The interactive portion of SXSW came to a close yesterday, and even before the final panel opened its doors, the transformation from film/social media to music could be seen all around the convention center. Many participants had already rushed off to the airport to catch their flights, and many more had decided to break away from the convention center to see what downtown Austin had to offer.

I managed to catch one panel amidst all the excitement and transition, though I had slated several. The panel discussed the move of social gaming from the computer to other more mobile devices, and the implications this had on gaming in general. Many of the ideas presented were location based, allowing gamers to use real world environments to stage their play. The most bizarre concept presented was a game that can only be described as “combat picnicking”. Game participants go to popular picnic locations with little to no food, compete to see who can get the most freebees from the people around them, and then hilarity ensues.

After the panel, I met with Richard Bernier and Brad Laurich at a local pub and eatery to see how many tweeters showed up. Afterward, I wandered through the various tents around the convention center.

I finally landed in the Techset Blogger’s Lounge with Lionel Menchaca, and got my first look at the new Adamo. I must say it is the sleekest piece of hardware ever to exit the doors of Dell. Thank you Richard Binhammer for bringing it out! Now that I’ve put my hands on one, it’s definitely on the wish list!

I also have to say that hanging out with Lionel at SXSW was akin to hanging out with a rock star at Lollapalooza. I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised…

Now that the music portion of SXSW is coming into full swing, be sure to follow Chris Byrd on twitter at @ChrisBatDell. I’ll be haunting the music as well, so you can follow me on twitter at @Dell_John_B.

I decided to end day two of SXSW Interactive by checking out the first annual Game Design Competition. They had two categories, one for “casual titles”, and one for AAA title proposals. It was really great to see the game designer hopefuls pitch their ideas to game industry professionals in front of a live audience. I have to give the teams props: all of their ideas had merit, and all sounded very interesting.

The casual game competition was taken by a great looking game concept called Sloppy Ice by Gwen Murray. In the game, players will take on the persona of a raindrop named Sip who just took the long tumble from his rain cloud home to earth, and desperately wants to make it back home. The objective of the game is to eventually make it to the ocean so Sip can evaporate and become part of a cloud again. The main mechanic of the game is to battle through “very angry” beasties on your way to the ocean using abilities granted you through the three states of matter. To add complexity, abilities can be mixed and matched by players, as Sip’s “state” can be controlled at will, allowing players to switch from water vapor to liquid to ice as necessary. Kudos to Gwen and team for coming up with such a great concept, and congratulations on winning the contest!

The AAA contest was taken by Seth Smith and his concept entitled Project Z.E.U.S., where players would be challenged to have their android avatar (Z.E.U.S.) battle against mutated monstrosities in a far future setting to make an area of a decimated Earth habitable by a population suspended for over 30,000 years in a time capsule. The game would allow players to customize their android with specific modules, and players would have to make hard choices about which technologies they employ to reach their goals. Different technology types would have different impacts on the environment both short and long term, making this sim/rts/third person strategy game enormously complex. I sincerely hope Seth can take this concept to production, as I’d really like to get my hands on this title.

This morning I had the pleasure of attending a panel to discuss ways to use gaming technology to help young girls feel more comfortable with technology, science, and mathematics. The panel notably featured Dee Kapila from girlstart.org, Sheri Graner Ray from Sony Online Entertainment, and Cindy Royal from TSU, et al. The discussion was very interesting, and focused on the way games are being built and marketed to a predominately male audience, and the effect this has on young women and their views about technology. While I thought they made some interesting points, I really felt the problems they were pointing out were market driven, and were the same problems that cause publishers to either go with licensed properties they know from the get go will do well, or pump out endless sequels and clones with no really new innovative content or mechanics year after year. There’s no easy answer to any of these problems, but I don’t believe these problems are gender specific, per se. I do see how these same problems affect would-be young female gamers, however. It certainly got my cognitive cogs turning.

Afterwards I went to Stubbs BBQ to eat some grub and attend a talk about using social media tools to make social differences. The stories presented about twitter and blog communities coming together to solve individual problems in different communities were inspiring.

This evening I’ll be attending a panel about mainstream girl gaming featuring some folks from GirlGamer.com, and one of my favorite gaming personalities, Amber Dalton from Clan PMS.

