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Dispatches from GDC 2024 Day 2 - Part 2

The second talk of GDC day 2 was

Session 5: Balancing the Scales: Enabling Player Safety Without Compromising Privacy

This was maybe the first talk where I felt like, well, have you seen that frame from the Simpsons where Homer is seated at a crowded lesbian bar? Sometimes you just find yourself outside your area and in someone else's area. This talk was facilitated by several attorneys and legal specialists working in games. My legal experience begins and ends at a dozen episodes of This American Life with Ira Glass.

"I wonder if these attorneys have heard "The Karate Yidd" segment"

It's a good talk if you want to learn how the sausage gets legislated. Before a game goes to market you have to account for how different state apparatuses will compel a game to collect, or not collect, user data. One of the speakers says their company, k-ID, has over 200 different entries in their database for policies in different political regions.

Shocking no one, the so called "United States" legislation "COPPA" is outdated enough that it "stops us from protecting kids", by Mike Pappas' estimation.

The last thing that caught my attention, that opened my eyes to how wide the world is, was Germany's policy regarding face scans. The speakers explained that in some regions it's policy to collect users facial scans as a way of authenticating an account. Despite my best efforts I am still a paranoid, suspicious US citizen; And I balked at the idea of my face being surrendered to a server. Yet there they are! Perfectly normal routine an ocean away.

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Dispatches from GDC 2024 Day 2 - Part 1

I attended two talks on day 2. That's why they call it "2-talks Twuesday". The first talk was

Session 4: Building Safe and Pro-Social Game Spaces

The panelists regret to inform you that the gamers are indeed bad. It's not just that people are harassing each other online, it's how they're harassing each other. Kaila Jarvis has an example regarding usernames. Usernames are a common avenue for people to broadcast something vile. Solution? Generate usernames on behalf of the player, let's say by combining two random words. New problem, two random words can inadvertently be just as nasty. Giving an example is left as an exercise for you, dear reader.

Part of the issue seems to be the way identity informs the way we're obligated to behave in game spaces. Daniel Cook has an example from blob.io where national flags were introduced as a texture for players. Players spewed bile-hot hate at each other across political borders in a game about bigger blobs eating little'r blobs.

There's no one solution for this stuff. Joel Silk from Trust and Safety at Roblox cautioned the room against looking for a Silver Bullet. Every game is an ongoing study in how to prevent people from being the worst version of themselves.

Creating game spaces where people are motivated to be their best selves is the other side of the coin, and it's just as challenging. You can reward players for helping each other, give them a material reward. Then the problem emerges of people seeking out other players not for the intrinsic reward of helping another person, but for the sweet loot. Shayan Sanyal points to Death Stranding's bridges as a good example of a social space where players can benefit each other without using each other as a tool.

The point that stuck with me the most was Daniel Cook's aphorism "Humans learn values at human rates". Even an immaculate game with an infinitely beautiful code of conduct would still bow to people's capacity to trust one another. Trust is like a delicate plant, it grows slow and breaks easy, no way around it.

For the Q&A session at the end I pluck up enough courage to ask about how we can de-couple players from toxic expectations. I give the example of how hockey players seem obligated to fight each other at some point, whereas it's almost unheard of for players to fight each other in say, professional basketball.

It's a great question by one panelist's appraisals, but it's missing the point. Joel Silk calls the premise the "tail wagging the dog". As developers we create these spaces that players inhabit. We can change the social space as much as we want, but that won't change a player who has their heart set on a path towards hurt. I'm reminded of a legendary line from the film Chinatown (1974),

"Forget it Jake, it's Rainbow Six Siege"

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Arriving 5 minutes early to a speaker session because you're a good noodle. Seriously there are some talks at GDC where you can't be early enough.

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Dispatches from GDC 2024 Day 1

Oh boy! Baby's first GDC! A short hike through beautiful San Francisco and I'm there, one of the greatest gatherings of designers, developers, engineers, and business experts in the games industry this side of the Pacific Ocean. I'm among my people, the next chapter of my professional life is about to begin.

Wait, no. This is still Yerba Buena Gardens and market center. I go out to the sky bridge and look out to my right, I can see the banners on the posts and people moving but where's ...?

