Montreal was beautiful, of course. I would go into exhaustive detail, were this not a blog about video games but instead, say, on being young and in love in the springtime. What is it about the blogosphere, I wonder, that lends itself to a propagation of the former and a distinct lack of the latter? We may have to remedy this trend at some point, to ensure our survival as a species.
I was lucky enough to be paired on a panel with Bernard Perron, the mad scientist of horror games himself and the organizer of the whole shindig. I have nabbed this photo from the website, listed under the heading of "Aftermath," a word that I think sums things up perfectly.
Here I can be seen struggling to answer the age-old question that has vexed mankind for millenia:
Videogames... are they videogames?
- Rook
Posts
Brendan, this post doesn't really tell me how it went! But the picture does suggest talking, and gesturing, which makes me think it went well - right? How was the event overall? I saw the programme on colleen's FB page and some of the the paper titles looked so interesting. Are you going to get in on the anthology and/or journal publications? Yes, I am so nosy!
ReplyDeleteSuzanne! It went super well. The keynotes were a good mix of developers and horror buffs - one spoke on gothic light and shade, and another detailed the history of horror in film.
ReplyDeleteNothing was obfuscatory or overly theoretical or flimsy. There was plenty that I disagreed with, but any disagreement was good-hearted and friendly.
My talk went quite well, despite it being obvious that I was the one guy who had taught himself Powerpoint like a week ago. My focus was slightly different than most of the other talks - rather than saying something about video games directly, I was using video games to dismantle tired old ideas about virtual spaces and avatars - but I think that my work actually dovetailed nicely into the other work presented by my panel (for once.)
My talk will be published in a volume of the Canadian Games Journal "Loading...", and I'll be submitting it to a book that will be put together later in the year. I'm also working with Bryan Piitz to create a streamlined video essay, which I'll be putting on the blog when finished.
So I'm happy to say that it went excellently, all things considered.
I'm so glad to hear it went well, especially the part about being on a panel in which presentations are actually connected - you have just lived the dream!! Looking forward to the video essay, i'll be sure to check in for it.
ReplyDeletealso please give colleen a hug for me or something because i miss you guys!!
Games theory is a unique experience, in that the field is so small and cozy that everyone knows the theory and has a compatible understanding of it. More importantly, perhaps, everyone has played the games we're talking about, so nothing is obscure.
ReplyDeleteAs for giving your love to Colleen, I will give her ten high fives right now.
Unfortunately, only two of them are going to be from you.