Top 5: SXSWi Panels for Video Gamers

Besides the ScreenBurn area at the SXSW arcade this year, video games are getting some love! There are some fantastic panels that will be discussing different avenues of the video game world. Here’s my top 5 for 2010.

5. Social Justice and Video Games (3/16, 3:30 p.m.) – There is no question that video gaming has become a big part of society. As the saying goes…”with great power comes great responsibility.” This panel will look at racism and sexism in the design of games. It is a conversation with developers and gamers as they look towards a solution.

4. Anyone Can Create a Video Game (3/15, 9:00 a.m.) – Got an idea? Think it will work? This panel is set to talk about developing game creation technologies for the everyday gamer so they can try their hand at creating a video game. This panel includes Michael Augstin, CEO of Gendai Games who’s company is working to find a way for those outside of the tech culture to become creative forces.

3. Pervasive Games and Playful Experiences: Rendering the Real World (3/16, 11:00 a.m.) – Toby Barnes is the managing director of Mudlark, which is cross between a TV company, a web company and a gaming company. Barnes is set to talk about new forms of games, including the future of mobile gaming and pervasive gaming.

2. Video Games, the New, New Media for Music (3/15, 11:00 a.m.) – If you didn’t know, Bioshock 2 comes out this week. Not only is there a game release, 2k Games is releasing digital and LP versions of the soundtrack. That’s where video games are headed! This panel will discuss video games as a new platform for music and how the games are creating new opportunities for the classical composer, the hip hop mogul and everyone in between.

1. Power-Ups & Press: How the Game Media Impacts the Gaming Industry (3/16, 12:30 p.m.) – This panel looks to be a fun one! A panel of video game media members will discuss how the media has changed the gaming world and where they think it will be in the future.

For your video game listening pleasure!

Preview: The Unholy Marriage of Video Games and Film

Id Software

Aside from being uber excited to hear Wired editor Chris Anderson‘s keynote, there are a million other panels I’m anxious to check out.  There are so many awesome panels this year that you can’t help but miss out on something interesting.

As a filmmaker and video game lover I’m looking forward to checking out From Framing Shots to Pushing Pixels: Crossing Between Film and Video Games .  The panel takes place on the last day of the interactive at 5 in room 12AB.

Rodney Gibbs, studio head at Fizz Factor and Mark Bristol, cinematics director at Id Software, will be presenting on the increasingly myopic line between film and games.  Gibbs oversees the development of both console and handheld games at Fizz Factor.  Id Software is responsible for giving the world the generous gifts of Doom, Wolfenstein and Quake and Mark Bristol worked as a storyboard artist on the Christopher Nolan film Memento, which is in my personal top ten films of all-time.  Its therefore imperative that I attend this panel and meet this guy.  I hope you are ready for a stalker Mark.

The focus of the panel will be on how to translate skills back and forth between the platforms.  In a climate where video game releases are larger than film openings and where games have incorporated many aspects of film this panel promises to deliver some serious bang.  Its almost a no-brainer that these two platorms will continue to converge, so get ready for “the way of the future.”