100 Questions, 97 Answers, 56 Minutes
Speaker: Brenda Brathwaite (Game Designer, Savannah College of Art & Design)
Date/Time: Wednesday (September 17, 2008) 11:00am — 12:00pm
Location (room): Room 9C
Track: Game Career Seminar
Format: 60-minute Lecture
Experience Level: All

Session Description
Students hoping to enter the industry have a lot of questions. What should be in their portfolios? How do they make contacts? How much do game designers make? What should they wear to interviews? In this fast-paced and comedic presentation, Brathwaite answers these questions and many, many more.

Idea Takeaway
Attendees will gain a better or clearer understanding of the basic tenets of the video game industry.

Intended Audience
Students, newcomers to the game industry, and anyone still learning the ropes.

Luckiest People Alive
Speaker: Harvey Smith (Game Director, Arkane Studios)
Date/Time: Wednesday (September 17, 2008) 9:30am — 10:30am
Location (room): Room 9C
Track: Game Career Seminar
Format: 60-minute Keynote
Experience Level: All

Session Description
Game developers are some of the luckiest people alive, says Harvey Smith, game director at Arkane Studios, especially if they're entering the field now. In this session, Smith, who is best known for being lead designer of the award winning game Deus Ex, will discuss what he sees as an imminent explosion of change, creativity, and possibility within the interactive medium. The session will list emerging cultural and technological trends driving this potential revolution and will discuss the creative and collaborative values that will aid new developers the most in terms of capitalizing on the coming period of vital change. The work of the next decade will be fascinating, Smith says.

Why Are Games That Suck So Popular on Social Networks?
Speaker: Blake Commagere (Co-Founder & CTO, Ohai)
Date/Time: Wednesday (September 17, 2008) 9:30am — 10:30am
Location (room): Room 9
Track: Online Games - Social Networking & Community
Format: 60-minute Lecture
Experience Level: All

Session Description
You've seen or heard of game after game that is gathering millions of players on social networks. The creators clearly have no professional game design experience and for that matter some of these applications are so feature light that they barely qualify as games. This session intends to explore the behaviors of social network users and how to create games that fit those behaviors and expectations. Maybe even games that don't suck.

* NOTE: this session contains profanity and humor.

Idea Takeaway
Social networks make wonderful platforms for games as their users are already in a gaming mindset. Lightweight, simple games that align gameplay with social interactions that are familiar on these social networks have dominated on social networks - but only because higher production games have not yet had time to take full advantage of the opportunity presented by these platforms.

Intended Audience
Anyone interested in understanding why some games work and don't work on social networks. Particularly geared towards game designers that are considering creating games on social networks such as Facebook and MySpace.

Dunder Mifflin Infinity: A Case Study in Using Game Mechanics to Drive Community Behavior
Speaker: Stephen Andrade (SVP Digital Development and GM, NBC.com), Rajat Paharia (Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Bunchball)
Date/Time: Wednesday (September 17, 2008) 9:30am — 10:30am
Location (room): Ballroom C
Track: Worlds in Motion
Format: 60-minute Keynote
Experience Level: All

Session Description
Status, competition, reward and achievement are concepts that the game industry has used for years to increase engagement and drive behavior in games. Now these same concepts are making the leap to the web. Join Rajat Paharia of Bunchball, and Stephen Andrade of NBC.com, as they discuss how Bunchball’s Nitro meta-gaming platform is being used to drive user behavior and increase engagement on Dunder Mifflin Infinity, a social networking and user-generated content site for fans of NBC’s hit TV show The Office.

Wake Up and Smell the Metrics! A Rant on Metrics-Driven Development in Online Games
Speaker: Larry Mellon (Virtual Worlds Consultant), Darius Kazemi (President, Orbus Gameworks)
Date/Time: Wednesday (September 17, 2008) 9:30am — 10:30am
Location (room): Room 4
Track: Online Games - Technology and Services
Format: 60-minute Lecture
Experience Level: Intermediate

Session Description
We live in Darwinian times as the traditions of the old boxed goods industry shift online, investigating entirely new ways of reaching and retaining customers. But in many ways we have retained the old mentalities of guessing and hacking our way to success or failure. Running an online game is a service, and we have unprecedented access to customer and operational data. This session presents a business case on applying metrics to lower recurring costs and make games stickier based on measured data, not risky guesses. Some basic implementation plans are given to jumpstart your game into the world of metrics-driven development.

