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GDC Europe 2011: Richard Garriott says mobile and social titles are 'the future of games'

Justin Olivetti — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 11:30:00 EST

Filed under: Events, real-world, MMO industry, Tabula Rasa, Massively Event Coverage, Miscellaneous

Delivering the final keynote address at this year's GDC Europe, Richard Garriott said that the industry is rapidly moving away from MMOs as we know them and toward mobile and social gaming -- and that companies need to hop on board, lest they be left behind.

Garriott used his iPhone as an example of this new direction: "I am now much more of a gamer than I ever been in my whole life, but the vast majority of the gaming I have played has been on this machine. I'm a devout believer that this is the current and near-term future of games."

He defines this "new era" of gaming by having cheap games that are simple to use and connect you with real-world friends. While he thinks earlier social games like FarmVille were too simple and unappealing, Garriott says that they're evolving quickly.

During the speech, Garriott expressed regret that his team didn't stick by the original vision for Tabula Rasa, and he urged fellow developers not to trade in their dreams in order to follow the company line. His new company Portalarium plans to "reinvent roleplaying yet again" by releasing a series of products that will capitalize on social gaming and retrain players to think beyond mere combat to a wider experience.

GDC Europe 2011: Richard Garriott says mobile and social titles are 'the future of games' originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 17 Aug 2011 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Richard Garriott to deliver Game Developers Conference Europe keynote

Matt Daniel — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Events, real-world, News items, Miscellaneous

Are you planning to venture to the wilds of Europe for the upcoming Game Developers Conference Europe? If so, you're in for a treat, as the father of Ultima will be delivering the keynote speech. That's right, the one and only spacefaring game developer Richard Garriott will give a presentation at the conference discussing social gaming, its future, and what mark it may leave on the gaming industry as a whole.

Garriott is perhaps known best for being the creator of the Ultima series (and the victim of assassination in the early days of Ultima Online), but his most recent foray in the industry came in the form of Portalarium, a social gaming company. Frank Sliwka, event director of GDC Europe, notes that "there are few developers with Richard Garriott's history, pedigree and vantage point, having been a defining force in the realm of traditional hardcore games, birthing the RPG and MMORPG genres, to now helping lead the way within the world of social games," so the speech will almost certainly be enlightening for anyone with an interest in the subject. GDC Europe will be taking place from August 15-17, so if you're looking to make the journey to gaming mecca, go ahead and start making plans!

Richard Garriott to deliver Game Developers Conference Europe keynote originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 15 Jun 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVE Online Fanfest 2011: Final video roundup

Brendan Drain — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Galleries, Video, EVE Online, Culture, Events, real-world, MMO industry

Just over a month ago, the EVE Online Fanfest was in full swing and some exciting new information on EVE's future was being released. Massively was there to bring you all the big news as it came out, but most EVE players were unable to attend the event. Thankfully, most of the Fanfest panels and events were filmed and the main ones were even streamed live to viewers at home. For those who missed all the Fanfest excitement, CCP Games has spent the last few weeks preparing those videos for launch and uploading them to YouTube. The team has also sent us 150 professional photos from the event to include in our Fanfest gallery.

In this final Fanfest roundup article, we've put together a handy list of every video from the Fanfest along with a handy summary of each. Not included in the list are the very technical Dev Tracker workshops designed to inform third-party app developers. Many of these videos contain swearing and some are definitely not safe for work. Talks definitely worth watching include the CCP panel, the EVE keynote, the content panel, incursions, words words words and live events. Things you absolutely don't want to miss are the hilarious but not work-safe alliance panel, the PvP tournament finals, the war on lag talk, guest lecture "Who Needs a CEO?" by Battleclinic founder Chris Condon, CCP Sreegs' talk on security, and of course, the EVE: A Future Vision trailer.

Skip past the cut for a full roundup of all the videos from this year's EVE Fanfest.

