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照亮游戏音频的黑暗角落

发布时间:2015-05-25 15:35:24 Tags:,,,,

作者:Damian Kastbauer

我想知道自己在变成自由职业者之后的生活是否会改变我在GDC上的体会。我会担心自己没有动力与别人见面和交流(即缺少了想要争取机遇的想法)。最终证明事实刚好相反:在今年的大会上我创造了更多的社交机会。我见到了许多新朋友和老朋友。各种人与对话一直是我参加GDC的最重要的原因之一;不同人的经历推动着我对这一产业的好奇心不断加深。在今年的GameAudioGDC上我们更是可以感受到过去每一天来自游戏社区的强大情感。这些情感贯穿于那些激情澎湃的发言并且人们相继回到了有关游戏音频的创造中。在感受了一整周充满热情的积极性后,我们总是很难去面对那些紧跟着我们文化(通过社区中的人去分享看法与经验而显现于我们的产业中)并需要被完成的一些困难的工作。

Brighten(from gamasutra)

Brighten(from gamasutra)

敏感

这是不言而喻的,不管你认为这是一个游戏后的世界还是处于对于人类礼仪的期待,这都为分享任何知识经验(任何教育性追求的核心)创造了一个安全且包容的空间。尽管在早上很早的时候来到GDC,Game Audio Podcast在过去3年里一直维持在早上7点开播,并播报来自旧金山以外的各种游戏音频新闻。该播客本身是源自“继续进行从GDC开始的讨论并寻找一种方式继续一整年的对话”这一理念。尽管开播时间较早且需要较高的语言能力表达,这都成为了任何人想要加入我们在Sightglass Coffee的活动的原因。今年在一整周时间里,每天早上都有将近30至50名参与者,他们在这样的开放论坛中讨论着前几天所感受到的一切以及对于之后几天活动的期待。这是新人以及游戏音频社区中的专业人士所进行的知识共享。这种关于分享GDC体会的交流是一种非常重要的活动,特别是对于我来说,这就像是在分享自己心中真正的GDC。对于那些我所交流过且基于一种具有包容性的态度去表达自己,并愿意在播客上说出自己看法的人,我真的充满了敬意。通过这个每天举办的活动以及来自午餐时间的交流,你可以真正感受到游戏音频社区的发展与变化。

尽管在整个大会中我们可以感受到整个社区的强大运转,我们还必须将这一活力带到代表游戏音频的两个专业群组中。即Game Audio Network Guild(GANG)和Interactive Audio Special Interest Group(IASIG)都创造了各自基于激情与过去20年游戏音频贡献者的最佳意愿的社区。在过去几年里,他们所积攒起来的成员名单就像是一本关于游戏音频巨星的百科全书,正是这些人孜孜不倦的付出才为我们的游戏产业技艺创造了坚实的基础。

GANG

其实以一种和接触不到的人进行面对面的交谈,也就是GANG所呈现的这种不灵敏的方式其实是具有挑战性的。第一个问题便是源自该组织本身的名字—-gang这个词拥有非常消极的含义,它很难与我们所知晓并热爱的游戏音频社区扯上关系。在称自己是一名GANG成员或将自己“与当地GANG”联系在一起时总是会让人觉得莫名其妙,这一由首字母缩写所组合而成的单词就像是一个一点都不好笑的笑话一样。尽管GANG在过去几年通过唤醒人们对游戏音频的意识而取得了很大的成就,但它却不再是唯一的进攻堡垒。如今的游戏产业正在面对有关包容性的“发育期烦恼”,而GANG如果想要摆脱一些旧俗和过时的内涵就必须采取一定的行动。

