2:15 PM - 3:30 PM
Track III:
Internet Gaming - Understanding the Massively Multiplayer Universe
The massively multiplayer game universe is growing into a full-fledged digital society. There are now millions of individuals online, committed, involved and addicted to one gaming or social universe or another. When it started – nearly decades ago – the universe was a powerful Net force in text-only formats. Now in today’s advanced graphical broadband universe game and role playing worlds are attracting hundreds of thousands each. With these numbers and the progressive expansion of the technology, the possibilities of how people relate to each other online will be endless. Developers will be able to reach and empower target player segments with greater success and offer people unlimited choice of worlds to live and experience ideas, creativity and fun.
Tim Harris, SVP/Partner, SMG Play
Mike Goslin, Vice President, Virtual Reality Studio, The Walt Disney Internet Group
Patricia Fry, Global Offering Executive, Digital Content Creation (DCC) and Online Games, IBM Corp.
Kim Pallister, Technical Marketing Manager and Processor Evangelist, Software and Solutions Group, Intel Corp.
Jeannie Novak, founder, Indiespace
Jon Jacobs, U.S. Spokesperson, Project Entropia
Scott Cohen, President, Game Trust, Moderator
Tim Harris, VP/Partner, SMG Play, Tim Harris comprises the creative
component of the leadership duo helming SMG Play, the advertising industry’s premiere agency unit dedicated to leverage video games as a consumer contact medium. He brings years of media experience, a reputation for ingenuity and a mastery of pop culture to the table in order to create marketing plans that connect brands with people via the gaming experience. Currently, Harris leads the SMG Play unit—along with co-partner PJ MacGregor—to consult a number of SMG clients on how best to enter the gaming arena and offer relevant brand benefits to engaged consumers. He is directly responsible for: guiding creative content development; crafting brand value through gaming media plan implementation; searching out forward-thinking clients; and reinforcing existing connections in gaming development and distribution. Before launching Play, Harris shared his unique business sense with digital and online sister agency Starcom IP in 1999 to help launch the company and garner new client business. During this time he immersed himself in building the IP brand on a firm foundation by securing a dedicated staff and a happy client roster. The company now has more than 70 full-time employees staffing offices in Chicago and Los Angeles. While serving as the director of messaging and cross-contact architecture for Starcom IP, Harris fueled brand power for Miller Brewing Company, Coca-Cola, Nintendo, U.S. Army, General Motors and Lego. Harris’s trend-spotting skills even contributed to some well-known and award winning marketing campaigns, such as Nintendo’s Perfect Dark Viral campaign and the content aggregation model of the Miller Lite Network. Harris earned his bachelor’s of art degree in telecommunications from Indiana University in 1996. He was born in 1973 in Portsmouth, Virginia and currently resides on the North side of Chicago with his wife, Amy. When he’s not in the office honing his skills as a game developer, Harris can be found at home reading comic books and—you guessed it—playing video games.Kim Pallister is a Technical Software Strategist and Engineering Manag
er with Intel's Software Solutions Group. He and his team focus on media, graphics and gaming technologies and their role in the digital home, and on enabling software developers to take advantage of next-generation technologies. Kim is the author of several technical publications, including the upcoming Game Programming Gems 5 from Charles River Media. He has been with the games industry for eleven years, the last seven of them with Intel.Mike Goslin, Vice President, Virtual Reality Studio, The Walt Disney Internet Group: Mike Goslin is vice president of the Virtual Reality (VR) studio at the Walt Disney Internet Group (WDIG). He is primarily focused on the development of Disney’s Toontown Online, a massively multiplayer online game for kids. Goslin joined the VR Studio in 1996, when it was part of Walt Disney Imagineering, to work on virtual reality attractions for theme parks. Over the next several years, he was technical lead on a series of projects that were developed for DisneyQuest; a chain of "super arcades" featuring Virtual Reality rides and games such as "Alladin’s Magic Carpet VR Adventure" and "Hercules in the Underworld" which opened in 1998, and "Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for Buccaneer Gold" which won the award for Outstanding Attraction from the Themed Entertainment Association in 2001. Before joining Disney, Goslin was a researcher for The Institute for Simulation and Training in Orlando, Florida where he worked with psychologists from the U.S. Army to evaluate Virtual Reality as a means for training soldiers to perform dangerous tasks. During that time, he collaborated with Jacki Morie on "Virtopia", one of the first examples of Virtual Reality as artwork, which premiered at the Florida Film Festival in 1993. Goslin holds a bachelor of science degree from Duke University and a master of science degree in computer science from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where under the guidance of the legendary Dr. Fred Brooks, he led a research team whose goal was to push the limits of what was possible in creating immersive virtual worlds.