Deepening Player Immersion with Jungian Symbolism
Speaker: Stephen Brock Schafer (Chairman: Humanities/Social Sciences, Digipen Institute of Technology)
Date/Time: Wednesday (September 17, 2008) 9:30am — 10:30am
Location (room): Ballroom B
Track: Writing for Games
Format: 60-minute Lecture
Experience Level: Intermediate

Session Description
Games speak the same symbolic language as advertisements and dreams. We will use excerpts from games, films, and advertisements to demonstrate how symbols tell covert stories. As game players begin to perceive well-written submerged stories, they become psychologically immersed in them. According to Carl Jung, a dream speaks in a story-based symbolic language to communicate information from a “submerged” collective unconscious. Interactive storytellers can use Jungian principles of symbolism to tell immersive stories that unfold beneath the symbolic surface of a game. Like a ship at sea, at least half of a story is submerged.

Idea Takeaway
Attendees will be introduced to a unique theory—an analog exists between game images and dream images—and practical ways to use the theory to create psychologically complex characters and versatile interactive plots.

Intended Audience
This presentation is designed for those who sometimes try to analyze the covert messages in advertising. It will be of interest to game writers or potential writers who would like to understand how story symbols contribute to immersion and interactivity.

Evolving Business for MMOs
Speaker: Robert Ferrari (VP Business Development, Turbine), Hilmar Veigar Petursson (CEO, CCP), Nicolay Nickelsen (VP, Business Development, Funcom), Min Kim (VP of Marketing, Nexon America Inc.), Jessica Mulligan (COO, ImaginVenture SA)
Date/Time: Wednesday (September 17, 2008) 9:30am — 10:30am
Location (room): Room 6
Track: Online Games - Business & Marketing
Format: 60-minute Panel
Experience Level: Advanced

Session Description
The business of MMOs has been evolving from traditional subscription based models to free to play and hybrids. The purpose of this luminary panel wil be to discuss what has changed, what has worked, and where the business is going. The discussions will cover opportunities and experiences within North America and on a global basis.

Idea Takeaway
The takeaway will be a better understanding how to bring onlne games to market and leverage growth and profitability.

Intended Audience
The audience addressed will mostly be developers, publishers, IP/Brand owners, content delivery partners.

Linearity is Hell: Achieving Truly Dynamic Stories in Games
Speaker: Andrew Stern (Founding Partner, Designer and Engineer, Procedural Arts)
Date/Time: Wednesday (September 17, 2008) 9:30am — 10:30am
Location (room): Room 3
Track: Writing for Games
Format: 60-minute Lecture
Experience Level: Intermediate

Session Description
Game writers have the most dynamic and interactive medium for stories at their fingertips, but have yet to fully tap the power of non-linearity in their stories. This session will suggest how game writers can eventually escape this linearity hell, and reach the holy grail of truly dynamic story. A vision of a day in the life of game writers of the future will be presented, suggesting details of their work process. Warning: this journey may be painful. Cold, hard truths will be revealed. Attendees may be afraid of what they see, or what they must become.

Idea Takeaway
Attendees will learn how the process of game writing may need to adapt and change in the future, in order to achieve truly dynamic stories. Relevant lessons learned from two important past projects will be presented.

Intended Audience
Game writers seeking to develop very dynamic, non-linear stories will benefit from this session.

Reaching Beyond WOW: Facebook and the Keys to Social Play
Speaker: Nicole Lazzaro (Founder and President, XEODesign, Inc.)
Date/Time: Wednesday (September 17, 2008) 9:30am — 10:30am
Location (room): Room 5
Track: Online Games - Design
Format: 60-minute Lecture
Experience Level: Intermediate

Session Description
Social Networking and Media sites such as Facebook are emerging platforms for games and ideal experimental playground for social games. While viewing and commenting on people's photos are one of the most popular activities, games on Social Media sites will soon drive a lot more of the daily traffic. After the viral success of Tilt (the first accelerometer game for the iPhone with over 250,000 visits and counting) we wanted to see what would happen if we attached one of our iconic ultra light experimental casual games to a social network. In this presentation we'll share new XEODesign research on the emotions behind viral distribution, emotion, and social play.

