Given that I’m pretty enthused about Free Realms already, you’d be right in thinking that Wizard 101, the recently-announced card battle kids game from KingsIsle, also has my interest piqued. Massively has a writeup on it today with some hands on impressions, while WarCry’s got the thousand-foot view.

Sez the latter, “We want to be an online entertainment company,” chief executive Akilian said during a four-person press tour. “To become a real company, you have to have a conveyor belt of games,” he said of different titles that will appeal to multiple markets. Which is a key to Wizard 101: It’s pitched as the game for players between Club Penguin and World of Warcraft.

I find that statement really interesting; is niche-finding nowadays going to be just a matter of bisecting markets and finding the holes ‘between’ games? Is this niche that W101 finds itself identical to Free Realms? Is Free Realms’ niche bigger? What happens when someone tries to aim a game between Free Realms and World of Warcraft? That’s a much smaller hole to jump into, and it’s already getting crowded.

What’s a purely teen-aimed game going to look like? I’m sure we’re going to see them in the coming year. When are we going start seeing MMOs for older folks that aren’t all breast/beer/blood like Age of Conan?

Interesting times, as the man says.

My last session writeup for IMGDC is up on Gamasutra; I’ve got interviews to turn in and get posted still, though. Good stuff.

This one is all about Nick Fortugno’s chat on the casual view of the MMO genre. In my opinion, this was probably the most important talk given all weekend, and it was very sparsely attended. As usual, there are a ton of notes that got left out of the talk, especially from the end. Read on after the cut for more content from the talk.

I also want to say, Nick had an incredibly engaging speaking style. If you ever get the chance to hear him give a talk, do it! Good times.

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Another post up on Gamasutra from the IMGDC event - and this one I’m simultaneously pleased and saddened by. The article is all about Dr. Richard Bartle’s Sunday Keynote. It was an inspiring, awesome look at the future of the genre. Pleased because they really got the core of his speech from my notes. Saddened because they cut out his awesome Good, Bad, Ugly analogy using movies and muppets! Ah well - just means I can post those notes here. They also cut out his rationale for why the Good would ultimately triumph, which I think is well worth reading about.

If you’d like to check out the full slideshow from the talk, Dr. Bartle has put up his Powerpoint presentation on mud.co.uk.

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My writeup of Gordon Walton’s inspiring IMGDC talk is available on Gamasutra today. There were a couple of events/conversations that made the event totally worth the trip, and this is one of them. He really hit home with great ideas about hunting up new markets and sticking to passion. He particularly got to me when he talked about getting inside people’s heads; it was a way of talking about content creation I hadn’t really heard put quite that way before. I actually helped me to understand why I do what I do a little bit. I’m not sure that makes sense, and I’m pretty sure I didn’t articulate that sentiment well to him when I thanked him after the talk, but there you go.

Massively did a quick writeup of my talk writeup, which is good and awesome as well.

As you probably know, though, w/u’s like that are just a portion of the event - I have a ton more notes that didn’t get drawn on for the piece. I think they’re plenty valid, though, so read on below the cut for the extensive cut material from his talk. Also features probably my favorite quote from all weekend.

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Last week, to mark the release of the first version of the Multiverse Platform, Corey Bridges took some time out of his day to talk with me about the company’s ambitious plans. A free product for everyone to develop with, Multiverse hopes to be nothing less than a creativity engine for individuals and groups looking for inspiration.

Below are my notes and some quotes from our conversation, which touched on the platform, Multiverse’s goals, and some creative folks that have already put the technology to good use. And … I even managed not to ask about Firefly. Go me.

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Some folks are trying to resurrect Earth and Beyond via Emulation. If’n you’re not familiar with the game, it’s one of the few big commercial MMOGs to have had its plug pulled.

It went past on The Forge’s blog early this month with little commentary outside the post, but it made my eyebrows go up. Iron Realms sprang for two fulltime positions for their flagship MMOG Achaea. These aren’t developers or designers - they’re “Assistant Producers for Roleplay“.

As Assistant Producer for Roleplay, you will help to ensure the continuous flow and evolution of the roleplay and storylines within the world of Achaea, in order to promote overall game dynamism and the immersive appeal of a changing environment open to influence via interaction. Responsibilities include, but are not limited to: working with other staff and volunteers to prepare and carry out roleplay story scenarios; extemporaneous roleplayed interaction with the playerbase; assisting in the continuous development of a cohesive world background, history, and mythos; and content creation, such as writing scripts, summaries, or promotional material for roleplay events.

The hires were made from two of the ‘Gods’ they had already working on the game. They’re now working as RP facilitators. These are two positions added to a small game run by an indie developer. The idea, in and of itself, sounds awesome. Why don’t we see stuff like this in bigger games that can more obviously afford such extravagances?

The answer, of course, is right there in the comments. Cael wrote:

Thumbs up to The Forge and  Achaea for their new deal. I hope it works out well for you.