Designing a video game intended for millions of users undoubtedly sounds difficult, but after overcoming hurdles, Blizzard found massive success in World of Warcraft. At the Game Developers Conference 2008, Blizzard's senior vice president of game design Rob Pardo wasn't shy of sharing the ingredients that made WoW a phenomenon. Wanna know the secret behind the MMORPG with over 10 million subscribers? Look no further than the full article!

When you talk about the PC gaming market, two of the most popular titles off the top of people's heads would probably be Blizzard's World of Warcraft and EA's The Sims franchise. Lionhead Studios boss Peter Molyneux explains that these two games are the cause behind the "tragic" state of PC gaming today. To find out more about what Molyneux had to say, check out the full article.

Blizzard's coming to the 2008 Game Developers Conference and has a bunch of events lined up for the five-day gathering. The studio that brought us the Warcraft and StarCraft franchises will talk about the future of MMOs, show a new cinematic teaser for StarCraft II, and more besides. Check out the full article to find out what else they're bringing to the GDC.

Have you ever wondered how game developers went about developing the kinds of games you enjoy playing? If you're thinking of attending the Game Developers Conference in February, then you're in luck. Representatives of various game development companies will be talking about the games they've worked on, with four sessions currently slated for the conference.

Find out what those four sessions are about after the jump!

The first keynote speech at the currently unfolding Austin Game Developers Conference (Austin GDC) came from no other than Blizzard Game Producer Mike Morhaime for World of Warcraft. The said event, taking place at the Austin Convention Center in Texas, began yesterday and will run until tomorrow.

Anyway, the producer's speech was focused on how WoW will continue to rule the gaming world. According to him, there are exactly 10 steps that Blizzard has implemented for World of Warcraft and following them is one of the key factors why the game has been very successful all these years. The steps are as follows with a few explanations from the producer:

1. Put Gameplay First
2. Make Your Games Easy To Learn, Difficult To Master (cited Guitar Hero as a good example of this principle)
3. Resist Pressure To Ship Early ("Nobody looks back on Diablo and thinks 'How much better it would have been if they had released it three weeks earlier'", Morhaime said.)
4. Resist Pressure To Do Everything At Once
5. Estimate Demand (Finding out how many people have the technology and Internet infrastructure available to play your game.)
6. Human Resources Is Important (The success of WoW led to a massive scaling up of the Blizzard.)
7. Running An MMORPG Is Not Just Games Development (24/7 IT, customer service, and community management are essential elements of a successful online game.)
8. Communicate Or People Will Make Stuff Up (Make sure your company has teams dedicated to keeping the community and internal company figures informed of bugs, fixes, and other games issues).
9. Avoid Financial Incentives (Minimize financial rewards from gaming sweatshops, credit card fraud, and account stealing.)
10. Test (Blizzard's testing process involves three steps - everyone at Blizzard plays the game, a public beta is launched, a test site with dedicated test server is set up.)

Michael Morhaime, Blizzard co-founder and the father of World of Warcraft, and Sulka Haro, the creative leader behind the Habbo Hotel virtual community, will each present a keynote lecture for the Online Games Track at the 2007 Austin Game Developers Conference.

"For online games and virtual worlds, Blizzard's World of Warcraft and Sulake's Habbo Hotel have pioneered the way and set precedence on how MMOs can transcend into real communities as well as establish new e-commerce models," said Jane Pinckard, Content Manager for Austin GDC. "We can't wait to hear what the men behind these iconic games have to say regarding the future of online gaming."

Aside from the Online Games Track, the Austin GDC will also feature lectures, tutorials and round-table discussions on three more tracks: audio for games, writing for games and a new People's Choice track featuring sessions community members want to see most. Austin GDC will take place September 5-7, 2007 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas.

Dr. Edd Schneider, 12-year veteran attendee of the Game Developers Conference (GDC) and associate professor at the State University of New York at Potsdam, recently gave a speech at the GDC about a topic we often take for granted. The talk was titled "English Speaking Players as In-Game Content."

What Dr. Schneider basically wants is to introduce international servers in Blizzard's World of Warcraft and other games like it. It is common that people could only play WoW and other online games on their own localized servers. He believes that international servers would be better for game makers and gamers. He also stressed that non-English speakers could be enticed to learn English if they play an MMO with or against English speakers.

Dr.Schneider said that "a lot of online games have gotten bad press where you get a couple of idiots in a chat room or in a guild that will say, 'Only perfect English. If you don't speak perfect English then get out of here,' " he added that "they'll hassle players from other countries."

