H-Yamaguchi.net

GDCは何しろ規模が大きい。5日間で300以上のセッションが予定されている。ゲーム内経済学関連、シリアスゲーム関連、ファイナンス関連、その他面白そうなもの、ぐらいで拾ってもこれだけある。 めんどくさいので日本語訳はしない。あしからず。

Advanced MMO Economies
Sam Lewis
Wednesday, 9:00am — 10:00am Game Design/

Session Description
A follow-up discussion from last year's MMO economics roundtable. The roundtable defines some classic definitions of economic elements and challenges the participants to think about how these can be built into games effectively. Additional topics include the design impact of real world player-to-player sales.

Topics include
Monetary Policy - Avoiding Hyper-Inflation, Market Structure - The Player as Businessman, Industrial Structure - The Player as Robber Baron, and The Game as a Job - The Player's Means of Support is the Game.

Idea Takeaway
The participants walk away from the roundtable with enough information to begin critically thinking about how to incorporate more advanced economic elements into their game, and a better understanding of the complexities involved in designing economic subsystems for MMO games.

Intended Audience
The participants should have an understanding of supply and demand economics and how this relates to the current generation of MMO games.

トピックの第一がマネタリーポリシーというあたり、やはり最大の問題は価格ということか。おおRMTも入っている。

Advergaming, Game-Based Messaging, and Marketing I （IIはこれ）
Ian Bogost
Monday, 10:15am — 12:30pm SGS: Business & Deals/

Session Description
Advergaming is arguably one of the sub-sectors within the serious games industry that's the furthest along in the space. Previous Serious Games Summits have spent little time exploring and outlining the field of advergaming, game-based messaging, or even the growing trend of using games and game culture as overall marketing approaches. Yet the field continues to grow in dollar value and impact.

This year, a four-hour block of advergaming content is presented over two-days which explores all aspects of the advergaming and game-based market field, including:
・Stand-alone casual advergames
・Large scale advergaming efforts ・such as America's Army and Navy Strike & Retrieve
・In-game Product Placement
・The role of original games in driving PR
・In-game billboards and video advertising
・Marketing and sponsorship tie-in projects, such as Pro-Gaming Leagues
・Non-profit and social messaging, such as Catch-The-Sperm
・Propoganda and Political Advertising

By exploring the commercial, social, and psychological aspects and impacts of advergaming, attendees learn more about how games are impacting a significant industry and organizational tool. This session explores commercial-marketing, governmental, and non-governmental efforts.

Idea Takeaway
Over the course of two-days and four-hours, attendees gain insight into both the state and state of the art in advergaming. Organizations looking to develop advergames learn about how to develop quality games that achieve their goals and reach the desired audience. Developers learn about how the advergaming field works, and the different adjustments in business, design, and production practices needed to work in the field.

Intended Audience
"Advergaming is Serious" is open to all attendees.

ゲーム内広告もどんどん進化しているっぽい。

All About Ninety-Nine Nights: Next-Gen Character Design
Tetsuya Mizuguchi & SangYoun Lee
Wednesday, 4:00pm — 5:00pm Game Design/

Overview:
In this lecture, NINETY-NINE NIGHTS producer Tetsuya Mizuguchi and director Sangyoun Lee join forces to reveal all there is to know about the production of the much-anticipated action fantasy game, in this Xbox 360 postmortem.

Hollywood-style distributed development is alive and well on the other side of the world, as demonstrated by the successful collaboration between Japan痴 iconic Q Entertainment and Korea痴 fun factory Phantagram. In this lecture, NINETY-NINE NIGHTS producer Tetsuya Mizuguchi and director Sangyoun Lee join forces to reveal all there is to know about the production of the much-anticipated action fantasy game, in this Xbox 360 postmortem. These visionaries share their experiences designing the videogame' next-generation characters and its environments 紡s well as the elements used to create the multi-angle scenario, for example, in which the player assumes the role of many different characters and can see the world from different perspectives. Mizuguchi-san and Mr. Lee also discuss the storyline's inception and the use of cinematic sequences before they delve into the technical challenges, and the difficulties they coped with by working with several companies, in several languages, across multiple time zones.

おお水口さんではないか。

Better (Serious) Game Design: As Lecture and Practice
Noah Falstein
Tuesday, 10:15am — 12:30pm SGS: Serious Game Design/

Session Description
This follow-up workshop presents a combination lecture/workshop. First, a lecture on the most critical underlying principles of game design -with a particular focus on elements unique to serious game design- is presented. The initial lecture consists of a "best-of" condensed version of the previous design lectures and workshops developed by the presenter. It is supplemented with information about "The 400 Project" rules of game design- released to the public at the GDC.

The second part is split into several mini-workshops. In each of these sessions, participants present elevator pitches on a current serious game design project they are working on, after which the speaker conducts and moderates an analysis and discussion of the project, incorporating principles from the initial lecture. Each mini-workshop provides personalized feedback for one participant, while demonstrating practical application of good design principals for the entire audience. Participation is voluntary, but encouraged. Active participants should come prepared with both a 塗igh concept・describing their project in 30 words or less, and a "maximum" three-minute pitch describing it succinctly.

