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Players’ club
Thinking outside the (X-) box withthe Game Riot tour
BY CARLY CARIOLI

When music-industry insiders try to divine the causes of the slumping CD market, two explanations inevitably top the list. There’s file-sharing, of course — an all-purpose scapegoat, despite increasing evidence (including a recent Harvard Business School study) suggesting that music downloads are responsible for a mere fraction of the industry’s downturn. And then there’s "increasing competition for leisure time," an oft-used phrase that’s become a euphemism for the fact that today’s kids are spending an awful lot of time and a hell of a lot of money on video games. Although the video-game market is now a $12.5 billion-a-year industry, it does not enjoy anywhere near the public profile of music and film. "I’ve been a gamer all my life," says Matt Rinel, 34, the founder of the Game Riot tour, which comes to the Palladium in Worcester next Monday. "And the video-game industry has always been a packaged-goods industry. People buy them in stores and play them in their homes. There’s never been something like a Lollapalooza for video games. And that’s what I was after."

Last year, Rinel launched Game Riot as a self-contained tent traveling with the revived Lollapalooza. The music industry seems to have decided in 2003 that if it couldn’t beat the video-game market, the two should at least join forces. All the major video-game platforms latched on to high-profile rock tours last summer. Besides Game Riot, which is affiliated with Microsoft’s X-Box, Sony’s Playstation increased its presence at Ozzfest and Warped Tour dates, and Evanescence headlined Nintendo’s Fusion Tour. This year, however, Rinel is taking Game Riot on the road as a separate entity. "Rather than [be] an adjunct to a tour, we think gamers deserve something of their own," Rinel says.

The idea behind Game Riot is part rock tour, part Hollywood premiere. The tour offers gamers the chance to play new games before, or in some cases just after, they’ve been released to the public; and it takes place in a nightclub environment, with a DJ (who spins tunes and gives on-the-spot turntablism workshops for attendees), a full light show, dancing girls, and high-end video and audio systems. This year, the tour will feature such hot titles as Halo 2, Half Life 2, NCAA College Basketball 2K4, Battlefield Vietnam, James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing, and Unreal Tournament 2004, for PC, X-Box, Playstation 2, and GameCube. "It’s not a hardcore tournament," says Rinel. "It’s just terrific fun. I’ve always been fascinated by bringing interactive entertainment to a live environment. People have this preconceived notion that gamers are these people who are stuck playing alone in their basements, but gamers are very social individuals. You can look at things like the rise of X-Box Live: people like playing against each other, and they like doing it in a live environment."

Rinel points out that since video-game makers are constantly rolling out new titles, Game Riot could conceivably become a year-round touring venture. In its second year, it’s already the biggest traveling event of its kind, with not much competition. The presence of new product seems to favor repeat attendance — Game Riot’s promotional literature says 91 percent of 2003’s attendees expressed an interest in coming back. "We have very high-end systems that most people can’t play on at home: for instance, the main stage has eight networked X-Boxes. It’s a throttling experience."

The Game Riot Tour hits the Palladium, 261 Main Street in Worcester, next Monday, April 19, beginning at 3 p.m. Admission is $15; call (800) 477-6849.


Issue Date: April 9 - 15, 2004
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