Leo Chiang DOT COM

The original plan was for Stephen and I to attend this event at the invite of our friends at High Road Communications, who also invited us previously to the LG Chocolate Fashion Show in Whistler. Unfortunately, Stephen wasn’t feeling so well and Ed valiantly stepped up to take his place and add his coverage to this inaugural event. You can see Ed working hard in the photo below.

The Vancouver International Game Summit (VIGS) took place on May 3rd and May 4th, 2007 at the lovely Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre Hotel.

The goals of the VIGS is to:

• Encourage and support the gaming community, both in Vancouver and abroad
• Give gamers a chance to network with other gamers, developers and industry veterans
• build skills essential to the development of the gaming industry and the creation of next-generation games
• promote Vancouver as a lively hub of gaming activity

The conference was well attended by industry professionals and media alike, but I found that there was a lack of real gamers (especially casual like Ed and I) in attendance. This fact was reflected in the conference topics which seemed to mainly focus on developers and venture capitalists. Ed and I were both looking forward to more opportunities to sample new game titles, participate in beta releases, see new teaser trailers for upcoming games and hear from more speakers who develop games for the gamers. The most interesting panel to attend was the Massively Multiplayer where Shayne Herrera was one of the panel speakers. He’s a gamer and also the Art Development Director of Cryptic Studios, who made the highly successful City of Heroes/City of Villains massively multiplayer online (MMO) games, currently celebrating their 3rd year anniversary. City of Heroes/Villains is also a large reason as to why I’m 31 years old and still single Shayne let us all in on the fact that they are currently working on a Marvel Universe MMO and he was also the only panel member to give out what we all wanted . . . free schwag! Thanks for the t-shirt Cryptic Studios!!!

All in all, Ed and I enjoyed ourselves but found some of the panel discussions dry as we were not game developers nor were we rich millionaires looking to invest in a game studio or projects. Would look forward to seeing some more focus on gamers at next year’s VIGS. Also, I would like to see a panel discussion covering the growing phenomenon of the merging of video games and the film & television industry.

The food was great though Enjoyed a lunch of fresh, grilled burgers (beef, chicken breast and veggie) and lots of salads, grilled chicken and a buffet of desserts. Finished off the reception with a nice fruit chocolate fondue (I enjoyed my signature chocolate covered strawberries) and a champagne fruit punch. The way to my heart is through my stomach and the crew at the Sheraton Wall Centre should be commended, the VIGS was worth the attendance just for the food alone

Posted on May 7th, 2007 by Leo
Filed under: Lucid Thoughts, Shooting Gallery