Marketing vs. Production: Marketing PWNS - Every Time...
Speaker: Leo Olebe (Director of Marketing, BioWare / EA)
Date/Time: Monday (September 15, 2008) 3:00pm — 4:00pm
Location (room): Room 6
Track: Online Games - Business & Marketing
Format: 60-minute Lecture
Experience Level: Advanced

Session Description
Welcome to the classic debate in the video games industry. Marketing vs. Production: Who is better? Is Marketing necessary? Does PD understand the customer? While walking through the gamer groups, this presentation will discuss why EVERYTHING in the games business (from game art and design to advertising and PR) is something that is influenced/touched by Marketing.

Idea Takeaway
The attendee will understand the drivers of hardcore, medium, and casual gamers and how marketing needs to be taken into consideration at every point in the game development and publishing process. This doesn't mean that Marketing owns each step in the process, but rather that professional marketing activities (i.e customer research) play a critical role in determining the success of a game.

Intended Audience
WAKE UP PEOPLE!!! All industry professionals will benefit from this presentation. It is about time that game industry professionals start attacking the games industry just like any other business. Quality, Innovation AND strategy.

Interactive Actors That Express Emotion
Speaker: Gerry Seidman (CEO, ActorMachine)
Date/Time: Monday (September 15, 2008) 3:00pm — 4:00pm
Location (room): Room 5
Track: Online Games - Design
Format: 60-minute Lecture
Experience Level: Intermediate

Session Description
In order for games to get more of the sort of character buy-in we associate with linear narratives, it requires simulating an actor's inner process. Body language, gestures, actions, and gaze gain meaning as actors adjust their expression to sell interior emotion such as conveying being in love, encountering enemies, and being in a sacred place.

Idea Takeaway
The future generation of game-authoring tools will allow game creators to express themselves as directors and cinematographers when authoring character interaction, while allowing them to direct digital Actors that animators have created for them. This will produce vastly more interesting stories and user experiences than forcing creators and story tellers to constantly think in terms of blending available animation clips to emotionally 'sell' the emotive intentions they have in mind for the character.

Intended Audience
This talk is aimed at people who want to create game characters and virtual worlds with avatars that users perceive as having inner thoughts and intentions.

A Generative, Adaptive Music System for MMO games
Speaker: Kurt Larson (Audio Director, Slipgate Ironworks), Chris Mayer (Programmer, Slipgate Ironworks), Jim Hedges (Sound Designer, Comcast)
Date/Time: Monday (September 15, 2008) 3:00pm — 4:00pm
Location (room): Room 10
Track: Audio
Format: 60-minute Lecture
Experience Level: Intermediate

Session Description
Linear-media music is strained well past the breaking point in Massively-Multiplayer applications. This is a presentation of one viable alternative: the Generative Adaptive Music System (GAMS) developed at Slipgate Ironworks for their upcoming MMO title. The programming approach, the musical goals, and the experience of the composers using the system are all covered. The live demonstration is given by the programmer who built the system and the composer’s tool, the audio director who envisioned the system, and one of the composers who used it to create music.

Idea Takeaway
All attendees take away a new possibility for MMO music, and a clear message that linear music may not be the best approach. Audio professionals take away a specific demonstration of an easy-to-build, inexpensive generative adaptive music system.

Intended Audience
Although primarily an audio topic, I believe that the online track audience could benefit greatly from being exposed to this perspective on music for MMO games. No knowledge is pre-required other than an understanding of what MMO games are.

Learning to Play: The Importance of Learning Styles and Gender in MMOs
Speaker: Sheri Graner Ray (President, SaberDance Studios)
Date/Time: Monday (September 15, 2008) 1:30pm — 2:30pm
Location (room): Room 5
Track: Online Games - Design
Format: 60-minute Lecture
Experience Level: All

Session Description
Today designers are being told their games need to reach a broader market, but how? Before we make another pink box or put in another shopping game, we need to look at the more fundamental design issue of how we expect our players to learn to play our games. By understanding some of the differences in the way the genders learn and then exploring how to apply that knowledge, we can begin to not only expand our audience, but retain them longer as well.

Idea Takeaway
Game Designers will come away with an understanding of how men and women learn technology and how that applies to MMO development. They will look at good examples and some not-so-good examples and will come away with concrete ideas which they can apply to the projects they are currently working on.

Intended Audience
Anyone who has to teach a new technology to a diverse audience.

