What Great MMO Designers are Bringing to Social Games
Speaker: Susan Wu (CEO/Venture Advisor, Ohai/Charles River Ventures), Raph Koster (President, Areae Inc.), Scott Hartsman (Co-Founder & VP Production, Ohai), Dan Ogles (Co-founder and Creative Director, Conduit Labs)
Date/Time: Wednesday (September 17, 2008) 1:30pm — 2:30pm
Location (room): Room 8C
Track: Online Games - Social Networking & Community
Format: 60-minute Panel
Experience Level: All

Session Description
Social Games. Flash. Virtual Goods. Social Graphs…

Why are designers of some of the most renowned MMOs leaving their traditional gaming roots to build web games? Moreover, why are they building games that live across social networks? Do they know something we don’t? Or are they misguided, following the latest sparkly trend?

Come hear from designers of games such as Rock Band, Star Wars Galaxies, Lord of the Rings Online, Everquest & Everquest II, and Ultima Online talk about why they’re now full time on Web based games. They’ll talk about what design influences they are bringing to bear on their new social games and why they think this is the future of MMOs.