{"id":352,"date":"2006-09-08T12:21:52","date_gmt":"2006-09-08T10:21:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.randform.org\/blog\/?p=352"},"modified":"2007-06-04T08:28:43","modified_gmt":"2007-06-04T06:28:43","slug":"games-convention-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.randform.org\/blog\/?p=352","title":{"rendered":"Games Convention Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img id=\"image351\" src=\"http:\/\/www.randform.org\/blog\/wp-content\/2006\/08\/CDAnimation.gif\" alt=\"CDAnimation.gif\" \/><br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\n<\/br><br \/>\nWith a two weeks delay I finally managed to put part II of the report about the Games Convention together :).  As I allready said in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.randform.org\/blog\/?p=404\">this randform post<\/a> &#8211; there were no big technological novelties to see. The european market is obviously not prime interest of the games industry, which became last not least now also apparent by the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Playstation_3\">postponed european release date of playstation 3  (now march 07).<\/a>  Maybe this lack of interest is due to staggering <a href=\"http:\/\/www.faz.net\/s\/RubC8BA5576CDEE4A05AF8DFEC92E288D64\/Doc~EF616ABF8A4EF4670BA0F51B2FCFA485A~ATpl~Ecommon~Scontent.html\">sales <\/a> (at least in germany) and maybe this is also the reason why this years games convention tried to address a bigger circle of possible customers. So,  next to the usual male-under-30 videogame section,  the GC hosted not only the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.randform.org\/blog\/?p=353\">aforementioned pong.mythos<\/a>, but further art+game sections, a family section and a special female partition.<\/p>\n<p><img id=\"image440\" src=\"http:\/\/www.randform.org\/blog\/wp-content\/2006\/09\/uni.jpg\" alt=\"uni.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div style=\"font-size:90%; text-align:center;\">The backbone: The computer science department of the University of Leipzig <\/div>\n<p>\n<img id=\"image388\" src=\"http:\/\/www.randform.org\/blog\/wp-content\/2006\/08\/family.jpg\" alt=\"family.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div style=\"font-size:90%; text-align:center;\">The relaxed family hall<\/div>\n<p>\n<img id=\"image381\" src=\"http:\/\/www.randform.org\/blog\/wp-content\/2006\/08\/machinima.JPG\" alt=\"machinima.JPG\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\n<img id=\"image382\" src=\"http:\/\/www.randform.org\/blog\/wp-content\/2006\/08\/sandbox.JPG\" alt=\"sandbox.JPG\" \/><\/p>\n<div style=\"font-size:90%; text-align:center;\">Klaus Neumann and Friedrich Kirschner giving a workshop on their <a href=\"http:\/\/moviesandbox.com\/\">movie sandbox<\/a> <\/div>\n<p>The arts section was expanded by several workshops, so I found Friedrich and Klaus while being very busy with their workshop (but still smiling..) (see also <a href=\"http:\/\/www.randform.org\/blog\/?p=282\">NMI conference post<\/a>) and there were several students and installations of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.burg-halle.de\/\">Burg Giebichenstein<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img id=\"image397\" src=\"http:\/\/www.randform.org\/blog\/wp-content\/2006\/08\/giebichenstein.JPG\" alt=\"giebichenstein.JPG\" \/><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div style=\"font-size:90%; text-align:center;\">Burg Giebichensteins virtual environments made with french <a href=\"http:\/\/www.virtools.com\/\">virtools<\/a><\/div>\n<p>\n<img id=\"image384\" src=\"http:\/\/www.randform.org\/blog\/wp-content\/2006\/08\/giebichensteinposter.JPG\" alt=\"giebichensteinposter.JPG\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\n<img id=\"image379\" src=\"http:\/\/www.randform.org\/blog\/wp-content\/2006\/08\/beauties.JPG\" alt=\"beauties.JPG\" \/><\/p>\n<div style=\"font-size:90%; text-align:center;\">Burg Giebichensteins exhibition: Digital Beauties<\/div>\n<p>\n<img id=\"image383\" src=\"http:\/\/www.randform.org\/blog\/wp-content\/2006\/08\/boyfriend.jpg\" alt=\"boyfriend.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div style=\"font-size:90%; text-align:center;\">From the female section: How to find a boy friend<\/div>\n<p>\n<img id=\"image385\" src=\"http:\/\/www.randform.org\/blog\/wp-content\/2006\/08\/unimaedel.jpg\" alt=\"unimaedel.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\n<img id=\"image387\" src=\"http:\/\/www.randform.org\/blog\/wp-content\/2006\/08\/nintendolight.jpg\" alt=\"nintendolight.jpg\" \/> <\/p>\n<div style=\"font-size:90%; text-align:center;\"> Nindento`s DS light in fact managed to find a female audience<\/div>\n<p>\n<img id=\"image380\" src=\"http:\/\/www.randform.org\/blog\/wp-content\/2006\/08\/boothbabe.jpg\" alt=\"boothbabe.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div style=\"font-size:90%; text-align:center;\">A socalled &#8220;boothbabe&#8221;, displaying another side of female existence<\/div>\n<p>\n<img id=\"image398\" src=\"http:\/\/www.randform.org\/blog\/wp-content\/2006\/08\/sonyprinzessin.jpg\" alt=\"sonyprinzessin.