赞誉

大会上的奖励仪式就像片刻的休息,这可以是用于社交的一周或者花在赞誉我们整个社区优秀工作的时间。我觉得这样的赞誉也将在音频部门以外的社区兴起并影响来自隔音工作室墙外部的积极改变。当人们(游戏邦注:包括制作人,工程师,美术师以及其他参与游戏开发工作的相关人员)听到对于我们所创造的游戏的技术和美术优势的赞誉时,我们将暂时不去考虑作为整个过程必不可少的一部分的音频。这种赞誉将通过声称音频领域以外的成就并更加专注于游戏音频而发出自己的支援声。

我被颁奖会上大多数受奖者的谦逊态度所感动;通常情况下他们在颁奖台上提到的第一件事便是对于团队中所有参与者的感谢。这是一种颇深的感受,参与者们将游戏音频领域中一些最出色的美术师们聚集在了一起。这种积极的赞誉反馈循环让我觉得自己就像一个比自己本身更大的群体中的一份子。我就像是这个社区中的一部分,我觉得自己扎根于游戏音频发展的“漫长过程中”。在被同行与愿景者所环绕的房间里,我觉得自己就像是这份伟大的遗赠中的一部分。这也是我为何会觉得我们的组织在某种方式上改变了社区以及每个人的最大兴趣。

迟钝

尽管具有良好的氛围以及让人敬重的赞誉,我还是遇到了一些矛盾情感,并影响了整体的体验。在休息期间播放关于电子游戏的一些趣味性网络视频从表面上看来虽然能够“活跃气氛”,但是如果缺少了适宜的环境,我便很难去理解这种情况。我平时很少看电视,我认为Celebrity Roasts(严厉批评人们的缺陷)和Wipeout/Break.com(嘲笑某人的不行或取消别人)等流行文化现象非常奇怪,并且不能接受它们。当我收到朋友所发表的关于自己在授奖期间的看法的信件时我觉得很不舒服。而现在我们所看到的这一视频是在抨击《Destiny》的失败(房间里还坐着一些参与了这款游戏创造的人)并嘲笑《吃豆人》。在走廊上你时不时可以听到像“这不是我认识的人,这不是我所经历的事件,我不想成为这些无厘头的一部分!”的评论。这些感受并不只是出现于今年的颁奖会上,这也是过去几年的颁奖会上常见的主题。结束谈话后我觉得自己似乎需要打开评论之窗,而那时候我可能会感受到同样的不适与迟钝感。

这并不是说这些视频本身是“糟糕的”,只是从环境上来看我觉得这样的做法并不能体现活动的精神,它们并不尊重在场的一些人,不幸的是这也表现出了作为成人以及游戏产业中的专业人士的我们在面对一些不好的事时的错误态度。在与喜剧演员在奥斯卡晚会上所呈现的表演相比,这些视频也能够凭借其对于过去一些事件的消极看法而吸引到观众的注意。这与给予那些拥有出色作品的人奖励是截然不同的做法,即这完全就是一种惩罚。

价值

GANG带有图像问题,并且这是不能简单通过一个新的网页便解决的问题。从发展期到论坛上缺少激励话语,现在的GANG已成熟到可以重塑品牌,恢复活力并重新发挥创造性了。从今年GANG在市政厅的活动中我便可以看出GANG的论坛寿命非常低。当提到“这里有谁会访问论坛?”时,房间里大概只有60个人举起了双手。此外,还有一些来自社区的声音希望看到更多的论坛参与者,还有个人表示自己一年前提出的一个问题到现在还没得到答复。从我的角度来看,现在的人们只要得到社交需求的满足便会一直待在自己的“社交园”中。这意味着如果一个人能够获得像在Facebook,Twitter,Reddit,DesigningSound,VGM等平台上的互动,他们便不需要一个付费论坛。我不在乎你是学生还是专家,一年花费100美元去访问一个失去活力的平台真的太昂贵了。这里还是会出现一些新成员,即一些学生或产业新人,他们希望能够在此找到能够给予自己帮助的力量。在GANG论坛衰败的同时,它不仅失去了成员,同时也失去了组织在此所投入的努力。

