I'm sitting in a nondescript conference room in a humble office building in Menlo Park, CA, a quiet Silicon Valley burg, just next to Stanford University. A polite, uniformed team of Xfire employees check on me to make sure the internet connection works. A large plasma television -- the only thing in the office that seems flashy -- plays a loop of the winners in their World of Warcraft machinima contest. The event is tonight, and I've (surprisingly) been asked to be a panelist following the screening, along with two noted machinima creators and two academics researching the field.
We've been posting about the nominees occasionally, like when movies (such as Jun Falkenstein's "Ballad of the Noob") find themselves on YouTube from behind Xfire's client-required downloads. I've managed to dig up all of the nominees from Gametrailers, whose Daniel Kayser is moderating the panel, and posted the links after the break. We'll run another post after the winners are announced, just in case you aren't able to make the event.
Anyone in the area -- like, say ... Stanford students -- can stop by the Peter Wallenberg Learning Theater at 6:00pm PT to watch the three hour event. As usual, I've brought a handful of Joystiq shirts, so stop by and ask for one after enjoying the festivities.
Short Feature
Music Video/Dance
- World of Whatever
- That's The World of Warcraft That You Play
- WoW Logic
- Linger
- The Ballad of the Noob
- Horde Crime Investigators
- Emerald Reflection
- My Life for the Horde: The Legend of Seemos
- The Island: Episode 1
- Edge of Remorse
