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Lecturer: Mark Friedler, MarkFriedler.com
This hands-on seminar is designed for CEOs and senior executives who want to grow their businesses in tough times. Serial games entrepreneur Mark Friedler, who founded GameDaily, Gigex and VCast, will share take you through an interactive workshop of how to grow your bottom line in 60 days. You will learn from hands on experiences and leave with actionable items you can immediately apply in your business. This fast paced highly-rated seminar will help you think about your business in a new way and engage you to take action based on proven examples from games, consumer, advertising and media businesses.
Format: Lecture
Track: Business
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 12, 10:30 AM,
Room: Seaport
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Lecturer: George Dolbier, IBM
What does going green mean to games? Going green is more than social responsibility; it can be a foundation for growth, economic gain and operational stability. There is a lot of hype about green, but figuring out what it means to a game can be frustrating. This session attempts to lift the fog and let the sun shine on the solar panels.
Format: Lecture
Track: Programming/Tech
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 12, 9:00 AM,
Room: Seaport
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Moderator: Ren Reynolds, the Virtual Policy Network
Panelist: Robert Ferrari, Sanrio Digital
Panelist: Wilson Kriegel, Outspark
This session will dig into the convergence of virtual worlds, traditional MMOs and social networks to explore how they are transitioning, overlap, differ, and in many ways merging together. Experts from both sectors will discuss lessons learned and new strategies to position the converging industry for success.
Format: Panel
Track: Business
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 13, 9:00 AM,
Room: Salon AB
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Lecturer: Troy Hewitt, Carbine Studios
Your online community relations team is the lifeblood of your online product. They serve as the conduit for information both in and out of your organizational structure, and serve as your first line of defense (and offense!) when it comes to communicating with your customers. Finding the right people for the job can be one of the most important decisions you can make, and this session will focus on all the tips, tricks and proven practices around creating your top-notch community team.
Format: Lecture
Track: Community
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 12, 3:30 PM,
Room: Salon EF
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Lecturer: David Ryan Hunt, Flying Lab Software
Based on over two years of beta and live balancing, Lessons from Pirates is thematically similar to a postmortem with a dash of game philosophy in the mix. Pirates posed a variety of interesting and unique balance problems, and it provides educational lessons as a result. This lecture focuses on game balance, complete with a discussion of the balancing process in Pirates, what balance problems we encountered, how we solved them and what problems we still face today.
Format: Lecture
Track: Design
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 13, 5:00 PM,
Room: Harbor
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Moderator: Rick Lambright, Gazillion Entertainment
Is Flash, the most blessed and holy of all plug-ins, our only hope for eliminating the biggest barriers to entry for online games? If your game requires a browser plug-in or installing an application, do you worry like the rest of us about how many potential players this might cost you? Is there anything we can do? Are there ANY solutions on the horizon? Why does this all have to be so hard? This roundtable promises to deliver a rousing, free-flowing discussion in an attempt to answer these questions and more.
Format: Roundtable
Track: Programming/Tech
Date/Time: Thursday, May 14, 9:00 AM,
Room: Harbor
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Lecturer: Christopher Natsuume, Boomzap Entertainment
Ironically, an industry that creates entire virtual worlds in cyberspace still feels the need to stack warm bodies in brick-and-mortar rooms to develop these worlds. But some companies are breaking out of the office, like Boomzap Entertainment, a 100% virtual development environment since inception in 2005. In this lecture, Chris Natsuume will be going over the pros and cons of running a virtual studio, walking through the particular mechanics and processes the team has used to make it work, and sharing some of their hard earned lessons.
Format: Lecture
Track: Business
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 12, 5:00 PM,
Room: Harbor
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Lecturer: Craig Alexander, Turbine, Inc.
Given the processing power and connectivity of console game systems, the opportunity to transition massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) to the console platform is enormous. This session will discuss, in detail, this exciting industry-altering transition giving attendees an overview of the state of the console market vs. the PC/MMO market as it relates to the development and management of console MMO titles. In addition, attendees will walk away with a better understanding of the specific technical, creative, and management/ business opportunities (and challenges) of creating a console MMO.