Last year, Dr. Schneider tested his theories by recruiting graduate students to play online games with students from Shanghai's Qi Bao High School. They noticed a significant improvement in the English skills of the Chinese students. Dr. Schneider even said that "They were going from, 'Oh my God, I'm afraid to talk, I'm just gonna type,' to, 'How's it going? I'm going to kick your butt this time in this game.' " Because of this, he's preparing a program this summer incorporating his theories. He's hoping to eventually turn the program into a summer camp.

Game Informer Magazine has three images of the Video Games Live (VGL) concert that closed the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2007 at San Fransisco. VGL is a concert tour that features music from video games, and each concert is a treat: the music is combined with video presentations, light and laser effects, and other special effects.

Having a VGL concert at the GDC made perfect sense, and the GDC concert was a star-studded one (we earlier published a list of all the composers and artists at the GDC VGL).

VGL: a multimedia concert. Like any Video Games Live concert, the music was amazing. There was an orchestra and a 16-member choir conducted by game composer Jack Wall (Myst, Splinter Cell, Jade Empire). There was a screen that showed synchronized video footage. Audience members were brought up to play Space Invaders and Frogger on the big screen - the orchestra provided live music (complete with tempo changes!).

As usual, during the Metal Gear Solid portion of the program, an actor dressed as a guard walked onto the stage - and the infamous alert exclamation mark (!) appeared over his head - much to the amusement of the audience (the poor guard didn't notice a large box sneaking past him). (An earlier QJ.NET article on VGL concert dates has a video of a similar scene from another concert.)

Other musical highlights included "Baba Yetu" from Civilization IV, the explosive "Liberi Fatali" from Final Fantasy VIII, and the World of Warcraft suite - all three masterpieces got huge reactions from the audience.

A night of video game music artists. As reported earlier, there were also performances by LucasArts composers Peter McConnell, Michael Land, and Clint Bajakian. "VertexGuy" powered the stirring electric guitar anthems of Contra and the Halo 3 grand finale. The "Video Game Pianist" was also there to play Dig Dug and Pac-Man music on the piano.

Super Mario and Zelda composer Koji Kondo (who received a lifetime achievement award at the GDC earlier in the week) played a piano solo of music from Super Mario Bros. (the audience went wild, taking out their Nintendo DS units and mobile phones to wave them in the air as lights).

Let the world know: video games are a legitimate art form. Having the VGL grace the GDC with its presence is a statement to the industry and to industry-watchers and critics. "I think what tonight helps prove is how legitimate video games have become as an art form," said Tommy Tallarico, a game composer and the co-creator of VGL.

  

 

At the Game Developers Convention (GDC), Jong Hyun Wi, Ph.D, gave a presentation regarding East and West gaming preferences and why the World of Warcraft seems to work for both. He is the president of the Game Contents Research Center at Chung-Ang University, Korea and during the GDC presentation, showed some interesting numbers about eastern and western players.

Dr. Wi gathered polls from player communities from both territories and found several differences between the two sides. Chinese players are more goal oriented which means they value item gathering. Customization, number of valuable items and item diversity are most attractive to them. Also, Player vs Player (PvP) gameplay is an important part of the gaming experience and socializing in game is mostly for play advantage.

Western gamers on the other hand prefer good graphics and quests. Only 34.7% of American gamers experienced PvP as opposed to 91.3% of Chinese players. Western gamers like the hunt for items though it's more important for them that the quests or raids be substantial. Another gaping difference is that 48.68% of Americans join guilds to meet friends.

Dr. Wi concluded the Chinese players are focused on the endgame while American players prefer fostering communities. And since Blizzard's World of Warcraft basically has all the said content, there's no question why it shouldn't appeal to both Eastern and Western players - even when Asian MMOs get imported to the US and Western MMOs fail miserably when trying to grab an Asian playerbase.

"A Game Developers Conference in China is long overdue," said Hugo Shong, President and CEO of IDG Asia. "At long last, there will be an opportunity for Asian and Western game makers to discover everything that the Chinese game market has to offer."

Yes folks, the GDC is coming to China. CMP Technology, the people behind the GDC, have partnered with IDG to produce GDC China. The inaugural event, featuring content programmed by an advisory board consisting of local Chinese developers who share a commitment to promote and support their country's game industry, is set to take place August 27 to 29 in Shanghai.

The most telling difference between GDC China and the original GDC is that GDC China will be produced "by China, for China," offering unique learning, sharing and networking opportunities for the Chinese market, and those looking for a vertical reach into that market.

"GDC is about connecting the worldwide game development community, but it has become more and more apparent to us that certain markets require a unique, specialized experience," said Meggan Scavio, Senior Conference Manager of CMP's Game Developers Conference. "The local developers on the GDC China advisory board hope to make that experience a reality and give the burgeoning Chinese market an infusion of creative ideas and strategic partnerships."