February 18 & 19
(Monday & Tuesday)
Room 2004, West Hall
The Worlds in Motion Summit is a definitive event tailored for the growing number of industry professionals and Fortune 500 companies developing interactive online spaces for both entertainment and commercial purposes. Discussion forums will delve into online worlds, social gaming and media and player created activity, providing insight for developers of all backgrounds into how the game industry is collectively building socialization into games and integrating personalization and player-generated content into gameplay—while widely accessible Web and networking tools are looking to the game industry for their way forward. The summit will also debate the future of gaming, which may lie in the convergence of these new frontiers.
[See Worlds in Motion Summit sessions]
Worlds in Motion Summit Advisor
Leigh Alexander
Editor
Worlds in Motion
Leigh Alexander covers virtual worlds extensively as editor of Worlds in Motion. She is a staff writer for Gamasutra, and examines the philosophy, psychology and pop culture of games and gamers in reviews, features and editorials for GameSetWatch, The Escapist, Paste Magazine and at her workblog, Sexy Videogameland.
Worlds in Motion Summit Sessions
Day 1: Monday (February 18, 2008) 10:00am — 6:00pm
Why Gamers should Care about Virtual Worlds
Speaker(s): Raph Koster (Areae)
Time: 10:05am - 11am
Virtual worlds may be a nascent medium, but already lessons on user behavior, open worlds and content democratization have begun to surface, promising to provide new insight and evolution on the way we play and socialize. Industry pioneer Raph Koster, whose company, Areae, is set to join the revolution in a big way, saw these new insights coming before wider adoption had even begun, and he will discuss why virtual worlds and online spaces are more than a fad—and why you absolutely should care.
Coffee Break 11 - 11:15am
Entertainment Content Convergence in Online Worlds
Speaker(s): Reuben Steiger (Millions of Us)
Time: 11:15am - 11:45am
Millions of Us is an innovative agency, building worlds and supporting content for entertainment mega-brands in online spaces. With clients including HBO, WB, Intel and Microsoft, and a team comprised of game industry veterans, founder Reuben Steiger has seen a significant trend that will only continue to gain in momentum. He’ll discuss the ways online worlds converge with the production of TV, film, music and gaming, as diverse entertainment media dissolve their boundaries to meet in these persistent worlds.
Heeding the Lessons of Bartle in Socially-Driven Spaces
Speaker(s): Erik Bethke (GoPets.com)
Time: 12pm - 12:30pm
While developing GoPets, an online world of virtual pets and games, CEO Erik Bethke realized that Richard Bartle’s research on the "four gamer types"—Achievers, Explorers, Socializers and Killers—still holds quintessential lessons on user engagement in the open-world, socially-driven environment of virtual worlds. By heeding the lessons of Bartle, Bethke was actually able to double GoPets’ revenue, and now shares this and other key concepts essential to informing a new medium through established methods.
Lunch 12:30-2pm
The Power of Free to Play
Speaker(s): Adrian Crook
Time: 2pm - 2:30pm
Free-to-play is here to stay, and the advent of this new model raises a number of interesting questions about monetizing online worlds and games, and meeting the needs of users. A champion of this business model and owner of the freetoplay.biz blog, independent producer Adrian Crook will discuss the essential issues at hand, and the evolution of business models for all online play.
Funware: Gaming the Web
Speaker(s): Gabe Zichermann (Rmbr.com)
Time: 2:30pm - 3pm
10-year industry veteran Zichermann developed the concept for rmbr in early 2007 after realizing that he had stopped enjoying the process of dealing with his friends’ online photos, and that a game-centric approach might fix the problem. Zichermann now presents a series of inventive and entertaining ideas on revolutionizing traditional, static web concepts with game-like content, and discusses how 2D virtual worlds are the dominant paradigm.