Format: Lecture
Track: Design
Date/Time: Thursday, May 14, 2:00 PM,
Room: Salon EF
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Lecturer: Joshua M Kriegshauser, Sony Online Entertainment, LLC.
Unfortunately, client crashes are bound to occur during the course of a live game. This session discusses a method for retrieving, processing and repairing client crashes for a live MMORPG.
Format: Lecture
Track: Programming/Tech
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 13, 3:30 PM,
Room: Seaport
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Lecturer: Nicole Hamlett, Cryptic Studios
Let’s face it, gone are the days of mega E3’s and 10 million dollar booths. With today’s economy, more companies are looking for Community people who can both retain and GROW their community. There is a definite bottom dollar when it comes to managing a community now, and the term “Return on Investment” is at the tip of every manager or director’s tongue. So, what can you do as a community manager to not only get the maximum reach with your community but also, do it on the cheap?
Format: Lecture
Track: Community
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 13, 9:00 AM,
Room: Harbor
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Lecturer: Sue Bohle, The Bohle Company
The launch of channels that bring games direct to the consumer has caused the need for entirely new strategies for promoting titles. This session will provide an overview of effective techniques for promoting different types of online games: ie how to promote MMOs for the hardcore player versus MMOs for children; launching virtual worlds and generating maximum coverage for digital download titles. Covered will be when and how to generate stories on major news sites, blogs and online niche communities as well as splashy placements in traditional media, as well as the importance of using PR to create investor interest.
Format: Lecture
Track: Business
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 12, 3:30 PM,
Room: Harbor
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Lecturer: Jess Lebow
Your IP is the heart and soul of your game. It's your brand, your vision -- what your game is about. Long before players ever get to see trailers or footage or even try out the mechanics, they have already started to formulate an opinion of your game. That initial impression is based solely on what they think of your IP. Come learn what a successful IP looks like, how to build one, maximize it, and then manage it once you've given it life.
Format: Lecture
Track: Design
Date/Time: Thursday, May 14, 10:30 AM,
Room: Salon EF
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Lecturer: Jessica Tams, Casual Games Association
With shiny new business models and game types rapidly appearing, it is easy to lose sight of the realities and variabilities of emerging business models. For it doesn't matter how much money is in the industry or what the growth of the market is, but how much money you can make and the best way to get your piece of the pie.
Format: Mini Lecture
Track: Business
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 13, 3:30 PM,
Room: Harbor
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Moderator: Brandon Reinhart, Valve Software
Debater: Marty Poulin, Shady Logic Studios
Debater: Isaac Barry, GameHouse
Designers see scripting languages as powerful tools for rapidly implementing game ideas and directly realizing their gameplay goals without having to rely on the programming pipeline. Programmers see designer scripting as a source of unstable, unmaintainable code and post-launch disaster scenarios. This session explores this conflict in a formal debate between Marty Poulin and Isaac Barry. Marty will argue that game logic implementation is a task for the programming team. Isaac will defend the practice of designer scripting. Each speaker will present their case, be subject to cross-examination, and attack their opponent’s position.
Format: Debate
Track: Programming/Tech
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 13, 5:00 PM,
Room: Salon EF
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Moderator: Brandon Reinhart, Valve Software
Debater: Geoffrey Zatkin, Electronic Entertainment Design and Research
Debater: Martin Herdina, fatfoogoo
Chinese consultancy firm Plus Eight Star recently estimated the size of global trade in virtual goods in China alone to be over 5 billion US dollars annually. Many maintain that this secondary market damages the very game development studios whose effort and capital produce the items that compose virtual trade. Do game developers deserve a bigger slice of the pie? Does the secondary market harm the player experience? This session will examine these matters in a formal debate between Martin Herdina and Geoffrey Zatkin. Martin will advocate for the secondary market and Geoffrey against. Each speaker will present their case, be subject to cross-examination, and attack their opponent’s position.
Format: Debate
Track: Business
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 12, 5:00 PM,
Room: Salon EF
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Moderator: Brandon Reinhart, Valve Software
Debater: Erik Bethke, GoPets Ltd.
