TODAY in G&S "Not game to gaming: Cybercultures and the Indian State"

TODAY in Games & Storytelling lecture:Nishant Shah, Expert of Asian cybercultures "Not game to gaming: Cybercultures and the Indian State"

Tuesday, 13th March 2007 17:15-19:00 University of Tampere, lecture hall 1096, PinniB Video venue: University of Art and Design Helsinki, Media Centre Lume, Sampo Auditorium

A particular form of state support and marketing of digital technologies in India renders the otherwise accepted Western ideas of cybercultures as encouraging new public spheres and subcultures like gaming or open source movements, obsolete. This lecture looks at the historico-political ideologies that shape the emergence of cybercultures in India and look at the few sites of gaming which are slowly growing in unexpected areas. In the process we also look at how technologies get integrated into existing social paradigms to create certain patterns of continuities and interruptions.

Free admittance.

All welcome!

-Posted by Miikka Luotio

December gathering featured in IGDA 2006 Annual Report

http://www.igda.org/about/annual_report_06.php IGDA Finland got mentioned and featured with a photo in IGDA Annual Report of 2006. The featured item was a photo from Wii event of IGDA Finland December Gathering.

Thanks to everyone who attended and those who helped enable this great event!

-Miikka Luotio

IGDA Finland March Gathering - 20th March 2007

Greetings fellow developers! It's time for another IGDA Finland Gathering at System Rock. Winter is starting to slowly lose it's grip and spring is starting to show it's first signs. With the first signs of spring came also the time for GDC 2007 (Game Developers Conference) in San Francisco. So come now and join us in System Rock, 20th March to hear the latest updates from people who went to GDC or come to share your GDC experiences with people who did not make it to GDC this year. Be the case anything, you can always just drop in to share couple refreshing drinks with your friends!

IGDA FINLAND MARCH GATHERING

Place: System Rock, Keskuskatu 4, 00100 Helsinki (map: http://igda.fi/?page_id=5) Time: Tuesday 20th March, doors open at 19.00

PS. Don’t forget to bring your handheld consoles! ;) -Miikka Luotio

February Gathering - After Action Report

February gathering was held during the skiing-holidays, which ensured that System Rock was not too crowded this time and free seats were readily available, another factor probably was the cold weather outside (-17C). All in all, we had 86 people in attendance, some of them all the way from Oulu -region and even from Luxembourg.

For more photos click HERE

One of the main topics of the evening was GDC'07. Most were excited about the program this year. The plentitude of Finnish speakers this year was something everybody seemed really happy about (Lasse Seppänen/Remedy, Jeff Valadares/Sumea, Petri Ikonen/Sumea, Jani Kajala/Rovio, ...).

Another happy GDC-related news was that Liz, one of our chapter coordinators, won the IGDA student scholarship, so she'll be able to attend also - congrats to Liz! But the most talked about topic seemed to be the fact that people from at least 6 or 7 game companies flying over on the same flight to GDC'07 - should be an interesting flight. :)

One new volunteer joined the volunteers; Vesa-Matti Raudasoja, who is an ARTO student at Pelikoulutus 2006-2008. Welcome aboard Vesa-Matti!

-Miikka Luotio

Finnish Game Developers Association has been founded

The Finnish Game Developers Association/Suomen Pelinkehittäjät ry (English name tentative) has been founded in Pasila, Helsinki on February 5th 2007.The purpose of the association is to provide means for cooperation and progress for Finnish game companies, and act as a representative body for them.

Six members were selected into the board of directors to represent various sectors of game development: PC and console games, mobile games, web games, handheld games and TV-mobile games. Ilari Kuittinen from Housemarque was selected as the chairman of the board, and Neogames' KooPee Hiltunen as the representative of the association.

Companies in the games industry that focus on the creation of digital games will be able to join once the registration of the association is complete.

The creation of this type of association is warranted by the strong growth of the game development field and it becoming one of the leading creative industries. The FGDA will be working closely together with other games industry organizations. The FGDA is unambiguously the representative body for game development companies.

More information concerning the operation of the FGDA will be provided during the spring.

Additional information from: KooPee Hiltunen koopee@neogames.fi

-Miikka Luotio