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Conferences
lokcjaw
Member Posts: 6
Hey All,
Anyone out there know if there are any conferences focused on MMO gaming?
Thank you 
Bret Ellis
Comments
Back when I used to play Simutronics games, they used to have get togethers for their players every year in St. Louis (in fact, they still do if I'm not mistaken).
But other than the "SimuCons", I've never heard of any conference dedicated completely to MMORPGs.
I think the best bet is to try for the conferences which might have MMORPG type stuff on the side.
This includes the usual big ones like E3 and the Game Developer's Conference this March. Or even something like the Star Wars conference "Celebration" next year before Episode 3 comes out. There's bound to be a few things there for those that play Galaxies.
Other than that, if you're really (truly really) into MMORPGs, try searching for something academic. In the past few years MMORPGs have come into the light as something people can actually seriously research. Over the past year there have been a few small conferences dedicated to that front. Discussing how MMORPGs can be used for teaching, academic study of MMORPG economics, stuff like that.
Hopefully, sometime soon we'll begin to see actual conferences dedicated to specific games. Sony certainly has the playerbase to make it happen. And soon Blizzard probably will too.
-Arcas
My thoughts on MMORPG design:
http://www.dragonfond.com/
-Arcas
My thoughts on MMORPG design:
http://mmo-arcas.blogspot.com/
I'm not sure if there are any general MMORPG conferences. It would be cool if there were!
Asheron's Call has a player luncheon every year for players and developers. I've never gone to it, but I've heard many good things from people who have gone.
http://www.turbinegames.com/news/article.php?article=20
Played these MMORPG's:
AC1/AC2/AO/DAoC/EQ/ATITD/FFXI/UO
Beta'd: RYL/SWG/E&B
As far as i'm aware there arn't any general mmorpg based conferences or conventions. I wouldn't be at all surprized to see something in the next few years as there has been an exponential increase in mmorpg's in the past years. As for what Yahya said, yes there have been several game specific meetings such as in AC and DAOC. Events like those were named as a success (i wasn't at any of them so i can't really say) however i think the reason for this was due to the specific games associated community base, as for a general mmorpg community i'm un-aware of any large community other than right here. Hopefully in comming years something will happen, most likely over in the USA, i would even consider visiting i've been needing a holiday
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Achiever 86% Killer 80% Socializer 20% Explorer 13%
*Notice: The views expressed in this post are solely those of the author... got sick of holding backspace.
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ParaTrooper, That guy that used to mod the MMORPG.com forums.
I could see this kind of conference now...
The PK vs. Carebear wars going real life...
Carebear: Your character is who? You Gank'd me once!
*Punches PK'r*
A real life guild war would break out!
LOL, there's truth behind the joke though.
The danger in a player attended MMO conference is the potential for the dropping of anonymity. People might actually get pretty hostile coming face to face with a particularly vile griefer.
Of course, you wouldn't see all that many PKers at a conference. Not many 14 year olds would be able to afford the trip, even assuming they did manage to get moms permission.