Village Gamer

October 28 is International Animation Day, and to mark the occasion, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) is presenting free screenings of great NFB animated films in cities across Canada as part of its Get Animated! series.

The full schedule has not yet been announced, but here is what we can look forward to here in Vancouver:

As part of the Vancouver Short Film Festival, you can see NFB New Releases on Thursday October 28 at 2:45 pm (Vancity Theatre)

Saturday October 30
1pm Master Class with Matthew Talbot-Kelly (Trembling Veil of Bones) (Vancity Theatre)
4pm NFB New Releases (Vancity Theatre)

Sunday October 31 – 10am Fairy Tales for All (Vancity Theatre) – Fairy tale lovers, young and old alike, will be charmed by this selection of animated shorts, including Molly in Springtime, awarded Best Animation at Banff World Television Festival 2010.

Monday November 1 – Ron Diamond’s Animation Show of Shows (Emily Carr University of Art & Design)

The NFB New Releases Program allows viewers to discover the latest works by NFB’s award-winning filmmakers, including Higglety Pigglety Pop!, an adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s book from filmmakers Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski (Oscar® nominees and Genie Award winners for Madame Tutli-Putli), featuring the voices of Meryl Streep and Forest Whitaker.

Emily Carr University of Art & Design is offering a new immersive 4-day workshop on Digital Storytelling. Course participants will come with ideas for a story, family legend, or a piece of personal non-fiction, and leave with a 2 to 3-minute video, formatted for web-broadcast, family viewing or DVD distribution.

Digital storytelling, which sprang from The Center for Digital Storytelling in Berkeley, California in the mid-’90s, was designed as a method of personal and community empowerment, bringing the tools of digital media production to the tech-wary and those usually kept on the other side of the lens. It has become a worldwide and dynamic movement to humanize and personalize fields as varied as health services, multimedia journalism, education, historical projects, literacy, marketing and communications, community development, tourism, research and evaluation. Read the rest of this entry »

Hack em’, stab em’, burn em’ and kill em’! In the new Dead Rising 2 launch trailer, you can watch Chuck Greene do it all to the undead mobs that threaten to destroy Fortune City. On a quest to save his daughter and escape the massive zombie attack, Chuck will use a roll of duct tape and a lot of creativity to make some of the most outrageous weapons you have ever seen! Check it all out in the newest trailer from Capcom Studio Vancouver (formerly Blue Castle Games).

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SB4Lntm4Dc]

Coming to the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC, Dead Rising 2 launches next week for North America on September 28, 2010.

Brand engagement pioneer VideoEgg has announced that it has agreed to acquire Six Apart, the leader in conversational media, to form SAY Media, a modern media company. SAY Media brings together influential voices and their communities to enable advertisers to reach a global audience of 345 million (according to comScore’s global projections for VideoEgg and Six Apart as well as comScore’s measurement of total unduplicated audiences in US, Canada and the UK.) The company provides systemic ways for advertisers to engage the social consumer in an era when attention is scarce and interruptive ad models are less effective.

Connecting rich experiences with attentive audiences. The new entity combines VideoEgg’s engagement technologies with Six Apart’s social publishing platform to power advertising campaigns that are more conversational and interactive. Through the creation of social hubs and influencer-driven custom content programs linked to the innovative AdFrames offering, SAY Media delivers engagement across display and mobile. The result is advertising that is more efficient, useful and social.
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Ubisoft has announced an exclusive partnership with NIVEA for the Your Shape: Fitness Evolved video game. The partnership brings together NIVEA, developers of the world’s best-selling body-care products, and Ubisoft, to offer a holistic, in-home program for consumers to sculpt their bodies leveraging Kinect™ for Xbox 360®. A NIVEA workout will be included in Ubisoft’s Your Shape: Fitness Evolved when the game launches in November 2010. Two other special workouts, developed in collaboration with NIVEA’s fitness and lifestyle expert Sarah Maxwell, will be available as downloadable content throughout 2011.

“We’re delighted to partner with NIVEA on Your Shape: Fitness Evolved,” says Alain Corre at Ubisoft. “Video games offer the potential to reach diverse audiences and deliver tangible benefits to the consumer, going beyond pure entertainment. Your Shape: Fitness Evolved is an innovative and efficient fitness program for men and women who are looking to get into better shape. The NIVEA workout provides additional values for female players looking for a complete inner and outer beauty experience.”

Your Shape: Fitness Evolved will be the most innovative and complete fitness program available this autumn. Taking advantage of Microsoft’s Kinect, controller-free games and entertainment for Xbox 360 tracking capabilities and Ubisoft’s proprietary Player Projection technology, Your Shape: Fitness Evolved puts the player in the centre of the game, offering an immersive and rewarding fitness experience for men and women to stay in shape and reach their personal goals.

