My schedule is going to be crazy this year, so I’m not even going to try to nail down what all I’m going to be attending right now. Just the same, I’ve assembled a list of the MMOG events at the Game Developers Conference this year, for your convenience.

Not listed below the cut is anything at the Worlds in Motion Summit, which is nothing but MMO/VW stuff. It’s all good! Go see the whole thing! I’m biased, though: I’ll be moderating an event on Tuesday there. Also not on the list because it’s not MMO-related directly is Damion Shcubert’s ‘Great Design Docs’ talk, now in its second showing. It’s well worth seeing if you have a second on Friday.

I do want to point out one big one, a very-much-must-see event:

Future of MMOs
Speaker: Mark Jacobs (VP EA, Studio GM EA Mythic, EA Mythic), Rob Pardo (VP, Game Design, Blizzard Entertainment), Jack Emmert (Chief Creative Officer, Cryptic Studios), Ray Muzyka (CEO, BioWare Corp.), Min Kim (Director of Game Operations, Nexon America Inc.)
Date/Time: Thursday (February 21, 2008) 12:00pm — 1:00pm
Location (room): Room 135, North Hall

Jacobs, Pardo, Emmert, Muzyka, and Kim all on one ticket? There won’t be an empty chair in the place! Go get in line now! The complete list of GDC MMO events is below.

The World within – Building Social Environments in EVE Online’s Space Stations
Speaker: Torfi Frans Olafsson (Senior Tecnical Producer, CCP Games)
Date/Time: Wednesday (February 20, 2008) 9:00am — 10:00am
Location (room): Room 3020, West Hall

Session Description
CCP Games has committed to enrich the immersive experience of its rapidly growing, single-shard MMOG EVE Online by enabling pilots to leave their ships and navigate the vast corridors of EVE’s space stations. Using Next-Gen avatars, gameplay will be designed with an explicit social focus, enabling interactions such as roleplaying, participation in minigames, and tactical planning for fleet operations. Using agile methodologies such as Scrum to navigate a unique production design paradigm, this project brings together a host of disparate disciplines including fashion designers, architects, industrial designers, artists, programmers, and game designers.

Rules of Engagement: Blizzard’s Approach to Multiplayer Game Design
Speaker: Rob Pardo (VP, Game Design, Blizzard Entertainment)
Date/Time: Wednesday (February 20, 2008) 12:00pm — 1:00pm
Location (room): Room 135, North Hall

Session Description
While epic multiplayer gameplay has long been a defining characteristic of Blizzard Entertainment games, the company’s approach to achieving that result has evolved greatly over time. With each new project, Blizzard developers have applied lessons learned from the company’s previous games to continually update how they design and implement competitive and cooperative play features. In this presentation, Rob Pardo will discuss the goals the company strives for and the pitfalls it tries to avoid when developing the multiplayer elements of its games.

Multiverse: Under the Hood Sponsored by Multiverse
Speaker: Rafhael Cedeno (Chief Technology Officer & Co-Founder, Multiverse), Corey Bridges (Executive Producer & Co-Founder, Multiverse)
Date/Time: Wednesday (February 20, 2008) 2:30pm — 3:30pm
Location (room): Room 2012, West Hall

Session Description
Multiverse’s CTO will detail the company’s unique platform, which enables anyone – from indie developers to huge media companies – to create radically unique virtual worlds. This session includes a demonstration of the company’s innovative World Browser, a single free and downloadable application that lets consumers visit any world built on the Multiverse Platform.

Small Team, Big Dreams: How to Make an MMORPG without a Massive Team or Budget
Speaker: Hermann Peterscheck (Producer, Jumpgate Evolution), Scott Brown (President & CEO, NetDevil)
Date/Time: Wednesday (February 20, 2008) 4:00pm — 5:00pm
Location (room): Room 2002, West Hall

Session Description
In the post WORLD OR WARCRAFT era, many studios are claiming it is impossible to make a competitive MMO product for anything under $40 million dollars and no less than 100 people. However, we now have many examples of successful MMOs that did not require massive budgets: RUNESCAPE, PUZZLE PIRATES, CLUB PENGUIN, and HABBO HOTEL, to name a few. This talk will detail specific methods to developing MMOs with smaller teams and smaller budgets and how the expanding market of MMO players and technologies has allowed highly-skilled studios to compete in the marketplace.

