Questions by Cody
"Micajah" Bye, Managing Editor
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Answers by Peter Freese,
ION Game Conference Director
Considering the huge slate of industry events that sprang up last year,
very few of them were really outstanding for those actually in the industry . However, One conference stood out from the herd due to its
adherence to treating its attendees with the utmost care and providing
a intimate yet educational venue. Originally dubbed the Online Game
Developers Conference, the ION Game Conference stood as a solid
platform for industry professionals in the online game space to learn
about and discuss current trends and the implications of future events.
To preview this years upcoming show, Ten Ton Hammer's Cody
"Micajah" Bye chatted with conference director Peter Freese about this
year's conference, the name change, and what he sees in the future of
the online game industry.
Ten Ton Hammer: For those
individuals that may not be familiar with the ION Game Conference (or
the Online Game Developers Conference as it was previously known),
could you please give a brief run-down of what the conference is trying
to establish and why it’s an important show to attend? What
sort of industry news will be coming out of the show?
The ION Game
Conference is the only event in the industry (and in the
world) that is completely focused on online games across all the
platforms, which means it’s the best place for people
involved in online games to network, share ideas, and get a sense of
where the industry is headed. We get panelists and speakers who are
decision makers from the major developers, publishers, and platform
providers, so you can count on hearing news about their strategies and
initiatives, as well as announcements about new projects and services.
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Peter Freese, ION
Game Conference Director
Ten Ton Hammer: Could you
tell us a bit about yourself? Why are you interested in the online game
marketplace? What qualifies you to run a show as
“charged” as the ION Game Conference?
I’ve been a game developer for nearly two decades and about
half of that has been creating games exclusively online. By online, I
don’t necessarily mean multiplayer, although a lot of what I
have been involved in has been massively multiplayer games. The key
element for me about online games is that they represent a service to
the player. The benefits of games-as-a-service to the player are many,
and include continuous evolution of content, ability to play/install
anywhere, lower cost (and even free play), and of course being able to
co-exist with thousands of others in virtual worlds. For
developers/publishers, online games offer a solution to one of the
oldest problems in our business – that of piracy. You
don’t need cumbersome copy-protection schemes when your goal
is to give away your game client to as many people as possible.
Besides being involved with developing online games, I’ve
always been passionate about finding ways for people to share
knowledge. A lot of my professional career has been devoted to helping
companies share technology between teams. I would find it frustrating
that different development teams at the same company would
independently reinvent the wheel, often making the same mistakes along
the way. Establishing the right shared technology base can help
companies develop games faster, more efficiently, and with greater
mind-share between developers.
companies. A lot of projects are doomed to failure because teams are
repeating the mistakes of others, rather than learning from them. The
online game market isn’t a zero-sum game – exchange
of information benefits everyone by allowing us to expand the market.
Ten Ton Hammer: Why did
you opt to change the name from the OGDC to the ION Game Conference?
Are there too many other “GDCs”? Why did you name
the show OGDC in the first place?
original concept was that the event would be primarily for
in-the-trenches developers, so “Online Game Development
Conference” was the most straightforward and descriptive
name. I also liked the visual form of the letters
“ogdc” in the san-serif font we used for our logo
– four repeated circle shapes. We had a little bit of concern
that the name could get lost in the mix with the alphabet soup of
conference abbreviations, so we tried to make it clear that we were an
independent event.
After our event last year, we received so many comments from attendees
about how OGDC was the best event they’d ever attended for
making business deals, it made sense for us to expand our focus to
include international business development (as it relates to online
games). We felt with the larger focus, it was time to create a new
image and name for the conference.
Ten Ton Hammer: Can you
give us some hints on what sort of speakers may be attending the ION
Game Conference this year? You had some hard hitting names on last
year’s docket – Brett Close, Scott Brown, Joshua
Hong – will we be seeing more “big names”
in this years show?
know what they say: “Loose lips sink ships!”
We’ll start announcing speakers before the end of January.
I’m confident that everyone will be impressed with our lineup.
