Village Gamer

Vancouver – The brand new Women In Games International Vancouver Chapter was officially launched last evening at a networking mingler hosted by Wired Woman at Subeez Cafe. Well over one hundred members of the local digital media industry were in attendance to welcome the new Chapter, witness a little guy vs. gal Rock Band play, network and win a few prizes.

The Women In Games International Vancouver Chapter came into being after a similar event was held in September, when strong local interest was expressed in regards to having our own WIGI Chapter. The new local Chapter, led by Krissie Franco and Maria Ruiz-Isaac is still in the organizing stages and new members are welcome to join. In the very near future, an Advisory Board, Board of Directors and Steering Committee will be formed. There will be ample opportunity for community input as solid goals and directives are investigated.

WIGI Vancouver will be striving towards adding value to the gaming community through mentorships, scholarships, industry awareness programmes and of course networking minglers. WIGI will be an active participant in local events such as VFS’ Game Design Expo and GDC Canada, and an online community willbe launched in the near future. WIGI Vancouver currently has a group page on Facebook, which interested parties are welcome to join.

Sponsors for the WIGI Vancouver Launch included: Big Fish Games, Radical Entertainment, Blue Castle Games, Vancouver Film School, Deep Fried Entertainment, 7 Group Digital Media, Hydrogen Whiskey, Relic Entertainment, New Media BC, EA Canada, Captain Morgan, Ketel One Vodka and Subeez Cafe – my apologies to any sponsors I may have missed. Many thanks to all of you for sponsoring, and for everyone else who helped to make this launch event a great night.

Women in Games International Launches Online Auction on eBay To Raise Funds for National Games Non-Profit Organization

Women in Games International (WIGI) presents their WIGI Celebrity Ebay Auction, a collection of over a hundred video games and game-related merchandise items — much of it signed by industry leaders — being auctioned to raise funds for Women in Games International.

If there’s one thing gamers love more than games themselves, it’s awesome game-related merchandise. That’s why Women in Games International is happy to announce their 2008 celebrity auction, a collection of over 100 items generously donated by leaders in the video game industry — including Bungie, Microsoft Game Studios, Electronic Arts, and many other game companies.
Read the rest of this entry »

The call for submissions to present lectures, roundtables and panel sessions for the 2009 Game Developers Conference Canada (GDC Canada) is now open through midnight, Friday, November 28, 2008. Presented by Reboot Communications and Think Services, organizers of the industry-leading Game Developers Conference, GDC Canada will take place at the Vancouver Convention and Exposition Centre in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada May 12-13, 2009. GDC Canada will provide insight into the thriving Canadian game development community and will serve as an opportunity for developers to share best practices for fostering excellence and quality games within their region and distributed globally.

The Game Developers Conference Canada emphasizes studying the challenges and opportunities of creating games with long production cycles, large development teams, and multi-platform releases. The tracks for GDC Canada are structured according to production stages of game development and submissions should address the most pressing game development challenges that fall under the following development stages:

• Concept/Preproduction
• Production
• Finalling
• Post-Launch

Some of the Submission Guidelines Are:

The GDC Canada Advisory Board is looking for high-level, specific content that will fit into one of the tracks listed above. An extended abstract will be necessary for the advisory board to determine whether your talk will be a good fit. Concise, precise language and a discernable thesis will also help your chances in the review process.

Read the rest of this entry »

New Media BC’s members celebrated the first Canadian National Digital Media Day by holding their 10th Annual Annual General Meeting at Radical Entertainment’s Terminal Avenue studio.

After a welcome greeting from Radical President Kelly Zmak, New Media BC President Kenton Low opened the AGM with a quick recap of 2007’s events and milestones, along with a look into the future plans and how New Media BC will move our west coast digital media forward. With a growing membership base, a good financial position, an expanding list of programmes and a higher level of political awareness, the future does indeed look bright for the New Media BC Association.

Brief reports were filed in regards to Opportunity Alert, Mobile Muse and The Fusion Forum. NMBC members also received a progress report on the Board’s lobbying efforts with the Provincial and Federal Governments in hopes of improving the economic outlook for the digital media industry in British Columbia. Of course the most exciting announcement of the night was the fact that Vancouver will be home to GDC Canada, which will take place during Vancouver Digital Week in May of 2009.

Read the rest of this entry »

The tenth Annual General Meeting for New Media BC will be held on Thursday September 25, 2008 at Radical Entertainment, 8th Floor – 369 Terminal Avenue in Vancouver. The doors will open for registration and networking at 3:15pm, followed by the official meeting at 4:00pm. New Media BC members will be updated on all of the activities which New Media BC has participated in over the past year, see an outline of what is planned for the coming year, go over the financial reports and elect the Board of Directors for 2009-2010. There will also be announcements regarding Digital Week 2009. After the conclusion of the AGM, members are invited to celebrate Canada’s first National Digital Media Day by mingling to catch up with old friends, make new friends, and view a Politube Shorts Screening presented by New Forms Festival. Members need to pre-register for the AGM and Mixer – if you’re not a member of New Media BC but would like more information, please check out the Membership Benefits page on the New Media BC site.

The Society for New Communications Research, a nonprofit think tank focused on the latest developments in new media and communications, today announced a call for entries for the 2008 Excellence in New Communications Awards.

This prestigious awards program honors the work of corporations, governmental and nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, media outlets and individuals who are innovating the use of social media, ICT, mobile media, online communities and virtual worlds and collaborative technologies in the areas of business, media, and professional communications, including advertising, marketing, public relations and corporate communications, as well as entertainment, education, politics, and social initiatives.

Awards are granted in six divisions: Corporate, Government, Media, Nonprofit/NGO, Academic, and Technology Innovation (for New Communications and Social Media Technology Vendors), and in seven categories: Online Reputation Management; Behind the Firewall; Blogger Relations; External Communications & Communities; New Media Creation; Collaboration & Co-creation; and Mobile Media. In addition, the Society’s Fellows will select and honor the Visionary of the Year, the Innovator of the Year, and the Brand of the Year.

Read the rest of this entry »

The International Game Developers’ Association (of which this writer is a member) will be launching a project to remember those game pioneers who came before, as well as those who have become an important part of today’s industry. Begun by the IGDA’s Game Preservation SIG , the Memorial Project will ” contain biographies of professionals from around the world, and is welcome to anyone who worked on a game or with the Industry in the past.”

There will also be memorial areas for those who designed paper-based games, as well as “notable individuals from the toy industry, critical game studies, and computer science, whose work has greatly affected the ways in which we understand, play, and design our games.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Some sections are having content added and will be fully operational soon. Thank you for your patience as we build our new site. 🙂