While looking over the complete list of sessions for LOGIN today, I was struck with a familiar gloomy thought. It’s a pang of remorse that I’ve gotten every year about this time while working on the conference. You see, with LOGIN I’ve tried to create the kind of conference that I’ve always wanted to attend: big enough to facilitate great networking, but small enough that you are not lost in a sea of faces; a hip, relaxing environment that allows you to recharge your mental batteries instead of getting worn down; and great talks filled with useful, serious, and innovative content instead of rehashes of the same old general audience topics.
It is in achieving this latter goal that I ironically find myself disappointed. As conference director, I’m about as busy as a one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest during the actual conference. I’m lucky if I get to sit down and take in an entire session. LOGIN is the conference where I can’t be a guest. And this year I wish I really could, because we’ve got the best agenda we’ve ever produced. Here are five of the sessions that I most wish to attend:
The New & Changing World of Videogame Financing
Our industry doesn’t suffer from a lack of great game ideas. What we do lack, however, is funding for projects. Brayden Olson, one of the most successful new entrepreneurs I know, will talk about funding opportunities for new and existing teams and how he has utilized them for his new startup, Novel. The potential partners available to startup, small-, and mid-size videogame firms may surprise you.
Devs vs. Trolls: A Survival Guide to Player Communications
For years, the responsibility for communication with players has fallen to highly trained ninjas with liquid tongues and cat-like reflexes — the community managers. Many teams are now getting their devs involved in talking to the community — sometimes to humanize the development team to the players and sometimes because the teams are too small to support specialized roles. Linda “Brasse” Carlson, director of Global Community Relations at SOE, explains how to avoid the pitfalls that await in communicating directly to players.
From Grand Theft Auto to a Perfect 10: How Games Get Reviewed
Video game reviews can have a very real effect on a consumer’s intent to purchase and a game’s overall success (especially with score aggregators like MetaCritic), but they are often one of the least understood parts of the marketing and public relations process. In this lecture, veteran game critic Erik Brudvig will provide an inside look into how video games get reviewed and answer some oft asked questions. How are scores awarded? How long does a reviewer play a game before writing his or her assessment? How are media outlets adapting to the changing face of games and the increasing importance of online play?
The Necessity of Social Game Distribution and the Future of Cross-Platform Convergence
Over the past two years, numerous restrictions, policy changes, and the over-crowded competitive landscape has necessitated the need for game developers to expand their social game operations beyond Facebook to maintain growth and economic viability. Jude Gomila, president and co-founder of HeyZap, explains why game developers must pursue other distribution channels in order to fulfill a healthy user acquisition strategy.
Gamification Will Eat Itself: How Gamification Can Evolve, and Why It Must
Like the explosive growth of a strain of virulent bacteria, gamification has gone from a tiny spark to a powerhouse trend in the blink of an eye — tens of thousands of tweets, hundreds of thousands of search results, and millions of VC dollars pouring into the space. But can simply adding some points, levels, and badges really create the kind of sustained lift in acquisition, loyalty, and engagement its most ardent advocates believe? Not likely, according to Scott Dodson, COO of Bobber Interactive, but the potential is there as gamification grows beyond its behavioralist and marketing roots and embraces solid game design.
Those five sessions are just the tip of the iceberg. Look a bit deeper, and you’ll find a wealth of excellent and hard-hitting talks given by folks who really know their stuff. I wish I could attend all of them, and I know you will feel the same way after looking at the conference agenda.
One talk that I personally won’t miss, and I suggest you don’t either, is Online Games 2016: Twelve Spoilers for the Future, a recurring annual panel that I again have the pleasure of moderating. Each of my four distinguished panelists — Greg Bear, Scott Dodson, Rick Lambright, and Jamil Moledina — will be presenting their very unique and daring predictions about changes in the online game industry over the next five years. Some of these prognostications will greatly surprise you, some may unsettle you, but they may just be your best chance to get a head start on the future.
Fortunately for you, you have the chance to attend any one of the more than 60 outstanding keynotes, lectures, and panels at LOGIN this year. But don’t wait to register, because after this week, the online registration price goes up $100. Wait too long, and you might have some regrets of your own.