Idea Takeaway
In this session, participants learn the following:
Critical elements of good game design
How those elements can improve any existing game concept
Effective ways to blend entertainment and learning
How to pitch their concept clearly and effectively
How game design and production issues trade off against each other in the design process

Intended Audience
This session is intended primarily for people with serious game projects in the concept, design, or prototyping stages who are seeking to enhance the effectiveness of their project in both entertainment and beyond-entertainment (e.g. training or educational) ways. It's also beneficial for those interested in the game design process, who are tired of theory without practice, or who are just hoping to learn from the experience of others with many serious game titles to their credit.

シリアスゲームも熱くなる一方だな。

Birds-of-a-Feather Meet-up

Advergaming & Messaging
Tuesday, 8:00am — 8:50am SGS: Business & Deals/
Corporate Training
Monday, 8:00am — 8:50am SGS: Behind the Game/
Defense & Security
Monday, 8:00am — 8:50am SGS: Assessment & Results/
Games for Change
Suzanne Seggerman
Monday, 1:00pm — 1:50pm SGS: Serious Game Design/
Games for Health
Ben Sawyer
Tuesday, 1:00pm — 1:50pm SGS: Behind the Game/
Games for Science
Tuesday, 1:00pm — 1:50pm SGS: Serious Game Design/
IGDA Serious Games SIG
Tuesday, 8:00am — 8:50am SGS: Serious Game Design/
K-16 Education
Monday, 1:00pm — 1:50pm SGS: Learning & Instructional Theory/

Session Description
In an effort to facilitate a lively discussion on important serious game sub-fields, the Serious Games Summit at GDC will feature six specific group gatherings. These lightly moderated groups will meet during breakfast and during lunch breaks. Each group will hold a discussion on the key issues within their specific sector and will make the session minutes available online with each group recommending action items toward further development in their core sub-area.

こちらもシリアスゲームにまつわるあれこれ。さまざまなテーマで開かれるカジュアルなセッション。

BitTorrent: Using BitTorrent to improve the end user experience and save on band
Tom Ketola
Friday, 12:00pm — 1:00pm Programming/

Overview:
BitTorrent is a new download protocol that is gaining acceptance as an economical and efficient means to distribute digital content online. By utilizing a peer to peer (or distributed) architecture, it痴 possible to solve the problems of overloading servers without having to install additional hardware or pay for expensive content delivery services. This session will give an overview of how some of the different peer to peer networks operate, with a particular focus on the BitTorrent protocol. Typical problems of deployment, differences between the protocols, and advantages of using this approach will also be covered. Mr. Ketola has over a decade of development experience in the video game industry as well as several years of experience working with peer to peer technology.

うーんこのあたりも押さえとかないといかんちゅうことね。ネットビジネスだなぁ。

Bloggers Group Gathering Damion Schubert
Wednesday, 4:00pm — 5:00pm IGDA/

Session Description
This is a 'meet and greet' for game industry bloggers, who so often link to and comment on each other's sites, often becoming quite friendly without ever meeting each other face to face. Now is your chance to know your fellow blog posters face to face! There will be camaraderie and commiseration, and attendees are encouraged to discuss issues facing bloggers: privacy issues, dealing with troublesome posters and spam and choosing the best blog software.

Idea Takeaway
Attendees can take away a sense of kinship with their fellow web warriors, and whatever advice might be gathered from experienced game industry bloggers in a meet and greet format.

Intended Audience
Those who run blogs, or who are interested in meeting those who do. Those considering starting a gaming blog are welcome to attend and pick brains for tips and tricks in starting up your own site.

ブログもしっかりカバー。ゲーム界隈のブロガーさん仲良くしようの会。

Bootstrapping a Game Company in the Age of Blockbuster Budgets
Albert Reed
Friday, 9:00am — 10:00am Business and Management/

Overview:
Using techniques and practices proven at the speaker痴 company, Demiurge Studios, this view-from-the-trenches talk details how studio founders can successfully build a self-funded business.

Session Description
This session explores how to successfully self-fund a game studio using Demiurge Studios as a case study. The speaker guides the audience through the special requirements and pitfalls faced by developers who undertake the slow-but-rewarding route to studio creation. The leaders of small, independent, bootstrapped studios are given specific examples of techniques that have both worked and failed in the past. The talk focuses on business and sales strategies that help elevate business in ways that give bootstrapping its name.

Idea Takeaway
The founders of bootstrapped companies face challenges unlike businesses funded in other ways. In the game industry, many fail to survive or even land their first project. However the discourse in the business sector of the game industry tends not to address these problems. This talk explains that smaller budgets actually present greater opportunities for the small studio and presents ways to land projects and then keep the business viable. Using techniques and practices proven at the speaker痴 company, Demiurge Studios, this view-from-the-trenches talk details how studio founders can successfully build a self-funded business. The lecture contains specific rules to follow and provides examples of effective business practices tailored to the needs of early-stage bootstrapped studios.

Intended Audience
This lecture is geared towards the leaders of small, independent, self-funded studios and industry members who hope to launch their own companies and are considering the bootstrapped route. This presentation is extremely relevant to those who lack formal business training or experience.

ゲームもコンテンツビジネスであり、資金調達がプロジェクト管理上重要な課題であることは当たり前だってことだ。

Brand Development for Video Games

Speaker: Oliver Wright (Senior Graphic Designer, SCEE)
Date/Time: Friday (March 24, 2006) 10:30am — 11:30am
Track: Business and Management
Experience Level: All

Session Description
Effective branding is a vital component in creating a successful video game today. The visual identity of a game is generally the consumer's first impression, and as such must convey a lot of information about the product and why they should buy it. In order to ensure a high quality product, the identity needs to be reinforced throughout the game, from packaging through menus to end credits. At its best, the visual identity can be simplified to a single iconic statement which is instantly recognizable and attracts the intended audience.

