Village Gamer

Ottawa – Facebook has agreed to add significant new privacy safeguards and make other changes in response to the Privacy Commissioner of Canada’s recent investigation into the popular social networking site’s privacy policies and practices. The company’s decision to implement the Privacy Commissioner’s recommendations is a positive step towards bringing Facebook in line with the requirements of Canada’s privacy law.

“These changes mean that the privacy of 200 million Facebook users in Canada and around the world will be far better protected,” says Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart. “This is extremely important. People will be able to enjoy the benefits of social networking without giving up control of their personal information. We’re very pleased Facebook has been responsive to our recommendations.”

Last month, the Privacy Commissioner issued a report on an in-depth investigation triggered by a complaint from the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic. While Facebook took some steps to resolve privacy concerns, the Commissioner remained dissatisfied by Facebook’s response at the end of the investigation. She was particularly concerned about the risks posed by the over-sharing of personal information with third-party developers of Facebook applications such as games and quizzes.

Facebook was given 30 days to respond to the Commissioner’s report and explain how it would address the outstanding concerns. Following a review of Facebook’s formal response and discussions with company officials, the Commissioner is now satisfied Facebook is on the right path to addressing the privacy gaps on its site.
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Vancouver – The Vancouver Chapter of Fair Copyright Canada will be holding an important meeting this Wednesday night at SFU Harbour Centre in Vancouver. The group plans to hold weekly meetings up until the Copyright Consultation period ends on September 13th.

According to the Chapter’s Facebook Group page, “Last year, following intense pressure from the United States, the government of Canada proposed radical changes to copyright law that would have made many legitimate, creative, and valuable activities illegal. Canadian artists, consumers and citizens rose up in protest. The bill died when the election was called, but the government promises to proceed.”

With the Federal Government’s deadline fast approaching, it is extremely important that artists, developers, writers, publishers, students – and everyone else who has a stake in the new copyright laws get involved with this consultation process. There are many Fair Copyright groups and chapters across the country. Check the Fair Copyright for Canada web site for more information or to find a group near you. I have also listed all of the national chapters below, with links to their pages.

Both web sites listed above are full of important, easy to understand information regarding the copyright consultation process and what it means for both consumers and creators. If you are unaware of the proceedings and not sure how they will affect you in the future, please take the time to read through the material on the sites. There is less than one month left for consultation – the time to get involved is now.

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Ottawa – CIPPIC, the University of Ottawa’s Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic has launched a new site which is aimed at facilitating debate/action on digital issues. DigitalAgenda.ca is part of CIPPIC’s plan to play a more active role in the important issues that will come up from the Canadian government’s initiative to pursue a strategy aimed at restoring Canada’s leadership role in the global Digital Economy. As this initiative will involve comprehensive changes to a number of fields impacting on Canadians’ digital experience. It is Digital Agenda’s goal to provide a forum for information, discussion and action on such issues.

Toronto – Interactive Ontario (IO) today announced three new speakers for GameON: Finance 2009, happening October 27 and 28 in Toronto. These speakers are experts on key issues surrounding the business of games including funding, banking, and monetization.

Greg Short, Executive Director, EEDAR
With over ten years experience in developing community integrated data services for some of the largest massively multiplayer games available, Greg Short is one of the world’s leading experts in maximizing the acquisition, retention and monetization of gaming communities.

Erik Robertson Managing Director, Nordic Game Program
Erik Robertson is the Managing Director of the Nordic Game Program. Its mission is to ensure access to quality Nordic computer games for children and young people.

Alec Dafferner, Partner, GP Bullhound, Technology Investment Banking
Alec Dafferner is a Partner and Head of GP Bullhound’s San Francisco office. With over ten years of technology investment banking experience, Alec has executed over 40 transactions for emerging growth companies in the U.S. and abroad, raising over $10 billion in capital and advising on over $2.5 billion in mergers and acquisitions.

