IMGDC 2007 Day One

I’m back from day one of the 2007 Indie MMO Game Development Conference. With regrets to Nicodemus for telling him I wasn’t going to write up anything, here are some of my thoughts.

I arrived to find the Minneapolis Convention Center packed with girls valleyball, girls dance and a karate tournament. Eventually I found my way to the IMGDC conference rooms. Several people I recognized right away – Dr. Richard Bartle and Brian “Psychochild” Green. I quickly found Robert/”Nicodemus” but was surprised he wasn’t smoking a pipe as his pictures always show.

The first class I attended was “Designing Non-Standard MMOs with Standard Tools” by Celia Pearce from Georgia Tech. She talked about an MMO called “Mermaids” that students are creating as a class using Multiverse as an engine. It has some interesting design elements and was a nice take on something different. They use mouse gestures to cast spells and such, an interesting idea.

We broke for lunch and I was able to spend a good amount of time boring Brian Green with my opinions on the state of MMOs. It was actually a very enjoyable conversation (for me at least) and I had a great time.

Back to the Convention Center, Brian was up and his class was “Taking Your MMO International”. He talked about the benefits and pitfalls of getting your game into other countries. He has a lot of experience with trying to get launched internationally and it was very interesting to hear some of the problems he encountered. He was a very enjoyable speaker and had the audience laughing many times.

Next our own Robert “Nicodemus” Rice was up with his presentation, “Fundraising: An Entrepreneur’s Perspective”. Going up against the “Sex in MMOs” round table was a tough draw but the attendance seemed rather full. Robert explained many of the options and problems of trying to get funding for an Indie MMO and it was very educational. Afterwards he was selling copies of his book and autographing them. They sold quickly.

That was the last class I attended on day 1 and I headed home to my family, skipping out on the party at First Avenue from 10 pm to 3 am. I was pretty tired from working late last night. Hope they all are having fun tonight.

Up next for day two: “In-Game Advertising: Gold Mine or Fool’s Gold” by Robert Rice, “Slaughtering Sacred Cows: Elements of the Current Virtual World Paradigm That Don’t Need to be There” by Dr. Richard Bartle, and I’m still deciding on what other two classes to attend.

Day Two

– Ethic