相比之下,twitter上的#GameAudio是一个非常有帮助的专业社区,并成就了许多有帮助的交谈。twitter也许不能支持长期的交谈,但这却是一个任何人都可以参与进来的公共场所。这些交谈可能会延伸到reddit,从而呈现出更详细的演说并为用户基础创造出他们最感兴趣的讨论。我认为GANG的机制并不在于其论坛,而在于它为游戏音频所作出的一切贡献。GANG所带有的一些消极看法是仍然相信论坛的重要性。这种认为GANG论坛对其成员具有帮助性的看法是错误的,他们应该将注意力转向赞誉,教育以及组织持续付出的努力上。

统一

过去几年里引起我们强烈关注的另外一点便是IASIG和IESD(Interactive Entertainment Sound Developers,GANG的一个专业分支,专注于讨论并处理需求,资源,标准和持续教育)之间的冗余。尽管这两个组织都找到了各自存在的原因并继续致力于为游戏音频社区提供标准且具有建设性指导的目标,但是我们总是很难看到他们各自的输出。他们每个计划或工作群组的势头都是与知识领导者的激情直接相关。每个组织都在为那些渴望寻找能够帮助他们塑造并优化可行理念的论坛提供一个平台。当Garry Taylors致力于定义面向索尼平台的响度标准时,IESD则专注于提供Mix Recommendation并宣称这适合于许多更大型的工作室。简单地来说,IASIG Educational Working Group为游戏音频教育课程创造了一份建议指南方针。

最佳情况是这些群组将成为促进社区中相关主题讨论的催化剂并成就最佳实践的公开分享。而最糟糕的情况则是他们将成为过去一年里电子邮件反应雷达上一个逐渐消失的标志。不管结果怎样,这样的冗余都让我觉得存在着让充满激情的合作者相互交流的空间,这能够推动更多看法的诞生。从外部看来,我们很难看到任何一个组织的变化,因为它总是以一种非常缓慢的速度发展着。看起来每个组织都有一群负责转动前进齿轮的人,但我也非常好奇如果将努力相结合,他们可能不能一起完成更多任务。

从对话中我认为关于为什么存在两个游戏音频的单独实体以及他们之间的利益差这两个问题肯定让人充满困惑。尽管他们的角色似乎得到了明确的定义,但是在发展了这么多年时间后围绕着他们的话题就只剩下:冗余,价值,论坛,输出内容等容易让人误解的元素。

看法

这是伴随着那些模糊的感觉以及围绕着源自今年GDC并且是我努力将其呈现在本文中的种种话题的当前状态。我的耳根子总是很软,很容易相信别人跟我说的那些我不该当真的观点。多亏了不短改变的领导层以及充满激情的个体的持续努力,不管是GANG还是IASIG在过去几年里都不断发展着。然而我认为有些事情其实可以发展得更好,这也是为什么这些问题会浮现出来的重要原因。

以下是我尝试着总结的一些要点:

重塑Game Audio Network Guild(GANG)。

为该组织重新命名。

在颁奖期间增强敏感度。

将成员资格标准转向:奖赏,教育和延伸范围。

反对私人/专有论坛。

将IASIG作为该组织专业的分支。

现在来自游戏音频社区的反馈比以前更强大了,我认为现在是时候利用这种“好意”了。当有人想要将这种良好的感觉延伸到游戏音频的所有黑暗角落时,我希望我们可以找到一种方式共同以以恭敬的方式创造出积极的改变。我也真心希望本文可以作为这种改变的催化剂。

本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,拒绝任何不保留版权的转发,如需转载请联系:游戏邦

Brighten the Corners of Game Audio

by Damian Kastbauer

I wondered how my life post-freelance would change my experience at GDC. Worried that I might not have the drive to meet and connect with people, without the dependency on hustling for opportunities. Ultimately the opposite proved to be true: this year was even more socially pronounced than ever. I met so many new and caught up with so many old friends. People and conversations continue to be my absolute favorite part of GDC; skimming the cream of inspiration from peoples experiences helps drive my excitement for this industry. Coming out of this year’s #GameAudioGDC there’s an overwhelming swell of emotion which can be felt rippling outward across the community with each passing day. It’s through these proclamations of passion and seeing people right-back to working on initiatives surrounding game audio that has helped me pull out of a post-GDC depression. After riding a week of enthusiastic positivity, its hard coming to grips with the hard work that needs to be done to follow up some of the difficult epiphanies about our culture that have surfaced within our industry through the gracious sharing of perception and experience of people in the community.