Vancouver – As announced earlier this week, IUGO Mobile Entertainment has pulled A.D.D. Lite from the iTunes App Store. Here’s hoping that Apple gets its stuff together and either moves titles through approval faster or hires some more testing staff to catch up on the backlog.

Scotland – Brenda and Eli have landed safely in Ayr, Scotland after their transatlantic flight from Vancouver. They will be visiting with friends and relatives over there, before Brenda flies home on a commercial flight while Eli returns in the Cessna.

Saskatoon – Aerial photographers and videographers will be excited to see the newest product from Draganfly Innovations Inc. – the Draganflyer X4 Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. The Draganflyer X4 is a computer-stabilized, miniature airborne platform with a wireless video downlink and remote flight control.

The four-rotor, 680 gram electric helicopter is a flying platform capable of Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL), and is classified as an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). The Draganflyer X4 helicopter is designed for uses such as surveying, industrial inspection, military reconnaissance, aerial photography, real estate marketing, and inspection of hazardous locations. It is lightweight, compact, easily transportable, and measures only 30.5 inches (77.5cm) across.

The Draganflyer X4 helicopter is aimed at industrial and commercial users, providing reconnaissance and inspection information using an on-board wireless high definition video and high resolution still camera. The Draganflyer X4 helicopter is stabilized electronically using an on-board processor running thousands of lines of code and receiving data from seven sensors (three accelerometers, three gyros, and one barometric pressure sensor). The helicopter is able to determine its own orientation and motion based on the data it acquires through these sensors and can be piloted by a user with minimal training. Remotely controlled by its operator, the Draganflyer X4 automatically handles the complex attitude and altitude adjustments required to move at the specified speed and in the specified direction. Without this computer stabilization, the operator would have to constantly adjust the speed and orientation in order to move smoothly or stay in one place. An altitude hold feature allows the Draganflyer X4 to maintain its position in the air, even without user input. “The Draganflyer X4 provides users with amazing performance and stability” says Zenon Dragan, company president. “The Draganflyer X4 will hover stably even with the pilot’s hands removed from the controls.”
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Toronto’s Phased Games has released Snax Lite on the Xbox 360. Priced at 80 Microsoft points, Snax Lite is available on the Xbox Live Indie Games service. In Snax Lite, you’re the chef at your barbecue and all your friends are dying just to get a piece of the grill action! Cook up and serve your guests in a limited time frame. It’s a race against the clock and the grill! Snax Lite (Cooking Arcade Game) features 6 Challenging levels of fast game play action and a Massive 80 Minute Marathon Mode. Do you have what it takes to become the Master Chef?

Nexon has taken down the web site previously used to publicize Sugar Rush, a game developed by Vancouver’s Klei Entertainment. A spokesman from Klei thanked all of their beta testers, but there is unfortunately no further word regarding the future of the game, which was well received by the gamer community. Klei Entertainment, who owns the rights to the title, is actively seeking a new publishing partner.

Fit Brains has added a new game to their site. Paradise Island 2 is a word game designed to help with improving word stem recognition, deduction and concept formation as well as combining syllables and fragments. Just a few minutes per day spent with the games on FitBrains will help keep your cognitive abilities sharp – or even teach you a few new skills – all for free. Village Gamer highly recommends Fit Brains for everyone.

Three Canadian developed games are gracing the FAQ page of the new Xbox 360 Games on Demand site. The featured games are Mass Effect, Assassin’s Creed and Need For Speed: Carbon. Games on Demand is available for purchase on Xbox LIVE as part of today’s Xbox LIVE Update. You will be able to browse and purchase games through the Xbox LIVE Marketplace on the Web starting August 13. Village Gamer was selected to experience the preview of the Xbox Live, and so far we’re liking the additions, even though some of the Avatar Marketplace add-ons seem to be a bit pricey and I haven’t really seen anything in the Avatar Marketplace that I would like to purchase for my avatar. I’m not sure yet how I feel about being able to purchase new titles directly from Xbox, and I’m sitting on the fence as far as “the end of retail” models. I’m one of those people who will purchase Collector’s Editions for certain titles (like Assassin’s Creed 2), and I would hate to see those options disappear, even if it is far off in the future.