Debater: Jon Grande, Exponential Entertainment
Players of online games spend hundreds of hours accumulating and trading virtual goods: magical weapons, homes, pets, etc. Do players own the virtual fruits of their very real labor? Can game developers and service providers profit from an increase in players’ virtual property rights? This session explores these questions in a formal debate between Erik Bethke and Jon Grande. Erik will advocate for virtual property rights and Jon against. Each speaker will present their case, be subject to cross-examination, and attack their opponent’s position.
Format: Debate
Track: Legal
Date/Time: Thursday, May 14, 3:30 PM,
Room: Salon EF
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Lecturer: Edward Hunter, comScore
It's common knowledge that online gaming saw yet another explosion in audience numbers worldwide in 2008. But where exactly did the new audience members come from? This lecture will explain the demographic composition of the online gaming audiences in 2008 and underscore notable trends and shifts that may impact gaming in 2009. Also covered will be the impact of these shifts on perceptions of brand, in-game advertising and new opportunities for online gaming development that capitalize on these changes.
Format: Lecture
Track: Business
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 13, 2:00 PM,
Room: Seaport
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Lecturer: Sam Lewis, ZeniMax Online Studios
“Lets do that, but make it for 12 year old boys!” That is how it starts. So what are designers to do? They know how to keep an 18+ white male engaged. But how do you make an MMORPG for an 11 year old boy? How do you teach a player a new RPG when they don’t understand skill points or character classes. How do you get them into the game fast when they find “WASD/Mouse Look” a un-natural position for their hands ? This session studies how the FusionFall design team approached their new market
Format: Lecture
Track: Design
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 13, 10:30 AM,
Room: Salon EF
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Lecturer: Brian Green, Near Death Studios, Inc.
Cheaters are the scourge of online games. How can you design your game to minimize the impact that cheaters have? Get practical examples of how your game design can avoid the traps that let cheaters get an upper hand. Learn how a small team running a classic PvP-focused game worked to keep cheaters at a disadvantage.
Format: Mini Lecture
Track: Design
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 12, 3:30 PM,
Room: Seaport
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Format: Special
Track:
Date/Time: Monday, May 11, 3:00 PM,
Room:
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Lecturer: Kevin Maginn, Flying Lab Software
What, ultimately, is the goal of including an economy in an MMO? Using real-world examples from Pirates of the Burning Sea's dynamic economy, we'll discuss pitfalls of practical economic design. We'll talk about the role scarcity plays in designing a game economy, and the role it plays in the larger scope of a game's systems. Ultimately, we'll challenge artificial scarcity as a useful idea for game design, and explore some alternative value systems we can use to motivate players.
Format: Lecture
Track: Design
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 13, 9:00 AM,
Room: Salon EF
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Moderator: Michael Cai, Interpret LLC
Panelist: Zhan Ye, GameVision
Panelist: Bill Wang, Perfect World
Panelist: Jia Ji, Couchange
Several large Chinese online game companies are making their entry into the U.S. market, looking for business, investment, and partnership opportunities. This panel of China experts will discuss the vision and strategies of Chinese online game companies, challenges and success factors in the U.S. market, partnership opportunities between Chinese and U.S. game companies, and potential impact of Asian business models on the U.S. gaming market.
Format: Panel
Track: Globalization
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 12, 5:00 PM,
Room: Salon AB
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Moderator: Carsten van Husen, Gameforge 4D GmbH
While being successful in Asia for quite some time Free 2 Play games are just gaining ground in the western hemisphere. Can business models like micro transactions or in-game ads help fight the brunt of the recession? The roundtable gives an in-depth view of the situation in the old and new F2P markets to give a forecast on the future business models and how they will impact the markets in detail.
Format: Roundtable
Track: Business
Date/Time: Thursday, May 14, 3:30 PM,
Room: Harbor
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Moderator: Meghan Rodberg, Turbine, Inc.
Fansites and fan-managed network sites, once the backbone of the gaming community, have begun to have unexpected competition from the very gaming companies they support. How can fansites continue to thrive in a world where the features they offer are becoming less unique, and how can gaming companies offer these services to their customers without cannibalizing their most ardent supporters?