“At NIVEA we are very enthusiastic about this new and innovative partnership,” comments Jean-Francois Pascal, Director Global Business Unit Body Care at NIVEA. “With Your Shape: Fitness Evolved, our consumers will be encouraged to combine skin care with fitness in the most innovative and easy way, which will enable them to feel good in their body. For 100 years NIVEA, has been known and trusted by consumers for its skin care expertise and reliable products. NIVEA’s body-shaping products help make the most of your figure by improving the skin’s texture and firmness and reducing the visible signs of cellulite. However, we know that a holistic approach is required for best results: a combination of highly effective body care products, fitness training and a healthy diet. That’s why the integration of the NIVEA Work Your Body Fitness Room in Your Shape: Fitness Evolved completes the offer.”

Tickets for Anomaly H2O, a dynamic showcase of talented artists from across North America presented by CG Movement, are now available. A fusion of an art workshop and party that brings 2D/3D artists together to share inspiration and creativity, Anomaly H2O will take place on Saturday, October 30, 2010 at the Vancouver Aquarium, one of Canada’s favourite and most beautiful attractions.

Early Bird tickets are available until September 30th at a cost of $55.00 ($45.00 for students). Regular ticket prices are $65.00 ($55.00 for students). Your ticket includes not only a great night of networking and unforgettable artistic inspiration, but also:

* Admission to Anomaly presentations and party
* One year CGmovement membership
* Raffle ticket for door prizes
* Complimentary event t-shirt
* Snacks throughout the event

Keynote speakers are digital painter Craig Mullins and concept artist Jason Stokes. Featured artists for the evening include Anna Fehr, Cesar Rizo, Daryl Mandryk, Jake Collinge, Jesse Turner, Marco Menco, Matthew Barrett, Richard Anderson, Tran Nguyen and Ty Shelton.

If you are planning to attend the Montreal International Game Summit but haven’t bought your tickets yet, time is running out. Early Bird pricing for MiGS ends on September 24th, so you should act fast to save 30% on the cost of attendance. Entries for the for the ‘Create your own advertisement concept for the 2011 MIGS‘ contest also close at midnight on the 24th. The winner will get to see his ad in the printed program, which will be distributed to the 1,500 attendees of the 2010 summit. Plus, the winner also gets a free pass for the event.

nextMEDIA Toronto has published its session schedule for the upcoming November 29th – 30th event which will be held at The Design Exchange. Submissions for the Digital Hot List partnering program close on October 1st, so get your entry in now. Early Bird pricing for the conference ends on October 15th; it is possible to purchase a single day pass, and don’t forget that your nextMEDIA pass includes one ticket to the Canada New Media Awards, with additional ceremony tickets available for $150.00 each.

On November 15th join The New York Times bestselling Author of Blink, Tipping Point, Outliers and What the Dog Saw, Malcolm Gladwell along with former CEO of The Walt Disney Company and author of the forthcoming book Working Together Michael Eisner as they headline The Art of Management Conference at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

“We are excited to present this line up of speakers to Toronto’s business community and are confident that we have designed a conference that will help organizations learn to respond to what is happening in the world today,” says Christopher Novais, VP Marketing & Communications at The Art of Productions Inc

Building on the success of the sold out 2009 program, The Art of Management returns to Toronto with five internationally renowned bestselling authors and visionaries including:

* Malcolm Gladwell on Understanding Success, Decision Making & Trends
* Michael Eisner on Creativity in Leadership & Partnerships
* Nilofer Merchant on Collaboration & Strategy
* Simon Sinek on Inspiring Performance
* Mitch Joel on Managing in a Connected World

They will join over 1,500 of Canada’s most influential entrepreneurs, senior executives and management teams as they gather to gain the insights shared by today’s leaders in management and leadership thinking at this highly anticipated conference. “The Art of Management is a world-class event,” says Mitch Joel, President of Twist Image and author of the best-selling business book, Six Pixels of Separation. “While I am honoured to be one of the speakers at this event, I am even more excited to be in the audience, listening and learning from people like Malcolm Gladwell, Michael Eisner, Simon Sinek and Nilofer Merchant.”

Regina’s NetSecure Technologies, the company behind SmartSwipe, has announced a strategic partnership with BitDefender®, developer of BitDefender Antivirus Pro, BitDefender Internet Security and BitDefender Total Security. By combining the companies’ flagship products, NetSecure Technologies and BitDefender will provide a layered security package later this year to protect both consumers’ computers and their online transactions.

