Game Developers Magazine is starting a new trend, and it's to list out the Top 50 videogame developers of the year - just to give back to the groups that made our lives a bit more exciting through their realized (and digitized) works of art. Want to know if your favorite game developer made the list? Hit the full article to find out!

 

It looks like the World Series of Video Games (WSVG) is moving northward in the upcoming days. Its organizers have just announced that as part of its competitive circuit, the next bout will be taking place at Fan Expo Canada. The WSVG event proper is expected churn out more than US$ 75,000 in cash prizes, and will involve competitions for games like World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (Blizzard), Guitar Hero II (Activision), and Quake 4 (Activision; Xbox 360, PC).

Outside the expected WSVG contests, Fan Expo Canada will host several other events for its expected 50,000-plus visitors: the Canadian National Comic Book Expo, CNAnime, SFX Science Fiction Expo, Festival of Fear Horror Expo and GX-the Canadian National Gaming Expo. Also to be expected at the event will be several noted celebirties: Hayden Christensen ("Star Wars"), Adam West ("Batman"), Hayden Panettiere ("Heroes"), Jonathan Frakes ("Star Trek") and the Red vs. Blue creative team. As WSVG commissioner Matthew Ringel commented regarding the upcoming event:

After we announced an October event at Los Angeles eForAll, we very much wanted to schedule an event in late summer hitting the eastern region of North America. We are delighted that our inaugural event in Canada will be among the biggest on our video game circuit and, indeed, in all competitive gaming this year.

Canada's Fan Expo will be taking place from August 24 to 26 at the Metro Toronto Convention Center.

Downfall isn't just your average guild in World of Warcraft.  Although they are self-admittedly not spectacular as a raiding guild, this crew enjoys something not many others can claim: the bond of kinship.

 

Although some of the guild members enjoy being real life friends who talk about their latest raid over a pint, everyone in the community feels the strength of the bond they share.  Another special characteristic this guild has is that it has a higher ratio of active female members than normal.  There's about a girl for every guy in the guild.  Some even have real life relationships together. 

Proudly led by Garreth who considers his position as Guild Leader just as demanding as his real life job (and loving every moment of it), this crew comes from all over: "West- and East-coasters, Aussies, New Zealanders, Texans and 'The Canada Contingent,'" Garrett claims.

Players who felt indifferent or isolated in their former guilds felt really involved and at home with Downfall.  They have found mentors and friends.  While this guild focuses on getting better, Garreth said, "I'd rather run-back a dozen times on a new boss than destroy the sense of community and bonds we've formed." 

For Downfall, it's not just about the goal.  In fact, they seem to enjoy running the race rather than reaching the finish line.  Joe McDoug, who interviewed the Guild, actually found them joking around after having a pretty bad raid night.  As Joe McDoug wisely pointed out:

There are many guilds in this game of millions. It is easy to point to the one that achieves the most World Firsts or gains the newest rare item. It is harder, however, to rate the quality of a guild’s sense of community. While most of us play this game with some degree of social connectivity— Downfall is truly a family. 

Guilds can share the wealth, but how many share anything else?

What makes one pastime crazy as opposed to another? Is it the time involved? The things you do for your pastime? Would you consider playing World of Warcraft and loving the game as crazy? Probably not, but it's one of the things "House of Cats" will be asking its audience to think about at the end of the day, and it's probably something any able-bodied gamer should be thinking about too.

The premise of this Canadian-made play is that MMO-loving police officer Malcolm Bailey, played by Chris Bullough, has been asked to investigate a cat-filled house owned by two sisters. In the play, we're asked whether playing WoW is crazy, or whether owning a lot of cats is crazy, and the audience is placed into the position that says both can either be crazy or not.

"[Bullough]'s character is obsessed with his blog and World of Warcraft, and we’re obsessed with our cats," continues Davina Stewart, one of the cat sisters. "We can't understand his fascination, then we try to explain why we have all these cats...."

"You always hear about those cat ladies and cat houses," Bullough adds. "But then for some reason it's still acceptable in society to say, 'Oh god, I didn't get any sleep last night. I was up all night playing this fantasy game, roaming around being this other character, discovering new lands, fighting and going on raids.'"

All in all, whether the interesting social exercise will be in thinking about whether playing WoW is crazy or actually getting a WoW fan to see a play is entirely dependent on your own resources. For us, we certainly wish we could adapt the script for our own amateur production.

