• The ION Attendee’s Cheat Sheet for April
• Neowiz' Won Il Suh to Present Keynote
• Countdown to ION: Reason #5
• New Speakers: David Hoppe, Erin Hoffman, Brian Hafer, Jay Minn, Dan Kaminsky, Alexander Macris, Meghan Rodberg, Jason Wonacott, Larry Mellon, and Neal Black
• Meeting of the Minds: Eric Goldman talks about user generated content

The ION Attendee’s Cheat Sheet for April

For those planning on attending the 2008 ION Game Conference, we’d like to pass along a bit of what milestones you’ll have to look forward to in the last month before this very exciting, very influential conference begins.

Incredibly, ION's rich palette of over 60 lectures, panels, roundtables, keynotes, and special activities has been scheduled to fit within three very full days. Over 100 speakers will be sharing cutting edge and unique content with attendees. We’re very proud of the speakers and sessions we’ve assembled this year, and feel ION conference-goers will see that quality reflected throughout the event. Look for the completed agenda to be posted later this week.

When it comes to keynotes, we've saved some fantastic announcements for this month. We're pleased to announce today that Won Il Suh, Senior Vice President at Neowiz, is presenting the Tuesday keynote address. We'll be announcing two additional very exciting keynotes in the new few weeks. Suffice it to say, when we underscore that ION represents the entrepreneurial and experienced international community of game developers, we deliver what we promise.

While we’re wrapping up the details and meeting our internal deadlines for the catering, audiovisual, swag, and other assorted amenities for ION, we wanted to reminder you just how little time remains before some of your deadlines kick in. Online registration ends in just four weeks on May 5, but if you don't want to pay the late registration price of $995, you'll need to complete your registration by April 28. If you’re planning on lodging at the offical conference hotel, the Seattle Marriott Waterfront Hotel, you'll need to make your hotel registration by April 14 to qualify for the special discounted ION rate. But I don't recommend waiting that long - rooms are going fast and at last report there were only a few dozen left.

For any veteran developer or businessperson seriously involved in online games, attending is a no-brainer.  Don’t wait until the last minute to find out what you miss out on by not participating in the ION Game Conference this year.

Peter Freese Conference Director ION Game Conference

Neowiz' Won Il Suh to Present Keynote at ION

The 2008 ION Game Conference has enhanced the experienced and international portfolio of speakers, with the addition of Won Il Suh, Senior Vice President at Neowiz as a keynote speaker for Tuesday, May 13th. Mr. Suh will be speaking on the vital topic of international partnership and investment opportunities within the business of online game development around the world. The 2008 ION Game Conference will take place in Seattle, Washington from May 13-15 at the Seattle Marriott Waterfront Hotel.

Won Il Suh oversees all international operations within Neowiz, ranging from co-development to investment to operations. He has witnessed and contributed first-hand to the explosive growth of the online game market space (diverse game genres, business models, etc.) in Korea for the past several years. Prior to Neowiz, Mr. Suh was CEO of Nexon and SmartPlay.

 “As someone who has participated last year, it’s a no-brainer that I participate again this year, as ION is the only conference truly focused on only online games. If you want to know what’s happening, who the industry leaders are, what trends are happening online, ION is definitely the place to be,” said Won Il Suh, Senior Vice President at Neowiz.

“We’re thrilled to have a keynote speaker of Won Il Suh’s industry presence, foresight and international reach in the East and the West,” said Peter Freese, Director for the 2008 ION Game Conference. “The extensive business acumen he’ll demonstrate in the keynote will surely be valuable to our distinctive and discerning online game industry audience.”

Countdown to ION
Top Ten Reasons to Attend the 2008 ION Game Conference

Time keeps on ticking down to the doors opening at the second annual ION Game Conference, as we mentioned earlier. Still, we wouldn’t want to encourage you to attend without many good reasons to, especially when we also know how full a calendar can be. We’re at number six and counting down.

Top Ten Reasons to attend the 2008 ION Game Conference

#10. Incredible amenities
#9. Networking opportunities galore
#8. First-class content
#7. Location, location, location
#6. Online and nothing but online

This week, we give you reason #5:

Come for the food, stay for the keynotes

The ION Game Conference, entering only its second year in existence, has already established a towering reputation for offering amazing amenities, but one we’d like to call particular attention to are the keynote lunches that have been one of our conference hallmarks. 

