Entertainment Software Industry Hits the High Notes at SXSW
Video Game Art Displayed and Educational Applications Discussed as the Texas Legislature Considers Economic Incentives
The entertainment software industry was high on the minds of the Lone Star State last month, with appearances at the 2009 South by Southwest (SXSW) Music, Film and Interactive Festival, tax incentive legislation under consideration in the Texas state legislature and an op-ed by Entertainment Software Association (ESA) president and CEO Michael Gallagher in The Austin American-Statesman.
Into the Pixel, an art exhibit sponsored by the ESA, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, premiered at SXSW's ScreenBurnArcade. Into the Pixel showcases the visual art of games and offers an opportunity for published computer and video game artists to be reviewed and recognized by the public and by their peers from the fine art and video game worlds. The travelling exhibit features 16 pieces of video game art selected from submissions garnered around the world.
The video game industry was also a prominent topic in many of SXSW Interactive's panel discussions. One of the most well attended video game panels, "What Can We Learn from Games," highlighted the business and educational benefits of video games. Panelists included game developers and university professors who spoke about using video games as classroom learning tools. Henry Jenkins, director of the comparative media studies program at MIT; James Gee, Mary Lou Fulton presidential professor of literary studies at Arizona State University; and Warren Spector, general manager and creative director of Junction Point at Disney Interactive Studios all offered their insights on how video games can positively influence classroom learning.
The panelists discussed how video games can support collaborative and interactive learning through developing problem solving skills that focus on understanding the structure and tools of the issue rather than simply coming up with the right answer. For students to learn from games, the panelists indicated that educators will need to adopt a new approach to teaching, based on the notion that making mistakes can be an opportunity for learning and collaboration can allow for more creative problem solving, not just sharing answers.
Amidst this backdrop of video game artistry and academics, the Texas State Senate and House of Representatives are considering bills that propose to expand the economic incentive programs available to the entertainment software industry in an effort to encourage talented programmers and animators to live and work in the Lone Star state. Texas Governor Rick Perry supports the legislation and has encouraged the legislature to pass it. To date, 16 states have either passed or are considering similar measures.
Seizing on the timeliness of the legislative activities and the start of SXSW, the Austin American-Statesman featured an op-ed by ESA President and CEO Michael Gallagher, which discussed the many ways Texas embraces the computer and video game industry.
Gallagher urged the state lawmakers to pass the pending legislation, praising it as an investment for both the people of Texas and the state's rich cultural legacy. In support of his argument, Gallagher touted the industry's strong economic contributions in Texas. Gallagher wrote, "Video games' near-universal application has produced a $22 billion industry. With over 90 development companies in Texas, the video game industry accounted for more than one-third of the moving media industry's $345 million investment in the state in 2007. In addition to the more than 7,500 jobs that the industry currently supports in Texas, the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts found in a recent report that video games ‘have a ripple-effect and spread technological innovations to other industries."
Utah's Governor Huntsman Vetoes Adverse Video Game Legislation
Late last month, Utah Governor Jon Huntsman vetoed HB 353, a bill that would have amended the state's Truth in Advertising law and inhibited the promotion of the Entertainment Software Rating Board's (ESRB) video game rating system.
"The industries most affected by this new requirement indicated that rather than risk being held liable under this bill, they would likely choose to no longer issue age appropriate labels on goods and services," Gov. Huntsman remarked in explaining his rationale for the veto. "Therefore, the unintended consequence of the bill would be that parents and children would have no labels to guide them in determining the age appropriateness of the goods or service, thereby increasing children's potential exposure to something they or their parents would have otherwise determined was inappropriate under the voluntary labeling system now being recognized and embraced by a significant majority of vendors."
Gov. Huntsman's decision followed outcry from many parents, retailers and gamers. The Video Game Voters Network (VGVN), a coalition of voting-aged gamers that works to protect free speech and defend video games from intrusive legislation and regulation, helped to unify the opposition movement, sending several hundred letters to the governor's office.
The VGVN, founded by the ESA in 2006, has more than 160,000 members, who are updated frequently about policy issues related to gaming, providing an opportunity to express their views to federal, state and local government officials and voter registration. Interested individuals can join the VGVN by visiting www.videogamevoters.org.
New Interactive Game Teaches Mobile Device Safety to Youth
Web Wise Kids, in a collaborative partnership with the ESA Foundation, the Verizon Foundation, and WILL Interactive, unveiled a new online game in California this month entitled It's Your Call, which will teach mobile device safety and responsibility to middle and high school-aged students. The interactive game simulates real-life situations that provide teachable moments, instilling positive mobile safety behaviors in youth.
