Erickson retirees compete in national Wii bowling tournament

The Catonsville based Erickson company develops and manages retirement communities and currently has 20 campuses that are home to more than 20,000 people and employ more than 11,000. Earlier this year Erickson introduced Nintendo’s Wii into its communities and found it to be very popular.

“For the past nine months, Erickson’ s campuses have been overtaken by the Wii Wave, “Our residents have been enthusiastically playing Wii bowling, tennis, golf, and baseball,” said Mel Tansill, senior director of public affairs for Erickson. “Most of our residents had never before never picked up a video game controller in their lives, but they now have found a love for Wii Sports.” Nearly 200 Erickson residents have played Wii Sports to-date, according to Tansill.”

Now four bowling teams from Erickson Communities across the nation are competing to be Erickson Sports’ first Wii Bowling Tournament Champions and bring the inaugural Erickson Sports trophy to their home states and communities. Here’s a video of game one of the tournament.

You can read more about how Erickson’s residents are enjoying the Wii at the Erickson Tribune.

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Serious Games Summit student rate

The Modeling, Simulation and Serious Games Day and Expo, on October 19th at Martin’s West in Baltimore (the subject of a previous blog posting), now has a special $75 student registration rate. That’s about half of the regular registration rate.

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Halo 3 release party, 7-12pm Fri 9/28 UMBC Gameroom

There will be a Halo 3 release party Friday night September 28th from 7:00 pm to Midnight in the UMBC Gameroom. The event is sponsored by the UMBC Commons Gameroom, Microsoft, and the UMBC Game Development Club. The release party will feature a multiplayer tournament (4 vs. 4) in which pairs of four-person teams compete in a Halo 3 match and winners will receive Gameroom Free Play Passes. Up to five Xbox 360s will also be available for individual Halo 3 play. Microsoft will provide free pizza and Xbox 360 games to give away. Pool will be free all night.

Halo 3, a first-person shooter game developed by Bungie Studios for the Xbox 360, will be released on 25 September. It follows and builds on the two previous successful Halo games.

Update 9/24: Matt Hurst notes that “Halo 3 is being touted as not just the biggest launch for a video game, but also the biggest launch of anything.” and backs it up with a graph of mentions on the blogosphere in a “comparison of the Halo brand with mentions of Resident Evil (the top release from last week) and The Bourne Ultimatum (one of the largest films of the summer).”

Posted in Contests, Events, GDC, xbox | No Comments »

Marc Olano to speak at October IGDA DC chapter meeting

UMBC professor Marc Olano will speak at the next meeting of the DC chapter of International Game Developers Association. The 11 October meeting will be held from 7pm to 9pm at the Westwood College Annandale Campus and focus on academic programs in the grater DC area.

“Since it’s back to school time and classes are currently in session we thought it would be interesting to check in with local Colleges and University’s to see what their current and future game/tech curriculum’s are like. Want know what type of game/tech research, study and development that’s happening in our own back yard? Then come on by, our meetings are open to all interested people.” (link)

Dr. Olano will be joined by representatives from several other schools, including UMBC PhD student (part time) Dana Wortman who heads the game-related programs at the Art Institute of Washington.

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Baltimore modeling, simulation and serious games day

There will be a a one-day Modeling, Simulation and Serious Games Day and Expo on Friday 19 October 2007 at Martin’s West in Baltimore (map).

The event is designed for game developers, corporations, business development professionals, government, and others interested in 3D modeling, simulation, and applications of game technology. It will feature keynote talks by political cartoonist Kevin Kallaugher (Animated Politics:Seeing satire come alive in 3D) and Microsoft researcher John Nordlinger (A Serious Approach). There will be three parallel sessions focusing on (1) defense and homeland security, (2) medical and medical military training, and (3) education and corporate training.

The conference is sponsored by the Baltimore County Department of Economic Development, the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development, the Canadian Embassy, UK Trade and Investment, and Stanton Communications. Registration is $129 through September 15 and $149 after that date.

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Baltimore IGDA chapter to meet 7:00pm Tue 8/28

Baltimore has an active local chapter of the International Game Developers Association (IDGA). The IDGA describes itself as

“The IGDA is a non-profit professional society that is committed to advancing the careers and enhancing the lives of game developers by connecting members with their peers, promoting professional development, and advocating on issues that affect the developer community.”

The Baltimore IGDA chapter will meet this Tuesday, August 28th, at the Treehouse Restaurant & Lounge in Cockeysville starting at 7pm (Map). The meeting is open to everyone, but attendees are encouraged to sign up as IGDA members.

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World series of video games on CBS

This weekend CBS will air the first of four shows on the World Series of Video Games sponsored in part by Intel. The New York Times has an article, Video Game Matches to Be Televised on CBS that has a good overview.

“The magic of television has already transformed everything from motorcycle acrobatics to poker into living-room spectator sports, not to mention turning competitive singing into a national obsession. Next on the list: video games. Tomorrow at noon, CBS, the august home of the Masters and March Madness, will become the first broadcast network in the United States to cover a video game tournament as a sporting event.”

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Will Wright on Spore

The New Yorker has a very interesting 26 minute video interview with game designer Will Wright in which he demonstrates parts of his long anticipated game Spore. Wright also discusses the art and philosophy of game design with moderator John Seabrook. The event was part of the New Yorker sponsored 2012: Stories From the Near Future conference which took place in May 2007.

Posted in Events, Game design | No Comments »

June meeting of the DC IGDA

The June meeting of the IGDA DC chapter will feature a talk by Paul Barnett, the online design manager for Warhammer. The meeting will take place on Thursday June 28th at EA/Mythic, 4035 Ridge Top Road, Fairfax, VA 22030. IGDA DC chapter meetings are open to IGDA non-members with an interest in game development. See the IGDA forum posting for more information.

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National Symphony Orchestra to perform Video Games Live

The National Symphony Orchestra will perform Video Games Live 29-30 June 2007 at the Kennedy Center in DC. VGL is an immersive concert event featuring music from the biggest video games of all time, including such beloved and popular franchises as Mario, Zelda, Halo, Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Warcraft, Myst, Sonic, Metal Gear Solid, and many more. The two hour performance is synchronized cutting-edge video screen visuals, state-of-the-art lighting, and special on-stage interactive segments dazzle audiences of all ages–gamers and non-gamers alike. More information on this performance is available online. Tickets range from $25 to $45.

Posted in Events, audio | 1 Comment »