Format: Roundtable
Track: Community
Date/Time: Thursday, May 14, 10:30 AM,
Room: Harbor
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Moderator: Erin Hoffman, HumaNature Studios
This session follows up on the highly successful "From Feudalism to Enlightenment: The BetterEULA Project", sharing conclusions from the first year of the BetterEULA Project, including findings from the development of _Settlers of the New Virtual Worlds_ to the first BetterEULA case study: the implemented EULA and Player Council for GoPets. We'll also discuss the current "state of the EULA" and modifications made to the agreements of various major MMOs, and the next steps in taking the movement forward. As always, we'll aim to answer questions about the importance of the EULA, its role in a global online game marketplace, and what game developers and operators need to be aware of.
Format: Roundtable
Track: Legal
Date/Time: Thursday, May 14, 2:00 PM,
Room: Harbor
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Lecturer: Scott Dodson, Divide by Zero Games, Inc.
While there are many experts at designing, building and marketing games, fewer have had the opportunity to learn to fund companies. An early stage company with the ability to raise equity capital has a huge advantage over its peers, and a much greater likelihood of creating a positive exit event for its founders. Targeted at companies exploring their options outside of a publisher funded model, game company start-ups, and those considering taking the leap, this lecture will cover what it takes to make a company fundable, ways to structure and execute a private offering, and sources and avenues for funding.
Format: Lecture
Track: Business
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 13, 3:30 PM,
Room: Salon EF
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Moderator: Dean Takahashi, VentureBeat
Panelist: Scott Dodson, Divide by Zero Games, Inc.
Panelist: Scott Brown, NetDevil Ltd
Panelist: Toby Ragaini, Big Fish Games
Panelist: Jason Robar, The Amazing Society
While many game development companies are being forced to close their doors or merge, dozens of independent and well-run game developers have used funding, angel investment, partnerships and other forms of revenue flow to finance their next project or their growth. This panel will dive deep into the strategies and tips that online game development companies can use to access these sources of working capital.
Format: Panel
Track: Business
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 13, 10:30 AM,
Room: Salon AB
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Lecturer: Nick Fortugno, Rebel Monkey
This lecture is a discussion of the launch of the casual MMO CampFu, and Rebel Monkey's drive to carve out a new kind of gameplay: casual co-op. Nick Fortugno, CCO of Rebel Monkey, explains the process of inspiration and experimentation that to this direction, and the challenges inherent in innovative game design.
Format: Lecture
Track: Design
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 13, 2:00 PM,
Room: Salon EF
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Lecturer: Perrin Kaplan, Zebra Partners LLC
Especially in this economy, finding marketing funds to get consumers hooked on your products can seem near impossible. How about turning the traditional on its ear and building your efforts from the ground up vs. the top down? "Bottom Up" marketing not only can help great products wedge their way into the customer mindset, but you may learn more about what you've developed than you ever thought possible.
Format: Mini Lecture
Track: Business
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 13, 4:00 PM,
Room: Harbor
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Lecturer: Vicky Tamaru, Plexipixel, Inc.
The lack of documentation for developing social networking applications can be maddening. In this session, I’ll discuss how we’re able to roll out a robust SNS (Facebook, MySpace, Hi5, Orkut and more) application or game in a week.
Format: Mini Lecture
Track: Design
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 12, 4:00 PM,
Room: Seaport
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Lecturer: Darius Kazemi, Orbus Gameworks
In 2008, Orbus Gameworks carried out a study for IGN Entertainment where they investigated the metrics that IGN has collected on player behavior over hundreds of thousands of player hours in games such as Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars and Unreal Tournament 3. This talk will cover some of their more interesting findings, and also go over best practices for gameplay metrics collection: in particular, what they wished they had collected in the first place!
Format: Lecture
Track: Design
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 12, 10:30 AM,
Room: Harbor
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Lecturer: Jesse Schell, Schell Games
It is very possible that widespread online games are changing people, and therefore, society, in subtle ways. But how? Will the constant playing of wargames train us all to be killers, or will the cooperation these games require break down cultural barriers, and teach us to get along with strangers? Or both? This talk examines the paradoxical futures that online gaming may bring us, and makes some suggestions about how to use them to save humanity from itself.