Ten Ton Hammer: Will
there be a chance for the developers to talk to the press about their
particular games? Last year’s show was very intimate and
really established some solid relationship between the press and the
developers; will this continue to be the case?
have great plans for our pressroom this year, including making it
available to select developers for press announcements –
we’ll have a schedule so that our press partners will know
when to be there for announcements they don’t want to miss
out on. We also help the press in contacting speakers and attendees to
arrange on-site interviews.
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The ION Game
Conference Logo
Ten Ton Hammer: If an
individual wants to speak at the show, do they still have time to
submit an application? What sort of speakers/topics are you looking for?
call for speakers ends on January 21, 2008, so there is still time for
prospective speakers to submit abstracts. Our topic and speaker
guidelines are on the ION Game Conference speaker submission page:
http://www.ionconference.com/submissions.html.
Ten Ton Hammer: As an
online game aficionado, where do you think the industry is headed in
2008? Where will the most growth occur?
of the more interesting things going on is a growing acceptance of
online games as “third places.” One of our speakers
last year, Constance Steinkuehler, assistant professor in Curriculum
& Instruction at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has
published some great research in this area. I think we’ll
start to see a convergence of online social networks and online games
that recognizes this. When you consider something like how easy it is
to find people with similar interests on Facebook versus how hard it is
to find a good guild in WoW, it’s obvious that game
developers have a long way to go. That represents a lot of opportunity
for some new company.
Ten Ton Hammer: Why did
you establish the ION Game Conference? Did you feel that the other
shows weren’t adequately supporting the needs of online
developers?
I’ve been to a lot of conferences over the years, and
I’d been dissatisfied with my experience at game industry
events. Most of the best networking and information sharing seemed to
happen away from the actual event, whether it was at a private dinner
across town, in the hotel lobby bar after the show, or on the plane
ride home. I wanted to create an event where the conference activities
worked for the attendees, rather than against them. In essence, href="http://www.ionconference.com/">ION
represents the kind of conference that I wish I could go to as an
attendee.
Ten Ton Hammer: This
year’s ION conference seems to be focused more on the
globalization aspect of the online industry. Why did you decide to
follow that tactic? What kind of pitfalls await developers who try to
globalize without a working knowledge of that aspect of the industry?
Global internet growth is the single most important factor that is
changing the market for online games. Asia has nearly double the number
of internet users than North America, and the trend is swinging even
farther in that direction. The growth in China alone is staggering
(about 20% versus 2% in the United States), and it is expected that
they will overtake the United States by the end of 2008. Given issues
with rampant software piracy in Asia, online games are the key to
financial success, which is why big western publishers are now trying
to invest heavily in Pacific Rim game developers and publishers.
Our theme for 2008 is redefining online, and we are looking at the
future of online games and methods of monetization in the new global
market. But it’s not just about business –
we’re looking at the technical issues, design issues, and
community aspects as well.
Ten Ton Hammer: When was
Evergreen Events founded? What’s the overall goal for
Evergreen Events? Why do you feel that it’s necessary to
“treat every attendee like a VIP”? Why not just put
together the show and let the show-goers fend for themselves?
Evergreen Events was founded in the fall of 2005. Our goal is to create
the highest quality events like ION for the game industry. We are also
passionate about education of young people; we do a series of events
called Career Discovery for middle and high school students, intended
to encourage, motivate, and inspire them to follow their passion and
dreams, even if it means taking the hard classes.
We see our attendees as participants rather than just consumers, so
it’s very important that we treat them like VIPs. We consider
them the best of the industry, and we want them to think of us the same
way. We really are passionate about quality and although we want the
event to be profitable, we measure our success by the kind of
experience our attendees have.
Ten Ton Hammer: Finally,
is there anything else you’d like to tell the general public
and the Ten Ton Hammer readers? What sort of news should we expect from
this event?
you’re a developer, don’t procrastinate on getting
your speaker submission in – the deadline is fast approaching
and the competition for speaking slots will be even fiercer this year.
If you are a student or someone pursuing a career in the games industry
and want to work on your networking skills and learn more about online
games, we have a volunteer program that lets you attend the event in
exchange for helping out – just follow the
volunteer link on the front page of the ION site. Finally, online
registration will open January 28th; we anticipate the event selling
out this year, so there is no guarantee of onsite registration!