When the Entertainment Software Association began working with Web Wise Kids in 2001, roughly 11 million teens carried a wireless devise. Today, that number has increased by roughly 60 percent to 17 million teenagers with wireless devices nationwide. And while youth may be very proficient when it comes to knowing how to use cell phones, only41 percent of teenagers say they're concerned about privacy and security issues relating to their phone use.
It's Your Call, launched at a special event in the Los Angeles Unified School District at Sepulveda Middle School in North Hills, Calif., is an interactive game that allows players to become a live action character in an interactive movie. The character is presented with a series of difficult decisions relating to mobile safety in a slice-of-life context.
"As we all increasingly rely on mobile technology in our lives, it is critical that young people understand how to use cell phones responsibly with their peers and with adults," said Los Angeles Unified School Board President Mónica García. "I applaud Web Wise Kids, WILL Interactive, Verizon and the ESA Foundation for taking this step to educate young people on how to be safe and enjoy the many benefits of mobile communications."
With one in three teenagers using their cell phones to browse the web, half of which visit social networking sites, and another one in five sending and receiving pictures via text messages, the need for guidance on safe behaviors is at an all-time high. It's Your Call will help teach young people how to avoid potentially harmful situations through an innovative and interactive e-learning module designed to educate as it entertains.
Web Wise Kids programs have reached over five million children nationwide through the development and implementation of engaging e-learning tools and simulations that have the unique ability to entertain as they educate.
For more information on It's Your Call, please visit the Web Wise Kids Web site at www.webwisekids.org or http://www.webwise
kids.org/our_software.asp?page=itsyourcall.
Video Games and Baseball Hit a
Home Run
It's springtime in America, and that means birds chirping, flowers blooming… and, of course, the baseball season is starting. The sport's return brings more attention to video games, which have shared a relationship with the national pastime since early game consoles featured the first baseball simulators.
This year, gamers can test their hitting and fielding skills with baseball video games even as they cheer on their favorite players from the ballpark seats. The New York Yankees' brand new $1.5 billion stadium features luxury suites that come furnished with a PlayStation 3® video game console. Nationals Park, the Washington Nationals' stadium built in 2008, includes a 3,700-square-foot PlayStation Pavilion, where families can enjoy sports and music games before and during the on-field action. Like the consoles installed at Yankee Stadium, the PlayStation Pavilion is part of a larger partnership with Sony that includes stadium advertising and supplying broadcasting equipment. This creative relationship is based, in part, on Nationals president Stan Kasten's belief that he didn't want to just advertise with the team's business partners. "We'd like [our sponsors] to become a part of the park to activate and animate the park," Kasten remarked. That was the idea when Safeco Field, home of the Seattle Mariners, installed Nintendo Fan Network in 2007. The interactive system allows fans at the game to watch broadcast replays, play baseball mini-games with other fans and even order food from the bleachers wirelessly on their Nintendo DS hand-held consoles.
Baseball card collecting, meanwhile, has long been a hobby of baseball fans of all ages. This year, the Topps baseball card company has put a futuristic video game spin on the classic collectible. The company introduced Topps 3D Live baseball cards, which can actually become video games in the palm of your hand. When these cards are held in front of a computer's webcam, a three-dimensional avatar of the player appears on the computer screen. The avatar can then be used to play pitching, batting and catching games with the computer's keyboard.
There are also several new baseball video games being released in time for opening day. To complement the latest edition of their baseball game, MLB 2K9, 2K Sports recently released a different type of baseball simulator. MLB Front Office Manager takes the growing fad of fantasy baseball and brings it to a whole new level. The game doesn't focus on pitching, hitting or fielding. Instead, it is structured around the 30-year career of a general manager, which allows players to do everything a real-life general manager in the major leagues can do. The game is so true to life that it made an impression on Oakland Athletics' general manager Billy Beane. In reference to the game, Beane said, "I don't know that you can find anything that duplicates [my job] better than this."
Familiar titles are premiering new features as well. Sony Computer Entertainment of America's MLB '09 The Show includes "Road to the Show," in which you can create a player with customized skills and follow his development from the minor to the major leagues. In addition, Atari's Backyard Baseball '09 brings the sport to the Nintendo DS, making use of the hand-held console's touch controls.
Finally, a group in Cuba is releasing the country's first home-grown baseball video game. MVP Cuba 1.0 features players that have defected from Cuba to play baseball in the United States. Traditionally, the names of the defecting players, such as Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez and Jose Contreras, are completely censored in Cuba and expunged from official memory. Their inclusion in a state-sanctioned baseball video game may be symbolic step for the country, as well as for video games. As video games surmount technological frontiers, here is a game that could help break diplomatic barriers. |