The folks from Bioware have departed for GenCon, with promises of cool stuff for Dragon Age: Origins fans, and then they’re headed for GamesCon in Germany. I guess we’ll just have to wait for PAX to see all the cool stuff for ourselves.

And in my final note for the morning, just a reminder for those of you who are thinking about going to GDC Austin – early bird pricing ends in two days.

Canada – First, a shout-out to our readers over at DFAIT – Happy Friday everyone! Also best wishes to Monika and Michael for a life full of adventure and happiness – make sure you come back to Vancouver every so often for a visit. Our other local adventurers, Brenda and Eli have reached Rankin Inlet in Nunavut, where you can apparently buy a Wii at the Rankin Inlet Co-op for only $799.00. Wow.

This weekend, Village Gamer will be at the Abbotsford Airshow. We’ll be at the VIP Chalet on Sunday, so if you’re on Chalet Row, stop in and say hi. We’ll also be visiting with our friends from the Canadian Armed Forces out on the static display field. Sadly, Captain Phil “Ritz” Smith and our friends from the US Air Force Strike Eagle demo team appear to be scheduled for a show in Ohio – but there is a flypast scheduled. Makes conversation difficult, though. Our favourites, though, will always be the Snowbirds.  Both Nintendo Wii and Microsoft 360 had a presence at last year’s airshow. We’ll be checking to see if they’ve returned to the static area as well.

The cavechild flew in one of Bud Granley’s Yak 11 planes yesterday – usually he flies with stunt pilot Ken Pietsch, but Ken was booked up with media types. Mike took video of the flight, but he hasn’t finished his editing yet so we can’t show you this year’s pre-show flight adventure. He was disappointed that they only hit a low G-force once or twice during the flight. Now he’s decided he wants his pilot’s license.

IUGO’s new game Spy Bot Chronicles has officially launched in the iTunes App Store with an introductory price of $0.99 usd. Toy Bot has been kidnapped by Thief Bot, and he needs you to rescue him. Play through four different zones to find the hidden levels and collect all of the rewards while experiencing the high quality of IUGO’s game design.

Ubisoft Montreal is asking for gamer input on some of the achievements for Assassin’s Creed 2. You can vote for one of these four achievements, as well as leave your comments. If you are a member of Ubi’s community, you can vote here; if you’re on Facebook, you can vote here.

The four achievements to vote on are:

The taste of revenge – Kill X Brutes (heavy guard)
Weapon Master – Use all weapons at least once
Victory lies in preparation – Get all available upgrades for Ezio
Mighty traveler – Travel X kilometers within the game

My choice was Mighty Traveler, because putting on lots of in-game miles means taking a look at the scenery and taking in all of the incredible artwork which has been done by the artists and level designers.

Vancouver’s indie developer Dingo Games has just announced its latest project, The Three Musketeers: The Game. Closely following the story of Alexander Dumas’ original masterpiece, The Three Musketeers: The Game is a unique action-adventure game for Mac and Windows.
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Toronto – Giant Realm, Inc., the rapidly growing NYC online media company which delivers millions of 18 – 34 year old male first movers to advertisers via its publisher group of entertainment enthusiast communities, today announced that publisher Pure Pwnage’s (pronounced Pure Ownage) popular web series has been picked up by Canwest Broadcasting. Slated to begin production this fall, the half-hour comedy series will air on Showcase in 2010. Pure Pwnage, the digital generation’s Bob & Doug McKenzie, is among the first web series to graduate to Canadian broadcast TV.

Pure Pwnage, which is filmed in and around Toronto, appeals to fans of Curb Your Enthusiasm and Flight of the Conchords and those who have an appreciation for Internet and gaming culture. The mockumentary series follows Jeremy (Jarett Cale) a modern day, 26 year old gamer version of Larry David. His unfortunate lack of social experience constantly has him bumping up against reality. A child of the Internet, no matter how hard he tries, he just can’t relate to the ‘real world.’ After he is given an ultimatum from his mother to get a job or get out of the basement, Jeremy must leave the gaming world and join society again. Hilarity ensues as the series sees Jeremy start his own rock band, become a video game tutor and attempt to socialize with his co-workers at a grocery store.

