Social Casual Games - Who Can Help?

audio (51 MB)

With all the buzz around social games, it is hard to know where to start. This session will provide a complete overview to everything you need to get started with social networking sites with case studies and examples from: an application and widget provider (RockYou), platform provider (J2Play), industry research (Developer Analytics) and a developer network (SGN)

Delivered at Casual Connect Seattle, July 2008

DOWNLOAD

Eric Goldberg (email)

Eric is a 30-year veteran of the game, consumer online, and wireless data industries, serving in capacities ranging from game designer to executive.

Since 2002, Eric is or has been a board member of, advisor or consultant to AOL, AT&T Wireless, Centerscore, Digital Chocolate, Electronic Arts, GoCrossCampus, In-Fusio, Gaia Online, Juice Wireless, Kayak (dba Blaze), LimeLife, Meredith, Mforma (dba Hands-On Mobile), Moloon, Openwave, PaymentOne, Reaxion, Thumbplay, Unplugged, Vindigo, Warner Music, and two US venture capital firms.

Eric was most recently the President and Co-Founder of Unplugged, for which he secured distribution with four of the five largest North American carriers. Previously, he served as President and Founder of Crossover Technologies, one of the first consumer online companies, for which he secured AOL, BMG, Discovery Channel, Intel, Microsoft, Prodigy (IBM/Sears/CBS joint venture), Random House, Sony, Time Warner, and Viacom as clients and distribution partners; and, prior to that, as President of West End Games, the adventure game company for which he published, among 40+ titles, Star Wars, Ghostbusters, Star Trek, and Junta. His award-winning games include Paranoia, Tales of the Arabian Nights, The Tom Peters Business School in a Box, and MadMaze, the first online game to draw one million players. He is a three-time winner of the Origins Award for Best Role-Playing Game and a two-time winner of the Game Designers Guild Select Award.

Eric is a regular speaker at the major North American games, wireless and online conferences, including CTIA, MECCA, Internet World, The Conference Board, DMW, GDC, GDC Mobile, MES, AGC, MGC, LA Games Conference, and E3, and has served as a programs advisor or advisory board member for the latter six conferences. He was previously a board member for the New York New Media Association and New York Universitys Center for Advanced Digital Applications.

Rob Balahura (email)

Rob founded J2Play in 2000 by creating and commercializing the world’s first mobile multiplayer game for J2ME handsets, and following that with the worlds first cross-media web to mobile multiplayer game & SDK. Since then, J2Play has created a solution and SDK’s for creating social cross-media games with web, mobile and pc platforms. Today, J2Play provides an open game solution that enables rapid development & self-publishing of social and multiplayer games on all key platforms with the social site identity as the root of all communication and game play. The J2Play solution helps to enable web, mobile, and PC game developers to independently build their business on top of all social sites and spark growth in the social games market.

Charles Yong (email)

Charles Yong is Co-Founder of Developer Analytics, a third-party direct measurement analytics service for social networking applications. His interest in social graph analytics stems from a background in computational genomics, epidemiology and outbreak analysis, and machine learning. Previously he has worked at the National Institutes of Health, as well as both the Computational Genomics Research Group and Taylor Plant Biology labs at UC Berkeley. Charles graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a degree in Bioengineering and is pending deferred matriculation at the Stanford School of Medicine.

Shervin Pishevar (email)

Shervin Pishevar is the CEO and co-founder of Social Gaming Network (SGN), which he helped incubate from within Webs.com Inc. Since its inception in September 2007, SGN has grown to more than a billion page views per month and more than 15 million users (www.socialgn.com).

Named "Bill Gates’ Worst Nightmare" by the Financial Times, Shervin is a visionary technology entrepreneur, published researcher and technology incubation expert, best known for helping usher in the on demand web computing era and the visionary behind the first web operating system with his first startup, WebOS.

Shervin has an extensive track record for technology innovation and his achievements have been highlighted by the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times, LA Times, CNN and CNBC and Slashdot.