Continue reading EVE Online Fanfest 2011: Final video roundup

EVE Online Fanfest 2011: Final video roundup originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 29 Apr 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Massively interviews EVE senior producer Arnar Gylfason on Incarna, PvE and more

Brendan Drain — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Expansions, Game mechanics, Interviews, MMO industry, PvE

Some fantastic news came out of this year's EVE Online Fanfest. CCP Soundwave's talk on Incursion provided some insight into past and possible future development of EVE's often-neglected group PvE activities. We also got a first look at the captain's quarters coming this summer as a first massive step toward full-blown avatar-based interaction with Incarna. Finally, CCP presented the company's vision for the future of EVE -- a video showing the potential interaction between Dust514's ground combat, Incarna's station environments and EVE Online's typical space-based PvP.

In his keynote speech, EVE senior producer Arnar "CCP Zulu" Gylfason brought together all the new information that had been released at Fanfest over the last year. We caught up with Arnar at the EVE Fanfest to ask some followup questions to his speech. In an EVE Spotlight article last week, he answered questions on the role of live events in future expansions and other topics. In this second interview, we asked Arnar about incursions, the future of PvE, captain's quarters, the new player experience, Incarna gameplay, and more.

Skip past the cut to read our full interview with Arnar Glyfason, a man in whose accent the word "awesome" sounds seriously awesome.

Continue reading Massively interviews EVE senior producer Arnar Gylfason on Incarna, PvE and more

Massively interviews EVE senior producer Arnar Gylfason on Incarna, PvE and more originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 20 Apr 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVE Spotlight: An interview with CCP Zulu

Brendan Drain — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Video, EVE Online, Culture, Events, real-world, Interviews, MMO industry

EVE Spotlight is a new bi-weekly feature in which we interview prominent members of EVE Online's player community or development team. Twice each month, we'll be shining the spotlight on a player or developer who has a significant impact on EVE to highlight the efforts of EVE's most influential people.

It's almost an unwritten rule of game development that someone from quality assurance should never be promoted into a game design role. Game testing and QA are said to be so fundamentally different to design that it's argued the roles require incompatible skillsets. Arnar "CCP Zulu" Gylfason has definitely proven that this isn't the case, successfully migrating from QA to game design and finally being promoted to senior producer on EVE Online. Taking over from CCP T0rfifrans, Arnar has become a very public figure for CCP in the EVE community.

Older players will remember Arnar as CCP Zulupark, that horrible guy who nerfed their carriers back in 2007. Alternatively, you may remember a fantastic forum thread from 2008 in which he personally answered countless player questions on game design and balance issues. Since becoming senior producer on EVE, Arnar has been a strong advocate of this kind of heavy communication with players. Through devblogs, interviews and interactions with the Council of Stellar Management, he's helped to fill the information vacuum players have become accustomed to.

We caught up with EVE senior producer Arnar "CCP Zulu" Gylfason several weeks ago at the EVE Fanfest. In this EVE Spotlight, I ask him about communication with players, the role of live events in future expansions, and other topics.

Continue reading EVE Spotlight: An interview with CCP Zulu

EVE Spotlight: An interview with CCP Zulu originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 15 Apr 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVE Online Fanfest 2011 roundup: Day 2

Brendan Drain — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 21:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Culture, Events, real-world, Expansions, MMO industry, News items, Opinion, Hands-on, Massively Event Coverage

It's day two of CCP's enormous party at the top of the world, and Massively is right here to find out what the future holds for EVE Online. In yesterday's day 1 roundup, we covered a fantastic presentation on Incursion by CCP Soundwave, an enlightening question-and-answer session with EVE's Council of Stellar Management, and the hilarious (but absolutely not work-safe) alliance leader panel. Today has been similarly packed with activity. We've seen some great presentations on what's to come in the summer expansion, and the keynote speech discussed some very exciting developments due to hit EVE in the near future.

Highlights of today included a video of Incarna's "captain's quarters" that we'll be getting as part of the summer expansion, details of massive server upgrades heading to Tranquility, and details of some awesome quality-of-life changes coming soon thanks to Team Best Friends Forever. There was so much awesome information to share that we unfortunately had to miss the chessboxing match to get it out in a timely manner. We missed Icelandic game developers punching each other in the face to write this up, so I hope you find it interesting!