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div style=\"font-size:90%; text-align:center;\"> A socalled Sony&#8217;s blurred princess displaying also another side of female existence<\/div>\n<p>\nBy the previous images one may get falsely  the impression that a major female turn  took place in the games industry &#8211; but in fact on the contrary &#8211;  it was rather hard to find females at all at the GC and it was the first time in my life that I saw on a public event a line in front of the men toilets and not &#8211; as usual (architects listen!) a line in front of the women&#8217;s toilet.<br \/>\nThere is a very interesting interview with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pingmag.jp\/2006\/08\/25\/game-boys-for-play-girls-games-and-gender-by-babsi\/\">Barbara Lippe on ping mag <\/a> about gender and games. (actually there are also other interesting points in that interview&#8230;especially the one about how reality looks like). A lot of interesting links on the gender issue and on games in general you may also find on  <a href=\"http:\/\/maryflanagan.com\/default.htm\">Mary Flanagan&#8217;s website.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><\/br><br \/>\nHowever it was clear games are still mostly a boys thing:<\/p>\n<p><img id=\"image439\" src=\"http:\/\/www.randform.org\/blog\/wp-content\/2006\/09\/superman.jpg\" alt=\"superman.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p><\/br><br \/>\n<img id=\"image399\" src=\"http:\/\/www.randform.org\/blog\/wp-content\/2006\/08\/flur.jpg\" alt=\"flur.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div style=\"font-size:90%; text-align:center;\">Sony getting away from the middle age fantasy look with a GTA clone for PS III<\/div>\n<p>\n<img id=\"image396\" src=\"http:\/\/www.randform.org\/blog\/wp-content\/2006\/08\/publikum.jpg\" alt=\"publikum.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\n<img id=\"image395\" src=\"http:\/\/www.randform.org\/blog\/wp-content\/2006\/08\/fans.JPG\" alt=\"fans.JPG\" \/><\/p>\n<div style=\"font-size:90%; text-align:center;\"> Inside the (male) crowd<\/div>\n<p>\n<img id=\"image377\" src=\"http:\/\/www.randform.org\/blog\/wp-content\/2006\/08\/autorennen1.JPG\" alt=\"autorennen1.JPG\" \/><br \/>\n<br \/>\n<img id=\"image434\" src=\"http:\/\/www.randform.org\/blog\/wp-content\/2006\/09\/kampf.jpg\" alt=\"kampf.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\n<img id=\"image401\" src=\"http:\/\/www.randform.org\/blog\/wp-content\/2006\/08\/vogelmaus1.JPG\" alt=\"vogelmaus1.JPG\" \/><\/p>\n<div style=\"font-size:90%; text-align:center;\">huu?<\/div>\n<p>Last &#8211; not least the GC was a fair &#8211; means &#8211; big business:<\/p>\n<p><img id=\"image376\" src=\"http:\/\/www.randform.org\/blog\/wp-content\/2006\/08\/atari.JPG\" alt=\"atari.JPG\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img id=\"image442\" src=\"http:\/\/www.randform.org\/blog\/wp-content\/2006\/09\/xbox.jpg\" alt=\"xbox.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img id=\"image378\" src=\"http:\/\/www.randform.org\/blog\/wp-content\/2006\/08\/autorennen2.jpg\" alt=\"autorennen2.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img id=\"image392\" src=\"http:\/\/www.randform.org\/blog\/wp-content\/2006\/08\/KOklein.JPG\" alt=\"KOklein.JPG\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img id=\"image436\" src=\"http:\/\/www.randform.org\/blog\/wp-content\/2006\/09\/nintendo.JPG\" alt=\"nintendo.JPG\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img id=\"image438\" src=\"http:\/\/www.randform.org\/blog\/wp-content\/2006\/09\/starwars.jpg\" alt=\"starwars.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img id=\"image437\" src=\"http:\/\/www.randform.org\/blog\/wp-content\/2006\/09\/sega.JPG\" alt=\"sega.JPG\" \/><\/p>\n<p>And this image of hard big business was also not really relaxed by these funny case modders:<\/p>\n<p><img id=\"image390\" src=\"http:\/\/www.randform.org\/blog\/wp-content\/2006\/08\/casemodders.JPG\" alt=\"casemodders.JPG\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\n<img id=\"image435\" src=\"http:\/\/www.randform.org\/blog\/wp-content\/2006\/09\/modhawk.JPG\" alt=\"modhawk.JPG\" \/><\/p>\n<p>OK that&#8217;s it from the games convention, left out are a few dazzling images from <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Spore_%28video_game%29\">spore<\/a>&#8230;they will be put into a subsequent post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.randform.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.randform.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.randform.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.randform.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.randform.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.randform.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.randform.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.randform.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.randform.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}