The Next Generation Customer Service Experience
Speaker: Gordon Walton (Co-Studio Director, BioWare), D. Scott Mattson (CEO, Game Center Group), John Erskine (Director of Studio Services, NCsoft), Sven Hindman (Vice President of Player Relations, ImaginVenture SA), George Scotto (Chief Customer Officer, CyberSports, LTD)
Date/Time: Monday (September 15, 2008) 1:30pm — 2:30pm
Location (room): Room 4
Track: Online Games - Technology and Services
Format: 60-minute Panel
Experience Level: All

Session Description
What does the state of the art look like in customer service as it relates to online games? What are the best practices, and what are the practices to be avoided based on the online game experience of the last 10 years? Does customer service affect the selection of a game or retention once a customer is in a game? How do we effectively measure customer satisfaction? This panel, made up of deeply experienced customer service professionals attempts to answer these questions and more!

The Play is the Thing: Interactive Storytelling from the World of Improv Comedy
Speaker: Shana Merlin (Improv Teacher Improvisor, Merlin Works)
Date/Time: Monday (September 15, 2008) 1:30pm — 2:30pm
Location (room): Room 3
Track: Writing for Games
Format: 60-minute Lecture
Experience Level: Intermediate

Session Description
After holding the only session that rated a perfect score from the attendees last year, Shana Merlin is back with new games and exercises to explore different models for creating a dynamic story using multiple people's input and participation. Using techniques pulled from the field of improvisational theatre, this interactive session will have you up on your feet participating while giving you methods for taking risks, writing more innovative stories. In this hands-on session, conference attendees will have an opportunity to network, co-create, and play in a fun and safe environment.

Idea Takeaway
Attendees will learn games and exercises from the world of improvisational theater that they can use in independent writing, interactivity design, and team projects. Concepts include: Creating stories out of unrelated or disassociated ideas, using the mind’s natural powers of association and incorporating user input through the techniques of jump and justify.

Intended Audience
This session is intended for game writers and designers that are ready to let go of their laptops, silence their cellphones and explore cutting edge ideas that can inspire their work.

Designing for Player Sociability
Speaker: Bob Moore, Ph.D. (Game Designer, Multiverse)
Date/Time: Monday (September 15, 2008) 1:30pm — 2:30pm
Location (room): Room 9
Track: Online Games - Social Networking & Community
Format: 60-minute Lecture
Experience Level: Intermediate

Session Description
While the video game industry has years of experience in developing sophisticated computer graphics, it has much less experience developing social systems. In this talk, Dr. Moore analyzes three areas of player sociability in today's MMOs and offers design principles for improving them: 1) Game play facilitates sociability. 2) User interface design is always also social interaction design. 3) Synchronous worlds need asynchronous communication features. Synergies among MMORPGs, virtual social worlds and social networking sites and the increasing convergence of these social media will be discussed.

Idea Takeaway
Attendees will learn to develop a sociological eye toward MMO design and learn practical ways to improve player sociability. The following design principles will be discussed: 1) Game play facilitates sociability. 2) User interface design is always also social interaction design. 3) Synchronous worlds need asynchronous communication features.

Intended Audience
This talk is intended for designers interested in improving the social dynamics of their massively multiplayer games and worlds, as well as for anyone generally interested in player sociability.

Comparing Virtual Property Models - A Business and Legal Perspective
Speaker: S. Gregory Boyd (Attorney, Davis & Gilbert)
Date/Time: Monday (September 15, 2008) 1:30pm — 2:30pm
Location (room): Room 6
Track: Online Games - Business & Marketing
Format: 60-minute Lecture
Experience Level: Intermediate

Session Description
In this lecture, S. Gregory Boyd, editor of the textbook Business and Legal Primer for Game Development, will survey the various types of virtual property business models currently present in online worlds, including both games and social networks. The survey will compare and contrast virtual property structures in the U.S. and abroad, analyzing the game design, revenue, and legal consequences of each. The presentation will also include a brief survey of known legal issues surrounding certain types of virtual property models and a discussion of the growing number of patent applications in the virtual property area.

Idea Takeaway
The critical idea is that all virtual property models are not created equal. Choosing between virtual property models has a direct effect on game design, game play, and revenue generation. The comparison and contrast of models, considering the business, legal, and game design/play consequences is important to your success.