At Sony Computer Entertainment Europe's London Studio we have developed the brand identities for a number of unique products, including the EyeToyｮ and SingStarｮ franchises (which have sold 8 million+ units combined to date) as well as more recently working with an exsiting established brands such as, 24・

This session will cover easy steps for creating a brand from scratch as well as maintaining existing brands, even those where the IP is held by a licensor. Specifically, it will explore how we developed the brands for EyeToyｮ and SingStarｮ and how we utilized the existing brand of 24. Finally we'll look at the kind of brand management issues you may encounter and how to alleviate them in advance.

Idea Takeaway
This session is designed to offer strategies for how best to brief graphic designers, how to guide the creative process and to talk about ways to manage a video game brand globally.

Intended Audience
The session is designed for Directors, Producers, Graphic Designers, Artists and Marketeers and anyone else who wishes to learn more about how to develop and manage a successful Brand Identity for a video game.

ゲームにおけるブランドの話。

Building Community Around Pollinated Content in Spore
Speaker: Caryl Shaw (Producer, Maxis)
Date/Time: Thursday (March 23, 2006) 5:30pm — 6:30pm
Track: Game Design
Experience Level: All

Session Description
When you fire up your copy of SPORE, that crazy three-headed, five-legged creature you see coming over the hill to attack your creature may have been created by another community member, or your best friend, or maybe someone you've never even heard of. The experience that the creature has in your game will become part of its recorded history as it gets downloaded and challenged by other players in the SPORE universe. Through in-game and web-based features, the person who created the creature can review and share its stats with friends and other community members building notoriety for both the creature and the creator.

This session explores how user-created content in other Maxis products like SIMCITY and THE SIMS 2 created a different kind of online community, and how those lessons are being applied in the Pollinated Content System in SPORE. Specifically, we'll look at how to tailor the system to appeal to both users who specialize in creating content and users who are more likely to download someone else's creations.

Idea Takeaway
Attendees learn the history of shared content and community involvement in previous Maxis games and how those lessons are being incorporated into SPORE.

Intended Audience
This session is for game designers and producers who are interested in alternate methods of creating community with online features that don't require a persistent web connection. No prerequisites are necessary.

オンラインコミュニティももちろん重要。ユーザが作るコンテンツをどう生かすか。「Second Life」あたりの話も出ると面白いんだけど。

Business Geeks: How Leading Developers Use Strategic IT, HR, Finance, and Marketing
Speaker: Clarinda Merripen (Vice Pres of Operations, Cryptic Studios), Carrie Oliff (Director of Human Resources, Insomniac Games), Richard Iwaniuk (Director of Finance, BioWare Corp.), Eugene Archibald (Manager of Developer Support, Nokia Network Gaming Solutions), Mike Lustenberger (Vice President, Marketing, Sony Online Entertainment)
Date/Time: Friday (March 24, 2006) 2:30pm — 3:30pm
Track: Business and Management

Session Description
Game Business Geeks may sound like an oxymoron to some, but these five leaders in their field turned operational areas into gold. Thinking strategically and executing thoroughly they致e managed to turn their departments - HR, IT, Finance and Marketing - from necessary, but costly overhead into vibrant, value-added financial and productivity centers. In this session, professionals from Bioware, Insomniac, Cyberlore, Sony Entertainment Online, and Nokia, share their knowledge and experience, and they translate the business theory into practice specifically in the game industry.

Idea Takeaway
Operational functions, specifically HR, Finance, IT, and marketing, when addressed at a high strategic level increase a game company痴 profitability.

Intended Audience
Anyone interested in the business of games.

ゲームビジネスというゲームに勝つために備えるべきいろいろ。人的資源もITもファイナンスもマーケティングも。実務家さんたちが理論をどうみているのか気になる。

Business Model Case Study Blasts
Speaker: Doug Whatley (CEO, BreakAway Games, Ltd.), Eric Marcoullier (CEO, Cyberlore Studio), Ntiedo Etuk (Chief Executive Officer, Tabula Digita, Inc.), Ben Sawyer (Co-founder, Digitalmill)
Date/Time: Tuesday (March 21, 2006) 4:15pm — 6:00pm
Track: SGS: Business & Deals

Session Description
The development of the serious games space is dependant on several efforts, such as advances in design, pedagogy, and technology. Past summits have focused heavily on these elements and sparingly on business development models and advancements, partially because the predominant model in serious games has been work-for-hire. As the field grows, however, it experiences a wider variety in business models as developers seek to find ways to make the market work for them. It's clear that for the serious games market to grow, it needs the amount of work that isn't entirely work-for-hire and custom built to be lower. Doing this requires new ways of doing business, raising capital, distributing, and selling product.

Speakers spend the first of a 100-minute session detailing current efforts and tips for moving beyond the work-for-hire model. The second half of the session includes a panel discussion which addresses the needs of and offers a roadmap for improving the overall business climate for serious games including ideas for tools, publishing models, consortium approaches, and more.

Idea Takeaway
This session brings together a variety of business managers and executives working in the space who detail current and future ideas for a more diversified and healthier business climate for serious games.

