So how sophisticated are video games these days? Words from EA's Henry LaBounta

I just noticed talks are up from the TEDxVancouver event I attended a little while back. At the time, I mainly focused on one particular speaker who was a Climate Change denialist, but now that the talks are up, I thought it fitting to highlight what I thought was one of the strongest talk (sort of the one where folks kind of went, "whoa - that's cool").

Of course, this had to do with video games, specifically a show and tell of some of the remarkable software mechanics behind the sport game titles produced by Electronic Arts. Anyway, the fellow talking is one Henry LaBounta, who happens to be Chief Visual Officer of EA (cool title).

I love the bit about the facial expressions.

I remember at the time, the talk led me to think a little more about the economics of such an endeavour (i.e. the making of games with these types of production values). Having a chance to see the EA campus, and noting that they even go so far as to have a full size stadium to capture visual nuances for their games (nevermind the remarkable technology on display in the video), it obviously must require a lot of funds to do this sort of thing.

And with a recent talk by Jane McGonigal in my mind (she of the advocating for game development to address real life issues) I can only assume that the type of funding involved there is probably not in the same league (could be wrong about that, but do let me know if you know more).

Anyway, food for thought - especially interesting for me with this phylomon project in my radar. Which, by the way, is in need of some plant related art if you're in the mood for illustration.

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Whoa is right. The facial expression stuff is amazing. Even a little creepy almost how realistic it looks!

The stuff that Jane McGonigal is doing is great.

And in one sense, you're right about how amazing her sort of work might be with major funds behind it, but on the other hand, some of her projects attempt to utilize gameplay in a way where funding is almost besides the point (i.e. less about big budgets and more about social interplay)

Regardless, thanks for pointing out the above video though - it's definitely pretty interesting to see how they do things at EA.

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