Edinburgh Interactive Festival 2007 Is Next Month

As mentioned previously, the games developed in 2007’s Dare to Be Digital competition will be showcased at this year’s Edinburgh Interactive Entertainment Festival. The festival this year will run from 13th to 14th August. The programme has now been announced, with thirteen events spread across two days. And that’s not even counting Dare Protoplay. Here are the bits I found most interesting:

Edinburgh Interactive Festival

Monday 13th August – 15:45 Games Actually
Sevket Gozolan, Marie-Sol Beaudry, Patrick O’Luanaigh, Sean Dromgoole
Are game developers and publishers paying attention to the fastest growing sector in the interactive games industry…the female gamer? Do they really need to? Join the debate with industry insiders Sean Dromgoole of Some Research, Marie-Sol Beaudry of Ubisoft, Patrick O’Luanaigh of nDreams and Sevket Gozalan of Play Vanilla.

S’pose that depends on whether or not you want to fight for attention in an almost-saturated market or expand your horizons to include new people, doesn’t it?

Monday 13th August – 16:30 Casting for Games – The CG Actor
Ian Livingstone
Casting CG characters in games is a different mindset and skill – Ian Livingstone of Eidos puts some logic behind the evolution of games generated character and what makes success.

Let’s see… in my gaming experience it seems to be mostly ‘person in distress that needs saving’ = female (or male). Military = male. Redshirt = male. Lackey = male. You mean there’s more to it? There certainly should be.

Tuesday 14 August – 13:45 Keynote: Simon Nelson
Simon Nelson who introduced podcasting in his last role for the BBC and now Head of BBC Vision reveals why BBC DG Mark Thompson said the corporation had something to learn from ‘games’ and how ‘games’ will figure in the beeb’s new media folio in the future.

I’ll freely admit I spent the last two years without a television. I get all the information I need through the internet. Nevertheless, I think the BBC still has an important part to play when it comes to public service.

Several years ago I was in conversation with a “Women’s Services” doctor. A character on one of the more popular soaps had unexpectedly died of cervical cancer. This led to a sudden surge of women reporting for the cervical smears that they had been neglecting for years, despite receiving many regular reminder letters. The waiting list for test results tripled in just a few weeks.

All because of a soap storyline.

Games, if done properly, can be just as educational. Every once in a while you hear that young people are watching less TV. Public service broadcasting needs to find a way to engage with them (us). Fun games with a serious message could be the answer.

The official Edinburgh Interactive Festival website will give you the full programme details, along with venue information. It’s unfortunately rather pricey to actually attend – £141 if you book before 1st August or an almost-affordable £88.13 for students. I shall not be going :(

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