Oh

That's Moscone* Center, in the opposite direction I was looking. It's a huge building, and that's just the South Hall. After collecting my badge (thank you to Valencia, who was working the booth) I am compelled to wander. I arrived too late in the morning to attend the 9:30AM sessions, I'm stuck in conference limbo until I can figure out where I want to be and when I want to be there. This must be why people plan their schedules out ahead of time.

Fast forward to 2:40PM and I'm finally attending my first session of my first GDC, "The Strange Within The Familiar How Once Human Designed Its Supernatural Open World" w/ presenter Peng "Victoria" Sun, here on behalf of Netease Games and Starry Studio. Once Human is an open world shooter, they're planning for a Q3 2024 release. Seems kind of strange to have a presentation on a game that doesn't have a release date yet, but hey: what do I know? Peng Sun's thesis is combining a mundane object with a supernatural quality is a good formula for producing content. Once Human originally had zombies as an entry level critter for players to take shots at, which Peng concedes is underwhelming. But give that zombie a theater spotlight for a head and suddenly we have the watcher. The monsters are really lovely, there's an undead plane that flaps its wings like a bird, there's a haunted bus that walks on big, ghoulish arms. I can't help but feel like this was an extended advertisement for the game, but who can blame them. Everybody's gotta make a buck.

Okay next talk, "Digital Thriving in a Post-Pandemic World: A Pro-Social Blueprint"; moderator Matt Lee, panelists Charly Harbord, PhD; Elizabeth Kilmer, PhD; Tim Nixon, not a PhD but I don't hold that against you Tim; Attila Szantner, who I'm pretty sure has a doctorate; and Kimberly Voll, who is also a Dr.. I wonder if they offer college credit for attending this session. Digital thriving is an important idea, facilitating virtual spaces where people can be their full, authentic selves. Dr. Kilmer points out this perspective on games as virtual habitats is great because instead of a bare minimum (well no one got death threats on our server this week so I call that a win!) it's a most positive outcome approach** to developing social games. What if we designed worlds that could help people be there best selves?

It's a great panel of very smart people, but eventually time is up. After an hour of talking about ways to make your game space a welcoming environment for everyone it's time for the post-talk off site. And what better social space than Tequila Mockingbird, a local bar.

I walk out of South Hall for the last time that day, torn between whether to go get drunk with GDC or head back to the hotel. The sun is going down, it's getting chilly, and I didn't pack a jacket. I do a web search for "flip a coin" and let google tell whether I should "Heads" back to the hotel or listen to more "Tails" at a tequila bar. The website tells me it's heads, so I start making the trek homeward. I don't really want to be out after dark.

Footnotes (feetnotes? anyway)

1 The "e" at the end is phonetic, you say it aloud

2 "Most positive outcome approach" is my phrasing, not Dr. Kilmer's. I think she put it much more eloquently.

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Dispatches from GDC 2024 Day 0

It's my first time attending GDC. I've often heard about it, seen some of the all time great lectures by some wonderful designers (Mark Rosewater's "20 things I learned in 20 years of Magic" is so good you could recommend it to people who don't even play games), but I never really felt I was Enough of a proper game designer to attend. But that black dog of a thought had been living in my head too long, I had to put it down. This dispatch is from March 18th, "Day Zero", the Sunday before GDC even started. Getting here was a domestic adventure all on its own. I know this is a game design blog; But I need to take a moment to acknowledge the incredible human chain that helped me arrive here. It is a great conveyance. Conveyance is the captain and crew of one, and then two, and then three airplanes; the stewardess cheerfully explaining to a miserable crying child that taking a sip of water will help the pain in their ears. The laborer on the tarmac with the glowing wands they casually toss onto a cart, two pieces of peculiar fruit in a rolling cart.

This great conveyance guides me out of San Francisco International Airport. I had been up all night, sleeping briefly in airplane seats, I was a sober drunk. I wandered out onto a narrow strip of concrete, dutifully following the signs that proposed a taxi ride. I was both on an urgent quest and utterly rudderless in a sea of blacktop. Then two people in orange and reflective safety vests appear. One of them gives maybe a single word into a walkie-talkie, and then a nice man in a blue cab helps me put my 42lb suitcase into the trunk. I'm saved from myself in less than a minute.

