February 24, 2010
In This Issue

LOGINBeat

Additional LOGIN 2010 Speakers Announced
Meeting of the Minds: The Carrots and Sticks of Digital Rights Management
Industry Highlights

Richard Garriott comes down to earth with Facebook game startup
Interzone Games Perth closes, Staff locked out
Study: Online Game Revenue To Reach $24.8 Billion by 2013
Xulu Entertainment Developing Platform For Virtual Worlds
The Issue and Consequence of Homophobia in MMOs
Tiger Woods Online lures office workers
Online firms and toy companies clash over kids virtual worlds
Simutronics Sees More Hero Engine Adoption, Reorganizes

Sponsorship Opportunities Available at LOGIN 2010

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Additional LOGIN 2010 Speakers Announced

We're pleased to announce additions to our all-star cast of speakers for LOGIN 2010. We'll continue to announce speakers each week in LOGIN Beat, and you can always see the most current list of speakers on the conference speaker page.

Session selection is still ongoing, so if you submitted a proposal and have not heard anything yet, don't despair. We had a tremendous number of submissions this year, and it will probably be a few more weeks until we've made final decisions on sessions.

See the complete list of speakers

	John K. Bates Platform Evangelist Mindark Entropia Universe, Mindark.com John K Bates represents Mindark, creators of the Entropia Universe platform and is responsible for business development, strategic marketing & PR initiatives throughout North America. Mindark's Entropia Universe has set all three World Records for the most expensive virtual item ever sold with the most recent being the sale of the Crystal Palace Space Station at auction for $330,000 USD. An Internet trailblazer since 1987, Bates is also an owner of Goldstar.com, the world’s leading direct marketer of live entertainment. John also co-founded BIGWORDS.com, a leading youth marketer and textbook seller. John has been involved at the intersection of the Internet, Virtual Reality and Gaming since 1994.
	Jason Della Rocca Senior Consultant, Perimeter Partners Jason is the founder of Perimeter Partners, a consultancy that provides strategic level guidance and expertise to companies and organizations on the boundary, or perimeter, of the game industry. For nearly nine years, he served as the executive director of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), a professional society committed to advancing the game industry and the careers of developers. Jason was honored for his industry building efforts with the inaugural Ambassador Award at the 8th annual Game Developers Choice Awards. He continues to be an advocate for the expressive power of games and their capacity to change the world.
	Brenda Brathwaite Creative Director, Slide, Inc. Brathwaite is a game designer and artist who began working in the video game industry with Sir-tech Software in 1981 with the seminal Wizardry series of role-playing games. She also contributed to the Jagged Alliance, Realms of Arkania, Def Jam and the Dungeons and Dragons series and has designed games for Atari, Infogrames, Electronic Arts and a wide variety of private clients. She is presently the Creative Director at Slide, Inc. on social media entertainment products.
	Monty Sharma VP Product Management & Marketing, Co-Founder, Vivox Monty possesses a unique combination of savvy business sense, deep technical knowledge and geek-itude that makes him uniquely qualified to serve as vice president of product management and marketing at Vivox. Sharma has been an integral part of the team that has made Vivox not only the market leader in voice services, but also a trusted resource on community building and online social interaction.
	Ali Moiz COO, Peanut Labs Ali is a co-founder at Peanut Labs, one of the leading virtual currency monetization networks in what has become a $1.5 billion industry in 2009. At Peanut Labs, Ali manages partnerships and business development activities. Previously, Ali ran Xuqa, a social gaming site which was one of the pioneers of the virtual currency model for free-to-play games and virtual worlds. Ali is looking forward to bringing a wave of virtual-currency enabled monetization to the rest of the Web. When he's not helping other people make money, Ali likes to race fast cars and moonlights as a pirate.

LOGIN was positively energizing. I was absolutely thrilled to be surrounded by professionals working in MMOs and virtual worlds.

Sande Chen, Writer/Designer

The Carrots and Sticks of Digital Rights Management

Digital rights management has become that necessary evil that all content creators have had to at least consider getting in bed with, especially as the world becomes more connected and internationalized. It only makes sense. Movies, music and game crafters and distributors have variously suffered from the slings and arrows of piracy and content swapping. The music business suffered ridicule for years after their lobbies sued portals and individual users but didn't do enough quickly enough to embrace new digital distribution. Making content legally and easily accessible while protecting the content itself has always been the utopian goal. No media business is immune from the struggle to get it right. No, not the game industry either.

For good or for ill, UbiSoft is bold enough to explore a new sort of digital rights management (DRM) policy for most of their new and future game releases. "For ill", seems to be the generally critical view of the French game-maker's decision to implement anti-piracy measures in their DRM that require PC versions of games like Assassin's Creed II and Settlers VII. In these games players must have a constant online connection so Ubisoft can regularly ping for the validity of the software being used on the gamer's PC. If you don't have a constant online connection, you will not be able to play even the single-player version of their game. In a perverse fashion, it's another way the online gaming revolution has helped find us all.

