Chapter Meeting August 24th
For some reason, there was a massive jam around KL leading all the way down to Sg Besi. So quite a number of people were late, and some couldn't attend.
Enough people came by around 8:30pm to start the event. After meeting new people like Max from Codemasters, we went through the agenda.
i) Letting ppl know what IGDA Malaysia will be doing.
I let everyone know that IGDA Malaysia is a community of volunteers: it cannot be anything more than what the people within are willing to give.
I outlined that IGDA Malaysia will focus on
-> Being a source of information on game efforts in Malaysia. IGDA Malaysia will work on letting others know what's going on regarding game development, like what companies are around, what colleges/unis do games, and so on.
-> being neutral in a sense that it won't endorse or take the side of any company, learning institution or government. It will do so by focusing on the individual. We will work on identifying and supporting individuals doing game development.
-> providing linkages between individuals. As Chapter Coordinator, my role is to coordinate the efforts relating to game development. So my job is to gather what efforts are happening, and link the people doing these efforts to those that could support them.
Issues raised:
Terence pointed out that IGDA Malaysia will need a lot of volunteers to get such activities running. That will be a big issue, and cannot be solved in the short run.
Max asked a question to the audience: what do they want out of joining IGDA? Answers gained were:
Terence: Meeting people doing similar things, so that they can share opinions and techniques.
Fairuz: Working in Nokia, Fairuz said he wanted to find others doing mobile game development and creating mobile content, because that's what the current mobile-based companies need right now.
Max: To know the programming environment within Malaysia. He'd like to know what kind of programmers are available, and what platform/languages do they focus on.
Chuah pointed out that directory of Malaysian game developers would be a very good thing to have.
I proposed the idea of doing a Formal Meeting, three months from now.
Actions to be taken (links lead to IGDA Malaysia threads):
Formal IGDA Chapter Meeting
Core Meetings
ii) Non-compete clauses in Malaysia.
Joo spoke about the nature of Non-Compete Clauses in Malaysia, and how it affects local developers.
According to his research, such clauses are recognized by Malaysian law (an Act created in the 1950s). There are two situations where such clauses, once signed, are not considered applicable:
One: The signer can claim that they had no legal counsel when they signed the document.
Two: Such a document is only recognized if it is officially stamped.
Max pointed out a similar case in Canada, where Ubisoft tried to hold 8 leaving employees on an NCC. The motion was denied because such clauses were not recognized by Canadian law.
A question was raised on what IGDA Malaysia should do with this information. Should it take legal action on the behalf of any game developer hit by such a clause?
It was noted that IGDA Malaysia alone does not have the resources to take legal action. The steps IGDA Malaysia can do is to provide linkages for the afflicted game developer to seek legal advice on what to do, and to inform the community at large on the situation.
It was pointed out that taking action regarding these clauses is what the government should do. Therefore the best action should be to compile information on cases like these, and to pass it over to MDeC.
iii) An IGDA Student Chapter in Malaysia
A discussion on Student Chapters, and action, are detailed here.
Iris, President of MMU-GDC, asked whether IGDA Malaysia would provide support to the Club. She was notified that IGDA Malaysia has identified two individuals who were willing to give support and advice to MMU students on game dev : Jeevan Prasad (2nd batch game dev alumni) and Aznan Falzi (Final Year game dev). Both of them has agreed to volunteer for IGDA Malaysia and directly support the MMU students with their knowledge and experience.
Whether or not other colleges/unis can find similar support is something IGDA needs to work on, but IGDA Malaysia will do what it can.
Gaming club
John and Josh brought up the idea of IGDA Malaysia supporting Gaming events, or even a Gaming Club.
I pointed out that IGDA Malaysia is meant to support game developers. We could support game players, but the point of the organization is for supporting developers first. I spoke my views that the people who focused on playing games well and people who focused on making games tend to be two different kinds of people.
John asked what if the Gaming Club would do game development as well. Joo pointed out that doing that is tantamount to hacking the idea: tacking on game development just to make the Club part of IGDA Malaysia. Sam of HELP also mentioned that it's doing what IGDA Malaysia does in reverse, and it's best to allocate IGDA Malaysia resources to what IGDA Malaysia does primarily.
Buzz spoke out that modding is a path gamers take to become game developers, and it is quite a popular option.
Josh pointed out that historically, the progression of people moving from game players to game developers is quite varied, and has interesting situations. He spoke about various efforts related to moving players into becoming developers, such as having modding events, meetings with level developers like Levelord, and so on.
At this point, it's 10pm and Kinos Cafe closed. We adjourned to Starbucks.
I said that IGDA Malaysia has no business telling him what people should and should not do for game development. Josh could, for example, go ahead and create an initiative to support game players, and IGDA Malaysia wouldn't say anything about it. In fact, IGDA Malaysia would support it by letting others know about such initiatives. By letting the public know about various gaming and game development events, Malaysia could be shown to have active gamers and game development communities, and in the long run, that's good for game developers.
I encouraged Josh and John to create a separate entity whose primary focus is to create and handle gaming events and gamers, so that they don't need to refer to anyone on whether or not they should do something in it. Such an entity can co-exist with IGDA Malaysia, so that both gamers and game developers are catered for. For example, the Gaming club could run gaming events while IGDA Malaysia help organize modding events that run concurrently.