Idea Takeaway
Takeaways Social Networks promise to attract an even broader audience to multiplayer games. Understanding the emotions and why players use games on Social Games is the key to designing better ones. • Techniques to maximize viral distribution of a game on a social network • Common mistakes we made that you can avoid • Methods for increasing interaction between players • Deeper understanding of the audience attracted to social networks • Guidelines for supporting multiple play styles with simple mechanics • Approaches for increasing player's emotional response from social play

Intended Audience
Intended Audience Designers, producers, programmers and marketers interested in creating innovative viral games on social networks. As well as those who want to add social networking features to traditional games.

Cocktail Parties, Presence and Compelling NextGen Audio
Speaker: Simon Carlile (Academic Resarcher and CTO (Personal Audio, Pty Ltd), University of Sydney)
Date/Time: Wednesday (September 17, 2008) 9:30am — 10:30am
Location (room): Room 10
Track: Audio
Format: 60-minute Lecture
Experience Level: Intermediate

Session Description
In the 10 years since the IASIG 3D Audio specification was released, much relevant research has surfaced particularly in the auditory perception of complex scenes and the role of audio in virtual reality displays. This lecture will review the basic bioacoustic cues and perceptual processes leading to our sense of space. A focus will be on issues related to rendering headphone 3D Audio. This lecture will address the role of spatial perception in solving the “Cocktail Party Problem” and in generating the sense of “Presence” in VR – both critical issues for creating natural audio scenes in NextGen audio design.

Idea Takeaway
This lecture explains not only what acoustic signals the brain uses to generate our perception of 3D audio, but why audio in general and 3D audio in particular is so critical for the ultra-realism possible with NextGen games design.

Intended Audience
The principal audience will be those interested in creating and advocating for compelling audio design in games.

It’s Who You Get to Know
Speaker: Darius Kazemi (President, Orbus Gameworks)
Date/Time: Tuesday (September 16, 2008) 5:30pm — 6:30pm
Location (room): Room 9C
Track: Game Career Seminar
Format: 60-minute Lecture
Experience Level: All

Session Description
It’s not who you know – it’s who you get to know.” In this session, you’ll learn where to meet people in the game industry, how to impress them, and what to say when you don’t know what to say, starting with your fellow Career Seminar attendees. Will they become future competitors in the job market, or will they become a supportive network of industry insiders? Darius Kazemi will teach you how to make sure the latter is the case.

Idea Takeaway
Attendees will learn how to get the most bang for their buck at this Career Seminar and at future conferences and professional get-togethers. The key takeaway idea is to learn how to network at professional events, which will be practiced through interactive games with the audience.

Intended Audience
Students, newcomers to the game industry, and anyone still learning the ropes.

Case Studies: User-Generated Content In Online Worlds
Speaker: Daniel James (Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Three Rings), Nabeel Hyatt (Founder, CEO, Conduit Labs)
Date/Time: Tuesday (September 16, 2008) 4:30pm — 5:30pm
Location (room): Ballroom C
Track: Worlds in Motion
Format: 60-minute Lecture
Experience Level: All

Session Description
This set of two sequential mini-sessions will reveal how a new breed of online worlds allow user-created content – whether from businesses or individuals, moving the power of the online platform from the developer to the end user in a drastic new way. Therefore, senior representatives of the online spaces Whirled and Loudcrowd will be joined with a user of their own platform to discuss what has been successful and the challenges they’ve faced together in these unique partnerships.

The World That Players Wouldn’t Let Die
Speaker: Blake Lewin (VP, Media and Entertainment Platforms, Turner Broadcasting Systems), Celia Pearce (Director, Experimental Game Lab & Emerge, Georgia Institute of Technology), Charlene (aka Eleri) Hamilton (Project Manager, Mysterium), Ron Meiners (Community Director, MyHollywood.com), Rand Miller (CEO, Cyan Worlds)
Date/Time: Tuesday (September 16, 2008) 4:30pm — 5:30pm
Location (room): Room 9
Track: Online Games - Social Networking & Community
Format: 60-minute Panel
Experience Level: All

Session Description
One reporter deftly noted that Myst Online: Uru Live lasted longer when run by the fan community than it did under two different publishers. The Uru Beta had a short life of six months, but the community it spawned continues five years later spanning multiple game/virtual worlds. Why won’t this community give up the dream of building a lasting home? From the perspectives of creator, publisher, fan and academic, this panel presents the strengths and weaknesses of a unique MMOG and discusses story, identity, exploration and emergent game play as a framework for future MMOG and virtual world development.