Intended Audience
Game designers, management, legal officers, and programmers will benefit from this presentation. Prior knowledge of virtual property would be helpful.

Blazing the Trail for Hot Game Dialog
Speaker: DB Cooper (Voice Actor, DB-Cooper.com), Marianne Krawczyk (Writer, Monkeyshines Entertainment)
Date/Time: Monday (September 15, 2008) 1:30pm — 2:30pm
Location (room): Room 10
Track: Audio
Format: 60-minute Lecture
Experience Level: Advanced

Session Description
Everybody wants great dialog for their game— but getting it is not always that easy. With the best of intent, an author can labor over a scene that looks great on paper but ends up as a citation on AudioAtrocities.com.
What happened?
Scripts for games undergo tortuous transformations that very often leave voice directors and actors in the dark about the context of the scenes they’re recording. This lecture will look at ways of creating a path between author and actor that can survive the colossal pressure put on dialog as it moves through the development process.

Idea Takeaway
Writers and voice actors working together can make excellent dialog a more easily reachable goal.

Intended Audience
This lecture is for people willing to think differently about getting engaging dialog into the player's ear.

At Their Service: Making a Difference by Putting Players First
Speaker: Lane Merrifield (Executive VP / General Manager, Walt Disney Internet Group / Club Penguin)
Date/Time: Monday (September 15, 2008) 11:00am — 12:00pm
Location (room): Ballroom A
Track: Online Games - Design
Format: 60-minute Keynote
Experience Level: All

Session Description
Service with a smile. Service above self. At your service. Have phrases like these lost all meaning in this age of making a quick return and rising to the top as quickly as possible? Lane Merrifield, co-founder of Club Penguin (www.clubpenguin.com), one of the largest and fastest-growing virtual worlds for children, and newly named head of development for all the Walt Disney Company’s kids and family-targeted virtual worlds, thinks they have. Lane says it’s time our industry shifted its focus back to what matters most: serving customers. In this keynote address, Lane will explore the idea that success is derived from a mindset of focusing on the creation of a culture of excellent customer service. He argues that if you do that correctly, monetization will take care of itself.

14 Conceptual Shifts: Moving From Games to Interactive Storytelling
Speaker: Chris Crawford (CTO, Storytron)
Date/Time: Monday (September 15, 2008) 9:30am — 10:30am
Location (room): Ballroom B
Track: Writing for Games
Format: 60-minute Lecture
Experience Level: All

Session Description
In order to create genuine interactive storytelling, games people must make 14 conceptual shifts in their approach to the problem. These are: 1. People, not things! The realization that interactive entertainment should be about people, not things.
2. The primacy of interactivity: interactivity is the sine qua non of software.
3. Ditch plot: plot is for stories, but we're not making stories, we're making interactive storytelling.
4. Crawford's First Law of Software Design: Ask What does the user DO?
5. The verbs, not the imagery, define the software.
6. Move from Graphical User Interface (GUI) to Linguistic User Interface (LUI).
7. Use a toy language
8. Toy language = toy reality
9. Use an inverse parser.
10. Ditch spatial considerations; drama doesn't use them.
11. Use storytellers for storytelling, not programmers.
12. Algorithms are unavoidable.
13. Use Bounded Numbers for more appropriate mathematics
14. Use a scripting language specifically designed for interactive storytelling.

Idea Takeaway
Game developers *can* create genuinely interactive stories - but only if they shift their mindset. This talk will explore 14 new ways to approach this problem.

The Future of Time - Time as a Storytelling Tool in Video Games
Speaker: Kevin Shortt (Scriptwriter, Ubisoft Montreal)
Date/Time: Monday (September 15, 2008) 9:30am — 10:30am
Location (room): Room 3
Track: Writing for Games
Format: 60-minute Lecture
Experience Level: Intermediate

Session Description
Stories are all about anticipation. Where am I going? What does this mean? What’s going to happen next? And it’s through time that these answers are revealed. Time is often seen as something linear, but is that in fact the case? Especially when considering video games, we are always twisting and bending time in story. Kevin’s talk will examine the ways video games have played with time to tell meaningful stories to audiences. His talk will consider ways games bury the story in a character’s past, how games leap across time and merge time periods. He’ll consider ways writers can push our use of time into new territories to tell meaningful stories for audiences.

Idea Takeaway
This presentation will help writers better understand that games can twist, bend and manipulate reality in a way no other medium can. The audience will better see the opportunities for using time as a storytelling tool. It's so much more than just amnesia.

