and then they try to shove Pepsi products down everyone's face. An all-around failure.

 

[SilverStuddedSquirre]

I had never head of GAME_Jam before this, but it was a very interesting article. I am glad to see the developers didn't fall for such low tactics, because given the tension that is had whenever sexism is mentioned in gaming, it would have been the latest controversy.

It's kind of saddening to see how desperate people are that they'd actively try and create it for the sake of publicity though. I am not keen on reality television in general for many of the reasons that you gave, so to see people try and do the same thing with gaming by stirring up unnecessary controversy is extremely irritating.

Although this is the sad state of things when it comes to modern media. It's all about getting the viewers/clicks at whatever the cost.

TotalBiscuit and the entire cast of the Co-Optional Podcast were asked to Host the Project and also have a lot of interesting things to say about the whole thing, and the absolutely DISGUSTING level of reality TV horse-shit involved.

Great read Shamus.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NH5fgcrQsU8&list=PLFE010B0EEA9E5F06

 

[rofltehcat]

I really dislike "reality" TV stuff like that and it is one of the reasons I don't watch TV because most channels seem to be plastered with that BS. I watched a few parts of Stripsearch but I still found it to be loaded with unnecessary crap. It wasn't nearly as bad as "normal" shows like this but it could have been so much more.
So me being against this kind of show I'm probably a bit biased on this, but who the hell thought giving the show the chosen format was a good idea? (except that Matti of course, who will now probably not have many more jobs)

Seriously, I'd expect the overlap between the "gamer" demographic and whatever demographic watches those shows to be rather small.
I read most of the articles about this when the whole thing happened and even the Polaris people on the Cooptional Podcast talked about this. Apparently it just got so bloated that it got out of control. But still, the format must have been planned that way, I doubt they really improvised the whole thing and let that one guy do what he wanted.

I actually find the thought of this show being aimed at gamers kind of insulting. It just shows how little the corporate sponsors and others ruining a once good idea actually understand the demographic they were aiming at (draw parallels from yesterday's Jimquisition).

 

[Grimh]

I highly recommend for everyone to at least read Jared Rosen's article.
It's a bit long but it paints a pretty good picture of the whole mess.

Anyway, I think read somewhere that some of the developers are looking into doing their own game jam thing, so at least something good might come out of this.

Also what is a Dew Pack?

 

[Uratoh]

I highly recommend for everyone to at least read Jared Rosen's article.
It's a bit long but it paints a pretty good picture of the whole mess.

Also what is a Dew Pack?

I'll make you a LMGTFY link on dew packs if you'll tell me where to find Jared's article.

 

[Grimh]

-snip

It was the first one Shamus linked, I'm just telling people they really should read it because it's pretty good.

But here it is http://indiestatik.com/2014/03/31/most-expensive-game-jam/

 

[Pyrian]

Lesson: Do not attempt to game game designers.

 

[Aardvaarkman]

Mythbusters isn't a reality show. I'm not sure why the author decided to shoehorn it into the category. It's a scripted show about experiments and blowing stuff up.

Does the author also call documentaries "reality shows"?

 

[lacktheknack]

Not gonna lie, had I have been asked "the question", I would have promptly asked "Depends, have you stopped beating your wife yet?"

Yeah, I know he mentioned that in the article, but hey, it's the go-to example of this kind of question for a reason.

Anyways, excellent article. I was also impressed at how consistent and stonewall the teams were. It's a shame that GAME_JAM fell through, but hey... let that be a lesson.

 

[grey_space]

Read Jared's article as well Zoe's and a few of the others. Very interesting stuff.

It beggars belief that such level of mismanagement could occur. It seems that people in the first production crew knew that Matti would not get on with the developers but let him go ahead and fuck things up and bully them anyway.

Fair play to the four who refused to continue.

 

[Uratoh]

It was the first one Shamus linked, I'm just telling people they really should read it because it's pretty good.

But here it is http://indiestatik.com/2014/03/31/most-expensive-game-jam/

Clearly, I am blind.

As promised: http://bit.ly/Rn3Rrh

 

[Reyold]

Good on the devs for choosing integrity over... whatever crap they might have gotten had they gone through with it.

 

[Callate]

I once stated that reality shows would make us nostalgic for the era of soap operas, where the drama and backstabbing was entirely faked and scripted. (And the "arch-enemies" probably carpooled home...)

I'm glad the developers managed to hold out against the show's producers, but as for the people who tried to turn creative experts in their fields into stressed-out drama bait... Not getting the show they hoped for doesn't seem like enough. I want the cameras on them and the sickening thing they tried to do until they promise never to try it again or get shamed out of the industry.

If you have twenty-four hour access to interesting people for a long period of time and can't create something interesting out of the footage without dirty tricks, you're a hack. Hell, works like the comic American Splendor suggest that "regular, everyday folks"- whatever that might mean- tend to have interesting stories of their own.

Reality television needs to die.

 

[Avaholic03]

Mythbusters isn't a reality show. I'm not sure why the author decided to shoehorn it into the category. It's a scripted show about experiments and blowing stuff up.

Does the author also call documentaries "reality shows"?

Yeah, that seemed like a really strange example to even bring up. Mythbusters may be "loosely scripted", but it's still scripted. It's just edited in a way that makes it less exploitative of drama and mistakes among the cast, which I guess is what the real point was in differentiating it from bad reality TV. But it's still comparing apples to oranges.

 

[Veylon]

Mythbusters isn't a reality show. I'm not sure why the author decided to shoehorn it into the category. It's a scripted show about experiments and blowing stuff up.

Does the author also call documentaries "reality shows"?

Yeah, that seemed like a really strange example to even bring up. Mythbusters may be "loosely scripted", but it's still scripted. It's just edited in a way that makes it less exploitative of drama and mistakes among the cast, which I guess is what the real point was in differentiating it from bad reality TV. But it's still comparing apples to oranges.

It's certainly odd to describe it as "reality TV". But at least it contains reality. The cast do stuff and learn stuff and sees what happens. They don't know ahead of time which myths will be busted or not. There's capacity for physics, chemistry, and other components of reality to shred the expected outcome.

But yeah, documentary would be a better term.

 

[rasputin0009]

How does anybody working in a marketing occupation forget the whole target audience thing? That Matti guy was in the wrong studio. Gamers want to see games, and if they're interested, how they're made. Not how there might be drama in a creative environment. Good thing some of those contracts weren't signed so at least a couple of the developers can speak up about their experience.

 

[2xDouble]

I agree completely, Seamus, except on one small point. It wasn't "the organizers" who created the fake tv-show tension, it was one person: Matti Lesham, a "brand consultant" who appointed himself Director. While it is true the reps from Polaris likely could have prevented the damage, they couldn't have had the foresight to know what the "secondary" production crew was up to, nor could they have anticipated his being... well, that.

...unless they had seen any movie about struggling artists ever, each inevitably having the same moral: "never, ever let 'creative consultants' have creative control", but I digress...

Maker/Polaris hired people to help them film and organize production. What they got was a usurper and saboteur, a man in charge who is only good at being in charge, and who didn't understand the project nor the product. They don't deserve to be off the hook, to be sure, but I believe they do deserve a bit more leniency.