According to the Internet Crime Complaint Center, a partnership between the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center, Internet fraud increased by 22.3 percent last year, causing financial losses linked to online fraud to more than double. Additionally, a recent survey of social media users conducted by the Ponemon Institute, an independent research firm, found that identify theft from online banking was of greatest concern, followed by conducting e-commerce transactions.

Daniel McCann, president, NetSecure Technologies, said, “With the steady rise in both e-commerce and online fraud, the industry needs to look for better ways to protect consumers. Today, no one device or software program is completely effective in preventing identity theft and Internet fraud; therefore, consumers must leverage multiple security methods. Through our partnership with BitDefender, we’re confident that – together – we can provide a bundled security package to further protect consumers’ financial and personal information from malicious attacks.”

By leveraging its Dynamic SSL (DSSL) patented technology, NetSecure’s personal credit card reader, SmartSwipe, encrypts sensitive data at the point of origin, before it ever reaches the computer, protecting sensitive financial and personal information from endpoint threats. SmartSwipe cannot be hacked and thus protects both financial institutions and their customers from the growing threat of cyber fraud and identity theft.

“BitDefender’s goal is to help protect computer users across the globe from online threats,” said Peter Laakkonen, General Manager, OEM and Technology Licensing, BitDefender. “We’ve remained committed to set new standards in proactive threat prevention, and our partnership with NetSecure is the latest testament to that commitment. We look forward to working with NetSecure to effectively safeguard the online world.”

Meanwhile over in Ontario, WinMagic® Inc. has announced that leading research firm, Gartner Inc., has placed WinMagic as a “Visionary” in its Mobile Data Protection (MDP) Magic Quadrant* for 2010. WinMagic is committed to Research & Development, innovative features, comprehensive certifications, heterogeneous platform support and wide-ranging embedded system support for such technologies as Seagate self-encrypting (Drive Trust) drives, Opal compliant self-encrypting drives, TPM, Intel® Anti-Theft Technology (Intel® AT) and EFI. Read the rest of this entry »

Open Text Corporation has announced the release of Open Text ECM Suite 2010, the largest innovation effort in the company’s history to create the industry’s most comprehensive, fully integrated ECM solution suite.

The unique value of ECM Suite 2010 is its combination of technologies covering all aspects of ECM. Open Text adds wide ranging new functionality linked through numerous integration points covering 90 products and modules, and spanning everything from compliance, business process management and portals to integrated mobile support and enterprise information archiving. The result gives customers the most complete content management system available to handle the vast array of content types, languages, applications, user needs and business processes in their organizations.

ECM Suite 2010 gives organizations the power to move ECM beyond projects or functional deployments, where ECM crosses systems and departments to add greater value, helping to reduce costs and increase productivity. The strength of the ECM Suite is its core services layer – process services, user interface services and the cornerstone of the ECM Suite, the Enterprise Library (formerly Livelink), with integrated archiving, metadata management, search and records management. All ECM Suite components integrate with this layer. ECM Suite 2010 adds leading capabilities from acquired technologies to further strengthen the ECM Suite:

– Open Text Portal (from Vignette): Offers a powerful, standards-oriented portal capability that publishes content from the ECM Suite, from processes, from the Web, Open Text Social Communities, and other content sources.
– Open Text Web Experience Management (from Vignette): Offers a dynamic Web content management capability for the ECM Suite. It can publish content from the Enterprise Library, Open Text Social Communities and Open Text Media Management. It can also publish into the Portal. Web content can be archived and managed with the ECM Suite.
– Open Text Social Communities (from Vignette): Adds dynamic social and community intranet and extranets capabilities to the ECM Suite. Content can also be archived and put under records management.
– Open Text Content Analytics, Semantic Navigation (from Nstein): Adds content analytics technology into the ECM Suite, allowing users to find content faster based on its meaning. Semantic Navigation is now also available as part of Web Experience Management.
– Open Text Capture Center (from Captaris): Fully integrates imaging and optical character recognition components.
– Open Text Media Management (from Artesia): Open Text has also integrated Open Text Media Management with Web Experience Management. Read the rest of this entry »

Bell today announced the launch of an unprecedented, multi-year charitable program to support mental health across Canada. Practically addressing a pressing national health concern, mental illness, Bell’s five-year, $50 million initiative supports an extensive range of programs to enhance mental health in every aspect of Canadian life.

“Mental illness impacts every person in Canada in some way, causes immense personal suffering and takes a heavy toll on our national economy. The health care community has worked hard to address the impact of mental illness, but public understanding of the disease remains low and mental health support needs to accelerate,” said George Cope, President and CEO of Bell and BCE.