Conveyance is the blue taxi cab hurtling through the night towards the correct address, which I had incorrectly memorized as Port Street, which is not right but we got that taken care of at the start of the ride. We're mostly silent until we get into San Francisco proper and there's a near miss. A car honks as a person steps into the crosswalk without the lights in their favor. The man driving the cab explains that drivers have to be careful, that people do this sometimes. If drivers are not from here, people could get hurt stepping out into the street. If drivers do not know to slow down, to look for itinerant bodies in the roadway. We begin to see the population of San Francisco that are homeless, with all their belongings on their backs; Urban cowboys with skateboards instead of horses. I explain my history of working in a homeless shelter, seeing their plight up close. Lots of people who are homeless are also mentally ill, they have different agendas then most folks. They're obligated by their psychosis to cross the road, lights be damned. We don't pray on it, but the driver and I offer our thoughts to each other. I like to think we were of the same mind on this, the need to help others, even if they step in front of our speeding car. The man clasps his hands together in front of him in a gesture of thanks, and we're no longer in each other's lives. The doors to the hotel open on their own. Beckoned in, I enter my home for the next week.

Although it's Day 0, GDC has already arrived. The person working the front desk welcomes me to GDC on behalf of Red Bull the company by setting a red bull, the beverage, on the counter; Inserting a little paper tag under the pull tab. There's a courtesy sign pointing GDC to a private event already underway down in the bar, I don't think I'm invited. I tuck the energy drink into my back pocket and make for my room.

And that's how I got to GDC 2024. Although it was machines that did the overwhelming amount of sheer work, I can't help but feel that it was humanity all along the way. Like a rock star crowd surfing, I feel held aloft by countless open palms and stiffened arms. It was a tremendous privilege, to be so helped by so many. I hope this piece of writing can serve as a kind of "thank you" to everyone who made my Day 0 possible. I tipped well where I could, but that isn't enough. They deserve so much, my great conveyors. I wish them every happiness.

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You Know What Really Makes Helldivers 2's Satire Work?

The scene setting for the game insists to players that they will be defending democracy, that most hallowed of government institutions. But once you complete basic training, don The Cape, and report to your super destroyer (in my case the Distributor of Audacity), you'll see very little if any democracy beyond the Sol System.

Take mission selection as a first example. You and up to three other helldivers will deploy to alien worlds to complete your mission(s), but no one gets a say in what world you'll be liberating today, exactly. The host of your destroyer group has the first and last word on where you're dropping. There's no formal system or mechanic by which players can change their destination. Although players can make friendly suggestions about where to land once you're locked in ("how about here?") it's ultimately up to your host which quadrant will be blessed by that first charge of hellpods.

A case could be made that debate, an important component of many democratic institutions, is one system Helldivers 2 offers. However this requires you to be mic'd up, or use the keyboard for those so inclined. If you're not playing with friends you may need to appeal your position to strangers on the internet, whom you barely know and will almost certainly never see again. Ships passing in the night, as they say. Except these ships carry 500kg high explosive orbital bombardments.

Speaking of orbital bombardment, let's go to our helldivers in the field. Having just arrived on the planet's surface, you may find that the mission has quickly gone from a simple Search and Destroy to an unmitigated fracas of bombing runs and bazookas. I'm not a political scientist, but I think that an important component of democracy is the ability to censor, veto, or block certain policies from being put to a vote. Debating someone's humanity, for example. There's no way to turn off the mayhem your teammates are calling to the field.

In the wacky worlds of Helldivers 2, everything is permitted. If you were going to reverse engineer a design document for Helldivers 2, you might say that a core pillar of gameplay is that pretty much "Everything goes". All stratagems, all weapons, all upgrades, all boosters, are available to all players at all times. The game certainly gives itself permission to modify those stratagems, absolutely, but will never take them away from the player. It's truly, if anything, a Libertarian paradise. Where you can set whoever you want on fire, as long as you have the napalm for it. In Helldivers 2, you'll be defending a LOT of democracy. Just don't expect to participate in it.