An exclusive gaming industry community targeted
to, and designed for Professionals, Businesses
and Students in the sectors and industries
of Gaming, New Media and the Web, all closely
related with it's Business and Industry.
A Rich content driven service including articles,
contributed discussion, news, reviews, networking, downloads,
and debate.
We strive to cater for cultural influencers,
technology decision makers, early adopters and business leaders in the gaming industry.
A medium to share your or contribute your ideas,
experiences, questions and point of view or network
with other colleagues here at iVirtua Community.
Jay Taylor of iVirtua (Live) will be reviewing the event as it happens.
22 October – Early November 2007 sees the second London Games Festival for consumers and trade. Many changes to the structure and management of the Festival have taken place since last year, making it easier to get involved and offering more PR and consumer-focused opportunities to participants.
Key targets for the Festival are to create positive engaging events across the capital, to encourage mainstream media attention, stimulate consumer discussion and aid businesses.
The Festival programme will include a series of diverse events from the world of interactive entertainment. Video games publishers, developers, partners, personalities, trade organisations, media organisations and individuals will all be involved in the week-long celebrations. The LGF will provide the industry with the opportunity to showcase creativity and artistry, from script-writers to animators, musicians to programmers. To put games industry careers at the top of wish-lists and to celebrate players in an inclusive way that embraces all demographics.
Quote:
The Festival also aims to enhance perception of interactive entertainment and the industry by engaging with existing institutional advocates (BAFTA, ELSPA, DfES, DCMS, BBFC, DTI, LDA) and illustrating compelling and positive research while promoting future vision and horizons of the games industry.
Alongside the week of media and/or consumer-facing events will be a number of B2B events organised by the industry’s trade bodies and other organisations.
This year's London Games Festival is upon us, following on from last year's inaugural event. With a week that's packed with a range of different activities across the city, we hear from LGF spokesperson Duncan Best, who gives us his thoughts on this year's event.
Well, the London Games Festival is upon us, and I will soon be looking forward to some sleep. From a personal point of view these last months have been packed with the full range of emotions but, despite this, the Festival is an unmitigated success.
Putting aside the emotional elements, let's have a look at the facts. Firstly, with well over 50 events taking place, many of them for more than a day, the Festival is easily the biggest celebration of creativity in gaming the country, and possibly Europe, has seen. It has around 430 hours of events and attendance could well top 100,000 visitors.
Large public events like Microsoft's Jump In at the Vinyl Factory and EA's Be the One will ensure that visitors to our capital will know something big is going on.
Other events like the Golden Joysticks, Video Games Live, Ubi's FUSE 07 and the BAFTAs will ensure that the press is exposed to the depths of the games business' creativity and artistry.
But it's the diversity of events in the Festival that will make it a true success in this time of unbalanced representation in the media; the Festival has given the industry
the opportunity to showcase most facets of this intricate business.
It has everything, from the London Game Career Fair to the live production of an
ARG, and the latest research into brain interfaces.
This doesn't mean to say we've got it all right. For the LGF to truly rival the media and consumer impact of London's other festivals - Film and Fashion - the industry needs to switch from its traditional view that everything should lead to direct and almost immediate personal gain.
The film, TV, fashion and music industries have been doing it for years - investing together in showcases that improve and increase overall economy and perception of the business.
This doesn't mean there aren't direct benefits, but it seems logical to suggest that if the games industry can be tarnished with the brush of one or two games, then equally, its successes will rub off to everyone's benefit.
This year, sadly, we weren't able to meet all the publishers' needs for London spaces but this problem will be rectified for next year with the increased backing of the LDA, Visit London and the GLA.
For me, one of the highlights is EA's Be the One event in Trafalgar Square. Not just because it's huge, but because it lays out the direction for the consumer events at future festivals - the head of Creative London has suggested that all major publishers should be occupying famous London spaces in years to come.
Other highlights are the London Game Career Fair which is filled to capacity (something which the DCFS must be delighted by) and "Dr Kawashima is a great teacher!" - a fascinating report on educational and social benefits of gaming in Scottish classrooms.
Digg Topic
Tag topic on On del.icio.us
Technorati Search
Post to Slashdot