Format: Keynote Lunch
Track:
Date/Time: Thursday, May 14, 12:00 PM,
Room: Grand Ballroom
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Lecturer: Brian Robbins, Fuel Industries
Since the launch of the iPhone App Store last July it seems like everyone is getting into iPhone development, but few have discovered ways to be consistently successful. This session will provide an overview of the iPhone market and will look at ways developers can take advantage of the networking features of the iPhone in order to keep players connected to their games.
Format: Lecture
Track: Business
Date/Time: Thursday, May 14, 9:00 AM,
Room: Seaport
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Lecturer: Carsten van Husen, Gameforge 4D GmbH
Common misconceptions of the European market prevent projects from reaching their full potential. The lecture will lead through the different aspects of conquering the market in full. From common strategies to niche tactics, it will cover all the various aspects from languages to different tastes. At the end of this session attendees will understand the importance of adapting its projects to the European market.
Format: Lecture
Track: Globalization
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 12, 9:00 AM,
Room: Harbor
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Moderator: Joe Ludwig
Panelist: Mitch Ferguson, Carbine Studios
Panelist: Rick Lambright, Gazillion Entertainment
Panelist: Patricio Jutard, Three Melons
Panelist: Chris Dyl, Turbine
Over the past few years multiple out of the box solutions for developing MMOs have surfaced. This panel allows attendees to get an overview of what is out there directly from the mouths of developers who are actually using the competing products. Listen to developers share their experiences with BigWorld, Unity3D, and other turnkey solutions, as well as reasons for building custom internal technology.
Format: Panel
Track: Programming/Tech
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 12, 10:30 AM,
Room: Salon AB
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Moderator: James Hursthouse, BigWorld PTY
Format: Special
Track:
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 12, 7:30 AM,
Room: Grand Ballroom
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Moderator: Darius Kazemi, Orbus Gameworks
Format: Special
Track:
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 13, 7:30 AM,
Room: Grand Ballroom
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Moderator: Cynthia Freese, Evergreen Events, Inc
Format: Special
Track:
Date/Time: Thursday, May 14, 7:30 AM,
Room: Grand Ballroom
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Format: Special
Track:
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 13, 7:00 PM,
Room:
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Moderator: Peter Freese
Panelist: Charlie Stross
Panelist: Adam Martin
Panelist: David Edery
Panelist: Tarrnie Williams, Independent
What will the online games space look like in five years? What new technologies, social revolutions, and cultural shifts will bring about momentous transformations in the way people play and pay for online games? What changes are already taking place? This panel of industry luminaries, mavericks, critics, and cynics all share their views of what to expect in the year 2014.
Format: Panel
Track: Business
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 13, 5:00 PM,
Room: Salon AB
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Moderator: Todd Northcutt, IGN Entertainment
Panelist: Dennis Fong, Raptr
Panelist: Ian Atkinson, THQ Inc.
Panelist: David Chang, GamesCampus
The global economy is bracing itself to weather the recession and to the surprise of many industry analysts, an industry that appears to be coping with the economic situation in a successful way is the online gaming sector. In fact, as connectivity becomes cheaper and more accessible, many believe that the current recession is a jumping off point that provides an opportunity for the acquisition of new players. The relationship between the recession and the increase in gaming presents an interesting dichotomy that we hope to explore in this discussion.
Format: Panel
Track: Business
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 12, 9:00 AM,
Room: Salon AB
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Moderator: Jason Wonacott, Wonacott Communications, LLC
Panelist: Philip Yun, NHN USA, Inc.
Panelist: Andy Tong, MMOABC
Panelist: Jeffrey Anderson, Quick Hit
Panelist: Kevin Crawford, Atlus Online
This session will address the changing nature of the online game portal market and discuss the challenging questions these changes bring about. As more gamers move toward portals for preferred access to online games, the established leaders are being challenged by startups - and with the number of portals expanding it is bound to impact the gamers, publishers and developers alike. Panelists from both established online game portals and startups will dive into multiple topics relating to the challenges and opportunities presented by the increase in gaming portals.
