IGDA Finland Receives MVP Award '07

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IGDA honors one of it's most active & succesful chapters during GDC 2007. Pictured: Liz Lehtonen, Lasse Seppänen & Jyri Ranki only moments after receiving the award

IGDA holds a VIP Luncheon every year at GDC. At the luncheon, IGDA recognises outstanding contributions to the betterment of the game development community by giving out MVP awards. The term MVP comes from a well known sports term Most Valuable Player. This year, IGDA Finland had the honor of being one of 3 recipients!

The MVP award has my name written on it, but IGDA Executive Director Jason Della Rocca asked me to convey to all of you that it really is to all those who volunteer their time and energy for the IGDA Finland chapter.

And I couldn't agree more! Without all the volunteers, my fellow coordinators and advisory board members, we wouldn't have such a successful chapter. So thank you all for your great work! It has been recognized on a global scale (see about us for full listing of people behind the chapter).

I also want to thank all of our c.200 members and the hundreds of others who regularly attend our gatherings. Without you, there would be no reason to have them. Your presence is what makes them valuable.

I will be bringing the award to the next gathering for all of you to see.

Go Finland!

- Jyri Ranki, Lead Coordinator

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

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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

IGDA Finland March Gathering - 20th March 2007

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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

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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