“Bell will work to reduce the stigma still associated with mental illness while enabling practical programs supporting new research and improved access to mental health care. Mental illness affects our society more than any other major disease yet receives less funding than almost any other. Bell’s mental health initiative is dedicated to addressing the problem,” said Mr. Cope.

In its 130 years serving Canadians, Bell and its team have made substantial investments in communities and charities across the country, and will continue to support a range of charitable initiatives with money, services and volunteer time. However, Bell’s prime community investment focus and the majority of its charitable spending will be dedicated to the promotion and support of mental health across Canada.

“Too few people suffering from mental illness get the help they need, reflecting a clear reluctance to recognize and talk about the issue on the part of too many. That stigma is a barrier to treatment,” said Mr. Cope. “Stigma surrounded many diseases in the past, but concerted efforts to face the reality of intensely personal illnesses changed attitudes – and positively changed outcomes for sufferers. To drive real progress in mental health, Bell has made reducing stigma the first pillar of our program. We’re launching a campaign called Bell Let’s Talk to open the national conversation, with a true Canadian leader at its centre: Olympian Clara Hughes.” Read the rest of this entry »

Moms and dads who want to share the fun and creativity of their child’s favourite, snow-covered virtual world can now get in on all the icy action with the launch of Club Penguin Game Day! for Wii™.

Based on the environment, characters and storylines of the popular online playground Club Penguin, Club Penguin Game Day! includes a range of single and multi-player sports and performance events designed to challenge and engage every member of the family.

“There are lots of parents who want to experience what their kids have come to know and love about the virtual world of Club Penguin, but it’s easier to gather everyone in the family room than around the computer in the home office,” says Lane Merrifield, co-founder of Club Penguin and executive vice president of Disney Online Studios. “With Club Penguin Game Day!, we hope to give families new ways to connect, be active and have fun together.”

Club Penguin Game Day! features a collection of 12, all-new Wii exclusive games, including Puffle Paddle, Dance Off and Sumo Smash. Players create and customize a penguin, choose a team color and try to conquer challenges in each of the six zones on the island. The team that takes over the most territory wins.

The game includes innovative ways to connect with the virtual world, allowing players to transfer their penguins, achievements, coins, and exclusive unlockable items to their online accounts. Players can also interact with familiar characters from the virtual world, including Rookie, Aunt Arctic, and Gary the Gadget Guy.

Another feature lets players transfer their customized penguins via their Wii Remote™ to a friend’s Wii for use in game play. Once back on the original console, high scores, coins and customization items earned will merge with the player’s profile.

Kelowna-based Club Penguin launched in 2005 and joined The Walt Disney Company two years later. Today, millions of children and families in more than 190 countries around the world spend time in the popular virtual playground, interacting with friends, exploring, playing games and letting their imaginations soar. Available to play in English, French, Portuguese and Spanish, Club Penguin is renowned for its commitment to safe fun.

Club Penguin Game Day! marks Club Penguin’s debut on a video game console, following two successful games for Nintendo DS™. Published by Disney Interactive Studios, Club Penguin Game Day! is rated E for everyone with comic mischief and carries a suggested retail price of $49.99.

THQ Inc. has announced a new addition to its cover Superstars lineup for WWE® SmackDown® vs. Raw® 2011, the upcoming release from the renowned simulation-based cornerstone of the company’s WWE videogame portfolio. WWE Hall of Famer and Canada native Bret “Hit Man” Hart®, WWE Superstar and Canada native Edge® and legendary WWE Superstar Undertaker® will be featured on an exclusive limited edition front cover of the videogame throughout Canada for the Xbox® 360 and PlayStation®3. The new artwork will join previously announced regional covers for WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2011, including WWE Superstars John Cena®, Big Show® and The Miz® on the front cover in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and India, as well as WWE Superstars Randy Orton®, Undertaker® and Sheamus® on the front cover available throughout Europe. Additional regional covers are expected to be announced later this year.

“Bret Hart, Edge and Undertaker have played instrumental roles in many of WWE’s most memorable moments,” said Danny Bilson, Executive Vice President, Core Games, THQ. “WWE has incredible lineage in Canada, and we are pleased to honor these Superstars and our Canadian fans with their own exclusive cover artwork for WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2011.”

“It is an honor to be featured on the cover of WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2011 and part of a videogame franchise that has become so massive over the years,” said Bret Hart, WWE Hall of Famer. “What really makes this special for me is this cover will be available exclusively in my native country of Canada, and the image captures one of the proudest moments of my career.”
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