Conference Keynotes

Thursday, October 27, 2005
9:30am - 10:30am
The Future of Online Games
John Smedley, President, Sony Online Entertainment
John Smedley is President of Sony Online Entertainment and co-founder of Verant Interactive, Inc. He has over 12 years of experience in the gaming industry. Mr. Smedley?s start in the gaming industry began in 1989 when he worked as a programmer for ATG. Shortly after developing his first game (QIX) for the Apple IIe, Mr. Smedley founded and his own company called Knight Technologies. At Knight Technologies, he developed various contract games like Double Dragon (Atari Lynx), Dirty Larry Renegade Cop (Atari Lynx) , Qix (Atari Lynx) , Keys to Maramon (Amiga) and Kawasaki Carribean Challenge (SNES). Mr. Smedley also served as Director of Development for five years at 989 Studios and began a PC Group that evolved into Verant Interactive, now Sony Online Entertainment.
Friday, October 28, 2005
9:30am - 10:30am
Why Are We Here?
Dr. Richard Bartle, Visiting Professor in Computer Game Design, University of Essex, U.K.
Dr. Richard Bartle co-wrote the first virtual world, MUD ("Multi-User Dungeon") in 1978, and has thus been at the forefront of the online games industry from its very inception. A former lecturer in Artificial Intelligence and current Visiting Professor in Computer Game Design (both at the University of Essex, U.K.), he is an influential writer on all aspects of virtual world design, development, and management. As an independent consultant, he has worked with most of the major online game companies in the U.K. and the U.S. over the past 20 years. His 2003 book, Designing Virtual Worlds, has already established itself as a foundation text for researchers and developers of virtual worlds alike.
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• Sony Online Entertainment
• NCsoft Corp.
• Mythic Entertainment
• Turbine
• Microsoft Corp.
• Three Rings
• NetDevil
• Blizzard Entertainment