Free to Play! Pay for Item: The Virtual Goods Debate (Day 1)
Speaker: Daniel James (CEO, Three Rings), Matt Mihaly (CEO, Sparkplay Media)
Date/Time: Wednesday (February 20, 2008) 4:00pm — 5:00pm
Location (room): Room 110, North Hall

Session Description
A detailed no holds-barred discussion of the ‘virtual item’ or microcurrency business model applied to online games. The debate covers MMOs, secondary markets, Korean-style advanced casual games, digital collectible games, and the nigh-upon billion dollar business of furnishing chat rooms. 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, generating hundreds of million in annual item sales for KART RIDER and CYWORLD alone. The model is causing excitement amongst developers and investors in the U.S. and Europe, not least thanks to millions in somewhat shady MMORPG auction sales. Join us to gather intelligence, enjoy the debate, and together chart the future.

Proper Use of Episodic Content in a MMO
Speaker: Jack Emmert (Chief Creative Officer, Cryptic Studios)
Date/Time: Thursday (February 21, 2008) 9:00am — 10:00am
Location (room): Room 2014/2016, West Hall

Session Description
The creation and distribution of episodic content in an MMOG is critical to the continued life of a game. Maintaining customers’ engagement with the game through episodic content often is not considered during the rush to develop and deliver the “final” boxed product. This lecture describes the importance of planning an update strategy ahead of launch that is agile enough to meet customers’ expectations as well as conform to the developers’ vision. It breaks down the planning process, including considerations for appropriate additions and changes to content and systems. Additionally, the presenter will discuss the role the community plays in guiding plans through feedback.

Free to Play! Pay for Item: The Virtual Goods Debate (Day 2)
Speaker: Daniel James (CEO, Three Rings), Matt Mihaly (CEO, Sparkplay Media)
Date/Time: Thursday (February 21, 2008) 12:00pm — 1:00pm
Location (room): Room 110, North Hall

Session Description
A detailed no holds-barred discussion of the ‘virtual item’ or microcurrency business model applied to online games. The debate covers MMOs, secondary markets, Korean-style advanced casual games, digital collectible games, and the nigh-upon billion dollar business of furnishing chat rooms. 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, generating hundreds of million in annual item sales for KART RIDER and CYWORLD alone. The model is causing excitement amongst developers and investors in the U.S. and Europe, not least thanks to millions in somewhat shady MMORPG auction sales. Join us to gather intelligence, enjoy the debate, and together chart the future.

Audio for MMO’s
Speaker: Russell Brower (Director of Audio and Video, Blizzard Entertainment), Michael Henry (Audio Director, Cryptic Studios), Geoff Scott (Senior Creative Director, Turbine Entertainment), Chance Thomas (Studio Audio Director, Electronic Arts, HUGEsound)
Date/Time: Thursday (February 21, 2008) 4:00pm — 5:00pm
Location (room): Room 2022, West Hall

Session Description
What makes the development of audio for massively multiplayer online games different from any other type of game development? What unique opportunities do audio developers have when working on an MMO? What creative and technical challenges are faced by audio staff, contractors and management in creating audio for persistent worlds? Come and get these questions answered and more from the audio directors behind WORLD OF WARCRAFT, LORD OF THE RINGS ONLINE and the upcomming MARVEL UNIVERSE.

Future of MMOs
Speaker: Mark Jacobs (VP EA, Studio GM EA Mythic, EA Mythic), Rob Pardo (VP, Game Design, Blizzard Entertainment), Jack Emmert (Chief Creative Officer, Cryptic Studios), Ray Muzyka (CEO, BioWare Corp.), Min Kim (Director of Game Operations, Nexon America Inc.)
Date/Time: Thursday (February 21, 2008) 12:00pm — 1:00pm
Location (room): Room 135, North Hall

Session Description
As the popularity of the MMO genre continues to soar, veteran gamers and potential initiates alike are looking beyond WoW for a new experience that breaks through the boundaries of traditional online gaming. Several experienced MMO developers will discuss their respective visions for the future, offering insights on game design, community involvement, and the challenges facing developers of MOGs in the next several years. The majority of this panel session is reserved for the combination of audience questions and for the panelists to discuss how they see the future unfolding; specifically where is this medium going and how is it going to get there.