HOME \| LECTURES & ARTICLES \| BUSINESS OF PLATFORMS \| Social Casual Games - Who Can Help? audio (51 MB) With all the buzz around social games, it is hard to know where to start. This session will provide a complete overview to everything you need to get started with social networking sites with case studies and examples from: an application and widget provider (RockYou), platform provider (J2Play), industry research (Developer Analytics) and a developer network (SGN) Delivered at Casual Connect Seattle, July 2008 DOWNLOAD Eric Goldberg (email) Eric is a 30-year veteran of the game, consumer online, and wireless data industries, serving in capacities ranging from game designer to executive. Since 2002, Eric is or has been a board member of, advisor or consultant to AOL, AT&T Wireless, Centerscore, Digital Chocolate, Electronic Arts, GoCrossCampus, In-Fusio, Gaia Online, Juice Wireless, Kayak (dba Blaze), LimeLife, Meredith, Mforma (dba Hands-On Mobile), Moloon, Openwave, PaymentOne, Reaxion, Thumbplay, Unplugged, Vindigo, Warner Music, and two US venture capital firms. Eric was most recently the President and Co-Founder of Unplugged, for which he secured distribution with four of the five largest North American carriers. Previously, he served as President and Founder of Crossover Technologies, one of the first consumer online companies, for which he secured AOL, BMG, Discovery Channel, Intel, Microsoft, Prodigy (IBM/Sears/CBS joint venture), Random House, Sony, Time Warner, and Viacom as clients and distribution partners; and, prior to that, as President of West End Games, the adventure game company for which he published, among 40+ titles, Star Wars, Ghostbusters, Star Trek, and Junta. His award-winning games include Paranoia, Tales of the Arabian Nights, The Tom Peters Business School in a Box, and MadMaze, the first online game to draw one million players. He is a three-time winner of the Origins Award for Best Role-Playing Game and a two-time winner of the Game Designers Guild Select Award. Eric is a regular speaker at the major North American games, wireless and online conferences, including CTIA, MECCA, Internet World, The Conference Board, DMW, GDC, GDC Mobile, MES, AGC, MGC, LA Games Conference, and E3, and has served as a programs advisor or advisory board member for the latter six conferences. He was previously a board member for the New York New Media Association and New York Universitys Center for Advanced Digital Applications. Rob Balahura (email) Rob founded J2Play in 2000 by creating and commercializing the world’s first mobile multiplayer game for J2ME handsets, and following that with the worlds first cross-media web to mobile multiplayer game & SDK. Since then, J2Play has created a solution and SDK’s for creating social cross-media games with web, mobile and pc platforms. Today, J2Play provides an open game solution that enables rapid development & self-publishing of social and multiplayer games on all key platforms with the social site identity as the root of all communication and game play. The J2Play solution helps to enable web, mobile, and PC game developers to independently build their business on top of all social sites and spark growth in the social games market. Charles Yong (email) Charles Yong is Co-Founder of Developer Analytics, a third-party direct measurement analytics service for social networking applications. His interest in social graph analytics stems from a background in computational genomics, epidemiology and outbreak analysis, and machine learning. Previously he has worked at the National Institutes of Health, as well as both the Computational Genomics Research Group and Taylor Plant Biology labs at UC Berkeley. Charles graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a degree in Bioengineering and is pending deferred matriculation at the Stanford School of Medicine. Shervin Pishevar (email) Shervin Pishevar is the CEO and co-founder of Social Gaming Network (SGN), which he helped incubate from within Webs.com Inc. Since its inception in September 2007, SGN has grown to more than a billion page views per month and more than 15 million users (www.socialgn.com). Named "Bill Gates’ Worst Nightmare" by the Financial Times, Shervin is a visionary technology entrepreneur, published researcher and technology incubation expert, best known for helping usher in the on demand web computing era and the visionary behind the first web operating system with his first startup, WebOS. Shervin has an extensive track record for technology innovation and his achievements have been highlighted by the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times, LA Times, CNN and CNBC and Slashdot.