Intended Audience
This session is intented for those interested in learning about new ways doing business, raising capital, distributing, and selling product within the serious games space.

シリアスゲームでもビジネスモデルはしっかり考えないと。

Casual Games: Lost in Translation?
Speaker: Min Kim (Vice President, Wizet Corp - A Nexon Company)
Date/Time: Friday (March 24, 2006) 12:00pm — 1:00pm
Track: Business and Management

Session Description
The media buzz is hovering over Asia, in particular South Korea and China. However, outside of Asia, most developers have not been presented a clear picture of Asia's online gaming space beyond the hack and slash hardcore MMORPGs.

This session aims to educate publishers and developers about what online gaming "looks like" outside of hardcore MMORPGs in Asia and clearly define what casual gaming means for an Asian gamer. Item-selling business models (microtransactions) have been presented in the past but this session aims to discard misconceptions and assumptions and show "visually" what it is, how it is operated, and why it is not only viable but attractive/lucrative and untapped in the West. (This session will not cover hardcore MMORPGS)

Idea Takeaway
Hype is online games but what does that mean really? Why is everyone looking at Asia, in particular China? And are they really? (From personal experience with the big publishers in the West, guests are seen demoing our products and saying "Oh~ This is what they mean by online games! How much?") Item selling models have been presented in the past but few have a clear understanding of what it is and what it looks like. This session will demystify the model by citing Asia's top revenue generating products. Present more ways to make money than subscription services and package sales: Item Sales, Advertising, Sponsorship, Licensing Detail the opportunities and challenges of the item-selling business model. -Show developers how to go directly to market without the help of a publisher

Intended Audience
Game Publishers looking to develop/license for Asia or grow domestic online games market. Game Developers/Producers looking to create games with online interactivity at the core. Media looking to clearly understand what successful online gaming means in Asia beyond the hardcore hack and slash MMORPGS. There are no prerequisites for this session.

アジア市場におけるカジュアルゲームの位置づけ。日本は入っていない。

Coffee Stains: Rights and Responsibilities of Video Game Creators
Speaker: Daniel Greenberg (Freelance)
Date/Time: Friday (March 24, 2006) 12:00pm — 1:00pm
Track: IGDA

Session Description
The video game industry is accustomed to the hot glare of intense political scrutiny and media hyperventilating, but recent attacks on the industry are unprecedented in their ferocity and the level of threatened action. With a record number of anti-video game laws at all levels of government, what can game designers do personally, professionally, and politically? What are the facts? Have games been proven to cause violent crime? What are our rights? Are companies and creators responsible for more than creating a game that will sell? What moral, ethical, and artistic responsibilities do we have when creating games? Do we take sufficient responsibility for the content of our work? What challenges have you faced in determining the content of games? Is it becoming harder to incorporate the kinds of material that PG-13 or R rated movies take for granted? Is it becoming easier? What forces and pressure are brought to bear on us? What role do ratings play in this? How have you exercised creative rights and taken responsibility in your work? Our industry is well advised to sort out these kinds of issues and create real answers before a more powerful entity decides to impose their answers on us.

Idea Takeaway
Learn what your colleagues think about issues of game developer rights and responsibilities, and have your say on these issues.

Intended Audience
Game developers concerned about issues of ratings, creative freedom, and censorship.

アメリカでもゲームへの風当たりは強そう。いかにして守るか。

Competitive and PvP Systems in Massively Multiplayer Games
Damion Schubert (Lead Designer, Wolfpack, a Ubisoft Company)
Thursday, 4:00pm — 5:00pm Game Design/

Session Description
An open-ended roundtable designed in order to discuss how to better take advantage of the greatest difference between MMOs and other games: a socially connected player-base. Emphasis will be on how to apply what we致e learned in order to take these games to the next generation. We'll be dividing up the topics over the three days: ｷ Day One: Player Killing and PvP Systems. ｷ Day Two: Large-Scale Political Systems ｷ Day Three: Other, including nonviolent, competitive social systems. Veteran designers from a myriad of MMO titles great and small will be invited to the talk, in order to share what they致e learned from developing their own online worlds.

Idea Takeaway
As conventional games begin to add online components and in some cases persistence, it becomes vital that massively multiplayer titles embrace their true competitive advantage: having thousands of players online at a time. Yet, most massively multiplayer titles are focusing on smaller scale adventuring, where they need to find competitive gaming systems that embrace the concept of 僧assive・if they hope to compete. There have been some innovative designs attempted by MMPs already live that have taken extraordinary chances in hopes of creating truly unique gameplay that emphasizes large gatherings of players competing against each other. The pitfalls are numerous, and as such, its important for designers in this space to discuss what they致e learned with each other to advance the genre.

Intended Audience
Designers, programmers, and producers of online games, especially massively multiplayer titles, of any level of experience.

MMOのデザインに関する問題。

Effective Advertising Models for Interactive Games: Selling Ads w/o Selling Out
Robb Lewis
Wednesday, 2:30pm — 3:30pm Business and Management/

Overview:
Interactive video game-related advertising is hot! As consumers across multiple demographic profiles shift entertainment time away from watching TV to playing core AND casual games, advertisers are eager to reach them. Find out if your game or business can benefit from advertising dollars and how to balance your game with ads WITHOUT impacting the game play experience. This panel will address what advertisers want, how much they're willing to pay and what measurement and metrics they need, and--beyond static 'product placement' advertising--what additional opportunities exist to generate advertising revenue from Interactive games? We will bring industry experts together from Interactive Video Game Publishers, Advertisers, Technology providers and Industry analysts to discuss the different models and help developers assess if game advertising can benefit their business.