Bringing the Brick Online: Inside LEGO Universe
Speaker: Mark Hansen (Director of Business Development, LEGO Group)
Date/Time: Thursday (February 21, 2008) 2:30pm — 3:30pm
Location (room): Room 2004, West Hall

Session Description
Everyone knows that in order to build the next great MMOG, you need to understand a thing or two about how to build community. But what happens if you have an existing community that wants to help build your MMOG? Mark William Hansen, Director of Business Development, the LEGO Group, discusses how LEGO is working with their very dedicated and active community to build their first MMOG, LEGO Universe. The iconic LEGO brick – one of the world’s most beloved toys, and arguably the building block for the first “user-generated content” – lies at the heart of LEGO Universe, and the game is being designed to further engage LEGO fans and provide new ways to interact in a virtual space. LEGO is harnessing the power of fans to build a game that allows players to exercise their imaginations in a new way, while still being rooted in a traditional LEGO experience. From bringing adult fans of LEGO into the game development process to actually build content, to extensive testing with parents and children, LEGO is taking unique steps to create a game that puts community first.

Bloggers/Journos Group Gathering
Speaker: David Thomas (Denver Post/University of Colorado)
Date/Time: Wednesday (February 20, 2008) 4:00pm — 5:00pm
Location (room): IGDA Booth, West Hall

Virtual Greenspans – Running an MMOG Economy
Speaker: Eyjolfur Gudmundsson (Lead Economist, CCP)
Date/Time: Thursday (February 21, 2008) 4:00pm — 5:00pm
Location (room): Room 2009, West Hall

Session Description
Running an active MMOG economy is full of pitfalls and dangers. What does it take to make sure that the trades and exchanges in an MMOG keep moving smoothly? Is it possible to have completely player driven markets and economies overall? What happens to that well oiled machine when 14 trillion gold pieces are removed or someone decides to start a second currency in competition with the official game currency? This panel discusses how the Greenspans’s of different game economies track the economic activity in their games as well as whether or not they should intervene if the market goes south.

My First MMO
Speaker: Dave Jones (Realtime Worlds)
Date/Time: Thursday (February 21, 2008) 5:30pm — 6:30pm
Location (room): Room 135, North Hall

Session Description
“As designers look to make the leap from a finely crafted single player experience to a persistent living breathing world with hopefully millions of connected players what would you do to herald your entry into this space? With a rich heritage of creative IP from DMA Design/Realtime Worlds, Dave Jones walks and talks us for the first time through something a little different from the fantasy based RPG’s. From the DNA of games like LEMMINGS, GTA & CRACKDOWN you should expect some thinking outside of the box.”

Game Design Based on Micro-Transactions in Online Games
Speaker: Gyuhwan Oh (Assistant Professor, Ajou University), Taiyoung Ryu (Graduate Student, University of Southern California)
Date/Time: Friday (February 22, 2008) 9:00am — 10:00am
Location (room): Room 2002, West Hall

Session Description
The presentation covers issues of micro-transactions in Korean online games. Firstly, it deals with comparison between two payment models in online games: subscription based payment model and micro-transactions and discusses with drawbacks of the subscriptions based payment models. We then briefly characterize micro-transactions in online games : features, methods and advantages of micro-transactions. The presentation also introduces various online games with various genres from MMORPGs to casual-style online games which have been successfully adapted micro-transactions as their business model as their case studies. The expansion of micro-transaction based online games is bringing about many changes in the overall game development process from game design, sales to distributions. Finally, the presentation discusses game design issues to efficiently accommodate micro-transactions in online games: how to balance between in-game items obtained by game-money and in-game items purchased by real money, how to abstract the function of such items, and how to strength events and communities.

