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August 28, 2007

Gameplay Metrics for a Better Tomorrow

Speaker: Darius Kazemi, President, Orbus Gameworks
Topic: Gameplay Metrics
Location: Brown's Brewing Co., 417 River Street, Troy, NY
Date: Wednesday, September 12th, 6:30-9 PM

When designing and maintaining an MMO, developers are faced with a litany of questions. Do mages level faster than fighters? What vehicles are being neglected? Which players are hubs of our social networks? What areas are densely populated? How can we detect gold farmers?

These questions are often answered with intuition - and these answers often introduce assumptions that, while intuitive, are also dead wrong. Data metrics can provide a wealth of quantitative information about player behavior, provided that there is a solid technical backbone and that an appropriate methodology is followed.

This talk will cover examples of how data metrics can crush commonly-held assumptions about player behavior and give designers a new perspective on how their virtual worlds really work. Darius will show how to ask the right questions of your game so you can get the most out of a metrics system, covering basic census information, combat metrics, macro- and microeconomics, and social network visualization.

Darius Kazemi is a data junkie, and he knows from experience that metrics, properly collected and analyzed, can vastly increase the value of each iteration in a game's development cycle. He earned his gameplay metrics chops keeping track of player behavior in games such as Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons & Dragons Online. He's an active IGDA member, most notably as a Technology Co-Officer of the IGDA Education SIG. He keeps a blog about games and the game industry over at Tiny Subversions, and is a generally useful guy to know.

Posted by JameyStevenson at 04:41 PM | Comments (0)

August 03, 2007

Photos from August meeting with Casey

Tobi speaks a bit about IGDA goings on

Casey talks about his experiences in India

Casey speaks fervently

Attendees listen intently

Casey fields questions after his talk

Discussion after the talk

Posted by MeganPerry at 12:28 PM | Comments (0)

August 01, 2007

Games in Education Symposium 2007

On July 23rd the first annual Games in Education Symposium was held at WMHT in Troy, NY. Chapter Coordinator Jamey Stevenson was there to report on the event. Here's an excerpt.

"This past Monday I attended the Games in Education Symposium in Troy, NY. The event, which was put on by 1st Playable Productions and WMHT, offered a chance for educators and developers alike to rub elbows, share experiences and insight, and exchange ideas about the future of game-based learning, both in and out of the classroom."

Read the rest on Jamey's website: http://www.jstevenson.com

For more pictures of the event check out the GiE 2007 Photoset on flickr.

Posted by IanStead at 09:45 PM | Comments (0)