本格的に広告媒体として意識されるようになってきたな。ただ、まだまだ業界全体として経験が不足している。

Free to Play! Pay for Stuff: The Digital Content Sales Frontier
Speaker: Daniel James (CEO, Three Rings), Matt Mihaly (CEO, Iron Realms Entertainment)
Date/Time: Wednesday (March 22, 2006) 12:00pm — 1:00pm
Track: Business and Management

Session Description
Join micro-payment practitioners, pay-for-avatar curious, secondary market mavens, and the in-game-sales skeptics in a discussion of the frontier of online gaming business models. Topics range from the moral ('Is selling items bad for gameplay?')to the banal ('How do I account for these transactions?') to the exciting ('Can I generate more revenue per user than subscription, for a simpler game?').

Korean gamers have voted with their wallets for per-item billing, with over $8m a month in sales for KART RIDER. The model is catching on in the US and Europe, with millions in somewhat shady MMORPG auction sales. Join us to gather intelligence, enjoy the debate, and together chart the future.

Idea Takeaway
Industry peers come together to share war-stories from the battlefront of digital content sales. Following the model of the highly successful Korean 'casual games' and 'pay for avatar' services, along with European success stories Habbo Hotel, developers are eyeing the digital content sales market hungrily. Meanwhile, MMORPGS have created a multi-million dollar 'secondary market' that publishers are keen to participate in. Come join us to discuss what works, what doesn't, and what the future might hold for this exciting new business model for online entertainment.

Intended Audience
Developers and publishers with an interest in online games and a basic understanding of the market and terminology.

アイテム課金の話。このへんはアメリカとかより韓国とか日本とかのほうがよほど進んでる。

Game Environments and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
Speaker: Skip Rizzo, Ari Hollander (Technical Art Director, Imprint Interactive)
Date/Time: Tuesday (March 21, 2006) 3:00pm — 3:45pm
Track: SGS: Serious Game Design

Session Description
In recent years, the field of virtual reality (VR) psychology has made great strides in understanding how controlled virtual environments can help aide people in recovery from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Whether it's war veterans or survivors of terrorist attacks or natural disasters, PTSD is a debilitating illness with incredibly high costs both societal and personal.

Critical to VR based treatments is the ability to create rich environments that allow the therapist to control the environment and gently bring the patient face-to-face with imagery, aural, and other sensory cues that precipitate the onset of stress and anxiety caused by a traumatic event. For years traditional VR tools had been used and with them the essential promise of VR treatment for PTSD has been established. Today many practitioners in the field are turning to game-based technologies in order to improve the environments, the application frameworks for their delivery, lower-costs, and improve turnaround time as this field heads toward wider rollouts and usage.

In this session, two researchers provide a core overview of how game-based technologies and developers are working with researchers to create a new-generation of PTSD tools for therapy. An important PTSD environment to help victims of terrorist bus bombings is also showcased.

Idea Takeaway
Attendees get the opportunity to see the extent to which derivative game technologies can play an incredible role in improving health and healthcare.

PTSDの治療にMMOを使う話。一種の箱庭療法みたいなもの、と考えればいいのだろうか？

Good Design for In-Game Advertising
Speaker: Ian Bogost (President, Persuasive Games)
Date/Time: Friday (March 24, 2006) 12:00pm — 1:00pm
Track: Game Design

Session Description
Advertising in games is appearing more and more, from casual web-based games to the biggest AAA console titles. As publishers look to the future of ads as a secondary revenue stream and as advertisers muscle their way further into the industry, game designers need to understand more about advertising and how to integrate it into their games in a way that neither detracts from the gameplay nor alienates the player.

Attendees learn about the current and historical conceptions (and misconceptions) of the advertising industry and how those ideas shape the relationship between advertiser and game. Topics covered include in-game ad units (including Massive and Nielsen), advergames, in-game product placement, sponsorship, and ads for web or casual games vs. PC or console games.

Idea Takeaway
Game designers learn the fundamental operation of the advertising industry, the different ways advertising has appeared in games since the early 1980s, and best practices for incorporating advertising into gameplay to preserve the spirit of the game and promote an effective advertising message. Attendees hear numerous examples of good and bad integreation of advertising and gameplay and learn how to apply their game design skills to advertising problems. Attendees gain an understanding of how advertising works and how to incorporate advertising messaging into games in a way that benefits both game and advertiser, rather than detracting from both. In particular, developers learn the pros and cons of the in-game ad network methods that are rapidly gaining popularity.

Intended Audience
This session is primarily intended for designers with some experience integrating advertising and gameplay, but it also benefits earlier career designers and studio business leaders. Finally, current and potential in-game advertisers gain insights into what works and what doesn't work.

