The 2008 ScreenBurn Festival
March 7 - 11, 2008
Austin, Texas

The Austin Wind Symphony is not your grandma’s symphony! They play only the music you already know and love–well-known themes from movies, TV and games. Join them for their next concert, “The Music of Video Games,” on Friday, March 7th at 8 p.m at 3701 Slaughter Lane in Austin, Texas. The symphony will present an audio/visual spectacle that includes tracks from your favorite video games: the ones you played as a kid and the ones you still can’t put down today. The concert will feature the music of Final Fantasy, Halo, Medal of Honor, Kingdom Hearts, Legend of Zelda, God of War, Superman Returns, Star Wars: Battlefront, Civilization IV, Bounty Hunter and Super Mario Bros.

Don’t miss out on the nerd event of the season! Purchase tickets online at www.austinwindsymphony.org. Tickets are $8 for adults and $7 for students with ID.

SXSW ScreenBurn is a proud Media Sponsor of The Austin Wind Symphony, a non-profit organization that provides musicians from Austin and the surrounding areas an opportunity to take part in an active performing band that was organized for educational purposes and is dedicated to performing only the scores of film, television and games.

Last week the Championship Gaming Series announced its official list of North American Franchise Players for the 2008 North American Combine and Draft set for March 7-9 in Austin, Texas as part of the 2008 SXSW Interactive Festival’s ScreenBurn Arcade.

Vanessa “Vanessa” Arteaga (Dead or Alive 4), widely regarded as the world’s top woman gamer, was chosen as the cornerstone of the San Francisco Optx team. Heading up Chicago Chimera will be Jeremy “BlackMamba” Florence (Dead or Alive 4 - Men’s), the world’s top-ranked Dead or Alive 4 player. Having led Chicago Chimera to victory last year as the first-ever CGS World Champion team, Florence was easily the highest-paid professional gamer in North America in 2007. Globally recognized as one of the best Counter-Strike players in history, Danny “fRoD” Montaner, will play for Los Angeles compLexity. Carolina Core has tapped Ryan “Offbeat Ninja” Ward (Dead or Alive 4 -Men’s), the region’s top-performing DOA4 Men’s player. Matt “Wizakor” Wood (FIFA 08), CGS Individual World Champion in FIFA 07, will lead New York 3D and Emmanuel “Master” Rodriguez (Dead or Alive 4), one of the dominant players in the history of the DOA series, will play for Dallas Venom.

Don’t forget that the ScreenBurn Arcade is free and open to the public from noon to 6:00 PM on Saturday, March 8th and Sunday, March 9th, as part of the 2008 SXSW Interactive festival. Jason Lake (pictured above), founder and General Manager of compLexity, will be on hand Friday, March 7th from 5:00 to 6:00 PM at the Carver Center as part of a special free SXSW ScreenBurn Festival panel presentation entitled Pro Gamers: New Extreme Athletes of the 21st Century.

Calling all Austinites (or anybody lucky enough to land in Austin early for SXSW Interactive): ScreenBurn is proud to sponsor Austin’s own Gamecock Media Group in bringing their independent developer showcase/megaparty E.I.E.I.O. (Expo for Interactive Entertainment, Independent and Original) to Stubb’s Bar-B-Q on Thursday, March 6th! Explaining the decision to move the showcase to Austin after debuting E.I.E.I.O. at last year’s E3 in Los Angeles, Gamecock founder Mike Wilson said that “it has always been our dream to show people how we really do it down in Texas…We want this E.I.E.I.O. to be part videogame expo, part backyard carnival, part indie revival. And, as E.I.E.I.O. leads right into SXSW — the annual mecca for independent artists from all walks of life — we are heading-up the charge to get the best and most original games here.” As for the videogame expo component, Gamecock will be showing off new console and PC game demos aplenty from developers such as Wideload, Red Fly Studio, Spark Unlimited, Replay Studios, Firefly Studios, and TimeGate Studios. And the “backyard carnival”? Stubb’s is world-famous for its enormous backyard and stellar barbeque, and burlesque acts Miss Maulie and Carousel Cabaret will contribute to the carnivalesque atmosphere along with the pain and wonder of the Yard Dogs Roadshow. Rounding out the “indie revival” portion of the show will be Austin live rock mainstays Carolyn Wonderland, Del Castillo, Vehicular, and Johnny Hootrock. Where else in the world can you preview Mushroom Men: Spore Wars while ogling both sword swallowers and burlesque ladies AND imbibing in Lone Star and smoked brisket, outdoors, in March? Nowhere but Austin, Texas during SXSW of course, and ScreenBurn is proud to partner with Gamecock Media to help make it all happen. Make sure you can attend–RSVP via RSVP[at]Gamecocklove.com.