Format: Panel
Track: Business
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 13, 3:30 PM,
Room: Salon AB
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Format: Special
Track:
Date/Time: Monday, May 11, 8:30 PM,
Room:
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Lecturer: John W. Ratcliff, Simutronics Corporation
Pathfinding solutions typically involve a great deal of offline processing of the static world geometry to produce a valid navigation mesh for game AI. MMOs, however, present a lot of challenges in that the worlds are very large and subject to continuous change. This talk will present practical techniques on how to solve these problems.
Format: Lecture
Track: Programming/Tech
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 12, 2:00 PM,
Room: Seaport
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Lecturer: Steve Klebe, Vindicia, Inc.
Since the beginning of commerce online there has been much confusion around this seemingly simple concept of how to receive a payment. This session, presented by a speaker who has been an active participant in this realm since the dawn of e-commerce, will provide attendees with a solid and broad framework as well as tangible detailed knowledge and resources to facilitate their companies’ ability to effectively take payments. It is imperative that online gaming companies have all the tools necessary to maximize their direct revenue opportunities in light of the challenges with being dependent on revenue from advertising.
Format: Lecture
Track: Business
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 12, 10:30 AM,
Room: Salon EF
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Lecturer: James Gwertzman, PopCap Games, Inc.
A fast-paced and colorful trip through PopCap's first year in China, with plenty of advice for any company considering the challenge of entering the Chinese market (or any developing country, for that matter).
Format: Lecture
Track: Globalization
Date/Time: Thursday, May 14, 9:00 AM,
Room: Salon AB
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Lecturer: Sébastien Deguy, Allegorithmic
During the talk, the latest advances in procedural content creation techniques are presented. These techniques lead to the production of dynamic, lean content, for a faster delivery process and large-scale user generated content production and exchange.
The talk will also demonstrate how procedural techniques can have a significant impact on the production cycles, helping saving money and letting artists really focus on the core elements of their worlds. The latest tools and technologies for procedural world building are presented. The first productions utilizing these techniques with success are demoed and the impact such techniques have on online games is analyzed.
Format: Lecture
Track: Programming/Tech
Date/Time: Thursday, May 14, 10:30 AM,
Room: Seaport
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Lecturer: David Lakritz, Language Automation, Inc.
To effectively localize an MMOG requires a shift in thinking from the more traditional console-based paradigm. This talk will discuss the major differences between the two paradigms, and what issues developers and publishers who are new to the MMOG space need to consider to most effectively localize their games.
Format: Lecture
Track: Globalization
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 13, 9:00 AM,
Room: Seaport
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Lecturer: Sergey Orlovskiy, Nival Group
Russian online gaming market, growing over $150 mln last year has lots of local traits. The phenomenon of its establishment and development given from the inside is an interesting study case for any online games professionals, and it will be especially useful for those who study various market trends in different regions and/or for those who have business interests in Russia and Eastern European online gaming markets. The traditions and influences behind, the preferences of Russian audience in present, and the unique mix of Western and Eastern online trends in the future – these are major points of the session.
Format: Lecture
Track: Globalization
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 13, 2:00 PM,
Room: Harbor
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Lecturer: Anu Shukla, Offerpal Media
While traditional advertising continues to languish with social media, virtual currency has surfaced as the most effective way for developers to both engage and monetize their traffic. What is virtual currency, and how do you create a virtual economy within your application or web site? How can you use virtual currency to deepen user engagement, increase stickiness and generate more pageviews? Offerpal Media's CEO, Anu Shukla, answers these questions and more in this presentation on the best practices for developing a virtual currency and converting it into real revenues.
Format: Lecture
Track: Business
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 13, 10:30 AM,
Room: Harbor
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Lecturer: Nandor T. Szots, Sony Online Entertainment, LLC
A technical lecture about the Bayesian spam filtering technologies employed by various SOE MMOs including: EverQuest2, EverQuest, and Vanguard.
Format: Mini Lecture
Track: Programming/Tech
Date/Time: Thursday, May 14, 2:00 PM,
Room: Seaport
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Moderator: Jeremy Liew, Lightspeed Venture Partners
Panelist: Gene Hoffman, Vindicia
Panelist: Adam Caplan, Super Rewards
Panelist: David Marcus, Zong
Panelist: Rob Goldberg, GMG Entertainment
Many online gaming sites are taking advantage of growing revenue opportunities via micro-transactions and through the sale of virtual goods. However, a large contingency of players don't have credit cards because they're too young; live outside the US; or don't even have a checking account. This panel will examine the opportunities and challenges of monetizing kids/teens and foreigners – an increasingly large and important user demographic.