Sensitive

It should go without saying, whether you think of this as a post-gamer gate world or within the expectation of human decency, that creating a safe and inclusive space for sharing knowledge and experience should be at the heart of any educational pursuit. While mornings come early at GDC, the Game Audio Podcast has been waking up at 7AM for the past 3 years to report on the game audio buzz coming off the show floor and flowing from sessions to be broadcast outside the confines of San Francisco. The podcast itself was borne from the idea of “continuing the discussions that started at GDC and find a way to continue the conversation throughout the year”. Despite the punishing early-hour and expectation of verbal prowess, these have become an open-door experience that welcomes anyone willing to wake and join us at Sightglass Coffee. This year saw the week-long morning standup reaching 30-50 attendants daily and allows for an open forum to discuss the excitement of the previous day and anticipation for the comings day’s events. What unfolds is a public display of knowledge-share running the gamut between student/ beginner and professional members of the game audio community. This cross-collaboration towards the goal of sharing the experience of GDC is simply a spectacle to behold and, to me, clearly the heart and soul of what GDC is for me. I’m so proud of the way the people I spoke with conducted themselves in such an inclusive manner while lending their voices to the podcast. Couple this daily event with a more informal lunchtime meetup behind the Carousel outdoors and you can truly feel the pulse of the game audio community.

While the heart of the community beating strongly throughout the veins of the conference, it’s important to frame this vitality in the context of the two professional groups publicly representing game audio. Both the Game Audio Network Guild (GANG) and the Interactive Audio Special Interest Group (IASIG) have established a community founded on the passions and best-intentions of some of the finest contributors to game audio over the last 20 years. Made up of a member list that, over the years, reads like an encyclopedia of game audio superstars, their tireless work has established a firm-footing for our craft in the game industry.

GANG

With that said, it’s challenging coming face-to-face with the somewhat out of touch and insensitive way that GANG presents itself at times. The first issue is the name of the organization itself – the word ‘gang’ has such terribly negative connotations and it totally fails to represent the game audio community we all know and love. It’s hard to avoid sounding terrible out of context when calling yourself “a GANG member” or associating yourself “with a local GANG (chapter)” and the whole acronym resonates with a juvenile humor that simply isn’t funny. While GANG has achieved a great deal over the years by raising the awareness of game audio, it’s no longer served by this bastion of aggression. It’s not something that will put everyone off, but once the legacy of verbiage is acknowledged it feels completely out of place; once a negative association is made, it’s difficult to un-make it. Call it a times-they-are-a-changin’ moment of clarity or simply an indication that, while the game industry at large is facing perception and growing pains regarding inclusivity, GANG has some work to do in order to shed some old habits and connotations.

There’s a survey at the end of this article where you can share your opinion on the acronym GANG.

Recognition

Which brings me to the GANG awards themselves. The awards ceremony aims to be a moment of pause during, what can be a frantic week of (over) socialization and a time to recognize the great work done across our community. I have felt this recognition ripple throughout the community outside of audio departments and influence positive change from outside the sound-proofed studio walls. When people (producers, engineers, artists and all the other disciplines that make up game development) hear of the recognition of technical and artistic excellence for games we’ve made, it gives greater pause to the consideration of audio as an integral part of the process. This recognition lends itself to this voice by shouting accomplishments outside of the audio department and putting a sharp focus on the audio in a game.