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Ottawa – The CRTC has released its report on Canadian media consumption, and while it appears that fewer people are listening to streaming radio stations, more are tuning in for podcasts. The Media Consumption Report contains broadcasting data for the year ended August 31, 2008, and telecommunications data for the year ended December 31, 2008. Due to the time periods covered by this report, any economic downturns currently being experienced by the industry are not reflected, and will appear in the 2010 report for 2009 consumption.

The CRTC is also reporting that the number of Canadians online has seen another increase in 2008 over2007. Apparently we Anglophones spent an average of 13.8 hours online per week (they obviously didn’t check out the usage at Village Gamer, because we blow that number out of the water). Francophones didn’t spend quite as much time online, coming in at an average of 11.1 hours online per week. The Francophone sector saw the biggest increase, with the 2007 average coming in at 9.8 hours, while Anglophones only increased their time online by 0.4 hours per week.

However, 18% of Anglophones and 16% of Francophones reported watching a television program or a clip from a television program online, while podcasts saw an increase in usage of 46% among Anglophones and 40% among Francophones. The streaming of AM and FM radio stations over the Internet has experienced a decline over the last few years. The percentage of Anglophones who streamed a radio station in a given month dropped from 23% in 2005 to 16% in 2008. Similarly, the percentage of Francophones who engaged in the same online activity decreased from 16% to 13% during the same period.

Canadians are also very connected, with 99% of all households having at least one telecommunication service, including residential, wireless or Internet telephone service.

Other report highlights:

Internet services
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Vancouver – Deep Fried Entertainment COO Brenda Bailey has embarked on a big adventure with new hubby Eli Gershkovitch, owner of Steamworks Brewing Co., one of our favourite places to go in Vancouver. They took off from Vancouver Airport yesterday in their single-engine Cessna 172 for a transatlantic flight to Glasgow, Scotland. The flight path will take them over the northern Arctic regions of Canada, Greenland, Iceland and then the UK. Brenda and Eli have planned stops in Williams Lake BC, Edson and Fort MacMurray Alberta, Stony Rapids  Saskatchewan, with Rankin Inlet and Iqaluit in Nunavut being among their last stops in Canada. Then it will be over to Kangerlussuaq and Kulusuk in Greenland, Reykjavik, Iceland and Vagar in the Faroe Islands before arriving in Glasgow. You can track their flight on GPS and follow their adventures on BlogSpot. We here at Village Gamer wish Brenda and Eli a safe trip, and we look forward to hearing all about their big adventures through the daily updates.

The Turtles are back – Ubisoft Montreal has announced that the remake of 1991’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Reshelled (developed by Ubisoft Singapore) has launched on XBL Arcade today. The download costs 800 Microsoft points, and has made the resident cavechild very happy – this was one of his favourite games when he was younger – and of course he now needs a new points card.

Pug Pharm Productions Inc. has announced that it has received funding from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP). This contribution, in addition to both technical and business-oriented advisory services provided by NRC-IRAP, will enable Pug Pharm to develop innovative games. The company’s strategic focus is on the intersection between social networking applications and online games – combining the best technical and design elements of both areas. Pug Pharm is committed to developing online games that combine the engagement of traditional video games with the technologies of social networking applications. Led by Bocska—formerly of Radical/Vivendi, EA/BlackBox, Disney Interactive, and co-founder of Hothead Games—Pug Pharm endeavors to leverage this combination into never-before-seen gameplay elements that appeal to global audiences.

“As a Canadian start-up, this generous support from NRC-IRAP is integral to our growth and development. It allows us to build new and exciting technologies that will facilitate deep, rich online social networking experiences,” stated Steve Bocska, CEO of Pug Pharm. “We are excited about the tremendous opportunities that are emerging with the convergence between online games and social networking technologies. We are looking forward to announcing specific games as they near launch.”

