New AIAS President Rae Talks DICE, Awards, Member Benefits

When the AIAS announced earlier this week that former Sunleaf Studios CEO Martin Rae would be taking over the president's position held for over six years by Joseph Olin, Rae said he was "honored to have been selected by the Academy’s Board" and "look[ing] forward to building on [Olin's] accomplishments." But if you had asked Olin about the position at a different point in his life, the answer reaction not have been the same. "Frankly, the job, when I looked at it, it might not have been something I would have looked at years ago," Rae said in an interview with Gamasutra. "But I looked at it, and I said Joseph’s done a great job, really built a good foundation, and there were some things I thought we could do long term that were pretty exciting for me.” Among those exciting plans are what Rae calls a need to address "the foreign game space that has not been addressed by the AIAS today." This means possible further international expansion for the organization's DICE executive summit, which introduced an Asian edition as part of 2009's Games Conference Asia as a way to "get our feet wet," as Rae put it. Rae said he's looking at a number of countries throughout Asia and Europe as possible future locations for further DICE expansion, including South Korea, India and China. "China was producing more game developers and more game artists than any country on the planet right now, and certainly we’re the design and the production center at this point, but there’s a lot of interest and a lot of activity," he said. The AIAS' international outreach plans extend to the academy's annual awards show as well, Rae said, with talks about some sort of award for foreign-made games being discussed at the board level. “I think the award show can represent the gaming community internationally on a more comprehensive basis,” Rae said. “There are certainly some outstanding products coming out of Asia and Europe and the AIAS needs to recognize those.” Rae also said that getting more exposure for the AIAS Awards was a priority, and that the academy hoped to announce new media partners for the show soon. "I will say that we will have broader distribution on a televised basis, broader distribution on a web basis and perhaps even some distribution in the specific game sphere that is extremely recognizable," he said. "We’ll definitely take a step up the media sphere -- a lot more recognition for the awards show and the people being recognized there." But Rae's plans for the AIAS aren't just limited to the organization's two most prominent events. He said he wants to make general membership in the academy more attractive to small and freelance developers and artists as well, potentially by offering benefits along the lines of professional organizations like the Visual Effects Society. “Where do [small developers] go for group plan insurance? Where do they go for educational opportunities? Where do they go for speaker series that could be sponsored that would provide them access to things that the AIAS could provide that they can’t get anywhere else? A lot of other professional organizations do that, I think we could add some things in that respect that would really help members,” he said. Overall, Rae said he saw his most important role at his new position as being an advocate for the wider industry. "I think the broader the recognition becomes for our members and the greater awareness consumers have or our members and the great work that they do, it will be good for our industry," he said. "If we can further that then we are doing our job.”