Intended Audience
This presentation is intended for game writers and story designers looking for ways to tell stories as only games can. This talk will focus on the successes we’ve had and where we can improve for the future.

The Psychology of The MMO Gamer
Speaker: EM Stock (Senior Community Manager, SOE Austin TX), Troy Hewitt (Director, Community Relations, Flying Lab Software), Sean Dahlberg (Community Manager, EA Bioware, Austin), Dr. Samuel Gosling (Professor of Psychology, University of Texas, Dept. of Psychology, University of Texas), Dr. James Pennebaker (Chairman, Dept. of Psychology, University of Texas, Head of Dept. of Psychology, University of Texas)
Date/Time: Monday (September 15, 2008) 9:30am — 10:30am
Location (room): Room 9
Track: Online Games - Social Networking & Community
Format: 60-minute Panel
Experience Level: Intermediate

Session Description
How people behave online versus in the real world is one of the most intriguing phenomena ever to hit the Internet. Without fear, gamers will do and say things they would never dream of when interacting in person. Is this due to a false sense of security provided by online anonymity or is there something more complex going on? Community specialists aren't psychologists, but are forced to assume the role daily with players. Common conduct includes an inflated sense of entitlement, a banding together under mob mentality and even the faking of death/terminal illness in the online space. What are the best practices when mediating and mitigating these bizarre behaviors? Join community relations experts and real world psychologists as they jump in and explore the psychology of the online gamer.

Idea Takeaway
Through experiences shared by community experts and insights provided by behavioral psychologists, attendees will walk away with an arsenal of 'proven practices' that will assist them in better interpreting and dealing with the behaviors exhibited by their online communities. Those responsible for the direction of a game will learn what behaviors/feedback from players to entertain and which to dismiss. Developers and others who interact with players directly will learn how to NOT let player behaviors affect them emotionally and thereby manipulate them into exhibiting unprofessional public responses.

Intended Audience
Relevant to all developers, support services, management and other gaming professionals who have direct contact with customers - whether that be through email, the message board, online chat or real world meet-ups.

Measuring & Metrics: The Online Gaming Audience
Speaker: Edward Hunter (Director, Gaming Solutions, comScore)
Date/Time: Monday (September 15, 2008) 9:30am — 10:30am
Location (room): Room 6
Track: Online Games - Business & Marketing
Format: 60-minute Lecture
Experience Level: Advanced

Session Description
This lecture will discuss the changing landscape that is the online gaming audience. No longer the typical 18 to 24 year old male audience, today the cost of development for online games underscores the notion that understanding the behaviors of the online gamer is more important than ever. Covered topics include the current demographic and behavioral trends of the online gaming audience by segment; hard-code, middle-core, and light or casual online gamers. An exploration of current approaches and practical methodologies for gaining useful insight into what online gamers spend time doing both online and offline - when they are not playing online games. What offline purchasing and lifestyle habits set them apart from other audiences? How does the online behavior differ from the norm?

Idea Takeaway
Attendees will leave with an understanding of: Shifts in the online gaming audience demographic, Approaches that are the most effective in researching potential audiences for online games, What behavioral measurements online and offline are the most significant in determining where to find the audience for their online game(s), and how to use the latest tools and research outlets to understand where online gaming audiences are heading - today and in the future.

Intended Audience
Publishers and producers seeking to understand the target market for online games will glean the most benefit from this lecture. An understanding of the role of demographics and behavioral data for marketing is key to gaining the most benefit from the topics covered.

Endgame: How to Build High-End Gameplay for Your Most Devoted Players
Speaker: Damion Schubert (Lead Combat Designer, Bioware Austin)
Date/Time: Monday (September 15, 2008) 9:30am — 10:30am
Location (room): Room 5
Track: Online Games - Design
Format: 60-minute Lecture
Experience Level: Intermediate

One of the most crucial aspects of massively multiplayer is also one of the maligned – what gameplay is available for your most devoted players once they finish your primary gameplay arc. This talk focuses on elder game mechanics such as raiding and city sieges while discussing why they are important and compelling, which design subtleties must be considered when designing them, and the dangers of overthinking them.

Idea Takeaway
Why elder gameplay is important, what challenges face the design of elder gameplay, and the differences between PvP and PvE gameplay systems.

Intended Audience
Mid and high-level designers working on massively multiplayer projects.