Last week marked the second annual Ottawa International Game Conference which I had the fortune of attending. The OIGC did things a little differently this year, including setting up a 'show floor' style area where developers from the Ottawa region and neighbouring cities could come and show off their games. I think this is awesome and I wanted to do my small part to encourage this showcase of tallent by sharing a little about the cool stuff I saw with all of you. I would like to apologize to all the developers I didn't get around to visiting as I also spent my time at the conference mingling and attending talks. That being said, click through to see some of what was on offer at the OIGC 2013!
George Kokoris has posted a short article over on Kotaku describing his first encounter with the Nintendo 3DS and how it introduced him to binocular depth perception... Oh and how that made him cry.
Here's a video from The Idea Channel on the morality of buying video games that license the permission to use facsimiles of real guns from gun manufacturers. I like the 'no right or wrong' take of the video on the subject, simply pointing out that real money is being given to real weapon manufacturers for the use of these virtual replicas, just like driving your favourite Ferrari in Forza or Grand Tourismo results in licencing fees to Ferrari, so to does firing rounds of an A-K 47 or P90 in games like Call of Duty or Battlefield. So, what do you think about that?
Personally, I haven't really thought about it. I mean, I knew that realistic guns in games bearing trade markings etc. were licensed from the companies that manufacture the real things, but I never made that money trail link between me, the consumer, and Colt getting a licencing check from Activision.
I'll be honest with you, as a huge fan of shooters, I'm not thrilled to think about this. I like my shooting virtual, and don't love the idea of helping to fund real gun manufacturing.
When it comes to matters of gun control and gun ownership I don't pretend the issue is simpler than it is, I mean, I know no amount of legislation is going to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and that, ultimately, bad people are to blame for bad things, but it's hard to argue with the simple logic that it's hard to perpetrate a gun crime without a gun and I wouldn't mind a world with less of them. So, I guess I'll be thinking twice before I open my wallet to a game featuring licensed weaponry from now on.
I wanted to give a shout out to Ashley and Ka of Meeple's Republic who I met last weekend at Game Summit. They got a lot of eyes on Roll'n Bump on Sunday and helped steer a number of people over to the Mrs. Tiggy Winkles booth. (Thanks again so much you two.)
Greetings from Game Summit! I had a surprise visit from my publisher this morning, who, on a whim, decided to pop in to check out the show. Oh, ya, and tell me that all Mrs. Tiggy Winkle's stores will be carrying Roll'n Bump! In fact, if you are at the show and want to pick up a copy for yourself, the Mrs. Tiggy Winkle shop here in the convention marketplace has plenty of boxes.
