So after a long break from the convention scene, I decided I would start to reconnect with the MMO space by attending LOGIN in Seattle this year. For those not in the know, LOGIN is an annual conference that focuses mainly on the online space. This is the fourth year of the show. It is a great mix of mostly interesting and informative sessions and networking. As with any convention, there are always hiccups, but I left the show feeling very positive about the experiences I had this week.

I'm going to go into more detail later about some of the panels and lectures I attended. My favorite lecture was Sheri Graner Ray's lecture on Tutorials. About 2 years ago, at AGDC 2008, I attended a lecture she did on learning styles, and this year, she expounded upon those thoughts with how they directly affected tutorials. If you are going to watch only one lecture from LOGIN when they go live on MarkeeDragon.com in the coming months, this should be it.

My favorite panel was one that was truly inspiring. Corvus Elrod, reknowned Indie Developer, held a panel on the challenges Indie games developers face. On the panel he had Brian "Psychochild" Green, who is well known for his industry blog (www.psychochild.org). He is also responsible for Meridian 59s continued existence from 2001 to 2009. I truly enjoyed this panel and I'll talk about it more later, but when it was done, I really wanted to go out and learn C++ so I could make my own game. Seriously. Now that's a successful panel.

Other sessions I attended included SOE Senior Community Manager Linda Carlson speaking about community leader programs, specifically, what SOE has done, a roundtable on viral marketing that really got me thinking about how to better use the social network space, and a mini-lecture by John Bates from Entropia Universe about how they are making money in their game and how players are spending significant amounts of real life money on things you can buy in game, including a recently purchased Space Station that went over over 300,000 dollars.

In addition to great sessions, I always enjoy the networking aspect of this conference. It's interesting, because it's held in a single hotel, and a lot of developers like to hang out in the lobby of the hotel until 3 AM talking (and yes, sometimes alcohol is heavily involved). It gives unprecedented access to developers who are normally so busy at trade shows, you are lucky if you can say hi to them. Even students, many of whom volunteered this year to help out at the show, can hob knob with industry legends in a relaxed environment. If the networking aspect of this show can somehow remain unchanged in coming years, despite any growth the show may see, it's worth attending alone for that, no matter what your role in the industry is.

Of course, no convention is complete without its share of gripes. And this is where my thoughts come in. There were a few things that caused me concern.

First, there were a lot of vendor panels and vendors at the show. In fact, from what I could tell, they accounted for the majority of sponsors. What I mean by vendors are third party vendors who provide services to game development companies, like translation or payment systems. No show would be complete without vendors, of course, but I felt there was an odd imbalance this year. There were not nearly enough community and design panels and too many on microtransactions, payment systems and the like. The reason it felt like an imbalance is because payment systems are payment systems. It's one area. Design and community include a tremendous range of topics, so one community panel will be nothing like the next, but a lot of panels and lectures, especially on microtransactions and payment systems, were really similar to each other. There were just too many of them. I'd have preferred to see a wider range of design and community panels chosen over the same type of lecture and panel on in game currency and out of game currency and the like.

Oh, and three panels/lectures relating to game addition are too many for a three day show.

Another issue is one I only experienced because I was involved as a volunteer this year. I decided to try something new. I'll admit, I was an unusual type of volunteer. Most volunteers are students or people with limited access to the games industry who want an opportunity to talk to people they wouldn't know how to interact with otherwise. This being my 8th year around the games space, that's not really something I worry about too much. But I thought it would be fun to help out with a conference and see a little bit of what goes into running one. This is my first experience as a volunteer at any conference, so I don't know how volunteers are generally treated and trained at other conferences, but I felt a distinct lack of direction and respect as a volunteer at LOGIN. It's not an experience I'd wish to repeat and wouldn't recommend it to anyone. There are other ways to access this conference and I'd recommend those over being a volunteer. It was just very unsatisfying at the end of the day.

That said, the head of the conference, Cynthia Freese, did a wonderful job. I'm sure there were plenty of other things I wasn't privy to that went wrong, but volunteers and attendees alike were unaware of what they might have been. That's a successful event. Overall, LOGIN 2010 was a great show and I'm sure quite a few people, experienced developers and newcomers to the industry alike, walked away with new information and ways of looking at developing games. And really, that's what a conference like this should accomplish. I'll be happy to go back and attend LOGIN 2011 next year, just not as a volunteer.

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