RALEIGH,NC – Capstrat’s Roger Harris will present an in-depth look at the intersection of social media and gaming when he presents at the Triangle Game Conference on April 29.

Harris will provide insight into how social media will impact gamers, developers and vendors with a particular focus on how social media will accelerate the evolution of online gaming in uncertain directions.

The Triangle Game Conference will present the thinking of some of the industry’s most influential minds through five tracks that include panels, lectures and targeted discussions.

Harris will lead the discussion titled, “Games People Play: Social Media Dimensions of Online Gaming,” from 4:00 – 5:00 p.m. in Congressional Room B, Marriott City Center.

“Gaming has led technological advances since the home computer’s earliest days,” said Harris. “Online social media has added another dimension to game development. We can expect games to incorporate increasingly complex social elements,” he continued.

“Moreover, future game style, technology and branding will be largely driven by the demands of social communities,” Harris said.

Held in Raleigh, North Carolina, on April 29th and 30th, the Triangle Game Conference is the East Coast forum for networking, career building and sharing gaming industry expertise.

The conference – currently the only one of its kind in the Southeast – will include lectures by industry experts, the Career Lounge and Game Development University.

By Allan Maurer
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC—When Juan Benito, creative director of Atomic Games started playing games in the late 1980s on computers, PCs were then a dominant gaming platform. An earlier generation played on Atari gaming consoles that plugged into a TV. “Now,” Benito points out, “As Japanese gaming consoles evolved, people have moved back to their living rooms away from their desk and PC.”

Serious PC game players had to “Upgrade a $2,000 PC rig almost every year,” Benito notes. Consoles provided a less expensive, more accessible and reliable gaming experience. “The user experience has evolved and the PC has not kept pace. That said, PCs still have a strong role to play in the gaming industry, particularly with casual and massive multiple player games online,” he says.

Evolving game trends will get a thorough airing at the upcoming Triangle Game Conference.

The business of games, media and games, serious games, game design, and games and media are among the topics of panels, speakers and tracks at the TGC April 29 at the Raleigh Convention Center and Marriott City Center.

Dr. Michael Capps, president of the hugely successful Epic Games based in Raleigh will keynote the event. Peter Tamte, president of Atomic will also be doing a keynote.

In an earlier interview, Capps told TechJournal South, “If we had held a game conference ten years ago, there would probably only have been a handful of people from Red Storm and Epic Games. Now we’re expecting 500 people for this event.”

Discussing trends in the gaming business with TechJournal South, Benito said that while games are not recession proof, they are recession resistant. “There is still a lot of growth to be had in the game industry and I think we’ll suffer less,” he says. “In bad times, people still need to find good times and games are a good value proposition. You buy a game for from $3 to $60 and get hundreds of hours of enjoyment, so they stand up well compared to movies and other media.”

Benito says one business trend in the gaming industry is clearly evident. “We’re seeing a split in the marketplace. Both high end front runner games, state-of-the-art shooters that cost millions to make and sell millions of units and inexpensive or free casual games are getting traction. What suffers are the ones in the middle that are neither Triple A games nor casual. I think we’ll see a decline in those.”

Atomic Games, known for its military tactics titles, spun out of Destineer in January 2009. It employs 75 people in Raleigh.

It is one more than 30 game companies forming a growing and impressive gaming sector in the Research Triangle area, which Michael Capps of Epic has called “The game-engine capital of the world.”

Game engines can be licensed by other game makers from companies such as Epic to shorten development cycles and improve game quality without starting from scratch.

Benito says casual games, which require developers to come up with an entertaining experience without using so many system resources on a PC are “A renewing thing for the industry.”

Benito says that at Atomic, “We want to change the perceptions about games in general.” Especially, he says, the idea that video games “Are just for kids, that they are toys not appropriate for certain types of subject matter.” That means, he says, that games can take on serious topics such as the war in Iraq.

“We think they have as much validity to be tapped inside video games as elsewhere. It’s a generational shift. Those of us who grew up playing games won’t have any hesitation to lay a rich game tackling issues of any type.”

In addition to lectures and panels, the Triangle Game Conference will feature an Expo, Career Lounge and Game Development University, a student-oriented exhibition to help aspiring game developers tap into educational resources and make connections with industry leaders.

Online: www.trianglegameconference.com; www.atomic.com; www.epicgames.com