Social Networks - New Channels and Audience for your Games?

audio (48 MB)

If you are like us, you get an invitation for a new social network weekly – so to make your life easier, we assembled everyone who matters for a lively discussion of why your games are so important for social networks and why social networks are so important for your games.

Delivered at Casual Connect Seattle, July 2008

DOWNLOAD

Garrett Link (email)

Garrett Link is General Manager of GameHouse Studios, a wholly owned subsidiary of Real Networks since 2003. Under his leadership, the GameHouse Studios team of designers, artists and engineers publish 8-12 titles per year. GameHouse has over 50 original titles to its credit including hits such as Text Twist, Little Shop of Treasures and the Zeeby Award winner Super Collapse III.

Garrett’s whole process expertise in casual gaming began well before games were designated as casual. Prior to joining Real Networks, he designed games for Sony Online Entertainment and produced, designed and managed QA for Humungus Entertainment. Garrett’s successes include building the GameHouse subscription service and receiving the 2007 Innovation Award for his achievements in In-Game Streaming Advertising.

Jessica Alter (email)

Paul Lindner (email)

Paul Lindner is the architect of the hi5 Platform, a pioneering OpenSocial container. Since its inception, Paul has been an active contributor and advocate in advancing the OpenSocial specification and objectives.

He has spent the last 20+ years leading efforts to make the Internet a better place. Some of Paul’s past successes include: developing and promoting the Internet Gopher in the early ‘90s; co-authoring the mod_perl Developer’s Cookbook ; scaling Six Apart’s Typepad to support millions of users worldwide; and building large, mission-critical Web systems for the International Telecommunications Union, Red Hat, Critical Path and The UN Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

He holds a B.S. in computer science from the University of Minnesota.

Jason Oberfest (email)

Jason Oberfest is Vice President, Business Development for MySpace.

Prior to MySpace Jason served as Managing Director of Business Development and Product Management for Los Angeles Times Interactive. In this role Jason launched a redesign of latimes.com and structured deals with leading startups including Netvibes, Aggregate Knowledge, Eventful and Mixx.com.

From 1999-2005 Jason served as Vice President of Strategic Planning at Blast Radius, an interactive agency. In this role Jason founded the strategic planning division of the company and led the design and development of media and commerce websites for Sony, Nintendo, Viacom, Warner Music Group, A&E Television Networks and others. Jason worked with AOL from 2002-2005 developing AOL Shopping, AOL Search, AOL.com, and other products. Blast Radius was acquired by the WPP Group in 2007.

Kyle Laughlin (email)

In his role as Senior Director of Yahoo! Games, Laughlin oversees programming, content, business and product strategies for Yahoo! Games, the #1 online games site. He joined Yahoo! in 2007 and is based in Yahoo!’s Santa Monica offices.

Previously, Laughlin was Director of Product Management for Yahoo! Games! and charged with developing a unified casual and videogame product organization, growing audience acquisition through SEO, and improving monetization of its existing interactive products.

Prior to joining Yahoo!, Laughlin led the Web Services team at Helio, an advanced mobile joint venture between South Korea Telecom and Earthlink. He spearheaded the successful launch of Helio.com and was responsible for the strategy and development of the over the air (OTA) web-to-phone digital content distribution system. He also worked for Sapient, a business & technology consultancy in its User Experience practice, working with Fortune 500 clients to develop user interfaces for AT&T, Sprint, and Motorola.

A Chicago native, Laughlin graduated from the University of Arizona with a Bachelor of Science degree in Management Information Systems. Laughlin currently resides in Manhattan Beach and is an avid surfer.

HOME \| LECTURES & ARTICLES \| BUSINESS OF PLATFORMS \| Social Networks - New Channels and Audience for your Games? audio (48 MB) If you are like us, you get an invitation for a new social network weekly – so to make your life easier, we assembled everyone who matters for a lively discussion of why your games are so important for social networks and why social networks are so important for your games. Delivered at Casual Connect Seattle, July 2008 DOWNLOAD Garrett Link (email) Garrett Link is General Manager of GameHouse Studios, a wholly owned subsidiary of Real Networks since 2003. Under his leadership, the GameHouse Studios team of designers, artists and engineers publish 8-12 titles per year. GameHouse has over 50 original titles to its credit including hits such as Text Twist, Little Shop of Treasures and the Zeeby Award winner Super Collapse III. Garrett’s whole process expertise in casual gaming began well before games were designated as casual. Prior to joining Real Networks, he designed games for Sony Online Entertainment and produced, designed and managed QA for Humungus Entertainment. Garrett’s successes include building the GameHouse subscription service and receiving the 2007 Innovation Award for his achievements in In-Game Streaming Advertising. Jessica Alter (email) Paul Lindner (email) Paul Lindner is the architect of the hi5 Platform, a pioneering OpenSocial container. Since its inception, Paul has been an active contributor and advocate in advancing the OpenSocial specification and objectives. He has spent the last 20+ years leading efforts to make the Internet a better place. Some of Paul’s past successes include: developing and promoting the Internet Gopher in the early ‘90s; co-authoring the mod_perl Developer’s Cookbook ; scaling Six Apart’s Typepad to support millions of users worldwide; and building large, mission-critical Web systems for the International Telecommunications Union, Red Hat, Critical Path and The UN Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights. He holds a B.S. in computer science from the University of Minnesota. Jason Oberfest (email) Jason Oberfest is Vice President, Business Development for MySpace. Prior to MySpace Jason served as Managing Director of Business Development and Product Management for Los Angeles Times Interactive. In this role Jason launched a redesign of latimes.com and structured deals with leading startups including Netvibes, Aggregate Knowledge, Eventful and Mixx.com. From 1999-2005 Jason served as Vice President of Strategic Planning at Blast Radius, an interactive agency. In this role Jason founded the strategic planning division of the company and led the design and development of media and commerce websites for Sony, Nintendo, Viacom, Warner Music Group, A&E Television Networks and others. Jason worked with AOL from 2002-2005 developing AOL Shopping, AOL Search, AOL.com, and other products. Blast Radius was acquired by the WPP Group in 2007. Kyle Laughlin (email) In his role as Senior Director of Yahoo! Games, Laughlin oversees programming, content, business and product strategies for Yahoo! Games, the #1 online games site. He joined Yahoo! in 2007 and is based in Yahoo!’s Santa Monica offices. Previously, Laughlin was Director of Product Management for Yahoo! Games! and charged with developing a unified casual and videogame product organization, growing audience acquisition through SEO, and improving monetization of its existing interactive products. Prior to joining Yahoo!, Laughlin led the Web Services team at Helio, an advanced mobile joint venture between South Korea Telecom and Earthlink. He spearheaded the successful launch of Helio.com and was responsible for the strategy and development of the over the air (OTA) web-to-phone digital content distribution system. He also worked for Sapient, a business & technology consultancy in its User Experience practice, working with Fortune 500 clients to develop user interfaces for AT&T, Sprint, and Motorola. A Chicago native, Laughlin graduated from the University of Arizona with a Bachelor of Science degree in Management Information Systems. Laughlin currently resides in Manhattan Beach and is an avid surfer.