Is Asia the New Hollywood? Ideas from the East Outspark's Susan Choe, Tencent's David Wallerstein, Three Rings' Daniel James, VinaGame's Bryan Pelz
Panelist(s): Susan Choe (Outspark), David Wallerstein (Tencent), Daniel James (Three Rings), Bryan Pelz (VinaGame)
Time: 3:15pm - 4pm
Many of the biggest and most permanent trends in online worlds have come out of the explosive Asian market, and now developers, investors and publishers alike are wisely looking East for the next wave of evolution. Asia just may be "the new Hollywood" of online gaming, and this panel convenes experienced companies to discuss the appeal, the issues, and the future out of this hotbed.
Coffee Break 4-4:15pm
Facebook and the new web of Social Gaming
Speaker(s): Nabeel Hyatt (Conduit Labs), TJ Murphy (Warbook/SGN), Mark Pincus (Zynga)
Time: 4:15pm - 4:45pm
Facebook, MySpace, Google and virtually every other social network are opening their platform to outside developers, including a wave of new online social games. This has created an opportunity for new game mechanics that rely on your social network, as well as a revolutionary new distribution channel that has led independent developers to get millions of players in a matter of weeks. Seasoned entrepreneur Nabeel Hyatt will talk with two of the leading social gaming developers, TJ Murphy, and Mark Pincus, about how to build for this new medium and what lies ahead.
Multiverse: From the Field
Speaker(s): Corey Bridges & Rafhael Cedeno (Multiverse)
Time: 4:45pm - 5:30pm
Online spaces come in all stripes, and hold immense potential for both developers and users from a variety of spheres. One solution is Multiverse's flexible, scalable and extensible world-building technology, and Multiverse founder and executive producer Corey Bridges, along with CTO and co-founder Rafhael Cedeno, will demonstrate and discuss how a broad range of development teams are using it to support social worlds, MMOGs, business collaboration environments, and educational worlds.
Habbo's Huge Success
Speaker(s): Sulka Haro (Sulake)
Time: 5:30pm - 6pm
One of the virtual world industry's big surprise success stories was Sulake's relatively simple Habbo Hotel, a teen-and-tween community in distinctive isometric 3D—which now claims over 80 million avatars created, in 31 different countries across five continents. Sulake's Sulka Haro will share some of the secrets to Habbo's success, and provide insight on the present—and future— boom in social virtual worlds.
Day 2: Tuesday (February 19, 2008) 10:00am — 6:00pm
Gaming's Future Via Online Worlds
Speaker(s): Jeffrey Steefel (Turbine)
Time: 10am - 11am
LORD OF THE RINGS ONLINE developer Turbine has been quietly implementing some best-of-breed virtual world and social networking elements into its fantasy MMO for some time, and the company's passionate about evolving the multiplayer experience based on lessons on user engagement, connectivity and user-generated content that have come out of the virtual worlds movement. Executive producer Jeffrey Steefel will provide some exciting examples of how users in any sphere can respond to and invest in these innovative ideas.
Coffee Break 11-11:15am
Cross-Cultural Success
Speaker(s): Min Kim (Nexon)
Time: 11:15am - 11:45am
Already a pioneer in areas of online socialization, personalization and microtransactions-based virtual economies in Korea, Nexon successfully brought games like MapleStory and Audition to a variety of markets around the world, including North America and Europe, and Min Kim of Nexon U.S.A. will discuss how knowing individual markets—and mastering a forward-thinking business model—helped these titles achieve big success wherever they've gone.
Thinking Outside the Virtual World
Speaker(s): Michael Acton Smith (MindCandy)
Time: 12pm - 12:30pm
The future's successful online world products will have several points of access to let the user customize his or her experience from any direction. MindCandy's Moshi Monsters virtual pets are one such idea, and interactive entertainment pioneer Michael Acton Smith will share the method to the monsters and his forward-thinking perspective on the space, and explore ideas ranging from companion toys to the mobile frontier.
