Gaming to the gills

>> The third annual Arcadia Festival
gears up for another edition of
music, products and competition

HOT SPOT ACTION: Call of Duty 4

by ERIK LEIJON

The third annual Arcadia Festival, the only gaming show in Canada open to the general public, is taking advantage of the upcoming, soon-to-be-record-breaking holiday 2007 line-up by giving patrons the chance to try some of the most highly anticipated games of the season before they hit stores. From Nov. 9–11 at the Uniprix Stadium, Super Smash Bros. Brawl (due in Feb. 2008), Assassin’s Creed, Haze, Call of Duty 4 (should be in stores now) and Mass Effect will be fully playable to those willing to brace massive line-ups and crying tweens.

Arcadia producer François Décarie hopes that after doubling their audience from year one to year two to 21,000 people, Arcadia 3.0 will settle in at a healthy 25,000 visitors. The provincial government is cutting another cheque after last year’s success as well, upping their contribution by $5,000 to $35,000. In 2006, organizers of both Arcadia and the industry-specific Montreal International Game Summit (which will be held Nov. 27–28) were touting a joint gaming week, where the two events would combine forces to create an essential week of button-mashing euphoria. Décarie says the timing wasn’t right this year, but that he and his MIGS counterpart, Alliance NumériQC president and A2M CEO Rémi Racine, are already in talks to join both events at the hip for 2008.

“I don’t think it’s going to affect either of us to be apart, but it would make a lot more sense for the whole industry to be one big week of festivities,” says Décarie.

Introducing Machinima

Frugal gamers might be put off by a 100 per cent price increase, from $10 for a day pass last year to $20 this year. Décarie says the price increase has a lot to do with combining the music and video game portions of the festival under the same roof. Last year, the Minibosses serenaded us to Metroid and Excitebike covers at Club Soda for a separate cost, but this year, Ill Scarlett, Mobile and four other bands will be rocking out to varying degrees on the Arcadia stage at Uniprix Stadium. The plan is to encourage casual gamers to get interested in Arcadia.

“We wanted [Arcadia] to be the celebration of numerical culture, and bringing in bands and other special events broadens our horizons,” says Décarie. “Let’s not forget the industry is broadening their horizons too, with games like Brain Age, Guitar Hero and My Life Coach.”

With that major addition, LAN gaming and, conversely, anything PC-gaming related have been removed from the itinerary. Décarie and Arcadia chose to not bring it back, largely since “there are lots of LAN tournaments going on throughout the year, and for the general public, they didn’t understand what was going on. It was a niche approach.”

Arcadia will also mark the Canadian premiere Machinima, a movie-making technique where one combines video game graphics with computer-generated imagery to make short films. Famous examples of the emerging art form are the Red vs. Blue Internet comedy series, where Halo characters chatter in a Seinfeld-ian manner, and World of Warcraft (WoW) dancing films posted frequently on YouTube. Machinima experts Ingrid Moon and Hugh Hancock will be on hand to teach you to choreograph your WoW characters to dance to the Numa Numa song.

RETURN OF THE ROCK: Guitar Hero III

Channelling Buckethead

The competition portion of Arcadia will return, including an NHL 2K8 tournament. The major coup, and a guaranteed instant party, will be the Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock showdown, with a $5,000 purse and potentially hilarious Web video opportunities on the line. Qualifiers will be judged not only on technical proficiency but on overall performance as well. Guitar Hero experts tend to be of the obsessive variety, so if you can’t beat Buckethead’s “Jordan” on expert, save yourself the embarrassment and check out the Flashback Museum, the section devoted to retro gaming.

It’s only year three for the Arcadia Festival, yet the interest from local and international companies would indicate the festival is a big hit and destined to continue growing. Décarie, though, knows that to get on the radar of the international gaming community, they need to keep reaching out to big name publishers.

“Activision, Rockstar and Take-Two have recognized us, but we’ve got more publishers out there. We’ve got to get the THQs, Capcoms and Konamis and make them believe in this.”

Festival Arcadia runs from Nov. 9-11. Friday
from 9 a.m.–midnight, Saturday from 10 a.m.
–midnight and Sunday from 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
A three-day pass costs $50, adult day passes
cost $20 during the day, $25 at night.
For more info, see www.festivalarcadia.com