Sessions Listing
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Lecturer: Mike McShaffry, MrMike
What should you prepare before you pitch your game to a publisher? During the pitch, what should you say? More importantly – what should you never say? Mike McShaffry has seen projects die on the vine or get signed and has a great formula for “The Pitch.” This lecture will cover preparation, pitch materials, what you should expect at each meeting, and what you should do afterwards.
Format: Lecture
Track: Business/Legal
Date/Time: Wednesday, 2:00 PM,
Room: Salon B
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Moderator: Marty Poulin, Social Sage
Panelist: Bridget Agabra, Acceleration Studies Foundation
Panelist: Erik Bethke, GoPets Ltd.
Silicon Valley and Big Media companies like Disney, Nickelodeon, MTV, and IBM have committed to spend over $1 billion in the last year and have been putting a lot of fire under new start-ups and initiatives in virtual worlds and casual games. Where there is smoke there is fire and the next generation of opportunity is upon us.
Format: Panel
Track: Business/Legal
Date/Time: Thursday, 3:30 PM,
Room: Harbor
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Moderator: Wanda Meloni, DFC Intelligence
Panelist: Tom DuBois, Electronic Arts
Panelist: Charlie Hite, LucasArts
Panelist: Rick Lambright, Sierra Online
Leading publishers discuss the trends in console games online. Come hear representatives from EA, LucasArts, and
Sierra Online.
Format: Panel
Track: Business/Legal
Date/Time: Tuesday, 2:00 PM,
Room: Harbor
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Moderator: Jay Moore, The Strategery Group
Format: Special
Track: Business/Legal
Date/Time: Thursday, 7:00 AM,
Room: Grand Ballroom
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Moderator: Jay Moore, The Strategery Group
Format: Special
Track: Business/Legal
Date/Time: Tuesday, 7:00 AM,
Room: Grand Ballroom
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Moderator: Jay Moore, The Strategery Group
Format: Special
Track: Business/Legal
Date/Time: Wednesday, 7:00 AM,
Room: Grand Ballroom
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Moderator: Erin Hoffman, Philomath Games
The Better EULA Project is an initiative to explore virtual rights in the context of human and property rights throughout history, and the potential business and ethical advantages of offering real world modern standard rights to citizens of virtual spaces. The Project asserts that the next step in the evolution of online spaces is the establishment of rights to property and self-government by users, for the development of stabler communities and greater retention.
Format: Roundtable
Track: Business/Legal
Date/Time: Thursday, 10:30 AM,
Room: Salon E
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Moderator: Scott G. Warner, Garvey Schubert Barer
Panelist: Eric Goldman, Santa Clara University School of Law
Panelist: Rob Lanphier, Linden Lab
Panelist: Troy Hewitt, Flying Lab Software
Game developers, advertisers, media companies, and community sites are making use of User Generated Content (UGC) on an unprecedented level. While UGC can be a valuable resource, using UGC is not without risk, particularly when it is incorporated into a product – a game, website, advertisement, etc. This session will explore how (and why) companies use UGC, the legal risks and practical issues of doing so, efforts to establish industry rules for UGC, and practical suggestions for using UGC while minimizing risk.
Format: Panel
Track: Business/Legal
Date/Time: Wednesday, 5:00 PM,
Room: Harbor
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Moderator: Peter Freese, ION Game Conference
Panelist: Erik Bethke, GoPets Ltd.
Panelist: Scott Jennings, NCsoft
Panelist: Damion Schubert, BioWare Corp.
Panelist: Bridget Agabra, Acceleration Studies Foundation
What will the online games space look like in five years? What new technologies, social revolutions, and cultural shifts will bring about momentous transformations in the way people play and pay for online games? What changes are already taking place? This panel of industry luminaries, mavericks, critics, and cynics all share their views of what to expect in the year 2013.
Format: Panel
Track: Business/Legal
Date/Time: Wednesday, 2:00 PM,
Room: Harbor
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Lecturer: Steven Klebe, Danal, Inc. (BilltoMobile.com)
This session will focus on the fundamentals of the payments world, where the gaps exist in addressing the needs of the Online Gaming business and how to separate the facts from the fiction in terms of emerging solutions.
Format: Lecture
Track: Business/Legal
Date/Time: Tuesday, 2:00 PM,
Room: Salon F
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Moderator: George Dolbier, IBM
Panelist: Grant Wei, Cryptic Studios
Panelist: David Hoppe, Access International Law Group
Panelist: Erin Hoffman, Philomath Games
Panelist: Mike Doyle, THQ Canada
It's time for a change. Many online game and virtual world EULAs violate basic human rights standards. Many in the industry are passionate about this topic, this panel will bring some of them together to discuss recent litigation, and discuss how the industry needs to change.
Format: Panel
Track: Business/Legal
Date/Time: Wednesday, 3:30 PM,
Room: Harbor
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Moderator: Marty Poulin, Social Sage
Panelist: Larry Mellon, Larry Mellon Consulting
Panelist: Victor Jimenez, Northrop Grumman
Panelist: Joe Ludwig, Flying Lab Software
Regardless of what online game you serve, scaling will be critical if you are at all successful. While creating the killer game is first priority, not far behind is making sure your success won’t kill you.
To engineer great systems on a budget we have to master the art of system integration and code re-use. By combining open source and middleware solutions a company can derive infrastructure to meet a games needs in months instead of years.