"House of Cats" plays from February 15 to March 3 at the Varscona theater in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

The Online Game tracking application software developers Xfire hava announced the finalists for the World Of Warcraft Summer Movie Contest which we reported on back in July. In case you missed the initial announcement, this contest involved you being able to make a movie using Blizzard's World of Warcraft and submitting it to Xfire in any one of the four categories: Short Film, Comedy, Music Video/Dance, and Drama/Action. It was held for entrants from the United States, Canada and Europe and winners will get $23,000 worth of prizes from big names such as AMD, XFX, Sennheiser and ZBoard up for grabs.

The deadline for the competition was September 15th 2006, almost a month ago and today marks the day that Xfire announce the finalists. Five outstanding contest finalists were selected from each the above categories and here's your chance to get involved in the competition. Gamers have until Monday, October 23, to select and vote for their favorites using the official website, with the contest winners due to be announced on Thursday, October 26. Stay tuned to QJ's brand new WoW blog for all the latest news on the worlds favourite MMORPG!

Visit: [WoW Summer Movie Contest Website]

Around the central area of Stranglethorn Vale lies Gurubashi Arena; here, some of the most intense combat found in the Eastern Kingdoms happen. It's a PvP area where every player not in the player's party can attack and be attacked. Every 3 hours, its grounds are blanketed further by blood of fallen warriors the pirate "Short" John Mithril places a chest in the middle of the arena.

This very environment is what inspired Bigfoot Networks for its latest competition. We quote their open challenge: "We're looking for some belligerent adventurers to let their artistic fury fly by taking screenshots of themselves doing what they do best, vanquishing their foes!" That means creating carnage, spilling blood then taking some photo opportunities. Of course, the most merciless and without heart wins the competition.

To the victor goes the spoils, says an old adage. Well, we say indeed. The grand prize winner will receive a package consisting of 2 Gurubashi Gold Coins (real collector's item 24k gold coins engraved with the World of Warcraft logo) which translates roughly to $ 1,000, a Killer t-shirt, and a network card with an approximate retail value of $ 279.00. The complete set of rules and prizes can be accessed here.

Winners will be chosen on October 22 and will all be notified through e-mail. The competition is open to all 13 years old and above and active subscribers in select locations (U.S.A., Australia, Canada but not Quebec, New Zealand and Singapore).

If you've just gotten into machinima and you're wallowing in sadness because the doors of stardom is slowly closing down on you as the deadline for World of Warcraft's Summer Movie Contest gets nearer, then this little word from Blizzard and Xfire ought to take you out of your black hole - extended.

You've got two more weeks to polish, or even begin, your machinima masterpieces. You can submit it to any one of the four categories: Short Film, Comedy, Music Video/Dance, and Drama/Action. It is open to entrants from the United States, Canada and Europe. Treat the $23,000 prize from AMD, XFX, Sennheiser and Ideazon, plus a $5,000 enthusiast computer as your muse.

The new deadline for World of Warcraft's Summer Movie Contest is now on September 25. Finalists will be announced the same day; voting begins on October 9 and ends on October 23. Winners will be announced on October 27.

Thanks to Chris Placer for the tip.

Put your creativity to the test in Xfire and Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft Summer Movie Contest. Participants will have to make a movie using Blizzard's World of Warcraft and submit it to any one of the four categories: Short Film, Comedy, Music Video/Dance, and Drama/Action. It is open to entrants from the United States, Canada and Europe.

"World of Warcraft is one of the most popular games played by Xfire users. We know that our more than 4.5 million users of Xfire enjoy making and watching movies," said Mike Cassidy, CEO of Xfire. "Working with Blizzard on this exciting contest ensures that the World of Warcraft fans on Xfire will all have an opportunity to win prizes while making movies about their favorite game."

You can submit your movie by providing a URL to the Movie being entered or by sending it via email to xfirewowmovies@xfire.com with the subject "WoW Summer Movie Contest" and should provide the Submitting Information in he body of the email. Your movie should be in one of the following formats - WMV, AVI, MPG, MPEG, QT or MOV. Deadline for submission is on September 15th, 2006, Friday.

Who knows you could be the one walking away with over $23,000 worth of prizes from AMD, XFX, Sennheiser and ZBoard.

More information and detailed contest rules are available by clicking on the read link below.