2008 Game Developers Choice Awards Return to San Francisco Wednesday, February 20 at the Game Developers ConferenceNominations Now Open for Lifetime Achievement, Pioneer and Ambassador Awards; 2008 Award Categories, Advisory Board RevealedPRNewswire SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- The 2008 Game Developers Choice Awards, the highest honors in game development acknowledging excellence in game design, will return to San Francisco for a second consecutive year on Wednesday, February 20. Presented by CMP Technology's Game Developers Conference (GDC) and Webby-award winning Gamasutra.com, this year's awards feature several new categories, two of which -- the Ambassador Award and the Pioneer Award -- are now open for nominations from qualified game professionals. Nominations are also now open for the Lifetime Achievement Award. The awards ceremony, held in conjunction with the Independent Games Festival, will be hosted during GDC 2008 in the Esplanade Room in the South Hall of San Francisco's Moscone Center. For complete details and to submit nominations for the three special award categories through November 30, please visit http://www.gamechoiceawards.com/. The three special awards now open for nominations honor individuals whose achievements have made an impact on games and the game community as a whole, and not necessarily only over the past year. The Ambassador Award honors an individual (or group of individuals) who has helped the game industry advance to a better place, either through facilitating a better game community from within, or by reaching outside the industry to be an advocate for video games to help further the art. The Pioneer Award celebrates those individuals who developed a breakthrough technology, game concept or gameplay design at a crucial juncture in video game history, paving the way for the myriad developers who followed them. The Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes the career and achievements of a developer who has made an indelible impact on the craft of game development. "Like the GDC itself, the Game Developers Choice Awards must evolve with the breakthroughs we celebrate, particularly in light of the industry's growing impact on pop culture," said Jamil Moledina, executive director of the Game Developers Conference. "By creating new, more inclusive categories and a new Ambassador award that focuses on advancing the industry itself -- as well as partnering with Gamasutra.com on our peer-based voting mechanism -- we are ideally positioned to spotlight all the game industry's choices for professional achievement." The Game Developers Choice Awards voting process is overseen by the editors of Game Developer Magazine and Gamasutra.com, the leading media outlets for game industry professionals. All game professionals with a Gamasutra.com user account will be able to nominate and vote in the 2008 Choice Awards. In addition, for the purposes of picking recipients of the Ambassador, Pioneer and Lifetime Achievement Awards following the public nominations, and to help adjudicate on the awards process in general, the editors of both outlets have set up an Advisory Committee of distinguished industry veterans. They are: Bob Rafei (Naughty Dog), Brian Reynolds (Big Huge Games), Mark Cerny (Cerny Games), John Vechey (PopCap), Susan O'Connor (Susan O'Connor Writing Studio), Raph Koster (Areae), Julien Merceron (Eidos), Hal Barwood (Finite Arts), Clinton Keith (High Moon Studios), Ryan Lesser (Harmonix), Clint Hocking (Ubisoft) and Tommy Tallarico (Video Games Live). In addition to the Ambassador, Pioneer and Lifetime Achievement Awards, Choice Awards will be given in the following categories: -- Best Audio -- Best Game Design -- Best Technology -- Best Visual Arts -- Best Writing -- Best Debut Game -- Best Downloadable Game -- Best Handheld Game -- Innovation -- Game of the Year These particular categories will be both nominated and voted on by the development community. The call for nominations period for these categories begins December 17, 2007. For further information and to submit a nomination for one of the three special awards through November 30, please visit http://www.gamechoiceawards.com/ About the Game Developers Conference (http://www.gdconf.com/) The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is the world's largest professionals-only game industry event. Presented every spring in San Francisco, it is the essential forum for learning, inspiration, and networking for the creators of computer, console, handheld, mobile, and online games. The GDC attracts over 16,000 attendees, and is the primary forum where programmers, artists, producers, game designers, audio professionals, business decision-makers and others involved in the development of interactive games gather to exchange ideas and shape the future of the industry. The GDC is produced by the CMP Game Group, a division of CMP Technology. About CMP (http://www.cmp.com/) CMP is a marketing solutions company serving the technology industry. Through its market-leading portfolio of trusted information brands, CMP has earned the confidence of more technology professionals than any other media company. As a result, CMP is the premier provider of access, insight and actionable programs designed to connect sellers and buyers in ways that yield superior return on investment. CMP Technology is a subsidiary of United Business Media (http://www.unitedbusinessmedia.com/), a global provider of news distribution and specialist information services with a market capitalization of more than $3 billion. SOURCE: CMP Game Group CONTACT: Sibel Sunar, sibel@fortyseven.com or Brian Rubin, Web site: http://www.cmp.com/ |