[IGDA_indies] Re: State of the Indie

[Christopher S. Charabaruk]

This is why I keep bringing up our definition of an indie every business
meeting, too. Our term could be too strict (a five person garage team who
got a deal to have their game on Steam could be ruled out) while
traditional thinking is generally too broad (Valve does more than
self-publish).

While it'd probably make things even more complicated, though, it might be
interesting to take all this into account, by asking developers if they
believe they are independent (yes/no question) followed by their own
definition of indie or their reasoning for their decision (a nice essay
question, just like killed me in communications classes). Then, at the
report stage, we use all that information to determine a mean or median
definition, based on what everyone said.

Or, for the sake of my sanity, whose grasp is tenuous as it is, that can
wait for next year's report.

Certainly, we need to rework the definition prior to conducting the surveys
and writing the report. But how do we change the definition to let in the
former example while denying the latter?

Personally, I think that the word 'formal' has much to do with the
uncertainty around what is indie or not. Someone (probably myself) could
write an entire essay for the SIG site just on the definition alone to try
and clarify matters, but chances are it'd only make things muddier.

I think this time around, we might just be able to get away winging it, with
a few happy little disclaimers before anyone's allowed to take the surveys.
I'd like to hear your thoughts on improving the definition we use, though.

-- 
Christopher S. 'coldacid' Charabaruk <chrisc at meldstar.com>
Meldstar Entertainment -- Creation³ <http://www.meldstar.com/>


At Tue 16 May 2006 02:46:17 PM EDT, "Thomas H. Buscaglia"
<thb at gameattorney.com> said:

> This sounds like a great idea.  I hope you have the time and 
> resources to put into it because it looks to be a real time hog, 
> especially the surveys.  But they would be a great contribution.
>
> I think on thing you need to do is establish a clear delineation of 
> what an indie is for purposes of the white paper.  Although I do not 
> think you consider id and Valve to be within the ambit of this work, 
> they are for sure independent studios.  So some thought will need to 
> go into your target audience in the process.  You may want to 
> consider the casual games mail list as a possible source for 
> additional independents.
>
> Good luck and let me know if you need any help.
>
> Tom B
>
> At 01:43 PM 5/16/2006, you wrote:
>> This is something I wanted to bring up in meeting a while ago, but we never
>> got to it. State of the Indie would be a yearly report arranged by the SIG
>> showing the ups, downs, and sideways of the indie "industry". To help with
>> writing the report, there would be a couple surveys as well -- one big
>> survey for gathering gross statistics, and some stages of interviews with
>> selected (or lotteried) participants of the big survey for finer details.
>>
>> I'm already claiming this as my baby, but it'd be great for others (even
>> those not officially helping manage the SIG) to join this project so that
>> I'm not a committee of one.
>>
>> Any support?
>>
>> --
>> Christopher S. 'coldacid' Charabaruk <chrisc at meldstar.com>
>> Meldstar Entertainment -- Creation³ <http://www.meldstar.com/>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> indies mailing list
>> indies at igda.org
>> http://four.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/indies
>
>
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