I was struck by the humbleness of most award recipients at the awards show; usually the first thing out once reaching the podium was a spoken appreciation for the work of everyone in the room and their teams. A sentiment that is deeply felt, for the attendance brings together some of the finest artists in game audio. This feedback-loop of positive recognition was heart-warming and made me feel like part of something much bigger than myself. The realization that I am part of this community, actively or passively and how I feel deeply invested in “the long game” of what game audio can be. Surrounded by peers and visionaries, the emotion in the room made me feel like I was a part of the legacy. Which is why I feel so strongly about some changes in the way the community is represented by our organizations and how it’s in everyone’s best interest to help bring about positive change.

Insensitivity

Despite the good vibes and respectful recognition, I was brought face-to-face with something which unfortunately tainted and contradicted the mood of celebration and brought the entire experience down. Used as interstitial “comic relief” were a couple of internet-culled videos poking fun at video games in general as a way to ostensibly “lighten the mood”. This point is a little unfair without context and was a little difficult for me to understand in the moment. I don’t watch much TV and my view of popular culture phenomenon such as Celebrity Roasts [picking apart people for their flaws] and Wipeout/ Break.com [laughing at someone’s misfortune or poking fun from afar] are as an oddity not an embrace. The discomfort I was feeling was validated when I received a text from a friend who was voicing the same feelings during the awards. One such video was senselessly bashing Destiny for its perceived failings (amidst a room full of people who worked on the game) and another berating an animated Pac Man for being “too fat”. Comments to the extent of “these are NOT my people, this is NOT my scene, I want NO PART of this weird self-important nonsense!” echoing the hallways. These feelings were not exclusive to this year’s awards, but a common theme from the last few year’s awards shows. Afterwards in conversations it seemed like I just needed to open the door for commentary and I was met with the same feelings of inappropriateness and insensitivity.

It’s not that either of these videos are “bad” per-se (searching for them, I found many other variations on the same theme) but in context I feel like the choices didn’t represent the spirit of the event, they didn’t respect the people in the room, and unfortunately showed exactly the kind of behavior that we, as well adjusted adults and professionals in the game industry, should be distancing ourselves from whenever possible. In comparison to the questionable one-liners delivered by comedians at an event like the Oscars (which zing by in a couple of seconds) these video held a captive audience in their negative embrace well past the point of comfort or comedy. It’s one thing to cue up a video on your desktop and close the window when you’ve had enough, suffering through 30-60 seconds of title bashing during an uplifting awards ceremony honoring the work of people whose artistry is being recognized is another thing entirely: punishing.

Worth

GANG has an image problem, and one that can’t be simply solved with a new website. From the juvenile and antiqued naming already discussed, to the lack of inspired discourse in their forum, GANG is ripe for re-branding, re-invigorating, and re-inventing. From the GANG Town hall this year, it was clear that the GANG forum participation is at a lifetime low. Of the 60-ish people in the room two hands went up when the question of “Who here visits the forum?” Additionally, there were several voices from the community who wished there was more involvement and another who shared a story of posting a question years ago with no response. From my perspective (and behavior) people today will stay mostly within their “social garden” as long as it will fulfill their social needs. That means that, if a person can get the kind of interaction they’re looking for on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, DesigningSound, VGM or wherever they hang around online, they don’t need a paid forum. I don’t care if you are a student or a professional, $100 USD a year is a lot of money for access to the crumbling remains of a long dead and abandoned walled-garden. And new members keep coming, many students and new to the industry, hoping to find a secret in-road or sympathetic ear to assist them on their way. When the GANG forum fails, it does more than just fail its membership, it leaves a black-hole sucking the positive efforts of the organization with it.

