The first Video Games Live concert is Malaysia was held in KLCC Convention Centre Planery Hall on the 17 April 2010.
I was there to witness all the fuss.
And I’m here to report to you that it’s all a bunch of stinking cow dung hoo hah.
Ok, I’m kidding. The concert rocks my socks, and if you were there, I’m sure it rocks yours as well!
The concert aims to promote music from video games as a form of art that deserve a place in the mainstream artistry world. It surely does. Some amazing artists have contributed to the gaming music industry: Faye Wong sang the theme for Final Fantasy VIII, Japanese rock singer GACKT will be singing the theme song for Dragon Nest.
The concert is hosted by its co-creator, Tommy Tallarico and the orchestra team conducted by another co-creator, Jack Wall. Both industry veteran and video games composers.
Perhaps one of the greatest music events I’ve attended. It is truly awesome, in every sense of the word.
The Video Game Industry
I cannot imagine there would still be people who ignore the video games industry, still treat it as a ‘toy’ industry meant for kids or adolescents. I remember during my 2nd year at the university, I was to do a speaking assignment for the English elective course. After much deliberation, I chose the topic of ‘The Video Games industry’. Now being a video games enthusiast at that time, I would have to make sure I’m not overly eager and overlook the fact that the gaming industry is still alien to a lot of people and hard facts or even sharing the details of games - however interesting to me - might bore the hearts out of my audience.
At the time, the
I divided my presentation into three parts:
1) An intro of the gaming industry
2) The relevance of the gaming industry in YOUR life
3) What the future holds
The introduction mainly reveals how big the gaming industry has gotten, how new technologies has changed the landscape of the whole industry, expanding it, into the huge blue ocean. I presented a prediction – taken from a magazine I’ve read – that the gaming industry will be bigger than the Hollywood movie industry in the coming 3 years. That has proven to be true. The game industry is worth $10 billion in 2004 and generates more revenue than the US movie industry. If you still treats gaming as a niche market, as does many of the mainstream entertainment industry, here’s another nugget for you: the gaming industry is forecasted to be bigger than the music industry by 2011. Looking at the figures, I’ve no reason to doubt that will happen. Take my word for it, I’ve been right before.
Image source: ars technica
Why did you think Microsoft jumped onto the bandwagon with the X-box?
The second part of my presentation touches on how even as a non-gamer, that the industry is affecting you. One is because of the scope the industry is getting, video games is fast becoming a universal language, just like movies, music and sports, the gaming industry is earning it’s spot as a conversation centerpiece for many youth and young adults, and quickly expanding to even more mature audiences. The bonding that comes from talking about video games is becoming as important as sports, if not more. Parents, think about this when you’re communicating with your kids.
On the second part of my presentation, I gave them a practical avenue to use gaming as a tool even as a non gamer. If you’ve ever purchased a new PC before, you know the intricacies of picking the latest technology. Bigger processing power, more memories – Nitpicking on how many megahertz and gigabytes and such. But rarely do you need the latest processing power for your everyday use, unless you’re a computer graphics designer or a software developer. So even if you have the machine capable of having the most amazing processing power, how do you test it? How do you know what you’ve paid for - all your megahertz and gigabytes - are capable of doing what it says in the colorful brochure you’ve been shown? And more importantly, how do you showcase your latest mean machine to your friends or family to boost your ego? The answer is to pop in the latest games CD.
The game genre that’s perfect for this job is an FPS (first-person-shooter). The latest of this genre would push the limit of your PC’s processing power to its max. The expensive environment and fast pace gameplay would squeeze the most out of your machine’s capabilities.
Another thing you should know is the advancement of technologies in the computer graphics and processing power of computers are mainly driven by the gaming industry. The need to produce a more detailed looking, faster-paced, realistic gaming experience fuels the development of better processing power and larger memories. It practically spawns the CGI movies industry too.
In ending my presentation, I provided a glimpse of the future for my audiance. I felt that I need to tie it all up to something relevant to them as a take home message. And what better way than to introduce some props and talk about career advancement to a bunch of eager university students. I showed a list of Degree courses in gaming that’s available around the world, and showed some real life stories of people who made a fulltime income from taking parts in gaming tournaments worldwide. Gaming is becoming serious. I ended with what I hoped would be a funny anecdote. “Don’t be surprised if during an interview, you see me coming up with a resume with the column ‘past work experience’ filled in as ‘professional gamer’.” That managed to trigger a chuckle from a cute girl I’ve been noticing in the class. Mission accomplished. The grade don’t matter much :p
VGL highlights
By now, you should be able to appreciate the gaming industry more than when we started.
Back to the VGL concert.
I’ve not heard of this concert before until the day of the concert itself. But once my housemate told me about it, I’m sold.
Music
Some really memorable music for me that was played were from
Some other notables that got the fans screaming the most:
Some classics, lots of them my favourites: Space invaders,
Others are hugely popular series but I’m not particularly attached to, like Sonic the hedgehog, Mega Man,
Interactions
Gaming fans are particularly interactive people, they don’t just watch a movie. They want to be the hero, the central character influencing the story line, experiencing the plot as a participant rather than as an observer. That is why any events involving gaming fans must include participative activities. This concert is not going to be an exception. The first one was a Space invader Live Game. The chosen participant is given a shirt with a spacecraft on the back. He was told he’s motion tracked and given a handheld device to press to fire. His movement corresponds to the movement of the space craft on screen. He’s to be a life sized space ship shooting at alien craft, moving sideways. He failed miserably at the game, but it was a heck of a lot of fun to watch.
The second ‘game’ got us all on the edge of our seats. It was a
Special appearances
The beautiful rendition of
Do you remember Pong? The first video game ever created. The creator, Ralph Baer, was on a live Skype call with us, telling us what led to his vision of creating video games. He changed how the world entertains itself, for generations. And his influence is only going to get bigger.
A gamer
It was such a fun night. Nostalgic and deeply moving. It reminds me I’m a generation that has grown up with video games. Video games have become just as important as other mainstream entertainment, emotionally stimulating and rich. The experience of a good game is even more memorable than a good movie, because of the participatory factor.
It’s funny to see gamers gather around. They are an emotional bunch. And they go crazy over the smallest thing. Like, really really crazy, which is a whole load of fun to watch.
Looking around the planery hall, I kinda remember the geek that’s still in me. What am I saying right? I’m still a geek! Although nowadays I’m more into reading a good book than playing games, a good game still fires my emotions up. Games have immeasurable value to the human psyche. The moment we stop playing, is the moment we stop living.
0 comments
Post a Comment