Discussion and small talk continued until about midnight.
Enough people came by around 8:30pm to start the event. After meeting new people like Max from Codemasters, we went through the agenda.
i) Letting ppl know what IGDA Malaysia will be doing.
I let everyone know that IGDA Malaysia is a community of volunteers: it cannot be anything more than what the people within are willing to give.
I outlined that IGDA Malaysia will focus on
-> Being a source of information on game efforts in Malaysia. IGDA Malaysia will work on letting others know what's going on regarding game development, like what companies are around, what colleges/unis do games, and so on.
-> being neutral in a sense that it won't endorse or take the side of any company, learning institution or government. It will do so by focusing on the individual. We will work on identifying and supporting individuals doing game development.
-> providing linkages between individuals. As Chapter Coordinator, my role is to coordinate the efforts relating to game development. So my job is to gather what efforts are happening, and link the people doing these efforts to those that could support them.
Issues raised:
Terence pointed out that IGDA Malaysia will need a lot of volunteers to get such activities running. That will be a big issue, and cannot be solved in the short run.
Max asked a question to the audience: what do they want out of joining IGDA? Answers gained were:
Terence: Meeting people doing similar things, so that they can share opinions and techniques.
Fairuz: Working in Nokia, Fairuz said he wanted to find others doing mobile game development and creating mobile content, because that's what the current mobile-based companies need right now.
Max: To know the programming environment within Malaysia. He'd like to know what kind of programmers are available, and what platform/languages do they focus on.
Chuah pointed out that directory of Malaysian game developers would be a very good thing to have.
I proposed the idea of doing a Formal Meeting, three months from now.
Actions to be taken (links lead to IGDA Malaysia threads):
Formal IGDA Chapter Meeting
Core Meetings
ii) Non-compete clauses in Malaysia.
Joo spoke about the nature of Non-Compete Clauses in Malaysia, and how it affects local developers.
According to his research, such clauses are recognized by Malaysian law (an Act created in the 1950s). There are two situations where such clauses, once signed, are not considered applicable:
One: The signer can claim that they had no legal counsel when they signed the document.
Two: Such a document is only recognized if it is officially stamped.
Max pointed out a similar case in Canada, where Ubisoft tried to hold 8 leaving employees on an NCC. The motion was denied because such clauses were not recognized by Canadian law.
A question was raised on what IGDA Malaysia should do with this information. Should it take legal action on the behalf of any game developer hit by such a clause?
It was noted that IGDA Malaysia alone does not have the resources to take legal action. The steps IGDA Malaysia can do is to provide linkages for the afflicted game developer to seek legal advice on what to do, and to inform the community at large on the situation.
It was pointed out that taking action regarding these clauses is what the government should do. Therefore the best action should be to compile information on cases like these, and to pass it over to MDeC.
iii) An IGDA Student Chapter in Malaysia
A discussion on Student Chapters, and action, are detailed here.
Iris, President of MMU-GDC, asked whether IGDA Malaysia would provide support to the Club. She was notified that IGDA Malaysia has identified two individuals who were willing to give support and advice to MMU students on game dev : Jeevan Prasad (2nd batch game dev alumni) and Aznan Falzi (Final Year game dev). Both of them has agreed to volunteer for IGDA Malaysia and directly support the MMU students with their knowledge and experience.
Whether or not other colleges/unis can find similar support is something IGDA needs to work on, but IGDA Malaysia will do what it can.
Gaming club
John and Josh brought up the idea of IGDA Malaysia supporting Gaming events, or even a Gaming Club.
I pointed out that IGDA Malaysia is meant to support game developers. We could support game players, but the point of the organization is for supporting developers first. I spoke my views that the people who focused on playing games well and people who focused on making games tend to be two different kinds of people.
John asked what if the Gaming Club would do game development as well. Joo pointed out that doing that is tantamount to hacking the idea: tacking on game development just to make the Club part of IGDA Malaysia. Sam of HELP also mentioned that it's doing what IGDA Malaysia does in reverse, and it's best to allocate IGDA Malaysia resources to what IGDA Malaysia does primarily.
Buzz spoke out that modding is a path gamers take to become game developers, and it is quite a popular option.
Josh pointed out that historically, the progression of people moving from game players to game developers is quite varied, and has interesting situations. He spoke about various efforts related to moving players into becoming developers, such as having modding events, meetings with level developers like Levelord, and so on.
At this point, it's 10pm and Kinos Cafe closed. We adjourned to Starbucks.
I said that IGDA Malaysia has no business telling him what people should and should not do for game development. Josh could, for example, go ahead and create an initiative to support game players, and IGDA Malaysia wouldn't say anything about it. In fact, IGDA Malaysia would support it by letting others know about such initiatives. By letting the public know about various gaming and game development events, Malaysia could be shown to have active gamers and game development communities, and in the long run, that's good for game developers.
I encouraged Josh and John to create a separate entity whose primary focus is to create and handle gaming events and gamers, so that they don't need to refer to anyone on whether or not they should do something in it. Such an entity can co-exist with IGDA Malaysia, so that both gamers and game developers are catered for. For example, the Gaming club could run gaming events while IGDA Malaysia help organize modding events that run concurrently.
Discussion and small talk continued until about midnight.
posted by the IGDA Chapter Coordinator at 7:55 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home