According to a data-mining report from the Director of National Intelligence, the U.S. intelligence community is developing software to detect “violent extremist” activity in World of Warcraft and other MMOS, reports Wired’s Threat Level. The Reynard Project will begin by monitoring online gaming to define “emerging social, behavioral and cultural norms in virtual worlds and gaming environments.” Their reasoning seems to be that if they can map out what’s normal in the the “understudied” [read: frequently misunderstood by outsiders] world of MMOs, they’ll eventually be able to automatically detect suspicious activity. Is it possible that Al-Qaeda actually has the time to recruit fresh members in WoW? Is it also possible that there’s a shadowy warehouse full of game-loving CIA operatives who are delighted for an opportunity to play WoW round-the-clock? How do you feel about your activity being monitored by the government during online gaming? For more insight into the perpetually shifting boundaries of online rights, check out the Human And Property Rights ScreenBurn panel led by Susan Wu, virtual venture capitalist as well as noted WoW player.

Okay, amateur game developers, put on that second pot of coffee – okay, third. You’ve got a game to create! During the keynote address at the annual Game Developers Conference (GDC) held last week in San Francisco, Microsoft announced they were opening their doors to amateur game development. Using Microsoft’s XNA Game Studio 2.0 development tool kit, members of Xbox Live, an Internet multiplayer game service by Microsoft, will soon be able to create and submit their own games, which will then be distributed to other members for peer review and testing. “Our goal is to drive a creative and social revolution in games with the same transformative power that we’ve seen in digital music and video sharing,” said John Schappert, a VP in Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment unit.

To start the ball rolling, seven community-created games will be available for immediate download to Xbox 360 owners from Xbox LIVE Marketplace. All were created using XNA Game Studio 2.0, and include “The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai,” an intense 2D action platform game following a katana-wielding dishwasher, “JellyCar,” about driving a squishy car through squishy worlds, and RocketBall,” which takes dodge-ball to the streets. And while they are not discussing a business model right now, Chris Satchell, general manager and chief XNA architect at Microsoft (pictured above), did emphasize that the creators will keep all the rights to the games they upload.

For a look into how the rise of the independent game developer will impact the future of the video game industry, be sure to join Corey Bridges, Executive Producer for multiverse.net, for his 2008 ScreenBurn panel The Future of Virtual World & Game Development: Rise of the Indies on Saturday, March 8th at 11:30 AM.

MMO juggernaut Sony Online Entertainment plans to partner with The Art Institutes to create a scholarship for female gamers–one of the first such scholarships specifically created to “educate and recruit” more women into the videogame industry, reports EarthTimes. “It’s no secret to female gamers: Women are out there in significant numbers, playing MMOs, action games, first-person shooters, etc. What is lacking in the equation are women behind these games and we hope G.I.R.L. can help support this program,” said Torrie Dorrell, SOE’s Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing. After surveying female students enrolled in game development and graphics classes at The Art Institutes schools, the SOE team found that 61% of students surveyed believe male dominance in the industry is a deterrent to women pursuing a career in gaming and 42% of those surveyed would like to see women portrayed as leaders in video games. The G.I.R.L. (Gamers In Real Life) scholarship includes $10,000 in tuition at an Art Institute school and a ten-week paid internship at any of the Sony Online Entertainment studios. SOE, the hitmakers behind the EverQuest and Star Wars Galaxies series, hope that other developers will follow their lead, according to Dorrel, who says that the G.I.R.L. scholarship “will be the gateway for one student into this field of expertise. I invite other publishers to join us in supporting this initiative.”

Three documentary features. Three world premieres. Three films bridging the gap between conventional media and interactive entertainment. Three special SXSW Film screenings open to Interactive registrants.

Paul Owens, co-founder of 2 Player Productions, makes his feature length directorial debut with Blip Festival: Reformat The Planet, which delves into the movement known as ChipTunes, a vibrant underground scene based around creating new, original music using old video game hardware.