Electronic Arts has taken on the balancing act between piracy concerns and shoring up their revenue stream by spelling DRM as "DLC". Downloadable content (DLC) is one way to make sure each gamer is treated as a walled gardens. Under the surprisingly direct code name, "Project Ten Dollar", Electronic Arts rewards gamers who buy a new retail game and register it with access to free downloadable content. Already some of EA's recent triple A releases, such as Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age, are part of the Project -- and Battlefield Bad Company 2 will be when it is released. If you buy or trade for that same title used, you can opt in to have access to the DLC through a separate $10 or more fee. So, gamers who buy an EA game title without the fresh-from-the-stockroom-smell buy the game once, but potentially pay twice. Not surprisingly, retailers who specialize in used game sales are not particularly thrilled with this new approach to revenue generation. But, considering sold 2 million copies of Mass Effect 2 were sold in the first week alone, it's safe to say that EA hasn't taken a hit for their DLC approach with the game.

Read full article and post your comments

Paul Philleo
Contributing Editor
LOGIN Beat

Industry Highlights

Richard Garriott comes down to earth with Facebook game startup

The last we heard from video game designer Richard Garriott, he was in outer space. Taking time off from game design, he dished out $30 million to take a private space flight to the International Space Station. Now he has come down to earth, giving up on massively multiplayer games. But today, he is coming out as one of the founders of Facebook game company Portalarium. »

Story on GamesBeat

Interzone Games Perth closes, Staff locked out

The West Australian and WA Business News reports that U.S based Interzone Games have locked down their lead development studio in Perth on Thursday. Ten of the remaining Interzone staff were picketing at the front of their former workplace in protest of unpaid wages and superannuation as far back as 18 months, after being locked out of the premises and left unable to retrieve personal belongings. »

Story on tsumea

Study: Online Game Revenue To Reach $24.8 Billion by 2013

Growth in the global video game software market will continue in the coming years, with revenues growing from $46.5 billion in 2009 to $64.9 billion by the end of 2013, according to the Strategy Analytics report, "Global Video Game Market Forecast." The report projects increased spending on physical game software (made for console, handheld and PC), as well as digital downloads, online subscription services, in-game advertising and sales of virtual goods. »

Story on EDGE

Xulu Entertainment Developing Platform For Virtual Worlds

Xulu Entertainment is developing its own virtual world as well as a development platform for othes. The theme of the company's own world is intergalactic travel. Set on a planet called Eidolon, the world will feature adventures, games, vehicle-based sports, social activities and shopping. It's aiming to take advantage of newer computer's processing power, including working with physics packages to integrate "immersive human interfaces such as touch, motion, facial recognition, voice, sound, gesture, brain-wave, and Wii(TM)-type, as well as traditional controllers." »

Story on Virtual Worlds News

The Issue and Consequence of Homophobia in MMOs

The ubiquity of online gaming communities comes with a price. It's easier to spread bigotry and inflict prejudice in virtual spaces than ever before. That's not to say that problems like these are anything new, or exclusive to online mediums like gaming networks. By middle-school, practically every student in the country is exposed to defamation in some form. Homophobia is particularly one of the most-debated issues in online gaming today; harassment of gay and lesbian gamers in virtual communities is drawing more media attention than ever before, and some analysts believe it's only getting worse. »

Article on ZAM

Tiger Woods Online lures office workers

While the world eagerly awaits Tiger Woods' return to the golf course, one group of people have been engaging with the sport's biggest star throughout his self-imposed exile. Sneaky office workers are flocking online in their thousands to check out Tiger Woods Online, the latest and most high-profile of a swarm of browser-based golf games. According to the game's executive producer Michael Taramykin, "Interestingly enough we are noticing that our peak play times are between 12 and 1 during the day. Add to that the fact that 75% of our audience is over 34, and it sure does sound like a little office golfing to me." »

Article on CNN

Online firms and toy companies clash over kids virtual worlds

For many years toy and video game companies have been battling each other for the mindshare of kids. Toy companies have strong products targeted at children from pre-school up to about second grade, when they turn 7 or 8. Then, at about age 8, video games start to replace traditional toys. Over the last few years, an entirely new competitor for children’s time has come onto the market – the online gaming world. Several independent companies have figured out how to capture the attention of the 8-12 year old child in a completely new way — through virtual worlds and online gaming experiences. »

Article on GamesBeat

Simutronics Sees More Hero Engine Adoption, Reorganizes

Simutronics announced today that it would be reorganizing into two divisions, Hero Engine and Simutronics Games. New licensees include a US publisher for a multi-title deal, virtual worlds with government and non-profit applications for a European organization, and stealth-mode projects across China, Europe and the US. The Hero Engine team, now headed by Neil Harris as President and Herb Marselas as Vice President, Engineering, will focus on further adapting the development engine for collaboratively building 3D worlds. David Whatley, CEO, is also taking on the role of President of Simutronics Games. The Games division will now focus on the development of new games for social networks and iPhone. »

Story on Virtual Worlds News

Sponsorship Opportunities Available at LOGIN 2010

Without our sponsors there would be no LOGIN! We are currently seeking sponsors for the 2010 event. Interested? To learn more about sponsorship opportunities at LOGIN visit the sponsorship page on our website, contact Cynthia Freese at cynthia@loginconference.com, or call 1.425.533.5973.

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