OMG Meetings

by Dan on February 5, 2010

So this is the time of year when the game industry is deep into planning mode. With a slate of games There’s a lot of cross-departmental communication going on — like, the marketing team, the PR team, the outside creative agencies and ad agencies need to know what’s up, the developers need to come in and show off what they’re working on to explain their goals…they’re huge meetings. It’s 30 people in a room, all with the same goal, but totally different jobs to do.

Since I am the ronin of Activision and not officially on anybody’s team, I am sort of therefore on everybody’s team — everybody wants me to go to these meetings and see what they’re up to, so that I can then turn around and be able to tell you that info. That’s great…but that means I’m in meeting after meeting after meeting this month. Some of these meetings are four hours long; yesterday it was two four-hour summits back to back. Mind you, I am getting great info, and I bring a laptop to every meeting. I’m brainstorming everything from developer interview questions to video segments to some contests and giveaways I can do here on the blog and podcast. Seeing how far the rabbit hole goes on the publishing and development side is fascinating, and I’ll be passing that stuff along.

But damn if it isn’t exhausting at the start.

  • http://twitter.com/histerin Dave Roy

    Since you're at these meetings so you can provide us with some of the information that comes out of them, do you participate in them as well? Do they ask your opinion on how they should market the next Call of Duty game? Or gameplay decisions on some other game you're meeting about?

    Or are you just soaking up the information?

    Just found your blog. Really miss you on OXM, but congrats on the new gig.

  • http://twitter.com/litrock Matt

    I'm surprised that you're sitting in on all these things. It seems like it'd paint you into a corner where because you know all of what's coming before it does, you can't really speculate at all about anything. I hope that's not the case. Half the fun of being into games is the dreaming about what's next.

  • http://oneofswords.com/ Dan (OneOfSwords)

    Well, it's inevitable that I will know what's coming simply because I really am within these walls. I would be a bad inside source if I was completely ignorant, you know? But I do not want to turn into the guy who knows things that cannot say anything but teases you about them — I think the industry already has guys in the press who do that and they annoy me.

  • Kaziklu_Voyvoda

    Well Matt, you see, now that he's in the know, his dreams of what comes next are years ahead of ours now. :P

  • http://oneofswords.com/ Dan (OneOfSwords)

    Depends on the meeting. Sometimes I am just there to observe and report. Other times I am actively asked “what do you think of this” or “how can we make this better” — which is great. To know that I can have a direct influence on what people are doing is fantastic, because from the media side, it's always way way way after the fact, and all you can really do is hope to give feedback that improves the sequel.

    So it depends on the meeting, the title, the team making it, where that title is in development.

  • smallberry

    Dear Dan,

    Hi! I just wanted to drop in and remind you that you too have a very important job at these meetings. Which is making sure we see a remake of Interstate 76. That responsibility lies squarely on your shoulders. I have faith.

    Sincerely

    smallberry
    Of the GamesRadar forums

  • http://oneofswords.com/ Dan (OneOfSwords)

    Secretly, it's the whole reason I'm here. So much for that secret.

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