EVENT REVIEW - GAMEHOTEL PARIS EXTRAVAGANZA

Some of the most exciting personalities of the international games and digital pop culture scenes met for a creative summit as GAMEHOTEL's flagship live event debuted in Paris with a dynamic opening to an enthusiastic audience.

During the course of an evening chock full of highlights, skillfully morphed presentations, stimulating discussions, penetrating interviews, musical and visual performances, and exclusive showcases, protagonists from the French and international video game industry, as well as the related creative sectors of digital pop culture, assessed the state of creativity in the game scene, and explored promising threads of innovation and diversity in interactive entertainment.

REFRESHING AND EXUBERANT
As a crystalline chill descended on the venerable buildings of the Marais district in Paris, the scene inside the sold out GAMEHOTEL venue was buzzing with a colorful, stylish ambience. Journalists from French and international media outlets, including TV stations Canal Plus, I-Télé, Arte, and NHK Japan, described the event in glowing terms:

"A great evening on digital pop culture" - French newspaper Libération. A "symbol of future events on video games" - Yahoo. "Gamehotel offers moments of rare cultural insights. A valuable and enduring achievement. Refreshing and exuberant" - Edge Magazine, London. "Visions of the most innovative trends in interactive entertainment" - Joypad Magazine, Paris.

Game portal Overgame impatiently awaits "the follow-up of this very first video game happening in France." Zurich-based newspaper Sonntagszeitung simply christens it "the hotel of the game Industry," French magazine Télérama calls it the place "where you discover tomorrow's games and digital heroes." Olivier Lejade, CEO of French game developing company Meekensleep, experienced the GAMEHOTEL evening as an "explosive cocktail with an extreme inspiration level which makes you want to create things," and industry consultant Abrial Da Costa recalls "a memorable night regarding both the high quality of the organization as well as the featured content."

JAPANESE RHYTHM ACTION GAMES & WIRELESS GAMES
Renowned Tokyo designer collective Devilrobots kicked off the evening with a VJ-set featuring their action figure characters which loomed over the stage as larger-than-life inflatable plastic dolls, to the delight of the audience.

The focus of this first edition of GAMEHOTEL's flagship event was on Japanese rhythm action games, as well as on wireless games. Kiri Matsuura, one of the creative heads of game development studio NanaOn-Sha presented their latest masterpiece: a ground-breaking new game just released in Japan on PlayStation 2, called Mojibribon which seamlessly combines the art of Japanese calligraphy with pop cultural elements.

In his intervention from Tokyo, Tetsuaya Mizuguchi, head of United Game Artists, and admired creator of seminal rhythm action games Rez and Space Channel 5, revealed the broad variety of fields he draws inspiration from, and waxed philosophical when it came to talking about the soul of the game - as the audience watched (and heard) him playing Rez on a big screen.

Competitors in the mobile gaming market place, Tom Söderlund from Swedish company It's Alive, and Mathieu Castelli from young French studio Newtgames, presented their upcoming multiplayer mobile games based on geolocalization technology, and agreed to join forces in the promotion of pervasive gaming.

VIBRANT APPEAL
Steven Poole, acclaimed columnist at leading British game magazine Edge, and author of one of the most compelling approaches to video games so far, "Trigger Happy - The inner life of video games," launched a vibrant appeal to developers to take more risks and to be more innovative. Later in the evening, he exchanged his visions of the future of subscription-based titles with David Cage, CEO of highly respected and innovative French development studio QuanticDream, developer of successful Nomad Soul as well as of forthcoming Fahrenheit, a game which will boldly merge aspects of television serials with interactivity.

During a focus session on game characters, David Choquet, author of the video game history's first Who is Who of game heroes ("1000 Heroes"), shared his deep insights into the role of characters in the evolution of the past thirty years of computer and video games, and commented on the heroes of the future, as well as on the pro and cons of a Hollywood-style star system.

IDEAS, CREATIVITY, ENERGY
"The ambition of the GAMEHOTEL series is to open up wide-ranging access to the cultural phenomenon of games, and to promote innovation and diversity in the field of interactive entertainment by connecting people who would not have met otherwise, since they tend to evolve in separate spheres. And this was a total success," said GAMEHOTEL producer Tina Cassani, who had compiled the all-star lineup of the first edition. Revealing exclusive backstage information, she noted: "There are very novel collaborations which have been initiated tonight between game companies and designers in Europe and Japan."

"It was an evening packed with ideas, creativity, energy, and a lot of fun. And it confirmed the strong desire of many industry actors, as well as growing parts of the audience, for an opening-up and a constant renewal of video games," commented Bruno Beusch, director of organizing TNC Network, and host of the three hour extravaganza.

GAME CHARACTER CONTEST & URBAN VINYL SHOWCASE
One of the highlights of the evening was the first Game Character Contest. Participants had three minutes each to present their favorite game character to the audience. These ranged from highly original, to unexpected, if not genuinely twisted, observations, such as Steven Poole's analysis of Solid Snake's (Metal Gear Solid) bad hair problem, or Mathieu Castelli's heart-breaking performance illustrating the romance between the protagonists in the game Ico. The first round of the vote turned out to be too close to call between Francois Chalet's seminal presentation of the life and mating habits of Pacman, and Kiri Matsuura's skillful calligraphy and drawing demo of her own characters Vibri and Mojibri. In a final round the audience opted for Kiri Matsuura - and the proud winner was happily acclaimed by her fans and finished the evening signing autographs.

GAMEHOTEL's first Designer Toy Showcase featured a high-profile selection of urban vinyl figures from Hong Kong and Japan, some of which were shown for the first time in Europe. The sheer amount of detail in Brothersfree's Brothersworker series, the fluidity, elegance, and style of Koji Takeuchi's Sci-Fi heroes, the viral quality of Furi-Furi Company's figures, and of course Devilrobot's weird To-Fu figure universe, all were major attractions for the audience.

See also: event preview - gamehotel paris extravaganza