Last year, we offered attendees catered lunches offering top-shelf dining - the kind you usually find in a top-rated restaurant and not the boxed, pre-packaged conference fare you’re likely accustomed to. It may seem like a trivial or unimportant detail, but it's a poignant example of why ION is a cut above other events. It’s easy enough for us to talk about just how memorable the lunches were, but sometimes it’s more telling for others to make the point:

..a great conference, especially given that it was just the first year for the event. …and the food was amazing. I'm already looking forward to next year.

Brian Robbins Executive Producer / Gaming Evangelist Fuel Industries, Inc.

...Oh, and the food was awesome.

Jamie Osborne, Dev Lead, Microsoft Game Studios

Unbelievable venue & food as well! Well done, looking forward to 2008!

George Sarhanis, Director Business Development, GameInstinct

Best conference food I've ever had!

Kevin Lambert, Lead Game Designer

Of course, it wouldn’t be an ION Game Conference lunch without providing food for thought to match the scrumptious comestibles. Last year, GoPets CEO Erik Bethke and Microsoft Software Architect Herb Sutter were on hand to deliver entertaining, deep, and insightful looks into different aspects of hardware and software development. This year, Evergreen Events already has announced Neowiz Senior Vice President Won Il Suh and Sony Online Entertainment CEO John Smedley to deliver Tuesday and Wednesday's lunch keynote address, and we'll shortly be announcing a third lunch keynote speaker that will be sure to engage and excite ION 2008 attendees.

We’re making certain we continue the traditions of excellent food and thought-provoking keynotes this year because we know what our attendees value from an exclusive, high-powered conference. That’s what ION is all about.

If you’re ready to register for ION, get started here:

Once you've registered for ION, we definitely recommend booking your stay at the official conference hotel, the Seattle Marriott Waterfront Hotel. Not only are you conveniently located at the center of all the official conference action, you’re staying at one of Seattle’s finest hotels at a specially discounted rate. We've negotiated a special rate of just $209 for ION attendees. Suites are also available at a discounted rate. But hurry, the special ION rate is only valid until April 14, 2008.

New Speakers Announced

We are very pleased to announce we have some amazing new additions to speaker lineup. We will continue announcing speakers over the coming weeks, so stay tuned for the complete list.

See the complete list of speakers

Eric Goldman talks about the pitfalls of user generated content

In one of our most in-depth interviews we’ve ever presented to ION Connection readers, Assistant Professor at the Santa Clara University School of Law, Eric Goldman shares his thoughtful views on the promises and pitfalls of user generated content in the online game space.

PAUL PHILLEO: Eric, we appreciate you taking time to field questions for this interview for ION Connection’s readers. Could you explain your interest in, and experience with, user generated content (UGC) as it relates to online games?

ERIC GOLDMAN: I became interested in UGC about 15 years ago, back in the BBS era. Since then, I’ve worked with Internet companies in every facet of the UGC business. For me, online games are just one application of the broader UGC phenomenon. I’m especially interested in UGC in the virtual world context and the arguments that virtual worlds are unique/special/different compared to other types of online communities.

“User generated content” is a much-hyped and often overused term that may have lost its focus and value in serious discussions. How would you formally define UGC?

From my standpoint, a website can aggregate and republish content from four principal sources: employee-generated content, content licensed from vendors such as data licensors, content scraped from third party sites, and content supplied by users. Framed this way, UGC is effectively everything that doesn’t come from employees, vendors or scraping.

Some may see UGC concerns as a topic that only affects only a certain number of enthusiasts, like mod developers or prim – the user-created objects – developers in Second Life. Overall how do UGC legal issues affect the online games consumers play and the types of games developers may create?

UGC is everywhere in online games! Every form of user-to-user interaction is, effectively, UGC—user profiles, chats between users, even the game play.

Game operators have to manage this UGC in at least two ways. First, game providers have to have protocols for dealing with UGC that might create liability for them, such as if a user posts potentially copyright infringing material. Second, game providers have to adjudicate user-to-user disputes, such as when a user claims another user’s content or behavior violates game rules or norms.