Format: Panel
Track: Business
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 12, 2:00 PM,
Room: Salon AB
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Moderator: Scott Warner, Garvey Schubert Barer
Panelist: Charles Merrin, Smith & Tinker, Inc.
Panelist: Joe Hyrkin, Gaia Online
Promotions can help make your game a success. But, knowing when to use them, what works, what doesn't, and some of the legal and business issues they present is key. This panel will provide guidance on how to effectively use these tools.
Format: Panel
Track: Business
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 12, 3:30 PM,
Room: Salon AB
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Lecturer: Jon Radoff, GamerDNA, Inc.
While the surge in online gaming is not necessarily a new phenomenon - the rate at which users spend time and frequent their favorite games has become staggeringly high. What is at the core of this behavior and what can developers learn from this information? Jon Radoff, CEO of gamerDNA, will share compelling research from gamerDNA’s extensive database of user play patterns to help answer this question and shed light on who is playing online games and why.
Format: Mini Lecture
Track: Business
Date/Time: Thursday, May 14, 10:30 AM,
Room: Salon AB
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Lecturer: James Portnow, Divide by Zero Games
We all know that a game that is a runaway success as a subscription game might not make it as a microtransaction game or that a one shot box product might not be viable with a subscription tacked on… Why? Because designing a successful MMO requires more than simply great game design: it requires an understanding of how design and business fit together. In this lecture James Portnow will address how to integrate your monetization model into your game design to ensure the best experience for your customer and your bank account.
Format: Lecture
Track: Design
Date/Time: Thursday, May 14, 3:30 PM,
Room: Salon AB
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Lecturer: Don Alvarez, Accelerated Pictures, Inc.
Amazon, Microsoft and Google are working very hard to change the way you think about your data center. Each of the major providers sees the data center problem from a completely different perspective driven by the differences in their own corporate histories. You may know that Amazon will let you spin up new servers on demand for $0.10/hour. Do you understand what that means for your own development efforts? Do you know which problems the Google App Engine is designed to solve or what development costs does Azure targets most aggressively? Join us as we compare and contrast the major cloud computing platforms and discuss their applicability for hosting game servers.
Format: Lecture
Track: Programming/Tech
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 13, 10:30 AM,
Room: Seaport
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Lecturer: Nicole Lazzaro, XEODesign, Inc.
There is more to social gaming than spamming your friends. Yet, the biggest opportunity in games is leveraging social networks to create a MSO, a Massively Social Online game. Players want to play with their friends especially when it deepens the connections between friends. Based on new XEODesign research of Facebook, Twitter, and iPhone games, the Keys to Social Play are an opportunity to create new forms of engagement that create tension and motivation through social interaction. Together we will explore what it takes to make a social game truly massive without relying on Spam.
Format: Lecture
Track: Design
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 12, 2:00 PM,
Room: Harbor
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Lecturer: Scott Rigby, Immersyve, Inc
This session presents data from six different studies with over 2,000 gamers that parse the contribution of violent content to player enjoyment, immersion, purchase decisions, and overall value. Using examples from popular titles, we outline the specific motivational satisfactions that underlie the strong enjoyment of violent games and how data shows that those satisfactions can be distinguished from the violent content itself – thus enabling developers to more successfully adjust levels of violence without diminishing enjoyment (even in core audiences that value violent games). This in turn gives developers more options and precision when making choices about game violence as they seek to sustain engagement with core players while maximizing market potential.
Format: Lecture
Track: Design
Date/Time: Thursday, May 14, 9:00 AM,
Room: Salon EF
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Lecturer: Samuel Bennett, Ludorum
As a first time virtual world director with a micro core team (<5) how did we pull of the launch of Virtual Chuggington, an immersive world for 3-6 year-olds on budget and on time? In less than a year?
