Dave Gilbert | 
10 27th, 2006| 
Last night I was at a panel discussion hosted by the NY chapter of the IGDA, entitled Playing the Game: Making Games in New York City. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it was an interesting discussion. Amongst the panelists were Frank DeLise of Kaos/THQ, Jason Schreiber of Powerhead Games, Frank Lantz of Area/Code, Greg Costikyan of Manifesto Games, and Ian Lynch Smith of Freeverse.
It was a varied bunch of folks, and they all brought a variety of experiences to the table. The most interesting set of discussions was “What makes New York a good place for games?” New York is known for many things, but it’s game industry is not one of them. Ian Smith lamented the fact that New York is full of such talented people, but if they want to work in games they have to leave. Many of the panelists agreed that while their studios aren’t huge, the corporate higher-ups visit their offices the most simply because they are in New York. “Everyone wants to come to New York,” Jason Schreiber said. A statement that we all can agree on.
Eric Zimmerman, founder of Gamelab and the moderator for the panel, brought up the point that since New York isn’t a mainstream place for games, it creates a great opportunities for indie developers. On a personal level, I can totally agree. I know that The Shivah would have never have gotten noticed if I lived in any other city.
The key quote of the evening, however, came from Greg Costikyan, when he uttered the immortal words: “The games industry needs New York, because the industry desperately needs an air of intellectual pretention.”
Greg definitely has a point. All other forms of media have their intellectuals. You have film intellectuals, theatre intellectuals, book intellectuals and even TV intellectuals. These people appreciate these media and raise them to levels of high art.
Gamers, by definition, have a pretty lousy reputation. Our industry needs snobs! We need cocktail parties where the guests dress up, eat caviar, and discuss games. We need people to converse and argue and debate over gameplay mechanics and storylines and try to decide What It All Means. We need people to create games that are worthy of this kind of discussion. We need games treated as not mere escapism, or as a business, but as a legitimate form of expression.
We need New York City.
