Gamertell

Stubb’s Bar-B-Q in Austin Texas is set to host the second annual Expo for Interactive Entertainment, Independent and Original on March 6, 2008. The event, announced this Tuesday (January 15, 2008) and cleverly abbreviated E.I.E.I.O., will be an instantly memorable acronym for fans of the children’s song classic regarding Mr. McDonald’s ownership of a farm.

Gamecock Media Group has teamed up with South by Southwest for this year’s events. The less cleverly dubbed “SXSWeek” (missing a ‘W’ there guys, you have to follow the rules) will run March 7-16 with the Interactive portion running March 7-11. Among the development companies already slated for E.I.E.I.O are Wideload, Red Fly Studio, Spark Unlimited, Replay Studios, Firefly Studios, and Timegate Studios. The show will include demos of Hail to the Chimp, Section 8, Mushroom Men, Legendary, Sabotage, Dungeon Hero, and Insecticide. More developers and games will be announced later.

Plans for the evening concert included this interesting plea built right into the press release:

E.I.E.I.O. 2008 will be an all day event at Stubb?s and will lead into a concert that evening. The evening shenanigans will be open to the local gaming public (via tickets issued prior to the event). Gamecock is hoping to feature bands with members of the gaming press in them for the concert, so if you write about games and play in a band, please contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) about bookings.

I’m going to be honest with you. I was once in a little band by the name of “Cock of the Rock.” People didn’t like the name. And why not? It’s obviously phallic, and thusly automatically offensive to women. Gamecock seems to me to be less offensive because there are less total words, but I could easily see where the point would be arguable. To be fair, I have the benefit of having read these soothing words of poetry from the media group’s mission statement, which are now carved into my soul:

Based in Austin, Texas, Gamecock Media Group offers a welcome solution to the bloated and originality-starved video game industry. A well-funded, independent, artist-driven company, Gamecock favors the most innovative and original video game developers in the industry. Publishing games for all platforms, Gamecock offers its developers a high degree of participation, freedom and financial incentives, allowing them to perform and create to their utmost ability. For more, please visit http://www.gamecockmedia.com.

Doesn’t Texas kind of owe us? That’s why I think these guys are legit. My basic contention is that a person is capable of willing themselves to interpret the word in question to mean a male bird of the pheasant or rooster persuasion, if they were so inclined. Is this such a monumental and cerebral task? I think not. A bird by any other name would still smell like a bird. Do not think about that last statement. In any case, this will be an event to keep tabs on during the upcoming season of copious exposition. I’ll tell you what, Hail to the Chimp might just make up for the Bush family if it’s good enough.

Read [E.I.E.I.O 2008] Also Read [South by Southwest]