Erik Bethke
CEO, GoPets Ltd.

Erik Bethke is the CEO of GoPets, Ltd, which he founded in 2004. GoPets innovatively synthesizes the creative expression and caretaking of virtual pet simulators with the connective power of online social networking software, leading the virtual world and casual games industries with what partner MSN calls the "first virtual dog park".

Erik has been developing games for over twelve years, producing titles including the highly accoladed Starfleet Command series, I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, PlanetNET, and Caesars Palace Windows 95. He is frequently an invited speaker at numerous venues in the international game development community, including World Cyber Games 2002 & 2003, Korea Game Developers Conference, and Game Developers Conference; in 2007 he delivered the keynote address at the Online Game Developers Conference, and he is considered an international authority on game development in the high-growth Asian games market. He serves on the advisory boards of multiple online game development companies in the US and Asia.

In 2003 Erik authored the book _Game Development and Production_, now regularly used in university game development curricula. He is currently pioneering advancement in the future vision of virtual worlds with the BetterEULA Project and corresponding _Settlers of the New Virtual Worlds_ essay collection addressing digital user rights and the next breakthrough in the growth of online worlds.

Erik grew up in southern California and has recently returned after living for the last 5 years in Seoul with his wife and two sons.

Debater: Debate! Virtual Property Ownership, Thursday, 3:30 PM, Salon EF