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SXSW - Is Austin the Next Hollywood of Gaming? |
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So, can Austin become the Hollywood of the MMO world? Well that was a topic at the Screenburn Beta Festival, part of the SXSW Interactive festival in Austin, TX. The gaming industry and the movie industry gathered here in order to look at how the two blooming industries in this area can join forces for a bigger tomorrow.
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The panel, composed of Rodney Gibbs (IGDA), Warren Spector (Junction Point Studios), Ted Staloch (Aspyr), Gordon Walton (Formerly of Sony Online Entertainment), and Rick Triplett (GDHM and Austin Film Association), was here to look at the attributes and assets of the two industries that can be shared. It should come as no surprise that art, 3D graphics and animation are on the forefront of both industries. So, why not continue to build a stronger infrastructure here in Austin that suits everyone’s needs? Besides Austin’s rapidly growing movie industry, it plays home to several prominent MMOs such as City of Heroes, City of Villains, Star Wars Galaxies, and formerly Ultima Online. Austin has a rich MMO past and future. Companies like Bioware have come to Austin for the purpose of furthering this trend.
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The whole thing seems simple enough. Movies need art and animation. Games need art and animation. But not everything is as easy as it seems. Both sides of the panel, movies and games, agreed that the work scheduling and duration are quite different between the two industries. “When I have people working on a game, I have them for three years straight,” while “some on a movie project may only fulfill a 3 or 4 month contract,” remarked Warren Spector. Whereas this may be true, the concept was introduced that the directors and producers are there through the whole process, but the numbers of people and time requirements still make switching personnel in between difficult at best. One thing they do agree on is that creating the infrastructure that will keep an active job pool of talented artists and developers will definitely help bring more companies here.
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So what is holding Austin back? We have the talent pool. We have both industries communicating and collaborating. We have many prominent companies already here who are, and want to continue, making MMOs. Well, quite simply, it is too hard to get through Austin. We have the ninth worst traffic in the United States. You can’t even fly into Austin directly without stopping in either Houston or Dallas. In conclusion, the whole panel was in agreement that if Austin is to become the Hollywood of the MMO world, we will have to make ourselves more accessible to the rest of the world.
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-WUMPUSJAGGER, GameVortex Communications AKA Bryon Lloyd |
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