America's tiniest demo party is just a week and change away!
category: general [glöplog]
BlockParty 2008 is nigh upon us. From April 4th-6th, in Cleveland, Ohio.
Our raft of speakers include George "Fat Man" Sanger, legendary videogame soundtrack creator, and Jeri Ellsworth, designer of the C-One and C64-DTV. There's over 30 more at the event as well.
We're comfortable with our small hundreds of attendees and the great time we have. If you happen to browse Pouet from the states and feel like a road trip, now's the time to start planning.
http://www.demoparty.us
I support this topic.
And party.
And party.
brouhaha !
even though you're in the States and I have NO intention in hell of attending, I wish you good luck. You guys seem to have what can be genuinely describe as the ONLY genuine American demoparty. It's grass-roots, by sceners themselves. I hope you can show them what the real scene spirit is and how it doesn't revolve around "BIG" corporations and "BIG" shiny corporate logos and lame game-moders disguised as sceners
Amitari: What the fuck are you refering to? Nvision? If so, you are absolutely wrong. They are simply housing a huge event for several scenes/subgroups, and that isn't making modders/machimas a part of the scene. There are no "disguise" attempts.
When a big company like Nvidia makes an attempt to integrate the scene into new territories, why is this bad? Do you think they are trying to gain economically from this? Do you think they are doing this because of greed, or some ideas about marketing?
I attended to Breakpoint and spoke to Temis, the representative of NVidia, and I can tell you that he had some genuine interest in the scene, and in "Scene spirit" (or whatever) - he was having a good time and enjoying both compos and people there.
I went to him and told him, honestly, that I had no PC/GPU/high-level experience at all, but that I think that the demo kit was a nice oppurtunity to get started. And he trusted me and gave me hardware worth many hundred euros - all because he had a little faith in that I would actually release something for the party.
Can you believe it, they actually *pay* people to (possibly) release something in their compos? And again, what are they gaining economically? Do you really think that a little promotion among a tiny subculture that nobody has ever heard of is worth the money they are going to use on this event? Or is my first PC demo going to be so fantastic that they can use it for promotion? I doubt it.
Could you maybe find some general trust in other people to realize that NVidia is doing this because some of them are actually passionate about us? Until anything else is proven, they at least have my deepest respect and trust.
When a big company like Nvidia makes an attempt to integrate the scene into new territories, why is this bad? Do you think they are trying to gain economically from this? Do you think they are doing this because of greed, or some ideas about marketing?
I attended to Breakpoint and spoke to Temis, the representative of NVidia, and I can tell you that he had some genuine interest in the scene, and in "Scene spirit" (or whatever) - he was having a good time and enjoying both compos and people there.
I went to him and told him, honestly, that I had no PC/GPU/high-level experience at all, but that I think that the demo kit was a nice oppurtunity to get started. And he trusted me and gave me hardware worth many hundred euros - all because he had a little faith in that I would actually release something for the party.
Can you believe it, they actually *pay* people to (possibly) release something in their compos? And again, what are they gaining economically? Do you really think that a little promotion among a tiny subculture that nobody has ever heard of is worth the money they are going to use on this event? Or is my first PC demo going to be so fantastic that they can use it for promotion? I doubt it.
Could you maybe find some general trust in other people to realize that NVidia is doing this because some of them are actually passionate about us? Until anything else is proven, they at least have my deepest respect and trust.
But of course, support to Block Party too :)
Yeah, no Gravis giveaways or Amiga adoration or sponsorship that pays for excellent facilities, opportunities and entertainment! We be doin' it fo ourselves, girlfrien'!
Why do some people have to make polarised moralistic (in the original Aristotelian sense) distinctions between two utterly and completely different types of demoparties and then throw their weight behind an apparently arbitrary choice?