New Media BC has put out a call for entries for the Digital Springboard Mentorship Programme. This programme will pair successful applicants with a Mentor for 4 months or more to help you move forward with your company. Digital Springboard is a free advisory service and mentorship programme for emerging companies being administered by New Media BC and supported by the National Research Council – IRAP:

– 6 or more companies will be selected to be matched with veteran experts
– These mentors will provide free advisory service for at least 4 months
– They will help companies solve specific business/technical problems
– Deadline for submission: Aug 12, 2009

Eligible companies must be developing products for interactive entertainment (games), interactive design and marketing, digital animation/film and mobile content.

Audiokinetic will be taking Wwise on the road this fall, with stops in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle and Vancouver. The presentation will include presentations and training sessions for Wwise and SoundSeed, an audio post-mortem by an Audiokinetic customer and a networking cocktail. Wwise is the platform being used by Ubisoft to deliver the sound in Assassin’s Creed 2. Audiokinetic is also hiring – they are looking for a Senior C++ Designer/Developer and a Development Team Leader.

Canada – Just announced late last night, Vancouver independent game designer and consultant Adrian Crook has been signed to design a console game for a new movie IP. Congratulations Adrian, and I am definitely looking forward to more details when they are released. This will be Adrian’s second freelance console game project.

Vancouver’s Annex Pro will be attending SIGGRAPH 2009 in New Orleans to promote several of the products they carry, including Vicon Boujou v5, PipelineFX Qube, Pixologic ZBrush, EyeonFusion, HP, Chaos Software V-Ray for Maya and the wide range of Autodesk titles, as well as StudioGPU with MachStudio Pro at the AMD booth. Please contact Kerry for a product and booth tour at the show.

I’d also like to send a shout-out to the folks at dimeRocker and Overinteractive Media whom I finally had the pleasure of meeting in person at last Friday’s Unity 3D Vancouver Users’ Group launch at District 319. It was a great event, and Unity 3D looks like a great development tool. In addition, and in support of Unity 3D’s Summer of Code initiative, dimeRocker would like to offer free office space for a lucky Vancouver candidate who receives support from Unity for their project. You will be surrounded by like-minded Unity heads, given a desk and chair in a cozy corner for you and your laptop as well as access to our humble amenities, including coffee throughout the week and beer on Fridays.  Those lucky individuals chosen by the gang in Copenhagen can forward their resume and brief description of their Unity-supported project to J.Joly at Overintactive Media. Thank you to Kerry Corlett of Annex Pro for the introduction to Micah Groberman, Executive Director of Vancouver’s Somatone Interactive Audio studio, and to Carolyn Carnes of Flash Fire Communications for bringing Corey Rollins of Shogun Gamer to our attention.

I also had the pleasure of meeting Ted Nugent, President of Genius Factor Games. His studio has a new title coming out in just a few weeks which will join their previous title, Gravity Well in the iTunes App store. Also keeping busy are developers John Warner, Mitch Lagran and writer Steve Waldman, all keeping busy at Greener Grass Games on “a free to play, full 3d, episodic, browser-based game that centers around environment exploration and features a compelling, mysterious story line.”

Just a reminder that we are holding a contest to give away a copy of PROTOTYPE for the 360. Entries close tonight (late entries not penalized, we just wanted to see how many people could make deadline), and the winning name will be randomly drawn by Kelly Zmak and Dave Fracchia over at Radical’s studio this Thursday afternoon.

Splinter Cell fans will have to wait a bit longer for the next title in the series. Ubisoft announced yesterday that Splinter Cell: Conviction™ and Red Steel® 2, whose releases were previously planned for the third fiscal quarter, will now be released in the fourth fiscal quarter. Ghost Recon® and I am Alive™, which were previously scheduled for release in the fourth fiscal quarter, will now strengthen the line-up for fiscal 2010-11. Read the rest of this entry »