NOISEfestival: Your Creative Future happened this week.
It was a conference geared up to help those with aims to enter the creative arts as a career. A very insightful thing; as most of us who’re interested in the creative network have no idea how to start their career. I certainly don’t, and until it happens I don’t know if I ever will.
The highlight of these talks was the one given by Ian Livingstone – both as a fangirl and as a hopeful creative. His area of expertise is certainly of relevant interests to me. As Founder of my own hobby (Games Workshop) it was a great insight to see how it all started; and the connections with D&D and how it developed.
It was also particularly interesting to see how Mr. Livingstone became involved with Video Gaming – as a player and his relationship to Eidos.
Ian Livingstone (Games Workshop Founder/Life President Eidos) and Lee Taylor (Flux Magazine)
The most interesting tip that I found Ian Livingstone gave for future creatives though was; “Hold onto your IP.” I confess, in the past I have sold off characters that I am no longer interested in or have no use for. Mostly for small sums of money; which on reflection has been pretty silly of me.
It’ll be good to absorb that particular little tip and think about what sort of Intellectual Property I actually have currently in the works.
It was also very interesting to see and hear the story of Lara Cruz/Croft, and how she was designed (And who by) and developed – Seeing the stem from Indiana Jones Rick Dangerous. Which I remember playing on the Amiga way back in the day… actually, I thought one of the videos that Ian Livingstone was pretty amazing. A brief history of video games, showing gaming since Pong. A lot of the games from 1991 onwards I recognised, starting with Lemmings.
(Core Designs Rick Dangerous and Lemmings)
Seeing these parts of gaming history makes me realise that I’ve had Video Gaming in my life for as long as I can actually remember. Thus, brings me onto another point that Ian Livingstone brought up.
“Why are Video Games seen as a bad thing?”
One of the first things we learn to do as a child is play, and a lot of games for younger audiences (As well as adult) are geared up for learning. Be it directly, or indirectly. I remember when I was at school that one of the games we played on the computer – I don’t remember which type of computer sadly – was figuring out an egg timer to find the exact amount of time this fictional egg needed to cook. I do not remember any of the work I did in books…
Games promote learning while having fun. Don’t get me wrong, I adore books and reading as well, but I do not understand why it is received that reading a book as a child is good, but playing games on a screen isn’t.
I’m not that naive to think that things cannot go wrong – a child playing the wrong sort of game for example – it can, but that isn’t the fault of the Video Game.
I recall being in CEX the other day and this child was picking out a game. I think he was 10, maybe a bit younger – I am no expert with childrens ages. His parents were seriously buying him one of the Call of Duty games. Not that I am saying this particular child is going to grow up to be a mass murderer or anything. I am certain the games I was playing as a child we’re suitable for my age… but I don’t blame the games for my experiences of them!
With the ever growing thrill of innovations to the Video Gaming world, such as the Kinect and 3D software and hardware, it’s an exciting thing to be involved with. On the horizon we’ve got new consoles from Steam, Microsoft and Sony. Very exciting!
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This post turned into less about NOISEfestival and more into my own thinking.
Sorry
Eternal Bookcase 