Don’t forget to swing by Dell’s Cocktails and Conversations this evening if you’re floating around SXSW. I’ll be there, as well as Lionel Menchaca and several other Dell Community team members. Oh, and the speaker and guest list is pretty impressive too…

Cold and wet, but having a great time at SXSW. While the weather has put a small damper on outdoor events, many are still rolling along and panels are packed.

While Friday was spent checking out the set up at the convention center and catching up with friends, I did manage to take in one panel, “My Boss Doesn’t Get It: Championing Social Media to the Man.” Some great information for those looking to get their employers involved in social media, I think many in attendance took away valuable tips on bringing their company into Web 2.0 discussion. Check out the recap from @Kara_atDell on Direct2Dell for her take on the panel.

The Silverlight booth was giving demonstrations on Microsoft Surface, with hands on experimentation for those who wanted to play with the technology.

Thursday, everyone kicked into SXSW mode and the full schedule of panels began. “Social Media Marketing” on the day stage looked promising, but what was slated as a 30-minute discussion, was cut short to 15 minutes, barely giving time for Alan Moore to share any information. That said, you can pick up his book “Social Media Marketing” for more information, as it did look very interesting.

Bike Hugger Beer & BBQ was a great time as always, and the event was packed. Pop on over to Regeneration.org as our own Todd Dwyer took some time and sat down with DL Byron, the man behind the BikeHugger.com Web site.

Dorkbot Austin hit Brush Square park and again brought an incredible group of artists who mix technology, music and basically all types of electronic art. My favorite was ArcAttack, who brought singing Tesla coils to the event and wowed the crowd with the fusion of music and potential lethal electricity.

The big event for Friday night was the SXSW Interactive Opening Party Hosted by frog design. Held against the beautiful backdrop of downtown Austin, at the equally beautiful Mexican American Cultural Center, SXSW-goers mingled and danced the night away. With Chinese dragons, drum lines and performances from Kitty Kitty Bang Bang, a good time was certainly had by all those in attendance.

Back to SXSW, still a full week of events with Interactive, Film and Music coming up later in the week.

Follow the event with me on Twitter: @ChrisBatDell

After I submitted yesterday’s post, I rushed to the next panel on my list discussing the development and marketing of an indie game title. The most prominent panelist was Ron Carmel, creator of the popular game World of Goo. I was struck by how small his company was (a whopping 2 members), and equally impressed by how passionate these developers were about their games. John Baez, producer of Alien Hominid, recounted how he accrued enormous debt when working on his title with little promise of a financial light at the end of the tunnel. These indie developers give blood to see their titles launch, and I encourage everyone to remember that when picking up their games. These are games built with love.

My next panel was a nice round table with What They Like’s John Davison.  The intimate setting aroused a very spirited discussion about adult content in games, and why it seems to make so many eyebrows arch. In the US video games are seen as toys, and everyone agreed this was a big part of the problem. Davison predicted that more adult titles will be produced using adult themes and complicated plots rather than the “blood and gore fests” usually garnering the “M” rating today.

The discussion also touched on morality lessons taught in games today, and how the interactive nature of the media could possibly reinforce moral conditioning. Being the griefer that I am, I came down firmly on the opposite side of this sentiment. When I steal someone’s stuff in EVE Online, for instance, I don’t think of myself as any more of a morally depraved person than I would for checkmating my opponent in a game of chess. I’m simply playing the game as it was meant to be played, and outperforming my opponent while doing it. There’s another side to this argument? Others in the round table seemed to think so. I would have liked to dig a little deeper into it, but we unfortunately ran out of time.

I then met up with Chris Byrd for some libations and music by Dorkbot in Brush Square Park. We eventually sauntered off to the Frog Design opening bash, complete with drummers, dancers, dragons, and drinks.

This morning I’ve attended a great discussion about using lessons learned from game interface designs in developing online community site designs and application interfaces. It definitely got my creative juices flowing for future projects.

I also had the chance to attend a case study of the game phenomenon “Dead Space”. Getting an insider’s perspective on everything that went into putting together this cutting edge IP was an amazing experience.

