Gamers play Rock Band, Guitar Hero, Street Fighter and other classic video games at the SAW Gallery.
Video gaming in Ottawa is growing into a dynamic culture of both gamers and developers.
Anthony Whitehead, assistant professor at Carleton University’s school of information technology, says the video game market in Ottawa seems to be hidden, as all major game companies are based in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. However, he adds that Ottawa has a thriving development community.
“The reason why these development companies end up going to these smaller locales is because the development start-up costs are much lower,” he says.
“Their avenue to the global market is usually through one of these main publishers or distributors,” he says. “They will do the global work of the publishing for them. So where they decide to develop doesn’t matter so much.”
Two examples of Ottawa-based video gaming development companies include Fuel Industries and Magmic Games.
Magmic Games specializes in mobile entertainment, whereas Fuel Industries is an online interactive marketing agency that includes the use of video entertainment.
“The game companies that are here are going after target markets that the big companies typically don’t go after,” explains Whitehead.
“They’re doing work that the major companies don’t necessarily do themselves.”
Centretown in particular hosts a number of establishments dedicated to video gaming.
Bank Street has two video game stores – Rogers Plus, which includes Rogers Video, and Microplay Games. Microplay Games, the older of the two, has been there for about 20 years.
Also on Bank Street is the Virtual Reality Game Hall, which opened four months ago and so far has garnered about 300 members.
Ben Schaly, an employee at the Virtual Reality Game Hall, says their video gaming facilities, including three-dimensional (3D) games, are mainly used by individuals and small groups. They also host fortnightly gaming tournaments.
Centretown also contains Ottawa’s independent gaming community, the Centretown Warhammer Club, which hosts its tournaments and other events at the Fandom II store downtown.
According to the club’s website, it has grown to over 40 active members in less than two years.
Another example of enthusiasm for video gaming in Centretown is SAW Video’s recent fundraising event, Video Arcade 3, at its office on Nicholas Street.
SAW Video emptied its office, club and gallery to make room for dozens of games they had set up for the night. The collection included recent games such as Rock Band and Dance Dance Revolution, as well as older, classic games including Pac Man, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Super Mario Brothers.
“People who don’t normally play video games give it a try, and parents can show their kids the games they used to play,” says Penny McCann, director of SAW Video.
This certainly seemed the case on the night, as participants ranged across various ages and video gaming experience.
Doug Smalley, SAW Video’s technical coordinator and “an encyclopaedia of video games” according to Dezainde, contributed some of his own collection of vintage video games and consoles for the event.
A video gaming enthusiast, Smalley says video games are appealing to him as it feels like he is able to influence the outcome of the game’s story.
“I really enjoy story telling,” he says, “I think interactive games are bringing together a lot of that. I really like games that try to tell novel-like or movie-like stories.”
The centre has hosted a Video Arcade event annually for the past three years.
Linda Dezainde, the centre’s communications coordinator, says that the event has gained more corporate support this
year, with companies such as Rogers Plus providing gaming equipment.