RAGE: Storytelling and Technology at id Software
Speaker: Tim Willits (Co-owner &Creative Director, id Software)
Date/Time: Tuesday (September 16, 2008) 4:30pm — 5:30pm
Location (room): Ballroom B
Track: Writing for Games
Format: 60-minute Lecture
Experience Level: Advanced

Session Description
id Software’s Creative Director, Tim Willits, will talk about how the company builds interactive stories while also developing new technologies. Get the inside track on what has worked in the past and what hasn’t. Hear how id Software is changing the way they tell stories in their upcoming title RAGE.

Idea Takeaway
The session will provide the following information for attendees: * An understanding of how to balance storytelling and technology. * An understanding of how id Software develops stories alongside changing technology. * The decisions behind the storytelling of previous id Software titles and what is changing for the upcoming title RAGE. * An explanation of how id Software wants to build the RAGE franchise through storytelling.

Intended Audience
This session is intended for lead designers, project managers, and writers.

Questing Design and Engineering in MMOs
Speaker: Thomas Sitch (Senior Engineer, KingsIsle Entertainment)
Date/Time: Tuesday (September 16, 2008) 4:30pm — 5:30pm
Location (room): Room 4
Track: Online Games - Technology and Services
Format: 60-minute Lecture
Experience Level: Advanced

Session Description
Fetch this! Find that! Kill 10 pigs to stop the dark lord’s invasion!” Most online games drive the player experience using a quest/mission system that provides goals, structure, and possibly even fun. This discussion will cover both architecting and designing mission systems to meet the unique needs of the Massively Multiplayer paradigm. Lecture will also features examples from Pirates of the Burning Sea as well as some examples from KingIsle’s current MMO project, Wizard 101. Finally, the discussion will examine the frontiers of mission design and where MMO games might take the player questing experience in the future.

Idea Takeaway
Those attending the session will leave with a broad set of concepts relating to quest engineering, and be satisfied with both interesting anecdotes of past projects and “crunchy” technical details. Attendees will learn of techniques that have worked and failed, engineering structure, important design concepts, and decisions that impact the greater scope a project.

Intended Audience
This session is designed to benefit both those who are designing and those who are implementing quest systems in MMOs. It is of primary benefit to game systems programmers but will be of interest to anyone interested in MMO creation.

Economic Design and Management of Virtual Worlds with a Large Shard Population
Speaker: Eyjolfur Gudmundsson (Lead Economist, CCP), Sam Lewis (Lead Designer, Cartoon Network)
Date/Time: Tuesday (September 16, 2008) 4:30pm — 5:30pm
Location (room): Room 5
Track: Online Games - Design
Format: 60-minute Lecture
Experience Level: Intermediate

Session Description
With massive shard populations (100,000+) new challenges of designing and managing virtual worlds arise. In fact, massive virtual worlds become societies on their own, requiring information and management methods just as any other society. This presentation will focus on the economic design and management of massively multiplayer online games with large shard populations. The lecture will have three main topics; initial economic design, scalability and day-to-day economic management of massively mulitplayer on-line worlds. The lecture will provide some examples from the design and operating of EVE - Online and other virtual worlds.

Idea Takeaway
The attendees to his lecture will learn what it takes to develop and manage the economic system of virtual world with shard based population in the hundreds of thousands. Attendees will see practical examples on how to deal with large economic systems as well as learning about basic concepts that can be applied in the design of online games in general.

Intended Audience
MMO producers and designers will benefit greatly from this lecture, as will those who are interested in the application of economics to virtual worlds. Experience in designing and operating MMOs is helpful but no prior experience in economics is required.

Microtransactions in North America – Early Lessons from the Pioneers
Speaker: Jamie Cheng (President, Klei Entertainment Inc.)
Date/Time: Tuesday (September 16, 2008) 3:00pm — 4:00pm
Location (room): Ballroom C
Track: Worlds in Motion
Format: 60-minute Lecture
Experience Level: All

Session Description
We all know that microtransactions have arrived in North America, and everyone is watching closely. Klei Entertainment is in the unique position of developing an original North American game in conjunction with the pioneer of this industry – Nexon Corp. How did this relationship come about, and how do we apply what we've learned from Korea to North America?