Format: Panel
Track: Business/Legal
Date/Time: Thursday, 10:30 AM,
Room: Harbor
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Lecturer: Brian Robbins, Fuel Industries, Inc.
As the online games market continues to mature, brands and marketers will become an increasingly viable source of funding for games. The most successful developers will be the ones who know how to meet the needs of advertisers while still creating compelling games. This session will provide in-depth information on how the branded content business works today, and how developers can position themselves to take advantage of this space in the future.
Format: Lecture
Track: Business/Legal
Date/Time: Wednesday, 9:00 AM,
Room: Salon F
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Lecturer: Brian Pass, Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP
Lecturer: Shawn Foust, Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP
The terms of service is a central piece to the development of any online world. This contract defines the relationship between the gamer and the company administering the online world. The expanding audience for successful online games requires a strong terms of service contract to minimize the potentially astronomical liability online game companies may face arising from game related disputes. This presentation will offer strategies on how to strengthen your terms of service in five areas: (1) intellectual property; (2) digital transactions; (3) rules of conduct; (4) downtime disputes; and (5) protecting the company's control over their digital community.
Format: Lecture
Track: Business/Legal
Date/Time: Tuesday, 9:00 AM,
Room: Salon F
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Lecturer: Alex St. John, Wild Tangent
In this session WildTangent co-founder and CEO, Alex St. John, author of Microsoft’s DirectX technology, will discuss the blue sky opportunities provided by the PC/online gaming model, and highlight the challenges the console market will face moving forward. The discussion will closely examine key differentiators between the two platforms, and the role that community and social gaming play in the equation. He will also demonstrate the economics for making premium games free online, supported by advertising, and how this model can really generate more revenue than retail models. Attendees will walk away questioning their current business models, but with the right strategies and tools in mind to help them survive and profit from this apparent shift in the gaming business.
Format: Keynote
Track: Business/Legal
Date/Time: Thursday, 5:00 PM,
Room: Grand Ballroom
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Lecturer: Geoffrey Zatkin, Electronic Entertainment Design and Research (EEDAR)
Accomplishment systems, such as Xbox 360 Achievements, have created new ways to launch explosive marketing campaigns and increase community interaction across every gaming genre. Direct-to-consumer marketing through digital storefronts, such as the PlayStation Store and the Xbox Live Marketplace, has given game companies new methods to distribute marketing material and extend the long tail of game title’s sales. Gain insight into how Accomplishments and Downloadable Content effect sales through best-in-class examples, backed up by detailed statistical analysis. Learn how to implement highly effective strategies such as viral marketing and community building using these emerging technologies for your portfolio of game titles.
Format: Lecture
Track: Business/Legal
Date/Time: Wednesday, 3:30 PM,
Room: Seaport
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Moderator: Kirk Soderquist, Perkins Coie LLP
Panelist: Don McGowan, Microsoft Corporation
Panelist: Neal Black, Live Gamer, Inc.
Panelist: Sean F. Kane, Drakeford & Kane LLC
This presentation will look at MMOGs and virtual worlds to examine virtual property and the intersection of real money in a virtual world. We'll look at several issues such as: What is virtual property and who owns it? What is the legal status of an in-game currency? What is the future of virtual property and the exchange of virtual goods. How does the exchange of virtual property impact the relationship of publishers, developers and those companies providing a market for the exchange of virtual property? What regulatory issues are impacted by buying and selling virtual property? What are some of the business issues in hosting MMOGs, virtual worlds, and marketplaces for the exchange of virtual property? How do real-world legal issues like gambling and illegal lotteries play out in an interactive world?
Format: Panel
Track: Business/Legal
Date/Time: Wednesday, 10:30 AM,
Room: Harbor
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Lecturer: James E. Dunstan, Garvey Schubert Barer
Next generation MMOG designers face significant challenges as games morph from “dungeon crawls” to sophisticated virtual worlds complete with their own economies and telecommunications infrastructures. As games evolve away from a monthly subscription model, designers are looking for new ways to monetize game content, everything from in-game advertising to microtransactions to sale of goods. And with MMOGs now part of mainstream entertainment, governments are stepping in to apply some real world regulation to virtual worlds. This session will tease out some of these issues and provide some practical approaches for dealing with “the man.”
Format: Lecture
Track: Business/Legal
Date/Time: Wednesday, 2:00 PM,
Room: Seaport
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Lecturer: Steve Augustino, Kelley Drye & Warren LLP
Lecturer: Dr. Andreas Lober, SchulteRiesenkampff
As virtual worlds continue to develop and evolve, so do the legal issues and liabilities affecting developers. Join presenters Steve Augustino, a United States-based attorney, and Dr. Andreas Lober, a German attorney, as they navigate the differing approaches of the U.S. and the E.U. Presenters will provide an overview of the emerging trends in virtual world law from U.S. and E.U. perspectives. Focusing on the service provider relationship with its end-users, presenters will discuss societal obligations and provide a cross-jurisdictional review of legal liabilities in the U.S. and Europe.
Format: Lecture
Track: Business/Legal
Date/Time: Tuesday, 2:00 PM,
Room: Seaport
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Lecturer: Adam Martin, NCsoft
Why is Web 2.0 more than a buzzword, and is there anything concrete in there that we can use to make more money from our games? How do you embrace the new development models, the new technologies, and above all the new monetization models? All this and more...
Format: Lecture
Track: Business/Legal
Date/Time: Tuesday, 10:30 AM,
Room: Seaport
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