IGDA Elections – Sean Kane
February 15th, 2010 by Macguffin in UncategorizedIf you’re coming to this post without having seen the lead-in, you can find that post here. It links to all the other assessments I’ve posted. You can also find my disclaimer there – I’m on the Boston IGDA chapter’s board and support the candidacy of Darius Kazemi.
UPDATE – Mr. Kane came by and answered the questions that I’d posed, answers below.
Mr. Kane is a Manhattan lawyer who handles game and intellectual property related cases and speaks at a lot of conferences on legal matters, especially as they pertain to virtual worlds.
(I tried to dig into his lawyerly record a bit, but with no luck – if anyone else is able to do that and report back, that’d be excellent.)
His stated goal in getting elected is to promote, “professionalism and growth in the industry, as well as a sense of community and information sharing among members“. In regards to the biggest problem he sees developers facing these days, he feels it is a lack of respect.
Amongst his virtues, he mentions his being a small businessman, his handling of all sorts of game industry related legal matters, and his insider status in the American Bar Association as useful in influencing its stance on various game-related items.
Questions for Mr. Kane:
Why run now?
I have been involved in the IGDA now for several years. For the first few years I was trying to learn as much as I could about the organization and how it operates. Unfortunately, this was somewhat difficult since it seems that the IGDA previously was a not a very formalized organization. From what I saw the individual chapters seemed to work almost autonomously with little input from the governing body of the organization. Recently the IGDA has begun to change the way it operates by attempting to create a more formalized structure and have its individual chapters all comply with central guidelines and mandates. Given my strong organizational skills I thought it was a great time to position myself and seek a leadership position. I feel that I can assist the IGDA as it strives to formalize the organization into a body of professionals with a central focus and mission. Moreover, my legal skills will be invaluable in assisting the organization in clearing the legal hurdles it will surely face as a centrally organized enterprise. For these and other reasons I thought that now was the right time to run for a board position with the IGDA.
Can you talk to us at all about the kinds of clients / cases you tend to work on? I’m not sure what you can and can’t say, given client confidentiality, but knowing that most of your work was for homeless indie developers or well-heeled publishers would certainly say something about your point of view.
You are correct in assuming that I cannot speak with specifics about any of my clients. That said, I can speak about the type of clients that I work with. I have clients that range from small iPhone developers, to social network game companies all the way to the creators of AAA titles. I have worked with both publishers and developers so I am aware of the issues that both face. As a lawyer I am often asked to view issues for more than one perspective and I plan to use this skill as a IGDA board members. To answer your underlying question, I am not beholden to any particular sector for my business so I can be impartial in my representation of the IGDA’s interests.
A case could be made that, while the biggest issue we face as an industry is respect, individual game developers are more often dealing with pocketbook and quality of life issues. How do you feel the IGDA is currently dealing with each of these things? What would you like to improve, and how?
I do not really feel that the IGDA is dealing with pocketbook or quality of life issues to any great extent at the moment. While a lot has been said about quality of life recently, for the reasons stated in response to your question below, the IGDA is limited in the power it has to change these things. The most the IGDA can do at this point is make suggestions on how things should be but the organization has no real authority to change things. It is really the members of the IGDA that have the power to affect change by working together to make it happen. If I were on the board I would seek to discover what the rank and file IGDA member’s biggest concerns are and work to find ways to address them.
Can you please talk about the big issues the IGDA itself faces as an organization right now? What do you think is the most pressing one, and how would you work to resolve it?
I feel that as an organization the IGDA’s biggest issues is to decide what it wants to be when it grows up. The IGDA can merely be a resource for its members providing industry information and a place for members to meet. Or it can also seek to be the liaison between the development community and the public at large. The large membership base of the IGDA potentially puts it in the position to be the speaking arm of the development community. The IGDA can demonstrate to the public at large what development is and how it affects everyone’s lives in some form or another. If the IGDA wishes to address this issue it must be organized and lobby for its members concerns. This may include working with such organizations like the ESA and the EMA to advance the industry as a whole. While we have our own unique concerns that those other organizations do not share it does not mean that we should not be speaking with them on issues we all do share.
What do you think the IGDA’s role in the industry-wide Quality of Life discussions should be?
Quality of Life is one of the most important issues that face the membership of the IGDA, but it is also one of the most difficult to resolve. As the membership knows whether you are creating iPhone games, facebook games or AAA console titles you are always under a deadline to finish. In fact many of the publisher contracts contain both a carrot and a stick for developers. They may provide a completion bonus, as well as having a penalty for late delivery. These factors put the publishers and developers in a difficult position. If the IGDA is to work to ensure that its members have a reasonable quality of life it must be empowered by the members themselves. Of itself the IGDA does not have any real power to change the way the industry behaves. If it is to really have some power to affect change in the industry it must have the support of its large member base to engage in a form of collective bargaining with publishers and developers. Moreover, the IGDA could put out quality of life best practices and lobby publishers and developers to accept them and self police the industry. That said, if the IGDA’s base does not care enough to participate in ensuring that their own quality of life issues are addressed the governing body of the organization will be hamstrung to act by itself.
Do you think the IGDA’s dependence on studio sponsorships for money is a bad thing? If yes, what will you do to begin changing this? If no, why not?
Studio sponsorship can be a neutral thing depending on what the studios expect in return. If studios are expecting that the IGDA should scrap any guidelines on how developers should be treated then that is obviously a bad thing. However, if the studios are funding the IGDA because they believe in the industry and want the IGDA to work to make the industry as great as it can be then it is not a bad thing. Since I do not have any information about what every sponsoring studio wants from the IGDA I can not fully respond to your question. That said, there are other ways to fund the IGDA as an organization. The IGDA could look to their members to pay more in annual dues. The IGDA could plan more events to raise funds and seek out available grants. I would really need to know the full financial position of the IGDA to suggest other options.
I hope the foregoing answers your questions.
Tags: igda