It's always engaging when people retroactively apply models of merit based on authenticity to historical events which were shaped by totally different circumstances. See my post in the Breakpoint thread where I showed an image of the Magnetic Fields 1990 party compo presentations. A room full of people watching a 15" RGB monitor plugged into an A500. This was a party with something like 500 visitors in the North of England; an area a quarter the size of the country which right now contains about ten active sceners. There was money behind it - people paid to get in, and there was a prize fund. An entire school complex was hired for the weekend, and you can be sure that if the sort of corporate sponsorship that exists today was available then, the organisers would have been all over it in the hope of getting something bigger than a bloody 15" RGB monitor to watch all the demos on.
Sundown, the only UK party that still exists, has around 40 visitors annually and gets help from a few local companies to put on a good, professional party which is nevertheless organised and attended by many people who consider themselves 'grass-roots' and who are friendly with eachother and to newcomers. So where do you draw the line? If gargaj and gloom use nVidia support to inject some demoscene activity into California, how much different is this? Is it only authentic if it's Danish Gold in your mum's spare room, barbeque in the back garden, floppy-swapping (with lots of warez and cracking, because gamers at demoparties is no new phenomenon) and everyone chucked out by 2am?
Instead of staying at home and whinging about the party, go to ALL parties and whinge about the toilet paper, or something. That's a more reasonable argumentative basis from which to start :)
Why do some people have to make polarised moralistic (in the original Aristotelian sense) distinctions between two utterly and completely different types of demoparties and then throw their weight behind an apparently arbitrary choice?
It's always engaging when people retroactively apply models of merit based on authenticity to historical events which were shaped by totally different circumstances. See my post in the Breakpoint thread where I showed an image of the Magnetic Fields 1990 party compo presentations. A room full of people watching a 15" RGB monitor plugged into an A500. This was a party with something like 500 visitors in the North of England; an area a quarter the size of the country which right now contains about ten active sceners. There was money behind it - people paid to get in, and there was a prize fund. An entire school complex was hired for the weekend, and you can be sure that if the sort of corporate sponsorship that exists today was available then, the organisers would have been all over it in the hope of getting something bigger than a bloody 15" RGB monitor to watch all the demos on.
Sundown, the only UK party that still exists, has around 40 visitors annually and gets help from a few local companies to put on a good, professional party which is nevertheless organised and attended by many people who consider themselves 'grass-roots' and who are friendly with eachother and to newcomers. So where do you draw the line? If gargaj and gloom use nVidia support to inject some demoscene activity into California, how much different is this? Is it only authentic if it's Danish Gold in your mum's spare room, barbeque in the back garden, floppy-swapping (with lots of warez and cracking, because gamers at demoparties is no new phenomenon) and everyone chucked out by 2am?
Instead of staying at home and whinging about the party, go to ALL parties and whinge about the toilet paper, or something. That's a more reasonable argumentative basis from which to start :)
(typed while Graga was posting, it seems)
What Grog and syphus said!
Of course everyone involved (me included) is going to try to make BlockParty as great as it possibly can be, but _let go_ of the antagonism. It's mind-blowingly great that nVidia is sponsoring/hosting a party! This isn't tour busses at Burning Man or Kraft trying to take over organic food, this is exactly the kind of support and sponsorship and organization us poor lonely NA sceners need. We currently have 3 active parties, two in only their second year. I welcome a big corporate behemoth. It's -hard- to get people to travel far to NA demoparties to make them big, and it's much harder to get locals interested.
If nVidia were pulling a Timbaland and copying the design and content of demos, releasing them in ad campaigns, and claiming they created all of it, that'd be something to get angry about.
Omg... syphus, I think I love you : D
Of course everyone involved (me included) is going to try to make BlockParty as great as it possibly can be, but _let go_ of the antagonism. It's mind-blowingly great that nVidia is sponsoring/hosting a party! This isn't tour busses at Burning Man or Kraft trying to take over organic food, this is exactly the kind of support and sponsorship and organization us poor lonely NA sceners need. We currently have 3 active parties, two in only their second year. I welcome a big corporate behemoth. It's -hard- to get people to travel far to NA demoparties to make them big, and it's much harder to get locals interested.
If nVidia were pulling a Timbaland and copying the design and content of demos, releasing them in ad campaigns, and claiming they created all of it, that'd be something to get angry about.
