What Are Programmers?

Yesterday evening I got an email announcing the GameX Industry Summit CFP, but I was kind of surprised by the description: "Our summit is structured in a two-track format, with a 'Right Brain' Creativity Track and a 'Left Brain' Leadership Track." The latter track is clarified to mean that "The Left Brain track will reveal the best practices, business strategies and production methodologies which result in successful, shipped titles. This track can include appearances by studio heads, producers and notable games industry businesspeople."

It makes sense to have a track centered on the creative side of game development, and it makes sense to have a track covering the business side of game development. I can even see some logic in not inviting programmers to a conference like this, the same way that there are sometimes events that are less interested in the business side of making games, events specifically for programmers, and so on.

But I'm a bit hung up on a conference that separates a conference based on lateralization of brain function such that marketing is a left-brained activity. It also seems to convey that, since they are covering the entire brain somewhere in the conference, they are covering the entire development process, and all the different tasks people do in making a game.

Perhaps it's just my left hemisphere insisting that everything adds up correctly, perhaps it's seeing my discipline left out in the cold with the implication that it doesn't even exist... but the good news is that I don't have any reason to put effort into a proposal for the summit, nor do I need to consider attending. :-)