Read on for a roundup of what happened today at the EVE Fanfest, along with detailed explanations of a few personal highlights from today's festivities and what we can expect to come later.

Continue reading EVE Online Fanfest 2011 roundup: Day 2

EVE Online Fanfest 2011 roundup: Day 2 originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 25 Mar 2011 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVE Online Fanfest 2011: Keynote from the top of the world

Krystalle Voecks — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 19:30:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Events, real-world, Previews, News items

It's an exciting time to be an EVE Online capsuleer, especially if you have the ability to make it to Iceland or are checking out the livestreams. For the rest of us desk-bound mortals who weren't able to hop across the pond to make it to Fanfest 2011, well... there's always next year! Even now, pilots are partying down with the CCP development team and talking all things internet spaceships while others are networking. We'd bet there's probably even a bit of setup for an in-game scam or two going on as well. We are talking about EVE Online, after all.

Thankfully, we here at Massively have sent two of our own intrepid adventurers to get into the thick of the action: Shawn Schuster and Brendan Drain. These two brave souls are facing the crowds at the top of the world to catch all the myriad events this weekend and have sent us some ~~Quafe t-shirts~~ field reports of all the action going on at Fanfest 2011. First up, it's a tasty overview of this year's opening keynote. So grab your drink of choice and join us after the break for more!

Continue reading EVE Online Fanfest 2011: Keynote from the top of the world

EVE Online Fanfest 2011: Keynote from the top of the world originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 25 Mar 2011 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVE Fanfest streaming in live video Saturday, Oct 3

James Egan — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 13:45:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Video, EVE Online, Events, real-world, Events, in-game, Expansions, MMO industry, News items

Are you disappointed you couldn't attend EVE Fanfest 2009 in Reykjavik this week? If so, there's some good news. CCP Games announced today that they're going to stream live video of the Fanfest presentations on Saturday, October 3rd, from 12:00 - 17:00 GMT. The live video stream can be viewed at the EVE Fanfest 2009 site and will feature keynotes on the future of CCP Games and EVE Online -- namely DUST 514 -- and Senior Producer Torfi Frans Ólafsson's keynote on the Dominion expansion (recorded Friday evening). CCP Games will also stream video of the finals from this year's Fanfest PvP tournament with its free-for-all and Tech III matches.

If you're unable to view the video stream, you can also listen in on the keynotes through the EVE Online Facebook page thanks to Vivox. Information will be made available on the EVE Facebook page tomorrow, and this audio will stream from 15:00 - 17:00 GMT.

EVE Fanfest streaming in live video Saturday, Oct 3 originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 02 Oct 2009 13:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Free Realms officially hits 5m users

Shawn Schuster — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: Events, real-world, Events, in-game, MMO industry, News items, Free-to-play, Free Realms, Massively Event Coverage

Even though Free Realms had been rumored to hit 5 millions users last month, it was made official today at the Austin Game Developer's Conference. During John Smedley's keynote, the SOE President discussed the history of the game's development, as well as some demographic numbers. As you might imagine, it's difficult to create an MMO for kids, with an average MMO player age at 33.

There was also some interesting data released about the top five marketplace items and jobs in the game. Not surprisingly, all of these top five jobs are available to free players, with Brawler taking that number one spot. Look for our complete write-up of Smed's keynote, which involves much more than just Free Realms, coming soon.

Gallery: AGDC09: John Smedley keynote

Free Realms officially hits 5m users originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CCP Games CEO to announce new project in GDC Europe keynote

James Egan — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Events, real-world, MMO industry, News items

Hilmar Pétursson, the CEO of CCP Games, will keynote Game Developers Conference Europe 2009 in Cologne, Germany. The event runs from August 17 through the 19th at the Cologne Congress Center East. Hilmar's keynote will focus on how CCP Games rose from being a small Reykjavik-based studio with an obscure niche title to becoming a success story in the MMO industry with the growing popularity of EVE Online, now running studios in Atlanta and Shanghai, as well as their hometown of Reykjavik.