Quote:
It's always engaging when people retroactively apply models of merit based on authenticity to historical events which were shaped by totally different circumstances.
Omg... syphus, I think I love you : D
this is awesome, the US finally has TWO de facto demoparties a year and it's already a cutthroat competition :D
[query]If nVidia were pulling a Timbaland and copying the design and content of demos, releasing them in ad campaigns, and claiming they created all of it, that'd be something to get angry about.[/query]
They might distribute the (best) demos as promotion, but isn't that win-win anyway since it's for both them and the scene? You can have different meanings about wether it's good or bad for the scene that it gets media attention, but it is definetly good that we get to share some culture and art.
They might distribute the (best) demos as promotion, but isn't that win-win anyway since it's for both them and the scene? You can have different meanings about wether it's good or bad for the scene that it gets media attention, but it is definetly good that we get to share some culture and art.
wtf... [query]?!?
I love how someone who just got many hundred euros worth of hardware from nVidia now is the first one to defend his new, generous friend.
I'm not saying you're wrong that Tamis has a genuine interest in the scene, Graga - but just having an interest does not justify giving away 50 dev-boxes with no value in return. That's how companies work, and it should be a no-brainer :)
I'm not saying you're wrong that Tamis has a genuine interest in the scene, Graga - but just having an interest does not justify giving away 50 dev-boxes with no value in return. That's how companies work, and it should be a no-brainer :)
They probably won't use GinVite in a commercial anytime soon :D I'm just thrilled that they're hosting a party.
No value in return? You don't think a well designed cutting-edge realtime demo showing off their hardware has value? I think it's worth a few video cards and a pile of mobos and cpus. I'd bet a single TV commercial costs more than all the demokits put together.
No value in return? You don't think a well designed cutting-edge realtime demo showing off their hardware has value? I think it's worth a few video cards and a pile of mobos and cpus. I'd bet a single TV commercial costs more than all the demokits put together.
instead of speculating how nvidia wish to capitalise on nvscene, which frankly nobody knows so let it go, let's let this thread be about blockparty, which apparently is going to rock.
I have lots of respect that you are having a demoparty somewhere where there is barely a scene. hopefully it will be successful!
good luck for you, orgas of the blockparty!
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I love how someone who just got many hundred euros worth of hardware from nVidia now is the first one to defend his new, generous friend.
Of course.
Actually I feel rediculous stupid. I have slept too little to think right now.
everyone will pull an mfx now
Tennis is a pretty cool sport.
Skrebbel: For that you have to create a thread about legos or something that will start converging into a Blockparty related thread. This thread is now about nVidia and there's nothing about it you can do!
P.S.: I have nothing against mfx.
Quote:
instead of speculating how nvidia wish to capitalise on nvscene, which frankly nobody knows so let it go, let's let this thread be about blockparty, which apparently is going to rock.
Skrebbel: For that you have to create a thread about legos or something that will start converging into a Blockparty related thread. This thread is now about nVidia and there's nothing about it you can do!
P.S.: I have nothing against mfx.
well, legos suck. especially in demos.
Skrebbel: You wanker! I grew up with Lego, and I love it with all my danish folkeparti nationalist heart.
The Fat Man: Art Behind Enemy Lines: A Target-Rich Environment
In the first five minutes of his talk, Fat will define Art once and for all, especially in context of high technology creation and experience. Thus having taken the mystery out of it and having reduced it to a science, he will quickly realize that he has ruined the whole damn thing. The rest of the talk will consist of his backpedalling like mad, trying in vain to put the cork back in the giant monkey's butt before the whole Blockparty is covered with icky, sticky dogma.
lol thats the best talk blurb I've ever seen. Go blockparty!
In the first five minutes of his talk, Fat will define Art once and for all, especially in context of high technology creation and experience. Thus having taken the mystery out of it and having reduced it to a science, he will quickly realize that he has ruined the whole damn thing. The rest of the talk will consist of his backpedalling like mad, trying in vain to put the cork back in the giant monkey's butt before the whole Blockparty is covered with icky, sticky dogma.
lol thats the best talk blurb I've ever seen. Go blockparty!
definitely. stream?