In Nerdcore Rising, director Negin Farsad uncovers a new wave of hip-hop called “nerdcore,” following the godfather of the genre, MC Frontalot, on his first national tour. Commentary from Weird Al Yankovic, Prince Paul, and Jello Biafra pepper the film to examine the legitimacy of nerdcore as a subgenre of hip hop, the larger rise of geek culture, and the desperation of one MC who’s trying to achieve nerd stardom.

ScreenBurn Festival goers won’t want to miss the world premiere of director Juan Carlos Pineiro’s documentary Second Skin, which takes an intimate and disturbing look at computer gamers whose lives have been transformed by the emerging genre of computer games called Massively Multiplayer Online games (MMOs).

Interactive Badge holders will be able to attend free screenings of Blip Festival: Reformat The Planet on Monday, March 10th at 12:00 PM at the Landmark Dobie, Nerdcore Rising Tuesday, March 11th at 10:30 PM at the Alamo Lamar 2 and Second Skin Tuesday, March 11th at 7:45 PM at the Austin Convention Center.

Leading scientists have discovered a rather interesting use for game consoles, particularly Sony’s PlayStation 3, using them to calculate and simulate everything from colliding black holes to the effects of drugs on the human body. The PS3 has many unique features that make it ideal for complex calculations that usually require time on a supercomputer. It has an open platform that allows it to run any system software, like PowerPC Linux. The console also sports a revolutionary processor called the Cell processor, developed by Sony, IBM and Toshiba, that has a CPU, called the PPU, and six special compute engines (SPUs) that each perform vector operations. In other words, all the raw computing power required to produce those heart-stoppingly realistic graphics in today’s sophisticated video games makes for one powerful scientific tool. The PS3’s comparatively low price tag makes its computing power to dollar ratio higher than anything else available to scientists today. Doctors are also jumping on board, using Nintendo’s Wii for everything from surgical training and patient rehabilitation to research projects measuring movement deficiencies in Parkinson’s patients.

Ever dreamed of playing guitar or bass along side the legendary Steven Tyler? Well pinch yourself, because now you can! It’s official, Activision has announced that the next installment of the Guitar Hero franchise will be Guitar Hero: Aerosmith.
Due to hit stores in June, the newest version of the best selling game will put players in the shoes of Joe Perry (guitar), Brad Whitford (guitar) and Tom Hamilton (bass) and take them from the band’s early days through their rise to superstardom. “We are extremely excited that Aerosmith chose to team up with Guitar Hero, bringing one of the world’s all-time best-selling artists together with one of the biggest video game brands, to deliver a new and unique interactive way for our customers to connect with artists and their music,” said Dusty Welch, head of publishing for Activision/RedOctane. “Having a game built around Aerosmith has been a huge honor and really a great experience for us,” says Joe Perry. He added, “On a larger scale, it’s cool for us to be pioneers helping to rebuild the music industry through a format like video games. It’s great for rock since the record companies are struggling to make sense of how things are changing. Fans want to get and experience music in new formats– and there are going to be some of them who will play the game, then pick up the guitar for real and start bands. It’s what’s happening now, and it’s only going to build more momentum in the future. It’s a massive change for the music business.”

The 2008 SXSW Interactive and ScreenBurn festivals offer one-stop shopping for all you ever wanted to know (and maybe a few things you didn’t) about the ever-expanding virtual universe. In his panel The Future of Virtual World and Game Development: Rise of the Indies, Corey Bridges, Executive Producer, multiverse.net, will look at the opportunities for independent developers offered by the virtual world. Professors Heitor Alvelos, Jeff Ferrell and Peter Ludlow take on social, political and religious transgressions in the virtual world in their panel Virtual Scandals and Sacrilege: Who’s grieFing Now? . Other exciting panel offerings include Human and Property Rights in Virtual Worlds and Casual Multi-Player Online Games: Serious Revenues.

But the virtual fun doesn’t stop with the panels. Core Conversations like Do Virtual Worlds Need to be 3D? and Marketing to Real People in Second Life give registrants the opportunity to take the discussion further. And then, there’re the Book Readings! SXSW Interactive has so much to offer this year you’ll wish you had a Second Life to experience it all. Check out the dynamic panel schedule page for more information, times and locations, on all the exciting daytime programming the 2008 SXSW Interactive and ScreenBurn Festivals have to offer.