2008 Worlds In Motion Summit Adds New Speakers

The organizers of the Worlds in Motion Summit at the 2008 Game Developers Conference have added more speakers to the two-day summit focused on online worlds, announcing that Multiverse's Corey Bridges and Rafhael Cedeno, MindCandy's Michael Smith and Turbine's Jeffrey Steefel will be joining the event; previously-revealed speakers include Areae's Raph Koster, Relic Labs studio head Adrian Crook, Nexon's Min Kim and Millions of Us' Reuben Steiger. The Summit, which is organized by the editors of Gamasutra sister weblog WorldsInMotion.biz, will be held on Monday and Tuesday, February 18-19th 2008, as part of the 2008 Game Developers Conference. The Summit will focus on the intersection of online worlds and games, and the official description of the event is as follows: "The Worlds in Motion Summit is a definitive event tailored for the growing number of industry professionals and Fortune 500 companies developing interactive online spaces for both entertainment and commercial purposes. Discussion forums will delve into online worlds, social gaming and media and player created activity. These will provide insight for developers of all backgrounds into how the game industry is collectively building socialization into games and integrating personalization and player-generated content into gameplay — while widely accessible Web and networking tools are looking to the game industry for their way forward." In addition, following its initial announcement, the inaugural Worlds In Motion Summit is expected to debut many more speakers over the next few weeks. Now joining the event will be: - Multiverse's Corey Bridges and Rafhael Cedeno (Executive producer and founder Bridges, along with CTO and co-founder Cedeno, will showcase their Multiverse platform for 3D virtual world development, offering a "from the field" demonstration with a new era of end-user in mind, one seeking social media and low barrier to entry.) - MindCandy's Michael Smith (Already virtual worlds are beginning to look at mobile as a new frontier in virtual worlds -- specifically products that have several points of access to let the user customize his or her experience from any direction. MindCandy's Moshi Monsters virtual pets are one such idea, and interactive entertainment pioneer Michael Smith will share the method to the monsters and his forward-thinking perspective on the space.) - Turbine's Jeffrey Steefel (Lord of the Rings Online developer Turbine has been quietly implementing some best-of-breed virtual world and social networking elements into its fantasy MMO for some time, and the company's passionate about evolving the multiplayer experience based on lessons on user engagement, connectivity and user-generated content that have come out of the virtual worlds movement. Executive producer Jeffrey Steefel will provide some exciting examples of how users in any sphere can respond to and invest in these innovative ideas.) The Summit is available to attend via several different Game Developers Conference 2008 passes, and more information on the event plus the speakers announced so far is available on the Worlds In Motion Summit webpage.