The Serious Business of Having Fun

Did you know that October 5, 2007 was declared "Video Game Industry Day in Seattle?" To honor the occasion, along with 120 entrepreneurs, politicians, and service providers, I trekked down to Qwest Field for Enterprise Seattle's Interactive media Lunch. As my luck and lack of direction would have it, on my way there, I got lost wandering through the simultaneous, neighboring event: the World Cyber Games. Complete with black-and-silver decked cheerleaders and 1600 PC's for interactive play, Qwest's event venue was crawling with global gamers, floor-to-ceiling screens, and virtual-reality booths. So what is it about Seattle that attracted this kind of event? How is it that Western Washington (primarily the Puget Sound) support 15,000 jobs in gaming? Why did Sperling name Seattle the top gaming city in 2006?

Some of the panelists' thoughts, below:

• Jeff Pobst (CEO, Hidden Path Entertainment) argued that UWs superior educational program, he training prowess of DigiPen, and companies such as Microsoft, Real Networks, and Nintendo have made Seattle one of the top places in the country to recruit talent in art, audio, video and game programming. He suggested, however, that we view Gaming not as part of the Software industry, but the Entertainment industry-- games have to be fun to be successful(turns out this is not a requirement for functional software).
• Seattle enjoys a burgeoning "creative class" and urban attractions, and though rainy, at least it's got better traffic and cleaner air than LA, quipped Flowplay CEO Derrick Morton. As for entrepreneurs in the gaming space, Morton further suggested "Seattleites are bored out of their brains working for big companies!"

Additional take-aways:What are the success factors in gaming? What's driving growth?

• Samantha Ryan, Senior Vice President, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment: It's not about competition, it's about community.
• Morton: For FlowPlay, the name of the game is collaboration.
• Shane Kim, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Game Studios: X-Box combines competition and community. And let's remember we've got our first generation of dad's who grew up gaming....I'm not going to let my kid beat me!
• John Mechey, CEO PopCap Games: Hasn't moved into community gaming, but it's hard to argue when a gamer asks "Why am I playing a game with a unicorn? I feel stupid but I've been doing it for 12 hours."

Trend watch:

• "Serious gaming." Though casual gaming has been the largest growth area thus far, keep an eye out for this sector. Whether it's safety testing for Boeing or medical simulations, the Pacific Northwest could well become a hub in these emerging areas.