The 2008 KOGIA Plays of the Year

KOGIA, which is the Korean Games Industry Association (founded by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in 1999 for the purpose of developing the game industry as the key future strategic industry of the country) has announced the winners of its first Global Online Game Awards for 2008.

It probably comes as no surprise that Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft was voted as the world's best role-playing game, and that Nexon's Kartrider handily got the nod for best racing/casual game.

"Other award winning online games include Valve's Counterstrike Source for best first-person shooting game, NCsoft's City of Heroes/Villains for best adventure/action game, EA Sports' FIFA 09 for best top sports game, and CCP Games' Eve Online for best strategic simulation game."

Read the story from Gamasutra here>>

While I'm on the topic of movers and shakers in the games industry, a reminder that the LOGIN 2009 conference (Seattle, May 11-14) call for speaker submissions goes on for another two weeks.

The Call for Speakers is open to all online game industry experts worldwide, whether for console, PC or mobile platforms. Candidates are asked to review the topics of interest and session submission tips on the LOGIN 2009 website and then submit a completed session proposal form and speaker application.

Details here>>

By the way, I'm still in the midst of conducting interviews with those involved in the Korean Games Industry, so if you're based here in Korea, or making a trip here within the next two months send me a note. It's the home stretch now!

Today on the Christy Clark Show CKNW 980

I'll be on the Christy Clark Show today from 1pm-1:40pm PST, talking about addiction to online games. The need for commentary on this issue arises from yesterday's story about a person in China dying after a 'binge' of Web activity at an Internet Cafe.

You can tune in to AM980 if you're in the area, or listen live via the Web on the CKNW site.

Updated: The audio archive version of the shows can be found at http://www.christyclark.ca/audio/

Gene Endrody, CEO of Maid Marian Entertainment (makers of ~free~ web-based MMORPGS) was an awesome co-panelist. His information and games(!) can be found here: http://www.maidmarian.com/

The land of the soundbyte is indeed filled with its own set of challenges, and kudos to anyone who navigates within it from industry, academia, and/or government. Actually, we had perspectives from all three sectors: Christy, as many may know, was a provincial MLA and Cabinet Minister, Gene makes games in the games industry, and well... I guess you might call me an academic.I thoroughly enjoyed the banter Christy, Gene, and I had on the show--so much, we actually went ten minutes overtime! The host said that rarely happens. :)

Digital Voice Recorders - Recommendations for an ethnographer?

My digital voice recorder has died, and I am glad for it. It unfortunately used a proprietary format for recording,and while it created a high-quality, memory-efficient recording--it was ultimately AGONY waiting for it to convert its files to a WAV file (of all things). That, and the software (once you lose the 3 year old CD... come on, we've all done it) is difficult to find online, and once you find it, it -might- be available for a price. Sound familiar? It's lame, and the forums agree... with many users ditching recorders that do such short-sighted, ill-advised things. It's enough to drive me back to mini tapes. Well, maybe not quite.

Having learned from previous frustrations with the now dead recorder, this is what I would want my next recorder to have:

1. Good background noise filtering (probably in the form of different speech settings)
2. NOT proprietary format that requires special software in order to play recording on a computer or anywhere else.
3. Preferably records in MP3 format
4. Memory-efficient
5. Feedback on successful recording (flickring LCD bar, or LED will do).

So far, my experiences with consumer reviews and forums do not adequately address these specific concerns, nor are they targeted to my particular needs. They are also not the most up to date.

Anyway, it's time to move on and move up. So I am looking around and researching what to get as my faithful fieldwork companion. I'm soliciting recommendations from people who regularly do field interviews (ethnographers, journalists,and others of similar ilk) who are familiar with the conditions in which such interviews are conducted, and later processed. If you're like me, that processing will take place on a laptop, in a tiny room, in unfamiliar conditions.

There's got to be a better option than just using 'record' on my MP3 player... or is there?

Comments?