The legal issues applicable to provider liability for UGC are plenty complicated, but in my experience, the harder problem is developing the proper set of governance structures for user-to-user interaction that facilitates the growth of profitable communities.

What are the most important legal precedents anyone invested in UGC should be aware of?

There are two federal statutes that dominate the discussion.

47 USC 230, passed as part of the Communications Decency Act in 1996, provides online game providers with a very expansive immunization from liability for user content or actions. In effect, the statute says that a website isn’t liable for user content, PERIOD. This statute has been interpreted very broadly, and plaintiffs have a very difficult time establishing legal workarounds to impose liability. As a practical consequence of this statute, game providers have a lot less liability for user content or actions than they typically fear.

47 USC 230 does not immunize game providers against possible liability for user violations of federal intellectual property, federal criminal laws or the Electronic Communication Privacy Act. Therefore, it’s not a complete solution, and other risk management strategies are required.

Specifically, as part of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in 1998, Congress enacted a separate statutory safe harbor, codified in 17 USC 512, for online service provider liability for user-committed copyright infringements. The 512 safe harbors are not nearly as robust as the protection offered by 47 USC 230 in at least two ways. First, the 512 safe harbor has not been interpreted nearly as expansively as 230. Second, the 512 safe harbors aren’t “self-executing.” Instead, game providers need to take a number of prophylactic steps to be eligible for the safe harbor at all. Thus, game providers would find some value in working with their attorney very early in the process to ensure that the game provider designs its product, its operations and its documentation to optimize protection under 512.

What general steps can a game developer take to minimize exposure to legal risks, when it comes to incorporating UGC creation tools into their product?

There are a number of steps that game providers can take proactively to reduce their risk (all of which should be done in consultation with an attorney):

• The EULA is the game provider’s single most important risk management tool. There are a number of things that a game provider can say and do in a EULA that reduce risk; but other provisions (some that are “standard” in EULAs) can unexpectedly increase the provider’s risk or otherwise backfire. Make sure to hire a knowledgeable attorney who keeps up with the latest legal developments, and give your attorney sufficient time and information to draft the EULA properly.
• Customer support representatives (CSRs) are important front-line personnel in the risk management battle. CSRs are often deputized as private judges to resolve disputes related to the game, and their adjudications can have significant legal effects. In extreme cases, a well-meaning but underinformed CSR can completely undo the risk management provisions of a EULA; and in most situations, a CSR’s words and choices are scrutinized by a judge when a case goes to litigation. As a result, a game provider needs to thoroughly train all of its CSRs in the risk management issues (and keep training them as new CSRs are hired and as the EULA and legal rules change) and, where applicable, in how to properly adjudicate the private disputes. Note that CSRs also play an important part in community development and relations, so it’s advisable to teach CSRs how to defuse user-to-user disputes that could escalate to legal problems if mishandled.
• Game providers should take the steps required to qualify for the 512 safe harbors from liability for user-committed copyright infringement.
• Game providers need to carefully screen all of their marketing, documentation (help manuals, FAQs, etc.) and public statements to ensure that everything communicated to the public is consistent with its risk management approaches. Plaintiffs are going to review all of these official company statements to find material to support their arguments—anywhere from high-level descriptions of the business (such as Second Life’s repeated public statements that users “own” land in Second Life, despite its user agreement to the contrary) to little inconsistencies.

Finally, this isn’t a risk management tool per se, but I want to mention it anyway. A lot of legal friction is created between game providers who want to tightly control every aspect of the gaming experience and power users who want to play around with the technology. Game providers can do a lot to alleviate the legal tension and to satisfy the desires of their most enthusiastic users by giving power users tools that let them customize their interaction with the game. All of this customization can be governed by EULAs to provide some protection for the game provider.

As a prime example, some MMORPGs have restricted inter-user asset transfers, which has simply created a black market for those exchanges. Other MMORPGs have created exchanges within the game itself, governed by the EULA, which lets users do what they want to do anyway but under the supervision of the game provider (and, not incidentally, with the opportunity to tax the transaction).

Beyond asset transfers, there are many other ways that game providers can give tools to power users that let them invest more time in the game ecosystem. Let your users play with the technology—they are your most loyal customers, they will make the game experience better, and trying to fight them is a drain on company resources that has a poor return on investment.

