[GenCon "Untitled"] Outsider Reaction

[marknau]

Hey there! I'm the ignorant boothgoer who slammed Untitled's presence at the Forge booth at GenCon '06. I know that many aspects of this topic have been hashed out and closed in another thread. I'm starting this one for the sole purpose of giving anyone who cares some insight into how one particular "outsider's" experience with encountering that game went, and how I think it fit into my overall impression of the booth. That's the narrow focus of this thread.

If anyone wants to try to see the game and the booth through my eyes, I'd like to convey that. I know that in my own game-design job, getting that external viewpoint can be valuable if I know how to interpret it. I'm just going to give raw data. Interpretations and conclusions are up to you guys who know better than I.

I saw the Forge banner and thought how I haven't seen what's up with "those guys" for years now, Let's see.
Wow. Lots of games here. And people demoing. How awesome.
Someone approaches me to demo a game. We talk about what it's trying to do. I'm thrilled. I'm going to look at games.
Wow, there's a lot here. Those over in that rack there are really professional looking. Good for them. I have no interest in looking at those. (Curious reaction, that. But I see now in retrospect that's how my "thought process" went.)
Grab one and look through it. Do that again. And again. Hey, I can see what these are trying to do, and I can see that a lot of care went into the design of many of these. Awesome.
See spiral notebook thingy. I want to see what is in there.
Read a few pages. What the hell? This seems like some pretentious nonsense thrown together at the last minute so someone could get his stuff on the rack.
Is this a joke? I can't parse what this is.
The friend I am with, who knows nothing about the Forge, and who is hanging onto 3 books he will eventually buy, gives it a dismissive wave and looks pained.
I ask someone working there about this thing I am holding..
I get some fragmentary explanation, including the information that the CD is an audio component.
I still have no idea what this thing is that I am reading.
I put it back, dismissively.
I pick up some other game, read through it, and get excited once more about the new and well-developed ideas I'm surrounded by.
Over the next couple of days, I demo more games, play some GoD, and buy some of the ones I played, along with PUSH and PTA.

[Ron Edwards]

Thanks for posting this, Mark. I think it supports my point in the other thread - the one that people continually missed - that a game with unique physical properties needs to be recognized as such in the booth, by the booth folks.

I confess that when I read your first post about it, in an earlier thread, I thought "that ignorant git!", but then I realized that your reaction was entirely reasonable given how the booth folks treated the game, including myself.

Best, Ron

[marknau]

A good point you raise is that going into that booth, I *AM* IGNORANT. That's why I kept the adjective: it is accurate. I don't necessarily wish to remain so, however. And that conversion process from ignorant to potentially enthused is not entirely straightforward, nor is it the same for everyone who appoaches. I selfishly want all of you to be as successful as possible at getting other people enthused about playing an array of new and original games, so that I have more people to play with.

Good luck!