Gamers Hideout Gears of War Lan Party and other miscellaneous stuff...


ahhh.. I like the smell of napalm in the morning.... huhhaaahh!

Gears of War. Three words that bring on the next-gen craziness. Pure Bliss and utter gratification.

Tough road ahead... get off if you want to.

Recently I tried asking some hard questions in the IGDA Forums specifically within the Malaysian area. The question asked on where the talent has gone from Malaysia - specifically 3D animators --- good ones... I managed to get some good answers and also some weird individuals really not understanding the question asked. But I did get this....

Allan Simonsen the IGDA Coordinator from Singapore had to say this:

IGDA is about trying to work together to promote game development. It's not a zero-sum game; Malaysia's Loss is not Singapore's Gain... quite the opposite. Our best bet for pushing the entire SE Asian game development scene forward is to work together, find opportunities, and collaborate.Some of the malaysian developers, like Brett Bibby, has been doing this for longer than anyone in Singapore. Gamebrains is the only SE Asian company that's successfully published content on console and high-end handheld platforms. While Singapore's games industry is currently doing well, you don't have to go more than 2 years back in time to remember it lying with a broken back.

MistaMan; for ideas on getting skilled people into the games industry:-

• Find the opportunities (bringing in companies that do interesting projects)
• Remove obstacles (silliness like having to relocate to CyberJaya does not help game development companies, and it makes it a lot harder to recruit)
• Remove barriers to entry (make it easier to hire from abroad, look at ways of making visa-acquisition easier)
• Send Students overseas (do merit-based higher-education with bonding)
• Send Staff overseas (do things similar to TAP, where the government pays 50% of overseas training costs for fresh employees working in an MNC, in return for a bond to work in Singapore)
• Hire an industry liason (Someone like Hilmy, that can help coordinate schools, incomming companies, government incentives, etc. Perhaps especially important to have someone outside the regular government structure that can help companies navigate the different government roadblocks and incentives)
• Promote a student/grassroot community ( the people attracted to this will be the leaders of the next generation. An IGDA student chapter may be the way to go)
• Look at how you can promote part-time lecturers (people from the industry have the right skillset, but have no intention of going full-time into a staid academic environment. Look at how you can promote more part-time lecturers from the industry teaching the high-end classes on modelling for Game Development, Graphics Programming, etc).
• Sponsor industry trips (sponsor in full or in part for Malaysian developers and high-powered students to go to industry events like GDC or AGDS . Let them get experience in what the industry outside of malaysia is doing, and build the contact network that will help them be succesfull.).
• Look at ways of making local startups more successfull (MNCs are great, but sooner or later they'll usually leave to the next low-cost country with government incentives. How can you nurish startups; especially those created by the experienced ex-MNC developers? Look at content development grants, low/zero cost incubators with soft-services, advisory boards, business coaching sessions, pre-paid software and hardware licenses, handheld devkits, etc)
• Stop making large bets on the usual suspects (this is a bit controversial, but as a rule a lot of SE Asian grant money's gone out to the people strong connections and existing experience in siphoning off the government. Instead of doing 2-3 RM50M bets on large MNC/GLC companies, look at doing 100 RM1.5M bets on small startups, and find other ways to counterbalance their weaknesses in business and organization)

There's probably a couple of more ideas, but that's a good start
Allan

Interesting points - there is a tough perception problem about doing business in Malaysia. It does not help when it is perpetuated almost daily with the problems we have. But, I am not too sure that people within Malaysia are really the villains here - I think most are victims.

External powers can influence within....

First Creative Commons Board Meeting

First Creative Commons Board Meeting
Originally uploaded by mistaman.

We've started the ball rolling on Creative Commons Malaysia and the whole community building aspect. We launched the program earlier this year - but this is actually the core of the program. The industry pushing the project forward with the community driving the program.
We just had the first meeting of the Creative Commons Board which included many individuals from the creative industry. This meeting sought to inform the industry of what Creative Commons as a creative community program has to offer.
Within this meeting, we talked about the issues that revolves around creative works and how they are protected via copyright and how they can be protected in the future via creative commons. CC is the little brother of Big C - the value add - standing on top of Big C (copyright) to help little guys be on top! :)

Check out the website at : http://creativecommons.org

Metal Gear Solid 4 : E3 Edition

If there is really anything to look forward to with the PS3, it would be the 4!
Hideo Kojima's baby - Metal Gear Solid 4.
The epitomy of japanese shiatsu massaging chair chic coolness dashed with a bit of james bond spliced in it - and make sure to pepper it with a bit of apocalypse now salt.
E3 - I missed it again this year - due to my lack of a travelable passport, but it's all good. With the Internet (not bandwidth withholding) I can download all the videos I want. Just that I can't experience the booth babes..... ergh.
MGS4 and PS3 - the biggest show at E3! I am flabbergasted at both the technology and creativity the folks at sony and kojima productions have put into their cash-cow. It may be a cash motivated project - but I can tell you this much. If we ever had an ounce of their passion in what we do, I think Malaysians can take on the world. This is evident in the work that has been presented - they don't even give you a chance to say.. hmm maybe if they did it this way it would have been better. Its drool induction to the max! Everything! the minute details - the powerhouse technology. EVERYTHING!

