GAME ON: Inside the eSports Industry

Each month we will be providing insights into the eSports industry, helping to connect, educate, and inspire you as you move from amateur to professional.

LVL UP+ Breaking Into the Game Industry

Level Up Your Game! We provide insight into how you can get into and work your way up in the gaming industry. From posting to discussion boards and starting your own game blog to participating in in game jams, PCX shows you numerous pathways to break into the gaming ecosystem.

Check out our blog post to see how you can level up your game!

MOMOCon

MomoCon was born from the hard work and dedication of a small group of committed people. Split between anime/manga, gaming, comics and cosplaying, they strive to bring the very best aspects of these fandoms to their fellow fans. MomoCon began through Anime O-Tekku, Georgia Tech’s anime club, and has grown over 50% in the following years. This year Momocon will be held at the Georgia World Congress Center on May 24th-27th.

MomoCon will also once again be hosting the MomoCon Entertainment and Media Career Fair. The Career Fair will be hosted Thursday May 24th, just prior to MomoCon, located in the Omni Hotel, International Ballroom D, between 10AM and 2PM. The Career Fair has no cost to job-seekers!

Open to college students around Georgia, the Georgia Esports League’s (GEL) spring championship is May 24 at Momocon. We brought you exciting coverage from the Fall championship at SIEGE Con, and where winners were awarded a total of $11,000 in scholarships. Be sure to sign up here for a chance to win thousands of dollars in scholarships May 24 and bragging rights to being the best college team in the state. Registration is ONLY open to college teams.

Check out the Momocon website for more event details.

PCX Presents: Welcome to Wakanda

Thank you to everyone who came out to support PCX Presents: Welcome To Wakanda Black Panther Private Screening! It was an incredible, inspiring, and engaging trip to Wakanda, and we are so grateful that you were able to join us for this journey.

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Because of your support, were able to have a sold out private screening and inspire the next generation to see what kinds of greatness they have inside of them.

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Use our discussion guide to talk with youth about the movie.

GGDA: Game Developers News Network

The Georgia Game Developers Association debuted its new "Game Dev News Network" 7:30 pm EST April 24 on YouTube, Twitch and Mixer! While there are plenty of news shows aimed at gamers, there are few targeted to game developers. The GGDA’s "Game Dev News Network" is the answer to this need. They are working with a variety of partners to create a network capable of covering stories relevant to game creation from techniques, tools, and plug-ins to breaking news in the game dev community. If you are looking to get into game development then be sure to watch their show, because you won’t find a more valuable resource!



Stay tuned for their next livestream on May 22nd at 7:30 p.m. EST

A Study Into Replayability- Biome Basics

A blog post by Josh Bycer, who talks about several key aspects that go into making a game replayable- starting with biome basics. He discusses what biomes mean not only for creating gamespaces, but that content that’s in them. If you’re getting into game design, then be sure to check out his blog series here.

Indie Corner: Fullbright Studios

Fullbright Studios (previously The Fullbright Company) is a game development studio based in Portland, Oregon. It was founded in March 2012, by Steve Gaynor, Karla Zimonja and Johnnemann Nordhagen. The founding members have previously worked together, in some capacity, on titles such as Bioshock 2 and its DLC, Minerva's Den, The Bureau: XCOM Declassified and Bioshock Infinite.

Fullbright aimed to create nonviolent games that centered around player-driven exploration, built "out of techniques that only video games can employ." The studio's first title, Gone Home, was released in August 2013, to critical acclaim, especially with respect to its storytelling. Gone Home was praised for effectively telling a realistic and deeply personal story.



Fullbright’s second game, Tacoma, which released last year, takes the indie studio’s narrative prowess to space for a sci-fi adventure that is equal parts moving and chilling. Whereas Gone Home was merely a superb character study, Tacoma builds a whole galaxy in a brilliant display of world-building.

For more information about Fullbright, be sure to check out their website.

Ready Player One!

So, to kick this thing off… I’m Brittany Regay! I play games by day, read comics by night, and run around tomb raiding on the weekends. I decided to start this column to provide a platform to discuss, ponder, and illustrate the complexities within the game community and industry. If there are any topics you’d be interested in reading about or seeing discussed, please don’t hesitate to reach out!

WHY GAMING?

At an early age I recognized that video games were an unprecedented form of entertainment. Used to not only connect and engage players but create ownership over an authored experience that no other medium can match.

One of the truly amazing things about video games is their capacity to inspire. Games give you the opportunity to embody characters who go to wondrous places and have exciting adventures, and as a player you get to create and actively be a part of that experience. I was seven when Tomb Raider was released in 1996 and quickly Lara Croft’s adventures began an inescapable desire within me to explore.

One of the reasons I immediately identified with Lara is that she is such an inspirational character. I saw in her, not only a little piece of myself, but someone I aspired to be—adventurous, strong-willed, intelligent, articulate, resourceful—all of these great qualities that led me to embody her and tackle the world with the same level of fearlessness. The fact that something as complex as self-discovery can be found in a video game exemplifies how unique a medium video games truly are.

Since the humble beginnings of Pong, games have tremendously evolved and have shifted from being a fad to an art form. This is because the medium itself is able to offer something that no other form can—visual cues, auditory cues, and player engagement. The reason video games are completely unique in this is because: they allow players to determine their own stories at their own pace, implement new perspectives while allowing the players to experience the consequences for themselves, and reinforce independent thought and personal growth.

Games create a sense of presence that we control the way we take in the experience and balance engagement and interactivity. There are some games that transcend their medium and transport you into a different world that is so engrossing, that it actually starts to feel real to you.

Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us is a masterful example of weaving together storytelling and gameplay. The game’s macabre world recognizes your every ounce of hope and joy and slaps them out of you with frighteningly cold indifference, but in the end, you’ll be glad for the experience. Because, other games aside, no other entertainment medium can evoke such raw emotion and can make you care so passionately about its characters. It’s this level of engagement that differentiates video games from any other form of media.

This was why video games have always spoken to me and what inspired me to try to turn my hobby into my dream life. In visiting these fantasy worlds, battling these imaginary enemies, and exploring uncharted lands, I discovered my true self. Through these experiences, I recognized that I want to be a part of an industry I feel passionate about and be involved with this community. With the video game industry continuing to grow at a rapid pace, it will be interesting to see what the next level of gaming will look like and how the medium will evolve. 

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The views and opinions expressed in this column are strictly those of the author and not necessarily those of Pharaoh’s Conclave (PCX)

Brittany Regay

Communications Executive

Pharaoh's Conclave

Follow me on Twitter/IG: @brittregay

"I am a gamer not because I don't have a life, but because I choose to have many."