IGDA is a pointless body...discuss.

the total comes to just under 6000, so considering they now have 15000 members I presume this is old data?

 

Either that or not everybody fills in their details.

 

or people are lying...no way is there only 216 students....if that's the case, about half of them attend my local chapter meeting every month and I know there's more of the buggers out there than that

 

Well that's the paying ones. They might be in the minority

 

I think that if the IGDA transitioned over into a "union body" style of operations, that they could be more effective, specifically on the Quality of Life argument.

-B.

 

Under US law, the way the body is run and set up, it is not allowed to be a union.
This clearly puts it at a disadvantage from day one when it comes to trying to push for legislation or organise genuine protest.

At its best it can only be a spokesbody for the industry, and it requires buy in from companies and members to have any genuine teeth.

That has pretty evidently not been happening, and I suspect the recent "kerfuffle" will have killed any chance it has to be taken seriously.

 

Sorry if this has already been mentioned, but one positive function of the IGDA is the papers they publish.

For instance, I'm reading this at the moment:
http://www.igda.org/casual/IGDA_Casual_Games_White_Paper_2008.pdf

It's got some great stuff in it, and the points are relevant for much more of the market than just the casual sector.

 

If they could work on getting a royalty system for rental games market similar to the one of rental movies so that the game industry could stop leaking money then I'm voting yes. (..If they actually did this, that is)

Right now I can't really say that I know of anything they've done for the industry.