Perhaps the biggest news here is the reveal hinted at in the CCP Games press release: "As a testament to the industry's potential for growth despite widespread economic turmoil and as an inspiration for up-and-coming independent studios, Pétursson will give an exclusive first look at the company's latest project, which is currently in pre-production." We can only assume this is the World of Darkness MMO, but it could very well be a closer look at Walking in Stations or any of the other projects CCP announced at last year's Fanfest. Regardless of what this new project is, we won't know for sure until August.

CCP Games CEO to announce new project in GDC Europe keynote originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 11 Jun 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ION Conference returns for 2009, changes name to LOGIN

James Egan — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: Events, real-world, MMO industry, News items

Massively's readers who follow the online game industry may be familiar with Evergreen Events. They're the people who brought us the Online Game Development Conference (OGDC 2007) and the ION Game Conference (2008). The next step in the annual conference's evolution entails gaining a new name -- the LOGIN Conference.

LOGIN 2009 will be three and a half days of lectures, panels, roundtables, and keynotes focused on the online game industry. Thus far details about speakers are scarce, but one keynote speaker has been announced for LOGIN 2009 -- Charlie Stross, author of Halting State, a thriller that deals heavily with virtual worlds. The call for more speakers remains open, and if ION was any indication of what to expect, a number of industry luminaries are likely to have a presence at LOGIN.

LOGIN will take place in Seattle, Washington, from May 11-14, 2009. Massively will have more info for you about LOGIN as we get closer to the conference.

ION Conference returns for 2009, changes name to LOGIN originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 20 Jan 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVE Fanfest 2008 keynotes broadcasting live, November 8

James Egan — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 15:30:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Culture, Events, real-world, Events, in-game, MMO industry, News items

EVE Fanfest 2008 is in full swing in Reykjavik, but fans of the game who can't make that trek to Iceland this year have let out a collective grumble that EVE TV isn't streaming live content, as they have in prior years. Rather, the EVE TV team is recording the events and interviewing players, with the aim to make the video footage available to everyone after Fanfest. But for those who really want to connect with what's happening in Reykjavik now, CCP Fallout announced another way for players to listen in:

"For those pilots who are unable to warp to Fanfest this year, we are please to announce that we will broacast t0rfifrans's and Oveur's keynote addresses live in-game. Those of you who would like to listen in should join the 'Live Dev Blog' in-game channel on Saturday, 8 November at 13:00 GMT."

We've also gotten word that CCP Games CEO Hilmar V. Pétursson, (aka CCP Hellmar) will be delivering a keynote at 15:00 GMT on November 8th, which will also be broadcast live. As with all of the Live Dev Blogs, players need only activate audio via the right click menu to listen in on the keynote presentations.

EVE Fanfest 2008 keynotes broadcasting live, November 8 originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 07 Nov 2008 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mythic CTO to keynote at East Coast Games Summit

James Egan — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 15:30:00 EST

Filed under: Business models, Events, real-world, MMO industry, Warhammer Online, News items

Mythic Entertainment's Chief Technology Officer Matt Shaw is slated to keynote the America's Video Game Expo (VGXPO) and its East Coast Games Summit. VGXPO will take place at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, from November 21-23.

In a session titled "MMOs, Everyone Wants to Do One!", Shaw will discuss the differences in developing single player games versus MMO titles, and the lessons learned along the way. Some highlights of the upcoming East Coast Games Summit at VGXPO include:

"Pitch Your Game Idea": a session for entrepreneurs to pitch their game concepts to industry leaders.

"Scrum Deconstructed": a hands-on workshop for game industry management and technologists.

"Breaking In": a conference for students and others interested in making a career out of games.

Speakers from companies like Acclaim Entertainment, Electronic Arts, BioWare, and Nexon will be at VGXPO as well.

Did you enjoy this? Make sure to check out our Warhammer guides: Massively's Character Creation Guide and our WoW Player's Guide to Warhammer. Plus, don't miss any of our ongoing coverage as Massively goes to WAR!