The day isn’t over by far. I’m about to check out a game design competition, and they’re still having tournaments at the Alienware booth. This place is a buzzing!

Speaking of the Alienware booth, as promised, here’s a picture courtesy of Chris Byrd. This way you get to see the fun you’re missing!

Yesterday afternoon, after a blown cell phone battery and dealing with a truck fighting to start against the unseasonably cool weather, I finally made it to South by Southwest Interactive. After lamenting the loss of my normal Friday feature (TL;DR Gaming News), I shivered my way to the Austin Convention Center to attend the first of many panels offered throughout the weekend and into next week. The interactive event covers the full gamut of everything Social Media and electronic entertainment related, so my schedule is pretty full of gaming talks until the end of the conference.

The first talk I was able to attend featured Facebook’s Gareth Davis, and was a panel to discuss the future and impact of the indie gaming industry. Judging from the opinions expressed by the panelists, casual gaming holds a lot of opportunities for the indie developers, and online casual gaming is likely to replace the “boob tube” in the years to come. I haven’t owned a television in several years, so I can see why they might think that.

I was also able to attend a talk given by Caryl Shaw from Maxis, the studio behind Spore. In the talk, she showcased the upcoming expansion for Spore, Galactic Adventures. I was personally a little hesitant to pick up Spore when it was released due to several factors, but I have to say this expansion has me rethinking that a little bit. In the expansion community members will be able to create planetary scenarios with different goals and share them with each other. The design options Spore players will be given are truly impressive. She showed off a 3-part scenario designed by Maxis team members that began with a planetary assault, all created from user-generated content. Game… fracking… on.

Yesterday’s festivities ended with a social mixer at a local pub for bloggers and social networkers followed by a mix of burlesque and cupcakes at Emo’s. I finally dragged my cold tired self home after 10pm.

Today I finally got to see the Alienware booth at the Screenburn Arcade. I was a little worried that I wasn’t going to be able to find it, but when I went into the exhibition hall it was a little hard to miss. The booth was loaded with Alienware and XPS gear, and sported its own emcee. Any description I give wouldn’t do it justice, so I’ll post photos once I can yank them off my camera.

This morning I was able to see a couple of talks, one about the future of the MMO interface, and the other given by author Rich Newman about using lessons learned from cinematography in game design. The MMO talk was fascinating, as the panel discussed the ways MMO and virtual world participants built communities using text and voice interfaces, and their observations really hit home. Online games and their communication interfaces really are changing the way people connect, communicate, and build communities, and I had no idea just how fundamental those changes were. On any given day, I find myself using voice chat, in-game text, and IRC all at the same time, and according to the data they presented, I’m not alone. Raise your hand if you’ve been there. The fact that one of the panelists was there virtually just hammered their point home.

The talk by Rich Newman was far too short, as they only gave him 15 minutes to present and take questions. The most shocking revelation from his presentation was that many game studios don’t even think about bringing in a script writer until their projects are already halfway finished. No wonder so many games seem to lack content. Now I know why. I just wish he had more time to flesh out his presentation, as it was obvious he had a lot of insightful things to share.

I’ll have more to share as the weekend goes on. If you ever get a chance to attend this conference in the future, I can say it’s well worth the effort.

It’s the season of change and there have been some BIG changes to Dell Lounge. If you’ve haven’t visited the site lately, it might be time for you to take another trip and see what’s new.

Once you start looking around, you will notice a lot of new features and functionality have been added to the site. One of the coolest new features allows you to search, tag and comment on your favorite content, then subscribe to custom RSS feeds to get instant updates on the stuff you care about. Want the latest in music, style, tech and more? Just visit and explore and make Dell Lounge all yours.

We’ve also added unique channels like Motherboard – our new collaboration with Vice and a must-see for tech revolutionaries everywhere – and even some original series of our own like fashion-savvy fare Practically Posh, Style on Stage and the Canvas artist series and hip entertainment like Film Gods and Dead Venues Live.

Not only has the Dell Lounge Web site received a makeover, but we have also branched out into other social media sites recently. Make sure you visit our Dell Lounge Facebook, Dell Myspace and Dell Lounge Twitter accounts as well.