There will be 2 things we hope that will spur the industry here: I am banking on these 2 -
1. Talent
2. Funding

Which will lead to enough projects to keep the industry sustainable. Let's hope the puzzle falls into place - the future can be ours if we want to change it.

other than that --- enjoy the show:

Learn More about Creative Commons | Creative Commons

What is Creative Commons?
simply put ~
"Creative Commons defines the spectrum of possibilities between full copyright — all rights reserved — and the public domain — no rights reserved. Our licenses help you keep your copyright while inviting certain uses of your work — a "some rights reserved" copyright."

In other words, how best to share your creative works on the net with the option to protect it the way you want it and still allow others to use, abuse and work on top of it.

I got into the whole CC movement last year (and still reeling from the effects) when Ng Alina came to talk to me after she returned from STANFORD as Dr. Ng Alina! She was did her PhD thesis with Professor Lawrence Lessig ( the main man evangelising the CC movement). I heard about CC but I did not know much. But, then, why not? Why not help Alina?

Hey, i'm creative. And I guess you are too. CC helps both of us share our creativity without worrying how people use our works for their own convenience.

But I guess the hardest task for me is to ensure that we as malaysians could contribute to CC by putting our works licensed on the net with the CC licenses. This will be the biggest hurdle and hopefully we can get all the support we can. This is why we have created the CC Board helmed by a few notable creative heads. This will hopefully spur the support we need to move the project forward.

Will report more on this later... for now.. go check out the URL attached.

Learn More about Creative Commons | Creative Commons

IP Creators Challenge: MSC Animation Pitch 2006

Check it out guys, time to get your ideas out in the open. Or as they say - Stand up and be Counted! This is your chance to prove that you got what it takes and your ideas will stand the test of the international market...

From the Website:
The Creative Multimedia Department of Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) is organizing an animation pitching competition, under the MSC Creative Multimedia Content Initiative (M-CMCI). In this competition, companies or individuals will have to pitch their ideas or pre-production of their animated characters, the story and eventual background information of the show.

OBJECTIVE:

•	To use this as a content creation platform and to create more quality content that can be showcased or marketed globally.
•	The competition will be an avenue to encourage and nurture new talents in turning their Ideas into reality.
•	To attract animation content developers to come out with greater ideas and stories

FIVE winners will be awarded a RM50,000 grant each, to support their trailer or pilot episode. The competition will be opened from 26 April 2006 until 14 June 2006.

|| Creative Multimedia Cluster + MDC ||

Why can't we ask the right questions?

Question No.1: What is the Saladin project?
Question No.2: What is the CAD-C?
Question No.3: What is the CMD?
Question No.4: What is MDeC's Mandate?
Question No.5: What is the cost of this fiasco?
Question No.6: What is the true cost of the project?

The answers can be found everywhere - if we really look for it. It is through assumptions that we make the mother of all f-ups.
Could someone answer these questions for me? I am lost here.

Wow, its been quite a long time since I wrote last. Been a lots busy since early in the year. The MDC oopss - sorry MDeC has been going through some changes lately. We've got a new CEO! Yes, Datuk Mohamed Arif Nun has left the house and enter - Mr. Badlisham Ghazali, CEO MDeC. Transitions been good - lately - been going allright for us in the CMD. Alot of work - but its a positive outcome for us.

Recently we launched the MSC Creative Multimedia Content Initiative (also known as M-CMCI), a program to push forward the creative multimedia content industry in Malaysia. Hope the country steps up and moves forward! The numbers are sexy - The Media Entertainment Market is US644 Billion Worldwide (PWC). How can we make Malaysia sexy enough for the world market?

Broad strategies are being put in place to create the necessary momentum for us to succeed - its very much a long term plan - we need all the inner strength we can get. These strategies address several areas like IP Creation, Funding initiatives, Ensuring growth and sustainabilities of companies, even shared infrastructure. When we get down to specifics - this is where I have sleepless nights - there's so much to do.

We should be announcing a program soon under this initiative - called the IP Creator Challenge - Time to Stand up and Be Counted Malaysians. Think it should be sometime late next week. My biggest fear is that we don't have the ideas we are so proud of telling people. When push comes to shove - when you're asked to put your thoughts on paper - you back down and disappear into the crowd. I hope my fear will go away....