::fibreculture:: Games industry discussion

[Ana Valdés]

I read with interest your post, Melissa, and the article you send the
link to. The same phenomen the writer describes in Australia can be
applicable to Sweden. In the beginning of the Nineties the Swedish
game industry was full of expectations and some small companies
succeded providing the home market with some good games, mostly
edutainment.
At that time I started to write reviews of computer games for Sweden's
largest morning paper, 400.000 copies every day. I wrote the reviews
for the cultural pages, the newspaper avantgarde arena.
Today, 20 years later, game industry in Sweden is mainstream, we have
5 or 6 university masters and degrees in computer games design and
culture. But not one company is left producing games for the Swedish
market, all production is outsourced by Warner Bros or Sony. Digital
Illusions, authors and creators of Battlefield 1942, a real Swedish
product, are owned today by Electronic Arts.
I don't write reviews anymore since I don't find any creativity or
challenge in the market anymore.
The gaming industry is depending of infrastructure, good Internet
connections and fast computers. Maybe now, in the verge of a big
recesion, the gaming industry is not longer an answer to global
anxiety.

Ana Valdés

On Jan 21, 2008 5:22 AM, Melissa Gregg <m.gregg at uq.edu.au> wrote:
> Dear fibreculture,
>
>
> http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=6892
>
> Reading this article today, I was thinking how valuable it would be for this
> list to be re-activated as a place for informed discussion and debate about
> net-related issues in this region.
>
> There are local conditions described here that I find difficult to hear
> discussed in other places. It is also interesting to me that Online Opinion
> is now sourcing articles like this -- from the Courier Mail no less! What
> does this mean?
>
> It makes me wonder, is it one of the great ironies of fibreculture that just
> as its areas of expertise have become more mainstream, we are no longer
> talking together? Do people no longer talk here because they have finally
> achieved rewarding paid employment in the very areas and specialisms that
> once brought us together as a politics? The article is one example of how
> much economic clout the industries we work and train in are said to deliver,
> but I worry that at the very time when fibreculture could be useful as a
> defense against hyperbole of various kinds, we don't stay in touch.
>
> Anyway, I would love to hear from some of you who are teaching - or better,
> are graduates of - some of the courses discussed in the piece, to understand
> your take on the industry's present and future. And also where you are all
> hanging out to chat these days. It doesn't seem to be Facebook (which is its
> own relief, but makes me so very conscious of what was good about lists like
> this).
>
> Best wishes
> Melissa
>
>
> Dr. Melissa Gregg
> ARC Australian Postdoctoral Fellow
> Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies
> Fourth Floor, Forgan Smith Tower
> The University of Queensland
> QLD Australia 4072
> CRICOS provider number: 00025B
>
> p  + 61 7 3346 9762
> m + 61 4 0859 9359
> f   + 61 7 3365 7184
>
> http://cccs.uq.edu.au/index.htmlpage=16194&pid=16136
> www.homecookedtheory.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ::posted on ::fibreculture:: mailinglist for australasian
> ::critical internet theory, culture and research
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