Shawn appears to have what is to me a very strange vision of Sun’s involvement in Java. He appears to be arguing for maintaining the historic non-involvement of Sun with games development without ever stating any reason or benefit to this, or any other explanation of why it is desirable.
There is a very simple issue here which might become clouded by some of what else is being said. Does Sun intend to “support” java games development (JGD to save me typing it repeatedly ;)), and what does this mean?
The answer to the first was, we were all but promised, yes. And the foundation of the GTG was touted as a very obvious and explicit demonstration of this - Sun had given Chris and others an official mandate to pursue the support (by Sun) of java games development …in fact, they even had a budget! (correct me if I’m wrong, but my memory is that Chris and Jeff were for some years doing games + java promotion purely in their free time, not as part of the day job? The situation now is that they are being paid to do support of JGD). Leaving everything else aside, the members of the GTG have done an excellent job of encouraging everyone to believe that their role was to support JGD. Some of the frustration at the moment of people here is born from the fact that the GTG appear to be turning around now and saying “we don’t have time any more”, or “we can’t be bothered (it’s too much work)” (both of these are paraphrases of excuses that GTG members have made on these forums). Or, if Shawn’s statements were to now be confirmed by the GTG, an implicit “ha! fooled you! we never intended to support JGD at all!”
The remaining question is: what does it mean to “support” JGD? For anyone not intimately familiar with this kind of situation, the first thing to appreciate is that we’re not talking about supporting a product - we’re talking about supporting an industry (that of “java game development” i.e. all thsoe involved in developing games using java). There are some good examples of what this means in practice, and how to do it well (see below). Fundamentally, the aim is to grow a struggling not-quite-surviving industry into a great big industry that is practically indomitable. Like when governments subsidise fledgling industries, give them tax breaks etc, fundamentally the reason for doing this is that you believe that the industry is capable of growing spectactularly, and that you can help it grow faster (or just make sure it does grow, rather than fizzling out). You don’t do this, of course, unless you have some benefit to the growth of the industry. I’ve not heard anyone query whether Sun would benefit from thousands of games being developed in java instead of C++? I assume everyone agrees it would benefit hugely.
But how do you support an industry? Well, this is well-trodden ground, researched over decades by economists etc. I’m no expert by any means, but I do have experience of building communities, and there are several parallels. The biggest things I can see are:
[] Engender and maintain trust. The next few items fail without this…they only work when people believe you. Similarly, reliability and believability is critically important
[] Commit to the industry, long term. If people can see major commitment from someone important, they will follow. Partly because it increases the chances that thigns will get fixed, and increases the amount of resource that is devoted to this industry.
[] If you’re the platform provider, promote your platform outside the industry (but for that industry in particular), so that people like venture capitalists, customers, and partners for industry members are already convinced of your platform’s value, and are more likely to work with members of your industry. Usually only you have the influence and resource to do this effectively.
[] Understand your industry. Work every day at improving your understanding, and your ability to speak with and for the industry, rather than just at them. This is critically important for you to make profit in the long run, and also at making all your other moves much much more efficient / effective
[] Work closely with people within your industry, understanding their problems, and helping wherever you can. On the bottom line, Sun could throw $1000 of consulting at every company developing java games this year, and it wouldn’t even appear on the significant figures of the annual financial summary. But for those companies, $1000 is a heck of alot of time and expertise, that makes them more efficient and much more likely to produce games that make your platform look really, really good.
[] Spending a LOT of time communicating with your industry. You cannot do too much of this, especially when your industry is struggling to survive. You have got to build a community and drag it day by day through problem after problem, literally drag it into the successful flourishing booming industry you want it to become. This requires incredibly strong leadership and a lot of guts and determination - you will have to fight the industry’s battles for it, because no-one else in your fledgling industry will be strong enough to. When Shawn says that leadership is not important, he pulls down the whole house of cards, and in his theoretical approach dooms Sun to failure - java games development will probably never be anything but a tiny niche if Sun can’t show leadership in this area (it’s just - only just - possible that someone else could take on this role, but it’s much much harder. About one in a million chance, I reckon)
[*] Partner with everyone; partner with anyone! Build partnerships everywhere you can, get your finger on the pulse, and be a matchmaker between all in the industry. Be the ultimate networker, and - most importantly of all - disseminate everything you are aware of to all the members of the industry. This is the “shotgun approach” - scatter info everywhere and wait for some cool things to come together. It works; it’s inefficient, but very very fast and effective at getting things done. When your industry is struggling, this is like a huge boost-up, although it takes some considerable effort.
Clearly, the GTG have been doing several of these. My fear is that they appear to have turned their backs on others. I am also greatly disappointed that the new Community Board Member doesn’t think leadership and communication are at all important (or even necessary) for Sun.
Finally, how about we look at what other companies do when they “support” their part of the games industry? I’m a bit behind the curve on this one, but I do recall that MS, for instance, can throw so much free software, support, ideas, contacts, technology previews, free marketing, discounts, free promotion, etc at you that sometimes you just want them to SHUT UP for a month or two.
Go have a look at what MS does for Xbox developers (just the free bits), or Sony for PS1 and 2 developers (just the free stuff), or Intel, AMD, nVidia, and ATi for PC developers. You can get next-generation graphics cards BY THE DOZEN from the 3D card manufacturers if you need them for developing and testing your game (I’m not saying any high-schooler with no intention of programming a game can just waltz up and say “gimme free stuff”, but anyone with a good solid game design is welcomed with open arms to go and apply for this stuff).
Then there’s all the work they do to lend you a tiny proportion of their marketing machines. These are big companies; they’ve often already spent the $25k to get their name on something, or buy space, and sharing that with ten or twenty (or more) of you developers costs them nothing extra - and they still get their name everywhere AND they get to share in any positive press from your game. Even where they haven’t yet paid for something, they can give you stuff that costs them very little and it disappears into much bigger budgets - but which you, as a developer, would have had to jump through hoops to get at.
In particular, they will often help with introducing you to potential partners, customers, etc - they have the contacts, and a simple recommendation (cost: $0, 15 minutes of time) can get you into a meeting you would never have achieved even if you devote 3 months to trying.
I’m making a conscious decision not to rise to some of the statement’s Shawn made about people that I too find extremely offensive (and AFAICS I wasn’t a target - I’m merely offended by what you’re saying about other people who don’t deserve such attacks). So, I hope he doesn’t take offence at this, but my current observation is that he appears to be in his “comfort zone” where he needs no help from anybody. There’s nothing wrong with that, nor with telling people for rocking the boat. Except that it isn’t fair to then claim that no-one else needs any help when this is clearly not true.
Moreover, Shawn has now been elected to speak for the community. That places a burden upon him, a burden to understand more fully the issues of the community - and if he doesn’t like the burden, it’s time to resign.
