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PC Gaming Alliance Will Bring the Noise in 2011

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The new president of the PC Gaming Alliance says one of his priorities for 2011 is to make the historically low-profile organization ā€œa lot more public and vocal.ā€

The PC Gaming Alliance was founded three years ago by numerous industry heavyweights as a way to promote the mouse and keyboard in an increasingly console-centric world. Or so it seemed, anyway; the reality has been considerably different. Since its founding, the organization has put out a grand total of ten ā€“ yes, ten ā€“ press releases (including one announcing its formation), most of which were simply notifications of new members joining the group.

Itā€™s not what youā€™d call gripping stuff (although the March 2010 announcement that PC gaming software revenue had grown by three percent year-over-year had the hair on the back of my neck standing straight up) and while the PCGA may be an industry-focused group, itā€™s tough to be seen as the champion of a cause if nobody knows you exist. Thatā€™s one issue that Matt Ployhar, who succeeded Randy Stude as PCGA President in December 2010, wants to address right away.

ā€œThe PCGA was founded for two reasons. What they did, is they went into the mode, if you will, where they felt like instead of, ā€˜OK, itā€™s better going loud and proud and being really vocal and visible,ā€™ it was kind of like, ā€˜OK, letā€™s build out a body of research so weā€™ve got kind of a belated backup to what weā€™re saying hereā€™,ā€ Ployhar explained in an interview with Gamasutra. ā€œAnd you canā€™t really do that overnight. People know that youā€™re a real entity, and youā€™re data-driven, and itā€™s not opinions and emotions-based.ā€

Ployhar said the PCGA has done a great job at assembling statistics to show that the condition of the PC gaming industry isnā€™t nearly as dire as some people think, but hasnā€™t been as effective in communicating that information to the public. ā€œThat was one of the things Iā€™m looking at and going, ā€˜You guys got all these software best practices, all this stuff, but you donā€™t talk about itā€™,ā€ he said.

ā€œWeā€™ve got a ton of things to talk about, and a ton of things that we are already working on. So, better communication, level-setting expectations, outlining what weā€™re going to be doing for 2011. Weā€™ve got a pretty big announcement coming up for GDC,ā€ he continued. ā€œThe way I look at it or articulate internally, is taking this organization from crawl to walk. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Thatā€™s where we are today. Itā€™s helping and gathering, building things out, so that we can be a lot more public and vocal, and vociferous.ā€

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