Stop by, say “Hello” and join the conversation today! =)

Geek Sugar shared a cool Web site this week that helps you find the right shape of eyeglass frames for your face. Check it out: Frame Finder

I guess it was only a matter of time. E-mail scams get makeover for recession as viruses in the form of job applications. Be on the lookout.

Sunday is International Women’s Day. Check out the site for all the cool happenings or follow on Twitter.

If you’ve read a few of my blogs, there’s probably no question in your mind that I take gaming seriously. At its highest level, competitive gaming is just as physically and mentally demanding as any other competitive activity, and I think it’s high time it was more universally recognized. If you don’t believe me, check this out. For the amount of effort it takes to be competitive in gaming, I think gamers who make the sacrifices necessary to compete should be rewarded for it.

Thankfully I’m not alone in my conviction. There are organizations that not only share it, but work to make competitive gaming more “mainstream,” and to make sure the most talented and dedicated gamers get rewarded for their efforts. One such group is the United Kingdom eSports Association. As their name implies, the UKeSA doesn’t view video games as merely games, but as an arena for serious competition. As they note in their mission statement, their goal is to encourage e-sports in the United Kingdom by providing high level professional competitions for sizeable purses.

Many organizations support their effort, and as announced today, Dell is proudly joining the list of supporters by becoming the Hardware Sponsor of this great effort to help rejuvenate the UK professional gaming scene. Why now? From the release:

“Competitive gaming is gathering momentum, particularly in the UK,” said David Clifton, Director of Consumer Marketing, Dell Europe, “UKeSA have put in place the foundation and growth structure that will feed that momentum, reaching out to all British eSports hopefuls. Dell is delighted to support the UKeSA at such a significant milestone for UK gaming.”

I am proud to work for a company that takes gaming as seriously as I do. Since video games are such a pervasive form of recreation in our society, the time is right for efforts like these, and there’s sure to be more in the future. Maybe someday soon the Western world will take e-sports as seriously as the Koreans do (click and be amazed).

Gaming is serious business. It’s about time the West realized it.

A tip of the hat to the young Dell customer who posted this helpful video on YouTube:

So I don’t mean to sound bitter – because I’m not - but I think Valentine’s Day is just DUMB. I mean, the idea comes from a good place, but this Hallmark holiday turns out to be a no-win situation for everyone but single guys (who miss it completely) and retailers (which aren’t having any fun these days, anyway). Think about it:

· Husbands and boyfriends – required to buy a reasonably good gift for a made-up holiday. And just six weeks after the [real] holidays!

· Women in relationships – hopeful their husbands or boyfriends will suddenly become Ryan Gosling from The Notebook, not to mention wondering what in the WORLD to give a GUY on a “holiday” made up of hearts, cupids and, eek, feelings.

· Single women – bummed and annoyed watching non-single women get flowers and candy all day.

But secretly, my campaign against Valentine’s Day boils down to one thing: buying gifts stresses me out. I want them to be really good, but I never have any clue what to get. Even if you know someone really well, achieving the perfect gift can be tricky.

Never fear! IamSaintValentino.com is here! Check out this excerpt from a recent article on TechFlash.com:

IamSaintValentino…allow[s] gift givers to gather ideas by placing pre-recorded phone calls (in the voice of Saint Valentino) to the intended sweetheart. It also includes a customized message from the caller. At the end of the call, the recipient is asked to say his or her favorite Valentine’s Day gifts or desires. Those messages are recorded and immediately available for playback on the IamSaintValentino Web site, so the gift giver can make a smarter purchase decision.

In an added twist, the site incorporates a speech recognition tool on the back end to analyze words of the call recipient. It then recommends specific products from online retailers based on words spoken in the message.”

Hmm… see, that’d help even me. Looking for a simpler way to source your ideas? Better Homes and Gardens (wow – The Notebook and now BHG? This is getting girly…) posted 29 Creative Ways to Say “I Love You.” Gotta admit, drawing a heart on a steamed-up mirror is kind of sweet.

And so are stargazer lilies. And pretty pink laptops that support a good cause. Oooh, and chocolates – the fun gourmet ones (not the ones with the mystery pink cream in them)… But Valentine’s Day is still stupid. J