This was said in the context of the GDC’s notorious annual rant session, so, it’s not a classic burning of bridges in the last day on the job.
But the outgoing head of the International Game Developer’s Association, Jason Della Rocca, has some tough love for the e19 folks he represented.
https://kotaku.com/della-rocca-steps-down-as-igda-director-5144640
Della Rocca, who helped plan this conference’s rant session and others betdog before it, said he wasn’t feeling “particularly vengeful” when he assembled this screed. So he reworked it into a passive-aggressive, backhand apology to the ingrates he’d tried to lead.
Here are some excerpts from the rant which he posted on his blog this week.
Sorry for not having the leadership skills to beat the barriers of participation inequality. Less than 1% of the IGDA membership are truly active in driving the org forward. Sorry for not doing a better job building up a strong pipeline of community leaders and volunteers. Sorry for not overcoming your general apathy and laziness.
Sorry for not doing a better job of roping in all the snipers from the sidelines. Turns out you are all pretty damn good at bitching and complaining and being critical. But then you don’t actually do anything about it and you don’t get involved. Sorry for not bringing critics under the tent and getting them to work at improving things.
Sorry for not getting you to be more serious about the profession of sbfplay game development. You are no longer a bunch of hacks. This is a real art and science. We need to be way more deliberate and control the path the profession takes as it evolves into the future.
He wraps it up with: “Oh well, f* you, it’s not my job anymore!”
Anyone who’s tried to lead a professional group while carrying on one’s own career in it that profession knows how difficult and thankless the gig can be. But the shape-it-up tone seems appropriate. Don’t descend to others’ low expectations of what you do, in other words. And if he raises his voice to you, International Game Developer’s Association, it’s only because he wants you to be the very best International Game Developer’s Association you can be.
An Apology [Jason Della Rocca’s Reality Panic, via GamePolitics]