Mythic CTO to keynote at East Coast Games Summit originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 21 Oct 2008 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Fan Faire 08: Liveblogging John Smedley's keynote

Krystalle Voecks — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 21:00:00 EST

Filed under: Galleries, EverQuest, EverQuest II, Pirates of the Burning Sea, Events, real-world, MMO industry, Previews, The Agency, News items, Star Wars Galaxies, Vanguard, Everquest Online Adventures, Free Realms, Massively Event Coverage, Legends of Norrath, DC Universe Online

The buzz coming into this evening's Fan Faire keynote is palpable. All the players know something is going on, but nobody is quite sure what's in store for this evening's festivities. As a service to our devoted readers, both old and new, Massively is on-scene and we'll be liveblogging John Smedley's keynote this evening.

Curious about what SOE has in store for the future of their various MMOGs? Join us behind the break for the up-to-the-minute news from the front lines!

Continue reading Fan Faire 08: Liveblogging John Smedley's keynote

Fan Faire 08: Liveblogging John Smedley's keynote originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 15 Aug 2008 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AGDC announces first keynote address

Michael Zenke — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 16:30:00 EST

Filed under: Events, real-world, Academic

The Worlds in Motion site notes that the first keynote address has been announced for this year's Austin Game Developer's Conference. Last last month the first speakers, such as Damion Schubert and Min Kim, were announced for the MMO-focused event. This week the event's first keynote has been announced, and it's very different from your average early-morning droner. Fans of The Office rejoice! The folks behind the Dunder Mifflin social networking game will be offering up ways of "driving user behavior and increasing engagement".

Other events announced include a technical discussion on Tabula Rasa's shading technology; that's an in-depth session aimed at MMO developers looking for cost/benefit tradeoffs. Probably the most exciting announced talk this week is Nick Fortugno's talk entitled What Your Mother and Your Ten-Year Old Can Teach You About MMOs. He gave a similar lecture at this year's IMGDC event, previously discussed here on the site. Interested parties will get early bird status through August 27th.

AGDC announces first keynote address originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 07 Jun 2008 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rob Pardo to speak at Paris GDC in June

Shawn Schuster — Tue, 13 May 2008 19:30:00 EST

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Business models, Events, real-world, Game mechanics, MMO industry

At the Paris Game Developers Conference this year, we will have the pleasure of hearing from Blizzard's Senior Vice President of game design, Rob Pardo. He will be presenting a keynote Q&A entitled "In the Eye of the Blizzard", where he will discuss his inspirations, challenges and his future at Blizzard Entertainment with interviewer Jamil Moledina, the executive director of GDC Events.

Rob is certainly no stranger to game conference keynotes, as he has recently shown at the San Francisco GDC, but it will be interesting to hear his newest keynote interview where he will address the important topic that most game developers have on their minds: how to win at the game of creating a money-making MMO.

The Paris GDC will offer over 50 sessions this year, and will be held on June 23-24th at the Coeur Defense Convention Centre in Paris, France.

Rob Pardo to speak at Paris GDC in June originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 13 May 2008 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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SOE prez to headline ION 2008

Chris Chester — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Events, real-world, MMO industry, New titles, The Agency

The 2008 ION Game Conference in Seattle, WA appears to have gained it's crown jewel, with the announcement that Sony Online Entertainment President John Smedley, one of the key members of the original Everquest team, will be delivering the conference keynote. His speech will reportedly focus on the achievements of Sony Online Entertainment, and the keynote will serve as a springboard for him to talk at length about SOE's exciting new property -- The Agency. Normally I'd make some snarky remark about a company President trying to sell his game at a conference populated by the competition, but after having poured over our preview of the game from CES, I have to concede that I'm just happy we'll get to hear more about the game at length.

ION, known formerly referred to by the considerably less cool sounding acronym OGDC, is a game development conference aimed at networking the increasingly international community of online game developers. Like the more generalist Game Developer's Conference, ION has lots of panels, expo space, speakers, and network opportunities aimed specifically at the guys and gals who make our favorite MMOs. Don't wait around for notes from the keynote though -- the conference isn't until the second week of May. We'll keep you posted though.

SOE prez to headline ION 2008 originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 31 Jan 2008 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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