Today’s session went pretty well. I didn’t stutter uncontrollably, pass out, or embarrass myself in any other highly-visible manner. Oh, and the discussion was nice, too. Some of my favorite quotes:
“The people who have a $600 graphics card know how Bittorent works.” – Mike Capps, on PC games and piracy
“EA doesn’t understand that Kellogg is our competition.” – Rich Hilleman, on the broader consumer market
There was also a great moment, which I unfortunately could not capture in writing, during which we discussed the potential benefits of the PC as a forum for adult-only (or otherwise “risky”) game content, as compared to “family-friendly” consoles. Mike Capps inspired the discussion by noting that adult mods can’t thrive on the console. Soren Johnson shared a story about the portrayal of religion in Civilization, and how political sensitivities around that could have been even sharper on the console. And Rich Hilleman noted that online poker is already a massive success on the PC — in other words, adult-centric PC gaming is already a big market — and also that pornography typically goes hand in hand with advances in media technology. Basically, my panelists were telling the audience to consider an, errrrrrr, “hardcore” strategy for the PC game market. 😉
