Austin Games Conference Thursday Wrapup

The yearly Austin Games Conference, the largest MMOG-focused industry event in the country, is taking place this weekend and a variety of places have coverage of the first day. For specific events, we have Gamasutra on MMOG economics and The Game Writer's Conference, a sister event to the AGC. Both Raph Koster (who has a blog now) and Next Generation have pieces on Damion Schubert's "What Vegas Can Teach the MMO" talk. For general color, Greg Costikyan has a feel for what it is like on the ground, and MMORPG.com has a Thursday wrapup. From the MMORPG.com piece: "The Austin Game Conference (AGC) looks and feels like a high school reunion. Dominated by the MMORPG industry, it allows developers to get together and compare their ideological toys. Unlike E3, this is not a commercial event. For example, EA's booth here is actually a booth, rather than some kind of football stadium. This allows for more of a community feel and serious discussion of issues facing the game industry without the need for marketing individual products to any great degree."

Blizzcon

[VGPowerlord]

Isn't it interesting that Blizzard scheduled Blizzcon for the same weekend as this event? It's not like Blizzard would try to steal the headlines or anything...

AGC is great

[Psychochild]

Actually, the AGC is useful for networking. It's actually one of the better conferences for MMO developers, since there's a high concentration of other MMO developers there. I've been in the online side of things for over 8 years now, and there's really not much new and interesting I'm going to learn. On the other hand, I had the opportunity to meet new people and get back in touch with old friends.

If you were truly in the games industry I suspect you'd already know that it's not just what you know, but

Industry Event

[SteevR]

This was a chance for industry professionals, and individuals with professional skills, to make contacts and learn from each others craft. Blizzcon is a marketting/fan-service event. They have nothing to do with each other.

That said, I just got back from the conference in Austin, and it was awesome.