これまたゲーム内広告。ゲームデザイナーさんたちも広告の勉強せえよ、ということ。

How to Raise Venture Capital to Build a Game Company, Phase II
Speaker: John Welch (President & CEO, PlayFirst, Inc.)
Date/Time: Friday (March 24, 2006) 2:30pm — 4:30pm
Track: Business and Management
Format: 2-Hour Lecture
Experience Level: All

Session Description
John Welch presented the well-attended 滴ow to Raise Venture Capital to Build a Game Company・session at GDC 2005 and would like to offer the audience an opportunity to take what they致e learned and hear about the next phase in the process. This year痴 session revisits the casual game publisher PlayFirst, Inc. a year later. How did the company succeed? With nearly ten titles, an expanded Web site and more funding, clearly there are a few secrets to be learned. Running a company is different than starting it ・entrepreneurs are faced with an entirely new set of challenges. Once you致e built the team, how do you keep it motivated? Once you致e created a hit game, how do you repeat it? How do you keep investors・investing?

Attend this session for a wealth of information and advice that is highly relevant to recent and would-be entrepreneurs seeking to keep their comfortable day jobs behind them while pursuing the dream.

Idea Takeaway
Hear a personal, off-the-hip and honest account from a CEO who started his own game company - one year later. Learn the lessons he has before you make your own mistakes. And hear about the successes he created based on the risks he took.

Intended Audience
People considering leaving secure jobs to join or who have raised capital to create a game development or publishing company should attend this session. There are no prerequisites.

資金調達。ああ資金調達。マクロ的にみれば、ベンチャーキャピタルもいっぱいあるし、金余りは世界的現象なんだが。こういうのは、現場を知らないと何もいえない。

Human to Virtual Human
Speaker: Noah Falstein (President, The Inspiracy), Chris Crawford (Freelancer), Nigel Papworth (Games Content Designer, Interactive Institute of Sweden), Michael Mateas (Faculty Member, Georgia Institute of Technology)
Date/Time: Monday (March 20, 2006) 11:30am — 12:30pm
Track: SGS: Behind the Game

Session Description
One of the biggest needs in the serious games field is for sims and simulated experiences where the player is interacting with synthetic humans. Be it a virtual patient, a troubled employee, or other human contact, there is a growing need for games that allows the practice of both: the macro (i.e. running a system) and the micro (dealing with specific personal situations) responsibilities many people face in their work and life.

Yet, for all the amazing macro-simulation gains games have achieved, human-to-human interactions are of unequal fidelity. There are two core ways around this issue: New technologies that amp-up the "Turing Curve," provided higher fidelity interactions; or design tricks and smart interfaces and play-styles that instill the learning and experience, but do so by avoiding some major issues (e.g. The Sims), both of which have their merits and detractions.

In this session, key serious game community members -working on projects that deal with virtual humans and human-to-human interfaces- discuss the state, and state-of-the-art in a wide variety of efforts aimed at improving the ability to provide rich human-to-virtual-human interactions in games. Topics discussed include conversation systems, role-playing approaches, human modeling and animation, user interfaces, and more.

Idea Takeaway
Attendees of this session learn how virtual humans are a shared critical need across all gaming and a unique need in the serious games field. Attendees get a sense of where the state of the art is and what critical technologies are available or under developed to improve the ability for games to offer rich interpersonal experiences, educational situations, and training.

Intended Audience
This session is intended for serious game community members who are working on or are interested in learning about projects that deal with virtual humans and human-to-human interfaces.

ニセモノにもいろいろあるっちゅうことね。ゲームのＡＩもかなり「人間的」になってきた。

LucasArts and ILM: a Case Study of the Convergence of Games and Film
Speaker: Steve Sullivan (Director of Research and Development, Industrial Light & Magic), Chris Williams (Producer, LucasArts Entertainment)
Date/Time: Friday (March 24, 2006) 2:30pm — 3:30pm
Track: Programming

Session Description
Everyone in the games industry is talking about the convergence of film and games - Lucasfilm is actually doing it. LucasArts and Industrial Light & Magic have come together in an unprecendented technology collaboration to elevate the quality of their next generation titles and bring visual effects production for film closer to real-time. By literally working side by side, building common tools and leveraging each other's techniques, these two companies have unified their efforts for tremendous mutual benefit.

In this panel, hear from the key individuals at both LucasArts and ILM who are on the front lines of this truly unique opportunity.

Idea Takeaway
Attendees leave the panel with a unique insight into how Lucasfilm has brought together an industry-leading visual effects company and a top video game developer and publisher in an unprecendented technology collaboration. Attendees get practical and tangible examples of which tools, techniques, and workflows are being utilized to actually realize the convergence of film and games.

Intended Audience
The session is not heavily technical and is appropriate for anyone involved with designing, creating, or using tools for next generation game development.

映画とゲーム。技術面でのコンバージェンスは進む。企業としてはどうなんだろうか。

MMO Player-to-Player Sales, or "You only paid $50 for that blaster?"
Speaker: Sam Lewis (Lead Designer, Cartoon Network)
Date/Time: Thursday (March 23, 2006) 5:30pm — 6:30pm
Track: Game Design

Session Description
Originally, MMO economies were self-contained mini-games. Players created, bought and sold items to each other痴 characters within the confines of the game. The industry actively fought players who wanted to buy and sell their items to other players for real cash. This was done to preserve the integrity of the game. Nevertheless, player-to-player sales continued and grew into a minor industry. Recently many companies have decided to allow and even facilitate these transactions between players, getting a slice of the action for themselves in the process. How does this business decision impact the design of future MMOs? If you are designing a game that will allow player-to-player sales, what type of infrastructure do you need to support these transactions? What changes in the design of game痴 adventuring, crafting and advancement systems have to be made? Can hordes of cash farmers exist in the same game environment as 菟urists・ This session is open to both business executives and game designers. In it we will discuss the pros and cons of the three strategies of suppression, support and facilitation of player-to-player sales. We will also run through the design impacts of each of those polices.