Juggling Cats
Speaker: Tracy W. Bush (Audio Director, NCSoft Corporation)
Date/Time: Tuesday (September 16, 2008) 3:00pm — 4:00pm
Location (room): Room 10
Track: Audio
Format: 60-minute Lecture
Experience Level: All

Session Description
Managing the audio design for a PC game from early concept to final ship can be challenging, what with shifting ship dates, constantly changing tech, as well as the occasional complete redesign. How do you keep up? How do you, the audio director, ship a game that has a valid artistic vision in this chaotic environment? How do you satisfy your producers, keep your employees’ morale up, and hopefully get some good reviews? In this session we will discuss strategies that audio directors can use in trying to fulfill their creative vision in an ever-shifting environment. Team management, managerial diplomacy and initiative taking all play important roles in accomplishing this, and we will discuss how to develop these skills if you don’t already have them, using anecdotes from past games as starting points.

Intended Audience
Intended for audio directors as well as aspiring audio directors, sound designers, composers and dialog writers.

Subscriptions Versus Free-to-Play
Speaker: Eric Goldberg (Managing Director, Crossover Technologies), Joshua Hong (CEO & Founder, K2 Network), Matt Firor (President, ZeniMax Online Studios)
Date/Time: Tuesday (September 16, 2008) 3:00pm — 4:00pm
Location (room): Room 6
Track: Online Games - Business & Marketing
Format: 60-minute Panel
Experience Level: All

Session Description
Is the MMO business model in flux? Despite WoW’s success, are we seeing a shift away from premium monthly subscriptions towards a free-to-play model? Can the sale of virtual items possible make-up the difference from a lack of subscriptions?
As ever more money is being ploughed in the hot MMO market, we seek to answer these questions in this moderated session.

Idea Takeaway
The audience will come away with a better understanding of the issues surrounding the two models, the current trends and what the future is likely to hold for MMO revenue streams.

Intended Audience
This panel is intended for anyone with a stake or interest in the future of MMO business models, be it developers, publishers or investors.

The Sandwich of the Month Club: Writing and Designing Successful Episodic Games
Speaker: Dave Grossman (Director of Design, Telltale Games)
Date/Time: Tuesday (September 16, 2008) 3:00pm — 4:00pm
Location (room): Ballroom B
Track: Writing for Games
Format: 60-minute Lecture
Experience Level: Intermediate

Session Description
As episodic content becomes more and more prevalent, the demand for compelling game storylines based on well-developed characters and more complex plots continues to grow. Successfully writing and designing content for the mainstream requires continuity, depth, the ability to quickly tell an engaging story, and a sound understanding of your target audience. This presentation, led by one of the most successful episodic game creators in the industry, will explore and explain the components necessary to develop compelling content for a wide audience utilizing the episodic format as the vehicle. The lecture will also outline and discuss the process and tools that lead to success in episodic mainstream content for games.

Idea Takeaway
Attendees will gain an understanding of how to develop compelling episodic content through balanced storylines and meaningful characters. Writers and designers will learn how to adopt and evolve existing characters into game storylines. The audience will also learn how to pace storylines through a series of episodes.

Intended Audience
This lecture is intended for writers, game designers and creative leads. Those with a working professional knowledge of both game design and game writing will gain the greatest practical benefit.

Gaming Communities & Kids: Do You Know Your ABC’s?
Speaker: Richard Weil (Director of Community Relations, Cartoon Network), Rebecca Newton (Director, Community, Content and Customer Service, MindCandy.com)
Date/Time: Tuesday (September 16, 2008) 3:00pm — 4:00pm
Location (room): Room 9
Track: Online Games - Social Networking & Community
Format: 60-minute Lecture
Experience Level: Intermediate

Session Description
During the past 2 years, online games and Virtual Worlds designed for young people between the ages of 7 and 12 have flourished. This trend is expected to continue at a rapid rate. While many of the games and Virtual Worlds cultivate robust communities, the effort required to successfully and legally manage the communities operates under a unique set of circumstances. This discussion with Rebecca Newton from MindCandy Studios and Rich Weil from Cartoon Network will focus on restrictions and opportunities within community relations tasks for young gamers. It will also address how to best balance the community relations effort within the specialized universe of young peoples’ online games and Virtual Worlds.

