This year's GDC Online is set to have some talks that are sure to be of interest to MMO fans, including John Smedley on the future of free-to-play in MMOs, a technical talk on Star Wars: The Old Republic, and CCP Games on community feedback and metrics.

Full details below:

First, John Smedley, the president of Sony Online Entertainment, will discuss how the company transitioned its entire game lineup to the free to play model in the Business and Marketing track lecture, "Free-to-Play: Driving the Future of MMOs."

Referencing games from EverQuest to Planetside 2 (pictured), Smedley will share some of SOE's insights and lessons learned to help other developers successfully adopt the free to play model. With this knowledge, attendees will walk away understanding how to grow not only their player base, but also their overall revenue.

Over in the Production track, Dave Moore, BioWare's senior director of platform services, will explain how he and the studio established a robust and scalable platform for the major MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic.

During the session, "Building the Scalable Platform for SWTOR," Moore will discuss how the studio prepared for the game's launch, sharing the technical details and implementation decisions that helped ensure everything worked once the game went live.

Finally, CCP senior researcher Petur Oskarsson will host the Customer Experience track session, "Ear to the Ground - MMO Community Feedback & Metrics for Decision Making," during which he'll share his insight on how to best nurture an online game community.

Using examples from CCP's own EVE Online, Oskarsson will outline the dos and don'ts of metrics-driven community management to help developers identify common pitfalls, learn how to best incorporate player feedback, and make their games better and their communities more active.

GDC Online will be held at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, TX from October 9-11, 2012.

This Should be interesting maybe.

Originally posted by jeremyjodes

This Should be interesting maybe.

I wouldn't count on it.

So the theme of the conference is Doin' it Wrong?  They have a Holy Trinity of expertise booked if that's the case.

They don't need to waste time and money holding this, all they need to do is use active listening skills and impliment what feed-back they get from the player base it's called customer service and this is where many MMO's fall flat on their butts because they lack the skills to understand and support game correctly. It's just common sense which this industry seriously lacks.

Bandit.

All the non-gamers shall convene on this day to better learn how to draw revenue from the lucrative market population known as: GAMERS

Come watch and learn the tricks we've used to completely master the things a gamer wants, and even how to successfully train most gamers into believing that they want what you can provide. This means less time spent on development of content, and more profit in your pocket.

Learn from experts how to do all this and more! True success stories such as SWG's NGE transformation, Everquest 2's recapturing the roots of massively-multiplayer gaming, and current-day phenominal success Star Wars The Old Republic are just a few examples of what kind of games you can create with our tried and true game production philosophy.

Originally posted by Rommie10-284

So the theme of the conference is Doin' it Wrong?  They have a Holy Trinity of expertise booked if that's the case.

LoL - Yes, the idea here is to listen good to what these 'experts' tell you to do and do the exact opposite.

Lol, it's just too delicious. Clearly proof that God has a refined sense of humour.

So, will Smedley describe how it's not a good idea to change one's game (entirely) after it's been out over two years?

Originally posted by Ktara

So, will Smedley describe how it's not a good idea to change one's game (entirely) after it's been out over two years?

Whether us peons/money-givers like John Smedley or not, he's still a big wig in this field.

Our opinions (the players) mean nothing to these guys.  They have these little conferences to yank each others cranks.

We're just the sheep that pay them.

Originally posted by Denambren

All the non-gamers shall convene on this day to better learn how to draw revenue from the lucrative market population known as: GAMERS

Come watch and learn the tricks we've used to completely master the things a gamer wants, and even how to successfully train most gamers into believing that they want what you can provide. This means less time spent on development of content, and more profit in your pocket.

Learn from experts how to do all this and more! True success stories such as SWG's NGE transformation, Everquest 2's recapturing the roots of massively-multiplayer gaming, and current-day phenominal success Star Wars The Old Republic are just a few examples of what kind of games you can create with our tried and true game production philosophy.

This is a good post.  I approve :)

Seriously though...I still like CCP, they still have a shred of respect for thier players, I think so at least.  I can't put them in same league as SOE or even Bioware at this point in time.

I still don't get why people feel the need to belittle BioWare for delivering exactly the game they promised to deliver.  Not every game has to fit the tastes of every player.  As for SOE, they actually have some games that are in great shape currently, from a quality standpoint, and the SWG mistakes were years ago.  Eventually, people need to let go of their sense of entitlement, enjoy the games they like, and stop complaining about the games they don't like.  That road just leads to games getting nerfed into a state that doesn't appeal to their formerly loyal bases, however small, or to the people they were trying to go after with the change.  In short, vote with your wallets, and keep your yaps shut. ;)

Originally posted by CazNeerg

I still don't get why people feel the need to belittle BioWare for delivering exactly the game they promised to deliver.  Not every game has to fit the tastes of every player.  As for SOE, they actually have some games that are in great shape currently, from a quality standpoint, and the SWG mistakes were years ago.  Eventually, people need to let go of their sense of entitlement, enjoy the games they like, and stop complaining about the games they don't like.  That road just leads to games getting nerfed into a state that doesn't appeal to their formerly loyal bases, however small, or to the people they were trying to go after with the change.  In short, vote with your wallets, and keep your yaps shut. ;)

I still don't get why people feel the need to belittle people for doing exactly what a forum is there to do.

Eventually, people need to let go of their sense of entitlement, enjoy the posts they like, and stop complaining about the ones they don't.

See what I did there?

I think EQ and EQ2 deserve a distinction from other free to play games. I know that it's kind of nitpicking but I think the term "Crippleware" is more appropriate given the severe restricions they place on their free versions.

SOE"s f2p methods are awful.  They have the most restrictive model out of any f2p game i've played.  It makes me weep to know that EQ3 will come out of the gate with their f2p matrix attached.

We shall see how SOE handles PS2.  From my understanding it's going to be a lot cosmetic stuff, but probably close to something like Tribes: Ascend, as that model is applicable to FPSish games.  I haven't been following it too closely though, waiting for beta etc. 

two things i find interest

1 sony f2p model is terrible what makes this not an opinion but fact, i have been playing solely f2p games for over ten year and have a very strong understanding of what makes a strong  f2p model   as someone interested in the business side of games   i have  always analyzed f2p model (pay2play aswell) fun fact spamming upgrade your account ad  ingame doesnt actually make ppl want to upgrade

2 swtor was a failure and i dont mean the game  well i do mean the game but also  how baddly coded and chopped to bits it was that it gave the hero engine a bad rep that makes ppl cry just from  hearing hero engine even tho  the fault was with bioware not the hero engine

Originally posted by OldManFunk

I think EQ and EQ2 deserve a distinction from other free to play games. I know that it's kind of nitpicking but I think the term "Crippleware" is more appropriate given the severe restricions they place on their free versions.

 

i like it

But the main problem that CCP had wasn't "not listening to the players" - that's pure spin. The main problem was that they took 4 years to create 4 rooms.

Then they 'spun it' so they could sack the slackers and change direction.

Seirously:

Bioware scalable plateform is nothing more than instancing everything which really kiils the immersion and well gives us long loading time with static images being displayed.

Sadly the only scaling TOR engine has is eating your GPU and CPU processing like candies thus scaling down your perfs.

And if you have to lean towards F2P models certainly don't aim at SOE.

Finally if you really want to lean towards good communication management don't move towards CCP.

I'd advise people to attend to learn what not to do.

A real panel would be:

• CCP for scalable system 
• Blizzard for seamless content
• Turbine for F2P model
• Rift for communication