Idea Takeaway
Originally, MMO economies were self-contained mini-games. Players created, bought and sold items to each other痴 characters within the confines of the game. The industry actively fought players who wanted to buy and sell their items to other players for real cash. This was done to preserve the integrity of the game. Nevertheless the player-to-player sales continued. Recently many companies have decided to allow and even facilitate these transactions between players. The objective of the roundtable is for the participants to think critically about how player-to-player sales influence on the design of the game as a whole. Participants should leave the roundtable with a better understanding of the real world and game impacts allowing player-to-player sales.

Intended Audience
Open to all game designers and game business executives who wish to explore and discuss the impact of player-to-player sales on the design of an MMO.

これもゲーム内経済、中でもRMTの話。RMTを前提にしたゲームデザイン、それがゲームに、ユーザーコミュニティにどんな影響を与えるか。現実経済に対してはどうか。

Murder, Sex and Censorship: Debating the Morals of Creative Freedom
Speaker: Brenda Brathwaite (Game Designer, Savannah College of Art & Design), Jason Della Rocca (Executive Director, IGDA), James Paul Gee (Tashia Morgridge Professor of Reading, University of Wisconsin), Leland Yee (Assemblymember, California State Government)
Date/Time: Thursday (March 23, 2006) 12:00pm — 1:00pm
Track: IGDA

Session Description
In the last year, over a dozen bills targeting video games were put before state Assemblies and Senates throughout America. In other countries, video games were banned outright. Legislators seek to control their sale and their distribution. They complain the industry is out of control and ratings do not work. And in the wake of the Hot Coffee scandal, we face irate politicians and the FTC... again.

What does this mean for game developers? Should they tone down their content? Should they let government regulate the sale of videogames? Exactly how harmful are games? This panel brings together the leaders in the games debate ・Jason Della Rocca, executive director of the IGDA and Assemblymember Leland Yee of California, sponsor of numerous bills seeking to regulate the sale of video games to minors. Also joining the panel will be Prof. James Paul Gee, educator, video games researcher and author of What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy. Other panel members to be announced.

Idea Takeaway
Attendees learn about the history of video game legislation and the current state of the industry, and hear views from all sides ・the developer, the politician, the educator, and the parent. Armed with this information, attendees gain a much better understanding of the issues surrounding and facing the games industry as well as those who seek to make the industry a safer place.

Intended Audience
If you make or play games, this panel is a must for you.

このあたりがだんだんホットになってきた。いいことか悪いことかわからないが。いろいろな意味で。

Online World as Online Nation: Unraveling the Legal Tangle of DRM
Speaker: Philip Rosedale (Founder and CEO, Linden Lab)
Date/Time: Thursday (March 23, 2006) 5:30pm — 6:30pm
Track: Business and Management

Session Description
A few months after its commercial release, the developers of the user-created MMO SECOND LIFE made three radical, interlinked design changes: instead of monthly subscriptions, users pay virtual land use fees; instead of company ownership, users own all content they create in-world; instead of currency based on arbitrary value, 鏑inden Dollars・have real US$ value, as determined by market exchange. Since then, SECOND LIFE has become the largest non-genre MMO on the market, with a subscriber base expected to exceed 100,000 by July 06, with thousands of subscribers make some or all of their real life income through content creation. And at a time when game development has become so expensive, SL has become a proven platform for cheaply and efficiently prototyping games. SECOND LIFE's Founder and CEO presents the world痴 evolution as a case study in a revolutionary alternative of handling digital rights management, virtual economies, and customer-created content.

Idea Takeaway
The audience gains a detailed understanding of innovative user-oriented MMO policies in virtual economy and rights management, and will take away concrete ideas for implementing them into their own projects.

Intended Audience
Beginner-Intermediate, with particular value to developers in the MMO space. In addition, industry members specializing in business development and legal issues who want an understanding of the latest practices in virtual economy and user rights management.

「Second Life」の話。なかなか真似はできないだろうが、やはり関心は高いようだ。

Politics, Religion, and Ideology: New Approaches to Biased Games
Speaker: Ian Bogost (Partner, Game Design / Professor, Persuasive Games / Georgia Tech), Michael Mateas (Faculty Member, Georgia Institute of Technology)
Date/Time: Monday (March 20, 2006) 2:00pm — 2:45pm
Track: SGS: Serious Game Design

Session Description
Many strategies for commercial game development transfer directly into the serious games space, such as approaches to graphics, physics, and networking. But the goals of many serious games require more complex, subtler ways of representing human interaction. Current games in this space tend to skin action or simulation games, hard coding the ideological content and thus limiting the degree to which player interaction can engage the issues explored by the game. In particular, many serious games need characters and situations that respond based on complex social and political contexts.

In this talk, we first discuss the limits of commercial game development techniques, showing what problems are unachievable using conventional commercial design and technology strategies. Then we present an alternate approach for creating credible political contexts and consistent ideological bias for games. This approach is based on the authors・research lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where we are developing general techniques for ideologically biased artificial intelligence (AI) and their application to political game design.

As a concrete example, we will describe and demonstrate a game about a particularly difficult political subject: abortion.