Idea Takeaway
Attendees will learn about legal and ethical restrictions placed on community relations efforts in kids’ games. Additionally, unique opportunities in community programs for kids, demographic-based communication tactics, and a variety of communication tools and methods used by young people online will be addressed. A Q&A session will facilitate sharing experiences.

Intended Audience
Executives, Designers, Producers, Communication and Marketing professionals in the game industry will benefit from a closer look at the challenging world of community relations efforts tailored specifically for children. Prerequisite knowledge is not necessary.

Accelerating Programming Teams in an Iterative Environment
Speaker: Damon Osgood (Principal Lead Programmer - Game Play, BioWare Austin)
Date/Time: Tuesday (September 16, 2008) 3:00pm — 4:00pm
Location (room): Room 4
Track: Online Games - Technology and Services
Format: 60-minute Lecture
Experience Level: Intermediate

Session Description
Agile development processes - in particular Scrum and iterative development - are being employed more and more in game development environments. But a key ingredient in a highly agile and iterative process is rapid feedback - knowing as soon as possible whether you are on the right path, or whether a course correction is necessary. This talk will describe the technologies and techniques used by the programmers on Bioware’s MMORPG project to achieve high predictability and flexibility in the programming schedule.

Idea Takeaway
High quality tools and attention to workflow are key to an iterative, agile development environment. They promote faster development, fewer defects, and happier, more productive programmers.

Intended Audience
This talk will be of interest to programmers and technical leaders.

Pirates of the Caribbean Online: Lessons Learned
Speaker: Mike Goslin (Vice President , Disney Online Studios, Walt Disney Internet Group)
Date/Time: Tuesday (September 16, 2008) 3:00pm — 4:00pm
Location (room): Room 5
Track: Online Games - Design
Format: 60-minute Lecture
Experience Level: Intermediate

Session Description
Building and launching an MMOG based on the hugely successful Pirates of the Caribbean movie and theme park franchise was an adventure in its own right. We learned a lot and are prepared to share some of our hard earned knowledge.

Idea Takeaway
Attendees will come away with an understanding of some of the pitfalls and opportunities that present themselves during the development of a casual MMOG, as well as some practical solutions or approaches that they can apply to their own projects.

Intended Audience
This talk is intended for anyone interested in design and development of virtual worlds or MMOGs. Only general knowledge of the subject area is required.

How We Made Battlefield Heroes Our Journey From Game Team to Service Team
Speaker: Bjarne Rene (Development Director-Battlefield Heroes, DICE)
Date/Time: Tuesday (September 16, 2008) 1:30pm — 2:30pm
Location (room): Room 7
Track: Online Games - Business & Marketing
Format: 60-minute Lecture
Experience Level: All

Session Description
What started as a normal game development project with a somewhat naïve idea of just publishing it for free online has lead to a rollercoaster ride of development across four continents, building an online publishing platform, building a website with a lot of social networking features all while transforming the team to handle the running of Heroes as a successful service. This session will go into some of the nuts and bolts of what it has taken to get Battlefield Heroes to where we are today and how the team is set up for where we are going.

Idea Takeaway
Attendees will gain insights into what it takes to build a play 4 free micro transaction enabled game while at the same time developing the platform the game will be published on.

Intended Audience
This session is intended for anyone who would like to know (more about) what is needed to build an online game service and what it means for the game team building it.

The State of Facebook/Social Network Gaming
Speaker: Frank Lantz (Creative Director, Co-Founder, area/code), Shervin Pishevar (CEO and Co-Founder, Social Gaming Network), Leigh Alexander (News Director, Gamasutra, Think Services), Andrew Trader (VP, Business Development, Zynga Game Network)
Date/Time: Tuesday (September 16, 2008) 1:30pm — 2:30pm
Location (room): Ballroom C
Track: Worlds in Motion
Format: 60-minute Panel
Experience Level: All

Session Description
Facebook and social network-based gaming are a rapidly burgeoning market segment. But what’s the reality of making games that fit into the infrastructure of existing social websites? What are the benefits and difficulties with creating social games on Facebook and other sites? The creators of standout Facebook title, Parking Wars, and other notable market experts weigh in.