Do you feel the greatest potential for conflicts involving user generated content revolve around intellectual property ownership, revenue streams created from the UGC or defamation?

I think there is an emerging battle over “ownership” of virtual assets created by users using game-provided tools. A game provider can clearly allocate ownership over these assets in its EULA, and most EULAs plainly say that users don’t have any ownership interest in their virtual assets. Nevertheless, users are routinely confused about asset ownership, and this creates market opportunities for other providers. In particular, “portability”/interoperability systems that allow users to transfer information between rival game platforms might significantly change the way that providers and users think about these issues.

Practically speaking, how difficult is it to balance the freedom of expression UGC creators would prefer to enjoy versus the numerous legal liability concerns that could stem from some user created content being spun off from a developer’s base product?

These are tricky areas. Prof. Jack Balkin at Yale Law School has described the conflict between users’ “freedom to play” the game and providers’ “freedom to design” the game. [http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/jbalkin/articles/virtual_liberty1.pdf] At some levels, these two freedoms are in conflict with each other. In practice, providers make many design choices that limit user freedoms—both freedom to play and freedom of users to communicate with each other. Some virtual world legal enthusiasts would like to see the legal balance tipped in the other direction so that provider discretion is restricted, enabling more user freedoms. I’m not sure I agree, but these are complex legal considerations.

Your question also implicates the growth of a “meta-community” where enthusiastic users seek to extend the game platform in some way—through off-site chat rooms or message boards discussing the game, by creating new game levels or slash, by creating trading exchanges or by developing tools that enhance gameplay. In general, a robust meta-community is a sign of a healthy user ecosystem and thus most game providers have incentives to encourage and support these meta-communities.

Unfortunately, some times some elements of the meta-community make choices that have the potential to degrade the overall community, so sometimes corrective action is required. But I believe a light hand is typically preferable to a heavy hand. After all, usually you’re dealing with your core users. I thought Second Life’s response to a parodist with a “proceed-and-permit” license was brilliant.

Looking ahead, how do you think the legal landscape for UGC is likely to evolve over the next several years?

Two words: increased regulation. I’m not sure if it’s good policy for regulators to target online games for game-specific regulation, but regulators are going to do so anyway because the amount of economic activity within games is too great, and there are two many important and sexy legal issues in online games for regulators to ignore. Some of the topics I expect regulators to focus on: taxation of in-game activities and asset accumulation (and any ability of in-game economies to launder money), the prohibition of in-game gambling or pornography, and efforts to combat in-game fraud. Game providers might be content to sit on the sidelines and watch regulators work themselves into a froth about the evils of online games, but I think better results will be obtained if game providers proactively work with regulators to educate them and reduce their anxieties about online games.

In your role on the “Navigating the Minefield - Getting the Most from User Generated Content” panel, what points do you hope to stress most to ION Game Conference attendees about the benefits and pitfalls of user generated content?

I am hoping that attendees will get greater insight into the tricky balance between managing legal risks/responsibilities and managing and fostering a user community. As I said before, managing the legal risks is hard enough, but it’s even harder when providers feel like their legal duties force them to take actions that might damage the community spirit. I hope our panel will provide attendees with some practical suggestions of how to cope with both.

Discuss on the ION Network

Sponsorship Opportunities Disappearing Fast at ION 2008

Time is running out to take advantage of sponsorships, with several sponsorship deadlines ending this week. There are quite a few outstanding opportunities available that could perfectly fit your company, but time is running out, and once the deadlines pass, they'll be gone forever. For example, the conference bag, hotel room drops, Nexus meeting rooms and conference program ads are still available. In addition, there is only a single Platinum/Track sponsor slot left, which gives you the unique ability to present a sponsored session at ION. Select your sponsorship level while opportunities remain available. Ask us about our revised prospectus, which has the most up-to-date information about what we’re offering!

As an exhibitor/sponsor at ION, you will be able to expose your products and services to some of the most qualified attendees in the industry. You can enjoy meeting with the hundreds of attendees, speakers, and press — all with the common goal of promoting the online game development industry. We invite you to take a look at our prospectus and explore the advantages to our sponsorships we are offering. To learn more about fantastic marketing opportunities at ION visit the sponsorship page on our website, or contact:

Cynthia Freese
+1 425.654.4575
cynthia@ionconference.com

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