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Planting Trees
Humans have always had an affinity for trees. Trees have always been a part of human history, and much of our progress owes a great deal to trees. For our primitive ancestors, trees represented natural shelter from the elements and protection from predators. Some trees provided nutrition in the form of fruits and nuts. But eventually we discovered trees could be even more useful. We could construct dwellings from felled trees. We could craft weapons to become hunters, or vessels to allow us to float across the water. Wood became fuel for fire, keeping us warm from the cold, and allowing us to be the first animals to cook their food. We could extract treatments for disease and to alleviate pain. Until less than one hundred years ago, trees were a requirement for human warfare, being integral in the construction of nearly every weapon, from the haft of crude axes to bows and arrow shafts to the buttstock of 20th century rifles. Forests became military assets and wood became a commodity of war. We have used trees for nobler purposes. We discovered that pulp from the wood of trees could be formed into a material far superior to beaten strips of papyrus for writing, and the invention of paper in the 2nd century spread from ancient China, through the Islamic world, eventually entering medieval Europe in the 13th century. Onto the pressed pulp of trees we have recorded our holiest texts and our greatest scientific insights. We have scribed our profoundest thoughts and our most trivial banalities. Paper became the vehicle for information commerce, and until the mid twentieth century, the sum total of human knowledge was stored in the products of trees. Even though humans have a penchant for cutting down trees to use them in industry or to claim the land for other purposes, we miss the trees when they're gone. We plant them in our cities, in our gardens, and even replant them in deforested areas. In 1854, Julius Sterling Morton, a young journalist and agriculturist, moved west with his new wife to stake a claim in the Nebraska Territory. The region was mostly devoid of trees, and Morton missed the trees of his youth. He surrounded his home with trees and shrubs, and encouraged other pioneers to do the same. In 1872, as Secretary of the Territory, he proposed a tree-planting holiday, and more than one million trees were planted in Nebraska on that first Arbor Day. Since that day, Arbor Day has been adopted by dozens of countries as national tree planting days, each observed according to climate and suitable planting season. Planting trees is a long-term prospect. Trees grow slowly. Some trees take hundreds of years to mature (the oldest living trees are thousands of years old.) As any amateur arborist knows, even the most rapidly growing trees take years before they can provide any benefit to the planter, whether to prevent erosion, bear fruit, or simply to be pleasing to the eye. Still, we plant them in hope for that future day when we can enjoy their noble quiet and solemn counsel. Making new business connections is a bit like planting trees. It might be years later that the relationship bears fruit. Perhaps the person you meet today will be your new business partner in several years. Perhaps they will become your new best friend who will help you weather the storms of life. Perhaps they will be your investor, your employee, your boss. It's hard to tell, Still, we plant. At a recent panel for game industry startups hosted by Washington Interactive Network, Joseph Tringali (5th Cell Media), Jason Robar (Amazing Society), Jay Minn (Amazing Society), and Jim Deal (Airtight Games), all agreed on one key point: who you go into business with is far more important than product or market ideas. And where do you find partners? By growing your network, one connection at a time. Consider planting a tree this Friday. But also consider planting the seeds of many new relationships at LOGIN in two weeks. Who knows what the future will hold?
Last Day of Online Registration
One pass covers just about everything at the LOGIN Conference. No separate expo passes. No tutorial passes. You won't be left wondering what you're missing at LOGIN. You'll be a peer among other dignitaries at one of the game industry’s premiere conferences. If you’re ready to register for LOGIN, get started here: Once you've registered for LOGIN, we definitely recommend booking your stay at the official conference hotel, the Seattle Marriott Waterfront Hotel, for the exclusive LOGIN rate of $189/night. This rate is only available to LOGIN attendees until April 28, so don't delay. |
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I frequently tramped eight or ten miles through the deepest snow to keep an appointment with a beech-tree, or a yellow birch, or an old acquaintance among the pines. ~Henry David Thoreau |
Party Sponsorship Opportunities at LOGIN 2010The Official LOGIN Networking Party is Wednesday, May 12 at the Seattle Aquarium, and sponsored by RockYou, Frima Studio, and Seven Group. You can still get on board with banner placement and drink tokens to distribute during the party as you mingle and network. To learn more, contact Cynthia Freese at cynthia@loginconference.com, call 1.425.533.5973, or visit the sponsorship page on our website. |
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Additional LOGIN 2010 Speakers AnnouncedWe'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.
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Industry HighlightsWarner Brothers Acquires TurbineWarner Bros. has acquired indie MMO developer Turbine in what is reported to be a $160 million deal. Turbine – the Massachusetts-based studio responsible for Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons & Dragons Online – is now fully owned by Warner following sixteen years of independence. Turbine CEO Jim Crowley said the acquisition will allow it to expand its business globally. » Online games may not boost brainpowerPeople playing computer games designed to improve their cognitive skills might as well be playing Super Mario, according to a new study. More than 8,600 people ages 18 to 60 were recruited from among viewers of a British TV science show and asked to play online brain games designed to improve their memory, reasoning and other skills for at least 10 minutes a day, three times a week. They were then compared to more than 2,700 people who didn't play any brain games but spent a similar amount of time surfing the Internet and answering general knowledge questions. All participants were given a sort of IQ test before and after the experiment. » Petroglyph's MMORTS due next yearTrion Worlds says Star Wars: Empire at War dev's End of Nations and internally developed fantasy MMORPG Rift: Planes of Telara coming to PC in 2011. It's been nearly three years since Trion Worlds first established itself by announcing a development slate of three games. Formed in 2006 by ex-Electronic Arts exec Lars Buttler and Heroes of Might and Magic creator Jon Van Caneghem, Trion announced one of those games would be a collaboration with the SyFy channel and another would be a massively multiplayer online real-time strategy title from Star Wars: Empire at War studio Petroglyph Games. » Zynga and Facebook - It's ComplicatedThe game company can keep growing as long as it stays in Facebook's good graces. More than 120 million people play Zynga's online games. Employee headcount has almost quadrupled in the past year, to 775. Revenue for the three-year-old company should surpass $450 million in 2010, according to two people who have been briefed on its financials. Mind you, Zynga's games are free. Revenue mostly comes from selling virtual hoes and machine guns and such to players of FarmVille, Mafia Wars, and other titles. "Only a few companies are so privileged to get the rocketship growth that Zynga has," says Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and a Zynga director and investor. » Article on Bloomberg Business Week Blizzard's $25 Flying Pony: Milestone or Mishap?When World of Warcraft publisher Blizzard opened its Pet Store last November, it marked a significant change in the way the company does business with its customers. By selling a couple of new (and exclusive) vanity pets in its online store, Blizzard set a precedent; for the first time in the MMO's history, players could buy in-game content in exchange for "real" money. World of Warcraft had finally adopted the micro-transaction revenue model, which naturally raised the question, "What's next?" » Dofus Reaches 30 Million Registered Users, 3.5 Million SubscribersFrench developer and publisher Ankama Games revealed that its free-to-play and Flash-based massively multiplayer online game Dofus has attracted more than 30 million registered players since its launch in September 2004. Of those registered players, 3.5 million pay a monthly fee of around €5 ($6.74) for full access to the game's content, the company disclosed at its Ankama Convention in Paris last weekend, according to a report from consumer site Eurogamer. Based on those figures, the French studio brings in some $23.6 million each month from just subscriptions. » |
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This Friday, April 30, is 