Format: Lecture
Track: Business
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 13, 5:00 PM,
Room: Seaport
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Lecturer: Quoc Tran, Gendai Games
The stage gate model provides a method by which developers can vet the strength of their ideas, by continually evaluating multiple concepts and killing any concepts that are unpromising. Developers can use the rapidly growing mod community as a way to evaluate the strength of their concepts, and take advantage of any changes as their game design evolve in the wild.
Format: Mini Lecture
Track: Design
Date/Time: Thursday, May 14, 2:30 PM,
Room: Seaport
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Moderator: Geoffrey Zatkin, Electronic Entertainment Design and Research
Panelist: Lowell Vaughen, WB Games
Panelist: Robin Walker, Valve Software
Panelist: Kirk A. Soderquist, Perknis Coie LLP
Panelist: Jeff Sullivan, Xbox 360
The increase in game rentals and used game sales over the past few years has significantly lowered the period of time that games can maintain their initial MSRP, which in turn has significantly impacted revenue generated on a per title basis. Join Geoffrey Zatkin, President of EEDAR, and a panel of industry experts to talk about the role that downloadable content can play in combating resale and extending the long tail revenue of game titles.
Format: Panel
Track: Business
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 13, 2:00 PM,
Room: Salon AB
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Lecturer: James Dunstan, Garvey Schubert Barer
Virtual worlds and MMOs directed at children are among the fastest growing sectors in computer gaming. But special attention needs to be paid when building a virtual playground for minors. Federal laws (COPPA) apply to those serving children, and increasing scrutiny of sites where children could be targets of stalkers. And what about the business model – how do you extract money out of children, who by law can’t enter into a legally binding contract? This lecture will provide critical tips for developers, and may leave some sucking their thumbs wondering why they ever thought kids were a good idea.
Format: Lecture
Track: Legal
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 12, 2:00 PM,
Room: Salon EF
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Lecturer: Charlie Stross
Format: Keynote Lunch
Track:
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 13, 12:00 PM,
Room: Grand Ballroom
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Lecturer: Han Zhihai, Howell International Trade Fair Ltd.
Moderator: Jay Moore, BitRaider
Format: Special
Track:
Date/Time: Monday, May 11, 7:00 PM,
Room: Grand Ballroom
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Lecturer: Joe Ludwig
Augmented Reality is the mixing of virtual information into the real world. A few years ago, this was strictly science fiction, but now that early applications have started appearing it is apparent that we are on the cusp of these systems becoming a reality. This session discusses the current state of Augmented Reality technology and what all this means for online games.
Format: Lecture
Track: Programming/Tech
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 12, 5:00 PM,
Room: Seaport
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Lecturer: Dave Weinstein, Microsoft
Over the last 15 years, multiplayer technology has moved from a handful of games to being a fundamental part of many game genres. As part of this, game developers have had to deal with cheaters, griefers, and exploiters from design through coding and into long term support. These lessons form a solid base for coming to terms with the need for secure software development practices in the modern environment.
Format: Lecture
Track: Programming/Tech
Date/Time: Thursday, May 14, 3:30 PM,
Room: Seaport
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Lecturer: Dean Takahashi, VentureBeat
Venture capitalists and other investors are wondering about the wave or puddle question with respect to game startups. If games are a haven from the recession, then it’s worth investing in. But if the recession has dried up the opportunities for new game startups, then it isn’t worth jumping into the puddle. But if games are just beginning to get going, then it’s a great time to pile in and pay attention to new markets, new audiences, and new platforms. Should game developers pay attention to the VCs when they decide what kind of games to build? Are fitness games in? Are training simulations en vogue? Should the gamer makers chase the emerging markets where the growth is? Or should the game developers just try to make something that they themselves would play?
Format: Keynote Lunch
Track: Business
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 12, 12:00 PM,
Room: Grand Ballroom
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Lecturer: Sean F. Kane, Esq., Drakeford & Kane LLC
Smart developers involve their counsel at the earliers stages of game development. Learned counsel can add significant value in early stage development by hightlighting potential issues and providing ideas and solutions. This can eliminate the need for costly last minute recording and production delays.
Format: Lecture
Track: Design
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 12, 9:00 AM,
Room: Salon EF
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