The State of the Hotel – What Makes Teens Tick at HABBO
Speaker: Sulka Haro (Lead Designer, Sulake)
Date/Time: Friday (February 22, 2008) 9:00am — 10:00am
Location (room): Room 132/133, North Hall

Session Description
HABBO is a virtual world and a website aimed at teenagers. HABBO attracts more than 7.5 million users every month, many of the whom participate in the world’s economy of acquiring virtual property through micro-transactions and author content for the other players using the tools they’ve bought. The session describes some of the processes and principles used to design the product to support open play and end user creativity, with concrete examples of user activity and changes the service has gone through during the seven years of HABBO’s existence. If you missed Sulka’s 2007 Austin GDC Keynote or want to hear the latest updates of what’s happening at HABBO, here’s your chance to learn something new!

The BioWare Live Team: Building Community through Technology
Speaker: Derek French (Associate Technical Producer, BioWare Corp.)
Date/Time: Friday (February 22, 2008) 10:30am — 11:30am
Location (room): Room 2002, West Hall

Session Description
Live teams are common in MMOGs but what about for non-MMOGs? The BioWare Live Team has evolved over the years from supporting NEVERWINTER NIGHTS to assisting development in future game titles. This session will cover the history of the BioWare Live Team and the technologies developed to help build communities around games. Details will be given on lessons learned along the way and how the team interacts with the game development teams and other departments such as web and marketing. Most developers should have their own live team and details will be provided covering the reasoning, planning and creation.

Free to Play! Pay for Item: The Virtual Goods Debate (Day 3)
Speaker: Daniel James (CEO, Three Rings), Matt Mihaly (CEO, Sparkplay Media)
Date/Time: Friday (February 22, 2008) 10:30am — 11:30am
Location (room): Room 110, North Hall
Track: Game Design
Secondary Track: Business and Management
Experience Level: Intermediate

Session Description
A detailed no holds-barred discussion of the ‘virtual item’ or microcurrency business model applied to online games. The debate covers MMOs, secondary markets, Korean-style advanced casual games, digital collectible games, and the nigh-upon billion dollar business of furnishing chat rooms. 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, generating hundreds of million in annual item sales for KART RIDER and CYWORLD alone. The model is causing excitement amongst developers and investors in the U.S. and Europe, not least thanks to millions in somewhat shady MMORPG auction sales. Join us to gather intelligence, enjoy the debate, and together chart the future.

Hitting the Jackpot in the MMO Game Space
Speaker: Chris Evans (President, Outside the Box Software LLC)
Date/Time: Friday (February 22, 2008) 10:30am — 11:30am
Location (room): Room 131, North Hall

Session Description
In the world of interactive game publishing, success can be hard to come by unless you have deep pockets. And, the boutique massive multiplayer online (MMO) interactive game niche is just about the toughest market to crack, particularly for programmers working on their own. This session will look at how independent game developers can successfully produce 3D, browser-based MMO games. Discussion will focus on how indie developers can evolve their games, interact with a community of users, and make money without a formal sales or marketing mechanism.

The Technology of FINAL FANTASY
Speaker: Taku Murata (General Manager, Technical Research Divi, Square Enix Co.,Ltd)
Date/Time: Friday (February 22, 2008) 12:00pm — 1:00pm
Location (room): Room 135, North Hall

Session Description
Taku Murata is the head of R&D of Square Enix. Under his leadership, Square Enix is now developing the common technology platform for the first time. The new game engine will be used for FINAL FANTASY XIII, new MMORPG under development, and other titles in the future. In this talk, Taku will describe the whole process of the engine development; why now, why not third party engine, what is unique, how it is being developed, what were challenges, etc. You’ll be able to see the technological essence of FINAL FANTASY development.

Metaplace Postmortem: Reinventing MMOs
Speaker: Raph Koster (President, Areae, Inc.)
Date/Time: Friday (February 22, 2008) 4:00pm — 5:00pm
Location (room): Room 135, North Hall

Session Description
In August of 2006, Areae set out to try to reinvent many aspects of the fundamental architecture and design of virtual worlds and MMOs. The goal: move away from the current model and towards systems that work more the way the web does today, using open standards and encouraging user participation. In this session, we’ll walk through how it went, and how it works. We’ll discuss the challenges for game developers learning to “talk web,” and the implications it has on designing games that work this way.