Idea Takeaway
Building serious games that deeply engage political, social and ideological topics requires new design and technology approaches. Attendees learn how to design gameplay explicitly engaging such topics by using game AI that reasons about ideology. This approach enables new designs that move beyond action and simulation-based gameplay. A game about abortion illustrates this approach.

Intended Audience
Serious games developers and designers; foundations interested in public outreach and policy, non-profits, corporations, organizations, and governmental institutions interested in creating games that need to incorporate political, social, or ideological meaning to achieve their goals.

「表現」ないし「主張」としてのゲーム。「biased game」っていう言い方をするんだねぇ。

Real Teachers: Real Games
Speaker: Kurt Squire (Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin)
Date/Time: Monday (March 20, 2006) 4:15pm — 6:00pm
Track: SGS: Learning & Instructional Theory

Session Description
The trend of using commercial-off-the-shelf games in classrooms has gained more traction in the last few years. More and more innovative educators are finding acceptable uses for mainstream commercial entertainment titles as part of their efforts. Past summits have focused on research on this phenomenon. At this year's summit, the goal is to shine a spotlight on specific usage and bring forth the actual educators to share their unique experiences with commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) games in the classroom.

Attendees to this session should take away not only more insight into how to tailor COTS titles for more successful use in non-entertainment settings but also general insight into how games (COTS or targeted projects) will work in schools today.

市販のゲームを教育に取り入れる話。「親の説得」もたいへんだろう。

Serious Games Case Study Blasts
Speaker: Swen Vincke (Managing Director, Larian Studios), Filip Fastenaekels (Producer, VRT), Michael Hillinger (Senior Research Scientist, National Center and Norwich), Chuck Kinzer (Professor, Program Coordinator, Columbia University), John Williamson (President, Zombie, Inc.), Kevin Harvey (Project Manager, University of Illinois at Chicago), Colleen Monahan (Director, University of Illinois at Chicago), Jeff Ridenour (PhD Candidate, University of California, Irvine)
Date/Time: Tuesday (March 21, 2006) 4:15pm — 6:00pm
Track: SGS: Assessment & Results

Session Description
The case blast format is back to the third annual Serious Games Summit @ GDC! The original format from the first year say 5-6 projects showcase critical work and findings in six-minutes. This rapid fire format made it possible to share with the audience a diverse field of projects and offer some useful thinking into the variety of ways games are being applied into new fields. This year the format is improved as it features five case studies each 20-minutes in length. These include the following presentations:

必ids Interactive Community: an innovative cross-media platform for integrating gaming, virtual environments and traditional children's programming.
匹O2FX: a web-based game for teaching middle and high school students about the political, economic, and scientific issues underlying global climate change.
彦2C2: Future Force Company Commander game on how to create a game to promote the future combat systems.
University of Illinois at Chicago discuss the development of a mass multiplayer online simulation, designed to train public health workers to effectively respond to a bioterrorism attack or natural outbreak, such as pandemic flu.
U.C. Irvine presents its project Dino-Dance, a heterogeneous media system for interactive play and learning

シリアスゲームのケーススタディ。政治経済、軍事、危機管理。あの国だと妙に生々しい。緊迫感がちがうからなぁ。

Show Me the Money -- Using Movie and Records Templates to Improve Composer Deals
Speaker: Jim Charne (Lawyer, Law Offices James I Charne)
Date/Time: Friday (March 24, 2006) 10:30am — 11:30am
Track: Audio

Session Description
Analysis of a typical composer agreement in the games industry. Brief presentation on creator's rights in copyright law. A discussion of nature of game music deliverables.Discussion of putting deliverables into the context of movie or recorded music deals. Discussion of compensation models for movies and recorded music. Discussion of applying movie and recorded music models to game music deliverables. Negotiating tips for composers.

Idea Takeaway
When a composer is delivering music, each deliverable may consist of multiple elements that have separate value if this were a movie or recorded music deal. This program reviews the typical game soundtrack deliverable, identifies the component parts, and compares them to similar deals in movies and recorded music. Participants should be able to apply the information to press for better deals in their own soundtrack negotiations.

Intended Audience
Composers working in games or wanting to work in games. Lawyers and managers who represent composers in the games field.

コンテンツ産業の「先輩」である映画や音楽の業界の契約慣行に、ゲームはもっと学ぶべきところがある。特に作り手の権利保護について。日本の場合は、それほど差はないかも。というか、ゲーム業界のほうが待遇がいいという噂も？

Will Wright
Will Wright
Thursday, 12:00pm — 1:00pm Game Design/
Overview: Why are you still reading this? It's Will Wright.

説明はいらない。Will Wright、で充分だ。

Xbox Live Marketplace and Future Directions
James Miller
Thursday, 9:00am — 10:00am Business and Management/

Overview:
Marketplace on Xbox 360 has proven to be a hugely successful, viral channel to connect gamers to their games as well as generate revenue for publishers. This talk will highlight the success of Marketplace to date, best practices for getting your content online and distributed, as well as recommendations on how to best monetize your IP.

Xbox 360のMarketplaceに関する話。

全体として、シリアスゲーム、ゲーム内広告、アジアあたりのセッションが目立っているような気がする。ホットなテーマなのだろう。アジアの話は国際展開だとして、それ以外の部分は、いってみればゲームがこれまでの枠を飛び出して、「ゲーム」以上のものになっていく方向性を示しているように思える。次の大統領選はブログとゲームに注目、かも。