GDC Vault Adds Free Guild Wars 2, ESA Talks, 65 New Lectures For Subscribers

Author: by Staff

GDC Vault has debuted both free and subscriber-only videos from August's GDC Europe event in Cologne. Free-to-watch talks feature ArenaNet's Guild Wars 2 and notables from the ESA, Remedy and Crytek on building grassroots political support for games. Following the successful Europe-wide developer event that ran alongside Gamescom last month, organizers of the Game Developers Conference series of events are making specially recorded versions of the talks available -- while also archiving all of the GDC Europe content in video form for future use and study. These new free talks debut alongside an update making available over 65 lecture videos from GDC Europe for subscribers at the GDC Vault website. The site features video technology that allows users to simultaneously view a presenter's slides alongside video and audio of their presentation. The two free GDC Europe-related videos currently debuting on the site are as follows: - In 'Designing Guild Wars 2's Dynamic Events', ArenaNet's Guild Wars 2 lead designer Eric Flannum and lead content designer Colin Johanson outline how the industry's attitude to content in games in the MMORPG genre has evolved over time. The duo discuss the inspiration for -- and the implementation challenges of -- their Dynamic Events system in the much-awaited PC MMO, "with the goal of creating an exciting, living, breathing online world that encourages social interaction between players." - The newly available talk 'Building Grassroots Video Game Activist Networks' features a panel led by the ESA's Richard Taylor, discussing how "governments in Europe and the United States continue their attempts to censor and regulate game content". Taking examples from the U.S. Video Game Voters Network, the panel, which includes Remedy's Matias Myllyrinne (Alan Wake) and Crytek's Avni Yerli (Crysis 2) alongside Stephan Reichart of G.A.M.E., the German Games Developers Association, discuss censorship issues and the importance of establishing similar European grassroots networks. In addition to these lectures, GDC Vault's free videos section includes GDC 2010 lectures from Zynga, Ernest Adams, and NCsoft, plus highly rated lectures featuring 2D Boy's Ron Carmel and Bungie's Brian Sharp, as well as a number of other top talks such as the Indie Game Rant. The free recordings available are a fraction of the content currently being flowed into the GDC Vault, which has recently added several new features. It's now easier to navigate through the free section of the site, with video, audio and slides more clearly split with browsing and searching. In addition, site searches will bring up both free content and Vault Subscriber-only content in the same results page. Full GDC Vault access, including synchronized video recordings for over 200 of GDC 2010's sessions, 65 talks from GDC Europe, and hundreds of historical video and audio recordings, is available to GDC 2010 All-Access Pass holders, as well as All-Access Pass holders for other GDC events during the year. Similar recording sessions are planned for GDC Online in Austin next month, as well as December's GDC China. Notably, game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company. More information on this option is available by contacting Suzanne Cunningham or viewing an online demonstration. Individual Vault subscriptions not tied to All-Access passes are planned for trial in the near future.