GDC Online 2012 adds Koster keynote, new game design sessions

With experience working on titles ranging from Ultima Online to Star Wars Galaxies, industry veteran Raph Koster has developed quite a bit of expertise on online game design, and at next month's GDC Online, he'll present a robust keynote detailing his theory for creating fun in the modern online game industry. Alongside his keynote, GDC Online organizers have also revealed two new Design track sessions, covering the best practices for video game analytics and the evolving tastes of female players. These new talks all fall within GDC Online's Main Conference, which offers some of the world's leading content on persistent and online games. The event will be held Tuesday, October 9 to Thursday, October 11 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas. The full details on GDC Online's newly announced sessions are as follows: - In Raph Koster's keynote, the 2012 Online Game Legend Award recipient will reflect on a speech he gave 10 years ago at the very first GDC Online – then known as the Austin Game Conference. In that keynote, Koster explored why games matter, how they teach players, and what fun is. In his upcoming presentation, dubbed "A Theory of Fun 10 Years Later," he'll revisit those ideas and address how his theory has changed over the last decade, reexamining the importance of how games interact with their players. - Elsewhere, Bigpoint's Christian Godorr and Stefanie Hels will host "Separating Signal from Noise: Leveraging Creative Analytics for Game Design." Here, the pair will explain how to look past cliched terms like "Monthly Active Users" and "Lifetime Value" to find the proper way to blend data-driven analytics with real, creative game design. - Finally, Real Life Plus creative director Terry Redfield will examine female player demographics in "It's Not Your Game, It's Me: How a Woman's Taste in Games May Change As She Ages." Redfield, who has also worked on titles such as Psychonauts and Gardens of Time, will use the latest research on female hormone and neurological studies to examine how certain game mechanics appeal to distinct female age groups. These talks join numerous other sessions at GDC Online, including Narrative Summit presentations on Halo 4, Guild Wars 2, plus a classic Ultima Online postmortem, prominent social game developers like Kabam and King.com, and much more. For more on these or any of the 100+ talks at GDC Online, check out the show's official Schedule Builder. For more information on GDC Online, visit the show's official website, or subscribe to regular updates via Facebook, Twitter, or RSS.