Lunch 12:30-2pm
Beyond Ads: Building a Brand in a Virtual World
Panelist(s): Matt Daly (Metaversatility), Michael Pole (Trilogy Studios), Ben Richardson (Makena Technologies)
Time: 2pm - 2:45pm
In community-driven online spaces, advertising is more than an image in the background. There.com parent Makena Technologies’ partnership with Metaversatility and Trilogy Studios to build, from the ground up, a thriving and persistent, fully interactive campaign for Toyota’s Scion vehicles is one of the most visible and widely-known 3D virtual world campaigns, leading the charge to create in-game advertising that actually adds entertainment and social value for users and encourages their participation. Makena strategic partnership leader Ben Richardson, Scion's Adrian Si, Trilogy CEO Michael Pole and Metaversatility Co-Founder Matt Daly will discuss the process, goals and considerations in building a brand experience in the virtual space – and how to measure its success.
Now That We're All Here: Next Steps in Online Play Spaces
Speaker(s): Christopher Romero (Worldwide Biggies)
Time: 3pm - 3:30pm
Interactive entertainment development veteran Christopher Romero, CTO of digital entertainment studio Worldwide Biggies, has made a career out of building interactive experiences for kids. Previously, he played a key role in the design and development of Nickelodeon’s Nicktropolis, and he’ll now share lessons from his experience in one of the most explosive markets—the youth audience—to come out of the virtual worlds boom, while looking forward to the play and interaction potential for these worlds.
Learning to Love Virtual Item Sales
Speaker(s): Andrew Schneider (Live Gamer), Steve Goldstein (Ping0)
Time: 3:30pm - 4pm
Virtual goods that have real value to online users are here to stay. In fact, these items are so valuable that they’re often bought and sold on the black market, upsetting in-game economies and endangering players. Live Gamer recently launched its publisher-sponsored transaction network, along with major partners Funcom GMBH, Sony Online Entertainment, 10Tacle Studios, Acclaim, GoPets and Ping0 Interactive. Player-to-player item sales are bound to remain a controversial issue, but Sony Pictures Digital veteran Andy Schneider, president and co-founder of Live Gamer, will discuss some possible solutions, and explain why legitimizing such transactions and gaining the support of publishers might help. He's joined by Steve Goldstein, co-founder and President of Ping0, distributor of Flagship Studios titles like HELLGATE: LONDON, and one of Live Gamer's first publisher partners.
Coffee Break 4-4:15pm
Socioeconomics in Online Worlds
Moderator: Michael Zenke (Slashdot Games)
Panelist(s): Eyjólfur Guðmundsson (CCP Inc.), Craig Sherman (Gaia Online), John Bates (MindArk)
Time: 4:15pm - 5pm
Many online worlds and multiplayer games have developed their own thriving economies and complex indices, just from the in-game purchase, sale and trade of virtual items. This panel will convene executives and economists from some of the biggest: Dr. Eyjólfur Guðmundsson, Ph.D, in-world economist for EVE Online, Gaia Online CEO Craig Sherman, and John Bates, director of business development for Entropia Universe. Each representing a different approach to the topic, the panelists will discuss the importance of virtual economics to the fabric of online interaction, and the way the virtual goods and commerce add both concrete and abstract value to the play experience.
Striking Gold: How Kids’ Worlds Took the Crown
Panelist(s): Lane Merrifield (Club Penguin), Paul Yanover (Disney Online), Jason Root (Nickelodeon), Kyra Reppen (Neopets)
Time: 5:15pm - 6pm
Prominent acquisitions, stunning user numbers, and legions of devoted young fans: social virtual worlds for children like Club Penguin, Toontown, Nicktropolis and Neopets make headlines in ways other online worlds have only dreamed of. The message is clear: we have a phenomenon on our hands, and this exciting panel convenes the heads of these leading kids worlds to discuss the burgeoning trend, the issues unique to this space—and how they’ve nailed down knowing how to meet the needs of their audience.
Register for the Worlds in Motion Summit
To register for the Worlds in Motion Summit, you will need to purchase an All Access Pass or Summits and Tutorials Pass.
Business/Mgmt Track