Patricia Fry, Global Offering Executive, Digital Content Creation and O
nline Games, IBM: Patricia (Patty) Fry is the global offering executive for digital content creation (DCC) and online games for IBM's Digital Media Emerging Business Opportunity. She leads IBM's efforts to craft meaningful solutions for the DCC and online games markets by applying IBM products, services and advanced technologies, together with products from industry specific independent software vendors, to the market's requirements. Fry was a founding member of the IBM corporate strategy online games task force, which was formed in 2002 to analyze the online games marketplace. Digital Media is one of the key strategic growth areas for IBM globally. IBM has made a multi-year, multi-million dollar investment in digital media products, services and alliances, in addition to building a focused team of hundreds of people. Fry has been a contributing member of this team since its inception. Fry’s prior IBM experience includes having been a principal for systems integration for IBM Global Services, as well as other solutions management, sales and technical sales support roles. She has experience working with automotive, health, government, utility, insurance and other industries. Previously, Fry was a software engineer at the former Hughes Aircraft Company. Fry earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science and a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California. She is an associate member of the Visual Effects Society and has previously spoken at the Harvard Cyberposium, Digital Hollywood conference and Game Networks conference. Fry has been cited in key industry publications, including Warcry, Computer Graphics World, Tech News World and C!Net. She speaks conversational French.Jeannie Novak, founder, Indiespace:JEANNIE NOVAK is the founder of
Indiespace (www.indiespace.com), one of the first companies to promote and distribute interactive entertainment online. Jeannie is also a subject matter expert and instructor for the Game Art & Design program at the Art Institute Online and she teaches at UCLA Extension, Art Center College of Design, and the Academy of Entertainment and Technology at Santa Monica College. Jeannie is lead author and series editor of Game Development Essentials -- a series of books that focus on all aspects of game development (including gameplay, story & character development, player markets & communities, level design, interface design, audio, and project management). Jeannie is also the co-author of three additional books on the interactive entertainment industry, including Creating Internet Entertainment. In the area of game development and generational marketing research, Jeannie has conducted studies on massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) as online distance learning applications -- and she has consulted with entertainment companies on targeting content toward the Millennial (youth) generation. Jeannie is a member of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) and has served on selection committees for the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) and the ALT+CTRL Festival of Independent & Alternative Games at the University of California, Irvine. Jeannie has spoken extensively on game development and interactive entertainment at conferences and universities including Macworld, Internet World, Indie Games Con (IGC), University of Southern California (USC), and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). As founder & CEO of Indiespace, Jeannie was chosen as one of the 100 most influential people in high-technology by MicroTimes magazine and she and her company have been profiled by CNN, Billboard Magazine, Sundance Channel, Daily Variety, and the Los Angeles Times. Clients for Indiespace's online marketing, communication, promotion, distribution and web hosting services have included Getty Center for Education, Sony, A&M Records, and Fox Interactive/Vivendi Universal Games. Indiespace was a finalist in the Global Information Infrastructure Awards and Interactive Digital Entertainment Association Award for Industry Achievement. Jeannie received her M.A. in Communication Management from the University of Southern California (USC) and B.A. in Mass Communication from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. When she isn't writing and teaching, Jeannie spends most of her time recording, performing and composing music.Jon Jacobs, is a famous and high-profile Entropia US Spokesperson.
He is the writer and producer of Gamer Chick, the hit song played in the Project Entropia Universe. It reached #3 on the Video Game Charts on www.ifilm.com beating out Blood Rayne 2 and even Spiderman 2 for a day. Jon Jacobs has written and Directed Five feature films including the Fantasy cult hit "Lucinda’s Spell" a story about the modern day descendent of Merlin. He has just finished directing and starring in HEY DJ!; a music driven film that features the biggest line up of the world’s Famous DJ’s ever to appear in a movie. He also co-stars in the soon to be released MAN of the YEAR, one of the last movies to star the late John Ritter.Scott Cohen, President, Game Trust Inc.: Scott Cohen serves as Presid
ent of Game Trust Inc., the leading provider of gaming infrastructure. As President, he is responsible for domestic and international sales, strategic acquisitions, client services and business development. The Game Trust platform now reaches 50-million players each month throughout North America, Europe, and Latin America, counting ShockWave, MiniClip and Star Media among its major clients. Cohen joined Game Trust in April 2004, and brings over 25 years of expertise in strategic development, deal making and successful negotiations. For several web-related enterprises, Cohen has built sales teams coast to coast and in Europe, developed client services to support accelerated growth, and conducted work-outs and reductions in periods of downturn. His career exhibits leadership in the interactive field in the United States and Europe, and exceptional performance in both corporate and entrepreneurial environments. As a co-founder and/or senior level executive, Cohen was critical to the success of two IPO's over the past six years: LivePerson (LPSN on the NASDAQ exchange) and 24/7 Media (TFSM on NASDAQ). His responsibilities included business development, mergers and acquisitions, sales, marketing, finance, strategic planning, management consulting, and client services. As part of the senior management team, he worked to raise more than $150 million from the public markets and private investors for affiliated companies (Market Cap at IPO over $700 million). Prior to Game Trust, Cohen served as Partner in the Red Tie Media consulting group, assisting venture capitalists and CEO's to help nascent and leading companies expand market share, develop business plans, hire and train their sales force, secure investment, and identify and negotiate potential deals, mergers or acquisitions. Industries of focus included Internet, technology, media, M&A, banking, real estate, and consulting. Long-standing company affiliations, board memberships and Red Tie clients include: LivePerson, 24/7 Media, Petry Media Corp, New World Communications Group, MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings, Revlon, Coopers & Lybrand, EWomp, BeliefNet, Network Commerce, Universal Music, Six Degrees (YouthStream Networks), ShopNow, Next Response, FinanCenter and many others. Cohen began his career in real estate and opened his own firm in 1981. In the late 1980's, he founded a network of commercial real estate affiliates, charged with responding to proposals from the US Resolution Trust Corporation. Metropolitan Asset Corp. grew to encompass over 40 major US cities, handling multi-million dollar transactions, including hotels, shopping malls, office complexes and other investment sales, appraisals and work-outs. Cohen earned his Masters in Business Administration from the William Simon Graduate School of Business at the University of Rochester, after ten years of professional experience in business and real estate. He presently serves on the Board of Directors and/or Board of Advisors for several Internet and technology companies.