Gamertell

Yeah, it’s a bit of a weird choice for a videogame keynote address, but Texas Gov. Rick Perry took the stage and talked today (9:15 a.m. PT, July 16, 2008) at E3 2008.

In his defense, Perry was pretty gushing about the videogame industry in a recent interview with the San Antonio Express-News, giving kind words to the money making power of the industry and expanding demographics of games.

According to the GamePolitics Live Blog (via Twitter so don’t blame me for the clicking), there were approximately 50 people who attended Perry’s keynote. That’s a pretty small crowd for a politician’s speech but likely because he’s not a name in the game industry and there are so many games to play at the Expo.

Even so, here’s bullet point style recap of Perry’s rather upbeat keynote…

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There’s a thought that lurks deep inside all of us and keeps on asking, “Wouldn’t it be great if you could just sit around and play games all day and on top of that make a living out of it?” Well, actually there are some people that already have an answer to that question and as most of us already suspected, the answer is a big fat, “Yes!”

Michael Cavanaugh (aka Strongside) is a 19-year-old gamer from Edgewood, KY (USA), that has just signed a very lucrative and fun contract, one that will make his wallet $250,000 fatter for playing Halo.

Since he was five, Michael has played video games almost every day of his life, getting the latest consoles and pulling all-nighters perfecting his techniques at every game he could get his hands on. This past June 2007, Major League Gaming gave him a three-year contract worth a quarter million dollars. His newest sponsor is NBA Basketball Player Gilbert Arenas. Yeah, that’s Gilbert “I Cheat So What” Arenas.

Michael’s mom, Francis Cavanaugh, remembers how it all started: “It wasn’t until he went to Kings Island one summer, summer of his junior year and he beat one of the guys there, that’s when it really started.”

From there, Michael got through the ranks and started going to tournaments, eventually realizing he could make a living out of it. Now, as part of team Carbon, he is one of the best at Halo and, besides his contract money, he has already won $100,000. Now he and his team are training for a tournament in Dallas, TX, where they could win $250,000 on the spot.

I’m sure that as with every other activity, you need some serious natural skills and years of practice but making money by gaming sure sounds like a sweet deal. Competitive gaming is now considered an alternative sport and gaming leagues are sure to keep on getting bigger. With the amounts of money they are giving out, names like Michael Cavanaugh will get more famous and maybe in a not so distant future we will see gamers among the David Beckhams and the Tom Bradys of their time.

Read [Local 12] Site [MLG]

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Women in Games International announced the details of their next conference “She Got Game.“ The conference, taking place September 8, 2007, in Austin, TX, will focus on industry trends to diversify the talent pool of gaming and how it will impact the future of gaming.

One of the main keynote speakers for this conference is Dona C. Bailey, the creator of popular 80’s videogame Centipede and one of the few female game programmers of that time in the game industry. Bailey, currently a professor at the University of Arkansas, will be discussing how women can…

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