In comparison, I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that #GameAudio on twitter is an extremely supportive community of profession and hopefuls all soaking-in and contributing to the conversation. Twitter might not support the long-form conversation, but there are many publicly available places where people can engage in discussions. The conversation going over on reddit at /r/GameAudio allows for detailed discourse and bubbles up the most relevant discussions to its user-base and is open to everyone. At its best, I think the value of GANG is not in its forums but in the semblance it gives to game audio overall. Some of the negative perception facing GANG is the belief that the forums are still relevant in this day and age as a value proposition to their membership. This presentation of the GANG forums as valueble for members is misplaced and should be focused on the recognition, education, and outreach efforts of which the organization continues to champion.

Unification

The other aspect brought into sharp focus over the past-years is (my perceived) redundancy between the work of the IASIG & the Interactive Entertainment Sound Developers (IESD), a professional branch of GANG “focused on discussing and addressing the needs, resources, standards, and continuing education”. While both organizations have found their own reasons for existing and continue to work towards a shared goal of standards & recommendations-based guidance for the game audio community, their individual output can often be found lacking. The momentum of each initiative or working group is directly related to the passion of the knowledge-leader, whatever the intended goal seems to be. Each organization provides a place for someone’s passion to find a forum with others who can help shape and polish an idea-at-hand into something that may become adopted as a suggestion or standard to the industry-at-large. As the passion of Garry Taylors work to define a Loudness standard at Sony neared completion, the IESD was brought in to help to carry forward a Mix Recommendation publicly and encourage its adoption across many larger studios. Similarly, the IASIG Educational Working Group produced a report of recommended guidelines for Game Audio Education Curriculum.

At best these working groups become a catalyst for discussion surrounding a relevant topic within the community and result in the public sharing of a best-practices. At worst they become an ever-quieter blip on the email-reflector radar growing dimmer with each passing year. Regardless of output, the redundancy makes me feel like there is room for the cross-pollination of passionate collaborators which could result in the perception that there’s more going on. From the outside-in it’s difficult to see the movement of either organization (even from within) as it often develops wholly behind-the-scenes at a glacial pace. It seems as if each group has a cadre of motivational folks who help to spin the wheel of progress and I wonder if by combining efforts they might not be able to accomplish more together.

From conversations I’ve had (and a healthy dose of my feelings) I think there’s a lot of confusion around why there are two separate entities in game audio and what benefits one might have over the other. While each of their roles seems somewhat defined, after swimming in these waters for many years, the water surrounding things like: redundancy, value, forums, and output make for a misunderstanding as to where someone should align and focus their energy as part of a community (not only energy, but also the misconception of “allegiance”).

Perception

It’s with these fuzzy-feelings and a full-head of conversations surrounding the current state of things coming out of GDC this year that I’ve endeavored to get everything into this document. I’ve had so many soft ears to bend and smart people filling me up with observations and opinions that I can’t really take credit for all of the words or emotions. There has been incredible progress on the part of both GANG and IASIG over the past years thanks partially to the refreshing of leadership and the continued effort of passionate individuals. However, I can say that there seems to be a resounding feeling that things could be better…and that is a big reason as to why this is surfacing.

Here is a summary of the points I’m trying to make:

Rebrand the Game Audio Network Guild (GANG).

Rename the organization.

Increase sensitivity during the awards ceremony.

Re-Focus Membership towards: awards, education, outreach.

Deprecate the private/ proprietary forums.

Absorb/ Adopt the IASIG as the Professional Branch of the organization.

Amidst feedback from some that the sense of game audio community is stronger now than it ever has been, I think the time is right to capitalize on this goodwill. As someone who wants to extend that good feeling into all of the dark corners of game audio I hope we can all find a way to work together to bring forward positive change in a respectful way. My hope is that this article is received with the best intentions and serves as a catalyst for change or at the very least catharsis.

I think it would be valuable for people to share their opinions on the state of these organizations and I look forward to getting a better understanding of people’s perspective on these issues. Maybe there’s something missing from this article that feels relevant and appropriate to open up for discussion. If you do choose to comment on this topic, please try to find a way to present your feelings respectfully.

In the spirit of that, please share your perspective on some of the issues raised in this article through the Survey or in the comments.(source:gamasutra)

 


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